Golden Sunsets - 50 Years Of Memories - Part 22 - 1988

A real case of "you had to be there"...

1988:

The trivia:

• As a protest against null voting, Brazilian magazine "Casseta Popular" submitted a chimpanzee named Tiao from the Rio de Janeiro zoo as a candidate in the upcoming election. Tiao was well known locally for his bad temper and habit of throwing mud and feces on visitors. In the election he incredibly received over 400,000 votes and came third. but of course his ballots were considered null. When Tiao died in 1996 at the age of 34, the city declared three days of official mourning. Shades of Mayor Dave the Orangutan in 2000 AD ?
• At the opening ceremony of the Seoul Summer Olympics, a large group of white doves were released to symbolise peace. Later the Olympic torch was carried into the stadium, and by now many of the doves had settled on the cauldron of the official flame. Despite this, the lighting of the flame proceeded as normal and worldwide TV audiences watched in horror at scenes of the doves being cooked alive on the world's biggest barbecue.
• Former NASA engineer Edgar C. Whisenant wrote a book predicting that the Rapture (when the Christian dead would be resurrected and join the living in heaven for eternity) would occur in September 1988. The book sold more than 4.5 million copies and some evangelical groups began to prepare their members for the coming event. When it failed to occur, at the appointed time, Whisenant followed up with other books - with predictions for 1989, 1993 and 1994. These failed to sell quite so well...
• In 1988 a huge controversy swirled around Hollywood regarding the attempts to colourise black and white films. Speaking to Congress about this activity, "Star Wars" supremo George Lucas passionately stated that "People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians...In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be “replaced” by new altered negatives...Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten". I guess your movies don't count then, George?

The memory:

Destination Docklands

Electronic musical genius Jean-Michel Jarre had become a big part of my life by 1988. Thanks to my brother's friend Alan I'd been introduced to his music around the time that "Magnetic Fields" was released and I'd never looked back, buying each album as it was released and playing them over and over again. Jarre had also become known for his large elaborate concerts - which featured lasers, fireworks and images being projected on the sides of tall buildings. When it was announced that, at the peak of his popularity, he would be bringing his show to the UK in support of the release of new album "Revolutions", I was obviously extremely keen to attend. Named "Destination Docklands", it would be using the partially derelict  Royal Victoria Dock in London as its backdrop, as Jarre felt the industrial, desolate environment with its cranes, warehouses and grain silos was suited for his music. Who wouldn't want to be part of that once-in-a-lifetime experience? There was just one teensy problem - I was going to be on holiday for two weeks in September and wouldn't you know it, that was exactly when the concert was due to take place on 24th September.

Oh well, I guess I was destined not to see the great man live. I wasn't about to cancel a long-planned and very expensive trip overseas. That was that. Or was it....?

Earlier in the year Jarre and his team had met with officials from Newham Borough Council to discuss the project. This was to be a huge event. Hundreds of thousands of people. Massive lighting rigs, Pyrotechnics. Lasers. A floating stage. Repainting the facade of the Spillers Millennium Mills building for the projections. The logistics were staggering. Expressing strong concerns about the size of the thing and the associated safety fears (not to mention getting that many people in and out of the area), the council did the usual bureaucratic thing and took an absolute age to make a decision, finally rejecting the application outright on 12th September - just a few days before I was due to fly out to the USA.

Such was the disappointment that the decision made the UK news headlines - after all it had been planned as the biggest show of it's kind the country had ever seen. I felt slightly better about things though, I couldn't miss out on something that wasn't going to happen anyway could I? So I relaxed and proceeded to go off and enjoy my holiday. Goodbye London, hello Epcot.

Meanwhile though, Jarre was persevering with his planning application and spent a two hectic weeks looking for alternative locations, while still working on the Docklands site in the hope that he could satisfy the councillors issues. This was all still big news, even thousands of miles away in Florida (Jarre had experienced somewhat similar difficulties with his "Rendez-vous Houston" concert a few years previous). Semi-regular phone calls back to my parents in the UK and the media coverage meant I was aware of all the twists and turns, and this glimmer of a resurrection meant that my excitement levels began to rise. Maybe, just maybe, fate might have turned in my favour...

Eventually Jarre's tenacity paid off, and after making some logistical changes - and most significantly splitting the concert across two nights (thus reducing the attendance numbers for each one) - he won conditional approval on 28th September for two shows to take place on the 8th and 9th of October. I can't recall if those with unused tickets from the aborted 24th September performance could still use them for the new date or if they were refunded and had to apply again - the vital thing was that *new* tickets were going on sale and everyone could apply. But hang on, I wasn't back in the country until 1st October - they would have sold out by the time I got home! No internet back then either of course, so no way of buying things online. You had to call a sales office in person. Frantically I used the expensive hotel phone to contact my friend Neil and arranged with him that he would make the all-important call and do his utmost to get tickets for all of us. Eventually after several anxious hours, word reached my brother and I in Florida. Success ! We were going to the Sunday performance!

