Niki N. Phaser

Even though they have recently released their second single from Sounds of the Universe, entitled Peace, things on the Depeche Mode front are not that peaceful. Their overanticipated Tour of the Universe, announced in the fall of 2008, has been so far… well, jinxed. First, they had to take a break, one gig in, because singer Dave Gahan fell ill with was prooved to be a tumor in his bladder. Because of this, they had to cancel a show in Greece, twenty minutes before coming on stage, which resulted in a mini riot. Then followed another seven shows in Eastern and Southern Europe and Turkey, that were finally cancelled, the band being able to save one in Croatia and several in Germany and England. Despite having two breaks in their tour agenda, one in July and one in September, the eight shows were not rescheduled, apparently because they were open air gigs. As if this wasn’t enough, recently there’s been some controversy related to tickets for their German dates. Scalpers seem to have hit gold, as tickets to their sold-out arena shows in Germany resurfaced, of course, overpriced. The phenomenon took such proportions that legendary concert promoter, Marek Lieberberg is urging fans to no longer buy secondary market tickets.

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR DEPECHE MODE’S Peace

It’s been a while since the german pop-punk band Liquido ”died”, but I still need to express my regret. Everybody says that if they feel a little bit down, they just put some band on and that cheers them up right away. Well, for me that band was Liquido. Of course, I first heard of them because of Narcotic, their trademark song. Unlike other people who were ok with just humming that one song and use its hook as a ringtone, I was intrigued and decided to listen to more.

Since then, Liquido became one of the first things that comes to mind, whenever someone asks me what is my favourite band. Songs like What You Keep Inside, The Opera, Way to Mars, Valentine and others showed me that this band can also

source: www.rock-in-den-ruinen.de

be serious and profound if they want to. Please don’t read the former remark as a diss for their trademark upbeat poppy songs. Not at all. I’m just trying to say that Liquido is more than a one-hit-wonder, they are simply… a wonder.

Its sad what happened to them, but it also shows what horrible thing music industry can be. A lot of lame bands are promoted for all the wrong reasons, forced into the charts and shaped as legends, even though they don’t deserve it. Anyway, Liquido are survived by five kick-ass albums, which will grow and make them proud. Also, singer Wolfgang Schrödl started a new band, Cages, which sounds pretty good, even though a bit harder than what we are used to from him. Liquido, you will be missed…