To: my.list@co.uk Subject: I've got foetus on my breath Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 08:52:56 PDT Friday 4th September 1998 hi all sorry for worrying some of you with the ol' silence. even though I can get onto the internet for an indeterminale amount of time I've not had a chance to write up a big email cos I've been too zonked to do so. Basically I'm all okay ! I've still got a lot of memoirs etc to fill you in on. I'll recount the last few days. I won't tell you about the NottingHill carnival just yet as that needs some more work. though essentially for last sat-mon I was constantly on the go and was out dancing every night. check out : http://www.nottinghillcarnival.net.uk/ for an idea...... OKay in my room, all the australian and italian girls have left to escape the madness..... "but I don't want to be where the mad people are" said Alice. "Oh but you must do, otherwise you wouldn't be here" replied the Mad Hatter. the room now contains : me - yup me ! andrew johnston - guy from perth who works for KRAFT just down the road. we get on like a house on fire. paedophile jokes are the usual order of the day and we expend quickfire meaningless babble which only a privileged few can understand darren mckinnon - a canuck who's here to start up a rickshaw business. I have got a job with BT internet. It was supposed to start 2 weeks ago but funnily enough they don't have enough free time and resources to train new inductees......so last night I helped him out in Leicester Square and will do so today. alan tahana - a maori sound tech guy from home. He'd worked on just about every big NZ concert and has stories to tell, he's doing sound for Cliff Richard and Depeche Mode next month and has stories to tell about Prince which I'll hopefully have time to tell you in a moment. OKay where shall I start ? Well after the carnival which finished on Monday (a public bank holiday - I dunno what that entails either) and solemnly saying goodbye to some french and italian people I'd spent time with I pottered around for a while. Wednesday I thought I'd better head to Kensington Palace, and I tried not to get swept up in it but I did. I was standing with about 300 people, of which only 10-20% were crying, I got tearful by simply picking up on the emotions on the letters and messages left there. Someone had written down the final line from Shawshank Redemption "sometimes you have to let a friend go............I guess I just miss my friend". I took a photo of it, had 2 shots left so took two hopefully classy shots of me lying on the grass. Last night on Thursday I walked to town (about an hour) to help out with Darren to help pull rickshaws. The idea of cash in hand after each day was a ncie thought. I got there at 7pm but couldn't see him so went to a local theatre and saw a lot of photographers etc. It was the opening preview of the newly remastered Laurel and Hardy "Way Out West". SO SOD the job ! I whipped out..........the only thing I had on me, a pen and a london map ! A few people came and went, some I knew others I didn't until it was explained to me...... autographs I managed to get were : lionel blair "very quickly then" tamara beckworth (London socialite) gordon kay (rene from Allo Allo - and yes his scar is actually quite distinct and visible). "excuse me, could I get your autograph once you've finished your fag ?" "you might be waiting a while here hold my hat. In fact they have a stack of them inside go in and ask...." (I went inside but they would let me have a sounvenir bowler hat). Carmen [?] the lady that plays his wife in Allo Allo. I missed Barry Cryer, David Yip [?] (The Chinese Detective) about 3 others and missed out this guy from "Auf Weidersehen Pet", though some might remember him from various Blackadders, for example : Blackadder 1. The Spanish Infanta. Blackadder is about to marry Mary Applebottom when her husband bursts in. BA: and who might you be ? AB: I be Mr. Applebottom. ... ... Mrs AB : ehhh, why did you do that for I was about to marry a Prince!? AB : aarr, that not be the Prince of Wales, that be the Earl of Doncaster !! ho ho !! Anyway I had some nice chats to some locals. A guy had got Richard O'Briens's in the supermarket earlier. I got talking to a lady who'd just returned from NZ. I started work at 10pm and finished at 12:15. Some people are disheartening as they turn their nose up at me when I ask them if they need a ride, or a rickshaw.......the price seems to put them off as well (2 UKP a block). A lot of people try to be funny, luckily I know London pretty well so know what to say if they want a ride home back to Finsbury or whatever (about 2 hour walk away) and stepped in a few times to help out Darren who knows London only a little. I give 2 homeless drunks a freebie ride and I get a swig of his lager in return. A crazy flower lady jumps on so I give her a freebie around the sqaure as well and try to help her sell some roses but we seem to scare a lot of people......she gives me a quid anyway, if I make 2 UKP tonight I am happy cos that'll pay for my bus ride home. I pick a teenage guy a ride up to Tottenham Court road, he offers 6 UKP but I just take 4 UKP. The road is packed so I decide to take a shortcut (ha ha ha) through Soho and Chinatown and garner some advertising and some bewildered looks. I tell all my passengers that I'll only take them if they put on Airs and Graces and look down their noses at everyone. I drop him off and we spend 15 minutes talking about video games etc. I've not done aerobic exercise for a long time but am ok once I reach my peak and can feel the fat peeling off me (i'm back to a healthy 57kg now!) My stomach hurts a bit cos I ain't eaten much today either. Soho is fun and full of one way streets - doh ! On the way back I give two dashing guys a ride, it seemed like a short distance at first but they extend it out and give me 7 UKP for my time. They were jazz musicians and also english school teachers and invite me to their club one day.... I pass through the sex scummed streets of Soho and talk to a pedicycle guy. On one corner some black teenage girls have just got out so I take one around the block, and then again..... she hands her camera to a guy nearby who takes a photo then gets closer and positions her and puts her feet up on the rickshaw seat and takes another photo, she then gets closers and makes a grab for her chest so it's time for me to go round again, and just in time to witness a fight right in front of us, a white guy is bending a black guy over a black fencey thingie on the side of the road and punching him in the chest and face. The police come and there are no arrests and the two friends walk away. I finally head back to Leicester Square, the guys were wondering where I'd got to, when we're heading back home we give some black guys a ride to the station. We park the rickshaws and I get a coke, the first sip puts my emancipated stomach into a short spasm and I need to sit down. We don the bus and leaning against the window we recuperate. I wonder what Friday night tonight will hold ? To: carnival.co@co.uk Subject: ....intimacy...... Date: Mon, 07 Sep 1998 07:49:00 PDT 4th September - 7th September 1998 well I'm 2 weekends behind in event updates but I'll quickly have to rundown what I was up to this weekend. The timeline out of order now and some of these emails will mention characters that I would have introduced in earlier emails which I'm still working on etc Okay on Friday I did rickshaw work again from 8pm-11:30pm and made 25 UKP, the weather was very wet so it wasn't so good. I got totally soaked but my greatest fear was the map with the autographs on it. NO PROBLEM ! I gave the flower lady a ride again - I know who she reminds me of, Queenie from Black Adder II !! She gave me two roses to give to two girls in return. My longest ride was from Soho to Convent Garden !! Well Saturday : I am excited, Anna-Maria is back today. I'm expecting her at 8pm but she actually pops in at 8am ! She does some visiting and I head to get some film developed - no go, the cheap store is closed. I'm wearing shorts and jandals and it pisses down again. It's not wasted as I head off to NottingHillGate for a little look around the music stores and find the odd gems. At night we are supposed to go with Jackie and some french people to EL METRO latin salsa club etc like last weekend (which I've still got to tell you about). We being : me, Alan, Anna-Maria and Monica; chinese, maori, italian, south african. Jackie has damaged her foot so can't come so we all head off anyway. The french people get bored at 9pm so head off and giving Monica who is a human dynamo on the dancefloor a fireman's lift around the Hammersmith area I find them. The french people rudely push on ahead and go to Earl's Court for coffee. We don boots