LIVE REVIEW: DEPECHE MODE, BARCLAYCARD ARENA, HAMBURG, 11 JANUARY 2018

This whole project relies entirely on people being kind enough to help me out by taking time out of their otherwise busy lives to write reviews and it's something that I'm beyond grateful for. The original reviewer for this gig Natalie Gladkaya was sadly unwell and couldn't make the Hamburg show - hope you feel better soon Natalie. I had to find a replacement and it wasn't until the gig had basically started that I got not one but three: Claudia Schulzi, Thomas Ostermann and Michael Pinzon. Thomas messaged me on Facebook and said the three of them could cover the gig and that was superb news. Happily I got to meet them in Amsterdam at the weekend to say thanks. The review is a wonderful read. Thanks so much to Claudia, Thomas and Michael for stepping in at the last minute, for the review and for the pictures too.

The world we live in and live Hamburg - review by Thomas Ostermann, Michael Pinzon and Claudia Schulzi

The tour started again two days ago in Copenhagen and we all are happy to meet up again in Hamburg. Ohst and me we met the first time in 2001 and we met Michael the first time on the Delta Machine tour.

Sometimes the chemistry works and we three are like the Stooges.

We were almost in the arena, as we read, that David didn't have a reviewer for the Hamburg concert and we decided  to takeover David's blog for Hamburg.

So here we are in the train to Amsterdam with the first wine of the day and start to write this blog.

Hamburg was always a good Depeche Mode location. They recorded the genius video there, "The World We Live In And Live In Hamburg" on December 14, 1984.

Schulzi was there, she saw Depeche Mode including this concert 9 times, Thomas 5 concerts, Michael 3.

Now is time to answer some questions. We are only allowed one sentence answers.

Depeche Mode:

Thomas: What can I say?

Michael: Oh Shit!

Schulzi: Can't live without them

Dave Gahan:

Thomas: strongest man of the universe

Michael: best ramp pig of the world, in German we say Rampensau

Schulzi: love of my life

Martin Lee Gore:

Thomas: „Spielführer“

Michael: Martin, my genius

Schulzi: he wrote the soundtrack of my life but I have a split relationship to him, a kind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Fletch:

Thomas: my personal highlight of this tour

Michael: my secret hero

Schulzi: the one and only

Peter Gordeno:

Thomas: are you kidding me?

Michael: unfortunately he is in

Claudia: who?

Christian Eigner:

Thomas: Trommelkasper

Michael: I like him

Schulzi: Mr. Fletcher shook out hands in Torino in the band hotel, Mr. Eigner didn't want to do a picture with us there, that's all I have to say about him

Hamburg:

Thomas: The fishmarket, "Schlagermove", friends and very good concerts of Depeche Mode

Michael: Elphi, Manja, miniature wonderland

Schulzi: lived there a year, not my mentality, but always good concerts of Depeche Mode

Barclaycard Arena:

Thomas: best organisation of the whole tour

Michael: best organisation ever

Schulzi: well organized arena, such a good FOS area, good sound

Audience in Hamburg:

Thomas: not like the Hesse, but quite good

Michael: very good

Schulzi: I'm a bit surprised, we could walk to row 5 after the first five songs

Best Song Of The Evening:

Thomas: Everything Counts

Michael: Cover Me

Schulzi: Personal Jesus

Worst Song Of The Evening:

Thomas: Precious

Michael: Barrel Of A Gun

Schulzi: Precious

Going Backwards:

Thomas: great opener

Michael: I love it

Schulzi: Mr. Gahan comes on the stage, best moment

Cover Me:

Thomas: highlight

Michael: my secret highlight

Schulzi: what a performance, show all what Mr. Gahan can do. Best frontman of the world for ever and ever.

Home:

Thomas: thank you for bringing me here

Michael: for showing me home

Schulzi: for singing these tears

Everything Counts:

Thomas: I love this song from the first moment I heard it. 1983 my brother played a self recorded tape, altough he hates Depeche Mode

Michael: I was surprised that they play this song again, my highlight

Schulzi: my hymn

Special moments of the evening:

Dave greeted the fans twice, after Barrel Of A Gun the first time and again after World In My Eyes. Very funny moment as he said it again: Good evening Hambuuuurg!

World In My Eyes : the screening was longer than normal.

Dave was in an unbelievable mood, he smiled the whole evening.

As they left the stage Dave clapped Andy's ass. The mood was very good on stage.

In total conclusion a very very good concert, a great comeback.

After the concert we were on the Aftershow Party in the Markthalle with DJ Niggels.

We all are happy to be on tour again and looking forward to this wonderful year with Depeche Mode.

Only one hour ago from Amsterdam we looking forward to meet you, David.... almost predictable.

