Surely Depeche Mode have set a record for the number of French festivals played by one band on one tour this year? France has done very well in terms of having Depeche concerts this summer - well done France. Our reviewers today are a father and daughter duo. Helena Wirth, who is a fellow Depeche Mode Facebook Takeoveree is acting as translator for her Dad, Jean-Francois, who attended the gig.That's a first for the Project and that is rather cool. Thank you Mr Wirth for the review and thank you Helena for translating. Thanks too to Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group for the pictures.
Picture courtesy of Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group
Musilac is a young and growing festival. The place is beautiful and the two stages meet the moutains near the Aix les Bains lake. Depeche Mode is the biggest name of the day on Thursday July 12th. Many people are attending, approximately 30 000 people are waiting to see the trio. After The Stranglers and the intro Revolution from The Beatles, Depeche Mode arrives. As soon as Going Backwards begins, you can no longer move in the audience (and I am 30 meters away from the stage) and when the concert ends, I feel like I have to push through the crowd to get out.
It’s No Good starts and Dave has already taken off his jacket, he is sweaty but happy to be here. "Good evening Aix les Bains " is quite funny to hear, Dave sounds not sure of the pronounciation ! A Pain That I’m Used To comes soon after and the crowd dances a little, but it’s not the usual DM crowd. I’m singing along as loud as I can and a few people follow but not much where I am. Near the stage, the crowd is electric.
Picture courtesy of Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group
Precious is the next song and Dave asks for hand clapping. World In My Eyes is stimulating the audience and Dave and Martin’s chemistry is heart-warming. The night falls on these mountains when Cover Me starts, a very soothing song. Then Martin sings Somebody and I’m sad that we didn’t have The Things You Said (I've not heard that live since Paris Bercy in 1987) but the setlist is obviously much shorter because of the festival.
Picture courtesy of Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group
Dave returns on stage to In Your Room and its superb video. Then the audience becomes ecstatic with Everything Counts, Stripped, Personal Jesus (the whole crowds outbirst of joy to this one) and Never Let Me Down Again under the stars. It’s also noteworthy that Dave didn’t use the t-shirt shotgun this time.
Encore comes with Walking In My Shoes and it gives more energy to the crowd. Dave has changed clothes, from the black to the red jacket. Enjoy The Silence makes the audience raise their arms.
Picture courtesy of Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group
Just Can’t Get Enough marks its return in festivals and Dave can’t get enough of making the audience sing along with him. It’s been 14 months since the band tours and they still look happy to be here by giving us a perfect show. I wish we heard Useless, as I loved that in the winter leg.
If this review doesn't put you in the mood for seeing Depeche at a festival, I don't know what will. Benjamin Ubu from weirdsound.net returns to the Global Spirit Tour Project to review the Beauregard Festival for us and his enthusiasm tells us just how good a show it was. Thanks very much for this Benji and thank you for the pictures too. All other pictures are taken from Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group.
Picture courtesy of Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group
The festival of Beauregard celebrated its tenth anniversary last weekend in Normandy! A splendid occasion to spend four days to listen to good music, to discover new groups, and to do a bit of tourism in this beautiful region. The festival favours quality over quantity, so one can have all the time in the mornings to go for a walk on the beaches, to visit some high historical sites or to find a good restaurant! And contrary to popular belief in July in Normandy, I always find the weather to be very sunny!
Alright, I can now feel how much you’re bored! “When will he finally speak about Depeche Mode???” It is the subject of your interest, I suppose? The group will treat us by closing the last day of the festival with its performance. It’s hard to wish for more for a fan like me, since I’ve already seen them four times in hardly a year! So! I will tell you about this beautiful evening of July 9th, and hope that you will like it…
We arrive at 5pm on the site of the festival, and we move directly towards the barriers in front of the largest stage. The group will play at 9:30, but the first ranks are already filled! I firmly grab the barrier in the forefront, decided not to move a toe during… the four and half hours which will the waiting will last…
When one loves, one does not calculate!
As usual for a concert of Depeche Mode, the public is composed of young people and older people, coming from all backgrounds. I start a chat with two people there, and one of them has to learn obviously much about DM… poor guy, I give him a lecture on the discography of the group. A bit of our conversation:
I: Do you believe in God?
