Jean Michel Jarre at the Royal Albert Hall
Jean Michel stepped out of his Clockwork Orange style egg chair, and introduced himself and his three stalwart supporters. He dedicated the performance to his friend Arthur C Clarke, who died recently.
Then he stepped inside his cluster of knob banks and synths, leaving it only to play the theramin and a portable Moog. Claude Samard-Polikar, Francis Rimbert and Dominique Perrier stuck to their stations at the back of the stage (from where we were, overlooking the right hand side of the stage, they were side on). They not only had keyboards, but what looked like telephone exchanges, where wired plugs were pulled out and rerouted throughout the performance.
Other than the introduction at the start, and thanks at the end, there was no speech and there were no breaks. Simply, Oxygene was played from start to finish, and the music spoke for itself. It was fantastic to see Jarre flitting between machines, and to realise how the music had been generated, by pedals, keyboards, and knobs. It gave me an appreciation for Jarre's craft which I'd never previously felt.
 View fullsize The Royal Albert Hall fills up (this photo from my phone). |
 View fullsize Jarre emerges and addresses the audience, explaining that they will have to tune these "old ladies". |
 View fullsize A first glance at the layout as Oxygene I gets under way. The revolving egg from which Jarre emerged is visible on the other side of the stage. | |
 View fullsize As you can see Jarre is beavering away front stage, with his three musicians backing him up at their stations. | |
 View fullsize It looks like a primitive telephone exchange as wired plugs are removed and relocated. |
 View fullsize Jarre plays a 1920s Russian Theremin. See a video of this from my phone (226kb 3gp video). |
 View fullsize My best photo of Jarre working the knobs. | |
 View fullsize Playing the portable Moog... |
 View fullsize ...as if it's a guitar solo. |
 View fullsize The clearest shot of everyone at work. You can just see the bottom of the mirror angled over the stage. | |
 View fullsize The finale gets underway as lights flash. A quick glimpse (12Mb avi video). |
 View fullsize Finally the mirror lifts up and an animation of the Oxygene cover art is played onto the screen. |
 View fullsize Jarre thanks the crowd for their warm applause. | |
This page last updated: 01 September 2022
If you have a comment, please leave it in the guestbook. To contact Flash directly, complete this form. Like this site? Buy me a drink!
This site moved from a fixed width to the current layout in 2009. Some older content such as photo sets may still have a fixed width. However if you notice any pages which are actually broken, please be kind enough to let me know via this form.
© Flash Wilson 1999-2010. I charge a fee for use of my photos.