Destination Docklands was an event consisting of two

concerts A concert, often known informally as a gig or show, is a live performance of music in front of an audience. The performance may be carried by a single musician, in which case it is sometimes called a recital, or by a musical ensemble such as an ...

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 music, electronic, Ambient music, ambient and New-age music, new-age genres, and is known for organising out ...

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 London Docklands, Docklands. History Although, the structure was in place in the year 1850, it was opened in 1855, on a pre ...

s, Docklands,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

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

Revolutions In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elemen ...

''. The concerts were attended by 100,000 people on each night. Accompanied by fireworks and a

light show Light show may refer to: * Light art, a visual art form in which light is the primary medium * Drone display * Laser lighting display * Liquid light show, light projected through colored oil * Projection mapping, projecting a light display onto a b ...

, the concert also featured

The Shadows The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters between 1958 and 1959) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the pre-Beatles era from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. They served as the bac ...

guitarist

Hank Marvin Hank Brian Marvin (born Brian Robson Rankin, 28 October 1941) is an English multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and songwriter. He is known as the lead guitarist for the Shadows. Early life and career Marvin was born as Brian Robson Rankin at ...

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, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

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 denoted as its centre. It saw a flourishing in ...

(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 Explosive, low explosive Pyrotechnics, 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 numbe ...

, World War II

searchlights A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular dire ...

, 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. 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 Newham London Borough Council also known as Newham Council, is the local authority for the London Borough of Newham in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under Labour majority co ...

and

London Fire Brigade The London Fire Brigade (LFB) is the Fire department, fire and rescue service for London, the capital of the United Kingdom. It was formed by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act 1865 (28 & 29 Vict. c. 90), under the leadership of superintendent ...

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 channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

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 an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. Of the 6 tracks not included on the live album, only recordings of the radio broadcast exist, also on YouTube. 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 Michel Geiss is a French sound engineer, instrument designer and musician who was a long-time collaborator of Jean Michel Jarre. He has also collaborated with other famous French artists such as Marc Lavoine, Patrick Bruel or Laurent Voulzy. In ...

: Synthesizers *

Dominique Perrier Dominique Perrier (16 February 1948 – 4 October 2023) was a French electronic musician, composer, and film director. He often accompanied Jean-Michel Jarre onstage and was a prominent figure in the groups Space Art and Stone Age. Biography Bor ...

: 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 fug ...

: 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 October 1988 in the United Kingdom