JANE BIRKIN in the NATIONAL CONCERT HALL
Whelanslive.com presents
JANE BIRKIN
Sings Serge Gainsbourg (via Japan) + GuestsTHIS CONCERT IS TAKING PLACE IN THE NATIONAL CONCERT HALL
Tickets €40 including booking fee will be available to buy online from 9am on Friday 9th Nov from www.nch.ie or call the NCH Box Office [00353 1 417 0000] or call in to the NCH Box Office on Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2 (Mon – Sat 10am to 6pm). TICKETS GO ON SALE AT 9AM ON FRIDAY 9th NOVEMBER
The legendary Jane Birkin, singer, actress, provocateur & humanitarian, makes a very special Dublin appearance to sing the songs of her late partner Serge Gainsbourg. Jane was Serge’s muse and this special concert is a reinterpretation of his repertoire performed by Jane with a group of Japanese musicians with whom she first performed in Japan as a repsonse to those terrible events of 2011. Jane was overwhelmed by the disater unfolding in Japan and returning to her most seminal and famous body of work to be performed with local Japanese musicians was her way of showing solidarity with the people of Japan in the midst of a most devastating national-traegdy. Born in London in 1946 Jane Birkin first came to international attention after a brief performance in Michelangelo Antonioni’s acclaimed film ‘Blow Up’ and in 1968, despite not speaking any French, she won the female role along side Serge Gainsbourg in Slogan with whom she performed the title song. This was the beginning of one of the great mythical love stories that captured the imagination of a generation and far beyond. They became inseparable and a living legend when they recorded Je T’aime Moi Non Plus. Censorship went wild, the Vatican banned it, the B.B.C refused to play the original, and did their own orchestral version and thanks to all of this the record sold a million copies in a matter of months! Off they went to Yugoslavia to play in Abraham Polonski’s Romance Of A Horse Thief with Yul Brynner and Eli Wallach… nine months later their daughter Charlotte was born, in 1971. IIn that same year Birkin also appeared on Gainsbourg’s 1971 masterpiece Histoire Du Melody Nelson portraying the iconic & Lolita-like protagonist in song and on cover Di Doo Dah, her first solo album, was released in 1973. This same year she proved herself as a film actress in J.Rouffio’s Sept Morts Sur Ordonnance with actors Depardieu and Piccoli. She also took part in the phenomenal box office and “grand public” success of “La Moutarde Me Monte Au Nez” and “La Course Á L’échalotte“, two of Claude Zidi’s popular comic movies with Pierre Richard. In 1975 Serge and Jane were back with “Je t’aime moi non plus”, the film (an exploration of a homosexual theme heightened by the ambiguity of Jane, the androgynous muse.) Puritan France was outraged & the critics panned the film, but Francois Truffaut raved about it in “la masque et la plume” and since it’s debut it has become a film legend, from France to Tokyo! “Lolita go home” came out in 1975. Jane sang Philippe Labro’s lyrics set to Gainsbourg’s music. In 1978, «Ex-Fan Des Sixties» was released. By 1983 Birkin had left Gainsbourg leaving both parties heartbroken and in 1990, just a year before he passed away, Serge dedicated his new album, Amours Des Feintes, which was also to be his last, to Birkin. Gainsbourg passed away on 2 March 1991. A few days later, David Birkin also died. Jane was crushed, both her heroes gone in three days, when she appeared on stage at the Casino de Paris, the atmosphere was grave the emotion palpable, the whole of France was mourning their dead hero Gainsbourg, their loss was great, and Jane gave a little of him back in this communion, but after a non stop world tour, finishing at “La Rochelle”, she put her microphone on the ground and walked away from the lights… She returned to the intimacy of writing and devoted herself to what was dear to her: her family and her humanitarian work. She sang in particular on behalf of Amnesty International, made a short film for the battle against AIDS, and another for Amnesty International, then she made her own film “Oh pardon tu dormais” directed and written by herself, then threw herself into humanitarian causes, and went in a tank over the mount Igman, for “Paris Saryevo” taking supplies and literature into the besieged town Sarajevo. “Rendez-Vous”, her album of duets with Françoise Hardy, Bryan Ferry, Etienne Daho, Brian Molko, Miossec and Beth Gibbons, was released in 2004. It was followed by Fictions in 2008 where she collaborated with authors such as Neil Hannon, Beth Gibbons & Rufus Wainwright. After her return to the theatre as Electra by “Sophocles” from November 2006 to march 2007 (at Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre and in 15 other French cities), she has presented her second movie as a director and actor: “Boxes” with Michel Piccoli, Geraldine Chaplin, Maurice Bénichou, Tcheky Karyo, Natacha Régnier et Lou Doillon… at the Cannes Film Festival 2007 in the Official Selection (out of contest.) After finishing Jacques Rivette’s last film “36 Vues Du Pic Saint Loup” with Sergio Castellito, Jane released in November 2008 her album “Enfants d’Hiver”, featuring for the first time ever exclusively Birkin lyrics. In parallel, she continues her charities actions for paperless immigrants, the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and for the victims of the earthquakes in Haiti and recently in Japan. She also appears on stage next to the author, director and actor Wajdi Mouawad in “La Sentinelle”, a play written for her.TICKETS
On Sale Fri 9th Nov, 9am: €40 including booking fee will be available to buy online from 9am on Friday 9th Nov from www.nch.ie
or call the NCH Box Office [00353 1 417 0000] or call in to the NCH Box Office on Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2 (Mon – Sat 10am to 6pm).