My new friend: No, why?
I: When the concert’s over, you will!
The organizers of the festival have lined up two other groups before Depeche Mode: Concrete Knives and Girls in Hawaii. The youngsters of Concrete Knives proved to be a very good musical discovery, I invite you to listen to them! I am less of a fan of the Belgians of Girls in Hawaii. You be the judge!
It is now 9pm, and never were we so ready to welcome Depeche Mode on the stage! An army of technicians proceed to the final preparations. A look over my shoulder, and I can see the pit is quite full! And then two kids try to pass in front of me: fatal mistake!
I: hey ho kids, stay behind!
The kids: but we can hardly see from here…
I: you should have arrived early or eaten more soup when you were children (we French say that).
Now parents need to interfere:
Parents: Is there not any space between yourself and the bareer?
I: No truly, and it’s baking hot, I’m stuck to it: sorry, really…
Don’t you think that I am heartless! But here we’re talking about a place in the forefront for Depeche Mode… the light fades, and as it has been the case on the Spirit tour, the show starts with the voices of the Beatles, prior to the arrival of DM!! Dave Gahan greets the crowd, and begins with on Going Backwards: I am now with the angels! In order to raise still the temperature a little, the band continues with It's No Good, one of my favorite songs. Alone in the world, my eyes in the eyes of Dave Gahan, the Earth could stop turning, I don’t care…
For this show is in open air, the group went for a purified decoration, “a simple” giant screen. I am glad to see them in these conditions, focused on the essential, the music, and of course on the voices of Dave and Martin. Now it’s time for A Pain That I' m Used To, and immediately after the splendid song Precious… I listen to this song almost every day on my way to work; from now on I will even have the image of Depeche Mode singing it two meters away from me!
It was expected, here it is! World In My Eyes! In concert, it always proves a nice song, and the public responds at once. Next song is Cover Me, with the video of Dave as a cosmonaut projected on the screen. I much appreciate this title, undoubtedly the most beautiful on the Spirit album. Small interlude where Dave leaves the scene… You smart reader, you understood what was going to follow! Martin Gore gives us Somebody: the change of mood is immediate and the audience is carried away by the soft voice of Martin. After having thanked the talented composer and guitarist of DM, Dave Gahan is back to business, and takes us again with In Your Room.
At this point of the concert, I am already delighted, but that is where the group decides to switch to the “Best Of” mode! After the usual introduction, Everything Countz! The pit blazes up and sings the song from beginning to end. The light decreases, a note is heard, the experts have already recognized the beginning of Stripped… emotional moment for me! I adore this song. The two songs which follow send me to Paradise: Personal Jesus, which the crowd joins in chorus, and the impossible to drop Never Let Me Down Again.
Depeche Mode tries to fool us with the “Alright, bye! it was nice to see you, see you soon!” bad joke, but I don’t believe that story, I truly believe that this goodbye was a false track before the encores! Ah ah! You can’t deceive me like that! As for most concerts on the Spirit tour, the band kept the heavy numbers for the end, I mean the very heavy ones for the last three songs. As of the first images of the video, the public is filled with enthusiasm, here Walking In My Shoes… then the masterpiece, immortal, cult, brilliant, the monument, the legend: Enjoy The Silence!!! Once that one’s over, which does remain to hope for? Just Can't Get Enough!
However, the music does finish, and these Sirs come to grace us with their presence one last time before they leave… the celebration has lasted one hour and a half, and time flown quite too quickly! I stay a moment before the stage as the crowd leaves to enjoy still, a few moments, the atmosphere of the place, in order to recall it and to be able to tell this story to my children in a few years. On the way back home, I avoid speaking about the concert. As in love, there are not words strong enough to describe what I experienced. But I will leave the last word to Depeche Mode, which, on this topic, is expressed much better than me:
The festival season has split fans a bit, with some seeming annoyed at the shortened set and others treating the gigs as a chance to have a Depeche Mode party, enjoying a greatest hits show in unique surroundings. The pictures I've seen of the Vielles Charrues Festival look incredible - great surroundings, what looks like a great crowd and, of course, great music. Christelle Bauchet was at the festival and here's her review. It really captures the feel of the event and it's a really enjoyable blog. Thank you very much Christelle. Thank you too to Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group.
