Eureka" (Rotterdam, June 18 1991)

This concert was organized by the Dutch ministry of Economic affairs to promote and celebrate the "Eureka Project"; an initiative to stimulate international scientific cooperation between European companies. Vangelis was asked to provide the highlight of the event.

The concert took place at the docks in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. A floating stage was constructed. Vangelis was seated in the middle, surrounded by his synths and some classically Greek styled props. He was backed up by a choir.
To accompany the music some buildings in the neighborhood were used for projections with colors and laser animations. Furthermore there were participating choppers, boats and movable cranes.

Jon Anderson appeared as guest for the track "Italian Song" and Markella Hatziano (who reportedly tripped over the wiring afterwards) appeared for "Glorianna".

Sadly much of the music was not actually performed live. Vangelis played played along with pre recordings, but most of his playing was mixed so soft it was hard to catch. Most of the tracks were shortened versions of famous tunes (like Chariots of Fire, Pulstar, Spiral) as well as tracks from "Antarctica" and "Mask". The performance ended with a spectacular choral version of Hymne, which was later released in a slightly different mix/edit on the compilation album "Portraits {So long ago, so clear}" (1996). An encore was planned to be performed (and announced in the TV broadcast) but it had to be canceled because the bad weather had made it impossible.

The concert attracted an audience of more than 150,000 spectators. There was a program with a picture of Vangelis and texts in Dutch and English. See the picture of the cover. Also on sale were T-shirts with "Eureka" and "Vangelis" printed on them.

There was a live broadcast by Dutch television station Veronica, while RTP Madeira broadcast it on Portuguese TV a few years later.

De Griekse muzikant Vangelis (Evanghelos Odysseas Papathanasiou), slechts één keer gaf hij een concert in Nederland, op 18 juni 1991 in Rotterdam, in het kader van 5 jaar Eureka, met gastoptredens van Markella Hatziano en Jon Anderson.

For more info download the PDF file.

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