2001-11-05 Maimarkthalle, Mannheim, Germany

Notes

This was the last concert of the 2001 Exciter Tour. Martin played World Full Of Nothing (the last one performance to date) as a surprise encore. He announced it in German, saying "we're going to play something that we have never played before. I think... but maybe you know better".

The fans had arranged two surprises: during Freelove, they held up balloons; during Home, they held up signs that said "Thank You Depeche Mode". Prior to Condemnation, Dave gave his end-of-tour speech, thanking the band and crew:

Dave: Whoa, thank you! Really, thank you very very very very very much. It's really been a great tour, thank you so much. And I want to thank everybody on the crew, there's too many to mention to be honest, I will mention Jezz [Webb], cause you got to, really. I'll see you later. Mister [unintelligible]. I don't know, man. I don't know. It's been great. I tell you what, couldn't have done this without Peter Gordeno here, thank you Peter. Of course, Jordan Bailey, Georgia Lewis. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about, yeah baby. Now, the man with the power, oh yeah, that's right. Mr. Christian Eigner. Alright! Alright, you know the rest of us, I think. Alright, let's do it guys.

Ronny recalls: I remember a funny moment in Mannheim, when a girl (sitting on her boyfriend's shoulders) had written Somebody on her chest. You know all those strange gestures Martin does during his songs? the girl seemed to misunderstand one of them and smiled at Martin, pretending to pull her top down. Martin looked like "No, no" and laughed a bit. You can hear that on the bootleg, when he sings "I don't want to be tied..."!

Here is the diary entry from DepecheMode.com:

Wow, to think that we played our last show yesterday is pretty amazing. It has not really hit me that it is over, ya know?

The show was incredible and so were the fans. They held up balloons and thank you signs - it was so moving. You could tell that they wanted this show to be remembered by the band and forever stick out in their minds.

Martin sang "Somebody" again, and then sang another acoustic song after the encore and before "Home" called "World Full Of Nothing". Then they sang "Condemnation" which was so beautiful. I had not realized it earlier, but David told me after that he got really emotional during that song and was trying to keep himself together to finish it. I think all of his emotions had come to him at once and he could not control it. It was a touching moment, one that I believe all the guys felt.

Then the best part came when they sang "Never Let Me Down Again" and all of us went on stage - the entire band party and crew, it was great. The funniest part of that moment though was when Peter went and picked up Bean, our tour accountant, and put him on his back and finished playing the song - it was hysterical. We all would always get angry at Bean because he would work through the entire show and never come out once to see a song, so this time, we made sure he was out there!

After the show was very emotional yet at the same time a great feeling of achievement. It was incredible to realize that you had just completed a world tour of 84 shows. We all went to the lads room after and joined Marek in a toast to congratulate everyone. Of course I began getting sad immediately - so typical of me!

Then we went onto the hotel bar and had a rather quiet night. Everyone was enjoying themselves while at the same time taking it easy and realizing we were not quite done yet - MTV Awards were coming as well as the video shoot.

Tonight Marek (Lieberberg) is taking us to an "end of tour" dinner - should be good!

Author: Nichelle

Martin Gore in BONG #50, 2001:

"Jez Webb, our guitar tech, played a very funny joke at the last show in Mannheim. While we were performing “Personal Jesus”, he came out with a giant-sized mobile phone and pretended to be making a call – it was hysterical."

Anton Corbijn was in attendance and took photos. Technique (later on called 'Client') was the support act.

Set list

1. Easy Tiger - Dream On (Intro)
2. The Dead Of Night
3. The Sweetest Condition
4. Halo
5. Walking In My Shoes
6. Dream On
7. When The Body Speaks
8. Waiting For The Night
9. Somebody (*)
10. Breathe (*)
11. Freelove
12. Enjoy The Silence
13. I Feel You
14. In Your Room
15. It's No Good
16. Personal Jesus
17. World Full Of Nothing (*)
18. Home (*)
19. Condemnation
20. Black Celebration
21. Never Let Me Down Again

Sources

• Source 1 is a very good audience recording.
• Source 2 is SF's very good audience recording.

Ticket

Credit to Ronny.