and decide to walk in that general direction too. We grab some food at a pakistani cafe-ish sort of thing and look for a club, but no go, so we head back and sit in the park next door talking and chewing on chocolate bars. On return to the hostel at 1:30am we meet James an englishman in the stairwell he lost his wallet but John allows him to crash here we end up chatting for a while until 3am. Me and Alan retire and spend till 5am reading and talking about music and quizzing each other on disco hits, and NZ clubs and hot chocolate. who sung "forget me nots" ? On Sunday I hung around the hostel away from the rain, I was wanting to go to the indian festival but no go. Plus my camera battery is getting really low. Andy has been a bit low so I buy him some Severed Heads cds. The girls leave tomorrow so at night as a final fling we all head off to the Walkabout pub down the road - it's a long a tortuous progress waiting for everyone to get ready but finally we make it there partially.....someone still isn't about so Alan offers to walk back. The next ten minutes are hellish for me as I anxiously wait for the others to come. I hit the dancefloor anyway with Monica and eventually everyone turns up in time for the darn good covers band and we all rage out !! For me and Al it's the first time we've done some furious dancing and everyone is dripping by the end of the night. I'm picking up on everyone's elses energy !!! On the dancefloor I catch up with another nzer Mark Thompson and our groups join forces in time for a Rage Against The Machine cover version........ The pub closes at 10:30pm, yup that's what happens here and we grab a bite to eat. I try to take another photo but the battery stuffs up the film and rewinds it so hopefully the 6 shots on it so far are ok. We head back and I give Anna-Maria a cd I've been holding on to and we all retire. Today we all hug and kiss and say goodbye. This morning I finished Amy Tan's "A Hundred Secret Senses" the park, sharing it with 2 drunks. It seems apt for this day.... To: good.men@baha.co.uk Subject: treats for my sweets (that's you!!) Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1998 20:16:07 PDT hi guys well I've not been able to log on for a longish time on the net so I've only been to send out little bursts of a to only a few of you. You're in for a treat cos I've written up 6 parts of my diary which should be with you in 1-2 weeks, I am having a great deal of fun writing them up for you so I hope you enjoy them. Right now it's Monday Morning 3:30am and I am on the computer with Alan next to me sending an email to Brazil. Today I got up late and went for a walk around the area. This evening me, Andy and ALan went to the Walkabout and indulged in some Snakebites. Alan attracted the attentions of a young lady and I was accosted by our other roommates, a big italian south african bloke called Vito. We got to the pub near the end of the evening so being all energetic blokes we hit the dancefloor with our legion of FEMALE fans behind us. "SORRY" said the bouncer, "no pets allowed" so I had to say goodbye to my newly acquired Lassie lookalike companion. woof I was nicely surprised to see a young aborigine girl there. Suffice to say it was a typical covers band more on the punkyside and I greatly enjoyed the Rage Against The Machine and Green Day (Longview ! YAY !) tracks. When I got home and looked in the mirror I realised I had acquired a blood nose and the bruise on my right cheek was starting to throb. Don't worry, I didn't get a knock on the nose, it probably just happened. On Saturday after a VERY interesting Friday night we all got back at and hit the sack at 4am. I was awoken at 9:30am by a "GEEZ YOU GUYS ARE LAZY BUGGERS!! " or something similar. I looked up and it looked like someone I had the day before. I put on my glasses. It looked familiar....Sean Lennon ? I shook its hand and after a minute realised it was my step-brother Justin who'd just arrived in the country. Five minutes later : ""£$%^&* YOU GUYS *&^%$£ ARE LAZY *(&£$&)£ BUGGERS!! " Yes again, a blonde aussie girl comes in to say goodbye to us all. When Justin came back at 11am when I asked him to we headed off in the rain (yes the legendary english weather has started now) to Portobello Markets. He said he'd done most other touristy things already. We ate and drank well along the way. I picked up a long sleeved Manic Street Preachers tshirt for 2 UKP. [to those in the know tell me if you want these : suede - beautiful ones black XL short sleeve mighty mighty bosstones - wake up call EUROPEAN tour tshirt L with rooster on the front lard cheese phil collins - into the light tour sweatshirt] Our time together ended round 5pm and I headed back to the hostel. Whilst wolfing down some food and getting annoyed by a young french guy here who wants me to translate every bit of writing for him (it's a good thing there's no writing on toilet paper) I rushed off to the Empire venue just down the road as Gary Numan is playing tonight. ON the way out the door, Jackie says she's off to the salsa club again tonight and hands me some postcards for the Notting Hill Carnival that she held onto me 2 weeks ago that had been sitting in her jacket. Tickets sold out weeks ago. I know two people going to it so decide to try to catch them there. I didn't take a photo, but there was a massive crowd outside. The capacity of the venue is about 2000-3000. His fans are known are Numanoids and are generally lambasted by the musical press around here. The ages ranged from 12 to the 40s ! I caught up with Ant (him of the 80s nightclub) and we head into the local for a pint. Fortune smiles as he has a spare ticket which he gives me. So me with 3 postcards in my hand and a Manic Street Preachers tshirt get a place on the third level of the concert surrounded by a sea of Gary Numan tshirt wearers. Doors opened at 8pm. The support band was DOLLSHEAD. A US typical alternative band. The had a song on the Jackal Soundtrack very early in the piece. And that specific single was remixed by the Orb, apart from that there isn't anything stunning about them. http://www.dct.com/~wolfe/dollshead/ http://www.numan.co.uk/ They played for about 4 minutes and we all politely applauded after each song, though moement was minimal during their set. Well after 15 minutes the man comes on. His band comprises of 2 keyboardists, 2 guitarists and a drummer. First Nine Inch Nails connection : the guitarist looks vaguely familiar as he in his black shawl and fishnets bounds about the stage giving off a gracious amount of energy, very reminiscent of the guitarist for Nine Inch Nails. Well what can I say ? It was a great concert, every though there were no special effects it was exciting being there and picking up on the crowd reaction. I was overjoyed and punched the air when he sung "Everyday I Die". Just like Howard Jones all the songs have been updated from keyboard based to more thrashy guitarbased tunes with a modern beat behind it. Gary has dyed jet black hair and is wearing all black right down to his plasform shoes (notice that all rockstars are quite short a la Ringo etc). And he was doing a serious bit of headbanging ! As you may recall some weeks ago I told you about a BBC TV movie called "Hunting Venus" where the two stars from "Men Behaving Badly" play an 80s new romantic band reforming and playing a concerty with Duran Duran, Human League, Gary Numan etc. (Ant went to be an extra and got all their autographs, even the 2 girls from Human League, much to his delight). Well Gary introduces Martin Clunes, the one with big ears and who I'll always remember quoting : "I will be needing your clothes and your floppy hairdos" Yes, he came on dressed up and with a bass guitar and immediately launched into a fast blistering version of "Cars" ! Second Nine Inch Nails connection : Gary sings "Down In The Park" and I think of 2 things. - how cool it would be if he ever sung it on stage with Marilyn Manson, as Manson had covered this song a few years ago. Talking to some people afterwards, they actually said that he did come on stage and duet when Gary was in the US a few weeks before. - inbetween songs the crowd chants "NUMAN NUMAN" and I was reminded of the Auckland Manson concert where they chanted his name. And then I realised that it was something that was chantable ! Try to compare this to INXS, ZZ TOP etc which are difficult to say...... The final song was "Are Friends Electric?" which was altered so much I didn't recognise it until the fourth bar. During the chorus everyone follows suit and points to Gary in a sortof...well...pointing motion...... The three encores were : Me I Disconnect From You We Are So Fragile We Are Glass We all got out at 11:30pm and with about 20 other people we hung around for autographs ;-) I caught up with 2 south