Jean Michel Jarre at the 02 this Sunday

[anonymous-user]

Anyone else going?

Looking forward to it. Have seen him quite a few times now, the first time being at Docklands (22 years ago this week).

I saw him last year at Wembley and it was a really good show.

A couple of my group can't come along, so if anyone wants a pair of tickets for less than the £100 it would cost to get them through an agency (£52 each), drop me a line. I'd rather sell them to someone that wants to go rather than sell them to a tout on the day.

Just wondering whether any other PHers are going.

[Ozone]

I would love to go but have a busy weekend planned unfortunately.

I went to the docklands show too which was spectacular.

I missed out on the concerts he played with the original keyboards too, as i only found out about them recently - i would love to see the old ARP's and Moog's being given an outing.

[Mojooo]

I have never seen a tout at the O2, they are not allowed on site

[StripeyNick]

I'm already going. Can't wait! We've got tickets that are 6 rows from the front.

His concert at Maine Road football ground in Manchester back in the early '90s was the first concert I ever went to. I doubt my t-shirt still fits though.

[anonymous-user]

I was trying for ages to get floor tickets, and was on the O2 priority and on the web the day they went on sale but could only get block 111.

6 Rows back is good, I was about that far back at Wembley last year

This photo is as out of the camera, only resized for the web.

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 8th October 21:52

[Meeja]

Ozone said:

I missed out on the concerts he played with the original keyboards too, as i only found out about them recently - i would love to see the old ARP's and Moog's being given an outing.

Went to the Albert Hall gig last year when he performed Oxygene with the original instruments.

Utterly superb.

[Mojooo]

I wast thiking about it

Just went onto TM and seats in block A3 were available - so i went for it

my other option was chance a ticket on the day for maybe 25 quid but for the extra 30 quid i am happy to get such a good seat

edit - if you see me do say hello, i will be wearing black and green trainers

Edited by Mojooo on Sunday 10th October 02:26

[anonymous-user]

For those not going it is being streamed live on www.jeanmicheljarre.com and on his Ustream site.

[Mojooo]

My short review - coming from someone who has a passing interest in JMJ. I am normally into rock but JMJ is one of the few electronic type music artists that I have heard of and actually like.

The music itself was not bad, my mind did wonder a few times though

Rendezvous 4 was easily the highlight for me, good crowd reaction as well, probably because its quite well known and pop like. The last song, Calypso was the 2nd best - almost got a bit rock at the end!

I spose my main criticism woudl be is that it felt like JMJ was the DJ in a club and the audience was just sat there watchin - it was liek there no connection with the audience because he wasn;t singing.

Luckily a few songs in they finally put a camera on to show us what he was doing so there was soemsort of decent visual link to the music - but they did arse around with it a lot.

Laser harp was good.

All in all I don't regret going, i wil lcertainly listen to more of his stuff this week.

[FamilyGuy]

Mojooo said:

The music itself was not bad, my mind did wonder a few times though

Rendezvous 4 was easily the highlight for me, good crowd reaction as well, probably because its quite well known and pop like. The last song, Calypso was the 2nd best - almost got a bit rock at the end!

I spose my main criticism woudl be is that it felt like JMJ was the DJ in a club and the audience was just sat there watchin - it was liek there no connection with the audience because he wasn;t singing.

Luckily a few songs in they finally put a camera on to show us what he was doing so there was soemsort of decent visual link to the music - but they did arse around with it a lot.

Laser harp was good.

All in all I don't regret going, i wil lcertainly listen to more of his stuff this week.

I went to the gig at the Birmingham NIA on Friday and the review above sums it up. Fantastic light/laser show and one of the best sound systems I've ever heard. But no singers, no dancers, no chat, no big screen coverage with close ups just four synth players in a line, which makes it very disconnected and it's purely about the music and not performance. So purists may say - well that's the point - but you can just put on a DVD and get that. We were close enough to see hand movements and they didn't always seem to match what we heard - I'm suspecting that it wasn't all live but sequenced, which you'd expect in a lot of pop/image gigs but not one purely about music.

Edited by FamilyGuy on Monday 11th October 02:09

[Mojooo]

I looked at the big screen a lot but didnt notice any funny business, it all seemed to match (not that i am a musician) - aybe you guys had synching issues?

