Almost Predictable. Almost: April 2017

I'm sure this is me biting off more than I can chew, but what I'm wanting to do is to have a review of every gig on the Global Spirit tour up on the blog, so that we have a record of each gig.

As I'm only going to two concerts on the first leg I'll need a bit of help and that's where you come in. What I'm looking for are volunteers to write a review of the gig they were at. Assuming there's enough interest, I'll pick one person for each show and their review will be up within a couple of days of the gig taking place. It doesn't have to be an essay or a work of art - it just needs to be something talking about the gig and what you enjoyed about it.

Fancy that? If you do, contact me on the blog's Facebook page or via Twitter:

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/almostpredictablealmost/

Twitter - @almostprdalmost or @davidjmcelroy

The list below will be updated as it (hopefully) fills up:

FIRST LEG - EUROPE:

May 5 Stockholm - Me
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/live-review-depeche-mode-friends-arena.html

May 7 - Amsterdam - Kevin May https://twitter.com/HALOBook
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/live-review-depeche-mode-ziggo-dome.html

May 9 - Antwerp - Linda Meijer
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/live-review-depeche-mode-sportpaleis.html

May 12- Nice - Carsten Drees
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/live-review-depeche-mode-stade-charles.html

May 14 - Lubljana - Nikola Pokupec
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/live-review-depeche-mode-dvorana-hall.html

May 17 - Athens - Panos Sialakas
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/live-review-depeche-mode-terra-vibe.html

May 20 - Bratislava - Rachel Blackman
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/live-review-depeche-mode-stadion.html

May 22 - Budapest - Rachel Blackman
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/live-review-depeche-mode-groupama-arena.html

May 24 - Prague - Conkan Larsson
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/live-review-depeche-mode-eden-arena.html

May 27 - Leipzig - Daniel Cassus
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/live-review-depeche-mode-festwiese.html

May 29 - Lille - Jane Cotton
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.com/2017/05/live-review-depeche-mode-stade-pierre.html

May 31 - Copenhagen - Martin Sernestrand
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/live-review-depeche-mode-telia-parken.html

June 3 - London - Part 1 by me, Part 2 by the fans
Part 1 - http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/live-review-depeche-mode-london-stadium.html
Part 2 - http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/live-review-depeche-mode-london-stadium_7.html

June 5 - Cologne - Alex Ferguson
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/live-review-depeche-mode-rhein-energie.html

June 7 - Dresden - Daniel Cassus
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/live-review-depeche-mode-ostragehege.html

June 9 - Munich - Robbie Sargent
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/live-review-depeche-mode-olympic.html

June 11 - Hannover - Niggels Uhlenbruch

June 12 - Hannover - Niggels Uhlenbruch
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/live-review-depeche-mode-hdi-arena.html

June 18 - Zurich - Jan Cvengros
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/live-review-depeche-mode-letzigrund.html

June 20 - Frankfurt - Nikolay Sabev
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/live-review-depeche-mode-commerzbank.html

June 22 - Berlin - Dan Turner
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/live-review-depeche-mode-olympic_24.html

June 25 - Rome - Chris Snoddon
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/live-review-depeche-mode-stadio.html

June 27 - Milan - Ana Soto
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/live-review-depeche-mode-san-siro-milan.html

June 29 - Bologna - Mike Cooper
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/live-review-depeche-mode-stadio-renato.html

July 1 - Paris - Kevin May https://twitter.com/HALOBook
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/live-review-depeche-mode-stade-de.html

July 4 - Gelsenkirchen - Mark Henderson
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/live-review-depeche-mode-veltins-arena.html

July 6 - Bilbao - Brian Christopher
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/live-review-depeche-mode-bbk-live.html

July 8 - Lisbon - Yvette Trubuil
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/live-review-depeche-mode-nos-alive.html

Jule 13 - St Petersburg - Polina Lipezina
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/live-review-depeche-mode-skk-st.html

July 15 - Moscow - Mariah Perezhogina
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/live-review-depeche-mode-otkritie-arena.html

July 17 - Minsk - Nastia Enavigo - CANCELLED

July 19 - Kiev - Natalie Gladkaya
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/live-review-depeche-mode-olimpiyskiy.html

July 21 - Warsaw - Ana Soto
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/live-review-depeche-mode-national.html

July 23 - Cluj - Peter Fenn
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/live-review-depeche-mode-cluj-arena.html

FOURTH LEG - SOUTH AMERICA:

March 11 - Mexico City - Michael Lyons
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/live-review-depeche-mode-foro-sol.html

March 13 - Mexico City - Ana Soto
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/live-review-depeche-mode-foro-sol.html

March 16 - Bogota - Dicken Schrader
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/live-review-depeche-mode-simon-bolivar.html

March 18 - Lima - Natalia Burgos & Jimena Parra
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/live-review-depeche-mode-estadio.html

March 21 - Santiago - Roxana Villagran Lizana
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/live-review-depeche-mode-estadio_25.html

March 24 - Buenos Aires - DM Paraguay
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/live-review-depeche-mode-estadio-unico.html

