Как правильно пишется депеш мод

Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode performing in 2006. From left to right: Peter Gordeno, Christian Eigner, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher
Background information
Also known as	Composition of Sound (1980)
Origin	Basildon, Essex, England
Genres	Synth-pop new wave dance-rock electronic rock alternative rock post-punk industrial rock
Years active	1980–present
Labels	Mute Sire Reprise Capitol Virgin Columbia
Spinoffs	VCMG
Members	Dave Gahan Martin Gore
Past members	Andy Fletcher Vince Clarke Alan Wilder
Website	depechemode.com

Depeche Mode^[a] are an English electronic band formed in Basildon in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals, co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals, primary songwriting).

Depeche Mode, originally formed by the lineup of Gahan, Gore, Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke, released their debut album Speak & Spell in 1981, bringing the band onto the British new wave scene. After founding member Clarke left following the release of the album, they recorded A Broken Frame as a trio. Gore took over as main songwriter and later, in 1982, Alan Wilder replaced Clarke, establishing a lineup that continued for 13 years. The band’s last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music for the Masses, established them as a dominant force within both the electronic and alternative music scenes. A highlight of this era was the band’s June 1988 concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, where they drew a crowd in excess of 60,000 people. In early 1990, they released Violator, an international mainstream success. The following album Songs of Faith and Devotion, released in 1993, was also a success, though the band’s internal struggles during recording and touring resulted in Wilder’s departure in 1995. The band continued with the trio lineup of Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher until Fletcher’s death in 2022.

Depeche Mode have had 54 songs in the UK Singles Chart and 17 Top 10 albums in the UK chart; they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide.^[2][3] Q included the band in its list of the «50 Bands That Changed the World!»^[4] Depeche Mode also rank No. 98 on VH1’s «100 Greatest Artists of All Time».^[5] In December 2016, Billboard named Depeche Mode the 10th Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists.^[6] They were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and 2018, eventually being inducted in 2020.^[7]

History[edit]

Formation and Speak & Spell (1977–1981)[edit]

Depeche Mode’s origins date to 1977, when schoolmates Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher formed a band called «No Romance in China» with Clarke on vocals and guitar and Fletcher on bass. Fletcher would later recall, «Why am I in the band? It was accidental right from the beginning. I was actually forced to be in the band. I played the guitar and I had a bass; it was a question of them roping me in.»^[8] In 1979, Clarke played guitar in an Ultravox-influenced band, The Plan, with friends Robert Marlow and Paul Langwith.^[9] In 1978–1979, Martin Gore played guitar in an acoustic duo, Norman and the Worms, with school friend Phil Burdett on vocals.^{[10][better source needed]} In 1980, Clarke and Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound, with Clarke on vocals/guitar and Fletcher on bass; the pair were soon joined by Martin Gore as a third instrumentalist.^{[citation needed]} Dave Gahan joined the ensemble later in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a local Scout hut jam session, singing a rendition of David Bowie’s «‘Heroes‘«.^[11]

With the advent of affordable synthesizers and the increasing popularity of electronic music, the group began pursuing a synth-pop direction.^[12] The first live concert of Composition of Sound as a four-piece was on 14 June 1980 at Nicholas School, Basildon, England, UK.^[13] There is a plaque commemorating the gig at the James Hornsby School in Basildon, where Gore and Fletcher were pupils. Gahan’s and Gore’s favourite artists included Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sparks,^[14] Cabaret Voltaire, Talking Heads and Iggy Pop.^[15] Gahan’s onstage persona was influenced by Dave Vanian, frontman of The Damned.^[16] Gahan has also credited David Bowie, James Brown, Elvis Presley and Prince as influences on his performance style.^[17]

Composition of Sound would become embarrassed about their band name and started thinking of changing it. There were several potential variants, including the name «Musical Moments» that was suggested by Vince Clarke as both a band name and the name of their first album. Starting at their concert on 24 September 1980 at Bridge House, the band changed their name to Depeche Mode, chosen by Dave Gahan.^{[18] [19]}When explaining the choice for the new name, which was taken from a mistranslation of the name of French fashion magazine Dépêche Mode,^[20] Gore said, «It means ‘hurried fashion’ or ‘fashion dispatch’. I like the sound of that.»^[21] However, the more accurate translation of the magazine’s name (and therefore the band’s name) is «Fashion News» or «Fashion Update».^[b]

The band made their recording debut in late 1980 for the Some Bizzare Album (released in 1981) with the song «Photographic», later re-recorded for their debut album Speak & Spell.

The band made a demo tape but, instead of mailing the tape to record labels, they would go in and personally deliver it. They would demand the labels play it; according to Dave Gahan, «most of them would tell us to fuck off. They’d say ‘leave the tape with us’ and we’d say ‘it’s our only one’. Then we’d say goodbye and go somewhere else.»^[22]

According to Gahan, prior to securing their record contract, they were receiving offers from all the major labels. Phonogram offered them «money you could never have imagined and all sorts of crazy things like clothes allowances».^[22]

While playing a live gig at the Bridge House in Canning Town,^[23] the band was approached by Daniel Miller, an electronic producer and founder of Mute Records, who was interested in their recording a single for his burgeoning label.^[24] The result of this verbal contract was their first single, «Dreaming of Me», recorded in December 1980 and released in February 1981. It reached number 57 in the UK charts. Encouraged by this, the band recorded their second single, «New Life», which climbed to number 11 in the UK charts and got them an appearance on Top of the Pops. The band went to London by train, carrying their synthesisers all the way to the BBC studios.

The band’s next single was «Just Can’t Get Enough». The synth-pop single became the band’s first UK top ten hit. The video is the only one to feature Vince Clarke. Depeche Mode’s debut album, Speak & Spell, was released in October 1981 and peaked at number ten on the UK album charts.^[25] Critical reviews were mixed; Melody Maker described it as a «great album … one they had to make to conquer fresh audiences and please the fans who just can’t get enough»,^[26] while Rolling Stone was more critical, calling the album «PG-rated fluff».^[27]

Clarke’s departure, A Broken Frame, and Wilder’s joining (1981–1982)[edit]

Clarke began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking, saying «there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions».^[28] Clarke also said he was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was «bullshit to be quite honest».^[22] Gahan went on to say he «suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore.»^[22] In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode.^[29]

Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke’s continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track «Only You», but they declined.^[30] Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, «I don’t know where that came from. That’s not true.»^[31] The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written «Tora! Tora! Tora!» and the instrumental «Big Muff» for Speak & Spell, became the band’s main composer and lyricist.^[32]

In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: «Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one.»^[11] Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member.^[33] Wilder would later be called the «Musical Director» of the band, responsible for the band’s sound until his departure in 1995.^[8] As producer Flood would say, «[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin’s the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude.»^[8]

In January 1982, the band released «See You», their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six.^[34] The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, «The Meaning of Love» and «Leave in Silence», were released ahead of the band’s second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke.^[35] A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, «Get the Balance Right!», was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder.^[36]

Construction Time Again (1983)[edit]

For its third album, Construction Time Again, Depeche Mode worked with producer Gareth Jones, at John Foxx’s Garden Studios and at Hansa Studios in West Berlin (where much of David Bowie’s trilogy of seminal electronic albums featuring Brian Eno had been produced). The album saw a dramatic shift in the group’s sound, due in part to Wilder’s introduction of the Synclavier and E-mu Emulator samplers.^[37] By sampling the noises of everyday objects, the band created an eclectic, industrial-influenced sound, with similarities to groups such as the Art of Noise and Einstürzende Neubauten (the latter becoming Mute labelmates in 1983).^[38]

«Everything Counts» rose to number six in the UK, also reaching the top 30 in Ireland, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden and West Germany.^[25] Wilder contributed two songs to the album, «The Landscape Is Changing» and «Two Minute Warning». In September 1983, to promote Construction Time Again, the band launched a European concert tour.

Some Great Reward and growing international success (1984–1985)[edit]

In their early years, Depeche Mode had really attained success only in Europe and Australia. This changed in March 1984, when they released the single «People Are People».^[39] The song became a hit, reaching No. 2 in Ireland and Poland, No. 4 in the UK and Switzerland, and No. 1 in West Germany – the first time a DM single topped a country’s singles chart – where it was used as the theme to West German TV’s coverage of the 1984 Olympics.^[40] Beyond this European success, the song also reached No. 13 on the US charts in mid-1985, the first appearance of a DM single on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a Top 20 hit in Canada. «People Are People» became an anthem for the LGBT community,^[41] regularly played at gay establishments and gay pride festivals in the late 1980s. Sire, the band’s North American record label, released a compilation of the same name which included tracks from A Broken Frame and Construction Time Again as well as several B-sides.

