Depeche Mode live in Barcelona November 2009

I had really wanted to see Depeche Mode live in 2009. But why? Well, as I've said many times, back in 2006 at Terra Vibe I didn't really see them. I've only listened to them. I couldn't see anything. And that was mainly because I had arrived late and it was one of the most crowded concerts that had taken place at Terra Vibe. From then on I had been very cautious with that venue, usually buying premium (VIP) tickets, to ensure that I could find some higher ground from where I could see the band. And that's exactly what I did in May 2009 when they were due to appear at Terra Vibe. I had bought a VIP ticket and that particular section corresponded to the VIP section I had observed back in 2006. And I went there fairly early. And then came the disappointment of the cancellation due to Dave's illness. Unfortunately (or should I say "as usual"?) the promoter did not attempt to reschedule the date at a later time during that particular tour. And I'm saying "as usual" because it was the same promoter who had not attempted to reschedule the 2006 Rolling Stones Athens concert which was cancelled due to Keith's falling from a coconut tree or something like that. But, as the saying goes, everything happens for a reason. In 2007 I went to see The Rolling Stones in France and that was the start of my habit of going abroad for concerts, while in 2009, I went to see Depeche Mode in Barcelona and that was the concert that was being filmed for the "Tour Of The Universe" DVD.

The Barcelona dates were not announced with the other dates at the beginning of the tour. They were announced much later and I thought it was a good chance to make up for the cancelled gig so I took it. Plus, I would also get to see Barcelona, a city I had never been to before.

The first problem I had was with the flights. The concert was on a Saturday night and Aegean Airlines had a direct flight to Barcelona every day of the week except - yes, you've guessed it! - on a Saturday! So, I chose another - not easier, but cheaper - way. I took my regular Friday night 23:30 EasyJet flight to London Gatwick and from there I would take another EasyJet flight to Barcelona.

Another strange coincidence was that Pet Shop Boys were playing in Athens on Friday night. And to add insult to injury, the venue was near the airport! But even if Pet Shop Boys were to finish before 23:30, I still wouldn't have time to go through check-in. So I decided that I would see them (again) some other time. Nice decision, since that "other time" would be in the summer of 2013 in Athens on a gig that I have filed under the category of "Concerts that changed my life". (Once again, everything happens for a reason).

I arrived in Barcelona at sometime before noon and I didn't have as much time as I would have wanted to do much sightseeing because I also had to catch up on some sleep.

I went to the Sagrada Familia, I checked a couple of other buildings by Gaudi (from the outside only) and I visited the Olympic Stadium which was on the way to the venue (Palau Sant Jordi, another venue that had been used during the 1992 Olympics).

I wanted to check out the venue before the concert because a friend of mine from Scotland would be waiting there since early in the morning in order to be able to get to the front. We did meet (and it was he who informed me that the concert was being filmed for a DVD), we arranged where we would meet after the concert and I went back to the city to get something to eat before the concert. I wanted to try tapas of course. I had taken a year of Spanish lessons a long long time ago, but these didn't help me much since the guy at the Tapas Bar was only speaking Catalan and I was only speaking (a kind of) Spanish. However, with my Spanish and his Catalan we somehow managed to communicate and I got the tapas I wanted. I returned to the venue, in time for the concert, and decided as usual to have a pint of beer from the bar. It was the first time that I had seen a bar serving a 2-pint glass of beer! 

And yes, I went for it! And once inside, right on time, the concert started and I was enjoying the fact that I could actually really see the band (for the first time since 1985 and the "Rock In Athens" festival) while drinking my two pints of lager (and realizing, to my surprise that there were two Greeks sitting behind me).

I wasn't much keen on the "Sounds Of The Universe" album, but I was anxious to hear "Wrong" which was an excellent single (probably the last good Depeche Mode single in my opinion, while the last good Depeche Mode album was "Playing The Angel"). But there were lots of other favourites from the past although they didn't play the song I always expect to hear on a DM gig, "Just Can't Get Enough".

They had however, planned something special for the finale and the DVD and that was "Waiting For The Night" as a vocal duet between Dave and Martin which went horribly wrong when one of them forgot the lyrics! It still went on the DVD though.

When it was all over, I went to the place where I had arranged to meet my Scottish friend (and his Bulgarian friend who had also attended the concert, so I had quite a multinational company on that night), found them, and went back to the centre of the city on foot, going down the hill.
Halfway down, I realized that this was possibly the place where Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe had presented their Barcelona project back in 1987 or 1988. So that was another bit of sightseeing accidentally dealt with.

