The Jarre Weekend
It's been a fun weekend. We've not long got back from our friends gaff in Worcester, where I've been since yesterday afternoon. The chief object of the weekend: seeing French musician Jean Michel Jarre in action.
As I've mentioned before in this blog, Jarre was one of my first great musical loves. I fell hard for Jarre's 70s and 80s output when I first heard them whilst still at school, and the novelty has never worn off. In fact if anything my respect for his talent has only increased over time, when I learned to appreciate just how much his work has influenced other musicians, and how his utter fearlessness in making music is an inspiration to me and doubtless to countless others. "The Godfather of Techno" is a title that has been bestowed on him by the media, and whether that's entirely fair or not, it's not hard to see the influence his work has had on all sorts of acts that have appeared since Jarre's album Oxygene made him a household name in the mid-to-late 70s. It's a credit to the man that in the face of massive stylistic upheavals in the music industry, he has stuck to his guns and made the music he wants to make, regardless of external pressures, mixing genres with deliberate, careless glee and producing a string of albums that are somehow timeless and as memorable and enjoyable now as they were when they first appeared.
I've been fortunate enough to see Jarre five times now: lighting up London with his enormous outdoor show at Docklands in 1988, doing the same to the centre of Paris at La Defense in 1990, staging a larger-than-life show at Wembley Stadium in 1993, at Birmingham's NEC in 1997, and now putting on a more intimate show (if you can call an arena show intimate!) at Birmingham's NIA this weekend. All five shows have been magical and hugely enjoyable: such is the variety of Jarre's output and his ambition in terms of the staging of his shows that I can't imagine coming away from one disappointed.
With Steen displaying only very limited interest in coming along, I had arranged to go to the show with our friends Ann & Tony - who oddly enough were at the second of the two Docklands shows back in 1988. This was the first time they had seen Jarre since. Through being on the ball the day they went on sale, I had scored excellent seats - far enough forward to make events on stage perfectly clear, but far enough back that we still got to see the full extent of the (highly impressive, as usual for Jarre) light show. Anticpation was high, especially after we all saw some photos and clips taken by fans who had been to some of the earlier European shows.
So Steen dropped me off at Ann & Tony's, and returned home to her Open University books whilst we piled into Ann & Tony's car and set off for Birmingham, pausing briefly at the services on the M5 to grab a bite to eat before hitting the NIA. It all couldn't have been timed better, as we just had time to park up, get into the venue, visit the loo and peruse the merch stand (I scored a tour shirt, a programme and - happily, since I'd missed Jarre's smaller-scale tour last year - a programme from his last tour. Tony scored a programme, a T-shirt and a mug, and clutching our bags of precious Jarre merchandise, we wandered into the venue just as the PA announced there was about 10 minutes to showtime. As we took our seats - well pleased with the amount of leg room (we were on the front row of the second block of seating back on the floor) and the great view of the stage - I noted with satisfaction that Jarre's ambient epic Waiting For Cousteau was being played over the PA, as it has been at pretty much every show since the Paris show in 1990. Some things just work so well there's no need to change them.
The show was absolutely stunning. Jarre - 60 this year, bless him - was on fine form, doing his level best to get the crowd clapping along and dancing, and he was ably supported by three Jarre veterans who've been with him for some time now and have a great understanding and appreciation of his music. The very public nature of his larger-scale shows meant that often large parts of the arrangements were on tape, to ensure that nothing went awry on the day and to prevent mishaps causing problems that potentially could derail shows that had cost a great deal of money to stage. Jarre's more 'intimate' shows dispose of this reliance on playback which had led to criticism of Jarre and his musicians, and it was evident quite early on that this show was entirely live. Not only was there a pleasing degree of improvisation at times - something I'd not really witnessed at a Jarre show before - but there were also a couple of mistakes. Not enough to really bother anyone, but enough to bring a wry smile to faces as it was made plain not only that Jarre and his band were human, but that the Laser Harp - an instrument that many had assumed was simply a visual prop and not a real instrument at all - was indeed a real instrument, and one that could hit a bum note. It was a joy to see Jarre and his band deliver the music in an entirely organic way - even more impressive given the age of some of the vintage instrumentation that was being used, including a mellotron and a clearly ancient theremin. These crusty old warhorses leant a pleasing anologue tone to what was played, and made for a great counterpoint to the more digital instruments like the infamous Laser Harp.
The material played was drawn from all of Jarre's albums from Oxygene to 1997's Oxygene 7-13 - with the exception (sadly) of Zoolook - with only the three or four albums Jarre has delivered since being sidelined. This seemed a little odd at first, but then again, many of the large-scale shows Jarre has played since 2000 have drawn extensively on these albums, so perhaps it was just a case of the man wanting to return to his 'classic' catalogue and present it again to audiences who may not have had the chance to see him perform the music that made him famous. Whatever the reasons, the set was crammed with favourites, alongside some slightly more obscure material (I never thought I'd hear Oxygene Part 5 played live, for a start - and it was great to hear Calypso Part 3 again after so many years) and was a blur of highlights. Particularly impressive were offerings from Magnetic Fields and Equinoxe - two of my favourite albums - and an absolutely barnstorming Oxygene Part 12 which blew away the cobwebs very nicely. Honourable mentions too for a full-bore reading of Chronologie Part 2 and a truly stunning Third Rendez-vous played largely on the Laser Harp to great effect.
