Greece 2001 - Pt 1

3 shows were performed.

The 18th June was for invited guests, mostly children and people concerned with the charities that will benefit from the event.

The idea was to do a 'full dress rehearsal' and the atmosphere was quite light and very enjoyable. Some technical difficulties were sorted out - and maybe some new ones discovered.
Patrick played on about 7 songs. His Vivaldi and Rendezvous 4 were incredible - for me -this was the best show of the three.

Patrick was playing his new blue signature model guitar from Ibanez - with an inlay of 2 little frogs at the 12th fret (more information will soon be found in the Gear section of this site) A second red guitar with a slightly different spec on the stand in case of problems.
He used his usual UltraPlus amp, 1 Peavey 4x12 cab and 1 5150 cab. The Peavey PFC10 controlled his sound and the Tubefex was also in his rack.

The second show 19th June was more formal and security was as tight as it possibly could be (or so we thought!)

The female singer finally decided not to appear, so her song was cut from the playlist.

The design of the Theatre is perfect - wherever you sit you have a full and uninhibited view of the stage. The acoustics are very tight and the guitar sound of Patrick was strong and very clean.

A rare thing in Greece - so we were told, but we experienced a thunderstorm with torrential rain on the afternoon of the 20th, the day of the broadcast show. The covers came out and remained so until the last minute. The weather actually cleared well before the show and the temperature was much more bearable for those of used to more Northern climes.

Changes had to be made to the playlist to fit the broadcast time and Ethnicolor was cut. Security was tightened even more - photos were forbidden with or without flash, even the Press had only a very short time to collect their material.

The show began exactly to time and some of the 'Suited and Booted' were still finding seats when the bulk of the lighting dimmed. The main body of 'fans' were once again in the upper tiers, and this was the place to be for maximum expression of enjoyment.

The images and lighting were very atmospheric and cleverly designed to fit both the music and surroundings. Jean-Michel is without doubt a Master at the design of these shows.