Carl Cox, magical man that he is, arrived on Bondi Beach and gave all this year’s NYE revelers just what we needed; a healthy dose of inspiration and some damn good music. A very lovely and truly uplifting night was enjoyed by all on Bondi Beach for Shore Thing, as we paid proper respect to 2009 and properly greeted the new year of 2010. This year’s Shore Thing was graced with the most star-studded lineup to date, and our new decade was greeted by the talent of three amazing DJs; Roger Sanchez, Danny Tenaglia and the one, the only, the legendary, Carl Cox himself.

After the 9 o’clock family fireworks had finished and probably about ¾ a bottle of Sambuca later (the only real way to arrive at a show is, after all, fashionably late and sufficiently tipsy), we arrived just in time to catch the very tail end of Roger Sanchez. I was willing to sacrifice Sanchez’s set for the fireworks because I honestly wasn’t that keen to see the guy play; had heard from a few reliable sources beforehand that he wasn’t anything special, plus I would be seeing him the next day at Field Day anyway. However, after we found a good spot near the front, I got chatting to quite a few of my fellow punters who all said he was pretty good. My loss, I guess.

While I’m on the topic of my fellow Shore Thing punters, I have to say that the crowd was pretty f*&^king awesome that night. The attitude of the crowd can make or break your experience; never do you feel and notice people’s energy more than when you have a mass of people gathered together like we were on New Year’s Eve. Everyone was happy to be there and feeling very positive; I could sense it from the moment we passed through the gates. Everyone politely excused themselves when they brushed by my shoulder, everyone was sharing smiles, even sharing drinks (what’s some shared saliva between strangers, eh? I’d say most were planning on some random midnight snog anyway) and dancing away together like flower children under the open sky, the salty warm breeze on our cheeks. It was all quite euphoric.

As 2009 neared its end and 2010 neared its beginning, Tenaglia – who I was much more pumped for than Sanchez – took the stage. I knew Danny was going to smash it, not having played in Australia for over 10 years, but I wasn’t sure how I would react to his set, considering I’m not a huge fan of progressive music. Regardless of how the set was going to play out, I maintain a lot of respect for Tenaglia, the “DJ’s DJ”, the one who played all those epic nights -with such a pure love for music – as a resident at New York City’s alcohol-free club, Vinyl. I ended up really digging the stuff he was playing, and although he did seem to be catering to the crowd quite a bit, not even his obviously hardcore fans that were there seemed to enjoy his performance any less because of it.

Yet, as much as I enjoyed Tenaglia’s set, which halted for a few minutes as we all enjoyed some midnight fireworks to ring in the New Year and the inevitable exchange of saliva between strangers (but by that time we had all moved way past being strangers), I spent most of it fighting (in vain) my anticipation of the man of the evening, god of music, of Ibiza, of Radio 1 and (from what I had been told)a pretty much all around nice guy, Mr. Carl Cox. I’ve been listening to Carl Cox for years, listening to what other people have told me about Carl Cox for years, wondering about Carl Cox for years, and finally my turn to see the man in the flesh had come. So, unfortunately, I found it hard to give Danny Tenaglia my full attention like he deserved, when all I could do was wonder what Carl would bring to the table, and when.

And when Cox finally did take the stage, the night – my night, everyone’s night – was complete. Everything came together under Cox, and it was just perfect. The man’s positivity was infectious, and the night became even more euphoric than before. There we were, arms raised in the air, feeling oh-so- free while celebrating the dawn of a new decade like flower children. We didn’t know what we needed, but Cox did, and that’s exactly what he gave to us. Some DJs are too serious, eyes glued to the decks with furrowed brows, others are just dickheads who think way too much of themselves, but even after all of his years of experience, Carl came with no ego and total love, playing his entire set with a white-toothed grin all the way through.

As I danced the night away, I took a moment and closed my eyes, and with that salty air in my nose and his layered music in my ears, I felt completely and utterly happy. I think this, more than the music he plays, is Cox’s greatest skill; the ability to infect a crowd with his beaming positivity. Near the end of the night, just when I couldn’t have been more inspired, Cox came on the mic towards the end of his set to tell all of us dancing maniacs that, “It’s beautiful people like YOU, who come out, and dance to this music, and love this music, that make this music possible in the first place – and I LOVE YOU!” Everyone erupted in cheers to this, including me, and at the time, I believed every word he said.

As he said goodbye to us all with Around the World (playing Daft Punk anytime, anywhere always wins points with me) everyone clapped for the king and looked at each other, without words, but with grins possibly bigger than his own. Thank you, Mr. Cox, for a very beautiful New Year’s Eve.