The Depeche Mode " Delta Machine tour" Summary or " I just can't get enough"!

Now, I'm ten days back at home.

Life is going on and I feel happy. I experienced so many things in the last year, I saw wonderful places, enjoyed great concerts, met so many nice people.

Now I have to ease down all the experiences. That takes time, I know that from past tours.

Since the last concert in Moscow I wasn't able to hear a Depeche Mode song.
That takes time, too.

I'm very grateful for touring with the Delta Machine tour.

It is time for a little summary.

A few weeks before the press conference in October 2012, I broke my left leg.
It was a very complicated fracture and I was forced to stay 3 month at home and go on crutches.

At this time I heard the first rumors about a new album of Depeche Mode, an upcoming press conference and an upcoming tour in 2013.

I got a massive panic attack, because I couldn't imagine to be fit enough for the press conference or the tour in 2013.

But I got the chance to go to the press conference in Paris and with a little help from a few friends
we drove at a wonderful Monday with 5 persons ( including me and my crutches) to Paris by car.
The press conference was a day later and I was so happy to be there, to be a part from the beginning of this Delta Machine tour, although no one knew at this moment the name of the upcoming new album including Depeche Mode.
Dave looked so healthy, wow, unbelievable. After the press conference the tour was announced and the ticket sale for a few concerts started just in the minute the conference ended.
Due to another two friends, we got the first tickets!!!

Thank you Elvis, Heike, Frank, Simone, Arkadi & Martin!!!

Back home my disaster with my leg turned into a fortune to all of us.
I had the ability to sit every day, every minute in front of the computer, I spent so many hours in the f***ing Net to book tickets for the concerts, to reserve hotel rooms, to check the best travel route, to buy flights and train tickets and so on.

On christmas I got well and started to work like a maniac to finance the tour.
Between two tours I save so lot money I can for the next tour but this time I had not enough because the broken leg. And I worked and worked and then I arranged my absence. Life had to go on when I was on tour.

Thank you Anton & Paul for your understanding.
Thank you Stefan, Ulrike, Martin, Nino & Thierry for helping me at home during the tour.


The release date of the album came ( March 22) and with the date a competition.
Electronic Beats started a competition : you had to describe your work as a fan reporter for Depeche Mode. You could give in pictures, videos or what you want to explain why you had to go to a special launch event of Depeche Mode in Vienna where they would present a few of the new songs live.

Wow, I wanted to win and I took a video where you can see the hysteric fan on one side and the cool fan reporter on the other side, both rolls were played by me. My sons played "People are People" on tuba and euphonium. My friend Christian directed and filmed the video.
Thank you guys!!!
I won!!! Yeah!!!


http://youtu.be/-Qa08frEkr0

Two days before I went to Vienna I met with my friend Martin and we heard " Delta Machine" the first time.
I was so pleasantly surprised by this record. Since " Exiter" this was the best album for me.
Great songs like " Secret to my end", " " Broken", " Alone". Wow.

And then on Sunday ( March 24) I saw Depeche Mode in Vienna live. It was an unbelievable feeling to see them again on stage since my last concert in Dusseldorf 2010. At that time I thought it is over, I will see them never again on stage....
Sometimes it comes out differently than expected. Fortunately!!!

I met so many friends at the Launch event and my anticipation of the tour began to rise.
And the time started to run so quick, in the next moment the tour started with the warm-up gig in Nice. The weather, the city, the concert.... everything was perfect.
The new set list, it was an unforgettable day for me and a perfect prelude of a wonderful amazing tour.

You can read it here on my blog.

I booked 58 concerts but two shows were cancelled ( Istanbul and Lille).
I saw 56 concerts in 23 countries.
In Barcelona I celebrated my Birthday with Depeche Mode and some good friends! What a present!

I wanted to see 60 concerts this tour but as the two shows were cancelled I knew I will never reach this aim. So I saw 56 concerts of Depeche Mode on one tour the third time in my life ( on the " Music for the masses "tour and on " the Playing the angel" tour, too).
So it seemed to be a special number for me, don't know why.
I was 87 days on the road, 78 times I slept in a hotel room, I flew 36 times, went by train 35 times, 16 times by car, 4 by bus, one by taxi, drank 420 liters of beer.
I had no pain because my broken leg. I forgot that it was broken, what a luck!!!

I met so many nice friends, fans, people from all over the world, some of them twice, some more.
I deepened friendships, I made new friends and I lost some friends. But I want miss all the experiences I made on the tour.