Building work contained in Docklands at a frenzied rate in order to be ready in time for early October. The 30m by 40m floating "battleship" stage on which Jarre and his musicians were to perform was constructed on top of huge steel barges towed down from the north of England. Large purpose-built display screens were erected along, with World War II searchlights positioned on rooftops. The buildings were painted white. A giant mirror ball mean for the event fell into the road during transportation and for a while was confused for a fallen satellite. Anticipation was building. This was epic stuff. Meanwhile with a just a few days to go my friends and I planned how we would get to the venue.

Eventually the weekend of the concerts came, and with it one final set of problems for the Frenchman - the unpredictable British weather. A howling force seven gale hampered final preparations. That giant stage (and the 400 tonnes of material on board) was meant to float back and forth along the dock, but the increasingly inclement weather meant that concerns that it might break free from its moorings put paid to that idea. The Saturday was the wettest day of the year and rain lashed the temporary grandstands and dock area. Nothing could dampen anyone's enthusiasm however and the first show went ahead as planned. Then it was our turn.

We made our way to London (and again my memory fails me as I can't remember if that was by car or train. Not important I guess). In any case as we walked closer to the venue there was a veritable buzz in the air. Hordes of people were arriving from every direction. Not everyone had tickets - some had come just to see the light show and fireworks from a distance. The streets and parks were full. The sky alight with searchlights. Closer still the stewards herded us like willing sheep into the muddy area before the stage and up to the seating - the vast cranes towering over us as we waited patiently. The sun began to set - and then the rain began to pour down.

Finally when the darkness was complete and everyone was in place,  the searchlights dropped. A solitary green hued laser light pierced out of the darkness with a "woosh"  and the windows of the building in front of us turned red as the crowds cheered wildly. As the opening bars of "Industrial Revolution - Overture" boomed out, Jean-Michel Jarre appeared in the spotlight slowly walked down some steps - dressed in a smart aquamarine long jacket - with a roadie holding a large umbrella to shield him from the worst of the weather. As the music soared so did the first of the fireworks into the night sky. When the first piece finished Jarre punched his fist in the air in celebration. Despite the awful weather, he was determined to enjoy himself.

Well that's what you can see him do on the video recording of the whole event. To be honest the rain by this point was very heavy, and I was far enough back from the stage (which was also slightly to the right) that all I could see was a coloured blob in the distance. Then one of my friends handed me a pair of binoculars that he had cleverly thought to bring along and everything came into focus - until I had to hand them to the next person anyway. I pitied some of the others at the furthest reaches of the grandstand. They must have wondered exactly where the Frenchman was twiddling his knobs and playing his laser harp.

Not that it mattered really. Jarre's shows have always been about the experience as a whole and in this respect he didn't disappoint. If anything the wind and rain added to the drama and he carried on regardless of the buffeting gusts (at one point in between tracks he even jokes that "Frogs like rain"...). Synchronous with the music that I knew so well  were more fireworks and lights and images than I had ever experienced before. Spectacular doesn't even begin to cover it. In fact, take a look for yourself at this excerpt from the official release which really shows the extent of the weather and the scale of the concert:

The piece being played is one of my favourites, "Fourth Rendez-Vous". That grinning guitarist at the end with Jarre? That's the legendary Hank Marvin from "The Shadows", one of the most influential musicians of the 60s and 70s. He appears on the track "London Kid" on the "Revolutions" album but was present throughout other parts of the night. There was also a choir from Mali on stage for "September" - a tribute to South African political activist Dulcie September who had been assassinated early in the year. There were tracks from all of Jarre's albums, each accompanied by amazing visuals and enthusiasm from the 100,000 attendees.

Eventually the show came to a conclusion with another massive burst of fireworks and my friends and and I made our long way home - cold and very wet, but extremely happy. Despite all the odds and the setbacks, Jarre had pulled off something truly special and thanks to good luck, we had memories that have lasted a lifetime.

Honourable mentions:

• Who Framed Roger Rabbit - I'm not including this film on the list because it's a live action / animation mash up classic with wonderful characters, a fantastic plot and more cartoon guest stars than you can shake a stick at (plus of course Jessica Rabbit, the first animated lady to make men of any age feel a little bit funny...).Those things are all a given and any one of them make it deserving of being in any countdown of genuinely amazing movies. No it's here because of *where* I saw it....

• In the heady days of the late 1980s there was still a significant gap between cinema releases in the US and the UK. - in this case it was going to be nearly six months before we Brits would get to see this hotly anticipated, highly unusual production. I'd read all about it in "Empire" magazine already and was pretty excited. Then as I mentioned earlier, I went to Florida for two weeks holiday with my brother in mid-September - ostensibly to do the whole Disney thing - but we also took in Kennedy Space Centre, Rosie O' Grady's Good Time Emporium, Wet 'n' Wild, Busch Gardens, Sea World, etc,etc. On a rare day of downtime in the packed schedule, we found ourselves in the local giant shopping mall and adjoining multiplex cinema (something the UK was only just starting to get). To our surprise "Roger Rabbit" was still playing and a showing was about to start. We couldn't believe it and quickly bought tickets. As great as the film was, I think we were more excited that we were seeing it way before any of our friends!