Picture courtesy of Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group
About 70,000 people were watching the excellent performance of the band. That was my third gig (after Grand Stade de France and Bercy) on the Global Spirit Tour and the best one in my opinion.
We, my husband and my daughter of whom it was the first concert, arrived at Carhaix at 2:30pm. It is a very nice Breton village with a lot of Greco-Roman remains like Vorgium aqueduct.
Thanks to the volunteers, the access to the car park and the concert zone has been very easy.
I had got the opportunity to be in the front row: marvellous!!! Only six hours and half before the beginning of the show, at the Glenmor stage... Fortunately, the sun was shining!
My neighbours and I spent our time to talk about Depeche Mode, in a friendly atmosphere, listening, from far away, to the other bands who played on Kerouac stage: Olli & The Bollywood Orchestra (Indian musicians led by a Breton composer), No Land (neo-traditional Celtic music) and Marquis de Sade (Breton rock band). NB: Soulwax, Belgian electro-rock band, played a good music after DM concert.
9:45pm: the show started. Martin, dressed in white, with silver glitters under his eyes, appeared on stage, followed by Peter, Christian and Fletch; then Dave, the graceful dandy, all smiles!
A main screen and two side screens enabled everyone to see the band.
Immediately, we felt that the show will be famous. Indeed, the local press articles described their performance in very glowing terms.
The set list has been the same for several festivals. As usual, the show began slowly. After GoingBackwards, now known by most fans, It’s No Good, A Pain That I’m Used To and Precious have beenplayed; then World In My Eyes sung by Dave in an especially sensual way and Cover Me, Somebody, In Your Room, Everything Counts and Stripped welcomed by the fans.
Then it came to the famous singles, Personal Jesus, Never Let Me Down Again and the encore, Walking In My Shoes, Enjoy the Silence, Just Can’t Get Enough, which raised the crowd.
We often saw Martin and Fletch smiling. Martin moved on Walking In My Shoes and Enjoy TheSilence! Even Peter seemed to be happy to play. And Dave, this amazing frontman, spinned, shared his energy with the audience and made a little courtsey seeing a fan’s banner that shows respect for his fans.
Picture courtesy of Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group
I think the band had a lot of fun during this concert. Audience was over excited, smiling, singing, dancing, claiming their love for the band.
DM is a timeless and unique band. Here is a quote from Dave: “If we were like everybody else, we might as well give up and let them do it” and I completely agree.
Now the show is over. The concert has been so great! Thanks guys for this fantastic tour. We’re waiting patiently for the next album and the next tour but before that, the Global Spirit Tour DVD!
This review has been written by Carsten Drees, a German Devotee and a man who I've been lucky enough to meet twice on this tour already. Carsten has written a wonderful review that basically sums up both the experience of being at a Depeche gig and the experience of meeting Carsten himself! Check out his tech blog http://www.mobilegeeks.de/ and keep an eye out for Carsten at Depeche gigs throughout the summer. Thanks Carsten!
The experience of listening to new Depeche Mode songs hasn't change
that much over the years: It's just me, the new album, something to drink
(non-alcohol) and some chocolate. This setup works for me since those
well-known lads from Basildon published their The Singles 81-85 compilation back in 1985.
I was 14 years old and will never forget this moment, when I first took
a look at this grey vinyl record and seconds later listened to all those great
tracks. Fast forward: 32 years later and there still is the magic of the
moment, when I sit down and listen to the new tracks. But something changed
completely: In 1985 and the following years I was in some kind of bubble –
there were just very few people to talk to about the new songs. Today, there
are millions, when you take a short look at the internet. And loads of them are
saying the same things – I don't like their new material, I want Alan back,
SOFAD/Ultra was the last cool
depeche-album/song since the band published Exciter
etc etc.
You want to know why I'm talking about all those things instead of
talking about the gig in Nice, France? Because something has changed: In my
opinion, Spirit is an outstanding
album and absolutely worthy of the name Depeche Mode - no doubt about it. But
this time I have the feeling that most of the long-time-supporters are quite
happy with Spirit, too. Sure – there
always will be lots of haters around, but in general the fanbase seems to be
very pleased by the new songs.
