Electronic Night in Paris (Mega-concert, July 14, 1998)

“La Nuit électronique” (Electronic Night)
Champ-de-mars, Eiffel Tower, Paris, France
Entrance	Free
Date	July 14, 1998
Length	19 songs
Crew	4 keyboardists, a guitar and bass player, a percussionist and a drummer
Audience	600,000
Notes: Jarre plays in front of the Eiffel Tower for UNESCO to celebrate Tolerance

Two days before the Bastille Day in France, the French soccer team with twice scoring Zinédine Zidane wins the World cup it hosts in Paris, Stade de France. Jarre was pretty much involved into the World cup, thus he compose a new version of rendez-vous IV renamed Rendez-vous 98, with dance music group Appolo 440. This music was used as a soundtrack for cable TV. Jarre was one of the first personnalities to be guested into special editions to talk about soccer. Immediately after France wins, on 12th of July, the mayor of Paris asks Jean Michel to think about a giant concert to lengthen the euphoria French people were going through.

Jarre used the artists he brought together on Odyssey through O² to give a party in a much more “techno” aftertouch than in Jarre’s usual concerts. Jarre was only one of the performers during the night. The show was broadcasted by the japanese TV, because of the presence of Tetsuya “TK “Komuro, the keyboardist Jarre had been working with since start 1998. A VHS version of the show was commercialised there too.

Jarre used distorted images of Paris (all the iconic elements of parisian architecture) he displayed on wide screens all around the Champ-de-mars, but the cheers were much bigger when the heroes of the World cup finals appeared. On stage with Jean Michel, DJ Cam and several other artists from the dance area. The worst moment of the concert was when two rappers were introduced to the audience, and at the time they started jamming, got booed. Some people even left the concert before it finished. So did they not enjoy the new version of the Revolution track.

This concert left a real bad taste into most Jarre fans, who felt Jarre was having a short decal on rave parties.

Track-listing

Rendez-Vous 98 (@440 Remix)
Together Now Instrumental
Together Now Parlez-Vous Français Mix
Oxygene 7 DJ Cam remix
Oxygene in the Ghetto (rap version of Oxygène 4)
Eldorado / UNESCO Theme Japan”
Oxygene 8 Hani’s Oxygene 303
Paris Underground
Oxygene 13 TK Remix
Oxygene 10″ (@440 remix dub)
Oxygene 10 Resistance D Treatment
Oxygene 8 Sunday Club
Oxygene 12
Revolutions