The presentation was very slick, too. Quite apart from the always hugely impressive Laser Harp - itself boasting a re-design - and the veritable battery of multicoloured lasers which were deployed to retina-destroying effect, there were several vari*lites and a rolling screen at the back of the stage which could be altered so that it allowed psychedelic lighting effects to be displayed, or became entirely opaque to emphasise the front of stage lighting. There were also no speaker stacks: the only speakers were part of the screen set-up, meaning that there were no stacks obscuring lines of sight to the stage and also that the sound was pretty much the same for everyone in the audience. No 'leaking' of the on-stage sound this time. The sound was massively impressive, too, with deep bass and crystal clear trebles. I can definitely see this audio set-up being adopted by many acts in years to come.
Alas, there had to be a negative, and sure enough there was - it was nothing to do with Jarre and his team, though, and everything to do with the audience. I've never seen such a bunch of stiffs: Jarre was hard pressed to get people clapping along, and for the most part people were simply slumped, semi-catatonic, in their seats. Sure, sections of the show were quite mellow, but other parts were very up-n'-at-'em, and I was disappointed that the crowd only really came to life when the inevitable Oxygene Part 4 was played. I was bewildered when the two guys sitting to my left sat through the first two-thirds of the show, gazing blankly at the stage, failing to applaud between tracks for the most part, and then promptly buggered off well about 6 tracks from the end of the main set, never to return. Talk about a tough crowd! Still, I can't pin it all on the crowd: I heard a few folks say afterwards that security were hassling them to sit down whenever they stood up, which is hardly conducive to a good vibe. Shame on you, NIA security... Still, hopefully the itinerant French genius won't take the classically 'reserved' British crowd as indifference. He certainly got a huge cheer after the final encore. We got the usual promise of "see you soon" from Jarre - hopefully he's not kidding. Much as I loved the huge outdoor shows, this was a very different animal, and the sort of show I'd always hoped I'd see Jarre deliver. The chance to see its like again would be far too good to pass up. Can we have some Zoolook next time, please, Monsieur Jarre?
Anyway, we retired happily to the car park where even an epic queue of escaping vehicles couldn't quite dent our spirits. Jarre set the standard very high for gigs this year - everyone else has a lot to live up to. Gig of the year? It may just have been...
As I've mentioned before in this blog, Jarre was one of my first great musical loves. I fell hard for Jarre's 70s and 80s output when I first heard them whilst still at school, and the novelty has never worn off. In fact if anything my respect for his talent has only increased over time, when I learned to appreciate just how much his work has influenced other musicians, and how his utter fearlessness in making music is an inspiration to me and doubtless to countless others. "The Godfather of Techno" is a title that has been bestowed on him by the media, and whether that's entirely fair or not, it's not hard to see the influence his work has had on all sorts of acts that have appeared since Jarre's album Oxygene made him a household name in the mid-to-late 70s. It's a credit to the man that in the face of massive stylistic upheavals in the music industry, he has stuck to his guns and made the music he wants to make, regardless of external pressures, mixing genres with deliberate, careless glee and producing a string of albums that are somehow timeless and as memorable and enjoyable now as they were when they first appeared.
I've been fortunate enough to see Jarre five times now: lighting up London with his enormous outdoor show at Docklands in 1988, doing the same to the centre of Paris at La Defense in 1990, staging a larger-than-life show at Wembley Stadium in 1993, at Birmingham's NEC in 1997, and now putting on a more intimate show (if you can call an arena show intimate!) at Birmingham's NIA this weekend. All five shows have been magical and hugely enjoyable: such is the variety of Jarre's output and his ambition in terms of the staging of his shows that I can't imagine coming away from one disappointed.
With Steen displaying only very limited interest in coming along, I had arranged to go to the show with our friends Ann & Tony - who oddly enough were at the second of the two Docklands shows back in 1988. This was the first time they had seen Jarre since. Through being on the ball the day they went on sale, I had scored excellent seats - far enough forward to make events on stage perfectly clear, but far enough back that we still got to see the full extent of the (highly impressive, as usual for Jarre) light show. Anticpation was high, especially after we all saw some photos and clips taken by fans who had been to some of the earlier European shows.
So Steen dropped me off at Ann & Tony's, and returned home to her Open University books whilst we piled into Ann & Tony's car and set off for Birmingham, pausing briefly at the services on the M5 to grab a bite to eat before hitting the NIA. It all couldn't have been timed better, as we just had time to park up, get into the venue, visit the loo and peruse the merch stand (I scored a tour shirt, a programme and - happily, since I'd missed Jarre's smaller-scale tour last year - a programme from his last tour. Tony scored a programme, a T-shirt and a mug, and clutching our bags of precious Jarre merchandise, we wandered into the venue just as the PA announced there was about 10 minutes to showtime. As we took our seats - well pleased with the amount of leg room (we were on the front row of the second block of seating back on the floor) and the great view of the stage - I noted with satisfaction that Jarre's ambient epic Waiting For Cousteau was being played over the PA, as it has been at pretty much every show since the Paris show in 1990. Some things just work so well there's no need to change them.
