Destination Docklands was an event consisting of two

concerts A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide vari ...

by musician

Jean-Michel Jarre Jean-Michel André Jarre (; born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and new-age genres, and is known for organising outdoor spectacles featuring his music, accompani ...

on the

Royal Victoria Dock The Royal Victoria Dock is the largest of three docks in the Royal Docks of east London, now part of the redeveloped Docklands. History Although, the structure was in place in the year 1850, it was opened in 1855, on a previously uninhabit ...

s, Docklands,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9 October 1988, to coincide with the release of Jarre's new album ''

Revolutions In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

''. The concerts were attended by 100,000 people on each night. Accompanied by fireworks and a light show, the concert also featured

The Shadows The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the pre- Beatles era. They served as the backing band for Cliff Richard ...

guitarist

Hank Marvin Hank Brian Marvin (born Brian Robson Rankin, 28 October 1941) is an English multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter. He is widely known as the lead guitarist for The Shadows, a group which primarily performed instrumentals and was the ba ...

who joined Jarre on the tracks "London Kid" and "Fourth Rendez-Vous". The show was intended to show a history of the area, with tracks dedicated to the

industrial revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

swinging sixties The Swinging Sixties was a youth-driven cultural revolution that took place in the United Kingdom during the mid-to-late 1960s, emphasising modernity and fun-loving hedonism, with Swinging London as its centre. It saw a flourishing in art, mu ...

(with Hank Marvin), and future regeneration of the area. The concert's scale was larger than any seen in the UK before or since, and used vast numbers of

fireworks Fireworks are a class of low explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large number of devices ...

, World War II searchlights, and used entire buildings as giant projection screens throughout the show. The majority of the audience watched from disused land on what is now the site of the

ExCeL Exhibition Centre ExCeL London (an abbreviation for Exhibition Centre London) is an exhibition centre, international convention centre and former hospital in the Custom House area of Newham, East London. It is situated on a site on the northern quay of the ...

. Originally planned as a one-off event, it was scheduled for 24 September 1988, but Jarre and his crew had to battle constantly with Newham Council and

London Fire Brigade The London Fire Brigade (LFB) is the fire and rescue service for London, the capital of the United Kingdom. It was formed by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act 1865, under the leadership of superintendent Eyre Massey Shaw. It has 5,992staff, inc ...

over logistical and safety concerns. Although the organisers publicly sought other venues in the meantime, a compromise was reached in which the event was split into two concerts to spread the crowds over two nights. These concerts went ahead on 8 and 9 October 1988. Weather throughout the buildup to the event was extremely rainy, and while the first concert narrowly avoided the downpours, much of the second took place in heavy rain – prompting Jarre to quip in his address thanking the crowd for coming, "Frogs like rain!" The floating stage was specially built, and made up of several barges brought in from the north of England and welded together to create what Jarre termed his "battleship". Jarre's original intention was for the stage to traverse the Royal Victoria Docks, but this was not possible due to the poor weather and health and safety concerns. The show attracted an estimated live audience of 200,000, not including those in parks surrounding the venue listening to the concert on a simultaneous broadcast on Radio 1. The concert programme featured drawings of the redevelopment works due to take place in the years after the concerts, as did some of the projections on the building facades. The Saturday performance was broadcast on Radio 1. The Sunday show, during which it rained heavily, was recorded for later broadcast and release. In 1989 a 54 minute live CD and Cassette were released as Jarre Live, later repackaged as Destination Docklands. This included 11 of the 17 tracks performed at the concert, albeit it with edits to some pieces. A 50 minute TV edit was produced for broadcast and was shown in the UK on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

at 10.40pm on Christmas Day 1988. This edit was released on VHS video in 1989. It has yet to be released on DVD. This version is broadly the same as the live album release, however with 'Computer Weekend' omitted. No TV footage exists of the 7 tracks not included on the VHS release, however audience camcorder footage is available on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. Of the 6 tracks not included on the live album, only recordings of the radio broadcast exist, also on

. However, the quality of the broadcast is affected by a large amount of echo and distortion.

Track listing for concert

Part 1: Industrial Revolution *Industrial Revolution: Overture (Available on VHS/CD) *Industrial Revolution: Parts 1-3 (VHS/CD) *Équinoxe 5 (Not released) *Ethnicolor (Not released) Part 2: Swinging Sixties *Computer Weekend (CD) *Les Chants Magnétiques II / Magnetic Fields II (VHS/CD) *Oxygène 4*(VHS/CD) *Équinoxe 7 (Not released) *London Kid (with

) (VHS/CD) Part 3: The Nineties *Third Rendez-Vous / Laser Harp (Not released) *Tokyo Kid (Not released) *Revolutions* (VHS/CD) *Souvenir de Chine / Souvenir of China (Not released) *Second Rendez-Vous* (VHS/CD) *Fourth Rendez-Vous* (with

) (VHS/CD) Part 4: The Finale *September (VHS/CD) *The Emigrant (VHS/CD)

Musicians

: Synthesizers * Michel Geiss: Synthesizers *

Dominique Perrier Space Art is a French electronic music duo consisting of Dominique Perrier on keyboards and late French drummer Roger "Bunny" Rizzitelli. The band had its main commercial success between 1977 and 1981. History Formation In 1974, Dominique Perrie ...

: Synthesizers *

Francis Rimbert Francis Rimbert (born 3 October 1952 in Val d'Oise, France) is a French musician and composer. Biography Francis Rimbert started playing classical piano when he was 5 years old. At the conservatory, he studied harmony, counterpoint, the fu ...

: Synthesizers *Guy Delacroix: Bass *Jo Hammer: Drums *Dino Lumbroso: Percussions *Sylvain Durand: Synthesizers *Christine Durand: Soprano *

: Guitar on London Kid and Fourth Rendez-Vous *Mireille Pombo: Vocals on September *Sori Bamba: Conductor of Mali Choir on September *Kudsi Erguner: Turkish Flute on Revolutions * Bruno Rossignol: Choir Conductor *Xavier Bellenger: Ethnical Music Advisor *Setsuko Yamada: Solo Dance Performance

References

{{Jean Michel Jarre Concerts in the United Kingdom