On the American tour, the band was, according to Gore, «shocked by the way the fans were turning up in droves at the concerts».^[22] He said that although the concerts were selling well, Depeche Mode struggled to sell records.^[22]

In September 1984, Some Great Reward was released. Melody Maker claimed that the album made one «sit up and take notice of what is happening here, right under your nose.»^[42] In contrast to the political and environmental subjects addressed on the previous album, the songs on Some Great Reward were mostly concerned with more personal themes such as sexual politics («Master and Servant»), adulterous relationships («Lie to Me»), and arbitrary divine justice («Blasphemous Rumours»). Also included was the first Martin Gore ballad, «Somebody» — such songs would become a feature of all following albums.^{[citation needed]} «Somebody» was released as a double A-side with «Blasphemous Rumours», and was the first single with Gore on lead vocal. Some Great Reward became the first Depeche Mode album to enter the US album charts, and made the Top 10 in several European countries.^{[citation needed]}

The World We Live In and Live in Hamburg was the band’s first video release, almost an entire concert from their 1984 Some Great Reward Tour. In July 1985, the band played their first-ever concerts behind the Iron Curtain, in Budapest and Warsaw.^[43] In October 1985, Mute released a compilation, The Singles 81→85 (Catching Up with Depeche Mode in the US), which included the two non-album hit singles «Shake the Disease» and «It’s Called a Heart» along with their B-sides.

In the United States, the band’s music first gained prominence on college radio and modern rock stations such as KROQ in Los Angeles, KQAK («The Quake») in San Francisco, WFNX in Boston and WLIR on Long Island, New York, and hence they appealed primarily to an alternative audience who were disenchanted with the predominance of «soft rock and ‘disco hell'»^[44] on the radio. This view of the band was in sharp contrast to how the band was perceived in Europe, despite the increasingly dark and serious tone in their songs.^[45] In Germany, France, and other European countries, Depeche Mode were considered teen idols and regularly featured in European teen magazines, becoming one of the most famous synth-pop bands in the mid-’80s.^{[citation needed]}

Black Celebration (1986)[edit]

Depeche Mode’s musical style shifted slightly again in 1986 with the release of their fifteenth single, «Stripped», and its accompanying album Black Celebration. Retaining their often imaginative sampling and beginning to move away from the «industrial pop» sound that had characterised their previous two LPs, the band introduced an ominous, highly atmospheric and textured sound. Gore’s lyrics also took on a darker tone and became more pessimistic.

The music video for «A Question of Time» was the first to be directed by Anton Corbijn, beginning a working relationship that continues to the present. Corbijn has directed 21 of the band’s videos (the latest being 2023’s «Ghosts Again»). He has also filmed some of their live performances and designed stage sets, as well as most covers for albums and singles starting from Violator.^{[citation needed]}

Music for the Masses and 101 (1987–1988)[edit]

For 1987’s Music for the Masses, the band’s sound and working methods continued to develop. It was the first time they worked with a producer not related to Mute Records. Dave Bascombe was called to assist with the recording sessions; although, according to Alan Wilder, Bascombe’s role ended up being more that of engineer.^[46] In making the album, the band largely eschewed sampling in favour of synthesizer experimentation.^[47] While chart performance of the singles «Strangelove», «Never Let Me Down Again» and «Behind the Wheel» proved to be disappointing in the UK, they performed well in countries such as Canada, Brazil, West Germany, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland, often reaching the top 10. Record Mirror described Music for the Masses as «the most accomplished and sexy Mode album to date».^[48] The album also reached No. 35 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart.^[49]

The Music for the Masses Tour began 22 October 1987. On 7 March 1988, with no previous announcement that they would be the headlining act, Depeche Mode played in the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle, East Berlin,^[50] becoming one of the few Western groups to perform in the Communist East Germany. They also performed concerts in Budapest and Prague in 1988,^[51] both Communist also at the time.

The world tour ended 18 June 1988 with a concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. Paid attendance of 60,453^[52] was the highest in eight years for the venue.^{[citation needed]} Its massive success^{[citation needed]} marked a breakthrough for the band in the United States.^{[citation needed]}. The event was documented in 101, a concert film by D. A. Pennebaker and its accompanying soundtrack album. The film is notable for its portrayal of fan interaction.^[53][54] Alan Wilder came up with the title, noting that it was the 101st and final performance of the tour.^{[citation needed]} On 7 September 1988, Depeche Mode performed «Strangelove» at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles.^[55]

Violator and worldwide fame (1989–1991)[edit]

In mid-1989, the band began recording in Milan with producer Flood and engineer François Kevorkian. The initial result of this session was the single «Personal Jesus». Prior to its release, a marketing campaign was launched with advertisements placed in the personals columns of UK regional newspapers with the words «Your own personal Jesus.» Later, the ads included a phone number one could dial to hear the song. The resulting furore helped propel the single to number 13 on the UK charts, becoming one of their biggest sellers to date. In the United States, it was their first gold single and their first Top 40 hit since «People Are People», eventually becoming the biggest-selling 12-inch single in Warner Records’ history up to that point.^[56]

Released in January 1990, «Enjoy the Silence» reached number six in the UK (the first Top 10 hit in that country since «Master And Servant»). A few months later it reached number eight in the U.S. and earned the band a second gold record, and it won Best British Single at the 1991 Brit Awards.^[58] To promote their new album, Violator, the band held an in-store autograph signing at Wherehouse Entertainment in Los Angeles. The event attracted approximately 20,000 fans and turned into a near riot. Some attendees were injured while being pressed against the store’s glass by the crowd.^[59] As an apology to those injured, the band released a limited edition cassette tape to fans in Los Angeles, distributed through radio station KROQ (the sponsor of the Wherehouse event).

Violator was the first Depeche Mode album to enter the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, reaching Number 7 and staying 74 weeks in the chart. It was certified triple platinum in America.^[60] Two more singles from the album — «Policy of Truth» and «World in My Eyes» — were hits in the UK, with the former also charting in the US.

The World Violation Tour saw the band play several stadium shows in the US. 42,000 tickets were sold within four hours for a show at Giants Stadium, and 48,000 tickets were sold within half-an-hour of going on sale for a show at Dodger Stadium.^[62] An estimated 1.2 million fans saw this tour worldwide.^[8]

In 1991, Depeche Mode contribution «Death’s Door» was released on the soundtrack album for the film Until the End of the World. Film director Wim Wenders had challenged musical artists to write music the way they imagined they would in the year 2000, the setting of the movie.

Songs of Faith and Devotion and Wilder’s departure (1992–1995)[edit]

The members of Depeche Mode regrouped in Madrid in January 1992, Dave Gahan had become interested in the new grunge scene sweeping the U.S. and was influenced by the likes of Jane’s Addiction, Soundgarden and Nirvana.^[63]

In 1993, Songs of Faith and Devotion, again with Flood producing, saw them experimenting with arrangements based as much on heavily distorted electric guitars and live drums (played by Alan Wilder, whose debut as a studio drummer had come on the Violator track «Clean») as on synthesizers.^[64] Live strings, uilleann pipes and female gospel vocals were other new additions to the band’s sound. The album debuted at number one in both the UK and the US, only the sixth British act to achieve such a distinction to date.^[61] The first single from the album was the grunge-influenced «I Feel You». The gospel influences are most noticeable on the album’s third single, «Condemnation». Interviews given by the band during this period tended to be conducted separately, unlike earlier albums, where the band was interviewed as a group.^[8]

The Devotional world tour followed, documented by a concert film of the same name. The film was directed by Anton Corbijn, and in 1995 earned the band their first Grammy nomination.^[65] The band’s second live album, Songs of Faith and Devotion Live, was released in December 1993. The tour continued into 1994 with the Exotic Tour, which began in February 1994 in South Africa, and ended in April in Mexico. The final leg of the tour, consisting of more North American dates, followed shortly thereafter and ran until July. As a whole, the Devotional Tour is to date the longest and most geographically diverse Depeche Mode tour, spanning fourteen months and 159 individual performances.

Q magazine described the 1993 Devotional Tour as «The Most Debauched Rock’n’Roll Tour Ever».^[66] According to The Independent, the «smack-blasted» Gahan «required cortisone shots just to perform, borderline alcoholic Gore suffered two stress-induced seizures, and Andrew Fletcher’s deepening depression resulted, in the summer of 1994, in a full nervous breakdown.»^[67] After playing the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado, local police arrested Gore and fined him $50 for disturbing the peace when he held a loud party in his hotel room.^[68] Fletcher declined to participate in the second half of the Exotic Tour due to mental instability;^{[citation needed]} he was replaced on stage by Daryl Bamonte, who had worked with the band as a personal assistant since the beginning of their career in 1980.^[69][70]

In June 1995, Alan Wilder announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode, explaining:

«Since joining in 1982, I have continually striven to give total energy, enthusiasm and commitment to the furthering of the group’s success, and in spite of a consistent imbalance in the distribution of the workload, willingly offered this. Unfortunately, within the group, this level of input never received the respect and acknowledgement that it warrants.»^[71]

— Alan Wilder

He continued to work on his personal project Recoil, releasing a fourth album (Unsound Methods) in 1997.

