Glasgow concert review from
The Scotsman:
For a man who has played in front of some of the biggest audiences on the planet, this opening gig of the Oxygene tour must have felt like an intimate jam session.
However, Jean Michel Jarre's choice of the Concert Hall to revisit his mega-selling 1977 electronica opus was a judicious one. Having transported no fewer than 50 of his beloved vintage analogue synthesisers overseas, it made sense to pick the very best acoustic environment in which to enjoy their wonderfully warm sound.
Inevitably, this show was a little shorter on spectacle than his epic synthfests in outdoor locations (was I the only person in the audience to be disappointed at the absence of a laser light show?), but this was still an astutely conceived presentation from the moment Jarre emerged from a retro-futuristic swivelling egg chair to introduce the album.
From time to time, a large angled mirror would descend over the musicians at their stations, the better for the audience in the stalls to view Jarre's laboratory of Moog synthesisers, circuit boards, modulators and a theremin, bathed in fluorescent light. Together, these bewitching relics made a surprisingly soulful sound.
Overall, Oxygene is a pacific suite of music, but there was applause as the fans anticipated each outbreak of the album's famous melodic refrain. Jarre has fleshed out his original work over the years and these musical appendices were far less rich in tone and substance, producing an anticlimactic ending to an otherwise fascinating evening.
Jarregirl YouTube
Concerts attended:
Théâtre Marigny, Paris - 2007
Symphony Hall, Birmingham - 2008
RAH, London - 2008
Wembley Arena, London - 2009
NIA, Birmingham - 2009
POP Bercy, Paris - 2010
NIA, Birmingham - 2010
O2 Arena, London - 2010
Zénith Aréna, Lille - 2010
Port Hercule, Monaco - 2011
TUI Arena, Hannover - 2011
Festival International de Carthage - 2013
Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham - 2016