1981-08-05 Rafters, Manchester, England, UK

Notes

Two gigs were performed on this night; “under 16s” at 6:30pm, and “grown-ups” at 9:30pm. It is not known from which set the audience recording is from.

Steven Morrissey wrote this concert review for Record Mirror (allegedly, Morrissey was friends with support act Ludus):

Depeche Mode may not be the most remarkably boring group ever to walk the face of the earth, but they're certainly in the running. Their sophisticated nonsense succeeds only in emphasising just how hilariously unimaginative they really are. At once we recognise four coiffured Barry White's (a nauseating version); "cain't git enough of your lerve" they profess too dull to be even boring. They resurrect every murderously monotonous cliche known to modern man, and "New Life" looms as nothing more than a bland jelly-baby. Still the man from 'Jackie' was impressed, knowing that, at least, these boys have nice hair... and the conveyor belt moves along.

Ludus, plainly wishing they were elsewhere, hammered out a passionate set to an audience possibly hand-picked for their tone deafness. But Ludus like to wallow in other people's depravities and therefore their music offers everything to everyone. Linder was born singing and has more imagination than Depeche Mode could ever hope for. Still Depeche Mode get the Jackie spread. No justice!

Set list

1. Television Set
2. Boys Say Go!
3. New Life
4. Puppets
5. Ice Machine
6. Big Muff
7. Just Can't Get Enough
8. What's Your Name?
9. Tora! Tora! Tora!
10. Photographic
11. The Price Of Love
12. Dreaming Of Me

Sources

• Source 1 is an excellent audience recording sourced from a lower-generation cassette source than Source 2, but it is unfortunately lossy encoded.
• Source 2 is a great audience recording.