1994-03-26 Blaisdell Arena, Honolulu, HI, USA

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Notes

Concert poster, source unknown.

The second of two consecutive concerts in Honolulu during the 1994 Exotic Tour. This is the last concert of this tour to have Andrew Fletcher on keyboards; the remainder of the tour has Daryl Bamonte in his place due to Fletcher suffering from a nervous breakdown and not continuing with the remainder of the tour.

From Shunt Q&A: live - live albums / versions / performance:

How long did it take Daryl Bamonte to learn Fletch's keyboard parts when he took over during the second leg of the 'Devotional' tour?

While everyone else was sunning themselves on the beach and enjoying a well-earned rest, Daryl and I spent a week cooped up in a hotel room in Hawaii where I taught him the entire set. He subsequently played it perfectly for the rest of the tour - pretty good eh, considering he'd hardly ever played a keyboard before in his life.

Here are Daryl Bamonte's relevant entries from his Devotional Tour diary, published in BONG #24 (page 8) in 1994:

March 19th, MANILA: Just when I thought that things could not get any weirder, that we were at a point when nothing would seem odd, then this. Fletch will not be completing the tour after Hawaii, and the other three want me to stand in for him (?!?). Time for a stiff drink, methinks.

March 20th, MANILA: I had lunch with Fletch today and I feel much better. Reality has sunk in a bit, and Fletch told me that he's glad it's me and not "any old session guy". Phew! That's the hard part out of the way, I've just got to learn to play keyboards now....

March 22nd, HONOLULU: Wob and Tom (super-techs) drop off the equipment to my room, and now it's starting to feel real. Me and Alan sort of did a run through.

March 23rd, HONOLULU: Everyone's gone to the beach today. I can't go, I've got to rehearse. I'm pretending to smile, but I don't really want to.

March 24th, HONOLULU: Apparently, I jumped out of bed in the middle of the night and viciously assaulted a pile of clothes. Oh dear....

March 25th, HONOLULU: Apparently, I did a complete run-through of the set in my sleep last night. ... The Band are doing a show tonight, so I'll be playing along with them, behind a curtain, to get the "feel". The audience won't hear it, thank god.

March 26th, HONOLULU: It went okay last night, but the strain is killing me. After pulling my hair out all week, I’ve now started punching myself in the head. Stress presents itself in funny ways.

March 27th, HONOLULU: The backstage run-through was better last night. The crew are being very encouraging. Anzac (Monitor Engineer) has told me that I CAN do it, so maybe I just might be able to pull this thing off.

March 30th, HONOLULU: Alan and I have finished rehearsals and things have worked out okay, apart from the fact that I have no hair left and a very sore head.

Dave jokingly announces to the audience that "we have a new member" after the first chorus of A Question Of Time. BONG #20, issued April 1994, reported on page 10:

"Martin's two year old daughter Viva, made her debut in Honolulu, when she appeared on stage during "A Question Of Time". She had a great time singing along with dad and 'uncle' David in front of 10,000 people, and spent the rest of the song sitting at Martin's keyboard. Do we have another star in our midst?"

There was no support act.

Set list

  1. Rush
  2. Halo
  3. Behind The Wheel
  4. Everything Counts
  5. World In My Eyes
  6. Walking In My Shoes
  7. Stripped
  8. Condemnation (*)
  9. A Question Of Lust (*)
  10. I Want You Now (*)
  11. In Your Room
  12. Never Let Me Down Again
  13. I Feel You
  14. Personal Jesus
  15. Somebody (*)
  16. Enjoy The Silence
  17. Policy Of Truth
  18. A Question Of Time

Sources

  • Source 1 is a very good sounding soundboard recording. Unfortunately, it is inherently lossy with a frequency response limited to 16khz and has harsh equalization applied. Rush is missing entirely, and Halo is missing the first half of the song.
  • Source 2 is Jon's excellent soundboard recording sourced from his first-generation DAT clone. He added crowd noise during song intros and at certain points in songs to yield a more "live" sound. Other than the crowd noise, it is considered to have better sound quality compared to Source 1, as this is a lossless copy without harsh equalization applied. This version entirely omits the incomplete recording of Halo present on Source 1.

Ticket

Credit to Falko Nauert.