From the city centre I took the metro back to my hotel where I met several Catalan devotees who were asking me to photograph them while shouting not "Depeche" but "deep-etch-ay".

One final thing I noticed about Barcelona (even though it was a Saturday night) was how many people were out on the streets at night. Not inside bars or restaurants, but out on the streets. I have only seen that in two other cities: Athens and Istanbul.

The next morning I had to wake up early to get to the airport, there was no time for any further sightseeing. And I had to take that same route again: Barcelona to London and then London to Athens. When I arrived at the gate I realized that I would travel as far as London with my Scottish friend. It was good to have some company because that flight turned out to be the worst I have ever been on. We felt so relieved when it touched down on Gatwick. There was one more flight for me, from London to Athens but that went rather smoothly.

I would see Depeche Mode again in 2013 at Terra Vibe and there I had the chance to recreate what was supposed to happen at the cancelled concert. I got the same VIP ticket, in the same area, on higher ground with a proper view of the band. But that's another story. Meanwhile, I could boast that in 2009 I attended not one, but two concerts which were filmed for a DVD release. The other one, was, of course, Bruce Springsteen at Hyde Park.

SETLIST:
01. In Chains
02. Wrong
03. Hole To Feed
04. Walking In My Shoes
05. It's No Good
06. A Question Of Time
07. Precious
08. Fly On The Windscreen
09. Sister Of Night
10. Home
11. Come Back
12. Policy Of Truth
13. In Your Room
14. I Feel You
15. Enjoy The Silence
16. Never Let Me Down Again
ENCORE:
17. Dressed In Black
18. Stripped
19. Behind The Wheel
20. Personal Jesus
21. Waiting For The Night

A concert that never took place - Depeche Mode @ Terra Vibe in 2009

My first visit to Terra Vibe was in 2006 to see Depeche Mode live for the second time (the first was at the Rock In Athens festival in 1985). My problem then was that I couldn't see anything. I only heard the band. So, when Depeche Mode announced they would be coming back in 2009 at the same place, I decided to organize everything perfectly so that I would make up for the last (lost) time. I remembered from 2006 that the areas to the side of the stage were higher up, so I would be able to see the stage from there. Those were the areas that were designated as VIP. So, without hesitation, I bought the more expensive ticket for one of these areas, I arranged the bus tickets in time having learnt my lesson from the Leonard Cohen concert the previous year and I was ready to go.

Everything was going according to plan. After work I went to the Athens train station from where the buses would depart, I got in one and arrived at Terra Vibe. 

While I was getting in, Puressence were playing support, another band that I had never seen live until then who were coming to Greece very often but unfortunately I missed them as I was busy getting in and trying to find my place. (I would see them the following year just before they split up).

Anyway, I was there. I even met some friends. And then we were waiting. And waiting. And waiting. But it still didn't occur to me that something might have gone wrong. Meanwhile people kept on coming. Soon, Terra Vibe was as full as it had been back in 2006, only this time, I was in an area where I was comfortable. And then the announcement was made through the speakers. Dave Gahan was ill (we didn't know what it was at that time) and he had been taken to the hospital. 

If you remember, it turned out to be pretty serious and a substantial part of the Tour Of The Universe had to be canceled or rescheduled. And although other dates were rescheduled the Greek promoters didn't try to bring them back in Greece at a later date. Just like they had done in 2006 with The Rolling Stones. Anyway, I got on the bus back home, the next day the gig was officially canceled (they told us it might take place the following day) and our tickets were refunded. The problem was that according to some people, Dave had already been taken to the hospital while tickets were still being sold at the gate with more people coming in. Lots of people were disappointed. Many of them had come from other European countries (among them one British friend who noted that Terra Vibe was a safety hazard). At least for me, it turned out well. When Depeche Mode announced two extra dates for Barcelona in November I immediately bought a ticket for one of them and ended up being present at one of the two nights where the official DVD was being fimed! But more about that later...
Oh and when Depeche Mode came back to Terra Vibe in 2013 for the Delta Machine tour, I bought a ticket at exactly the same VIP section and finally managed to actually see and not just hear them at Terra Vibe

A Broken Frame - Then And Now (The Final)

Before moving one to "Ath.Lon", the lastest Marsheaux album, I wanted to revisit "A Broken Frame" for one more (and last - promise!) time

I have dedicated two of my previous posts to "A Broken Frame". One for the vinyl versions and one for the CD's and the relevant singles. However, there was still one version I still didn't have when I completed the second post: "A Broken Frame Instrumental" by Marsheaux. This was made available within special souvenir boxes during their German (supporting VNV Nation) and Spanish gigs. The ones that were not sold at their gigs were sold later at the UNDO Store. And they sold out really fast. Somehow I managed to miss both sales of their German boxes, but when the time came for the Spanish ones (last chance!) I was more than ready and I secured one from Madrid. 

