Category:1994 Exotic Tour: Difference between revisions

1994 Exotic Tour
Tour name	1994 Exotic Tour
Alternate names	Summer Tour '94
By	Depeche Mode
Leg of	Devotional Tour
Personnel	Dave Gahan Alan Wilder Martin Gore Andrew Fletcher (1994-02-09 - 1994-03-26)
Stage musicians	Daryl Bamonte (1994-04-04 - 1994-07-08)
Backing vocalists	Hildia Campbell Samantha Smith
Support acts	The Outsiders April's Motel Room Caligula The Rizal Underground Babasónicos Juana La Loca Igni Ferroque Primal Scream Stabbing Westward Turning Keys
Tour diary	Available
Length	1994-02-09 - 1994-07-08 (5 months)
Number of shows	60

The 1994 Exotic Tour (alternatively promoted as "Summer Tour '94") was a tour undertaken by Depeche Mode in support of their eighth studio album Songs Of Faith And Devotion. The tour was an extension of the 1993 Devotional Tour through which the group played to countries and territories they had never previously visited, including South Africa, Australia, East Asia, and South America, as well as additional shows in the United States and Canada. It was the final tour to feature Alan Wilder as a member of Depeche Mode prior to his 1995 departure.

Line up and songwriting credits

1994-02-09 through 1994-03-26

• Dave Gahan - lead vocals
• Martin L. Gore - keyboards, guitar, backing vocals, occasional lead vocals (denoted by (*) in track listings)
• Andrew Fletcher - keyboards
• Alan Wilder - keyboards, drums, backing vocals

1994-04-04 through 1994-07-08

• Dave Gahan - lead vocals
• Martin L. Gore - keyboards, guitar, backing vocals, occasional lead vocals (denoted by (*) in track listings)
• Alan Wilder - keyboards, drums, backing vocals
• Daryl Bamonte - keyboards

All songs performed were written by Martin L. Gore.

Quotes

Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher recalled some of the issues that plagued the tour in a 1997 interview with NME:

Martin Gore: We lost the plot. We overplayed it with that last tour. But it's really difficult for us, at our level, to just decide to do a few key dates around the world. The minimum we would have to tour is nine months. Maybe we should have stuck to that, that's what we did with Violator, which was 90 concerts. Which, even so, is too much and heavy and grueling. But with the last project we decided to do a 14-month tour, and I think those extra 30 to 40 gigs were the straw that broke the camel's back. Heh-heh-heh!

Andrew Fletcher: The intensity of the partying had gone to a new stage. It had just been steadily getting worse and worse and worse and worse, until on that tour in particular it was just one huge party. Every night. Martin says he only went to bed early one time on the whole tour.

Martin Gore: ...You don't get offstage usually 'til 10.30, 11, so to get to bed by 12 you've really achieved something there.

Andrew Fletcher: The whole story just sounds so rock 'n' roll. But, I suppose, it is. That's the way it was.^[1]

In the same interview, Dave Gahan recalled the atmosphere of drug abuse on the road:

We had a fully-paid psychiatrist on the road as well! Pretty funny. I never went to see him, I didn't have any problems, hahaha! Not psychological, anyway! I even took it so far as to be desperate to get Primal Scream to come on the road with us. They were perfect, absolutely perfect! I loved that last album, everything about them was what I wanted us to be! That was my fantasy. We had a lot of fun, actually, a lot of good times. They'd always be in my dressing room!

It was brilliant! There'd be a knock at the door before the show and it's Innes, or Throb, or Bobby, 'Have ye got a wee sniff, Mr G? I cannae make it tonight, I've been on the Jack all day, I just need a wee sniff, Mr G'. Hahaha! Really funny. And of course, I'd supply them with what they needed. Bobby saw right through my little game, and I felt I saw right through him. He gives off this great image of being this wasted fuck-up, but he's a real smart, clever guy. Bobby balanced it really well, he knew where to stop. I didn't realise that nobody actually did play the game that hard. And the Scream proved that.^[1]

Trivia

• The 1994 Exotic Tour marked Alan Wilder's final tour as a member of Depeche Mode.
• Andrew Fletcher participated in twenty-one out of the sixty shows, while Daryl Bamonte took over for the remaining thirty-nine concerts.
• This tour was the most recent one for Depeche Mode to perform legs in South Africa and Australia.
• Three concerts on this tour did not have a support act, including the back-to-back nights at Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii, and the show on April 16th, 1994, in Monterrey, Mexico.
• Compared to the elaborate stage of the previous 1993 Devotional Tour, the on-stage decorations for the Exotic Tour were drastically simplified; as the pedestal with projected screens were removed, leaving an open stage with one large screen behind. Moreover, multiple projections were combined into a single mosaic projection.
• The Exotic Tour featured a significantly different setlist, leaning towards a rockier sound and gradually reducing the number of songs performed; from 20 songs during Devotional to 18 at the beginning of Exotic, and ultimately to 16 by the end of the tour.
• Rush had a frenetic intro, reminiscent of the intro in Rush's Amylnitrate mix, instead of the original "Higher Love" intro.
• Interestingly, despite the single release of In Your Room (Zephyr mix) on January 10th, 1994, it was played in its album version during the tour, as Alan preferred it over the single version.
• Alan performed additional live drum parts during concerts, incorporating Halo, Stripped, Policy Of Truth, Clean and A Question Of Time.
• Initially, Dave sung Condemnation for the first leg until March 1994, after which Martin took over vocal duties until the end of the tour.

Debuted songs:

• "I Want You Now" debuted on this tour in trip-hop like version.
• "Clean" was played 3 times on this tour, usually where band performed several dates in a row (usually second night).
• "A Question Of Time" sounded much rockier than on previous (and eventually than furthers too) tours.

Dates with downloads available

Dates without available downloads

Recommended recordings

These recordings are highly recommended as they are generally regarded as some of the best recordings from this tour. This is not an exhaustive list of very good sounding recordings.

• 1994-03-26 Blaisdell Arena, Honolulu, HI, USA (Soundboard)
• 1994-04-10 Complejo Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile (FM broadcast)
• 1994-05-14 Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountainview, San Francisco, CA, USA (Soundboard)
• 1994-06-05 Mississippi Coast Coliseum, Biloxi, MS, USA (Audience)
• 1994-06-16 Jones Beach Amphitheatre, Wantagh, NY, USA (Audience)

References