african autograph collecting brothers who were there for Ringo last time. The normal Numan fashion is for his bouncer to take all the articles to be signed and hand them back later so sure enough we handed over our items. I handed him my ticket and a Notting Hill Carnival postcard (I bet some of you were wondering why I mentioned that earlier, eh eh eh eh eh ?) After a while Martin Clunes actually comes out and I get his autograph as well on another postcard. And I find him a very friendly guy to talk to and down to earth. And that was that ! I headed back home and ally everyone's fears that I had been kidnapped etc as I said I'd only be gone for an hour. In my hand I clutched a handful of flyers for various forthcoming gigs. Next weekend arthouse theatre is having a 48 hour cult movie marathon. They'll be showing John Woo's "The Killer" so I'll be there !!! My next musical adventure will surely be Depeche Mode on the 30th September with the ticket I bought 2-3 months ago and the after gig function. Plus China Crisis at the Legendary Ronnie Scotts the week after.....then Front 242 a month after that. To: fast.times@leicester.square Subject: The Luck o th'Irish Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 19:57:23 PDT aka The fucks called the irish a tragi-comedy in 3 part disharmony ------------------------------------------- PRELUDE : A woman screams. a fat burly white guy holds a man across the chest and neck while his friend delivers several blows to his chest. the people in burger king right next door press their faces to the glass. a bouncer from a nearby club comes and restrains one of the men... The sound of breaking glass outside the square's male toilets. a black kid holds a broken bottle in his hand and points to the nearest white person near him.... ------------------------------------------- SCENE 1 : Everything's Coming Up Roses cast: darryl hema Saturday 12th September 2am hi there howsit going ? oh hi darryl it's okay ! sold many roses so far ? no, bit too cold so everyone's running for cover. it'll pick up at 3-4am when all the clubs close up... ...and when everyone's drunk ! yeah ! sheesh you work late, do you live close by ? i live near victoria... ...that's faraway ! luckily my boss lives close to me to he walks me back. how long does it take ? not long, about half an hour. I'm glad your boss is a great guy. i wouldn't like to walk along pall mall at night even though the police are always there. any luck hunting for commerce jobs - is it ? nothing yet. a bit of accounting as well. you know !! you have a great speaking voice perhaps you could do well to be on telly or radio or summat ! thanks ! that's nice of you to say so ! i am looking for work in media. one of the guys that pulls a rickshaw had an interview with the bbc last week for volunteer work for a film festival coming up soon in the square here, it may be a step into the biz, it is hard. yeah it is hard to get into it. i've heard media type are very temperamental and emotional, lots of crying and wailing and gnashing of the teeth..... it'll be fun won't it ? have you seen Frances about. a little while back from afar I saw a group of black kids go past her and one of them hit her on the head and she moved as fast as she could after them i had a feeling something was the matter. i don't see her now but she was looking upset and saying shit shit shit earlier what a great place london is it is pretty bad i normally get some assholes every night trying to grab a rose. from behind is the worst cos they normally knock me on the head well if you need a break, just like what I do for Frances you're welcome anytime for a freebie ride around the square and then you can act hoitytoity and look down on everyone and perhaps try to sell a rose okay thanks ! anyway i've not made a sale for an hour so i'd best be aggressive how much have you made so far ? i've sold 24 for 2 pound each so i keep one pound from each one. oh well i guess it averages out okay seeya see you darryl take care --------------------------------------- SCENE 2 : A SWEET T cast : darryl goth girl in fishnet clothing, black nails etc etc Saturday 12th September 2:15am so, are ya heading out clubbing now or you just finished ? we've just seen rocky horror ah yes i just spotted a guy before with a very big....pistol..... did you get soaked ? but of course ! it's my first time tonight actually so who's your favourite ? well as you can tell i love magenta but i do love the guy that does rocky... i saw it a few weeks ago and the guy that played him was a bit on the skinny side, i saw a lotta ribs and bones ! well actually he's not the sort of guys i go for oh yes and what sort of guys do you go for ? well orientals like you - gotta go now see you round seeya have uuummm...fun --------------------------------------- SCENE 3 : cast: darryl darren vito miss short blonde miss long brown miss short brown irishman with suit and bottle irishman with suit and without bottle Saturday 12th September 2:20am omigosh were you guys watching me the whole time ? yes of course we were - now stop chatting and do some work fuck you i'm resting now that was hard work ! goddaam lazy bastard ! only half an hour left thank goodness, man it's cold now. yup we've both got our jackets on and we can feel it too. thanks for that pizza it was great no problem my friend you saw it darren, we got a good deal - a lot of pizza yeah i had 2 pieces a bit cold but what the hey. shit i need a cigarette now how's the throat ? okay i guess i feel it a bit niggly. if i wrap up tonight i should be able to fend it off turn around you've got a customer excuse me could you take us for a ride ? what does it cost ? where would you ladies like to go ? i normally charge 2 quid for a blast around the square.... we wanna go to russell square i've heard of it but can't quite remember where it is it's far it's near the british museum oh yeah of course i walked along there a month ago. it would take about 20 minutes from here ! oh no only about 10 to 15 minutes oh isn't he cute i just love those glasses you girls sure know how to make a guy blush come on give us a ride and we'll pay you back plenty yes in fact we would like to kidnap you and take you home with us umm.... as much as i would like to be bound and gagged i think i'd better stay here cos that's my boss over there please take the lazy guy can we ? we will dear darren what can i do ? it's your call man okay why don't i just give you a short ride up to tottenham court road or as far as i can ? hey how much does this cost ? leave him be we're kidnapping him why don't you fuck off you fuckin' ugly bitch just fuck off will you, go away what the fuck are you fucking' pushing me for look show some respect to the ladies what the fuck are you doing hey leave him alone he fuckin' pushed me just leave go away fuck yeah just go on just go away fuck you why the fuck did he fuckin' push me for ? cos you just said something nasty to the lady i did not he just fucking pushed i didn't do anything yes you did now just fuck off and go away you're not wanted you heard him go on get out of here oh no ......... * PROLOGUE : the sound of fat flabby white flesh hitting a brick wall. he gets up with blood running from his nose. his similarly skinny follically challenged companion falls over the barrier. the bouncers move fatty down the alley. the barman picks up skinny "fuck off out of here" similar retorts happen and skinny is shoved my way at the end of the alley and me and the taxi driver I'd been talking to quickly move out of the way as he falls past us onto someone's car i briefly catch a glimpse of a girl with a frozen look of horror on her face..... fin --------------------------------------- Thanks to : Alex who told me it's better to run and leave a hostile situation - fighting just ain't worth it. Thanks to Chris Maslin who told me it's never any use trying to talk to 'the lowest common denominator'. Thanks to my boss and roommate Darren because if he did not back up what i reacted against I would not have believed that irishman had said such a thing. my jaw dropped when he said it and reflexively i pushed him away. * the silent irishman without the bottle misses his punch at darren, vito manages to land a punch on the other guy's jaw. The irishman with bottle looks at me as i move the women out of the way, a brief pause, and then he motions for me to get out of the way. darren and vito run for it and look for the police as we realise that any trouble could mean we'd be possibly deported. Some more physical actions ensues out of my sight. My guys are ok but Vito supposedly manages to land another one. Blonde was crying and instinctively i hug her and hold her close - briefly. We are all now standing apart from each other. I am under the bright lights of the EMPIRE niteclub. The irishmen aren't bitter at me but at Vito because of the punch. I managed to talk to them keeping calm even though one of them is waving the bottle at me. I look into his eyes and he really believes he did not say anything to the woman. they are still highly wound. i apologise to the women but can't look after them as i have to help Vito get back safely to the bus station and so act as lookout. Vito tries to get the police in the immediate vicinity but no luck as they are here investigating something in the nearby niteclub. Luckily vito has to cut his long hair for a new job starting the next day as a security guard. somehow I feel guilty about what happened and apologise to the guys imtermittantly realising that I had put them in present/future danger. Violence in real life always happens so swiftly. Alan our other roommate (who is a blackbelt karate instructor) makes me feel better by saying he would've done the same thing. I've not been back to work since. But once I get over this cold I'll be back ;-) ------------ To: short.note@fong.co.uk Subject: ketchup tyme ! Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 19:40:21 PDT [TO MY MODE FRIENDS OUT THERE : if you want tshirts, pls send sizes plus prefs. e.g. colour, long/short sleeve, whether the tshirt has a group photo, or tourdates etc..... cost will be round 17 UKP so at the most about $60 NZ. My roommate Alan is luckily doing sound for them in Spain and Germany next month so if I miss out on merchandise this month he should be able to get it.] hi all well a lot has happened as usual during this week so I'll try to dredge up some moments. It's Sunday morning 3am. I've just returned from wandering round Leicester Square, basically the main hangout around town at night. It was my first time in more than a month and I was blown away by the amount of people there. Not just young people but families and lots of tourists. Lots of buckers tonight..... As is becoming usual I saw 2 other fights, one of them was fun to watch. I was heading to Covent Garden and saw a crowd looking at something around the corner - I could hear a lot of glass. I look around the corner and there are about 5 policemen and 4 civilians, two of them are bouncers. To cut a long story short they took away a blonde haired guy who looked quite australian, and a girl was left with blood on her face and front. My main reason for town was to see John Woo's "The Killer" on the big screen ! It was great but the sound was a bit low on the bass front. It was a joy to hear the audience reaction to certain scenes (my fave is the totally over the top one where the hero shots a guy ten times, wow!) Today I helped Andrew and John (who used to work in the aussie film industry) work on a short film. Our props included : 2 light sabers (batteries not included), 5 cap guns, one mascot (a squeaky Sweep toy - my idea naturally), a plastic mantis, 4 packets of smarties, a bag of sour worms, twenty-forty mattresses and 140 rounds of cap ammunition which was gone by day's end naturally. Tomorrow I will as usual, hang around with some people - this weekend is a special architectural one so it's open day on a lot of buildings, e.g. broadgate, lloyds etc. Well Linda and Liz from Perth returned and once again turned the room into a whirlwind of sweet fragrance and loud noises (as opposed to four guys getting up in the morning, groaning, scratching then farting). It was Linda's last night before returning back to Aussie so we got plenty of snaps of each other etc. And something I would not expect from her, she showed us her bikini. (It is a running joke that she looks like Kate Ceberano). Plus she recounted a funny tale in Greece in a bungalow where she was drunk and kept grabbing the wall for support but because it is a round wall she kept falling over and over...... well ok, I think she is a better storyteller than me. On Wednesday, Monica from South Africa returned (I mention her in a an email which is still in draft mode) so we went to the pub with a few other people - she really is a dynamo of the dancefloor, though this always without fail garners a lot of unwarranted unpleasant attention......... Also Vis the cambodian from from Wellington called round before heading back to Amsterdam so we spent the day together. He had to go to Victoria station so I took this chance to visit the nearby Tate Gallery and check out the Warhol exhibition before it finishes on the 20th Sept. We walked a while and I got him to pose for a photo with a guy passed out on the street, though I think he ruined it by lying right next to the guy. The next shot was what I THOUGHT was the gallery building -- we saw something that looked pretty amazing on the South Side of Vauxhall Bridge ;-) When talking to the guard he said it was a foreign affairs building, John said it was the MI5 building. The Tate Gallery is great ! much easier to check out that the immense National Gallery. Tate was done in 3 hours. Basically it contains art created this century so there's lots of abstract sculptural stuff. Saw a few Dalis etc. The Warhol exhibition had on separate walls : Elvis, Marilyn, Campbell Soup can, I trust you know what I mean. I wanted Vis to take a photo of me and two walls but he only got a shot of me standing next to the Marliyn, doh ! Hopefully though the photo will be a shot of me saying NO and gesturing with my hands not to take the shot !! Well I was tempted here to write down what him and I discussed in my promenades to shock a few of you into writing to me but I won't as it would alienate a few of you from me. SO for those of you who do email me and it bounces or you don't get a reply within 5 days then you can assume something has happened to it - missing, so perhaps try using www.startmail.com and send an email from there. Today I got email from two italians and one other aussie who has a photo of me on Abbey Road so I'm hurrying up the development process there, cos I can't wait to see how EXACT we got it, it was doen on a fancy SLR camera and the ones I took I had to learn to focus in the space of a second to capture a spur of the moment shot. YAY !!! YAY !!! YAY !!! STOMP will be here from nov-dec, so I'll make it there, once....or twice........ YAY !!! YAY !!! YAY !!! I've had a nice spell of bronchitis this week so no rickshaws etc. I say it is nice because I used to get it without fail as a child every winter, but it stopped about 6 years ago. And so ended my days of sickness and wasting days under artificial light. Anyway all I have left now is a slight cough. I helped mann the reception here for 2 days to cover my accomodation so that suited me as I was a bit too under the weather to head out. I got to play most of my cds and read some books. Just finished Patricia Cornwall's "Cruel and Unusual" which once again was an anticlimax and a pretty linear sort of storyline. The weather here is a bit mixed now, cold, wet, windy, then sunny all in one day. BUT today has been splendid. Whilst on the frontdesk I got to know a few more people and met an vietname vet from Brisbane cum chef etc, who's travelled plenty and held me spellbound with tales of Israel so it looks as though I'll have to head out there. I did comtemplate it some time ago either working on a Kibbutz, though someone said a Moshave is better. Liz is staying on here as she has a job at Harrods in the XMAS department. Just for fun I stuck in a group of three finns into her room (as she was by herself ina 6 bed room so that was a worry for me). umm..I was leading to something here, but I won't..... Yes it's a good thing power doesn't go to my head too often..... hugs darryl To: all.my@fiends.co.uk Subject: looking for a song Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 19:50:31 PDT hi all ! well today this week was fun. got called up by the agency again....long story....so I won't repeat it, but it ended with me telling them to go away...nicely. 