I bet everybody remembers the iconic video “Enjoy The Silence” by the British band Depeche Mode in which Dave Gahan wears costume of a king and rambles across fields and mountains carrying a blue deckchair. Anton Corbijn’s video from 1990 inspired many of us and I can recall a story from my childhood. We were in 1990, right after the borders have just been opened and the socialism failed in Hungary. On the housing estate we lived, there was a guy whose nickname was “Toblerone” and he performed the video on the playground. Toblerone wore a crown from Burger King, used a huge towel as the coronation robe and carried a blue deckchair just like Dave Gahan did in the video. Although he was very creative with what he used for his costume, I believe the outfit that suits a king is a proper golden crown with 8 strawberry leaves and a coronation robe with ermine.

But why are there strawberry leaves on crowns? And why does a coronation robe contain ermine?

I was intrigued so I started to investigate.

It was not easy to find something about the strawberry leaf symbol. Although according to some theories strawberry symbolises sexuality because of its seeds (There is a huge strawberry surrounded by naked people on Hieronymus Bosch painting The garden of earthly delights), in the Middle Ages the fruit was believed to be a cure for depression. The three parted leaves symbolizes the holy trinity, the fruit itself (because of its drop shape) the blood of Jesus, and the five petal flower symbolises the five wounds of Jesus. All in all the strawberry was a symbol of perfection and righteousness, that might be the reason why crowns and churches were decorated with strawberry leaves in the Middle Ages. (The meaning of the strawberry started to decline in the Tudor period because the second wife of Henry VIII, Anne Boylen had a strawberry shaped mole on her neck which was to believed to mean witchcraft. As it happens, strawberries were indeed used by witches, therefore women refrained from eating strawberries during pregnancy.)

Hermine

According to legends, the way to hunt ermine was to lead the animal into a muddy pit. Apparently, the animal will rather surrendered than smear its fur with filth. Some legends explain the ermine dies because of sorrow if it falls into a muddy pit. Therefore, the ermine became associated with phrases like “Death before Defilement”, and “Death rather than Dishonour”. The white fur of the ermine symbolized purity, innocence and nobility – Jesus as such. If you think about it, the colour of the ermine’s fur changes: it is brown in the summer and white in the winter. Which leads you to another symbolism: Christ’s Resurrection.

That is all OK so far, but what are those black spots on the fur?

It has always interested me. Apparently, the tip of the ermine’s tail (winter fur) is black. This is reflected on coronation robes and coat of arms in different shapes. The oldest and most common pattern consist of 3 spots and a comet shape which in fact is the ermine’s tail itself. This pattern was used from the 12th century onwards in heraldry and the most famous example is the coat of arms of Brittany. The same or similar patterns are used in Western France, in the Benelux countries and in England.

So this is the outfit that a king deserves as shown in below two pictures, however, later on the ermine was popular in fashion as well.

The Crown

Having mentioned the crown, it is worth knowing that there are two main crowns of the British sovereign. One of them is the St Edward’s Crown made in 1662. There are no strawberry leaves on this one, but four crosses pattée, and four fleur-de-lis. This crown is only used at coronation. The other one is the Imperial State Crown, worn on celebrations.

I have been thinking a lot, how and what to write about the concert of one of the most iconic British Bands from the 80s, having seen them for the first time on stage. I did not want to write a biased report, or an article that contains a bunch of information that are obvious for fans either. It is not easy, therefore I decided to simply start to write and let it be, what it may be.

Just before we left…

Our departure to the O2 Arena which is in Greenwich, London was scheduled for 3pm. We were just about to leave when someone knocked on the door. It was a young volunteer raising funds for the Alzheimer and Dementia Group. We explained we were going to a concert so not the best timing. “Oh really? What concert are you going to?”, he asked kindly. “Depeche Mode”, I replied. He had absolutely no idea who they were. “Enjoy the Silence, Personal Jesus, Everything Counts, It’s No Good”, I said listing some of the greatest hits, but he kept on waving his head whilst he was smiling. Interesting, I thought to myself. I have always thought more people liked DM in abroad, however, the British do not seem to understand or appreciate their music. Yet, I hoped the name of the band would ring a bell. Apparently, it does not. (Inspite of that, he got the money.)

