Many think that business-wise, the relocation of Germany’s music industry to Berlin a couple of years ago was a mistake, and one of those businesses, Sony, already moved back to Munich. But for us, the party-loving Berlin crowd, it was a blessing. Particularly MTV comes up trump when party organization is on. 2 months ago, we got quite royally drunkat MTV Designerama, the opening event of the Popkomm music fair. Yesterday, it was MTV Games Award at E-Werk on Wilhelmstraße. And again, MTV had managed to convince some leading brands of alcoholic beverages to do the drink sponsoring.

As a result, an Alcoholic’s Paradise opened its gates in front of us party slackers as we trundled in at around 8 last night. SKYY vodka offered “anything that goes” with the Russian favorite – tonic, cherry, orange, cranberry and even passion fruit. Who on earth drinks vodka with passion fruit juice, I ask? That is wrong!

A brand of energy drinks – no, not THAT one – offered their venom at another corner of the hall, again with – vodka. Warsteiner handed out the entire range of their beer products, and at yet another bar, MTV themselves poured any drink that can be made from Rum, Gin, Tequila, MORE VODKA, and Coke. Speaking of Coke – they had a booth, too, but no alcohol. Instead, they sported the hottest barmaids.

However, before the thirsty crowd could descend on all that good stuff, the filming of the Game Awards ceremony had to be endured in an adjacent hall. It was hot, it was boring, there were no seats, and it took one and a half hours. As the crowd got restless in the heat and thirst, the ceremony hosts reminded us repeatedly that in just a short while we could pour down the drinks like there was no tomorrow! So we hung in there. The low point was definitely a German rap musician named Sido performing one of the worst songs in German recording history, an embarrassingly cheesy tune by the name of “Carmen”. People who hadn’t heard that howler before turned incredulously: “This guy can’t be serious, can he??” Yes, it’s that bad.

Finally the TV filming was over, and boy, did the crowd hit the bars! The whole shindig was invitation only, meaning that only seasoned drinkers were present. Plus a whole lot of scantily clad starlets hoping to make contact with guys from the music & TV industry. Me, I went in my incarnation as Rock Music Video producer, which isn’t even a lie, at least not entirely. Accordingly, the birds swarmed around me like it was early spring. And the liquor ran like the river Nile.

Today, I’ve got the phone numbers of three aspiring “actresses” and a royal hangover. Ah music industry – we need more of you!