Setlist
review by Graham Buxton
Got a few minutes to spare so thought I would pen a few words on Monday night's extravaganza.
Firstly I must say how apt that the first "proper" Devils gig would take place in Germany, or to be more exact, Cologne, with its magnificent gothic cathedral and general air of bleak ambience. The actual venue, "the music hall," was a little way out of the main city so shortly after a most enjoyable visit to Cologne's only (?) Indian restaurant, we hopped into a cab and set off for the gig.
We arrived just before 19.00 to find a healthy crowd gathered around the tiny entrance. Everyone seemed in good spirits despite the rapidly plummenting temperatures and I was heartened by the sight of a few folks in Duran T-shirts singing loudly a few words from "World Exclusive" in amongst the slightly more prevalent Gary Numan T-shirts and badges-clad Germans.
Shortly we were allowed in, although I was surprised to be searched! Before being allowed to proceed by the security, who explained that as the gig was being recorded for the German TV programme "Arte," they were looking for potential bootleggers, which was a little annoying.
Once inside we made our way to the small stage, which was unusual as you could stand all around it, both back and front and left and right. Before very long the TV presenter came into the crowd and the numerous cameramen started to film his introduction of "Nick Rhodes, who you would have known from his work with Duran Duran and Stephen Duffy who you SHOULD know from his solo work and his excellent work as The Lilac Time..." Wow, big cheers all round...I was starting to get excited!
Then, emerging through the dry ice and bright lights and lasers, (Blimey, it wasn't like this at the Camden folk club! Very grand! ~ referring to Stephen's solo mini-gig at Regent's Park, 07.12.02 - ed.) Stephen and Nick appeared accompanied by two attractive backing singers/dancers who I later discovered were named Sylvie and Evie (I think). Nick settled down in front of his keyboards, I tried to get a better view past the cameramen and Stephen announced, "Listen to the voice of Buddha," before the opening bars of "Memory Palaces" sounded out. Pretty impressive, I became aware of the screen behind the stage showing all manner of psychedelic images which perfectly captured the mood of the evening.
As "Memory Palaces" drew to a close, Stephen announced that they had wrote the next one when they were twelve, and it was called "Arthur" according to someone just behind me. "Yes, it's called Arthur," agreed Stephen and then the most haunting synth sounds of "Aztec Moon" set the hairs on the back of my neck on fire! I can't really describe how good this was sounding, those wonderful layers of sound and Stephen's pure voice, heavenly, just heavenly and the lights and videos, lovely stuff.
As the crowd cheered and clapped at the songs fade, Stephen told us that they were only 2 of the 2 million who had been on the anti-war march back in London at the weekend, and that they had written the next song aged 6! The psychedelic video board started up and was joined by the lengthy intro to "Signals in Smoke." By now I was taking it all in, Nick's intense concentration as he conjured up the melodies, the girls singing and dancing, and the fact that Stephen seemed to be REALLY enjoying it all.
Next up was "Come Alive" but prior to that Stephen announced that he might be moving house soon. "Where to?" asked Nick through the vocoder on his synth. "London Bridge," or maybe "Cologne," replied Stephen, because it "smells so nice..."
During "Come Alive" the video screen showed clips from the forthcoming (we hope) DVD/video and when it finished Stephen announced that we might be "hearing that one again soon" as the TV people weren't happy with that take. "Dark Circles" was greeted with a huge cheer and again the lasers flashed, the screen showed the video and Stephen, well Stephen was just PERFECT!
After the final notes melted away, Stephen announced that they were thinking of taking up stand up comedy shortly and then apologised to people who were positioned to close to his amp. (Hiya Noell!!) Then it was the highlight of the evening for me, "Big Store" is the most Warholesque Devils song and Nick reminded me of the great pop artist with his blond locks as he played and Stephen knocked out that great guitar riff. But now a dilemma, should I watch the event happening live in front of me or cast my eyes to the screen which was showing the boys pushing trolleys around a large department store (Harvey Nichols? ~ this video was filmed at London's Harvey Nichols in early November - ed.). In the end I went 70-30 in favor of the real event and decided to sing along also!
Stephen announced that it "was to be the first single...and that it might still be." Before performing "Barbarellas," Stephen wanted to dedicate the song to someone they first saw at the Birmingham club many years ago, "Joe Strummer," which received a mighty cheer from the crowd. "Barbarellas" played live is just beautiful, Nicks synth's are gorgeous and Stephen and the girls harmonised so lovely together.
