Depeche Mode

The third gig on our A to Z musical adventure was ……

The legendary Depeche Mode at The OVO Hydro in Glasgow.

Date Wednesday 31 January 2024

Exhibition Way, Stobcross Rd, Glasgow G3 8YW

Capacity at The Pavilion Theatre is around 14,300.

Built on the site of the former Queen’s Dock, OVO Hydro is the only UK venue of its scale built specifically for live entertainment. It is the largest entertainment venue in Scotland.
OVO Hydro has been designed to be flexible, accommodating a wide range of concerts, conferences and events. The venue has a maximum capacity of 14,300 (seated and standing in performance bowl).
The unique façade of the OVO Hydro, made up of pneumatic translucent cushions, has been made possible by using a special film originally developed for the space industry. This allows natural light to illuminate the foyers during the day and the arena to ‘glow’ at night. For more…..

5 star music in a 3 star venue!

Let’s start with the music, because that’s why we went to see the show. And what a great show it was too. The set list below shows the depth of musical highlights the band have produced since breaking into people’s consciousness in the early 1980s.

The live renditions were fantastically delivered on the night, and we can maybe content ourselves a little by replaying the Playlist here to look back on the gig.

It would be fair to say Dave Gahan and Martin Gore hogged many of the highlights during the night, however, Depeche Mode for me are an electronic rock band with a very strong rhythm section of Christian Eigner on bass and keyboards with Peter Gordeno on drums. The latter two definitely complemented the soundscape that was generated throughout the show.

This was our first time seeing Depeche Mode in the flesh, though I must confess to have ruined a lot of their songs on the dancefloor back in the day!

We got the impression they were actually enjoying themselves too on stage, even after all these years which says a lot about them. The latest album has songs just as strong as their many hits from years ago which shows the level of creativity hasn’t been lost.

To warm us up before the curtain came down on the big screen which showed a series of videos for each track being played we were treated to Nadine Shah. I’d fortunately bought her album a couple of years ago and thought I was fairly familiar with her songs. However, live she is definitely a different kettle of fish with a really strong set, a great backing band, especially the drummer, and a powerful set of lungs to keep us entertained. No surprise that each song was greeted very warmly be the ever growing crowd as she played.

I’m afraid the video quality here isn’t on a par with what the pros offered us on the night and a telescopic lens might have came in handy too.

A fine tune and matching video from Nadine too.

A final word on The OVO Hydro

We’ve been to a few gigs at the cavernous Hydro. We’ve stood close to the stage, we’ve sat at the sides of the auditorium and, as you can see from some of the images on the night, we’ve sat in a different postcode from the stage and main action.

The best gig we’ve seen there from a fans viewing perspective was Roger Waters last year where Roger and his band played in the centre of the arena so that nobody was that far away they couldn’t see him without a pair of binoculars!!