2 days ago I went in to pick up the Depeche Mode tickets I bought back in May. AARGGHH ! the ticket office was no more ! after some furtive phone calls I managed to track the other office down so JOY ! On the musical tip I've picked up a few cool r'n'b singles which I want to wing home to some of you : honeyz - finally found kleshay - reasons xcsape - the arms of the one who loves you deetah - relax [a girley rap over a sample of 'why worry now' by dire straits, really cool] notice the connection ? well the first two are from London and I've seen them perform live and they are well nice. I'd been waiting for the KLeshay single for 3 months now to be released. Today I got the Mode ticket, did some shopping, headed out to Petticoat Market to get some dress shoes, couldn't find any, visited Irene in pub in Stoke Newington after an absence of 4 weeks, headed back to town and grab some Wendys, saw Bladerunner Directors Cut on the big screen, headed back home to crash. BITS'n'BOBS last week on Thursday I did head off at night. Down the road was the UK Mercury Music Awards and all the band were down there, though only (catatonia, verver, gomez, 4 hero performed). The Walkabotu Pub was right next door so when we left we got talking to some of the guys from 4 Hero for about 5 mins about music etc ! Right now it is the Soho Jazz Festival - I was reminded of it today when wherever I walked I seemed to be following a band of some sort ! On the musical tip yet again, forthcoming concerts to be checked out : howard jones, depeche mode, the orb, front 242, SASH, Al Stewart, China Crisis, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP !! Our room has declined a bit over the past 2 weeks. A bit of sickness going around. Darren and the rickshaw business is going so-so, he works/drinks to 4-5am normally, Allan has started doing sound work now so his longest stint so far was tuesday morning 11am till Wednesday 4am. In which he actually woke me up and gave me his backstage pass for Lilith Fair and an XL tshirt for it. I mumbled something about Thanks and who did he have to sleep with to get the stuff. Lilith Fair is a travelling concert with only women singers. This concert included : Lisa Loeb, Alison Moyet, Sarah McLachlan, Beth Orton, Sinead O'Connor, plus 2-3 more. Back to the room : well I'm in a downward spiral as most of you have correctly guessed. Andrew got given a job he didn't like so he'd been a bit grumpy lately, but he's better now and has pretty much gone loopy and stuffed the job so sleeps in late now. To relieve the tension I managed to find some cheap toygun caps - but that may dwindle now as a few people get annoyed with loud noises going off now and then. But things are on the up now ! we've all decided to disown all responsibility ! This Sunday I'll prob. head out to the markets with Liz and others here. On Sunday is the UK Breakdancing championships, tickets were too much and by all accts it would be completely chocka. I wanted to go cos Kurtis Blow and Africa Islam (WOW !!) who are performing as well as a US all female team called Buffalo Gals. Last Saturday I was supposed to head out with Liz etc but got a call from uummmm well.....Liz from NZ so we headed to the final day of the Warhol exhibition. The gallery itself doesn't house much of note. e.g. only one Klimt, a few Rodin........ BUT it has my most fave painting ever !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! : http://www.tate.org.uk/coll/cchtm/n01506_c.htm I almost wept with joy when I saw it ! Also check out the website which contains shots of everything there. http://www.tate.org.uk/menu.htm Afterwards me, Liz and Kim (her thai male friend) went to the infamous Wong Kei restaurant, well known for bad service. FINALLY ! I'd been scard to go in there ! anyway they are quite abrupt and basically you do what they tell you. KIm who was here in the 70s says the service has improved. We got put on a table sharing with two girls from Taiwan and we had lots of fun talking to them but typically they just kept giggling..... A couple came in and proceeded to sit at a table straight away but was quickly told to sit somewhere else, Kim looked at me and said that the waiter would put an X on their order indicating to the chefs to cook badly. Another couple sat down and put a bag on the other chair and they got told to leave by the waiter (cos it was taking up a seat etc) ;-) Anyway I ordered thick chinese noodles with shrimp and pork and WOW for 3 UKP was the best chinese meal I'd had, though funnily enough it had most certainly deliberately had curry in there as well as bit of chilli !!! can't trust those chinese........ To: this.be@what.co.done Subject: not so manic now Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 18:59:08 PDT last week I had fun ! I think I told you about the SOHO jazz week. Last Saturday (26th Sept 1998) me, John and Andrew went into town to buy John's Wife Linki a ring. It was her birthday. I gave hre a card with dogs on it. I bought it el cheapo and it had a slight scuff mark on the bottom left corner so as is customary in our family I bit it off and blamed it on my Sirius our dog. no problems. We hunted around Carnaby Street and Oxford Street and Soho. Then stopped into a pub for a few pints. John is trying to give up smoking so had not smoked for 2 days. While there a guy came in off the street and asked for a light, he had tried to give up today but couldn't last ! He got a light off us and headed out again. We continued drinking and chatting for an hour and he came back in again. We got talking as he realised we were australasians. The customary cigarettes and pints were shouted by one and all. We're all music mad so as would happen we started talking about it. We were all in the same age group so we found we had quite a lot in common and had many similar tastes. He had a good knowledge of NZ and aussie music as well as old punk bands and dance etc. Oh yes, his Novamute label record bag was what got us talking. he put in money in the jukebox and choose old 60s ballads ! It was only after 2 hours of talking that he actually said he played in 2 bands : Ultra Vivid Scene and Rosa Mota !! Both bands I had heard of (but actually didn't like). Rosa Mota was on the Mute music label (home to Depeche Mode, Erasure, Plastikman.......) so he said he'd take me on a tour there one day which I hope to do on this Wednesday before the Depeche Mode concert !! The night ended with me heading back home in the rain as we'd all got separated and crashing on the bed. On Sunday I got up at 10:30am. Supposedly Liz stuck her head in the door at 9am to see us lads in there and said something like 'oh darn they're all asleep'. Our roommate Kirrily told us this. She just arrived here 2 days ago and has now got a job as Rupert Murdoch's daughter from the first marriage (?) nanny. She lives just down the road. I had a travelcard so had to make the most of it so today (Sunday) I planned to travel travel travel travel !! I left the hostel at 11:30am and missed a phonecall from home ! I wanted to go to a market at Wembley. After a few false starts I almost got there but that part of the tube line was down ! So the last 30 mins of travelling about and waiting was for nought ! I decided to head to the Barbican Centre. http://www.barbican.org.uk/ Now if I remember correctly this was a City Of London idea of having a city within a city or perhaps having nice self-contained apartments with all amenities close by. Whatever the idea is is impressive. Basically it is the size of a two city blocks. I walked into the area on a Sunday and it was a bit quiet luckily which helped to make it seem like a ghost town like 'The Quiet Earth' perhaps. All the necessary items are here : restaurants, supermarkets, gym, theatre, cinemas, conservatories, hothouse etc. At the centre of it is the actual Baribican centre - surrounded by special office blocks. The middle of the centre is a grimey looking lake with fountains and full of catfish. Towering around it are various schools and cafes and apartments. There are catwalks everywhere that lead from the centre to one office block to another. The paths are about 2-3 storeys above road level. I could imagine running around here playing Paintball without fear of hitting a civilian or perhaps riding around on a BMX bike. The site is bordered by BARBICAN and MOORGATE tube station. Some of the architecture here is fancy. In one corner is the Museum Of London, it costs money to enter so I just went into the bookstore and read a bit. Of interest was a book of London Markets so I jotted down a few locations. I also found a book of rock locations in London so I grabbed it as it would perhaps help plan my journeys around the city from now on. It is pretty modern and had some nice tidbits such as the gallaghers, Sinead, Bjork, Freddie Mercury's homes listed in there as well as musically historic locations. e.g. the cover of Oasis album (I already have been there in Soho - incidentally the music store on the left on that album cover has all Oasis' albums in the front window except that one), and the cover shot of Ziggy Stardust which was something I'd wanted to check out. I checked my map and realised I was close to Liverpool tube station so I walked there and it took about 20 minutes. Along the way I took in the Broadgate Centre which is a glasshousey sort of complex and shops. Outside it is a circular arena which becomes an icerink in Winter. I decided to check out Old Street station : as I've probably mentioned before and despite what a biography on the Verve and what is posted on the internet - I believe the location of the video for 'Bittersweet Symphony' is around here. All these other sources say it is