And this – finally- brings me to the tour and the concert in Nice:
Which songs should be part of the setlist? To me, their selection is a very
good one and Going Backwards is maybe
the strongest opener in this millenium! I had the luck to see those guys in
Berlin and Glasgow and attended the official start of the tour in Stockholm,
Sweden, so I already knew that Going Backwards
was the first song of the gig.
It was a warm spring day in lovely Nice and after a day with loads of drinks
and delicious food we made it to the Stade Charles Ehrmann. Many other German
friends made it to Nice, too and so it was – again – a big happening of the
same old crazy depeche-family. First surprise: the stadium was pretty small and
the stage took place in the hall right next to the arena – pretty strange. The
stage seemed to be right in the butt of the hall, where Depeche Mode played
their warm-up gig in 2013!
Next surprise: There were just three beer stands and just two places
with mobile toilets. Very poor in my opinion, but there still was another nasty
surprise: 10 or even 11 Euros for a single beer (deposit inclusive)! The good
news: finally the very popular cups with Depeche Mode on it were introduced. I
am not quite sure how many there are – there are two or three different ones.
When The Raveonettes started to play their support gig, we continued
our own black celebration with pricey but beautiful cups of beer. The band
sounds quite okay, but to me it's just a nice background music while you're
waiting for DM. Then finally it was time for Depeche! The intro was a
combination of two songs: First we listened to Revolution - an old Beatles classic, before the DM-intro started -
a short instrumental version of Cover Me.
Then our heroes entered the stage including Jingling-Bernd (Gordeno)
and Drumming-Clown (Eigner). If you're interested: In our language we call
those two guys Klimper-Bernd und Trommel-Kasper! Okay, we're making fun of it,
but in general it's okay to us, that they are part of the Depeche-experience on
stage. But hey – there is one guy missing, isn't it? Yeah, that's right – Mr.
Gahan himself was the last one to enter the stage and he did it in the back of
the band on the second, upper stage.(Spoiler-Alert: He spent to less time up there
at the concert).
Going Backwards – I already mentioned it: It's a great opener – on the album and live,
too. If you want to get an idea of the mood of the current tour just watch this
single track. It's Depeche Mode 2017 in a nutshell: There is passion and loads
of energy and some lads who are enjoying what they are doing there.
Then it's time for another energetic track, So Much Love, or as we call it A
Question Of Time 2. To be honest before their first concert, I had the
vision that they could do a mash-up with this two powerful songs. By the way, the
weather was still pretty fine and it felt like the first real summer-gig of
this Spirit-tour.
But I'm still a little disappointed when it comes to the French crowd.
Were you guys still sleeping? The Swedish crowd wasn't too enthusiastic, but
the French one seemed to be even quieter in this early part of the concert.
Maybe they already had an idea what was coming up: Barrel Of A Gun, A Pain That
I'm Used To (featuring Klimper-Bernd on bass-guitar) and Corrupt. Sorry guys, I quite like these
tracks, but it's a pretty lame combination and believe me, the fans will talk
of this part as the „I will go for a pee and buy some beer“ section of the
concert.
Don't get me wrong: I love Barrel
Of A Gun, Corrupt is one of the greatest non-single-tracks in recent band
history and APTIUT is a kinda party track which made the crowd finally start to
clap, sing along and enjoy the concert. But to me personally it's a wasted
chance, because their back catalogue offers so much more than this.
But then to me it's the real kickoff of the concert - In Your Room! The version is pretty much
the one from the album which I really appreciate hearing live again. The crowd
seemed to share my enthusiasm and now it is the party I was looking forward to.
I should mention the screening on the big L.E.D. wall in the back.
Corbijn's idea for this song isa dancing couple – yes, the screening was as
boring as it sounds. But anyway – I really enjoyed this short trip to the year
1993 and was waiting for some more. Next stop: 1990! There are three songs from
Violator in the setlist - World In My Eyes is the first one and
boy, I really love this awesome new intro!