Just watching manchester gig on youtube

half arsers didnt even bother standing up for all of rendezvous as our crowd did! i feel sorry for JMJ, constantly trying to get them to stand up. lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiAEQhJlXUs

[FamilyGuy]

Mojooo said:

I looked at the big screen a lot but didnt notice any funny business, it all seemed to match (not that i am a musician) - aybe you guys had synching issues?

Just watching manchester gig on youtube

half arsers didnt even bother standing up for all of rendezvous as our crowd did! i feel sorry for JMJ, constantly trying to get them to stand up. lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiAEQhJlXUs

Yeah - they just sat there at our gig as well. TBH of the little, big screen close-up stuff there was, I wasn't sure it was live either. I didn't see any cameraman (although there could have been one, or a fixed mini-camera) and the change of angles of his keyboard/guitar as he played were not exactly the same as those on screen. Maybe another sync issue perhaps?

Edited by FamilyGuy on Monday 11th October 02:31

[Mojooo]

There were little fixed CCTV cameras dotted around on the equipment

Plus his headcam and 1 cameraman right at the end IIRC.

I think they used effects on some of the little cameras to make things shaky etc

[anonymous-user]

There was a guy with a camera on stage at the O2.

The screen projections did seem to match with what was being played. Being a Keyboard player myself I tend to keep an eye out for who is playing what. I think it is fair to say the main synth lead in Oxygene 2 is playback and both Equinoxe 4 & 5. Also it appears that Rendezvous 2 has an element of playback. The main string & choir being the most obvious, the bass, lead and Laser Harp were all live.

Looking from where I was seated, you could see that Francis Rimbert was doing a lot of the main leads and more complex stuff. It was a great show, I really enjoyed it. It seemed to have more atmosphere than Wembley last year

[qube_TA]

This site has an archive of the webcast from yesterday: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/10125403

Quite good sound but the video is deliberately a bit naff.

I quite like Jarre, seen him live many times since 1990, always quite entertaining but I get a little bit frustrated as he always plays an almost identical setlist. It's been 10 years since any new material too so these endless greatest hits shows are becoming a bit Status Quo.

[Mojooo]

its amazing how clean the soudn is from the soundbroad, sounds so different live

that video is awful, you woudl think they could just have a proper camera man with a proepr camera recording it all and displaying it to both the live audience and the internet audience

[anonymous-user]

I think it was intentionally filmed in a Hitchcock style.

Anyway a couple of photos from where I was sitting.

[onomatopoeia]

FamilyGuy said:

I went to the gig at the Birmingham NIA on Friday and the review above sums it up. Fantastic light/laser show and one of the best sound systems I've ever heard. But no singers, no dancers, no chat, no big screen coverage with close ups just four synth players in a line, which makes it very disconnected and it's purely about the music and not performance. So purists may say - well that's the point - but you can just put on a DVD and get that. We were close enough to see hand movements and they didn't always seem to match what we heard - I'm suspecting that it wasn't all live but sequenced, which you'd expect in a lot of pop/image gigs but not one purely about music.

I didn't go, but "that's the point" . I probably should have gone as he actually brings the proper kit with him on tour as the pictures someone else posted show. Even in the days of analogue synths sequencing was commonplace, Jarre used them on his early albums - he put whole kit lists on the sleeve - although TD rather lead the way with their use in the early-mid 70s. They also used to do the "three german blokes sat in a row surrounded by banks of synths with flashing lights" type concerts.

As an aside, if anyone more familiar with them knows, is that an M400 we can see the back of in the middle of the row of three on his left hand side? If it is and he used it and it didn't break down part way though, seeing that would have been worth the ticket price alone

[Mojooo]

Who are TD?

Just out on interest which kind of musicians were the first to make this kind of music?

I like some parts of Oxygene but for my liking there are too many sound effect type thigns going on. I prefer Equinoxe.

[MitchT]

I went to the Manchester gig on Saturday. I was seven rows back from the front right in the middle. I loved the head cam that gave a 'JMJ's eye view' of the synths being operated, and the video accompanying Equinoxe 7 was pretty cool too.

I also went to 2009's Manchester gig, 2008's Albert Hall gig and the one at Maine Road in Manchester back in 1993.