Ultra (1996–1999)[edit]

Despite Gahan’s increasingly severe personal problems, Gore tried repeatedly during 1995 and 1996 to get the band recording again. However, Gahan would rarely turn up to scheduled sessions, and when he did, it would take weeks to get any vocals recorded; one six-week session at Electric Lady in New York produced just one usable vocal (for «Sister of Night»), and even that was pieced together from multiple takes.^[72] Gore was forced to contemplate breaking the band up and considered releasing the songs he had written as a solo album.^[73] In mid-1996, after his near-fatal overdose in which his heart stopped beating for two minutes,^[74] Gahan entered a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program to battle his addiction to cocaine and heroin.^[75] With Gahan out of rehab in 1996, Depeche Mode held recording sessions with producer Tim Simenon.
Preceded by two singles, «Barrel of a Gun» and «It’s No Good», the album Ultra was released in April 1997. The album debuted at No. 1 in the UK (as well as Germany), and No. 5 in the US. The band did not tour in support of the album, with Fletcher quoted as saying: «We’re not fit enough. Dave’s only eight months into his sobriety, and our bodies are telling us to spend time with our families.»^[76] As part of the promotion for the release of the album, they did perform two short concerts in London and Los Angeles, called «Ultra Parties».^[77] Ultra spawned two further singles, «Home» and «Useless».

A second singles compilation, The Singles 86–98, was released in 1998, preceded by the new single «Only When I Lose Myself», which had been recorded during the Ultra sessions. In April 1998, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Hyatt Hotel in Cologne to announce The Singles Tour.^[78] The tour was the first to feature two backing musicians in place of Alan Wilder—Austrian drummer Christian Eigner and British keyboardist Peter Gordeno.

Exciter (2000–2004)[edit]

In 2001, Depeche Mode released Exciter, produced by Mark Bell (of techno group LFO). Bell introduced a minimalist, digital sound to much of the album, influenced by IDM and glitch. «Dream On», «I Feel Loved», «Freelove» and «Goodnight Lovers» were released as singles in 2001 and 2002. Critical response to the album was mixed, with reasonably positive reviews from some magazines (NME, Rolling Stone and LA Weekly), while others (including Q magazine, PopMatters, and Pitchfork) derided it as sounding underproduced, dull and lacklustre.^[79]

In March 2001, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Valentino Hotel in Hamburg to announce the Exciter Tour.^[80] The tour featured 84 performances for over 1.5 million fans in 24 countries.^[81] The concerts held in Paris at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy were filmed and later released in May 2002 as a live DVD entitled One Night in Paris.

In October 2002 the band won the first-ever Q magazine «Innovation Award».^[82]

In 2003, Gahan released his first solo album, Paper Monsters, and toured to promote the record. Also released in 2003 was Gore’s second solo album Counterfeit².^[83] Fletcher founded his own record label, Toast Hawaii, specialising in promoting electronic music.

A new remix compilation album, Remixes 81–04, was released in 2004, featuring new and unreleased promo mixes of the band’s singles from 1981 to 2004. A new version of «Enjoy the Silence», remixed by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, «Enjoy the Silence 04», was released as a single and reached No. 7 on the UK charts.

Playing the Angel (2005–2007)[edit]

In October 2005, the band released their 11th studio album Playing the Angel. Produced by Ben Hillier, the album peaked at No. 1 in 18 countries and featured the hit single «Precious». This is the first Depeche Mode album to feature lyrics written by Gahan and, consequently, the first album since 1984’s Some Great Reward featuring songs not written by Gore. «Suffer Well» was the first ever post-Clarke Depeche Mode single not to be written by Gore (lyrics by Gahan, music by Philpott/Eigner). The final single from the album was «John the Revelator», an up-tempo electronic track with a running religious theme, accompanied by «Lilian», a lush track that was a hit in many clubs all over the world.^{[citation needed]}

To promote Playing the Angel, the band launched Touring the Angel, a concert tour of Europe and North America that began in November 2005 and ran for nine months. During the last two legs of the tour Depeche Mode headlined a number of festivals including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the O₂ Wireless Festival. In total, the band played to more than 2.8 million people across 31 countries and the tour was one of the highest grossing and critically acclaimed tours of 2005/2006.^[3] Speaking about the tour, Gahan praised it as «probably the most enjoyable, rewarding live shows we’ve ever done. The new material was just waiting to be played live. It took on a life of its own. With the energy of the crowds, it just came to life.»^[84] Two shows at Milan’s Fila Forum were filmed and edited into a concert film, released on DVD as Touring the Angel: Live in Milan.^[85]
A «best-of» compilation was released in November 2006, entitled The Best Of, Volume 1 featuring a new single «Martyr», an outtake from the Playing the Angel sessions. Later that month Depeche Mode received the MTV Europe Music Award in the Best Group category.^[86]

In December 2006, iTunes released The Complete Depeche Mode as its fourth ever digital box-set.^[87]

In August 2007, during promotion for Dave Gahan’s second solo album, Hourglass, it was announced that Depeche Mode were heading back in studio in early 2008 to work on a new album.^[88]

Sounds of the Universe (2008–2011)[edit]

In May 2008, the band returned to the studio with producer Ben Hillier to work on some songs that Martin Gore had demoed at his home studio in Santa Barbara, California. Later that year it was announced that Depeche Mode were splitting from their long-term US label, Warner Music, and signing with EMI Music worldwide.^[89] The album was created in four sessions, two in New York and two in Santa Barbara. A total of 22 songs were recorded, with the standard album being 13 songs in length while many of the others were released in subsequent deluxe editions.^[90]

In 2009, Depeche Mode allowed their likeness to be used in Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2.^[91]

On 15 January 2009, the official Depeche Mode website announced that the band’s 12th studio album would be called Sounds of the Universe.^[92] The album was released in April 2009, also made available through an iTunes Pass, where the buyer received individual tracks in the weeks leading up to official release date. Andy Fletcher says the idea for their iTunes Pass was a combination of the band’s and iTunes’: «I think the digital and record companies are starting to get their act together. They were very lazy in the first 10 years when downloads came in. Now they’re collaborating more and coming up with interesting ideas for fans to buy products.»^[93] The album went to number one in 21 countries. Critical response was generally positive and it was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Alternative Album category.^[94] «Wrong» was the first single from the album, released digitally in February 2009. Subsequent singles were «Peace» and the double A-side «Fragile Tension / Hole to Feed». In addition, «Perfect» was released as a promotional-only (non-commercial) single in the United States.

On 23 April 2009, Depeche Mode performed for the television program Jimmy Kimmel Live! at the famed corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, drawing more than 12,000 fans, which was the largest audience the program had seen since its 2003 premiere, with a performance by Coldplay.^[95]

In May 2009, the band embarked on a concert tour in support of the album – called Tour of the Universe; it had been announced at a press conference in October 2008 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin.^[96] There was a warm up show in Luxembourg and it officially started on 10 May 2009 in Tel Aviv. The first leg of the tour was disrupted when Dave Gahan was struck down with gastroenteritis. During treatment, doctors found and removed a low-grade tumour from the singer’s bladder. Gahan’s illness caused 16 concerts to be cancelled, but several of the shows were rescheduled for 2010.^[97] The band headlined the Lollapalooza festival during the North American leg of the tour. The tour also took the band back to South America for the first time since 1994’s Exotic Tour. During the final European leg, the band played a show at London’s Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust, where former member Alan Wilder joined Martin Gore on stage for a performance of «Somebody».^[98][99] In total the band played to more than 2.7 million people across 32 countries and the tour was one of the most profitable in America in 2009.^[100][101] The concerts held at Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, Spain were filmed and later released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc release entitled Tour of the Universe: Barcelona 20/21.11.09.^[102] In March 2010, Depeche Mode won the award for «Best International Group – Rock / Pop» at the ECHO Awards in Germany.^[103]

On 6 June 2011, as the final commitment to their contract with EMI,^[104] the band released a remix compilation album, entitled Remixes 2: 81–11 that features remixes by former members Vince Clarke and Alan Wilder.^[105][106] Other remixers involved with the project were Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran,^[107] Röyksopp, Karlsson & Winnberg of Miike Snow, Eric Prydz, Clark and more.^[108] A new remix of «Personal Jesus» by Stargate, entitled «Personal Jesus 2011», was released as a single on 30 May 2011, in support of the compilation.

Depeche Mode contributed their cover of the U2 song «So Cruel» to the tribute album AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered honouring the 20th anniversary of Achtung Baby, a 1991 album by U2. The compilation CD was released with the December 2011 issue of Q.^[109][110]

Delta Machine (2012–2015)[edit]

In October 2012 during a press conference in Paris, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher announced plans for a new album and a 2013 worldwide tour starting from Tel Aviv and continuing in Europe and North America.^[111] Martin Gore revealed that Flood mixed the album, marking the producer’s first studio collaboration with the band since 1993’s Songs of Faith and Devotion.

In December 2012, the band officially announced signing a worldwide deal with Columbia Records and releasing a new album in March 2013.^[112] On 24 January 2013, it was confirmed that the album was titled Delta Machine.^[113] «Heaven», the debut single from Delta Machine was released commercially on Friday 1 February 2013 (although not in the UK). The release date in the UK was pushed back to 18 March 2013 (17 March 2013 on iTunes). The physical release still bore the Mute Records logo, even though the band have now severed ties with their long-standing label. Andy Fletcher mentioned in an interview this was due to their «devotion» to the label and with the band’s insistence.^{[citation needed]}

In March, the band announced North American dates to its Delta Machine summer tour, starting 22 August from Detroit and ending 8 October in Phoenix.^[114] In June, other European dates^[115] were confirmed for early 2014. The final gig of Delta Machine Tour took place in Moscow (Russia) on 7 March 2014, at Olimpiski venue.

