Jacques de Selliers
Jarre's Rendez-vous Lyon

Photos of Jean-Michel Jarre's concerts:
Liège 2010 • Rendez-vous Houston 1986 • Rendez-vous Lyon 1986
Destination Docklands 1989 • Paris La Défense 1990 • Brussels Heysel 1993
All photos • About my photos • Copyright info
 

After Rendez-vous Houston, Jean-Michel Jarre invited George O Jackson and I to shoot his following mega-concerts. The first one was six month later: "Rendez-vous Lyon" in France on October 5, 1986, at the occasion of the visit of Pope Jean-Paul II.
It gathered over 800,000 spectators. More below...

Many of my best photos of Jarre's Rendez-vous Lyon concert were lost or damaged over the years, but here are a few that I managed to retrieve and digitize:

Click on a photo to enlarge it.

I shot the Rendez-vous Lyon concert with my photographer friend George O Jackson. We flew together from Houston (were both of us were then living) a few days ahead of the concert We got our badges and spent the three days before the concert on the stage, shooting photos of the rehearsals.

We also prepared for the concert day: I managed to find an excellent place on the roof of a house opposite the Saone River, facing the stage, for which I negotiated the best spot with the owners.

The day of the concert was hectic. The whole city was blocked by the visit of Pope Jean-Paul II, with maximum security linked to a Nostradamus prediction along which the Pope should be killed there. The Pope's visit ended safely late in the afternoon with a good-night blessing from the Fourvières Basilica, which was broadcasted by Jarre's sound system and appears in the album Cities In Concert — Houston/Lyon.

At dusk, I went with my camera equipment to my shooting post on top of the house. But unfortunately it was already packed with peope and there was no room left for my tripods. So I eventually found a good nearby spot along the river, just in front of the VIP area - which was just as great! And at night, when the concert started, I was ready to fire my two cameras mounted on tripods.

Although this concert did not make it in the Guinness book of records, it certainly was fabulous. Lyon is Jean-Michel Jarre's hometown, and he managed to superbly use the city as a scenery for his concert: his stage was in front of the old Palais de Justice, alond the Saone Rive, key buildings were illuminated all over the city, and giant spotlights and fireworks were firing all over the Fourvières hill. The view from the river was just gorgeous!

Several of our photos of Rendez-vous Lyon were used by press agency SIPA Press and others to illustrate some of Jean-Michel Jarre's books. Also, two of my photos made the Lyon's cover of his Houston-Lyon album. So I was invited to shoot Jarre's next concert, "Destination Docklands", in October 1988.

During the "Rendez-vous Lyon" concert, Jean-Michel Jarre played the following tracks:

• "Ethnicolor"
• "Magnetic Fields 1"
• "Wooloomooloo"
• "Equinoxe 7"
• "Souvenir of China"
• "Equinoxe 5"
• "Rendez-Vous 3"
• "Rendez-Vous 2"
• "Rendez-Vous 6"
• "Rendez-Vous 4"
• "Rendez-Vous 4" (encore)

I shot my photos of the Rendez-vous Lyon concert using two Nikon EL cameras
with several lenses including Nikkor 16mm fisheye f2.8, Nikkor 20mm f4,
Nikkor 50mm f1.8, Nikkor 80-200 f4 and Tamron 500mm reflex.
As film, I mainly used Fujicolor Provia (100 ASA, sometimes pushed to 200 ASA),
as well as Ektachrome 160 ASA Tungsten (balanced for artificial light).

I welcome using or reproducing my photos under some conditions.