Greg Rybczynski

After Plock in 2010, now was time for a concert in another smaller city called Bydgoszcz, located between Warsaw and Gdansk. We arrived at 15.45 to the local airport and proceed direct to Soundcheck. That one went well with no squawks.

The venue filled up with over 4500 spectators and the show was hot. Always the polish audience is hot. As a bonus JM played once again RV-4 after the Fin de Siecle. He received a beautifully flower set and that’s it. Farewell to Poland. Rather quick packing this time in order to get out from Bydgoszcz prior the airport closing. Bad weather in Vienna forced the pilot to divert to nearby Bratislava, so a night van travel from Bratislava to Vienna was necessary, but this is another story…

For myself the tour is over. I scored thousands of photos, mainly portraits of JM. As You know from previous posts a photobook was released and signed by all the crew members portraited there. The book exists in 4 signed copies and it’s a real rarity. Maybe it will be auctioned with some Charity Auction in the future.

Once again THANKS for all artists, management and the crew for the opportunity. Hope to see You next year. Was it already February in …? I say no more!

JM arrived to Warsaw Frederick Chopin Airport shortly past 2 PM, and rushed directly to Empik store to receive the Gold Record for his Essentials & Rarities album. After signing over 200 records for the fans waiting in long line, he went direct to soundcheck at Torwar venue. Last time, Torwar was the place the band has concluded the Oxygen tour on 1 Dec 2008.

Still iPad issues and tuning, otherwise no more surprises. See the pics. The Warsaw audience was to small, we could expect better from that big city. Anyway, the concerts was a success. JM happy afterwards, but You can see that the crew is exhausted after over 5 weeks of touring, adding some flu and cold on top of it. Anyway nobody is complaining and everybody is up to 100%.

Staying in a hotel just side by side with the Presidents Palace (Belweder), we had no choice, but to dive in to the hotel bar and drink the new Belvedere Intense vodka with few of musician before going to bed. Tomorrow is a heavy day. Flight to Bydgoszcz and then to Vienna direct after show.

The band and the crew arrived to Poland for three concerts. Well known Spodek arena in Katowice is the venue JM seems to be happy with. Soundcheck was mostly focused on the new iPad based instrument, or rather software written by few guys in the crew. The iPad was used since 3 concerts now, but some reprogramming is done from show to show and mainly You will hear it in Variations. So now, it’s not only Francis playing with iPad, JM is actually playing on iPad. Also small changes to laser beams in T&T. Also my book with 2011 tour photos was presented for the artists – I hope they enjoyed.

Concert it self was good. Audience hot, some of the well known fan faces from last year were there at the crash barrier. The true fans.

Aftershow limited, but a glass of wine in Monopol Hotel with the band, Chris and Louis, closed that day.

As many concert pictures are now the same, I’m releasing some of the backstage/soundcheck pics.

The band and crew has moved once again to Eastern Europe for series of concerts in Brno and Poland. This concert was held in former Rondo Arena, called now Kajot. Everybody felt the cold during soundcheck. The arena is an ice hockey stadium, not much heat there. Band had to play with jacket, hats and glows on. It was cold. We hopped when the public gets there, they will hit the venue. After all it was still cold but not so bad. As you can see JM put an orange t-shirt beneath his ordinary shirt, which adds new “color” to the pictures. I expected the audience to be hot, but they were only warm, maybe Poland tomorrow change it a bit.

Aftershow, JM met some people from Jarre.cz fun club and another guests. Happy faces. Time to fly to Katowice.

Surprise, surprise. I was not scheduled to visit Dresden, but… Well, I live only 250 km from Dresden, so with the car it took 2:10 to get there. Not bad. Anyway, arriving to the Exhibition area of Dresden, I noticed that the concert will be held in an Exhibition Hall, pretty flat rectangular building. JM was not too happy with the venue. The flat floor, made it difficult for the back rows to see the show. Anyway the venue was fully packed.

The funny thing is that I left the band in Frankfurt few days ago, and everybody says now, there are changes from show to show. The cool thing is that a new harp, called Baby Laser Harp has been introduced. See pictures below. This new instrument controlled by the laser genius Ensar, is a fresh addition to show. Already at sound check You could feel the subtle clings and clangs accompanying few of peaces, mainly Oxygen and Equinoxe. Also a UNESCO adagio has got a facelift with JM playing now at his console instead of the side Korg. And imagine the text on video is in German!.

More has happened. The overall light got brighter, some traditional pieces played in the dark, now are lighted up, thou the pics are better as well.

One more unusual thing. One of the ladies in the audience was so eager to get the her ticket signed by JM, that she almost entered the stage. JM has eventually signed the piece of paper. Lucky her. I was able to capture that moment too.

I’m already scarred, which changes will arrive with JM to Brno. I’ll keep You informed.

Frankfurt concert opened the German part of 2011 Tour. The beautiful Festhalle has accommodated lot of audience. It’s few days since I left the band in Turku, remember? Anyway they are doing good, despite moments of sadness due one of the members family loss. As Francis has written in his blog – “the show must go on”. It’s a pleasure to see that the sound checks are shorter and shorter. Band is tuned in and all pieces are in place. The band has welcomed Kristof a french-german musician to test play drums during the sound check. He did (almost!) well. Lot of head scratching, but he finally got the tunes.Hi Kris.

Also thanks to Harm – the light guy from Belgium – he altered the light from red to white during the second Laser Harp piece. Now the pictures are more clear, less devilish. See samples below.

October Fest is over and Frankfurt audience was tired. Once again instead of shooting pictures, I had to run in front of the stage to get the people up on the feet. Folks You have to remember: Rendezvous IV starts – You stand up, otherwise I have to ask JM for salary for doing the bellwethers job! Remember: RV4 – Stand, Go forward Dance.

Next time I join the teem is in Brno. My photo project is almost done – I will present it during Poland’s part of the Tour. Stay tuned.