That month, Depeche Mode won the award for «Best International Group – Rock / Pop» at the ECHO Awards in Germany. Also, they were nominated at the category «Album des Jahres (national oder international)» for Delta Machine but lost against Helene Fischer’s Farbenspiel.^[116][117]

On 8 October 2014, the band announced Live in Berlin, the new video and audio release filmed and recorded at the O2 World in Berlin, Germany in November 2013 during the Delta Machine Tour. It was released on 17 November 2014 worldwide.^[118]

In a 2015 Rolling Stone interview celebrating the 25th anniversary of Violator, Martin Gore stated that Johnny Cash’s cover of «Personal Jesus» is his favorite cover version of a Depeche Mode song.^[119]

Spirit (2016–2020)[edit]

On 25 January 2016, Martin Gore announced a projected return to the recording studio in April, with both Gore and Gahan having already written and demoed new songs.^[120] In September, the official Depeche Mode Facebook page hinted at a new release, later confirmed by the band to be a music video compilation, Video Singles Collection, scheduled for release in November by Sony.^[121] In October 2016, the band announced that their fourteenth album, titled Spirit and produced by James Ford, would be released in spring 2017.^[122]

«Where’s the Revolution», the lead single from Spirit, was released 3 February 2017, along with its lyric video. The official video was published a week later, on 9 February.^[123] The Global Spirit Tour officially kicked off on 5 May 2017 with a performance in Stockholm, Sweden, at the Friends Arena. The first leg of the tour covered European countries only, ending with a final stadium show in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, at the Cluj Arena. The second leg of the tour covered North America and returned to Europe. The North America leg of the tour kicked off in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 23 August, at the USANA Amphitheatre. The band remained in North America until 15 November when they left for Dublin to resume the European leg. The band ended the tour in Europe with two sold-out shows on 23 and 25 July 2018 in Berlin, Germany, at the Waldbühne.^{[124][125][126]} In September 2019, the band announced that Spirits in the Forest, a documentary that was partially filmed during these shows, would be released in theatres for one night only, 21 November 2019.^[127]

On 7 November 2020, the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.^[128]

Fletcher’s death and Memento Mori (2022–present)[edit]

On 26 May 2022, Andy Fletcher died, aged 60, after suffering an aortic dissection while at home. His fellow bandmates Gahan and Gore stated, «we are shocked and filled with overwhelming sadness with the untimely passing of our dear friend, family member and bandmate Andy ‘Fletch’ Fletcher». Former Depeche Mode member Alan Wilder stated that learning of Fletcher’s death was «a real bolt from the blue».^[129][130]

Prior to Fletcher’s death, Gahan said: «There’s a ton of stuff that we’ve done with Depeche Mode that I’m really proud of. I think that’s come with time and age. Martin put out a record last year which I really liked. I actually bought a copy because it wouldn’t feel right otherwise. I know he’s been pottering away in his studio as well, so I guess at some point next year we’ll get together. Hopefully at least to just have a chat about what we both feel like we could move forward with.»^[131]

When asked about their feelings towards Fletcher’s passing Dave Gahan stated, «Fletch would have loved this album», and he was very upset that he hadn’t gotten a chance to hear any of the material. Martin Gore also clarified «We started work on this project early in the pandemic, and its themes were directly inspired by that time. After Fletch’s passing, we decided to continue as we’re sure this is what he would have wanted, and that has really given the project an extra level of meaning», which many assumed the title was a tribute to Andy, due to its meaning «remember you must die».

On 15 August 2022, the social media accounts for Depeche Mode posted a photo of Gahan and Gore in a recording studio, with them tweeting, «finding stability in what we know and love, and focusing on what gives life meaning and purpose», which magazines like NME suggested was a hint at work on a new studio album.^[132][133]

On 4 October 2022, Depeche Mode announced their new album Memento Mori and a tour which will start on 23 March 2023.^[134] the first single, Ghosts Again, was released in February 9, 2023.^[135] They stated that they had begun work on the album in the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.^[136][137] Gahan and Gore said they would send each other ideas for songs, for example Dave said, «I played guitar and sort of sang on my iPhone», while Gore «sent it back with his angelic voice».^[134] They also stated that they would be working with James Ford once again as well as Marta Salogni as producers for the album.^[138][139]

Musical style and influences[edit]

The early musical endeavours of Clarke, Fletcher and Gore were inspired by punk rock, the post-punk groups Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Cure, and the electronic bands Kraftwerk, the Human League and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD). This confluence of sounds translated into Depeche Mode,^[140] although the group began to pursue a more electronic direction at the behest of Clarke, who had been heavily influenced by OMD’s fusion of electronics and emotion.^[12][141] Gore had similar objectives in relation to the band’s sound, stating, «My dream was to combine the emotion of Neil Young or John Lennon transmitted by Kraftwerk’s synthesizers. Soul music played by electronic instruments.»^[142] Group members have also cited David Bowie, The Clash,^[143] Roxy Music and Brian Eno,^[144] Elvis Presley, the Velvet Underground,^[145] Fad Gadget,^[146] Suicide,^[147] and the blues.^[148]

Depeche Mode were considered a teen pop band during their early period in the UK, and interviewed in teen pop magazines such as Smash Hits.^[149][150] Following the departure of Clarke, their music began to take on a darker tone, establishing a darker sound in the band’s music, as Gore assumed lead songwriting duties.^[151] Gore’s lyrics include themes such as sex, religion, and politics.^[152] Gore has stated he feels lyrical themes which tackle issues related to solitude and loneliness are a better representation of reality, whereas he finds «happy songs» fake and unrealistic.^[153] At the same time, he asserts that the band’s music contains «an element of hope».^[154]

Depeche Mode’s music has mainly been described as synth-pop,^{[155][99][156][157][158][151]} new wave,^{[105][156][159]} electronic rock,^{[160][161][162][163]} dance-rock,^[164][165] post-punk,^[166] alternative rock^[151] and pop rock.^[167] The band also experimented with various other genres throughout its career, including avant-garde, electronica, pop, soul, techno, industrial rock and heavy metal.^[168]

Legacy[edit]

Depeche Mode have released a total of 14 studio albums, 10 compilation albums, six live albums, eight box sets, 13 video albums, 71 music videos, and 54 singles. They have sold over 100 million records and played live to more than 30 million fans worldwide. The band has had 50 songs in the UK Singles Chart, and one US and two UK number-one albums.^[169] In addition, all of their studio albums have reached the UK Top 10 and their albums have spent over 210 weeks on the UK Charts.^[25]

In 2006, music critic Sasha Frere-Jones stated that «the last serious English influence was Depeche Mode, who seem more and more significant as time passes.»^[170] Depeche Mode’s releases have been nominated for five Grammy Awards: Devotional for Best Long Form Music Video; «I Feel Loved» and «Suffer Well», both for Best Dance Recording; Sounds of the Universe for Best Alternative Album; and «Wrong» for Best Short Form Music Video. In addition, Depeche Mode have been honoured with a Brit Award for «Enjoy the Silence» in the Best British Single category, the first-ever Q Innovation Award, and an Ivor Novello Award for Martin Gore in the category of International Achievement.

Depeche Mode were called «the most popular electronic band the world has ever known» by Q,^[171] «one of the greatest British pop groups of all time» by The Sunday Telegraph,^[172] and «the quintessential eighties techno-pop band» by Rolling Stone and AllMusic.^[157][156] They were ranked No. 2 on Electronic Music Realm’s list of The 100 Greatest Artists of Electronic Music,^[173] ranked No. 158 on Acclaimed Music’s list of Top 1000 Artists of All Time^[174] and Q included them on their list of «50 bands that changed the world».^[4]

Other musicians have stated their admiration for Depeche Mode. In an interview in 2009, Simple Minds lead singer Jim Kerr argued that Depeche Mode and U2 were the only contemporaries of his band which could be said to have «stayed constantly relevant».^[175] Muse’s Matt Bellamy said, «They had their own thing, their own style, own sound. I respect them very much.»^[176] During Depeche Mode’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Coldplay’s Chris Martin remarked, «sonically, they were and are about throwing away all the rulebooks.» Arcade Fire’s Win Butler added, «I feel like their music still sounds like it could come out 20 years from now. Depeche were able to take that spirit and spread it, which is really kind of a sacred responsibility.»^[128][177]

Influence[edit]

Several major artists have cited the band as an influence, including: Arcade Fire,^[178] The Killers,^[179][180] Nine Inch Nails,^[151] Chvrches,^[181] The Smashing Pumpkins,^[182] Coldplay,^[179] Muse,^[179] Metric,^[183] No Doubt,^[184] A Perfect Circle,^[185] Marilyn Manson,^[186] Linkin Park,^[187][188] The Crystal Method,^[189] Fear Factory,^[190] La Roux,^[191] Gotye,^[192] Rammstein,^[186][193] a-ha,^[194] Tegan and Sara (on Sainthood)^[195] and Paul van Dyk.^[196] Depeche Mode contemporaries Pet Shop Boys^[197] and Gary Numan^[198] have also cited the band as an influence. Colombian singer Shakira described «Enjoy the Silence» as the song that first sparked her passion for pop music.^[199]