The O2 Arena

Back to the departure and the O2 Arena. There are obviously thousands or millions of people who have been to this establishment, but for me this evening was the first time and maybe the last one as well. Whilst the concert was flawless, the Arena was a nightmare. There are some interesting details available on Wikipedia about the O2 Arena, such as having 12 poles according to the number of the months, being 52 meters high like the number of the weeks in a year, or the diameter being 366 meter just like number of days in a year. It is also interesting that the plastic sheet roof is 1mm thick only and the acoustic is very good because it was built in a way that there is no echo unlike in many other stadiums. An impressive achievement of the O2 Arena is that it was the busiest venue in the world with more than 1,5 million sold tickets, leaving Madison Square Garden in New York behind.

The entry to the stadium was well organized, although everybody had to go through a detector gate. It was fascinating to see the arena with its roof and the city that is built around it: pubs, restaurants, cinemas. “hm… this is where the big tennis tournaments are held as well…”, I thought, but my excitement was soon over once I saw the seating area. It is very steep, the stairs were sticky, no non-slip strip on them. When we reached our row I turned around and looked down and my heart stopped beating. I do not understand… Where is the famous Health and Safety keenness of the English? To my mind the place is dangerous and you can easily fall over by bumping into the back of the seats in front of you which stick 20cm out of the floor and there is nothing that would protect you from falling. The seats were quite narrow. Although I have lost weight since I have been living in the UK the seat was just about right for me to fit in, but somebody with a slightly bigger size of bottom would have struggled. The worst is yet to come… I was waiting for the air conditioning to be switched on, but nothing happened, neither during the guest band’s performance, nor during the concert or it was switched on but nothing could be felt up there. I was sweating but more importantly struggling to get some fresh air which really did not help my headache to go away.

That’s all about the arena and this is to see that nothing is gold that shines (or a more English version of the saying, all that glitters is not gold) and next time there is a broadcast on TV from the O2 Arena, I would not be envious of the audience.

The guest band played with their backs to the audience (is it a new, trendy thing…? no idea…) which I did not understand just like their songs as could not understand a word of what they were singing. All I could hear was they were from Basingstoke. Maybe…

At last DM is on stage

My pain was eased by Depeche Mode who were fantastic on stage and showed a huge contrast to the guest band. Everything they did was professional. Alright, alright, I know… they have been doing this for the last 37 years… But still. Dave was a real showman and ran up and down the stage effortlessly and although some of his moves reminded me of Freddie Mercury, he was the good old cheeky little boy and sex-god at the same time, called Dave Gahan. I would not have thought these boys in their fifties would do the whole concert without breaks, but they did it. In the second half of the concert they played mainly old songs, which made the audience stand up and dance. Everybody stood up. Even the people in their 60s. No wonder they came to the concert as well – they were young during the Thatcher-period when DM was really in. It was good to see the band attracts old and young. And then there was the moment… The moment when Dave started to wave his hands during Never Let Me Down Again, just like he did at Pasadena, California in 1989 at the 101 Tour in front of 72 thousand people. There are probably lot of fans who have had this experience, but for me this was the first time to wave my hands, and God I waved them with a smile on my face as it reminded me of that little girl who watched the concert film and wondered how it could feel like being part of this collective wave. By the way, this is (Never Let Me Down Again) the most played song on concerts (899), Enjoy The Silence and Personal Jesus take the second rank (807) and Walking in My Shoes is the fourth (719).

“London, you are the best!”

When Dave shouted “London, you are the best” I was proud although I am not a Londoner, let alone not British. But for them London was home despite Martin and Dave living in the US. Their roots are here in the neighbourhood, in Basildon, and even the distinctive Sussex accents is still there, although Dave has a bit of American now (“dawg” vs “dog”). As Andy Fletcher said, it seemed to take ages to get to London those days (50km) and today it takes only 35 minutes by train which run every 15 minutes. I do not wish to praise the band or their music any further as there are plenty of articles available about that and everybody has a different experience, I think. I would not have minded though if the big display had worked but it did not… No idea why.

At the end of the concert the masses were led out of the stadium in a very organized way. No wonder British always organize everything pretty well. I was not disappointed about the concert (I would go to their concert again, anytime it is worth traveling 3 hours ) and the organization, but the arena was a complete disaster.

Summing up…

When the following day my manager asked me how the concert was I said fantastic but the arena was a nightmare. Then he said

I know, the O2 is crap, horrible. The Wembley Arena is much better.

~

PS: Conclusions: 1) I am not the only one being critical regarding the O2 Arena, others think the same. 2) The English do like DM. All tickets were sold out within a few hours in July.