South East/West London round Stockwell and Brixton way. You see, on the video you do see a shop sign for 'Hoxton Co-Op' and there are 3 Hoxton street names/locations in London. On being in Brixton. Enough digression. Old Street is round North East. I was at Liverpool tube and decided to catch the bus, I missed it so started walking and then across the road I saw a lot of people coming out of what looked like a disused parking lot and a rundown area. I decide to investigate and saw it was a market ! When I walked in...........hhmmmmm...it looked familiar............... It was Spitalfields Market, the one that is covered in a big warehouse. And wow, last time I was here on Friday it only had 10 stalls and 30 people. Now the place was chocka full of stall and people. I wandered around and came across a Desmond Dekker greatest hits cd for 1 pound ! So finally I got it !! Just up the road was Petticoat Market and this showed something that I knew already : the tube map you get around here can be deceptive sometimes. Two stations close together on the figurative map may be 2-3km apart but two stations far apart can only be 500m apart !! Okay now to hit Old Street : as you recall this is the location of Club 333 and The BlueNote.......okay maybe I haven't typed up those adventures just yet either......... Anyway it was about 5pm now and getting darkish as I headed up the road it looked a bit dangerous and quiet.......too quiet for my liking but I carried on. Sure enough after the residential part I came across the shops..........on the right about 50m ahead I saw a fried chicken shop ! As you recall from the video, the lead singer stands in front of a Fried Chicken store but you can only read 'EN FRIED CHICKEN' me and someone here had tried to work put what it was so I excitedly ran up and tadah !! It is a 'GOLDEN FRIEND CHICKEN' chain store !! I walked down the road and sure enough I came across the landmarks noted in the video : the market stalls, the drunk on the corner, and the road where he stands on that girl's car ! All the pubs I pass are having a band nite, one is having a Cher lookalike singer on stage ! I turn to take a photo of the pretty empty street and the path that I took, and OH NO, my camera stuffs up again and starts rewinding when I have 5 shots left ! Looks like I'll have to come back again........ On the way back I pass a brick complex and rememeber reading about it. It is a community centre where the road and pavement actually comes up to the offices. Sure enough when I per through the grate I can see into a courtyard coming off the street and leading up to each window/office door. It's 5pm now so I head off to Camden markets to grab some cheap food as it'll be closing up now. I grab 4 doughnuts for 1 pounds (normally they are one pound each - I have another adventure to type up which details more about these cream/caramel/coffee-filled doughnuts - sorry for the lateness of that one). I spot a cheap Depeche Mode tshirt which is fake but looks very very good. I also pick up a cd single for Rolf Harris called 'Sun Arise' with remixes by 808 State (whom I saw dj about 6 weeks ago - yes I"m still writing that one up as well). I could have sworn this cd was released for some reaon - oh well...... Tired I head back home and bump into 2 french guys from the hostel on the tube. We get out and John is on the way to the pub so in my emacipated state I join him and we end up there for 4 hours. Then head out for a kebab afterwards. The hostel has a large booking of 30 polish teenagers so when we get back it's like school camp again with all the 15-19 year olds running around making noise. In bed I start tapping to someone on the other side of the wall. At 2am John (who is remarkably still up) and Darren (the rickshaw guy) come in and wake us up to tell us the poles are still running around........the person on the other side of the wall starts tapping again ........my only thought is that I need sleep...... To: more.mode.to.shake.a.stick@mode.co.uk Subject: enjoy the silence Date: Sun, 01 Nov 1998 19:58:56 PST [a belated review of Depeche Mode concert - Wembley Arena 30th September 1998] Many things to do today. Have an Orb record on hold in the Beggars Banquet store in Putney Bridge so I grab a travelcard and head over there round lunchtime. The records costs me 7 UKP which I've since sold for 35 UKP. (It is a rare DJ only record that some shops had inadvertently put out at a cheap price. I spend some time walking around this suburb and this part of the Thames. I check out the spooky All Saints Church graveyard, as is typical there is a grave with a cracked 'lid' so I peer down into it....... It is spooky cos it is only me, it's wet and there's a lot of vines so in some places you're sort of obscure and hidden from people on the pavement and road...should anything happen.... Now to the juicy stuff : The concert doors open at 7pm. I have a general admission ticket (not seated) do want to get there early to get up front. I get onto the central line tube and head east to Bond Street and off there onto the Jubilee line to Wembley !! [click this link to a map of the underground here. I am in Shepherds Bush on the red line. Liz from Auckland is closest to Baywater on the district line; my cousin Rodney is closest to Manorhouse on the Victoria line http://www.travelbritain.com/london/tourism/tubemap.gif ] I keep an eye out for other Mode fans on the tube carriage but all look pretty normal except two girls all dressed in red and black and with gothic makeup. My other carriage mates are europeans and a bunch of drunken british lads..... I get off the train and there is plenty of security and police and then it clicks ! Today Wembley Stadium is Arsenal vs Panathinaikos from Greece. So the whole complex is awash with red, green, and black (leather) tops ! At the top of the stadium there is a big banner welcoming all ! The complex is lined with soccer merchandise shops. Unfortunately I don't have a camera on me as it would've made a darn good photo ! My ticket is for the green turnstiles so I start from one corner of the Arena and as you would expect I have to walk right round to the other side. Already the seated ticket queues have quite a few people lining up already. I look over the merchandise. Most tshirts unfortunately have a photo of the band on it, but the one I like has the US road sign for route 101 and the tracklisting for their greatest hits on the back. The concert book has a full biography and listings etc so looks good. I'm not too fussed as now I am a veteran of record fairs here in London I know that all of these items will turn up cheaper sooner or later. PLus I am hoping Allan who is touring with them to Germany and Spain might be able to get me something too. And of course there are ticket touts here. I start queueing at 5:30pm and for the next while we see multitudes and soccer fans and buses pass by. At 7:30pm the doors open and then to my disappointment and some others we'd actually been lining up for the Green turnstiles seated queue ! So we rush down to the other queue which has about 100 in front of me whereas I was 20th before. High anxiety now BUT I get to the front get a green wristband strapped on (which later that night I managed to slip off my wrist without having to damage it). Once we get in we are given a postcard/brochure for a photograph company that is taking photos of all the concerts and the postcard gets up a black and white copy of the 50 shots per concert for you to buy later. As it happens I got two of them and have since sent them both off, but no word yet....... I get in and take a comfort stop then into the main Arena and then rush to the front ---- I needn't have fretted ! There's only about 30 people up from already ! I nestle in behind some short people as I know it'll be a pain if the person in front is a tall'um. Now we stand and wait for 45 minutes until the support act Purity come on. There are a three piece London based drum'n'bass female outfit with distorted vocals and distorted guitars thrown in. They are a Londoner, french and welsh. http://www.purity.co.uk/ I can feel my feet start to move whilst everyone else is pretty static around me. I love the sound ! It is crisp and clear, the acoustics are great at the moment. The venue is depressingly a quarter full. Now this is when I really got fucked off with the people around me. Luckily I am writing this a month after the concert so I won't use the strong words I was entertaining originally. Basically I was annoyed with them cos they were really narrow minded in their musical tastes, just not giving the music a chance. To the left of me is a bunch of south african fucks, one of them is a small guy with a big mouth shouting out 'shit shit!! get off !!' that I would like to stick a redhot poker into to