Now everyone was enjoying the concert, including those five dudes on
stage and even if I hoped for a little more enthusiasm like at the German
concerts, it was a pretty cool party right now. Glad, you're finally awake,
France! :D
Then there was time to slow things a little down with the most beautiful
track on the current album - Cover Me.
I can remember that there were some German guys aged 40-something in Glasgow
who started crying at this part of the concert ;) Now we're kinda used to it
and maybe a little more laid-back, but anyway, this is one of the highlights of
the whole concert! It's such a brilliant and beautiful melody, I love the
lyrics and Dave is performing so cautiously and delicately.
„I pictured us in another life
- Where we’re all super stars“
After this sentence the faster Kraftwerk-esque part starts and it felt
like the band now was giving the audience a fairy kiss to wake us all up from a
beautiful dream. Every one starts clapping along. Also - it wasn't a dream that
Dave Gahan was wearing an astronaut suit, but another backing film from Anton
Corbijn. I really like this one – one of the best videos in the whole concert.
Okay, we're in a chilling mode now – best time for Dave to leave the
stage and for Mart to enter the limelight: Time for another „Oh, I cried in Glasgow“-moment. Martin
decided not to sing his new stuff (thank you for that, Mr. Gore) and instead
performed Home and again it was the
version which features the full band and not just the piano of Jingling-Bernd.
I really enjoy Home so much,
every time I listen to it, especially live. I love the mood of the song and the
singalong part at the end. Oh, you should have a look at the video (below) I made
in Bratislava at the last tour – please listen to it carefully, 'cause Mart is
singing a totally different song after it. If you ever saw a Depeche Mode
concert before, you know that Martin is always singing two songs in the middle
of the concert. And the second song – now played just as a acoustic version –
took us back to 1986: A Question Of Lust!
It's one of my very fave Gore-songs – it always reminds me to my
teenage years: my first girlfriend, first kisses... And still this song is so
magical to me and always put me in a trance. Thank you so much for this
selection of songs! Ah, Dave is back and ready to bring us the last two Spirit songs of this night: Poison Heart and Where's The Revolution. I already mentioned it: I really like the
selection of this five songs from the current album – even if I'm missing Scum very badly.
Poison Heart worked very well as a reminder to the crowd, that the ballad time was
nearly over and we're now entering the party-section. Where's the Revolution is such a great live song – I especially
like the last part of it when Dave wants us to sing along and you hear nothing
but Christian's drums.
Now we're entering the last part of the concert – 10 more songs are to
come and believe me: Depeche Mode wants as to sing and clap and scream and
sweat – this upcoming part of the setlist is proof of that. It starts with Wrong - performed in a fantastic new
version with an sensational intro. By the way: Here you can see that the light
show isn't as shitty as we thought after the first concert in Stockholm. If you're
close to the stage – most times we're „front of stage“ - you are not able to
see, how beautiful it looks. If you have the chance to see more than just one
concert, take the chance to watch from the distance – it's definitely worth it,
no doubt about it.
Next song: The music starts and you can see it in the eyes of the most
people around us – they have no idea what this could be. But then all of the
sudden there was the iconic intro-sound of Everything
Counts and the whole audience immediately went nuts. Right now it feels
like the good old times when we used to get the chance to listen to live songs
from their early years. The version played on this tour is basically not far
from the album but with this all new intro it's really close to perfect.
But the classic time is not over yet – suddenly we‘re listening to
the opening sounds of Stripped. This
is the song which started this whole Depeche Mode-madness to me. I was 14 years
old back then and a Depeche Mode fan since 1982, but with Stripped, everything changed. I decided then that I have to go to
my very first concert – the rest is history.
But there are some classics still missing - Enjoy The Silence for example and that comes next. I bet they will
never play just one single regular concert without this one. The version is
quite okay, but not that special. It's like: „Okay, they have to play it and I have to party“. Basically there is
nothing more to say about it, but there was this strange, strange screening in
the back. I still have no idea what is happening there and it really left us
helpless when we saw it for the first time in Stockholm. Try to imagine that
you are watching „Farmer wants a wife“
on LSD while you're listening to Old
MacDonald had a Farm!