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Thanks very, very much Claudia, Thomas and Michael

LIVE REVIEW: DEPECHE MODE, SCHLEYERHALLE, STUTTGART, 28 NOVEMBER 2017

This review has been written by Thomas Ostermann, a chap who has seen more Depeche gigs on this tour alone that I have in my entire life. Thomas takes us on a trip through his Depeche Mode life from his early days as a bootleg collector up to the Schleyerhalle gig on 28 November. He's been to more gigs since then of course including Paris on 3 December when I happily had the chance to say hello to him. Thanks for this Thomas and thanks for the superb pictures too.

Depeche Mode live Stuttgart: from "A Break In Stuttgart" to the Global Spirit Tour

Let me introduce to myself: my name is Thomas Ostermann. I live in Germany near Frankfurt and I am hopelessly devoted to Depeche Mode. My first contact with Depeche Mode was in 1983 by a tape which my older brother copied to me. I was impressed by a song and years later I realized that it was my all time favorite Everything Counts. In 1987 I got my first record of Depeche Mode at Christmas: it was the blue vinyl of the Intercord Release of Music for the Masses. My first concert of Depeche Mode was during the World Violation Tour in 1990. I visited the show in Hannover (9th October 1990). It was a sunny Tuesday in October and I will never forget this day.

The beginning of the end:

After my first show I was so overcome I couldn’t remember what had happened. Which songs had they played? What was the order of the songs? And how amazing was the version of Everything Counts? In those days there was no internet, no Facebook or YouTube where you could watch recordings of those shows. I loved the versions of all the songs, but there was no chance to listen to them again. But in 1991 the unbelievable happened: a German record company called “Disc-Center” sold an double CD with a recording of the tour. The album Une nuit a la mode was a recording of the World Violation show the band played in November 1990 in Milan. The quality was not the best as it was an audience recording, but for me it was the beginning of a never ending love. In 1992 I started to collect recordings of every show Depeche Mode played in the past and I ended up with nearly 500 tapes from different shows in different qualities. Every year I tried to listen to one of those tapes on exactly the day when the show happened. I think I would have been a great nominee for the German TV-Show “Wetten dass?!?”. I could listen to 5 seconds of a tape and tell everyone, which tour, which date and which city it was from.

Thomas' wall of tapes

But the most import question is: what has this all to do with a review of the show in Stuttgart last week? Back in my tape collecting days, I received a recording of the World Violation show (15th October 1990). The highlight of the recording was a power cut during Shake The Disease. The complete PA was down and Dave sung the song acapella with the audience. Later the show was released on a bootleg CD called A Break In Stuttgart. Both items (Tape/DAT and CD) are still in my collection and while writing these lines I feel the to listen to it again.

Stuttgart in the 80s and 90s was the German home of Depeche Mode because their record company Intercord was located there. For me and my friends it was our duty to get to this arena and city on the all tours. During the Devotional Tour, I visited the Schleyerhalle in Stuttgart for the first time. It was an amazing show and I will never forget the moment when Dave pulled a fan out of the audience with words “I see this guy every night”. Does anyone knows the guy?

The past tours:

On the following tours The Singles Tour (23 September 1998), Exciter Tour (03 October 2001), Playing The Angel (9 March 2006) and Tour Of The Universe (8 November 2009) I always went to Stuttgart to see Depeche Mode in the Schleyerhalle. On the Delta Machine Tour, Depeche Mode played for the first time in the Stadium “Mercedes Benz Arena” and had no show in the Schleyerhalle. 

The Schleyerhalle in 2017: 

The show in Stuttgart was my 37th show of the Global Spirit Tour. I arrived at the arena at 7 pm and met some friends. When we entered the arena we tried to reach the Front Of Stage Area. The support act had already finished their show and the DJ set was still running. But there was no entry. The staff told us that they had no wrist bands left and so we couldn't get into the Front Of Stage area. The organization was unbelievable: about 100 people had tickets and got no entry? After a while they got a few wristbands and we could finally enter the area. Unfortunately the Front Of Stage section was too full. Ticketmaster sold some spare tickets a few days before the show. Perhaps not just to make not only a lot of money but to make tons of money instead?

The show started a few minutes later with the first intro of the The Beatles Revolution and then the Cover Me intro joining Going Backwards. It's No Good was very powerful and Dave welcomed the crowd with an emotional “Good evening, Stuttgart”. The rest of the show was the standard setlist of the winter tour. Unfortunately the band played Halo only during the Dublin show.

The sound was very powerful and clear, but the crowd was in my opinion very boring. I finally saw movements in the Front of Stage section during Everything Counts. I heard some other opinions to the show, but I think it is often a personal point of view.

Finally I was happy to visit this show. In the end it was a solid performance of the band, but not my personal highlight of the current tour.

Setlist:
Into
Going backwards
It’s no good
Barrel of a gun
A pain that I am used to
Useless
Precious
World in my eyes
Cover me
Insight
Home
In your room
Where’s the revolution?
Everything counts
Stripped
Enjoy the silence
Never let me down again

Encore:
Strangelove
Walking in my shoes
A question of time
Personal jesus---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks Thomas!