1983-04-09 Napalai Hall, Bangkok, Thailand
Notes
This day and the next day are said to have inspired Martin's more political tracks on 'Construction Time Again', like 'Shame' and 'Everything Counts'.
Uncredited band member in the 'Construction Time Again' tour programme:
"[...] After two more sold out shows it was to Bangkok where we played two gigs and spent several days wandering around the temples and generally soaking up the atmosphere. Then we drove seventy miles south to lie on the beach for five days in a place called Pattya. It was like paradise, pure white sandy beaches and clear blue seas with the temperature in the nineties day and night...enough said!"
Martin Gore in the 1984-09-27 issue of Bravo magazine (translated):
"When we were on our far-East tour, we had four days of free time in Thailand once and we went to the campsite. Those were the most chaotic four days of my life. Don't get me wrong, we love each other, but from time to time Alan will also want to be alone with his wife and child, Dave will want to surf, and Andy and I want to bake in the sun."
Dave Gahan in the February 1985 of The Face magazine:
"I think it's the way we've all been brought up [that made us affected by our visit to Thailand]. [...] From the age of about ten, I can remember things quite vividly that just didn't seem right, and I think we've all had that sort of general working-class upbringing. Then when you see things that are poorer than you've ever seen, when we saw people begging and little kids coming up to us with disgusting, dirty clothes hanging off them, showing themselves or holding their hands out for food... When you experience that, you begin to understand what a lucky position all of us here are in. We were in this really expensive hotel full of businessmen, but as soon as you went outside the gates, it was a totally different world."
Dave Gahan again in Mädchen magazine (publication date unknown, translated):
"We stayed in a great hotel, where there was everything you could possibly want. And as soon as we went around the next street corner, we saw these emaciated children in shredded clothes, begging for a few pennies. This was by far worse and more hopeless than our own youth situation - then we have discussed the whole night at the hotel and decided to strengthen our social commitment even further. In the future we will try to make our music and lyrics so obvious that no message remains unheard, that no one can close their eyes and ears. - Hopefully we can change things."
Martin Gore in the 1983-09-17 issue of the NME:
"I think ['Everything Counts'] was partly [inspired by] going to Thailand as well [as the song 'Shame'] – that’s where the oriental flavour comes in, like Korea ‘n’ all that. But you go over there and all the hotels are full of, like, businessmen and basically they tend to treat people as though they’re nothing. All they’re interested in is their business – that’s what I really hate about big business, people just don’t seem to matter. Just money. You see all the women over there ‘n’ they’re all prostitutes – that’s the only way they can make any money. ’Course, the businessmen love it. Work [will "remove the stains"]. It’s no good just sitting back and hoping things’ll change, you’ve got to actually work together. The material’s there; it’s like, there’s enough food in the world to feed everybody and then half the world’s eating three quarters of it and the rest of the world’s starving. But the food is there. There is a solution. The thing is, the people in power don’t care about someone with a low wage, they only care about their own power. But I think people should care about other people, y’know, cos from the moment we’re born we’re put into competition with everybody else. I really don’t understand why people go into politics – what makes someone at 16 or 17 decide to go into parliament? It’s got to be people themselves. People’s attitudes have got to be changed. For instance, when I wrote “All we need’s universal revolution”, I didn’t mean, like, everyone to take up arms, but more a total change of attitude. That’s what’s needed. People’s attitudes have got to be changed. You’ve got to look at the world to change things. Attitudes in the world, poverty in the world. The thing is when we talk about socialism, we don’t mean “English Socialism” we mean “International Socialism”."
However, the ever-dry Alan Wilder said in the 2005-01-14 DM special by Q + Mojo magazine, "[the songs inspired by this trip] were hardly deep."
Regarding the actual concert, Dave Gahan told No. 1 magazine for their May 21st 1983 issue, "[The audience] went absolutely bananas in Bangkok. I've never seen anything like it. They literally smashed in our dressing room door to get their hands on us. We were holed up for hours."