The best concert for me was in the summer in Rome.
Two days before I saw the concert in Milan with three very good friends and we were sure, no concert could  ever be better than Milan, but Rome could.
In Rome I had a moment where I thought, " when my life is ending now, it will be o.k.!"

So my number two is Milan in the summer and my number three is Milan in the winter.
It is difficult to say why a concert is one of the best. The mood of the band specially of Mr. Gahan is very important for me, the mood of the audience is very important, too and last but not least the own constitution!!!!
Helpfull is the spirit in your travel group, but I'm not a team player.
I like it to have fun on the concerts with my friends or other people, but most imported is the concert, Mr. Gahan and I!
In Milan in winter a storm swept over us ( figuratively speaking), but it is my number three!

The summer tour was better because I like outdoor concerts and the setlist was better and longer.
The whole winter tour I missed my favorite song of the tour" Secret to my end".

I saw wonderful cities, some of them not the first time.
Favorite cities are Rome, Bologna, Kiev, St. Petersburg, Belfast, Dublin and Barcelona.
I slept in great hotels, if you are in Rome look for the St. Anna Hotel, in Belfast for the Tara Lodge,
in Barcelona for the Music Boutique Hotel, in London for the King William Hotel.

My favorite journey was the Italian tour in Winter, I will never forget the day in the stadium of Turin, one of the happiest days in my life.

But every journey was special and I will thank you all my travel mates or people I met on this great tour. From time to time I will remember one of you, I'm sure.

I will thank you Martin, Anton, Paul, Ulrike, Arkadi, Wilfried, Myriam, Cono,Fabian, Andreas, Heike, Elvis, Klaudija, Mirko, Lars, Sven, Ulrich, Frank, Simone, Sylvia, Claudia, Melanie, Kai, Peter, Ohst, Viol,Heike, Jaqueline, Jenny,
Patrick, Dirk, Brit,Mor Amor, Björn, Uwe, Cori, Manuel, Sabine, Mike, Sandy, Thomas, Timo, Miriam, Markus, Andy, Julia, Tanja, Anette, Nancy, Frank, Steffi, Alessandro, Cecilia, Pat, Cathi, Sven, Adil, Jean George, Saliha, Hauke and many many more.
Drinking, singing and dancing with you all over Europe, what a pleasure!!!!!!!

In Dusseldorf, first concert in the summer, I took my children the first time with me to a Depeche Mode concert. It was a wonderful evening for us, they liked it and we waved together our arms to " Never let me down", amazing!

I think the best moment with friends was the second Paris concert in winter with my friends Martin, Wilfried and Myriam. It was such a feeling of happiness, unique in life and I will never forget my whole life. The emotions overwhelm me when I'm thinking to it.

I had the honor to meet Vince Clarke in Madrid, so fantastic. Thank you, Pat!!!

I could say so much more, I will miss to write this blog and if you like I will tell you stories from past concerts from time to time.
This site had more than 8000 guests. Thank you!!!

And I had to thank you, Depeche Mode, for the great concerts and the unbelievable long tour.

In the beginning there was rumors that the tour will end in the summer of 2014.
There was no statement of you why the tour ended now and why you didn't play in South America.
You began in a unbelievable good mood. At the end it was only a sad imitation.
The atmosphere on stage was so bad, I couldn't understand.
On the last concert in the last sound of " Precious", Dave acted as he was going to shoot the small white dog on the video screen. He shot my hope for an upcoming tour.
Although Martin Gore thanked Dave before the last song started, I had no hope for a future of Depeche Mode.
Maybe they have only a tour depression. I had a tour burn out two weeks before the tour ended and they made 70 concerts more than me, but I saw profound aversion between them.

We have to wait, the time will bring it with you.
I'm sure to see Dave Gahan on a solo tour and I'm looking forward to this.

I like to thank David Gahan, because he is my Personal Jesus, for the unbelievable and unforgettable moments he gave to me ( specially in Bremen!!!). His movements, his singing, the whole performance.
He is the best, the best, the best.....

And I want to end with a few words from the song which was one of the best of this tour:

" I just can't get enough" !!!!

See you next time!!!!!

Depeche Mode in Moscow or " Goodbye"

The train to Moscow was a very modern Intercity train like we know from Germany.

In less then four hours we reached Moscow, very tired but curious, too.

Due to our friend Arkadi, he is Russian, we found our hotel very fast.

It was a so called micro hotel, a hotel in a normal apartment building in a normal neighbourhood, not so central.

Our hotel was located in a poor neighbourhood, I, for one, thought that.

But Arkadi explained that it was a very ordinary area.

 I understood what he meant, as we went to the airport by train on the last day and went through the suburbia.

