July 3rd, BREST:
"Can you imagine living somewhere called BREST?"
July 7th, TOULON:
"Most of us are on the plane flying after-show from TOULON to LISBON, except for Fletch, who flew home to be with his family on his birthday, which is tomorrow. How long do you think he has at home? “29 hours, 29 hours…”"
July 10th, OPORTO:
"Dave Bracey had to do the sound tonight (did a great job). Jon Lemon couldn’t make it. Had too much to dream last night, apparently. Must be “mixing” in the wrong company."
July 15th, MADRID:
"“One of the most incredible Depeche Mode shows ever” – JD Fanger."
July 21st, FRANKFURT:
"It was 1978, and he was a young punk who had sneaked onto the stage and was dancing around in his bondage trousers, next to Joe Strummer. As the roadies rushed to get him, he ran full speed and as he flew into the crowd, he floated for a second, half hero, half angel. When he landed he realised it wasn’t 1978, it was 1993, and he was the singer of Depeche Mode and 12,000 Germans were trying to rip his trousers off."
July 23rd, OSTEND:
"Martin Gore’s birthday today, and guess what? We had a day off in OSTEND. A day-off-in-Ostend… I once wrote a script for a soap opera set in a pub in OSTEND. It was called “OSTENDERS”. It could have worked, but Anita Dobson sounded ridiculous with a Flemish accent. A day off in Ostend should have bee as bad as it sounds, but we had a hotel on the beach, and looking across the North Sea you could almost smell the fish and chips. Three months away from Blighty; and now so close to home. We’ve got a gig in ZEEBRUGGE tomorrow and then a 2000 mile journey across the whole of Europe for a show in BUDAPEST. So near and yet so far…"
July 24th, ZEEBRUGGE:
"Headlined the huge Belga Beach festival today. The festival IS actually on the beach but Belga isn’t a coastal suburb of ZEEBRUGGE, it’s actually a brand of horrible cigarettes. The band were excellent tonight, even though the man upstairs decided to turn the shower on. The crowd stayed in good spirits all the same, and to show solidarity, Dave went right to the front of the stage, and dancing in bare feet, got absolutely soaked. He seemed to have an aversion to anything metal for some reason. We had a huge power-cut backstage tonight (about the same time Dave plugged his hairdryer in…)."
July 26th, BUDAPEST:
"It was a long trek from Belgium yesterday, and we had to drive out into the Hungarian countryside today for Anton to shoot the “CONDEMNATION” video. Dave seemed to spend most of the day being dragged around by Sam and Hildia. He wasn’t complaining though. It could have been the other way round…"
July 29th, LIEVIN:
"Yet another support band today. A band called “Paralax”, whose kudos is bolstered by the fact that they were recommended by Alan Wilder (and they’re on Mute.) Most of the band entourage have gone to LONDON already to “prepare” for the Crystal Palace show. It’s amazing how calm and smooth today was…"
July 31st, LONDON:
"Crystal Palace. Finally home after 3 months. 36,000+ people at this show, 1,000 with passes, and I know all of them, so backstage was chaos. My son had a good day. He definitely preferred DUB SYNDICATE to THE SISTERS OF MERCY. I used to think that ANDREW ELDRITCH was really cool. A god-like quasi-Darth Vader figure. He’s actually like RIGSBY."
September 6th, QUEBEC:
"Did a rehearsal tonight and we have the opening night of the North American tour tomorrow night. The hotel sent us a memo today (in French). Kessler translated it. It basically said that all power in the hotel would be cut between midnight and 5am due to works being carried out. Couldn’t they have let us know when we booked the rooms three weeks ago? The memo also said that extra “staff” would be provided to “assist” guests to their rooms in the darkness. What this should have said was: “Several large, fat, ugly, stupid off-duty policemen will shine industrial-strength flashlights in your face while hurling obscenities at you in French, therefore implying that you have no right to be in the hotel and so giving them every right to deny you access to the rooms that you have paid a lot of money for.” Signed The Management. As you can imagine, a melee ensured, and Dave bumped into one of them. I’m sitting writing this in the waiting room of the local nick as Kessler tries to get Dave and Darrell Ives (Head of Security) out on bail. One of the band is in jail and we haven’t even done a gig yet!"
