Never again is what we swore the time before... so we went to Barcelona!

Never again (at Terra Vibe) is what we swore the time before. May 12 2009 to be exact. Because this is what happened:

We had gone to Terra Vibe, a place in the country outside Athens to see Depeche Mode. But we didn't, for reasons which have been well documented by now. And the day looked so promising:

Of course it was nobody's fault that Dave was seriously ill, but the organizers never seem to make an effort to reschedule a gig that's been cancelled (they did it the same thing with The Rolling Stones in 2006). On top of that Terra Vibe is "a security risk" according to a British friend of mine who had come all the way from the UK to see DM. And if that's not enough, it's not reachable by public transport (coaches have been hired the last few years, but you must take care and buy a ticket for one of them by going in person - not from the internet). OK, so, if you have a car it must be ideal, right? "Wrong" as DM themselves would have said back in 2009, since it's going to take you almost 2 hours to drive out of the parking lot (which ia located a LONG walking distance from where the concert is taking place). So seeing as the organizers were not going to reschedule it when the tour resumed, I decided to go see them in Barcelona in November of the same year

(That's a 2-pint glass of lager by the way. Only in Barcelona!)

And I was lucky to have chosen the time and place where the DVD of that tour was being filmed.

Plus I also discovered 2 other Greeks sitting behind me.
So here is "Personal Jesus" as I filmed it on the night with my camera:

And here it is again, in its official version, as it ended up on the DVD:

The highlight of the evening was of course the very last song "Waiting For The Night" where Martin tries to help Dave on vocals...and ends up singing the wrong verse

So why this retrospective? Well, today, Depeche Mode are playing at Terra Vibe again! And contrary to what I said the time before (I think it was "never again"), I couldn't resist buying a ticket. Let's hope this time everything goes well. The weather report doesn't look too promising...but maybe we shouldn't be thinking about that!
Until then, I will always have Barcelona and Palau San Jordi...