Cologne-May 27th

Well, Cologne was another great German gig! Though the first couple were more mellow, the crowd response grew and I’d say last night was probably about as good as Leipzig. 😀 It took awhile to find the venue though. Neal and I met at the train station as our trains were coming in at different times and had a bit of lunch since he couldn’t check into his hotel unti 3pm (I was sleeping at airport due to an early morning flight next morning…that has now become not so early due to plane trouble…yes, I’m typing this there LOL). We figured since the hotel wasn’t too far, we’d go find it and see if there were any places to eat near by, then he’d know if he could stay somewhere for a drink and I’d queue. Good thing we did that because we ended up following a street sign that said “EWerk” (name of venue) instead of what the hotel told us (though we were close, just one street early…darn street sign. 🙄 :lol:) so after wandering a bit, we finally figured it out but by then had to go back as we weren’t in our gig clothes. Then, though we got onto the proper street we needed, we tried following street signs marked for the venue again but sheesh, this thing was out in an industrial area. I recognized it pretty quickly when we drew near but it certainly was FAR from the 600m that the venue said it was from Neal’s hotel LOL.

Once there, it was a case of finding someplace for food. Luckily there was a little Italian supermarket….super cheap! But only Italian speaking 😯 …that’s a first, I’m in Germany having to know Italian. 😆 The queue grew and it was an 18:30 doors again but tihs time we didn’t mind waiting as it was WARM and SUNNY! OMG, yay! 😀 We passed the time by chatting with Bea and her friend along with Peter who was at Leeds but we hadn’t met then. Once inside, I ended up by J-F, Mio and Jean Pierre and was told I could move up to front as J-F was nice enough to stand behind me. Neal and Peter got up behind too so it was a good crowd. 😀

Vile Electrodes came on slightly early and also changed their track list as I had told the guys I liked the 4th, 5th and 7th songs best…neither had seen a European gig yet so this was all new…had to tell them when the actual songs were since the order was switched but they also threw in a new song that was quite long so I’m guessing that’s why they had the early start. When over, it was a lot of thank yous from Anais to fans, crew, OMD etc. I was extra charged for this gig even though I’d just seen an awesome one 48 hours ago…maybe because I knew the tour was almost over so these last couple were feeling extra special!

When the lights came down, clapping started at the first notes of Metroland, we didn’t even wait for Mr. H.#2 to start pounding…good sign. When it was over, Mr. M. did his German greetings and then launched into Messages. Well, prior to the gig, Peter had asked if I was going to be bothered by loud singing. I laughed and said no, as long as he doesn’t do it on Dresden because I’m recording it but otherwise, no worries…as it turned out, he and Neal were belting it out and soon J-F and Jean Pierre joined in so we had the mens OMD choir going on behind us girls. 😆 Jean Pierre joined me for the arm dance of Dresden (not easy to do when you’re trying to record LOL) and HoM was a fantastic bouncer, us doing Steves previous windmill move in his honor 😉 ! The crowd was cheering a lot after each song and the guys were loving it. Mr. C. was extra smiley and Mr. H.#2 was bopping his head back and forth. 😀

When Mr. H. came down for FLaD, he was greeted well and Neal and Peter did the repeated bowing to him, much to his amusement. When it was over, the cheering kept going so he stood there for a minute soaking it up and seeming to not know what to say. When he finally went back to his keyboards, Mr. M. was still there so he grabbed a towel and this time Mr. H. knew so laughed and kind of stuck his head towards him as if to say “yes please” as Mr. M. patted his forehead with Mr. H.s towel. 😆 Mr. M. then got back down to the mic and said ” that’s the most dancing I’ve ever seen you do.” Mr. H. laughed and said “it wasn’t really dancing.” and Mr. M. laughed and said “yeah, na it wasn’t really. But then again, what I do isn’t really dancing either.” Lots of cheers and then a fan yelled out “it’s zuper”. Mr. M. said “zuper…you speak German too?” and everyone laughed. I’m not sure what happened but Mr. M. thought there was some discussion going on behind him so he turned and asked, then walked towards Mr. H.#2 and asked “Malcolm, are you OK?” and Mr. H.#2 nodded so Mr. M. began to turn around but then turned back and walked to Mr. H.#2 and said “say hello Malcolm” and stuck the mic at him. Mr. H.#2 stood up and said “hello” and everyone went crazy. He then said “good evening” in German and Mr. M. laughed and said “he speaks!” I was laughing and looked at Mr. C. who seemed to have a bit of a wide eyed look on his face so I thought “OMG, is Mr. M. going to go over to HIM with the mic too? :D” but Mr. M. must have known what Mr. C. was thinking because he looked at him and said “Don’t worry Martin, I won’t ask you.” 😆 Then he said “just play the song” as he laughed and got up towards us again. IYL…Peter’s favorite. I told him he’d have to come to America and experience it…it’s even better when you have hundreds of American fans singing like crazy. 😆