September 7th, QUEBEC:
"Went to court with Dave today. All charges were dropped. We were so happy we bought ice lollies on the way out of the courthouse and appeared on the front cover of the local newspaper eating them. You’ve gotta laugh, ain’t ya? Dave did a very good show tonight, considering he had done some bird bang to rights."
September 8th, MONTREAL:
"Me, Alan and Joel (security) went to a bar to see England play Poland in a World Cup qualifier. England were superb and we easily won 3-0. Looks like we’re on our way to USA 94! We couldn’t drink too much as there’s a show tonight, but we’ll more than make up for it afterwards."
September 10th, BOSTON:
"Did a show in a strange little town called WORCESTER, then drove back to BOSTON, home town of Tom Wilson, our drum technician. He was our “guide” for the night. Why do people, when on their home turf, keep apologising, and putting their arm around you, and asking if you are having a good time?"
September 13th, WASHINGTON D.C.:
"Saw an amazing sight today. Me, Martin and Darrell Ives were in a cab on our way back to the hotel from the video shop when we were held up at a stop sign for a full five minutes as a convoy of about fifty limos, police cars, armed jeeps and other vehicles, flanked by police motorcycle out-riders, rushed by, sirens blaring. The reason? Yasser Arafat, PLO leader was in town and on his way to The White House for his historic meet’n’greet with Clinton and Rabin. We tried to get a glimpse as his car went past, but saw nothing, except a red and white tea-towel…"
September 17th, PITTSBURGH:
"Don’t like it here. Decided to liven up the club we were in by taking off my clothes and putting on a girl’s dress. Martin, not to be outdone, did the same but missed out the bit about the girl’s dress. Mr. Gahan was on hand with his camera, but the film has mysteriously disappeared. Said a prayer to God tonight: “Please don’t make me come here again.”"
September 26th, NEW YORK CITY:
"Feel a bit rough today. We’ve had a few late nights recently. I was sitting in Alan’s room earlier waiting for him to have his hair cut before we went to the cinema. A Woody Allen film, “Manhattan Murder Mystery”, funnily enough. I was staring out of the window at the “Manhattan skyline”, trying to recount how many songs had that title, when I saw another of those “amazing sights”. A motorcade of black sedans stretching the whole length of Madison Avenue. Alan thought I was exaggerating, until 15 minutes later as we tried to cross the road to enter the cinema as the motorcade drove past at high speed. A full 15 minutes we stood on the kerb-side and missed the start of the film. Who was in town? The President? Almost. Hilary was giving a lecture. (Probably on how to run the country without being president.)"
September 27th, HAMPTON:
"Left New York after 8 days. Everybody seems to love it there. Flew to a place called HAMPTON, Virginia and had to land in a hurricane. This is not something that I recommend. It is not funny. It is not big and it is not clever. Our little 16-seat airplane was tossed round like a crouton in a Caesar salad. We couldn’t land in Virginia or North Carolina because of the hurricane and we didn’t have enough fuel to get to Atlanta. Martin and I initially tried to keep spirits up by singing Buddy Holly and Patsy Cline songs, but then something scary happened – the co-pilot and the stewardess started WHISPERING. What did they know that we didn’t? The thunder and lightning intensified as the engines roared louder and the jokes stopped. Then it got really scary. All of a sudden, as we passed through a cloud, everything went QUIET. The thunder stopped, the engines purred and we just seemed to drift through the air as the clouds turned into a pink mist, and for the first time in my life I really thought I was going to perish. Then BANG! The turbulence re-started, the prayers re-started (Dave clutching a crucifix!) and our pilots somehow managed to get us down in one piece. However, after spending a night in a hotel in HAMPTON, we decided that the plane had crashed, we had all died and were now in hell."
September 28th, CHAPEL HILL:
"I keep seeing this strange name at the top of the rooming list. Grant Abramson… mmm…Grant… Abramson… No sorry, you’ve got me there."
September 30th, ATLANTA:
"Had lunch with Grant Abramson today. I was telling him how today was the anniversary of James Dean’s death and would have been Marc Bolan’s birthday had he still been alive. He then launched into this long, complex monologue about my obvious obsession with death, coupled with a fascination with calendar dates, therefore indicating a deep-rooted childhood desire to die on my birthday. I’d still like to know what he’s actually doing on this tour."
