Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[Finaero]

Bringing back an old question/mystery of mine (which I couldn't find after a quick search, I think I've wondered about it before tho'):

As per the attached file from the Europe 2 radio broadcast - to me that sounds like someone's speaking in Japanese - but if it's not, and it's French (or some other language), anyone know what they are saying?

IIRC in one of JMJ's speeches during the concert he might mention Japan as well, but not sure of the context either.

But yeah, it always makes me wonder if there were alternate radio/other broadcasts of PLD - but even then, a (simultaneous) broadcast of PLD in Japan seems very unlikely.

[AERO62]

If I remember correctly, there was also an ad in russian. Perhaps it was simulcast to several countries at once. I always assumed the recordings we got came from the french radio though...

[AERO62]

I asked my friend, he says greetings to japanese people, and at the end - "Europe 2" or (Europe Deux).

[Finaero]

Thanks! Makes me wonder what the purpose of those other-language greetings was (and if it was common in other Europe 2/French radio things at the time).

For a long time I assumed that the radio broadcast (or rather, the most common recording of it available on all the FTPs and whatnot, especially right around 20 years ago - geez) was broadcasted live on July 14th, but those radio broadcast albums also have some kind of a summary/preview thing at the beginning (such as in the attachment) with snippets from the concert that couldn't have been available before the gig. Not to mention WFC's audio fading in first and the audience noises some time after that.

Perhaps most of the gig was first broadcasted live and then replayed afterwards and they made a new intro for it for the second broadcast. Or something.

[Richard-Eastham]

If I recall rightly, JMJ makes an interesting and quite political speech just before Souvenir of China is played, referring the the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 - just 9 months before the concert, remember - and the fact a whole host of European countries are now longer subject to communist control and he then compares that to China, and no doubt the crackdown in Tiananmen Square in May 1989, just 2 months before the concert.

This speech did not get included in the VHS release but does appear on the cleaned up NRJ broadcast from Flip Radio.

Given the attention on the concert from the world's media, and the fact it was funded by city of Paris local government and big corporate businesses headquartered in La Defense, this was quite something.

I wonder if this element of the show was unscripted, or at least unannounced beforehand by JMJ to the concert sponsors? Or whether they were all onboard with this overtly political message? Whatever the context, it was a bold move. Echos of this same sentiment in Exit with Edward Snowden, many years later.

[rinogurr]

Radio broadcast with comments

[jeanbatman]

(…) I wonder if this element of the show was unscripted, or at least unannounced beforehand by JMJ to the concert sponsors? Or whether they were all onboard with this overtly political message? Whatever the context, it was a bold move. Echos of this same sentiment in Exit with Edward Snowden, many years later.

I kinda think it was unscripted, as we know his voice quite well… Not 100% sure though…

[Synner]

Dunno if I'm remembering wrong, but I have a memory that at the end of Souvenir, which has images of bicycles moving about the screens, some tanks roll over them at the very end - as the closing solo played. This was not long after Tianamen Square, as I recall. That isn't in the video release though, so I may be mis-remembering.

Anyone else remember this, or is it just me?

I also remember, when leaving the concert after it had finished, that the stage stayed lit up, the lights kept going, and someone was playing the Laser Harp - I always wondered if that was Jarre doing another take of Calypso 2 - which went very wrong on the night (the harp was out of tune at the beginning, but suddenly kicked in half way through Jarre's solo - accompanied by a huge roar from the crowd, and a triumphant little flourish by JMJ). Would explain why in the video he's standing amongst the steel band at one point, and alone on a moodily lit stage the next.

And yes, I do believe the show was simulcast on radio in Japan, hence the periodic Japanese radio jingles - some of which played over the songs - Rendezvous IV, for example.