There isn't much to say about the "A Broken Frame" project that I haven't covered in my previous two posts, but I have just one thing to point out: If you relly want to see how Marsheaux have not just covered the original album note-by-note, but instead made it their own, it's a good idea to listen to the instrumentals.
This may seem like a pointless review for an album that is not easy to buy (unless you find it on E-Bay) - let alone listen to since there is only one track available on YouTube, (The Sun And The Rainfall) but I'll post here the three different versions of it (Depeche Mode, Marsheaux and Marsheaux instrumental) so you can get a basic idea.

Coming up next on this blog, my own review of "Ath.Lon" (and yes, I have the deluxe version...)

A Broken Frame - Then And Now (The Extras)

The release by Marsheaux of "A Broken Frame", a track-by-track cover of Depeche Mode's original 1982 album was one of the major events in contemporary synth-pop last year. Back in August, I published on this blog a side-by-side review of both albums based on their vinyl versions, my original DM one which I had bought back in the day and the Marsheaux one which I had received earlier in the year. Since then Marsheux have released the CD version which came with lots of extras. It's a double CD, and CD1 also features covers of the B-Sides from the Depeche Mode singles from that album: "Now This Is Fun" featuring James New on vocals (b-side of "See You") and "Oberkorn (It's A Small Town)" (b-side of "The Meaning Of Love"). CD2 has extended versions of all album tracks. The "extended mix" was quite an important feature for some of us who grew up listening to music in the 80's and could be found on the 12 inch versions of the singles released. It was not a remix that sometimes is completely unrecognizable compared to the original song, often without vocals as was the case from the 90's onwards, it was a longer version, using elements of the original track. We got a taste of these on the bonus CD that came with the first, white vinyl edition featuring extended versions of "Leave In Silence", "My Secret Garden" and "The Sun And The Rainfall", but on CD2 of this edition we get everything. And some songs really come out on their own in these versions, most notably "Nothing To Fear" and "The Sun And The Rainfall".

Now that I had a CD edition of the Marsheaux version of the album a question started bugging me: "Shouldn't I get a copy of the original DM on CD?" It seemed that I should, but which edition? By browsing through Discogs I decided that the best choice was a 2006 edition featuring a CD and DVD. The CD featured the album and the DVD featured on its video portion a documentary about the making of the album and on its audio portion the complete album on a 5.1 mix, the b-sides (which Marsheaux included on their own CD1) plus a live concert from that era.

As you can see,I did photograph them side-by-side as I did with the vinyls on last year's post, although in this case the two designs do not exactly match as they did on the vinyl versions.

There was one more extra Marsheaux had in store for us from "A Broken Frame": A single! Their choice was "Monument", it came out on CD single and its design was similar to the "Leave In Silence" single from Depeche Mode. DM's "Leave In Silence" featured "Leave In Silence (Longer)", "Further Excerpts From : My Secret Garden" and "Leave In Silence (Quieter)" (on the 12'') whereas Marsheaux's "Monument" features "Monument (Shorter)", "Monument (Bigger)", "My Secret Garden (Better)" and "The Sun And The Rainfall (Lighter)". And in my own opinion this version of "My Secret Garden" is indeed a better one. They also filmed a video of "Monument" to accompany the single.

Finally, I decided to gather together all the other items related to "A Broken Frame" from my collection in one photo: The 7'' and 12'' versions of "See You" and "The Meaning Of Love" from Depeche Mode, the bonus CD given with the first white vinyl edition of Marsheaux's album plus an extra CD slipcase of "Monument" I received with my order of the single with different colours (a misprint perhaps?). And it's also worth noting that there is an instrumental version of "A Broken Frame" out there that is included as a CD-R in souvenir boxes sold at Marsheux gigs.

Rock In Athens 85

What we're going to do right here is go back. Back into time. 30 years in fact. A "Throwback Thursday" kind of thing. 30 years ago, In July 26 and 27 of 1985, the first major rock festival took place in Greece. Rock concerts in Greece until then had a very short history. The first one was in 1967 by The Rolling Stones which was disrupted by the police. 4 days later there was a coup and a military junta took place which lasted for 7 years. Because of that, the next rock concert took place 13 years later in 1980 by The Police. From that moment on, bands and artists started playing in Greece, including The Boomtown Rats, Roxy Music and, in what is believed by many to be the greatest rock concert at that time, Rory Gallagher.

