Thanks Joseph-John for your excellent review.
A very nice read. I will try and take your advice about staying behind to admire the set up at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham. But the RAH is gonna be a bit of a hardship, as there will be a lot of number of fans in attendance. It’s gonna be major busy.
, I am so excited. The days cannot come fast enough for me.
Jean Michel Jarre, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
by Stuart Morrison
Oxygene was, perhaps, the most influential electronic album of all time.
While it owed much to earlier works by the likes of Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk, it captured the public's imagination like no other, selling by the proverbial bucket-load. So it was no surprise to find the concert hall sold out for this, the first date of French composer Jean Michel Jarre's European tour, celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the album's international release.
Emerging on to a stage that resembled a car boot sale in an electronics factory, Jarre, explained that he had decided completely to re-record the album, using only the original instruments and to tour on the same basis.
advertisement
To that end, he explained, he had decided to play smaller venues so that "you could have an intimate experience with my vintage instruments". With Frances Rimbert, Claude Samard and Dominique Perrier taking up their stations to the rear of the stage, Jarre and his team produced a stunning rendition of the entire album, from the first swish to the final bleep.
Nothing sounds more like an analogue synthesiser than, well, an analogue synthesiser, and to let us have an even more intimate experience, a huge panel of mirrors was lowered from the lighting rig, angled in such a way as to let us see just who was playing what.
With his three colleagues working madly at what looked like a giant telephone exchange, Jarre produced an astonishing range of sounds from his bank of keyboards and, splendidly, a theremin.
The ageing electronics survived to the end, as did their operators, and after a solo encore of Oxygene 13, Jarre left to a rapturous standing ovation.
Source.
More controversy
by Ken Smith
FRENCH composer Jean Michel Jarre began his European tour at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall at the weekend with tickets priced at up to £50 a pop.
Reader Dan Fagan from Coatbridge tells us that, although the concert was mesmerising, some folk thought it perhaps brief, and ended abruptly. In fact, Dan heard a woman further along the row ask at the end: "Is that it?"
Her partner replied: "Perhaps being French he disnae understand the term encore'."
Source.Jarregirl YouTube
Concerts attended:
Théâtre Marigny, Paris - 2007
Symphony Hall, Birmingham - 2008
RAH, London - 2008
Wembley Arena, London - 2009
NIA, Birmingham - 2009
POP Bercy, Paris - 2010
NIA, Birmingham - 2010
O2 Arena, London - 2010
Zénith Aréna, Lille - 2010
Port Hercule, Monaco - 2011
TUI Arena, Hannover - 2011
Festival International de Carthage - 2013
Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham - 2016
(or could be JMJ). 