But inside: our hotel was great. Big rooms, clean, with all facilities you need!

But, no one at the reception could speak English!

And no street names or sub stations in Roman alphabet.

But after a day I was able to decipher the Cyrillic script.

Watch my first pictures from the skyline of Moscow.

Characteristic are the buildings in confectioner style!!

Altough we was very tired we went by the subway into the city of Moscow.

We heard that Depeche Mode will be part of a charity event in a big luxury department ( CUM) store in cooperation with the watch label Hublot.

Hublot created some watches with a Depeche Mode emblem.

The earned profit of this watches was distributed to a charity water organisation.

We found the entrance of the event where many very rich and stylish people 

were admitted. But fans were not invited .

But we snatched an advertising brochure for the event with pictures of Depeche Mode.

Better then nothing.

But Depeche Mode are now in-crowd.

I don't like that!!

After a short meal it was time for the red place.

What an unbelievable location, never saw something before.

Beautiful, really.

The red place is called red because the red buildings but red stand also for beautiful.

We visited the amazing Basilius Cathedral.

If you ever go to Moscow you have to visit this cathedral.

Then we made a stop in the luxury Gum,

a restored shopping mall in Art Nouveau.

Then it was time for dinner.

We found a restaurant which offered a hot and cold buffet, so I could point to what I want.

The Russian cuisine have many dishes with mushrooms and they make lot of different pickles, so if you are vegetarian, it isn't a problem in Russia.

After a digestion walk we met some friends.

It was our next-to-last evening on tour and as I fell into my bed in our hotel

the sadness took possession of me.

CUM

one of the few signs in Roman alphabet

 The rising gate is the entry of the Red Place

Bronze plaque on the ground

in front of the gate, a kind of

zero-point of all streets in whole Russia!!

Museum of History

Cathedral of the MotherGod of Kasan

Wall of the Kremlin

                                                               
                                                                 Basilius Cathedral

Inside:

GUM

Bolschoi Theatre

Next morning after a good breakfast with blinys ( small  pancakes)

we visited the Kremlin.

Wow, wonderful churches with the gravesites of tsars and

grand dukes.

Unfortunately it wasn't allowed to take pictures

inside the churches.

It was so funny, we met some friends, fans of depeche Mode, too, at the entrance of the Kremlin.

Sometimes the world is small.

The weather was great, there was a winter?

It was 8 degrees celsius, that was unbelievable for Russia in March.

For me, there was no winter this year, in January I was in Spain, in February in Italy.

No winter depression this year!

We strolled through Moscow and two hours before the concert we had a last dinner together.

We went by the subway to the concert hall.

The stations are not so deep under the earth like in St. Petersburg but a few of them looked like a lobby of a palace.

Komsomolskaja station

And then it was concert time for the last time of the Delta Machine Tour.

Heartache.

The Olimpiiski is a large indoor arena and is divited into two separated halls.

Depeche Mode payed in one part of this arena.

Maybe 20000 people saw the last concert.

We bought our last merchandise t-shirts, because the merchandise is different from the rest of the world because the tariff regulations.

Bummer!! My last concert and there was no beer.

At the bar they had a few sorts of hard liquor but no beer.

So I drank a brown rum.

The atmosphere was much better than in St. Petersburg but no comparison with Italy.

I went alone to the third row,  a last concert is a special event, I have to do it all alone.

I could not say much about this concert, it was passing like a daydream.

I cannot speak about it.

There was no set change, only Martin sang " Judas" as his third song.

As he was on the catwalk fans gave him a bouquet of flowers and he laughed with all body.

It was the evening before the International Women's Day, which is in Russia a big holiday!

Before they started with " Never let me down" Dave thanked the crew and the fans.

His voice broke a little bit.

This was a very emotional moment.

Everything has an end and it is more than justice that 

the last concert ( maybe forever) ended with " Never let me down".

It's logically.

I cannot share this moment, I will keep this moment forever in my heart.

I needed a few minutes after the concert before I went to my friends.

The boys went to the Aftershow party, I met another friends from Cologne and the USA and we had a few last beer together in a small nice bar and reminisced.

That was good for calming down.

I came in the middle of the night back to my hotel and grabbed the suitcase and 

allowed myself a last beer and a last cigarette.

At 11 o'clock in the morning I met my friends and we went by subway and train to the Domodedovo

Airport and waited on our aircraft.

There isn't to say much more.

We arrived in Dusseldorf in the early afternoon and went by train to Cologne.

Cologne received me with an early spring and I was happy to be back home.

Stay tuned for a complete review and some statistics!!!