oh ok then

after strong pressure from several readers (ok, two: meg and andrea) i set out to write a fabulous post about the depeche mode concert last week. i had a brilliant idea for a picture including both my oldest and newest dm acquisitions, the latter being my new and ridiculously overpriced enjoy the silence t-shirt purchased at the show:

you see, violator (where enjoy the silence is found) is the album that made me a dm fan at age 16. i still remember buying the cassette (yeah!) one summer day and going to the fish market afterwards to meet my best friend, who had a summer job selling prawns and smoked salmon to the tourists (i would later join her at this career). while waiting for her to finish, i leafed through the cassette insert and was hit on by a cute italian interrailer.

a couple of years down the road i met the man who much, much later was to become my husband. despite him being a huge dm fan, he did not have violator in his collection. i'm guessing it was too commercial and thus uncool for his young, pretentious soul, but my ownership of this precious cassette (that, and my legs) did somehow still manage to impress him enough to try and hide his upcoming three years of studies abroad in case that would put me off him. he should be so lucky! with me still an impressionable teenager and him the old (21!) tattooed guitarist in a hard rock band he couldn't have beaten me off with a thousand sticks.

anyway, as you see, me and the violator cassette, we have history. now if i only knew where i put it. the only cassettes i managed to dig out are these:



the sisters of mercy: floodland - my older brother gave me this for xmas when i was 14. i promptly dyed my hair a bright red, threw out all my pastel clothes (and this was the 80s so there were a lot of them), and got my first pair of dr. marten's.

falco: falco 3 - (omg! falco's dead! how sad.) after i found this i've been humming jeanny - quit living on dreams - jeanny - life is not what it seems to myself all day and talking in pretend german.

what? depeche mode? oh, yeah. the concert.

the bravery played support. they are cute and the music is good. the singer wore jeans torn at the knees, a jean jacket, and a black leather vest on top.

after they'd done their bit, martin gore came on stage wearing black feather wings, a pleated leather flap thingie over his bum, black pants and t-shirt and a black knitted earflap hat thingie with a mohawk (great pic here!). oh, and glitter makeup, of course. he's bloated. dave gahaaaaan was fairly quick to take his top off. he's skinny, but really, not in a good way, and he said yeah! all right! way too many times. (picture of pleated leather flap and skinny topless man here.) fletch basically just stood there but sometimes he raised his arms. he's got a beer belly.

i loved the concert, and it got good reviews in the local press, but of course my own personal dm know-it-all (yes, him - i'm sure he's the one that lost my cassette as well) wasn't 100% pleased. too many new songs, none of the good songs, silly flashing ufo orb thingie hanging from the ceiling, they were so much better in 88, the crowd was so much better in 88, etc, etc. whatever.

should we talk knitting again? i finished the first pomster:



after the brilliant variegation on the cuff i was a bit disappointed to see pooling on the foot. still, i think it looks quite good, so if you don't like it, jacqueline, go put on a shoe!