Probably you’d been following the Tour of the Universe saga. Depeche Mode started the tour with the The Telaviv show on the 10 May everything went well until for the next show that had to be on 12 May at Terra Vibe Athens when show had to be cancelled only at 9:30 p.m. when DM should have come on stage and instead the Venue promoter went on stage announcing that the show had to be postponed due to Dave Gahan falling sick there and then.

The day after May 13th the news on www.depechemode.com stated that Depeche Mode have been forced to cancel two shows on their 'Sounds of the Universe' tour, yesterday's show in Athens (May 12) and show in Istanbul (May 14), due to the illness of singer Dave Gahan. Dave fell ill with a severe bout of gastroenteritis shortly before he was due onstage in which resulted in his immediate hospitalization. At this stage, Dave's primary concern is to return to full health and resume the tour as soon as possible. Fans in Athens and Istanbul have been advised to hold onto their tickets as an announcement will be made shortly with regard to rescheduled dates or cancellation.

“Depeche Mode have been forced to cancel a further four shows on their Sounds of the Universe tour due to further complications from singer Dave Gahan's severe bout of gastroenteritis. Dave is currently undergoing further tests. Depeche Mode apologise to all their fans for this inconvenience and wish Dave a speedy recovery. Further information will be released in due course. The following shows have been cancelled:

Then on the 20th May official statement said: “Depeche Mode regret to announce that they are forced to cancel a further three shows on their "Tour of the Universe". Doctors have advised that more time is needed to allow singer, Dave Gahan, to fully recover from his recent illness and ensure that the tour can resume shortly. Depeche Mode apologise to all their fans for this inconvenience and wish Dave a speedy recovery.

The next show in May had to be our show at the O2 Arena London on the 30 May. No official news was given by DM management till Thursday 28 May 12:00 p.m. During that whole week of uncertainty Depechemode.com forum had to close for several hours on several days as traffic was uncontrollable as everyone travelling to London for the gig was begging the management to give out a statement on whether the gig was gonna be on or cancelled so everyone could have cancelled or continued with the trip to London and also to put a stop to so called rumours which revealed to be true after all that were going around on news sites and other non official sites. To no avail a whole silence on web site, no news not so ever nothing official though non official sources were saying that show was going to be cancelled. The official site and forum insisted to disregard anything non official so everybody was assuming that the O2 show was gonna be a great come back for DM to resume the tour. So people travelled from all over even from Australia and New Zealand/Canada/USA and were saying so on the DM official forum.

Then the worst happened as we arrived in London at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday 28th May we went to the first internet café we’ve seen to get the worst of the news; i.e. that our show was cancelled along with another series of other following shows and the news confirming everything that was being sad in the tabloids and so called rumours that Dave Gahan had suffered a severe boutof gastroenteritis, leading to his hospitalization and the cancellation of the Athens concert. While in hospital, further medical tests revealed a low-grade malignant tumour in Dave's bladder, which has since been successfully removed. At doctors' orders Dave Gahan must take a break until June 8th, to ensure that he makes a full recovery. The show on June 8th in Leipzig will be the first concert following Dave's recovery.

Imagine how devastating that news was. The management knew all along what was the situation. Fans were literally begging for the information and instead of confirming and inform the fans in order to avoid futile expenses and heartache (and I can guarantee you that it was a big mental stress for everyone not knowing where we stood on what should we had to rely and especially not knowing what was happening with Dave's health).. Official Forum admin (webmasters) were banning people that were trying to help out in revealing the real stuff. Can you imagine? The holiday that was suppose to bring us such a joyful experience turned into a nightmare. A large group from Malta Depeche Mode fans travelled to London without seeing Depeche Mode after being mislead by management that the show wasn’t gonna be cancelled by not saying anything at all. There was nothing left to do on Thursday 28th May in the morning but to hop on the plane and get to London. The only planned thing that really happened was what had to be the after show party that ended up being the best DM party I ever attended. People fled from everywhere to The London Stone in Cannon street perhaps to substitute their anger and frustrations like we were doing. The organisers had to send people away as the place was full by 10:30 p.m. All punters that have travelled in vain to London came to the party and shared their disappointment. The party started at 9:30 p.m. at the time the gig should have started till 4:00 a.m. with non stop chanting to Depeche Mode songs.

Today the 8th of June the tour was supposed to resume in Leipzig according to official statement since last news on the 28 May no other news were given regarding the tour and Dave’s health situation. It’s really hard but finally I’ve come to terms with myself regarding this bad experience and that of my friends who joined me as a group of fans from Malta whose only purpose to go to London was to see Depeche Mode and now at least is hoping that the management would have acknowledged by now the suffering they have caused and how fans were treated as outsiders and disregarded. That at least they would have not kept us again on a string giving false hopes on the rescheduled dates that probably won't be announced until days before and expect people that suffered all those cancellations to jump on planes again and come to them in no time.