• Killer Klowns from Outer Space  - Remember how last week I mentioned that horror films are not really my favourite genre? Well here's one of the exceptions to the rule, and it's more of a low budget slightly scary science fiction comedy than anything else. Plus, everybody hates clowns, right? The basic plot might be simple - mysterious clown-like aliens descend to Earth and attempt to kill all the inhabitants of a sleepy American town - but it's the imaginative and touch-in-cheek nature of how they do it (and how the townsfolk defend themselves) that makes this a thoroughly enjoyable 82 minutes. Where else could you see toy guns that fire deadly popcorn, a balloon animal dog that comes to life, a human puppet show and aliens that use a crazy straw to drink the liquefied remains of their victims (I knew Doctor Who had ripped off that little old lady in "Smith & Jones" from somewhere...) One of those movies that the word "cult" was invented for.

• Batman: The Killing Joke - Some say that this is the definitive Batman / Joker story. There is no doubt that it's a brilliant read and is beautifully drawn, plus it's influence on DC continuity in subsequent decades has been immense, especially in relation to Barbara Gordon as Batgirl / Oracle. But I'm just not so sure it's the solid gold classic everyone make it out to be. Even Moore and Bolland don't rate it as their best work (and Moore of course has "dis-owned" everything he ever did for DC).

• Doctorin' The TARDIS - I'm a "Doctor Who" fan, of *course* I bought the 12" version of this. It got to number one! It's a novelty song naturally, that mixes the TV shows theme music with dodgy 70s rocker Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll (Part Two) plus samples of Sweet's "Blockbuster" and catchphrases by comedian Harry Enfield's boorish plasterer Loadsamoney - put together by the gents behind "The Justified Agents of Mu-Mu" and "The KLF", The music press naturally hated it, but the public took it to there hearts and it sold millions of copies around the world. Why the Ford Galaxie car "frontman"? No idea, but it's a harmless bit of fun for two a half minutes. Judge for yourself...

• Tad Williams - The Dragonbone Chair - The first in the epic fantasy trilogy "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" which deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as a certain series by George R.R. Martin. It may have less sex and violence and more traditional fantasy elements but it's the depth of William's characters (and the sheer number of them), the time he takes to build his world and the fact that he subverts many of the tropes of the genre while embracing others in new ways that make the whole sequence so memorable. That and the books are really, really long. I still don't know if I've read anything better. Tad's other books aren't too shabby either.

• Black Kiss - Probably one of the the most controversial comics of the late 80s, primarily because of the explicit sexual content. Howard Chaykin's hard-boiled thriller is decent enough, but it's the nature of some of the scenes which forced publishers Vortex to seal each issue in a plastic bag so that under-age children couldn't peek inside - that was a big thing in the comic shops. Nowadays I'm not sure anyone would even bat an eyelid.

• Young Einstein - Didn't you know that Albert Einstein was really a Tasmanian who discovered the theory of relativity while trying to add bubbles to beer and invented rock and roll, the electric guitar and surfing? Well 'Yahoo' Serious did and he made a movie about it. It's a slapstick comic fantasy and very, very silly - but at the time I really loved it for some strange reason. Serious is like a proto-Jim Carrey, all rubber facial expressions and odd movements, but there is a kind of innocent charm running through all the nonsense.  It's years since I've watched it though, so goodness knows what I would make of it now.

• Mr Jolly Lives Next Door - If "Destination Docklands" hadn't been such a big thing in 1988, then this would have been in the premier spot. There are many superb episodes of "The Comic Strip Presents...", but only one which has such personal importance that I can quote large swathes of it to this day. There is a seven year gap between my sister and I, and this is the film which really brought us together as she hit her teenage years. 

• Rik and Ade run the "Dreamytime Escorts" agency (tagline 'Escorts Bestcorts. Come in if you're saucy!'). This basically involves them swindling foreign tourists into take them on a binge drinking tour at their expense or stealing booze from Heimi Henderson's off-licence situated below their office. Next door lives Mr Jolly, a psychopathic contract killer, played by the manic Peter Cook. Intercepting an envelope meant for Jolly containing a wad of cash and a request to "take out" TV presenter Nicholas Parsons, the pair embark on a booze-filled trip to meet him at the Dorchester hotel, spending the cash for the hit on 1,574 gin and tonics. Much violence, death and destruction ensues, which also involves the music of Tom Jones, some exploding tonic water and the competition winning catchphrase "Never ever bloody anything ever".

• I've just had my 50th birthday as I write this and the card my sister sent me is one of those you can design yourself online by adding your own pictures. At the top on the front are images of Nicholas Parsons, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmonson in "Mr Jolly". Our love for this one-off comedy is that deep and has lasted that long. I'm sure I'll be ninety and still be laughing at this classic.