PART II
PLACE DE LA CONCORDE
JARRE, along with his records, found success with his outdoor concerts. In 1979 he held the first of them, in the Place de la Concorde. You were the production assistant. How born the idea for this concert? How was received by DREYFUS?
I remember Jarre and Drefyus wanted to “do a big one” and imagined proposing to the Mairie de Paris for no money a super promotional light and music show on Place de la Concorde to celebrate our 14th July National Day ; the idea and hope was to gather as many people as possible on and around Place de la Concorde. The event, if successful, would be relayed on French TV channels. The City of Paris and the Ministry of Culture approved the project and contributed to the logistics and the security.
My role in the production was limited to assisting Francis Dreyfus.
Please, tell us your memories about that first great concert.
My general recollection was excitement of course to be part of a great and crazy show, the giant images on the buildings, laser beams and writing and this immense crowd. I had never seen anything like this at such a big scale in the open air.
THE CONCERTS IN CHINA
It‘s difficult to imagine how projecting a concert tour in China in the 80s. I guess it’s not only a musical challenge, but also of production. Again you took care of the production of these shows. What difficulties did you encounter with these concerts in a so closed country and with a very difficult protocol?
I think that soon after the Concorde show contacts were made with some Chinese officials through Pierre Cardin and the French Ambassador of France in China.
With images of the Concorde show, Jarre and Dreyfus proposed to perform some indoor concert with light shows and the Chinese government finally accepted to be invite Jean Michel Jarre as the first western modern composer and artist to perform in the Republic of China ; it took some time in negociating, bargaining etc. but the mediatic aspect of the project was another great challenge to meet.
I was doing the administrative work, and mainly working with the French travel agency and the freight agent on the plane tickets and reservations + hotel accomodation + transportation of the stage, lights, sound, instruments, etc. The agency provided for a tour guide fluent in Chinese (a pure Corsican guy).
When we arrived in Beijing, we had to face the inevitable administrative and governmental obligations, last minute negociations on the electric power which was needed for the shows and which was far more than had been calculated by the Chinese who had to take the decision to close one or two nearby factories for a few days.
The day-to-day negociations were typical of the Chinese culture ; even if Jarre had been invited by the Chinese government to do the concerts and what he needed for the concerts had to be provided, the Chinese officials made it impossible not to sit a a table and negociate for anything. Just for the principle.
Did you attend the five concerts in Pekin and Shanghai? If yes, which was your favorite one and why?
The Shanghai concerts were much better, first because the 2 Beijing concerts helped the further shows to run better. The concerts in Beijing were the first total live concerts that Jarre ever performed (La Concorde was semi-live + backing tapes) so he was not so at ease as you can imagine.
Also, the audience was much much warmer in Shanghai. People in Shanghai were more open and relaxed than in Beijing, even the officials. It’s because of history, of the foreign concessions which were established in the city in the mid-19th Century which left their western culture behind them when they closed.
There are many unknowns about these concerts: The effect of the numerous technical difficulties, uncertainties about the tracklist of the shows, the audio and video recordings (of which are only known the record and the official video) … You were there. How were really those concerts?
Technical difficulties were mainly in Beijing, I can’t really remember any big problem in Shanghai. The tracklist of the shows was slightly different in Shanghai I think, because Jarre added some new songs in the Shanghai shows. On the other end, « Fishing Junks at Sunset » with the Chinese Philarmonic was only performed in Beijing.
The whole trip in China was filmed by English TV company Central Television (Birmingham) a division of Granada Television. The film was meant to be a musical documentary. Central TV was producing the film and had exclusive UK broadcast rights during a certain number of years + non-exclusive in other countries, while Dreyfus had the video rights worldwide.
The audio recording was Dreyfus’s responsability.
These concerts remain of of the most exciting experiences of my life.
Were those concerts broadcasted on radio or television? There is a supposed radio emission with some live tracks. Could you confirm its authenticity?
I remember Europe N°1 radio station was also involved to a small extent : they sent a journalist to cover the adventure, so it is possible that this station broadcasted bits and pieces of the shows, but I don’t think it was a full live broadcast.
