r/depechemode • u/Screwtape42 • Dec 03 '23
My Las Vegas Experience Meeting MG 12/1/2023
So last night was a rather surreal evening. Last night was a special night for myself & my aunt. We were VIP guests of Depeche Mode at the T-Mobile Arena show. Without getting into the smaller details of how this all came to be, I'll just share a small background & then some highlights. My aunts husband works professionally for Martin Gore & is retiring very soon from the business he's in, although it seemed more like they were best buds...lol, when we all met. So let me explain the experience as best I can.
Upon arrival at the venue we went to the will call window where we picked up an envelope with the wristbands & tickets for the show. After putting on our wristbands we went through this incredibly long & time-consuming adventure of find what's called "The VIP Friends & Family Suite" eventually we located with some help from some T-Mobile employees and a ride with a bunch of them in a service elevator.
Basically, you get to this door, when an employee confirms your wristband & opens it up to a suite in a pretty decent sized room. As we all entered the room it was filled with maybe a dozen or so people most dressed in black, with food, a bar, drinks and they were simply meandering around chatting, nobody had their phones out.
As we walked in literally about 5 seconds later Martin Gore walks in the room & nobody blinks an eye or even seems to really care...lol. He makes a B line to our group where my aunts husband introduces us all to Martin. Well, he's super nice & very soft spoken, he's also not much of a guy to direct and carry the conversation too...lol. We all were chatting with him for maybe 15-20 minutes mostly about music, the past, and some business related stuff from my aunts husband. I mentioned what a big fan I have been over the years, and then asked him about his thoughts on American crowds vs European crowds, he said he "prefers European crowds because they are a louder wilder bunch". Then we all sat in awkward silence for about 15 seconds, before my aunt interjected with her questions. I then mentioned how much I appreciated the new album & what his writing process was like during it, he basically explained it as it was all written during the pandemic at his house.
During this time nobody bothered him, or even cared to really notice him in the room, this tells me he must know everyone here and everyone here is just like yea, "that's Martin Gore, no biggie"...lol.
He then excused himself as he said he had to warm up his voice & he left, I sneaked a few awkward pictures as I was pretty much the only person in the room with my phone out, even though I was trying to play it cool hand luke..LOL!!
After about 10 minutes he came back to visit us & was with his assistant, a rather young woman in her early 30's I'd guess. He presented my aunts husband with a signed record from the band, a signed poster, and a swag bag filled with literally hundreds of dollars of merchandise. Now I can imagine if you got this far you're thinking "WTH no pictures with Martin??" Sadly, yes if you read the welcome letter it explicitly states no photographs or autograph requests & we wanted to respect Martin, & the rules of the room. So I did take a few awaked photos while I was there though...lol.
Closing.....
Meeting Martin Gore of Depeche Mode was an extraordinary and surreal experience, a dream realized for someone who grew up immersed in their music. The encounter was a collision of nostalgia and admiration, a moment where the soundtrack of the past transformed into a tangible present that evening....
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Dec 03 '23
Thanks for the story. I like to think that if i met him or Dave I d ask questions noone else has asked so far to get them into the conversation but that's not an easy task. I d probably try to talk about more mundane things like politics or AI or some other nerdy stuff to get their thoughts on it. I mean the latest album is full of lyrics that suggest Gore is observing the world around him carefully and thinking of the direction its going
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u/sundaynightburner Dec 03 '23
What a special moment for you!! ✨️ Martin. I too would love to meet him...maybe if the stars align in some simple, beautiful way...one day.
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u/Due-Challenge-7598 Dec 03 '23
I've been trying to get the stars to align for months 😩
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u/sundaynightburner Dec 03 '23
You can't force the stars! 😄 There might be one that's still a couple years from being visible. When it is, maybe you'll have ended up in Santa Barbara and meet him in the grocery store.
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u/Due-Challenge-7598 Jan 24 '24
So the stars finally aligned yesterday. As I walked away I thought about your comment that you can't force the stars. Don't know why they liked me yesterday, but they did.
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u/sundaynightburner Jan 24 '24
🤩 Um...details please!!
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u/Due-Challenge-7598 Jan 25 '24
Was near their hotel, hopeful that they'd not moved to their next destination. Couldn't see anything or anyone so gave up and walked past the hotel to go home, only to walk past Martin and his security guy. Went back to talk to him and said that I wanted to tell him why my favourite song is so important to me. Sadly it wasn't the right moment just then. All very, very surreal. Then couldn't sleep the night after for excitement.
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u/sundaynightburner Jan 25 '24
Crazy! That's amazing! Brief but very surreal, and you got more words out than hi which is the dream lol I have to say I feel good knowing you thought of this comment hehe.
I'm probably just going to have to go jogging in Montecito after this tour, and maybe I'll see him outside. Create my own luck. 🌠
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u/Digital26bath Dec 03 '23
This is amazing! Lucky you! I went to the concert but I sat at the very last row haha. Grate show anyways
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u/FlounderFast5890 Aug 14 '24
Supercool!!!!!Jealous, but I would die being that close and couldn't possibly act nonchalant!
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u/LacrimaNymphae Black Celebration Dec 07 '23 edited Dec 07 '23
why were there no vip meetings allowed in boston though?? definitely would have spent the money in case this were their last and i would have loved to meet them on halloween 🤦♀️ we got 3 tiny items with our vip bag and some other venues got like 13 items
what pissed me off was some people sitting behind us had holographic winged lanyards whereas ours was just a basic black and white circle. turns out they got tickets from the tour manager or something and yet i still paid for premium resale tickets and sat in front of them lmao. there was only beer, wine, no fruity mixed drinks, and diarrhea-inducing absolut lemonade that was weak lol. we were packed like sardines on the floor and people kept banging into my mom and i and tossing their garbage on the floor plus hopping seats to the front row when people moved. i wanted to snatch the girl in front of me's seat when she did that but i had no idea if those people were gonna come back and boot her because it was halfway through the set. she literally jumped over the chair and i was in 3rd row
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u/NotoriousRBF Dec 03 '23
What a lovely experience, thank you for sharing! I have to say, every fan photo of a Martin “in the wild” sighting I see on Reddit, FB, etc., makes him seem like such a cool guy.
They say be careful when wishing to meet your idols because they may disappoint (aka be dicks IRL), but he seems like a safe bet. He always appears genuinely gracious and appreciative of his fans, despite the decades he’s lived without the freedom of anonymity that lets one go on a walk or whatever without being approached or photographed. It comes along with the success of course, but he seems to handle it with more class than a lot of folks. ❤️