Rock In Athens though was the first festival to take place featuring 8 different artists spread over two days. The correct line up, in order of appearance was this:

DAY 1 (26 July 1985)
Telephone
The Stranglers
Depeche Mode
Culture Club

DAY 2 (27 July 1985)
Talk Talk
The Cure
Nina Hagen
The Clash

I am stressing the word "correct" here because most blog posts dedicated to this festival are listing a wrong line up, copied from the initial festival poster which was wrong. Makes you wonder if these bloggers were actually there... This poster also mentions "Musical Brigades" (Mousikes Taxiarchies), a Greek band who refused to appear. 

However, by searching through the internet, I was able to find a lot of visual and audio material from the festival, partly due to the fact that most of the festival was filmed and was broadcast (in... installments) by Greek state television (ERT). Depeche Mode and The Clash refused to be filmed so there are no videos of them. Somebody in the audience though did record the Depeche Mode set, so there is audio material from that. I don't know if the Nina Hagen set was taped, but I only managed to find backstage footage of her from the television documentary. Finally I managed to find only one (1) photo of The Clash from that night. (While researching this post I found more, but still no visuals from Depeche Mode).

Day 1 was therefore opened by Telephone, a French band, quite popular in their country at that time. This had probably something to do with the fact that the main organizers was a French company ("Nouvelles Frontieres"). At that time, I knew only one of their songs which was featured in a Greek compilation LP (and they didn't play it). Before they came "officially" on stage, they were soundchecking in front of the crowd which was mostly indifferent causing one of them to shout "You treat us like shit, and we will do the same to you".

 Next though were The Stranglers. Back then they had a "bad boys" reputation. In fact they were scheduled to appear in Athens 3 years before but they cancelled because they were arrested in France (or something like that). Theirs was a great set consisting of new (at that time) and old songs which were the crowd favourites. All three singles from their then current album "Aural Sculpture" were played ("No Mercy", "Skin Deep" and "Let Me Down Easy"), those from their previous one "Feline" ("Midnight Summer Dream" and "European Female") and older classics (like "Nice N' Sleazy" featuring a long instrumental intro that made it sound like a 12'' version). We had a great time even though the band were insulting the audience between songs (they told a particularly nasty joke about how you can tell the difference between Greek boys and all other boys which I will definitely NOT repeat here). Thankfully the level of English among the concertgoers was not that good so they did not understand the jokes anyway. Unfortunately The Stranglers' bad reputation caught up with them again, when we noticed black smoke rising from outside the venue. We did not pay that much attention inside but we learned later that they were riots between the police and people who wanted to get in for free (That was a common occurence in rock concerts in Greece at that time). 

 

A few cars were burned and they did let some people in at the end something which was to prove catastrophic when the time came for Culture Club to appear. But more of that later...

Next up were Depeche Mode who back then were more electronic than they are now. A very tight set with lots of hits the highlights of which were "Shake The Disease", "Blasphemous Rumours", "Everything Counts" and of course "Just Can't Get Enough" as the finale where Dave Gahan was rubbing the mike stand between his legs while many people were claiming that he was singing "Just can't get it up" instead... I was worried about how the crowd was going to react when they realized that Martin Gore was wearing a black leather dress. They were probably confused and a bit perplexed but there was no indication of what was going to happen next...

Just at the stroke of midnight Culture Club came on stage. And then all hell broke loose! The crowd started throwing  water bottles, wood planks and rocks at them, specifically aiming for Boy George. After his initial surprise he started making fun of the situation: "If I wasn't a lady I would have shown you my ass!" he told them. Meanwhile the bass player was playing bass with one hand only, using his other one to give the middle finger to the audience. I still remember the Kipper Williams cartoon in the next issue of Smash Hits where Boy George is pictured trying to dodge the stones while holding an English-Greek dictionary and shouting "ouchos! ouchos!". There was also a Sun or Daily Mirror front page the folowing Monday "Fans stone Boy George". To their credit the band completed their set (no encore of course) since there were many people among the audience who had come to see specifically them, singing the hits like "Karma Chameleon" and an amazing rendition of "Black Money".

It was later said that the organizers shouldn't have mixed up bands like The Stranglers and Culture Club in the line up. Greek rock fans have a long tradition of slagging off pop bands, or those that are not deemed "rock enough" for them, but this was probably not the complete truth in this case. It was clearly a homophobic reaction. Greek society back in the 80's was not very tolerant towards different sexual orientations (and towards other things but this is clearly a different discussion). As another blogger has said, perhaps the "revolutionary liberal young rock Greek crowd" of the 80's wasn't as revolutionary or as liberal as they claimed to be. I still believe that Culture Club should have played a stand-alone concert, on their own.

