BlahBlahCafe - Jean-Michel Jarre forum

Mega-concert planner seeks J'lem show

French mega-concert planner and electronica superstar Jean Michel Jarre arrived in Jerusalem Sunday for a two-day search of the city. The goal of the search: a location for a massive concert next year in honor of Israel's 60th anniversary.

Though still in the early stages of planning, the concert would likely be among the biggest and most technically demanding ever staged in Israel. Jarre, who's sold tens of millions of electronica and New Age records, has gained a second following for staging concerts of record-setting size. The performer entered The Guinness Book of World Records in 1978 with a concert before an estimated one million spectators at Paris' Place de la Concorde, and has since performed even larger shows honoring occasions such as NASA's 25th anniversary and a papal visit to his hometown, Lyon. Often accompanied by lasers and other special effects, Jarre ushered in the year 2000 at one of the world's biggest Y2K celebrations - this one staged at the Giza Pyramids of Egypt.

This week's trip served purely as a scouting tour of Jerusalem, Jarre's manager said, and the artist has not yet initiated formal discussions with city officials about the proposed Jerusalem show. His visit was arranged by Benny Boret, a French-Israeli producer.

Source

Sounds exciting. Hope this happens. That's all folks.

Time to have a really really really big show again. Those isreali's have enough money it seems, so.. time for Jerusalem In Concert

Anyway - I think it's politically a hard decision... I remember JMJ really pleased the moroccan crowd with his anti-bush statement, so staging a concert in Israel may be a very sensitive subject for the arabs. The anniversary of Israel is a delicate subject anyway. If I were JM, I wouldn't be sure if I would be part of the debate...

This sounds really nice and we can only hope this will take place. Im a little interested in what all this Iran vs. Israel will affect such a concert.
Thanks for telling

Sensitive subject...

Remember that it's to celebrate 60 years of israel, not just any occasion so there are many PPL wanting celebrations to be ruined (afterall the foundation of an "unsecular jewish state" is a mistake according to many, including me...)

Having said that, whenever JMJ is on RTL boulevard they show the footage of him shaking hands with Jasser Arafat so...

Personaly I think it's a bad idea since there's nothing to celebrate AT ALL.

With all the terrorist attacks that have happened there and in it's surroundiong areas, I don't think it's a wise decision to stage anything.

Sounds good !
But I don't want our JMJ to be killed

I don't think he would be a target, rather the huge number of israelis However JMJ's 12DOTS concert plans were also threatened by terrorists and nothing happened.

Nico_Noyau wrote:Sounds good !
But I don't want our JMJ to be killed

And what about the spectators.

Here in the U.K, we have had a very bad weekend. We have had 3 (luckily) failed attempts of terrorist bombings. Two cars were found in London on Friday full of explosives (nail bombs) and Saturday a 4x4 packed with gas canisters with occupants rigged with explosives were driven into the main airport terminal in Scotland. Luckily the 4x4 burst into flames and did not explode and only one spectator was hurt (minimal burns), but it could have been worse.

In a country such as Israel, suicide bombers can easily target the innocent. You get a huge crowd such as the one's that turn up at an event like this and one nut case rigged with explosives - disaster on a mass scale. I'm not saying it's going to happen, but the possibility is always there.

OK then it’s not a good idea when it comes to the country where the concert will be. He was there on Sunday for two days; he is obviously not worried for his safety if he’s visiting Jerusalem to check out possible venues. But if he wants to do the concert there then that’s his decision. Of course I will worry for him.

Do a concert in a safer environment. I would have said here in the UK but hey we have our own problems with terrorists.

The world isn't safe, it is just worse in the middle-east especially for an event like this.

Hmm.. very dangerous plans

It certainly is a sensitive subject. I'm sure that JMJ will be doing his homework first if anything is to come of this. He has our interests at heart. It appears that this is just an idea, nothing set in stone (so to speak), something were all too familar with. JM's not stupid, he knows whats been going on over there. He wouldn't put anyone at harm.

It's a nice idea to mark a anniversary, but the surroundings do cause concern.

Equinoxe5 wrote:
It's a nice idea to mark a anniversary, but the surroundings do cause concern.

Again, I don't think it's something to celebrate AT ALL!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakba

Antigoon wrote:

Equinoxe5 wrote:
It's a nice idea to mark a anniversary, but the surroundings do cause concern.

Again, I don't think it's something to celebrate AT ALL!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakba

I didn't know that, but I see your point.

Lets just calm down and worry if it happens.

Nothing in this life is safe. I mean you could just walk out the door of your own home and be struck by a car. I know this is distressing but we should wait and see if the concert goes ahead. At the moment we are only relying on one article.