Souvenir found another long cheering session for Mr. H. as Mr. M. stood and pointed at him the whole time. During JoA, when Mr. M. came over and was pounding out that final part of the song on Old Faithful, he actually starting jumping up and down to the beat. I thought “wow, he’s really into it all tonight!” MoA was of course amazing and so was the response, chanting of “hey, hey hey” and some other melodies that I couldn’t make out. Again, the guys just stood there and Mr. H.#2 gave a thumbs up while Mr. H. kept pointing at Mr. M. who was laughing and standing there gazing out to the crowd with pride and amazed joy. 😀

Our System was emotionally charged again tonight, Mr. M. looking like he was trying with all his will to reach up to the skies as he extended his arm out. TLaC found him tossing me his towel…and me missing it. I wasn’t expecting it so my brain took a milisecond too long to process so that when I went to catch it, it had already flown past my hands before they closed and instead flew into my face, and kind of bounced off into Peter who was right behind me before falling towards the floor. 😳 🙄 😆 When Peter got it and gave it to me he was all “how could you MISS that? You’re the physio therapist, aren’t you supposed to be better at things like that? You train people.” I laughed and said “I don’t know…” 😆  In KtM, first Lola got a kiss blown to her, then Mr. M. went to the far side of the stage and not exactly sure what prompted him, I’m guessing maybe there was something going on already between a guard and and a fan but Mr. M. joked by saying “do you fancy him then? Well, we’ll work on that later.” and pointed to the guard and then the area of the fan. 😆 The guard cracked up as did Mr. M. who then realized he was off lyrics and said “oh crap, I don’t know where I am now” but he figured it out and carried on.

Just before PB started, Mr. M. pointed to someone on our side but back a bit so I turned to look and found someone was holding up a picture of Louise Brooks. Mr. M. gave him a thumbs up and then, so as not to play favorites, LOL, he later went over to our side and tried to get that guard to say something in the microphone during the break of PB…the guard ignored him so Mr. M. pulled the mic away, then put it back one more time with a “eh…eh…” motion and expression. The guard chuckled but shook his head so Mr. M. took the mic back and carried on. 😀 Well, Mr. H.#2 was Jesus again in SMS and Mr. M. went up to his platform so he could point right at him, then said “it’s HIM!” as Mr. H.#2 laughed and bobbed his head back and forth. As Mr. M. came down, he smacked one of Mr. H.#2s symbols, then continued towards us to keep singing but instead, turned back to Mr.H.#2 and said “forgive me?…..please?” then turned to us and said “oh shit!” and laughed as he jumped back to singing. I turned to Neal and said “shoot, at this point, I won’t be able to remember all this, there’s so much going on.”   Top comical form for sure. 😆

Another fantastic SotSS, this time Mr. C.  being the one, er, duplicated by the lights 😉 and Mr. M. taking his ear piece off twice, telling us we were fantastic, then it was EG. Before starting, Mr. M. thanked us for being so wonderful and then said he hoped they could come back again sometime. I thought “you and everyone in this building!” It seemed there was a lot of emotion coming out of everyone for the last few songs…both fans and the band. When it was over, and they said their goodbyes, it was all smiles and waves with some kisses blown and they stayed out a little longer than normal it seemed. Actually, both here and Leipzig…again, like they were trying to soak it all in. So once off, the “zugabe” started along with some other chanting..it was hard to tell as many were kind of overlapping each other but it was obvious we all were loving this. When they came back out, Mr. M. walked across the stage to the other side and off slightly. As it turned out, he was going to collect Old Faithful and I immediately said “OMG, they’re going to do Secret!” Peter asked how I knew and I pointed to Old Faithful as Mr. M. said something about having had 5 great gigs in Germany and so many wanted this, they just decided they’d do it again tonight. He let it rip again as Mr. H. did his thing on the mic and it was obvious this was something special for us all. When it was over, Mr. M. said something in German, then said “goodbye….this is Electricity”. Everyone went crazy and the band poured it out but there seemed to be a somber and emotional vibe for it…like they were pouring it out in earnest for a reason other than just because the crowd was up for it. When it was all over, more thank yous, more thumbs up from Mr. H.#2 , smiles and waves from Mr. C. and Mr. M. bent over and let out a massive mouthed “THANK YOOOOOU!” before he and Mr. H. left on one side, Mr. C. and Mr. H.#2 on the other (after a cute little “you go Martin”…”no, you go first Mal”…”no really, after you Martin” facial and arm exchange….Mr. C. ended up going off first, aww :D). Neal and Peter got their Vile Electrode CDs signed before we left, final goodbyes rounding out the night.

So, highlight of the night…I debated what to put for this part, mainly because, well, I just won’t go into it, suffice it to say things made me feel very grateful to have been there but… I’ll go with the Mens OMD Choir. They did a great job not just singing but belting out hey…hey…hey’s, the ‘singing’ parts of Messages, EG etc (because my voice isn’t very loud so I can do it but they certainly are the ones that carried it) and during Dresden, I cracked up because since Peter told Neal I was recording so not to sing so loud, I saw a hand come over my shoulder to my right that was, er, mouthing the words like a puppet type thing, it was hilarious. So, yeah, I’ll say that. 😉