Almost time to go now, but before beginning "The Tinsel Ritual" Stephen tells us that he and Nick "made a pact back in '79 that whenever the world was in danger or in crisis they would play a set of electronic nonsense to save the world!" He added that he wanted us all to sing along with him on this number. The song began and as the synths peaked, Stephen started to sing, very softly at first, "we shall overcome, give peace a chance, everybody had a good time..."and then he and the 2 girls started a bizarre "android" dance with arms and legs open wide in the shape of a star. It might sound silly but as Stephen sang his peace mantra and Nick dazzled us with his layers of sounds and the video screen conjured up its myriad of images, it was truly moving.
After this extended version, it was time for Stephen to thank us all for coming and then he and Nick and the girls left the stage. I managed to meet up with him in a corner and as he signed autographs and record sleeves ("Unkiss That Kiss," I kid you not! ~ early Tintin single - ed.). I got him to pose for a photo and thanked him for such a great evening, which I repeated to Nick and the girls, one of whom commented on my Devils T-shirt!
Then a unexpected bonus, it seems that the TV people were unhappy with the versions of "Aztec Moon" and "Come Alive," so they were both played again, I was in heaven! Finally it really was the end, we talked to new friends briefly and then decided to leave before Mr. Numan's set.
Sitting in the cab, driving back through Cologne's freezing night, I admired the Roman buildings and numerous churches of this fine city and thanked my lucky stars that I had bothered to make the effort to travel to see this superb show, it had cost a lot of time and money but it was all totally worth it.Sorry to go on so much but I hope nobody minded too much! and that you all enjoyed my review. Let's all hope that Arte does show it on May 6th.
~ Graham Buxton (British fan; as posted to duffylovers on 21.02.03)
review by Manon Wortel
I'll skip the whole journey to Cologne part and say that when we got to the venue at 5.45pm, the gate to the main courtyard was open and we heard Come Alive being played inside! Someone from German tv told us the entrance was 'further on' and then someone else said we needed a pass to get in, but the door was open and...well, I figured the worst that could happen was that they would kick us out, but they didn�t and we ended up being able to watch the soundcheck!!! They were messing around a bit with the sound when we got in, then went through the whole setlist, with Stephen "blah blah-ing" the bits where he would later say things to the audience for the tv show. There were loads of people around, mostly from German tv, and a couple of other fans besides ourselves. And Gary of course, who we understand had been working really late the previous day to finish the video projections for the extra additions (to the Harvey Nick�s show ~ referring to the 19.11.02 "gig" at Harvey Nichols - ed.)
The setlist if I remember correctly was: Memory Palaces, Aztec Moon, Signals in Smoke, Come Alive, Dark Circles, Barbarellas (with shots of the old Barbarellas building!) and The Tinsel Ritual, with "we shall overcome" sung over the top (and with some of John�s geography field trip slides!! - Nick was laughing when he said that even John hadn�t seen them since 1979!). Besides Stephen and Nick, Sally and Evie were also there, practising some dance routines during the soundcheck as there hadn�t been time for a proper rehearsal.
After the soundcheck we had a brief chance to talk to Nick and Stephen. Nick said Stephen had found Simon Colley, who was now living in San Francisco and other than that they didn�t know what he was doing, only that he was married. I think the idea was to interview him for the Devils video (which Nick assures us WILL be released, but he didn�t give a date...) and also to interview John and do some filming in Birmingham. Nick also said he would be caught up in Duran work in the coming time, but that he really wants to do a proper Devils gig in London sometime and do all the songs off the album in order. No date mentioned, unfortunately. Oh and that there would be new photos and other things on duran.com "soon." And when I mentioned that the security was really relaxed at the venue, that there really was no security (heaven for a fan....! ;-) ), he replied "a bit like Iraq"...Er, right...
All of Stephen�s comments during the tv show were about the anti-war movement and how Nick and he were two of the 2 million people who�d taken part in the demonstrations last weekend (or words to that effect). Oh, and he joked that the Devils had made a pact to perform every time the world was in need, so back in 1979 and then now... ;-)
The tv show was pretty much the same as the soundcheck. They had to redo Aztec Moon and Come Alive because Stephen had made a mistake on some of the lyrics (I hadn�t noticed on Aztec Moon, but hey, I wasn�t going to complain about hearing it again!) And I don�t know what else to add now except that it was WONDERFUL!!!!
We didn�t stay for all of Gary Numan, btw, but it was mostly new stuff so I didn�t know any of it. There were about 300 tickets sold, according to Nick (the venue holds 1500, but they�d made it look smaller with large black curtains), but he said they hadn�t given it too much attention on the official websites because they didn�t want fans to be disappointed at it only being a tv show and a short set. But I don�t think any of us were disappointed!! Not that I`m very objective about The Devils... ;-)
Anyway, that�s all from me for now. I took loads of photos which I hope to have developed tomorrow (fingers crossed!!), so I�ll post a link to them as soon as I�ve put them online. I�ve probably forgotten loads, but it�s late, it�s been a long journey and I have to go to work tomorrow... :-(Okay, I missed this because we left after about 30 minutes of Gary Numan's set, but another Dutch fan who stayed until the end tells me that Stephen joined Gary Numan on stage for one song! I don't know which song and I don't have any other details right now, but I'll let you know if I find out any more about this.
