1982-01-22 The Ritz, New York, NY, USA
Notes
Andy Fletcher said in the 1982-09-16 issue of Noise magazine that this concert was very much sold out:
"We played the Ritz recently in New York. 300 people were turned away."
Daniel Miller said the same in the sleeve notes of the 2006 remastered CD of A Broken Frame, stating:
"[Depeche Mode] played at the Ritz club in New York in January 1982, their first American show, which was fantastic and absolutely packed. Most of the people at the gig had come from out of town and they were cool young kids."
Moby has said here that he attended this gig. In 2015 he said on his Instagram account that his favourite Depeche Mode song "Any Second Now" was played at this concert. We don't have any other evidence to dispute this, so the setlist below might be incorrect.
They said in the May 1982 issue of Good Times Magazine:
Dave: "Yeah, we had some reel problems Friday night, the opening night at the Ritz. They charged $11 to get in. $11? That's far more than they charge for a major gig in England. If we had anything to do with that price, it wouldn't have been nearly as much. We are scheduled to play at the Hammersmith Odeon when we go back, and the tickets are two pounds fifty and three pounds fifty. That's less than half the price, and we are much better known over there."
Fletch: "We had soooo many problems, before the gig, during the gig... plus none of us knew what to expect. But it turned out a lot better than we expected. The audience was great, for the most part. You have a lot of people who are really into English music, which I found strange, I mean with what they play on the radio around here. These people seem really American. They strike me as being more patriotic than English kids. A lot of people wanted to talk to us, but no one asked for our autographs, they just wanted to chat."
Andy Fletcher recalled in 2001: "[Alan] came to New York [with us] – I remember, it was so funny. He had a little jacket on and a woolly scarf and I think New York was minus 40 degrees.”
Dizzy and the Romilars was the support act.
Set list
The set list below is an inference based on the set list of concerts later on in the 1982 See You Tour. It may be that the first few concerts with Alan Wilder in January 1982 were shorter concerts like 1982-02-10 BBC Paris Studio, London, England, UK. It is also questionable whether The Meaning Of Love was performed this early.