The dark themes and moods of Depeche Mode’s lyrics and music have been enjoyed by several heavy metal artists, and the band influenced acts such as Marilyn Manson and Deftones.^[186] Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails also cited Depeche Mode, in particular their 1986 album Black Celebration, as a major influence on his beginnings.^[151] They have also been named as an influence on Detroit techno^[151] and indie rock.^[200]

Philanthropy[edit]

Early in their career, Depeche Mode was dismissive of benefit concerts such as Live Aid. Gore himself stated, «If these bands really care so much, they should just donate the money and let that be it. Why can’t they do it without all the surrounding hype?».^[43]

Since 2010, the band has applied their celebrity and cultural longevity to help promote and raise funds for several notable charity endeavours. They lent their support to high-profile charities such as MusiCares, Cancer Research UK and the Teenage Cancer Trust. The band has also supported the Small Steps Project, a humanitarian organization based in the UK, aiming to assist economically disadvantaged children into education.^[201] They have partnered with Swiss watchmaker Hublot to support Charity: Water, aimed at the provision of clean drinking water in developing countries.^[202] Such collaboration led to the release of two different limited edition watches, the Hublot Big Bang Depeche Mode in 2017 and The Singles Limited Edition series based from the Big Bang model in 2018. The proceeds helped raise $1.7 million for Charity: Water.^[203] In 2014, the partnership hosted a gala and fundraiser at the TsUM building in Moscow, raising $1.4 million for the charity.^[204]

Band members[edit]

Current members

• Dave Gahan — lead vocals (1980–present)
• Martin Gore — keyboards, guitars, backing and lead vocals (1980–present)

Touring musicians

• Christian Eigner – drums, keyboards (1997–present)
• Peter Gordeno – keyboards, bass guitar, piano, backing vocals (1998–present)

Former members

• Andy Fletcher — keyboards, bass guitar, occasional backing vocals (1980-2022; his death)
• Vince Clarke — keyboards, lead and backing vocals, guitars (1980-1981)
• Alan Wilder — keyboards, piano, drums, backing vocals (1982-1995; touring member in 1982; guest in 2010)

Former touring musicians

• Hildia Campbell – backing vocals (1993–1994)
• Samantha Smith – backing vocals (1993–1994)
• Daryl Bamonte – keyboards, samplers (1994)
• Dave Clayton – keyboards, programming (1997)^[205]
• Janet Cooke – backing vocals (1998)
• Jordan Bailey – backing vocals (1998, 2001)
• Georgia Lewis – backing vocals (2001)

Timeline

Discography[edit]

• Speak & Spell (1981)
• A Broken Frame (1982)
• Construction Time Again (1983)
• Some Great Reward (1984)
• Black Celebration (1986)
• Music for the Masses (1987)
• Violator (1990)
• Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993)
• Ultra (1997)
• Exciter (2001)
• Playing the Angel (2005)
• Sounds of the Universe (2009)
• Delta Machine (2013)
• Spirit (2017)
• Memento Mori (2023)

Awards and nominations[edit]

Tours[edit]

See also[edit]

• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Malins, Steve (2001). Depeche Mode: A Biography. André Deutsch. ISBN 978-0-233-99430-7.
• Miller, Jonathan (2004). Stripped: The True Story of Depeche Mode. Omnibus Press. ISBN 1-84449-415-2.
• Tobler, John (1992). NME Rock ‘n’ Roll Years (1st ed.). London: Reed International Books Ltd. ISBN 0-600-57602-7.

Further reading[edit]

• Corbijn, Anton (1990). Depeche Mode: Strangers. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-7119-2493-7.
• Thompson, Dave (1995). Depeche Mode: Some Great Reward. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 0-283-06243-6.
• Zill, Didi (2004). Depeche Mode. Photographs 1982–87. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf. ISBN 3-89602-491-4.

External links[edit]

Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode performing in 2006. From left to right: Peter Gordeno, Christian Eigner, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher
Background information
Also known as	Composition of Sound (1980)
Origin	Basildon, Essex, England
Genres	Synth-pop new wave dance-rock electronic rock alternative rock post-punk industrial rock
Years active	1980–present
Labels	Mute Sire Reprise Capitol Virgin Columbia
Spinoffs	VCMG
Members	Dave Gahan Martin Gore
Past members	Andy Fletcher Vince Clarke Alan Wilder
Website	depechemode.com

Depeche Mode^[a] are an English electronic band formed in Basildon in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals, co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals, primary songwriting).

Depeche Mode, originally formed by the lineup of Gahan, Gore, Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke, released their debut album Speak & Spell in 1981, bringing the band onto the British new wave scene. After founding member Clarke left following the release of the album, they recorded A Broken Frame as a trio. Gore took over as main songwriter and later, in 1982, Alan Wilder replaced Clarke, establishing a lineup that continued for 13 years. The band’s last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music for the Masses, established them as a dominant force within both the electronic and alternative music scenes. A highlight of this era was the band’s June 1988 concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, where they drew a crowd in excess of 60,000 people. In early 1990, they released Violator, an international mainstream success. The following album Songs of Faith and Devotion, released in 1993, was also a success, though the band’s internal struggles during recording and touring resulted in Wilder’s departure in 1995. The band continued with the trio lineup of Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher until Fletcher’s death in 2022.

Depeche Mode have had 54 songs in the UK Singles Chart and 17 Top 10 albums in the UK chart; they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide.^[2][3] Q included the band in its list of the «50 Bands That Changed the World!»^[4] Depeche Mode also rank No. 98 on VH1’s «100 Greatest Artists of All Time».^[5] In December 2016, Billboard named Depeche Mode the 10th Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists.^[6] They were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and 2018, eventually being inducted in 2020.^[7]

History[edit]

Formation and Speak & Spell (1977–1981)[edit]

Depeche Mode’s origins date to 1977, when schoolmates Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher formed a band called «No Romance in China» with Clarke on vocals and guitar and Fletcher on bass. Fletcher would later recall, «Why am I in the band? It was accidental right from the beginning. I was actually forced to be in the band. I played the guitar and I had a bass; it was a question of them roping me in.»^[8] In 1979, Clarke played guitar in an Ultravox-influenced band, The Plan, with friends Robert Marlow and Paul Langwith.^[9] In 1978–1979, Martin Gore played guitar in an acoustic duo, Norman and the Worms, with school friend Phil Burdett on vocals.^{[10][better source needed]} In 1980, Clarke and Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound, with Clarke on vocals/guitar and Fletcher on bass; the pair were soon joined by Martin Gore as a third instrumentalist.^{[citation needed]} Dave Gahan joined the ensemble later in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a local Scout hut jam session, singing a rendition of David Bowie’s «‘Heroes‘«.^[11]

With the advent of affordable synthesizers and the increasing popularity of electronic music, the group began pursuing a synth-pop direction.^[12] The first live concert of Composition of Sound as a four-piece was on 14 June 1980 at Nicholas School, Basildon, England, UK.^[13] There is a plaque commemorating the gig at the James Hornsby School in Basildon, where Gore and Fletcher were pupils. Gahan’s and Gore’s favourite artists included Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sparks,^[14] Cabaret Voltaire, Talking Heads and Iggy Pop.^[15] Gahan’s onstage persona was influenced by Dave Vanian, frontman of The Damned.^[16] Gahan has also credited David Bowie, James Brown, Elvis Presley and Prince as influences on his performance style.^[17]

Composition of Sound would become embarrassed about their band name and started thinking of changing it. There were several potential variants, including the name «Musical Moments» that was suggested by Vince Clarke as both a band name and the name of their first album. Starting at their concert on 24 September 1980 at Bridge House, the band changed their name to Depeche Mode, chosen by Dave Gahan.^{[18] [19]}When explaining the choice for the new name, which was taken from a mistranslation of the name of French fashion magazine Dépêche Mode,^[20] Gore said, «It means ‘hurried fashion’ or ‘fashion dispatch’. I like the sound of that.»^[21] However, the more accurate translation of the magazine’s name (and therefore the band’s name) is «Fashion News» or «Fashion Update».^[b]

The band made their recording debut in late 1980 for the Some Bizzare Album (released in 1981) with the song «Photographic», later re-recorded for their debut album Speak & Spell.

The band made a demo tape but, instead of mailing the tape to record labels, they would go in and personally deliver it. They would demand the labels play it; according to Dave Gahan, «most of them would tell us to fuck off. They’d say ‘leave the tape with us’ and we’d say ‘it’s our only one’. Then we’d say goodbye and go somewhere else.»^[22]

According to Gahan, prior to securing their record contract, they were receiving offers from all the major labels. Phonogram offered them «money you could never have imagined and all sorts of crazy things like clothes allowances».^[22]

While playing a live gig at the Bridge House in Canning Town,^[23] the band was approached by Daniel Miller, an electronic producer and founder of Mute Records, who was interested in their recording a single for his burgeoning label.^[24] The result of this verbal contract was their first single, «Dreaming of Me», recorded in December 1980 and released in February 1981. It reached number 57 in the UK charts. Encouraged by this, the band recorded their second single, «New Life», which climbed to number 11 in the UK charts and got them an appearance on Top of the Pops. The band went to London by train, carrying their synthesisers all the way to the BBC studios.