March 27 - Sao Paulo - Claudia Schluzi
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/live-review-depeche-mode-allianz-parque.html

FIFTH LEG - NORTH AMERICA 2018

Tuesday, May 22 - Anaheim - Honda Center - Rob Rohm
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.com/2018/05/live-review-depeche-mode-honda-center.html

Thursday, May 24 - Sacramento - Golden 1 Center - Kristin Vogel-Campbell
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.com/2018/06/live-review-depeche-mode-golden-1.html

Sunday, May 27 - San Antonio - AT&T Center - Gu Arz
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.com/2018/06/live-review-depeche-mode-at-center-san.html

Tuesday, May 29 - Tulsa - BoK Center - William Kelley
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.com/2018/07/live-review-depeche-mode-bok-center.html

Friday, June 1 - Chicago - United Center - Jenny Wilson
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.com/2018/06/live-review-depeche-mode-united-center.html

Sunday, June 3 - Philadelphia - Wells Fargo Center - Jessica DeBiase Stevens
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.com/2018/06/live-review-depeche-mode-wells-fargo.html

Wednesday, June 6 - Brooklyn - Barclays Center - Sean Salo
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.com/2018/06/live-review-depeche-mode-barclays.html

Saturday, June 9 - Boston - TD Garden - Marcel de Groot
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.com/2018/06/live-review-depeche-mode-td-garden.html

Monday, June 11 - Toronto - Air Canada Centre - Tara Salt
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.com/2018/06/live-review-depeche-mode-air-canada.html

There's no pay, no medical plan and no form of reward at all other than the warm glow you'll get for angering the Black Swarm with your views on Policy Of Truth etc. You will of course get full credit (I don't want the blame for what you say!) and links to whatever of your social media you want to expose the world to.

Well, that was an odd day.

As you probably know by now, Depeche Mode are running a Facebook Takeover for 365 days, inviting fans to apply to be in charge of the band's Facebook page for a day. I obviously couldn't pass this up, so I applied and, fortunately, got picked. It was a remarkable experience.

Before your day goes live, you liaise with the lovely Carl and Ale who sort everything out for you. You can submit up to 5 posts including an opening bio post and, once they've been cleared, the DM Facebook team schedule them and post them. All you've got to do is be online when they pop up and interact with any of the band's 7.3 million followers who happen to get involved. No pressure there then.

I chose 4 posts in addition to the bio thing (see here) and after more thought that was no doubt necessary, went for these (click each for article):

My Gareth Jones interview from A Month Long Period Of Rejoicing

A post about my collection

Depeche Mode Live In Scotland Part 1 - 1981

But B-Sides That, What Have Depeche Mode Given Us

I thought they offered a good spread of things from the interesting (Gareth Jones) to the collector geek friendly and that seemed to work. What was most surprising though was that, firstly, Live In Scotland has proved to be the most popular post and, secondly, that many, many more people than I expected got involved both on the Depeche Facebook page and on the blog itself.

Th experience of seeing my picture on Depeche Mode's official page together with a picture of my records was incredible. For that second, and in the picture I captured (below), I featured heavily on my favourite band's own site. If you'd told the 16 year old me that in 1990, once you'd explained what the internet and Facebook was of course, he'd have been beyond happy. To be honest, the slightly older than 16 year old me was very much beyond happy when he saw it yesterday.

Just me and Dave - remarkable

I'm a Depeche Mode fan and I know what we're like, but nothing prepared me for this. Before 2 p.m. yesterday when this all kicked off, my blog had had 251,000 visitors since I started this in 2011. I was happy with that figure and I've had consistent increases in hits each month since I began. Yesterday though caused these figures to go absolutely crazy. At the time of typing this, my blog stats are currently:

All time visits - 644,537 (an increase of just under 400,000!!)

Pageviews today - 222,673

Pageviews yesterday - 166,179

Good grief. The Live in Scotland post alone has had 180,019 reads since it went live at 9 p.m. on 20 April. That's less than 24 hours ago at the time of writing. I can't get my head round it really.

That's the Depeche Mode effect I guess, or really, that's the Black Swarm effect. Eager to read anything and discuss everything about Depeche Mode, the DM fans have blown my mind and the whole Facebook takeover thing was a one off, incredible experience. I even got responses like this from the clearly wise Camie Chance:

It was that sort of day!

Thank you very much for the chance Depeche Mode and thank you Carl and Ale for all your help. Thank you mostly to each and every Depeche fan who got involved. If you're new to this blog, welcome and I hope you'll stick around. If you're a regular, thank you for spreading the news around the world yesterday and making my day so much fun, if a little tiring.

If you're a Depeche fan and you think you're interested in the takeover, apply and watch your Facebook notifications go through the roof. You'll love it.

Friday, 28 April 2017

DEPECHE MODE - THE GLOBAL SPIRIT TOUR PROJECT

Friday, 21 April 2017

NOW THIS IS FUN: DEPECHE MODE FACEBOOK TAKEOVER - 20 APRIL 2017

Thursday, 13 April 2017

NEW RELEASES - MARNIE, MT. DOUBT AND AMOR