Destination Docklands
In an unusual twist, in 1988, the then-dilapidated site was chosen by French electronic musician Jean Michel Jarre as the site for one of his signature large-scale concerts, eventually titled Destination Docklands. The area also inspired him to write the album Revolutions specifically for the event.
The show was intended to show a history of the area, with tracks dedicated to the industrial revolution, swinging sixties (achieved via a guest appearance by 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, 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.
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 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 in order to spread the crowds over two nights. These concerts went ahead on 8 and 9 October 1988. Weather throughout the build up to the event was extremely rainy, and while the first concert narrowly avoided the downpours, much of the second took place in heavy rain.
The floating stage was specially-built, and made up of several barges shipped in from the north of England and welded together to create what Jarre termed his "battleship". 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 BBC 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.
A VHS video of the event was released, directed by Mike Mansfield. This has yet to be released on DVD.
Read more about this topic: Royal Victoria Dock
Famous quotes containing the word destination:
“They wear their godhead lightly.
They look out from their hill and say,
To themselves, “We have nowhere to go but down;
The great destination is to stay.””
—William Dewitt Snodgrass (b. 1926)