Depeche Mode in Manchester, November 17 or Takeover by Manuel

It took a while but finally I got the reviews of Manuel for Manchester and Birmingham.
He is a big Manchester fan how you will find out if you read his lines.
Unfortunately this is a review without a Happyend, but I think this have to be part of my blog as well like happy stories.

Manuel:
Wow! What a weekend in Manchester. If only the concert wouldn't have taken place.
We arrived in my favourite city in the world already on Thursday morning, coming in directly from Dublin. I was still so disappointed because Depeche Mode had dropped my favourite song "I Feel You" from the setlist and that usually means that it’s gone for the rest of the tour, at least. Even the night and my morning run down by the Liffey could not improve my mood.
Just arrived in Manchester we picked up my father-in-law who joined us for the three days in beautiful and interesting Manchester.
Firstly we had to cross the German Christmas market to get a coffee at the Sculpture Cafe inside of the Town Hall. A really nice place to be with (as you should have guessed) a lot of sculptures including great Mancunians such as conductor Barbirolli and the physicians Joule (not kcal) and Dalton.
After a visit at the newly renovated Cathedral including an impressive new Organ we rushed to the Bridgewater Hall for a classical concert. An orchestra of 94 musicians and a choir of about 150 singers performed Wagner (Tannhäuser), Strauss and Verdi. That was awesome. Huge, huge, huge.
On friday morning the two lawyers of us went to the royal criminal court for a hearing at which a man was accused of raping his wife. We saw only 1.5 hours of a proceeding of several days, but it was so interesting how  English courts work including the jurors, wigs, technical and procedural issues.
The bus brought us directly to the Museum of Science and Industry where we saw spinning engines, old power engines and trains.
After a snack at the beautiful and typically English Richmond Tea Room we rushed to the Manchester Arena. Our first time after the serious terror attack in April at the Ariana Grande gig (you still can see a part of the demolished foyer under cover). Due to the bad setlist swap we changed our standing tix for seaters and sat still during the show. "It’s no good" is still an improvement compared to "So much love" although it’s a tragedy that the Global Spirit Tour has now only three songs from "Spirit" (compared to five from "Ultra"). "Useless" again was great including the video which was obviously taken in at least five shots as you can see by the by the pages dropped down in at least five different positions. The first change compared to Dublin hurted me again: When "Precious" started I thought that also "In Your Room" had to leave the set. Martin performed "Insight" which touched me deeply. Tears poured from my eyes. Then "In Your Room" made it back in the set and I started to find new hope. But that was completely destroyed when "Everything Counts" started: I really love the new version, such a great track and an everlasting hymn from the 80s. But that meant that my favourite track No. 2 ("Wrong") also flew away. That broke me completely. Then also "Halo" had to step back for the more-than-necessary-played "Stripped". Although in my ears it’s a bad change I found a new glimpse of hope for "I Feel You". That was finally destroyed when "A Question Of Time" started. Again I had tears in my eyes, only this time not ones of joy but of deep pain. In that moment emotionally the tour was over for me. We cancelled 16 shows and swapped all other standing tickets for seaters since then.

Even my next  run at Heaton Park and a relaxing day in Manchester could not change my mood. As we went to the Imperial War Museum at the Salford Quays my mood further saddened, it’s quite a depressing exhibition with movies of children at war; also a piece of the World Trade Center is shown there.

Finally we had burgers at Jamie Oliver’s Italian, a restaurant located in a former bank. Downstairs you can see the old vault, during the restoration for the restaurant they have found the original master tapes of Joy Division and early New Order.


Thank you Manuel for writing, I'm sure it was not easy for you to write this lines.
I feel with you, because until the Cologne concert I was nearly in the same situation. Not because not played favorite songs but I did not feel the same enthusiasm anymore. I did not get access.
I thought about canceling the tour and in Bratislava and London I cried a few times because of the idea of giving up something I did and loved more than half of my life. So I can feel your pain, Manuel, and it is touching me very deep. I know you since 2001 and you was always an important part of my tours, meeting you everywhere on the world.
Luckily we became friends and we will see each other again and again, even without Depeche Mode, but I'm really sad about your feelings.