The band’s next single was «Just Can’t Get Enough». The synth-pop single became the band’s first UK top ten hit. The video is the only one to feature Vince Clarke. Depeche Mode’s debut album, Speak & Spell, was released in October 1981 and peaked at number ten on the UK album charts.^[25] Critical reviews were mixed; Melody Maker described it as a «great album … one they had to make to conquer fresh audiences and please the fans who just can’t get enough»,^[26] while Rolling Stone was more critical, calling the album «PG-rated fluff».^[27]

Clarke’s departure, A Broken Frame, and Wilder’s joining (1981–1982)[edit]

Clarke began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking, saying «there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions».^[28] Clarke also said he was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was «bullshit to be quite honest».^[22] Gahan went on to say he «suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore.»^[22] In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode.^[29]

Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke’s continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track «Only You», but they declined.^[30] Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, «I don’t know where that came from. That’s not true.»^[31] The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written «Tora! Tora! Tora!» and the instrumental «Big Muff» for Speak & Spell, became the band’s main composer and lyricist.^[32]

In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: «Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one.»^[11] Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member.^[33] Wilder would later be called the «Musical Director» of the band, responsible for the band’s sound until his departure in 1995.^[8] As producer Flood would say, «[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin’s the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude.»^[8]

In January 1982, the band released «See You», their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six.^[34] The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, «The Meaning of Love» and «Leave in Silence», were released ahead of the band’s second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke.^[35] A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, «Get the Balance Right!», was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder.^[36]

Construction Time Again (1983)[edit]

For its third album, Construction Time Again, Depeche Mode worked with producer Gareth Jones, at John Foxx’s Garden Studios and at Hansa Studios in West Berlin (where much of David Bowie’s trilogy of seminal electronic albums featuring Brian Eno had been produced). The album saw a dramatic shift in the group’s sound, due in part to Wilder’s introduction of the Synclavier and E-mu Emulator samplers.^[37] By sampling the noises of everyday objects, the band created an eclectic, industrial-influenced sound, with similarities to groups such as the Art of Noise and Einstürzende Neubauten (the latter becoming Mute labelmates in 1983).^[38]

«Everything Counts» rose to number six in the UK, also reaching the top 30 in Ireland, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden and West Germany.^[25] Wilder contributed two songs to the album, «The Landscape Is Changing» and «Two Minute Warning». In September 1983, to promote Construction Time Again, the band launched a European concert tour.

Some Great Reward and growing international success (1984–1985)[edit]

In their early years, Depeche Mode had really attained success only in Europe and Australia. This changed in March 1984, when they released the single «People Are People».^[39] The song became a hit, reaching No. 2 in Ireland and Poland, No. 4 in the UK and Switzerland, and No. 1 in West Germany – the first time a DM single topped a country’s singles chart – where it was used as the theme to West German TV’s coverage of the 1984 Olympics.^[40] Beyond this European success, the song also reached No. 13 on the US charts in mid-1985, the first appearance of a DM single on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a Top 20 hit in Canada. «People Are People» became an anthem for the LGBT community,^[41] regularly played at gay establishments and gay pride festivals in the late 1980s. Sire, the band’s North American record label, released a compilation of the same name which included tracks from A Broken Frame and Construction Time Again as well as several B-sides.

On the American tour, the band was, according to Gore, «shocked by the way the fans were turning up in droves at the concerts».^[22] He said that although the concerts were selling well, Depeche Mode struggled to sell records.^[22]

In September 1984, Some Great Reward was released. Melody Maker claimed that the album made one «sit up and take notice of what is happening here, right under your nose.»^[42] In contrast to the political and environmental subjects addressed on the previous album, the songs on Some Great Reward were mostly concerned with more personal themes such as sexual politics («Master and Servant»), adulterous relationships («Lie to Me»), and arbitrary divine justice («Blasphemous Rumours»). Also included was the first Martin Gore ballad, «Somebody» — such songs would become a feature of all following albums.^{[citation needed]} «Somebody» was released as a double A-side with «Blasphemous Rumours», and was the first single with Gore on lead vocal. Some Great Reward became the first Depeche Mode album to enter the US album charts, and made the Top 10 in several European countries.^{[citation needed]}

The World We Live In and Live in Hamburg was the band’s first video release, almost an entire concert from their 1984 Some Great Reward Tour. In July 1985, the band played their first-ever concerts behind the Iron Curtain, in Budapest and Warsaw.^[43] In October 1985, Mute released a compilation, The Singles 81→85 (Catching Up with Depeche Mode in the US), which included the two non-album hit singles «Shake the Disease» and «It’s Called a Heart» along with their B-sides.

In the United States, the band’s music first gained prominence on college radio and modern rock stations such as KROQ in Los Angeles, KQAK («The Quake») in San Francisco, WFNX in Boston and WLIR on Long Island, New York, and hence they appealed primarily to an alternative audience who were disenchanted with the predominance of «soft rock and ‘disco hell'»^[44] on the radio. This view of the band was in sharp contrast to how the band was perceived in Europe, despite the increasingly dark and serious tone in their songs.^[45] In Germany, France, and other European countries, Depeche Mode were considered teen idols and regularly featured in European teen magazines, becoming one of the most famous synth-pop bands in the mid-’80s.^{[citation needed]}

Black Celebration (1986)[edit]

Depeche Mode’s musical style shifted slightly again in 1986 with the release of their fifteenth single, «Stripped», and its accompanying album Black Celebration. Retaining their often imaginative sampling and beginning to move away from the «industrial pop» sound that had characterised their previous two LPs, the band introduced an ominous, highly atmospheric and textured sound. Gore’s lyrics also took on a darker tone and became more pessimistic.

The music video for «A Question of Time» was the first to be directed by Anton Corbijn, beginning a working relationship that continues to the present. Corbijn has directed 21 of the band’s videos (the latest being 2023’s «Ghosts Again»). He has also filmed some of their live performances and designed stage sets, as well as most covers for albums and singles starting from Violator.^{[citation needed]}

Music for the Masses and 101 (1987–1988)[edit]

For 1987’s Music for the Masses, the band’s sound and working methods continued to develop. It was the first time they worked with a producer not related to Mute Records. Dave Bascombe was called to assist with the recording sessions; although, according to Alan Wilder, Bascombe’s role ended up being more that of engineer.^[46] In making the album, the band largely eschewed sampling in favour of synthesizer experimentation.^[47] While chart performance of the singles «Strangelove», «Never Let Me Down Again» and «Behind the Wheel» proved to be disappointing in the UK, they performed well in countries such as Canada, Brazil, West Germany, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland, often reaching the top 10. Record Mirror described Music for the Masses as «the most accomplished and sexy Mode album to date».^[48] The album also reached No. 35 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart.^[49]

The Music for the Masses Tour began 22 October 1987. On 7 March 1988, with no previous announcement that they would be the headlining act, Depeche Mode played in the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle, East Berlin,^[50] becoming one of the few Western groups to perform in the Communist East Germany. They also performed concerts in Budapest and Prague in 1988,^[51] both Communist also at the time.

The world tour ended 18 June 1988 with a concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. Paid attendance of 60,453^[52] was the highest in eight years for the venue.^{[citation needed]} Its massive success^{[citation needed]} marked a breakthrough for the band in the United States.^{[citation needed]}. The event was documented in 101, a concert film by D. A. Pennebaker and its accompanying soundtrack album. The film is notable for its portrayal of fan interaction.^[53][54] Alan Wilder came up with the title, noting that it was the 101st and final performance of the tour.^{[citation needed]} On 7 September 1988, Depeche Mode performed «Strangelove» at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles.^[55]

Violator and worldwide fame (1989–1991)[edit]

In mid-1989, the band began recording in Milan with producer Flood and engineer François Kevorkian. The initial result of this session was the single «Personal Jesus». Prior to its release, a marketing campaign was launched with advertisements placed in the personals columns of UK regional newspapers with the words «Your own personal Jesus.» Later, the ads included a phone number one could dial to hear the song. The resulting furore helped propel the single to number 13 on the UK charts, becoming one of their biggest sellers to date. In the United States, it was their first gold single and their first Top 40 hit since «People Are People», eventually becoming the biggest-selling 12-inch single in Warner Records’ history up to that point.^[56]

Released in January 1990, «Enjoy the Silence» reached number six in the UK (the first Top 10 hit in that country since «Master And Servant»). A few months later it reached number eight in the U.S. and earned the band a second gold record, and it won Best British Single at the 1991 Brit Awards.^[58] To promote their new album, Violator, the band held an in-store autograph signing at Wherehouse Entertainment in Los Angeles. The event attracted approximately 20,000 fans and turned into a near riot. Some attendees were injured while being pressed against the store’s glass by the crowd.^[59] As an apology to those injured, the band released a limited edition cassette tape to fans in Los Angeles, distributed through radio station KROQ (the sponsor of the Wherehouse event).