There are lots of different animals on the screen, all in very strange
colours. When the first animal was shown I immediately started to shout „Hase, Hase“ (which translates to „rabbit, rabbit“) and all my german
friends joined me fortunately. So a unspectacular Depeche-classic and a strange
video mutated to a big party with many mid-40s shouting the names of animals.
After it (and after we finally figured out how
to stop laughing) we got that for many years marked the end of the concert - Never Let Me Down Again. ETS and NLMDA –
what a great combo to end the regular set. The people were going crazy and so
were we. After some minutes and exhaustive arm-waving in the typical NLMDA-way
it was time to wave our guys goodbye for the first time.
It's not a very sad goodbye, because every one knew that the guys will
return soon for some more songs. After some minutes it was Martin who stands in
front of us to perform another classic Depeche song: Somebody from Some Great
Reward! There is once again a film on thebig screen in the back, but there
is not much going on – just the word „Somebody“,
which could be the proof, that Depeche Mode is not going to change this part of
the setlist.
Just to recall it: Home, A Question of Lust and Somebody - Martin Gore is performing
three of his very best songs! Thanks for that, Mart!
There are four more songs to come – and the
first one is from 1993: Walking In My
Shoes - again with a new intro and basically in a slightly different
version than 2013. There is something going on in the background: we can see
another video by Anton Corbijn and unlike the strange Enjoy TheSilence clip,
this is a very strong one! We can see a man who is dressing as a woman – I bet,
it's not that easy to walk in his shoes - not in the proper sense and not in
the figurative one.
Now – finally – it's time for something, that
was probably the most moving and touching moment of the whole night. A big,
black flag in the background, „Klimper-Bernd“ picked the bass guitar again and a
programmed drum beat kicked in. Martin and his guitar cuts in and then Dave
started singing:
„I, I
will be King
And you, you will be Queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can be heroes just for one day“
When I first listened to this amazing interpretation of this great
David Bowie song in Stockholm, I immediately started crying like a child. There
are my personal „Heroes“ just in front of me performing such a stunning
version of of song by another hero who died way to soon. I felt so sad and so
touched at the same time, feeling embraced by those beautiful sounds. The
Depeche Mode version of „Heroes“
isn't a complete different one – the band managed to perform it as a homage to
one of the greatest musicians of all time and added just a little electronic spice
to it. Believe it or not, just by writing down these lines and recalling the
moment, I feel like I could cry again. Thank you for so many magic moments in
my life, Depeche Mode – and thank you for adding such a special one with this
cover version.
After a performance, that left me breathless,
David returned to the party mode with the inevitable I Feel You. I really love the song, but I prefer listening to it at
home – maybe I listened to it way too much in the 90s ;) But anyway: Great
version, absolutely on point and a very vibrant performance of good ol' Dave.
Now there was just one last song missing and I
bet, the most people in the audience already had an idea what was coming up:
Sure – it's Personal Jesus. I am not
quite sure what to think about putting this tune at the very end of the concert
– why not Everything Counts guys? I
looked around: Happy, singing, clapping faces everywhere! Okay, Depeche Mode –
maybe it's the right decision to end the concert with Personal Jesus. Maybe you’re right.
Once more we were able to see how much fun those five guys had on
stage. And this thing makes me very happy – they are enjoying the concerts in
2017! They laugh, they talk to each other and even Fletch is involved – back in
2013 it sometimes looked as if there was some kind of ice age between Dave and
Andy.
After Personal Jesus, our
personal heroes waved to the audience for a last time and then disappeared into
the night. Thanks for a very good and
entertaining evening, Depeche Mode. And hey – thank you, Nice for letting us
walk all the way back to the beach, because there was just a handful of busses
shuttling. It was a quite unusual location – with a band in a very good mood, a
(in my opinion) pretty cool setlist (okay, it's exactly the same one as the
played the previous nights), with too few toilets and beer stands and to pricey
drinks. Did I miss something? Oh, of course: It was way to silent, especially
in the beginning of the concert. Pump up the volume, guys ;)
Carsten - 2nd from right
In the end it was a very special night with the band who are
responsible for the soundtrack of my life and with some of my very best
friends. Nice, France – we'll return, I promise! Or as Dave Gahan would
probably say: See You Next Time!!
