Place De La Concorde - 1979

Place de la Concorde in the centre of Paris was the setting for Jean Michel Jarre's first open-air concert in 1979. Although he had previously given concerts, together with the rock bands he played with during his late teens, by comparison with his previous concerts and the conventional concerts of the time, this concert was a completely unique, innovative performance. It was accompanied by giant light projections and fireworks displays. Place de la Concorde was the first of a long series of concerts that helped to visualise Jarre's music and also break new ground for concert performances.

On July 14 1979 the ambitious show attracted an estimated audience of one million people. Jarre was alone on stage with his synthesisers, performing Oxygene and Equinoxe, and the concert was important in establishing a new standard. It also became the first of many Jarre-concerts to hijack an entire city for one night.

Concerts In China - 1981

In 1981 Jarre was invited by the Chinese government to perform five concerts in what was then a very closed country. The five indoor concerts took place respectively in Beijing (two concerts) and Shanghai (three concerts), and the French musician had composed no fewer than seven new pieces especially for them which, stylistically, moved from electro over ambient to Chinese traditional music.

Organising the concerts was a major project in itself, not least due to the cultural differences connected with the official concert tradition in China. The audience at the first show was exclusively comprised of military personnel and for this reason Jarre handed-out tickets to the citizens in the street to enable them also to share the other shows. It has been said that 500 million Chinese listened to the concerts live on the radio when Jarre, as the first Western musician invited officially, performed in early post-Mao China.

Houston - A City In Concert - 1986

The concert in Houston April 5 1986 is often considered a milestone in Jean Michel Jarre’s career. The concert took place in the shadow of the deaths of the seven astronauts who had exploded along with the Challenger space shuttle, one of them, Ron McNair, a friend of Jarre’s. The event was broadcast on TV all over the world and made Jarre a concert legend.

The occasion for the concert was the 150th anniversary of the city of Houston and the 25th anniversary of NASA, and the entire skyline of Houston formed the backdrop for the gigantic show. Huge sheets of canvas covered the skyscrapers which were used as screens for laser and light projections synchronised to the music and fireworks displays. The concert attracted an audience of around 1.3 million people.

Lyon - Concert For The Pope - 1986

During October of the same year Jean Michel Jarre travelled to his home town of Lyon, where he was invited to play for the City’s welcome of Pope John Paul II. The concert, which was held near the River Saône, was a spectacular show with the singular visual and sound technology now Jarre’s unique signature. A choir of no less than 120 people and 60 musicians accompanied him on the stage. The concert attracted more than 800,000 people who gathered on the banks of the river and in the surrounding streets.

In the days leading up to the concert the organisers were very apprehensive, as an ancient prediction made by Nostradamus foretold that a pope would be assassinated in a French city where two rivers crossed, indeed the case of Lyon. Jarre defied the Nostradamus' gloomy "prediction" and the concert was a huge success despite the massive security surrounding the Holy Father.

Destination Docklands - 1988

The Docklands concerts (there were two), were held at the London Docks after long negotiations and a great deal of to-ing and fro-ing on the part of the local community authorities. The Docks were to create the setting for a presentation of Jarre's album, Revolutions, an album clearly inspired by the history of the Docklands. The concerts scheduled for September finally took place in October and the weather turned out to be typically British – rain and strong winds. Despite the weather, the concert tickets sold in record time of a few hours, for a total of 400,000 in total over the two dates.

The stage was built on a 1,000 ton floating barge which lay in the Thames, on which Jarre and his musicians, a choir and an orchestra performed. It was as though this bleak area had been transformed for two evenings into an industrial, futuristic, multimedia theatre, which united Jarre's electronic music and vision, and the drab landscape of the Docklands in perfect, psychedelic harmony.

Paris - La Défense - 1990

The French National Day 1990 celebration marked the closing of the festivities celebrating the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. Jarre conceived a gigantic concert for Paris’ downtown, modern business quarters.

La Defense, it must be said, formed the perfect background, not simply because of its futuristic character, but also because of the tall skyscrapers, von Spreckelsen's new Arc de Triomphe and steel monoliths which line the horizon visible from the centre of the city. Jarre designed a pyramid-shaped stage to fit the geometrical architecture of the setting where he performed with his musicians, a classical Arab ensemble (France’s second largest community), and others including a choir, a steel-drum band and gigantic dancing puppets of various kinds. The entire show was synchronised and illuminated by 65 tons of fireworks, as well as laser and light projections on the tall buildings. For over two hours Jarre enchanted yet another record live audience of 2.5 million people, and most of Paris was replete with electronic sounds and a sea of light on this festive July summer evening.

Zermatt - 1992

In less than ten years the Swiss watchmaker, Swatch, sold 100 million watches, and began a collaboration with Jean Michel Jarre in 1992 in order to celebrate this success; Jarre designed the first ever Swatch with a musical alarm.

Jean Michel Jarre also designed two multimedia shows which took place on 25 and 26 September, 1992, at Zermatt in Southern Switzerland, ten kilometres from the Italian border, painting in music and light the Matter Horn and the surrounding snow-capped mountains.

In less than ten years Swiss watch company Swatch sold 100 million watches and began a collaboration with Jean Michel Jarre in 1992 in order to celebrate this success. Jarre designed a Swatch watch and also composed the melody for the alarm in it. Later other famous artists such as Philip Glass, Peter Gabriel, and Nam June Paik also composed Swatch melodies.

But the crowning glory were two shows which took place September 25 and 26, 1992, at Zermatt in southern Switzerland, ten kilometres from the Italian border. They were not actual concerts, however - there was no stage on which Jean Michel Jarre would appear. The event focused very much on the magnificent lightshow illuminating the mountains as well as fireworks shooting off into the sky.

Lost City - 1992

1992 was the year when Jean Michel Jarre brought his talent to the continent of Africa for the first time. This took the form of three multimedia shows in early December in Bophuthatswana. The setting was the new Lost City and was performed as a tribute to the legend of the Lost City, a civilisation that centuries ago created a paradise which was later destroyed by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The local community participated with their song and music specially arranged by Jarre for the occasion.

Europe In Concert - 1993

Jarre embarked on his first tour in 1993. The tour, which was named “Europe in Concert”, which naturally took him around most of Europe, but not Scandinavia. The idea of a tour arose around the collaboration with Swatch the previous year…they sponsored the total of sixteen concerts, the first being set on the tidal island of Mont Saint Michel, in France. Laser beams and lights were projected onto the buildings on the island and the stage was placed in front of the island itself during ebb tide. The stage and the scenery for this tour was like a miniature city skyline which Jarre carried across the continent.

During the same year Jarre released Chronologie, his first studio album in three years, and this new composition was central to the tour’s repertoire. As a whole, the tour was seen by 650,000 people.

Hong Kong Stadium Concert - 1994

In continuation of Europe in Concert, Jarre was invited to perform a concert in Hong Kong on 11 March, 1994. The occasion was the opening of the City’s brand new new stadium. Given his history with China, Jarre was preferred to international stars, Madonna and Michael Jackson.

The tickets were sold out within two days. On stage, in addition to Jarre and his synthesisers, there was a Chinese orchestra and a choir as well as a series of performers.