That was all for day 1, day 2 was much more peaceful. First on stage were Talk Talk who had a big hit in Europe at that time with "It's My Life", but they were still not very successful in their home country, the UK. My favourite song though (and probably the highlight of their set) was "Such A Shame".

 

 Next up were The Cure and what can I say, I feel privileged to have seen them at that stage in their career. Probably every song in their set was a highlight, where do I start? "A Forest", "The Walk", "Let's Go To Bed". My favourite was "A Forest" though probably because a local band consisting of some school friends of mine used to play it in their set.

Next up was Nina Hagen. This was more of a show rather than a gig. From what I remember she had come to Greece before, probably for a concert of a TV appearance, I can't remember which. At that time I only knew "Universal Radio" the single from her then current album "Nina Hagen In Ekstasy" as did most of the crowd who were singing along with its "talking to myself" hook line (and urging her to "take her clothes off" throughout her set). That album though did feature a very nice cover of "Spirit In The Sky" which would, in the following year become a huge hit for Doctor And The Medics.

After the Nina Hagen set was over I took a walk around the arena. There were several people sleeping and others had lit fires, all waiting for the main event: The Clash. If I said before I was privileged to have seen The Cure what can I say about The Clash? And as I found out years later this was the last ever Clash appearance. I am proud to have witnessed such an important part of history!

It was 1:15 am when The Clash came on stage. Mick Jones had long ago left the band but Joe Strummer was there and their sound had gone back to their punk beginnings. I remember they played a punk rock ultra-fast version of "Rock The Casbah" and they did NOT play their commercial hit, what most people were waiting to hear "Should I Stay Or Should I Go".

When it was all over it was around 3am and I had to go back home and catch only a wee bit of sleep, since early next morning I was leaving for a working holiday in Corfu. When I came back in the autumn The Clash released a new single "This Is England" and an album "Cut The Crap" but as a live band they took their last bow in the early morning hours of the 28th of July 1985 in Athens...

SETLISTS:

The Stranglers
01. Nice 'N' Sleazy
02. Hanging Around
03. Bitching
04. I Feel Like a Wog
05. Uptown
06. Dead Ringer
07. No Mercy
08. Souls
09. Skin Deep
10. Let Me Down Easy
11. Golden Brown
12. Midnight Summer Dream
13. European Female
14. Strange Little Girl
15. Down in the Sewer
Encore:
16. The Raven

Depeche Mode
01. Master and Servant (Intro)
02. Something to Do
03. If You Want
04. People Are People
05. Leave in Silence
06. Shake the Disease
07. Blasphemous Rumours
08. Told You So
09. Master and Servant
10. Everything Counts
Encore:
11. Photographic
12. Just Can't Get Enough

Culture Club
01. I'll Tumble 4 Ya
02. It's a Miracle
03. Heaven's Children
04. God Thank You Woman
05. Time (Clock of the Heart)
06. (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher
      (Jackie Wilson cover)
07. Karma Chameleon
08. Gusto Blusto
09. Black Money
10. Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?
11. Victims

Talk Talk
01. Talk Talk
02. It's My Life
03. Tomorrow Started
04. My Foolish Friend
05. Does Caroline Know?
06. Dum Dum Girl
07. Such A Shame

The Cure
01. The Baby Screams
02. Play for Today
03. Secrets
04. Kyoto Song
05. The Hanging Garden
06. In Between Days
07. Primary
08. Cold
09. Let's Go to Bed
10. The Walk
11. One Hundred Years
12. Give Me It
13. A Forest
Encore:
14. Three Imaginary Boys
15. 10:15 Saturday Night
16. Killing an Arab
17. Forever

Nina Hagen
01. Ekstacy Drive
02. New York, New York
03. African Reggae
04. My Way (Claude François cover)
05. Beat It
06. Carmen
Encore:
07. The Ballroom Blitz (The Sweet cover)

The Clash
01. North and South
02. Straight to Hell
03. (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais
04. Janie Jones
05. Safe European Home
06. Hate & War
07. The Guns of Brixton
08. Pressure Drop
09. The Magnificent Seven
10. Bankrobber
11. Police on My Back (The Equals cover)
12. Johnney Too Bad
13. Brand New Cadillac (Vince Taylor and His Playboys cover)
14. White Riot
15. I Fought the Law (The Crickets cover)