seal it up and perhaps into other orifices as well. what a Bunch of closeminded fuckheads ! To the left and behind is a very thin gothic girl who with arms crossed and lips pursed is a perfect picture of demurity (?) In other directions there are couples and various tall people who have got to be the most inconsiderate people around, apart from people who smoke and get drunk and give you scars on your arms. Beside me was a short shapely english girl who wants...nay...needs to get up closer to get a good view, so I ask some tall guys to let her through, she gets up ahead and weaves her way through a barrage of sexual innuendos and I see her safely up to the front. I myself am about 10 people from the stage so about 10 metres. Behind me there is a large african girl and an indian girl, the only other ethnic people about. Profanity aside, Purity have 3 false starts as there is some equipment failure, so as you can guess there is loud clapping and cheering everytime they go off....;-X They perform about six songs. They finish and then Tim Simenon (producer and from Bomb The Bass) comes back on to continue his DJ set. Finally at around 9pm the venue is completely full and Depeche Mode come on to loud and rapturous applause. Just like any other concert the houselights dim and some more atmospheric music plays and then the band comes on. At this moment we all go apeshit, the gothic girl has broken her silence and is now screaming as is everyone else and me!!! All those minutes of anxiety and organising oneself into a vantage point go out the window as we all surge to and fro and fall over each other. During the course of the concert I find myself becoming neighbours with everyone within a 10 metre radius !! It is very much akin to a moshpit at a "rock" concert though this time I don't get someone's boot in my face ! The first song is 'Question of Time' and to cut a long story short we all shout, scream and sing to each and every song. I've not heard any Mode songs for a few months (I didn't bring any tapes with me) and their last album 'ULTRA' I have only never got past the first five songs (blush!) But even with these newer songs I found myself singing to all the lyrics ! All through the concert I just can't believe that I am here watching LIVE my favourite band that I have invested a lot of my money and time on. Singing songs that I grew up with as well as some very personal songs. And I would be sharing it with a few thousand other people who probably has been affected in such a way as well. The setlist for each and every concert has been exactly the same so down below is a review a swedish fan did for an earlier concert, when I read it I felt it perfectly captured my actions and emotions during the concert. My comments are in [square brackets]. The greatest hits cd has 21 tracks on it and I guessed they would only play songs from this release. They played 19 songs, two of them old, so the songs they left out are : Little 15, Everything Counts (live), Strangelove and Behind The Wheel. There was a LOT of call-response at the concert. We all happily provided the lyrics and voice when Dave pointed the microphone towards us. ------------------------------------------------------- SWEDISH REVIEW : Suddenly somebody saw that they were finally going to open the doors, so the atmosphere got really tense and everybody too!! >:) They opened the doors at around 6.30 pm and everybody just rushed in, I ran like hell to try to get a good place to stand, and so indeed. I stood there in the front row, just in front of the stage, maybe 5 meters was the difference between me and the stage. Meanwhile they had to fix some wires and install some things, and no! Good Old Tim Simenon wasn't there that night(at least that was what I saw). Suddenly the smoke machine was in action, and the lights faded. There they were- PURITY!!(not DM, not yet! Hold on...) Purity began at around 7.40 pm and ended at 8.12 pm, They played some sort of HEAVY kind-a-like Electronic music, like a mix of Prodigy and Jungle music, with a heavy touch of EBM. :) And guess what nobody liked them, everybody booed them, and those who didn't spent their time trying to come up with cruel jokes about Pu(ke)rity. During (P)eew-rity's performance the staff went around and gave us ear tampons to protect oneself from the horrendous noise. "I have often wondered why God bothered with Purity..." Then there was soundcheck, and THE gods entered the stage at 8.36 pm!! :)(Earlier had "Painkiller" started to be played) First entered Fletch- my idol!!! ;) and the drummer, then the other gods Mart and Dave!! When Mart entered, the womans screamed, when Dave entered, the girls screamed! ;) The blokes didn't care that much, they did scream anyway! :) SETLIST: Question Of Time : My idol went to his Synthesizer, Martin too, And Dave stood prepared by the microphone. Then when I heard A Question Of Time I started screaming really loud, and everybody started jumping and singing at " I've got to get to you first". And when Dave shouted "It's just a question of tiiiiiiiiiiime" I started spinning around, and so did also other fellow modsters! :) World In My Eyes : everybody started dancing and singing at "let me show you the world in my eyes", excellent song. [one of my favourite Mode songs ever!!!!!!!!] Policy Of Truth : when we heard the first guitar riffs of it, everybody started screaming.. "Never again, is what you swore the time before" - EVERYBODY SANG TO THAT LINE!! It's No Good : not so good as the other ones, quite lame, the older fans weren“t so enthusiastic (that is me and the older part of the audience)the youngsters did like this song and sang really loud. I started relaxing and after a while I was also singing to this song, a couple of minutes after the rest. [this song grows on you, but I feel it is too simplistic, I danced anyway regardless!] Never Let Me Down Again : When the rest of the audience and I saw that our Martin was starting to play that famous guitar riff in the intro, then absolutely EVERYBODY went crazy and berzerk!!!! :) And immediately everybody started waving their lovely hands... "we're flying high..." everybody... [Allan took some photos when he was on tour and he has a few photos of this. Basically the houselights came on and everyone is waving their hands to and fro] And then came the technopart of this song, and everybody started dancing- again! ;), and at the end Martin surprised us by started singing in the end "see the stars, they're shining bright..", WHOW!! This was unexpected, but yet at the same time, so grand... [this part of the song is normally quiet in the background - Darryl] Walking In My Shoes : this is the real heavy rock song, and everybody started to calm down, and some blokes started headbanging. And we sang "try walking in my shoes". Only When I Lose Myself : this song is special, because it seemed that I was the only one singing to this song at least in the part of the audience where I was standing. And I screamed really loud to this song, and you could hear from other parts of the audience, singing to this beautiful song. It was then when I noticed how many DM-beginners and DM-Wannabees there were in the audience, they _ONLY_ sang to the Ultra songs, a couple of SOFAD ones and ETS.The older ones(that includes me too:) ) sang to every single song... [what a way to hear this song for the first time. too bad it sounds terrible. At this point I start looking out towards the seats and see a few people lustily singing this song. Most people are standing and dancing in the aisles and seats. Though there are some patches where the front most people are still sitting so hence aren't blocking anyone's view and causing them to stand which causes a chain reaction etc etc] A Question Of Lust : And when Dave left the stage and Martin approached to the microphone in A Question Of Lust, then I literally freaked out!!! :) Some women started screaming, crying, and some couples started making out. [one of my most favourite songs ever, I almost cried when I heard this and the next 2 slow songs as well This was "out with the cigarette lighters time"] Home : I really could feel the meaning then, standing there among with other fellow modsters, Home...Ahhh....Martin sang so beautiful... [I felt the same camaraderie with my fellow audience members as well] Condemnation : It was now a sea of tranquility, everybody started rocking gently from one side to another, and started singing softly. I looked up at that balcony, and it was dark due to the faded lights, but there were some people who were moving their lighters softly back and forwards to this calm song.It was really touching. In Your Room : really gloomy song so everybody kept on with the same style. And hearing people singing to "I'm hanging on your words", it was just whoow!! Useless : this