Violator was the first Depeche Mode album to enter the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, reaching Number 7 and staying 74 weeks in the chart. It was certified triple platinum in America.^[60] Two more singles from the album — «Policy of Truth» and «World in My Eyes» — were hits in the UK, with the former also charting in the US.

The World Violation Tour saw the band play several stadium shows in the US. 42,000 tickets were sold within four hours for a show at Giants Stadium, and 48,000 tickets were sold within half-an-hour of going on sale for a show at Dodger Stadium.^[62] An estimated 1.2 million fans saw this tour worldwide.^[8]

In 1991, Depeche Mode contribution «Death’s Door» was released on the soundtrack album for the film Until the End of the World. Film director Wim Wenders had challenged musical artists to write music the way they imagined they would in the year 2000, the setting of the movie.

Songs of Faith and Devotion and Wilder’s departure (1992–1995)[edit]

The members of Depeche Mode regrouped in Madrid in January 1992, Dave Gahan had become interested in the new grunge scene sweeping the U.S. and was influenced by the likes of Jane’s Addiction, Soundgarden and Nirvana.^[63]

In 1993, Songs of Faith and Devotion, again with Flood producing, saw them experimenting with arrangements based as much on heavily distorted electric guitars and live drums (played by Alan Wilder, whose debut as a studio drummer had come on the Violator track «Clean») as on synthesizers.^[64] Live strings, uilleann pipes and female gospel vocals were other new additions to the band’s sound. The album debuted at number one in both the UK and the US, only the sixth British act to achieve such a distinction to date.^[61] The first single from the album was the grunge-influenced «I Feel You». The gospel influences are most noticeable on the album’s third single, «Condemnation». Interviews given by the band during this period tended to be conducted separately, unlike earlier albums, where the band was interviewed as a group.^[8]

The Devotional world tour followed, documented by a concert film of the same name. The film was directed by Anton Corbijn, and in 1995 earned the band their first Grammy nomination.^[65] The band’s second live album, Songs of Faith and Devotion Live, was released in December 1993. The tour continued into 1994 with the Exotic Tour, which began in February 1994 in South Africa, and ended in April in Mexico. The final leg of the tour, consisting of more North American dates, followed shortly thereafter and ran until July. As a whole, the Devotional Tour is to date the longest and most geographically diverse Depeche Mode tour, spanning fourteen months and 159 individual performances.

Q magazine described the 1993 Devotional Tour as «The Most Debauched Rock’n’Roll Tour Ever».^[66] According to The Independent, the «smack-blasted» Gahan «required cortisone shots just to perform, borderline alcoholic Gore suffered two stress-induced seizures, and Andrew Fletcher’s deepening depression resulted, in the summer of 1994, in a full nervous breakdown.»^[67] After playing the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado, local police arrested Gore and fined him $50 for disturbing the peace when he held a loud party in his hotel room.^[68] Fletcher declined to participate in the second half of the Exotic Tour due to mental instability;^{[citation needed]} he was replaced on stage by Daryl Bamonte, who had worked with the band as a personal assistant since the beginning of their career in 1980.^[69][70]

In June 1995, Alan Wilder announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode, explaining:

«Since joining in 1982, I have continually striven to give total energy, enthusiasm and commitment to the furthering of the group’s success, and in spite of a consistent imbalance in the distribution of the workload, willingly offered this. Unfortunately, within the group, this level of input never received the respect and acknowledgement that it warrants.»^[71]

— Alan Wilder

He continued to work on his personal project Recoil, releasing a fourth album (Unsound Methods) in 1997.

Ultra (1996–1999)[edit]

Despite Gahan’s increasingly severe personal problems, Gore tried repeatedly during 1995 and 1996 to get the band recording again. However, Gahan would rarely turn up to scheduled sessions, and when he did, it would take weeks to get any vocals recorded; one six-week session at Electric Lady in New York produced just one usable vocal (for «Sister of Night»), and even that was pieced together from multiple takes.^[72] Gore was forced to contemplate breaking the band up and considered releasing the songs he had written as a solo album.^[73] In mid-1996, after his near-fatal overdose in which his heart stopped beating for two minutes,^[74] Gahan entered a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program to battle his addiction to cocaine and heroin.^[75] With Gahan out of rehab in 1996, Depeche Mode held recording sessions with producer Tim Simenon.
Preceded by two singles, «Barrel of a Gun» and «It’s No Good», the album Ultra was released in April 1997. The album debuted at No. 1 in the UK (as well as Germany), and No. 5 in the US. The band did not tour in support of the album, with Fletcher quoted as saying: «We’re not fit enough. Dave’s only eight months into his sobriety, and our bodies are telling us to spend time with our families.»^[76] As part of the promotion for the release of the album, they did perform two short concerts in London and Los Angeles, called «Ultra Parties».^[77] Ultra spawned two further singles, «Home» and «Useless».

A second singles compilation, The Singles 86–98, was released in 1998, preceded by the new single «Only When I Lose Myself», which had been recorded during the Ultra sessions. In April 1998, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Hyatt Hotel in Cologne to announce The Singles Tour.^[78] The tour was the first to feature two backing musicians in place of Alan Wilder—Austrian drummer Christian Eigner and British keyboardist Peter Gordeno.

Exciter (2000–2004)[edit]

In 2001, Depeche Mode released Exciter, produced by Mark Bell (of techno group LFO). Bell introduced a minimalist, digital sound to much of the album, influenced by IDM and glitch. «Dream On», «I Feel Loved», «Freelove» and «Goodnight Lovers» were released as singles in 2001 and 2002. Critical response to the album was mixed, with reasonably positive reviews from some magazines (NME, Rolling Stone and LA Weekly), while others (including Q magazine, PopMatters, and Pitchfork) derided it as sounding underproduced, dull and lacklustre.^[79]

In March 2001, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Valentino Hotel in Hamburg to announce the Exciter Tour.^[80] The tour featured 84 performances for over 1.5 million fans in 24 countries.^[81] The concerts held in Paris at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy were filmed and later released in May 2002 as a live DVD entitled One Night in Paris.

In October 2002 the band won the first-ever Q magazine «Innovation Award».^[82]

In 2003, Gahan released his first solo album, Paper Monsters, and toured to promote the record. Also released in 2003 was Gore’s second solo album Counterfeit².^[83] Fletcher founded his own record label, Toast Hawaii, specialising in promoting electronic music.

A new remix compilation album, Remixes 81–04, was released in 2004, featuring new and unreleased promo mixes of the band’s singles from 1981 to 2004. A new version of «Enjoy the Silence», remixed by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, «Enjoy the Silence 04», was released as a single and reached No. 7 on the UK charts.

Playing the Angel (2005–2007)[edit]

In October 2005, the band released their 11th studio album Playing the Angel. Produced by Ben Hillier, the album peaked at No. 1 in 18 countries and featured the hit single «Precious». This is the first Depeche Mode album to feature lyrics written by Gahan and, consequently, the first album since 1984’s Some Great Reward featuring songs not written by Gore. «Suffer Well» was the first ever post-Clarke Depeche Mode single not to be written by Gore (lyrics by Gahan, music by Philpott/Eigner). The final single from the album was «John the Revelator», an up-tempo electronic track with a running religious theme, accompanied by «Lilian», a lush track that was a hit in many clubs all over the world.^{[citation needed]}

To promote Playing the Angel, the band launched Touring the Angel, a concert tour of Europe and North America that began in November 2005 and ran for nine months. During the last two legs of the tour Depeche Mode headlined a number of festivals including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the O₂ Wireless Festival. In total, the band played to more than 2.8 million people across 31 countries and the tour was one of the highest grossing and critically acclaimed tours of 2005/2006.^[3] Speaking about the tour, Gahan praised it as «probably the most enjoyable, rewarding live shows we’ve ever done. The new material was just waiting to be played live. It took on a life of its own. With the energy of the crowds, it just came to life.»^[84] Two shows at Milan’s Fila Forum were filmed and edited into a concert film, released on DVD as Touring the Angel: Live in Milan.^[85]
A «best-of» compilation was released in November 2006, entitled The Best Of, Volume 1 featuring a new single «Martyr», an outtake from the Playing the Angel sessions. Later that month Depeche Mode received the MTV Europe Music Award in the Best Group category.^[86]

In December 2006, iTunes released The Complete Depeche Mode as its fourth ever digital box-set.^[87]

In August 2007, during promotion for Dave Gahan’s second solo album, Hourglass, it was announced that Depeche Mode were heading back in studio in early 2008 to work on a new album.^[88]

Sounds of the Universe (2008–2011)[edit]

In May 2008, the band returned to the studio with producer Ben Hillier to work on some songs that Martin Gore had demoed at his home studio in Santa Barbara, California. Later that year it was announced that Depeche Mode were splitting from their long-term US label, Warner Music, and signing with EMI Music worldwide.^[89] The album was created in four sessions, two in New York and two in Santa Barbara. A total of 22 songs were recorded, with the standard album being 13 songs in length while many of the others were released in subsequent deluxe editions.^[90]

In 2009, Depeche Mode allowed their likeness to be used in Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2.^[91]

On 15 January 2009, the official Depeche Mode website announced that the band’s 12th studio album would be called Sounds of the Universe.^[92] The album was released in April 2009, also made available through an iTunes Pass, where the buyer received individual tracks in the weeks leading up to official release date. Andy Fletcher says the idea for their iTunes Pass was a combination of the band’s and iTunes’: «I think the digital and record companies are starting to get their act together. They were very lazy in the first 10 years when downloads came in. Now they’re collaborating more and coming up with interesting ideas for fans to buy products.»^[93] The album went to number one in 21 countries. Critical response was generally positive and it was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Alternative Album category.^[94] «Wrong» was the first single from the album, released digitally in February 2009. Subsequent singles were «Peace» and the double A-side «Fragile Tension / Hole to Feed». In addition, «Perfect» was released as a promotional-only (non-commercial) single in the United States.

