Royal Albert Hall Review

The Royal Albert Hall is a unique venue and one of the UK’s (if not the world’s) most treasured and famous buildings. The world’s leading performing artists have performed there and the venue has given birth to some extremely famous and legendary performances by artists such as ABBA, Genesis, Robbie Williams, and The Who, among many others.

Jean Michel Jarre has long spoken about his desire to play the Royal Albert Hall. As far back as 1977 Jarre was talking about releasing his second album (Equinoxe) and playing the Albert Hall, combining music and theatrics in the performance (Record Mirror, September 17 1977). It’s taken Jarre over 30 years to finally get there, and theatrics were refreshingly minimal, but Jarre’s performance at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday night was nothing short of majestic.

As fans are well aware, Jarre has taken his seminal album “Oxygene” on tour to celebrate it’s 30th Anniversary. The tour actually started in December 2007, with a series of one-off shows in Paris. The tour ‘proper’ kicked off in Glasgow and had visited Ireland, Holland and Germany before arriving back in the UK for the Birmingham, Manchester and London dates. By the time of the Royal Albert Hall show Jarre had bedded himself in and teething troubles had been ironed out. On his blog Jarre had remarked “Playing London is always special and the Royal Albert Hall a challenge,…”. The venue was indeed a challenge, being by far the largest show on the “Oxygene” tour.

I was initially overjoyed at the news that Jarre was playing the Royal Albert Hall as I hadn’t seen Jarre perform since 1997, but when I learned of the seemingly extortionate ticket prices joy turned to despair. I had enjoyed shows at the Albert Hall recently which cost a quarter of what Jarre was charging and it seemed exceptionally poor value for money, given that Jarre was expected to be on stage for little more then an hour. This feeling began to fall away as I walked around the venue with my brother-in-law prior to the gig. There were French trucks everywhere, suggesting that there was a lot of equipment being transported. These transportation costs alone would justify an increased ticket price! and suddenly it the prices seemed more then reasonable for a one off gig from an artist I have loved all my life.

I was also pleasantly surprised when I stepped into the box to take my seat. The box seated five and, being at the back of the hall, commanded an excellent raised view of the stage and stalls. We had access to a queue-less bar and we were allowed to take bottles into the box and ’stock up’ as it were. “Waiting for Cousteau” drifted gently around the hall as people took their seats. At one point the track ended, sending a premature ripple of applause around the audience, before being restarted once more.

Eventually the lighted dimmed and the audience waited for what seemed like an age before the huge black curtain slowly lifted to reveal the synths bathed in a gentle blue hue. A spotlight was trained on the white egg shape to the left of the stage, it span to reveal Jean Michel Jarre. “Good Evening!” he cried to a enthusiastic crowd, Jarre encouraging further applause with his gestures. Jarre then proceeded with his introduction, dedicating the performance to the late Arthur C. Clarke, before introducing his musicians. During this introduction a huge chain fell from the light gantry above the stage and swung perilously across the stage, closely missing some of the vintage synths. The crew hurriedly tried to sort the problem out, with a tech running on stage to deal with the problem as Claud Samard made his appearance.

With the introductions over the musicians took their places and started their tune up. The sound immediately hit me. Oxygene is an album I’ve listened to regularly throughout my 30 odd years; I know it intimately, I’ve watched the “In Your Living Room” DVD dozens of times and listened to MP3’s of other Oxygene shows, but I wasn’t prepared for the beauty of this sonic assault. It was, quite literally, perfect.

Jarre and his team delivered a pretty perfect rendition of “Oxygene”.  The instruments were on their best behaviour (though Dominique Perrier appeared to have a bit of trouble during an extended tune up) and the overall quality of the playing was timeless. Highlights for me included a note perfect rendition of Oxygene 2, some stunning Theremin (the best I’ve heard Jarre play yet) on Oxygene 3, a blinding rendition of Oxygene 4 and an emotionally draining Oxygene 6 (I’d seen the earth video presented on YouTube but the power of those images coupled with the sensitive ‘come down’ of Oxygene 6 was overwhelming and I’m sure it will be my lasting memory of this event). The lighting was also superb, possibly the most effective use of lighting I’ve ever seen in a live gig.

If I have any criticism it’s aimed at the other effects. The chain dropping down and the subsequent clanging about as the technicians tried to fix the problem was an obvious low, but the various screens didn’t seem to work properly for some of the time (for instance the earth video was dual projected at the start of Oxygene 6) and it put a slight dampener on the overall presentation.

The show closed with an emotional (if a little busy) rendition of Oxygene 13, Jarre took a final bow, the lights came up and we made our way to the merchandise stall to stock up on keyrings, posters and t-shirts.

After we had shelled out our cash (￡15 for a programme?) we left the Albert Hall and ran around the outside to the stage door. The Jarre fan really came out in me as I stood with a lot of other fans waiting patiently for the maestro to come out. This is something I’ve never done before as I’ve always been running to get coaches previously. The atmosphere was happy with lots of cheering for crew members. A guy came out of the stage door with his wife. His wife went on but he held back, shouting loudly that he was going to sell his backstage pass to one of the desperate fans outside. This annoyed me slightly as he immediately struck me as someone wanting to make some fast cash but I was pleasantly surprised when he had a change of heart. This guy was the winner of a ‘Mail on Sunday’ Jarre ticket giveaway. As he made his way along the fans he came across a young boy waiting patiently with his parents. I saw this man’s expression completely change and warmth fill his heart and he gave the boy the ticket for nothing… he even went further by trying to help the boy get into the backstage area and get the ticket signed. No such luck but extremely generous no less.

Jarre finally came out and the fans surged forward, pressing for photos and signings (some had brought albums and limited editions in a bid to make them even rarer). Everyone was literally on top of Jarre and I had seen anything quite like it… I know Jarre does this thing all of the time but from my point of view he looked intimidated by the hysteria and wanted to get onto his coach as quickly as he could. I held back slightly, happy to get a photo, but my brother-in-law joined the surge, managing to get a program and a ticket signed with considerable style.

It was then time to go. It had been a truly great night and a truly great experience. Jarre proved beyond all doubt that he was a master in his field and I hope it’s not another ten years before I get to see him live again.