Nantes, Marseille, Nice, three different shows


The Nantes Zenith is one of France's best venues, and we had an audience of connoisseurs that I liked a lot. From the stage we could feel the dynamism of that city, where concerts, expos and films do so well. Among our guests, many of our friends from Algam and La Boîte Noire, the leading musical instruments import company in Europe, as well as Joachim Garraud's family, and part of mine. We all had a warm gathering after the show.

 

Marseilles: Sun, the Vieux Port, relaxing time with the musicians. Marseille is the city of music and soccer, which is a hard thing to admit for a native of Lyon. Yet I said it on stage and it caused a little shock.

 

The show was one of the craziest since the tour began. The Dome has a pretty bad reputation for its acoustics, but Alain Courieux, Cédric and Arno somehow managed to set up their system, and we had a great sound. The show started red hot, and continued to ramp up in a stadium-like ambiance, it was electrified. The Marseille audience will be hard to beat!

 

Jean-Pierre Janiaud, the great sound engineer with whom I mixed Oxygene and Equinoxe, came backstage with Christophe, I was so happy to meet them again. Also my uncle Jean Nicolaï, in great shape despite his 95 years, and my dear Edith.

 

For Nice, I was afraid the audience would be quieter on a Sunday night, but it turned out I was wrong.. Many of the crew are from Nice, as well as the whole Arpege company, which provides our sound and video, and as I mentioned that on stage, the audience made it a point to not lag behind Marseille.

 

Ignace was here to fine-tune details in preparation for Bercy and the 3D film this week-end. Paul Charles had come from London to discuss the show dates for the rest of the year, which will prove challenging. Then we boarded "our" bus and spent the night watching the photos and films shot by Christine and Thomas, and arrived in Toulouse under a pouring rain.. Meanwhile my mother had arrived with Louisa and Gilles to attend the concert at the Zenith in Toulouse...


Published by Jean Michel Jarre on 3/24/2010 // 13 comments // > write a comment