If all press ultimately is good press, then the brouhaha surrounding Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan’s sign-off at the end of the band’s concert in Lima, Peru, on Tuesday night — did the singer really diss an entire nation? — can only help the legendary synthpop act sell more copies of Sounds Of The Universe.
Music media such as Rolling Stone and the NME, not to mention the Associated Press, jumped on the story this week, claiming Gahan shouted “Thank you very much, Chile!” to the 30,000 fans in Lima’s Explanada del Estadio Monumental. As the AP notes, “The country choice was particularly rankling since Peru and Chile are historically enemies with a dispute dating to a 1879-84 war between the South American neighbors.”
But where’s the evidence of that? The video clip posted by Rolling Stone and others — seen above — shows Gahan saying “Thank you very much, good night!” at the end of “Never Let Me Down Again.” He does mumble something unintelligible while Martin Gore is singing at the 1:13 mark of the video, but that’s not what people are pointing to.
So what do you think?
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He clearly said “Thank you very much, good night!”