1985-07-26 Panathinaiko Stadium, Athens, Greece
Notes
There was a riot in Athens which terrorised the festival, but DM played the gig nonetheless. The whole festival was broadcast and most bands agreed to having their concert being broadcast, but DM and The Clash were the only who disallowed this, reportedly because DM's management and/or band worried that (possibly bootleg copies of) it would inhibit sales of 'The World We Live In And Live In Hamburg' which was released 3 months prior.
The founder of the Greek fan club Hysterika, George Geranios, interviewed Dave Gahan in 2007, who told George:
"Of course I [remember this concert]. It was an unbelievable experience, as it was the biggest crowd we had performed in front of at the time. It was something that was unprecedented for us. We performed in front of 50,000 people and we enjoyed it a lot. The venue might also be the best venue we have performed at up to this day. It was the place where the first Olympic Games took place, and when we first set foot there for the soundcheck, we looked around for about ten minutes before we realised where we were standing. We had already begun building a following in Greece and the crowd welcomed us warmly. I do remember that once we were done with our live show, there were riots that had Boy George as their target. They escalated to an enormous extend, and in the following days we received calls from England, asking us what was going on. Alan had recorded many videos with his camera. All in all, it was considered big news in Great Britain."
Alan Wilder said in his Q&A on Shunt:
"[...] I do remember the festival we played there. Culture Club got bottled off stage and there was a full scale riot out on the streets - I don't know why. I have it all on video though. Luckily, we went down really well but it was a strange day. If I remember rightly, Dave also got punched in the face the next day while out shopping. Aggressive bastards, aren't they?"
Andy Franks and Daryl Bamonte mentioned this in the documentary for the Black Celebration remaster DVD:
Daryl Bamonte: "I don't think Depeche have ever really been a festival band, but they did those gigs in 1985."
Andy Franks: "Where did we play? We played at Torhout and Werchter."
Daryl Bamonte: "Yeah. So that's the only time I remember doing festivals, yeah."
Andy Franks: "But we did that one in Greece."
Daryl Bamonte: "Athens, with the riot. It was 80.000 people and 120.000 turned up, the locals were communist ne'er-do-wells, and came down to stir things up and being agitated and were throwing bricks at the police, so the police were throwing them back, effectively rearming them."
Footage of Dave Gahan at the festival: [singing] There's gonna be a revolu-u-tion. "Pretty crazy, eh? Anarchy in Greece."
Daryl Bamonte: "The Cure had come down to see our show, so Alan Wilder has got some brilliant footage of both bands in the back of a truck, with just silhouettes of them."
Andy Franks: "Just hiding in there as the molotov cocktails were coming down."
Daryl Bamonte: "Oh, yeah."
Andy Franks: "One of the trucks caught fire."
Daryl Bamonte: "That was the last festival we did, I think?"
Andy Franks: "That was really, enough, I think."
Daryl Bamonte: "Yeah that was enough!"
Listen here for an interview with Alan and Dave conducted on this day.
Setlist
- Intro (Master And Servant Voxless)
- Something To Do
- If You Want
- People Are People
- Leave In Silence
- Shake The Disease
- Blasphemous Rumours
- Told You So
- Master And Servant
- Everything Counts
- Photographic
- Just Can't Get Enough
Sources
- Source 1 is an okay audience recording - it's pretty muffled and suffers from wow & flutter.