energic song torned your strength down, some blokes started also headbanging to this song, and it was really energic, so everybody just kept on the same way, that is screaming, dancing, jumping, waving, spinning, yep! You name it... :) [Dave says : "are you ready to dance !!!!!!!!!!" "YES!!!"] Enjoy The Silence : This was the song that apparently everybody had been waiting for, just whhoow!! Now literally everybody were in some kind of ecstasy, everybody jumped, sang, SCREAMED!!!;)...and so on, but this was the bouncy song, the song that apparently everybody had been waiting for, so instead of keep going jumping, everybody stopped and started dancing and spinning instead. Personal Jesus : Now you just _couldn“t_ say that this was a utterly stiff audience, everybody was so happy now,although everybody had been happy during the whole, but it was now when I reeeeaaallly could see that the majestic globe arena was on fire!!!!! :) I“d say(at least from where I was standing)that this was the song where the audience was most intense!!!! [I actually aren't too fond of this song, I don't like the middle instrumental bit] Barrel Of A Gun : same style, but yet not so quite active and intense as in the previous song. [I was wondering what I would think of this song live. It was great. This was the first single off the last ULTRA album and threw a few people with its heavy guitars and distortion but the Max TV in Auckland played it a LOT. That's cos [djs name who I've forgotten] loves them !!] Encore One: Somebody : Everybody left the stage, except for Martin and another guy entered the stage and went to the synthesizer. He started playing, but this time Somebody a bit more soul- gospel-kind-a-like. Oh my god!!! Martin started singing so beautifully, oh my god.. I freaked out again, his voice is something extra. And this time, he did more of his "ahh" and "oooh" than as usual. And at the time, he ended the lovely song by screaming out in the audience "aaahh...ooohh!!" Stripped : I had been singing, jumping, screaming, spinning around, but it was for _me_ _now_, when my heart really started flipp-flapping a "bit" faster. After Martin had ended singing, I started screaming really loud and fast "STRIPPED! STRIPPED! STRIPPED! STRIPPED!" And so it was, I finally had the chance to hear that famous guitar riff and those industrial sounds of the intro of that masterpiece. You could say that _NOW_ I had literally really freaked out, I had during the night reached many times the gates of heaven, but it was NOW when I finally got access to heaven, I was now in heaven...ahh... Dave moved towards the microphone and started singing those magic lines "come with me, into the trees, we'll lay on the grass, and let the hours pass" WHOOWWW and AHH...heaven, feels like heaven... It was absolutely fabulous, when everybody was standing there and dancing, I started jumping of joy to those industrial beats of Stripped. IMHO- DM's gift to god! And when Dave finished with "...just for me.." me and some other modsters could actually see saint peter and his keys...aaah and at the same time WHOOWW!!! I started hyperventilating(at least I did) During this whole song, I was astonished, baffled, shocked, EXTREMELY happy, bouncy, yep! You name it..And I'm sure that I wasn't the only one then.. Encore Two: I Feel You- People started relaxing, but just a tiny little bit only. During IFY, me and some other blokes started screaming "I JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH!!!!!!" And God heard us... [I was wondering what songs they were still gonna play. The beginning SCREECH at the start made me think it was "Behind The Wheel" GLUM ! But not GLUM ! for long as he started singing] [At this point they leave the stage and say their Thank Yous. I spot some people leaving. Good grief. Every concert I go to, people always leave without staying on longer and like me make a lot of noise and demand some more....... Though I knew they were gonna do this song last ;-) When they came back on, these people rushed back through the exits] Encore Three: Just Can't Get Enough : Everybody went crazy- again... - and for the 19th time. IT was now when Everybody, and I mean everybody started jumping as high as they could, high, higher...JUMPING AND SPINNING AROUND!! SCREAMING AND POINTING AT DM AND SINGING "I JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH!!" AND EVERYBODY SANG, JUMPED, SCREAMED, POINTED, SPINNED TOGETHER THAT LOVELY EVENING...ANOTHER PROOF THAT THE DIGIT OF 13 DOESN“T MEAN BAD LUCK.. [I just did not want this song to end !!!!!!!!!!!!] And it was during the whole night, the usual videoshow, the usual, the same one. And Martin was wearing a glittery dress, Fletch was in all black, the same case with Dave. And innumerable times Dave screamed and spinned around holding the microphone tripod. many times he bent down and pointed the microphone at the audience, f.i during PJ when everybody went crazy and screamed "reach out and touch.." at it or during Stripped "let me see you stripped..." or during JCGE "I just can't get enough.."or during...and etc and etc..so on and so on..Yep!Many times!yep many times And once he screamed "good evening Stockholm!!!" and he screamed also some other phrases that just now I can't remember. Yep! Martin, Dave were on fire, so was Fletch. ...a little bit of spark could I see at least from him, but oh well, you all know how Fletch is. Don't you? But as I wrote before, it was basically the same videoshow as in previous concert, the same setlist, yep, the same things. But what an energy and intensity that I saw from both the gods as from the audience this evening.It was whoow! Total: 19 songs [when the song ended the houselights came on and we slowly got moved out] ------------------------------------------------------ Me again ! Okay now here was the fun bit, getting back home on the tube with everyone else. Streams of Mode fans leave and the whole main road is awash with people as far as the eye could see. Cliched I know, but it ain't no joke !! Along the way we ask security who won the soccer game. Aftr about 20 minutes I make it to the tube and head back into town for the after party organised by the same crew that do the nightclub. At this point it is PISSING down and as I get off at Tottenham Court road station and walk East along New Oxford Street the gel irritates my eyes as it seeps into it. I manage to find THE END niteclub which is owned by Mr. C the rapper from The Shamen. It is cool, a great sound system and on normal nights no dresscode at all. I am wearing my purple shirt and when I enter I see lots of black ! A lot of black ! So far there are about 30 people here. Luckily it does pick up. I catch up with Ant and the others from the club and a great time is had by all dancing to OMD and other old 80 synthpop hits. Oh yeah, Every second songs was a Mode song. One of my pleasures is seeing this girl dance. And I have to say that ".....she's the greatest dancer.." (name that sample discofreaks!) Not so much fluid movements (she was) but a lot of creativity and energy. The other sight to behold was a group of three girls dressed in lingerie, brrr, cold ! After 2 hours I head back home a little cold and a little tired (I fell asleep on the bus, but as usual woke up in time to get off) and hit the sack at 3am. EPILOGUE : I've since purchased two of Purity's cd singles. Both of them haven't actually been released yet. I got them from a secondhand dealer who sells promotional copies of releases (copies given out to shops and the media for listening purposes) el cheapo ! I've had a massive craving for Mode, but where can I get it ? Their latest Greatest Hits cd is 2 cds. In the US it is 3 cds with an extra cd containing rare remixes. As fortune would have it a good mate Jon in San Diego has got that cd for me as well as the recent Depeche Mode tribute album (featuring Smashing Pumpkins, Deftones and the Cure and others doing Depeche Mode songs). Jon actually works for Cleopatra records now is the US which is an electronic/goth/industrial label. At the moment he is recording with Dead Or Alive for a Madonna tribute album they are doing which he has promised to send me a demo copy when it is done. Basically he has also said I can pick and choose whatever cd they have for free on their label which includes Gary Numan and a lot of goth stuff. Allan went on tour with Mode and took a few photos, not so good but acceptable given the lighting. Unfortunately he was not with them long enough to warrant the usual freebies which is a copy of every tshirt, programme etc. But he did get a non-customised bomber jacket, tastefully ringbound itinerary and a badge. I've kept in touch with Francesca and AnnaMaria (who I have yet to tell you guys about) and they saw Mode in Italy so we've raved about it. nuff said ?