Please, some personal memories of that Chinese tour.
I was busy with the production yet found a little time for some personal side explorations of the old parts of Beijing (now destroyed) with my new good friend, the Chinese-speaking-Corsican tour guide. He had some friends working at the French Embassy. With them we went walking through the poor and old parts of the city on the side of the Forbidden City ; one evening we entered a dark and dirty kind of bar lit with 2 tiny 40W lamps, where two locals were playing card games loudly and drinking a pretty rough spirit called Mao Taï made with sorghum. One of the French diplomat went to challenge one of them and got into this wild card-and-drinking game ; he finally turned green and almost crashed down and we had to drag him out and load him in the car back home.
Also quite drunk we were all (incl. Jarre + Dreyfus) at the 2 offical dinner-receptions organized in our honour by Chinese officials in both cities ; the reason was that we were placed in big round tables of about 10 people, each of us in the Jarre-Dreyfus group was seated between 2 Chinese guests. But, besides the fact that we could not communicate, we had to drink beer and/or wine and stand up every half an hour to drink a toast (kampé !) of this horrible mortal drink Mao Taï ! No way to decline the invitation which could be considered as a lack of respect. Imagine how we were all after this 2-3 hour dinner !!! I think I was sick the next day of the Beijing dinner ! In Shanghai, the less formal official dinner ended in a delirious and crazy night !
Another funny but short moment was at the end of one of the Shanghai concerts, a small group of us including Jarre were sitting in our van at the back of the stadium, waiting for our promo guy, Bernard, to join us to return to our hotel ; we saw him get out through the stadium door and suddenly be run after by a big group of screaming fans who believed he was Jarre (he had the same height and same long dark hair) ; Bernard had to sprint a hundred metres to escape the mob and finally jumped into the van breathless !
RENDEZ-VOUS HOUSTON
You were involved in more JARRE’s concerts, in the production team, as Rendez-Vous Houston, each one more spectacular than the last. Which is your favourite one ?
My other favourite concert was Houston of course, first because it was another incredible adventure to organize such concert in the open air with all the local and last minute problems and negociations for the security with the owners of the buildings on which the giant screens for the projections/mapings were installed, with the Firemen, with the City officials, etc. It was the concert in which I was the most involved technically. I remember that on the morning of the show, we still did not have all the authorizations and were not even sure the concert could take place.
When the countdown ended and the show started we were like floating in the air with our mouth open just like the unbelievable crowd around us. It was just fantastic ! As you know the Freeway closest to the concert site got totally blocked as people stopped to see the show from far away. This unexpected reaction from the crowd and the success of the show made us so proud of ourselves. The next day, local media were raving about the show. It was great to have lived this thrilling project.
MUSIC FOR SUPERMARKETS
The rarest JARRE’s album is “Music For Supermarkets”. Only one copy was pressed, and then auctioned. Did you live the origin of this idea? How a record company and its production team assimilate a project so rare?
Jarre and Dreyfus were always inventing new things and events to catch the attention of the media. One day they decided to create this never-done-before event : an artist who had sold millions of albums was to compose an album and press only one copy to be sold by auction. This was a bit crazy, enough to catch the interest of the media.
Can you confirm the master plate and all test pressing were deleted (burned, in fact)? Wasn’t kept in DREYFUS’ files a copy?
Indeed, the master matrix was destroyed (burnt with a blowlamp) in the auction room. We have kept a safety copy of the master tape which was never used after. Only the versions possibly taped by some listeners from the RTL radio station which played the whole album once, may have circulated under cover or on the internet.
The owner of that vinyl record is another great mystery for JARRE’s fans. There is no picture of him, no name. Nothing. 28 years have passed since the sale and has not leaked any information about the current owner. Did you have any contact with him or his representatives to finalize the sale of the album?
Same with us. We had the name of the person, of course, but he was totally unknown and did not want to communicate on his reasons for buying this album. It was quite strange. We never had any further contact with this person other than getting papers signed and his cheque. Still an unsolved a mystery …
Thanks Daniéle. This interview is dedicated to her late mother. Part III coming soon…
Further rare insights… Looking forward to part 111