I�ve just read what I wrote last night and some more things have resurfaced which I thought I�d share with those of you who couldn�t be there.
I forgot to mention that besides the anti war comments, Stephen also introduced several songs with the phrase �we wrote this when we were 13,� �we wrote this when we were 6 and it�s called �Arthur�� (I think that was the intro for Aztec Moon � Arthur???), which led to people in the audience commenting "we wrote this when we were 5 months..." ;-) A bit further on, Stephen said that he was thinking of moving house and Nick asked �why?� (speaking into the vocoder thing on his keyboards). I don�t think we ever got an answer to that question, but several cities were mentioned (Cologne, Berlin, Amsterdam) and then Stephen said he was thinking of London Bridge actually because of the �lovely� smell�
What I also forgot were the video projections, which really added to the show (especially compared to the rather unexciting lighting effects Gary Numan used). For Aztec Moon some lines from Kerouac�s Mexico City Blues were projected onto a blue-ish background and Come Alive was really colourful (I think � Gary will probably hit me for mixing the songs/videos up; sorry!!). Big Store showed Nick and Stephen pushing trolleys through a large supermarket, which was fun ;-) What else? Oh, during the soundcheck, there were only 7 fans present and our attention was *fairly* evenly divided between Nick and Stephen (though we were all Duran fans). Stephen did look a bit bemused by the requests for photos and autographs, but this was nothing compared to the rush for The Devils after their tv appearance. Especially Nick was almost mobbed by the fans (okay, I�m exaggerating), and far less people went up to Stephen. Where were the Stephen fans�? I�d never met him before and thought he came across incredibly friendly and lovely really (taking the time to talk to people).
Anyway, I guess I should *try* to get some work done today (time is ticking by soooo slowly�.)~ Manon Wortel (fan from the Netherlands; as posted, in pieces, to obscurityvacation on 17.02.03 and 18.02.03)
review by Penny (of dd.com MB)
You experience the best when you don�t expect anything at all. In fact I didn�t know what to expect from what was expecting me and my friends in Cologne, on February 17th in 2003 when The Devils were supossed to play for the tv show "Music Planet 2Night."
I loved the album "Dark Circles" from the first day on and was really looking forward to hearing some of the songs live. I went to Cologne together with some Duranie friends of mine - one of them is the biggest Nick-fan I ever met. We met some others on our way to Cologne and in front of the Live Music Hall. Just as we were talking about where and how to pick up the last one of us, a huge car - I guess it was a Chrysler - drove through that really small street and stopped at the drive. Who came out of the car? Nick and Tatjana. We were kind of frozen, only standing there and staring. That was the first nice surprise of the day. After that little "shock" we had to get something to eat and came back to the Live Music Hall about two hours before the gig. That were two cold hours of waiting, but it was very nice to talk to some other fans.
As we entered the Live Music Hall we were surprised to see no stage. There were all the instruments, lights and two small rostrums for the background singers in the middle of the hall which filled with about 300 people that evening. One of them was Ray Cokes, my MTV-hero and host of the show. He stood in the middle of the audience the whole gig through - I got the chance to talk to him when Gary Numan played. During the Devils-gig did I stand on the left side, besides Nick. It was strange to be that near to the "stage" and to see all the camera people around.
The show itself was great. Nick and Stephen were well dressed, all in black of course. And I really liked Stephen's shoes. They played eight songs: "Memory Palaces," "Aztec Moon," "Come Alive," "Signals in Smoke," "Dark Circles," "Big Store," "Barbarellas" and "The Tinsel Ritual" in an extended version. You could see videos to the songs on the wall in the back of the hall and on the ceiling above the "stage" - a cool idea. Short time after the gig I met Stephen who was leaning at some music equipment. So my friend and I just talked to him and asked him to sign our tickets. He was very nice, saying "thank you" to everyone although we were the ones who had to thank him. I also met Nick, after they played "Aztec Moon" and "Come Alive" once again for the tv show. I couldn�t believe that he is nearly as small as me. Nick signed our tickets, just as Stephen did, and we took some photos with him. What a patient man.
That was one great experience, more a big party than a concert. But whatever it was, it was one of the best days in my life.~ Penny (German fan, poster at dd.com MB)
first posted 23.02.03
Penny's report added 24.02.03
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