The show was absolutely stunning. Jarre - 60 this year, bless him - was on fine form, doing his level best to get the crowd clapping along and dancing, and he was ably supported by three Jarre veterans who've been with him for some time now and have a great understanding and appreciation of his music. The very public nature of his larger-scale shows meant that often large parts of the arrangements were on tape, to ensure that nothing went awry on the day and to prevent mishaps causing problems that potentially could derail shows that had cost a great deal of money to stage. Jarre's more 'intimate' shows dispose of this reliance on playback which had led to criticism of Jarre and his musicians, and it was evident quite early on that this show was entirely live. Not only was there a pleasing degree of improvisation at times - something I'd not really witnessed at a Jarre show before - but there were also a couple of mistakes. Not enough to really bother anyone, but enough to bring a wry smile to faces as it was made plain not only that Jarre and his band were human, but that the Laser Harp - an instrument that many had assumed was simply a visual prop and not a real instrument at all - was indeed a real instrument, and one that could hit a bum note. It was a joy to see Jarre and his band deliver the music in an entirely organic way - even more impressive given the age of some of the vintage instrumentation that was being used, including a mellotron and a clearly ancient theremin. These crusty old warhorses leant a pleasing anologue tone to what was played, and made for a great counterpoint to the more digital instruments like the infamous Laser Harp.
The material played was drawn from all of Jarre's albums from Oxygene to 1997's Oxygene 7-13 - with the exception (sadly) of Zoolook - with only the three or four albums Jarre has delivered since being sidelined. This seemed a little odd at first, but then again, many of the large-scale shows Jarre has played since 2000 have drawn extensively on these albums, so perhaps it was just a case of the man wanting to return to his 'classic' catalogue and present it again to audiences who may not have had the chance to see him perform the music that made him famous. Whatever the reasons, the set was crammed with favourites, alongside some slightly more obscure material (I never thought I'd hear Oxygene Part 5 played live, for a start - and it was great to hear Calypso Part 3 again after so many years) and was a blur of highlights. Particularly impressive were offerings from Magnetic Fields and Equinoxe - two of my favourite albums - and an absolutely barnstorming Oxygene Part 12 which blew away the cobwebs very nicely. Honourable mentions too for a full-bore reading of Chronologie Part 2 and a truly stunning Third Rendez-vous played largely on the Laser Harp to great effect.
The presentation was very slick, too. Quite apart from the always hugely impressive Laser Harp - itself boasting a re-design - and the veritable battery of multicoloured lasers which were deployed to retina-destroying effect, there were several vari*lites and a rolling screen at the back of the stage which could be altered so that it allowed psychedelic lighting effects to be displayed, or became entirely opaque to emphasise the front of stage lighting. There were also no speaker stacks: the only speakers were part of the screen set-up, meaning that there were no stacks obscuring lines of sight to the stage and also that the sound was pretty much the same for everyone in the audience. No 'leaking' of the on-stage sound this time. The sound was massively impressive, too, with deep bass and crystal clear trebles. I can definitely see this audio set-up being adopted by many acts in years to come.
Alas, there had to be a negative, and sure enough there was - it was nothing to do with Jarre and his team, though, and everything to do with the audience. I've never seen such a bunch of stiffs: Jarre was hard pressed to get people clapping along, and for the most part people were simply slumped, semi-catatonic, in their seats. Sure, sections of the show were quite mellow, but other parts were very up-n'-at-'em, and I was disappointed that the crowd only really came to life when the inevitable Oxygene Part 4 was played. I was bewildered when the two guys sitting to my left sat through the first two-thirds of the show, gazing blankly at the stage, failing to applaud between tracks for the most part, and then promptly buggered off well about 6 tracks from the end of the main set, never to return. Talk about a tough crowd! Still, I can't pin it all on the crowd: I heard a few folks say afterwards that security were hassling them to sit down whenever they stood up, which is hardly conducive to a good vibe. Shame on you, NIA security... Still, hopefully the itinerant French genius won't take the classically 'reserved' British crowd as indifference. He certainly got a huge cheer after the final encore. We got the usual promise of "see you soon" from Jarre - hopefully he's not kidding. Much as I loved the huge outdoor shows, this was a very different animal, and the sort of show I'd always hoped I'd see Jarre deliver. The chance to see its like again would be far too good to pass up. Can we have some Zoolook next time, please, Monsieur Jarre?
Anyway, we retired happily to the car park where even an epic queue of escaping vehicles couldn't quite dent our spirits. Jarre set the standard very high for gigs this year - everyone else has a lot to live up to. Gig of the year? It may just have been...