On 23 April 2009, Depeche Mode performed for the television program Jimmy Kimmel Live! at the famed corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, drawing more than 12,000 fans, which was the largest audience the program had seen since its 2003 premiere, with a performance by Coldplay.^[95]

In May 2009, the band embarked on a concert tour in support of the album – called Tour of the Universe; it had been announced at a press conference in October 2008 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin.^[96] There was a warm up show in Luxembourg and it officially started on 10 May 2009 in Tel Aviv. The first leg of the tour was disrupted when Dave Gahan was struck down with gastroenteritis. During treatment, doctors found and removed a low-grade tumour from the singer’s bladder. Gahan’s illness caused 16 concerts to be cancelled, but several of the shows were rescheduled for 2010.^[97] The band headlined the Lollapalooza festival during the North American leg of the tour. The tour also took the band back to South America for the first time since 1994’s Exotic Tour. During the final European leg, the band played a show at London’s Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust, where former member Alan Wilder joined Martin Gore on stage for a performance of «Somebody».^[98][99] In total the band played to more than 2.7 million people across 32 countries and the tour was one of the most profitable in America in 2009.^[100][101] The concerts held at Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, Spain were filmed and later released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc release entitled Tour of the Universe: Barcelona 20/21.11.09.^[102] In March 2010, Depeche Mode won the award for «Best International Group – Rock / Pop» at the ECHO Awards in Germany.^[103]

On 6 June 2011, as the final commitment to their contract with EMI,^[104] the band released a remix compilation album, entitled Remixes 2: 81–11 that features remixes by former members Vince Clarke and Alan Wilder.^[105][106] Other remixers involved with the project were Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran,^[107] Röyksopp, Karlsson & Winnberg of Miike Snow, Eric Prydz, Clark and more.^[108] A new remix of «Personal Jesus» by Stargate, entitled «Personal Jesus 2011», was released as a single on 30 May 2011, in support of the compilation.

Depeche Mode contributed their cover of the U2 song «So Cruel» to the tribute album AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered honouring the 20th anniversary of Achtung Baby, a 1991 album by U2. The compilation CD was released with the December 2011 issue of Q.^[109][110]

Delta Machine (2012–2015)[edit]

In October 2012 during a press conference in Paris, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher announced plans for a new album and a 2013 worldwide tour starting from Tel Aviv and continuing in Europe and North America.^[111] Martin Gore revealed that Flood mixed the album, marking the producer’s first studio collaboration with the band since 1993’s Songs of Faith and Devotion.

In December 2012, the band officially announced signing a worldwide deal with Columbia Records and releasing a new album in March 2013.^[112] On 24 January 2013, it was confirmed that the album was titled Delta Machine.^[113] «Heaven», the debut single from Delta Machine was released commercially on Friday 1 February 2013 (although not in the UK). The release date in the UK was pushed back to 18 March 2013 (17 March 2013 on iTunes). The physical release still bore the Mute Records logo, even though the band have now severed ties with their long-standing label. Andy Fletcher mentioned in an interview this was due to their «devotion» to the label and with the band’s insistence.^{[citation needed]}

In March, the band announced North American dates to its Delta Machine summer tour, starting 22 August from Detroit and ending 8 October in Phoenix.^[114] In June, other European dates^[115] were confirmed for early 2014. The final gig of Delta Machine Tour took place in Moscow (Russia) on 7 March 2014, at Olimpiski venue.

That month, Depeche Mode won the award for «Best International Group – Rock / Pop» at the ECHO Awards in Germany. Also, they were nominated at the category «Album des Jahres (national oder international)» for Delta Machine but lost against Helene Fischer’s Farbenspiel.^[116][117]

On 8 October 2014, the band announced Live in Berlin, the new video and audio release filmed and recorded at the O2 World in Berlin, Germany in November 2013 during the Delta Machine Tour. It was released on 17 November 2014 worldwide.^[118]

In a 2015 Rolling Stone interview celebrating the 25th anniversary of Violator, Martin Gore stated that Johnny Cash’s cover of «Personal Jesus» is his favorite cover version of a Depeche Mode song.^[119]

Spirit (2016–2020)[edit]

On 25 January 2016, Martin Gore announced a projected return to the recording studio in April, with both Gore and Gahan having already written and demoed new songs.^[120] In September, the official Depeche Mode Facebook page hinted at a new release, later confirmed by the band to be a music video compilation, Video Singles Collection, scheduled for release in November by Sony.^[121] In October 2016, the band announced that their fourteenth album, titled Spirit and produced by James Ford, would be released in spring 2017.^[122]

«Where’s the Revolution», the lead single from Spirit, was released 3 February 2017, along with its lyric video. The official video was published a week later, on 9 February.^[123] The Global Spirit Tour officially kicked off on 5 May 2017 with a performance in Stockholm, Sweden, at the Friends Arena. The first leg of the tour covered European countries only, ending with a final stadium show in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, at the Cluj Arena. The second leg of the tour covered North America and returned to Europe. The North America leg of the tour kicked off in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 23 August, at the USANA Amphitheatre. The band remained in North America until 15 November when they left for Dublin to resume the European leg. The band ended the tour in Europe with two sold-out shows on 23 and 25 July 2018 in Berlin, Germany, at the Waldbühne.^{[124][125][126]} In September 2019, the band announced that Spirits in the Forest, a documentary that was partially filmed during these shows, would be released in theatres for one night only, 21 November 2019.^[127]

On 7 November 2020, the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.^[128]

Fletcher’s death and Memento Mori (2022–present)[edit]

On 26 May 2022, Andy Fletcher died, aged 60, after suffering an aortic dissection while at home. His fellow bandmates Gahan and Gore stated, «we are shocked and filled with overwhelming sadness with the untimely passing of our dear friend, family member and bandmate Andy ‘Fletch’ Fletcher». Former Depeche Mode member Alan Wilder stated that learning of Fletcher’s death was «a real bolt from the blue».^[129][130]

Prior to Fletcher’s death, Gahan said: «There’s a ton of stuff that we’ve done with Depeche Mode that I’m really proud of. I think that’s come with time and age. Martin put out a record last year which I really liked. I actually bought a copy because it wouldn’t feel right otherwise. I know he’s been pottering away in his studio as well, so I guess at some point next year we’ll get together. Hopefully at least to just have a chat about what we both feel like we could move forward with.»^[131]

When asked about their feelings towards Fletcher’s passing Dave Gahan stated, «Fletch would have loved this album», and he was very upset that he hadn’t gotten a chance to hear any of the material. Martin Gore also clarified «We started work on this project early in the pandemic, and its themes were directly inspired by that time. After Fletch’s passing, we decided to continue as we’re sure this is what he would have wanted, and that has really given the project an extra level of meaning», which many assumed the title was a tribute to Andy, due to its meaning «remember you must die».

On 15 August 2022, the social media accounts for Depeche Mode posted a photo of Gahan and Gore in a recording studio, with them tweeting, «finding stability in what we know and love, and focusing on what gives life meaning and purpose», which magazines like NME suggested was a hint at work on a new studio album.^[132][133]

On 4 October 2022, Depeche Mode announced their new album Memento Mori and a tour which will start on 23 March 2023.^[134] the first single, Ghosts Again, was released in February 9, 2023.^[135] They stated that they had begun work on the album in the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.^[136][137] Gahan and Gore said they would send each other ideas for songs, for example Dave said, «I played guitar and sort of sang on my iPhone», while Gore «sent it back with his angelic voice».^[134] They also stated that they would be working with James Ford once again as well as Marta Salogni as producers for the album.^[138][139]

Musical style and influences[edit]

The early musical endeavours of Clarke, Fletcher and Gore were inspired by punk rock, the post-punk groups Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Cure, and the electronic bands Kraftwerk, the Human League and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD). This confluence of sounds translated into Depeche Mode,^[140] although the group began to pursue a more electronic direction at the behest of Clarke, who had been heavily influenced by OMD’s fusion of electronics and emotion.^[12][141] Gore had similar objectives in relation to the band’s sound, stating, «My dream was to combine the emotion of Neil Young or John Lennon transmitted by Kraftwerk’s synthesizers. Soul music played by electronic instruments.»^[142] Group members have also cited David Bowie, The Clash,^[143] Roxy Music and Brian Eno,^[144] Elvis Presley, the Velvet Underground,^[145] Fad Gadget,^[146] Suicide,^[147] and the blues.^[148]

Depeche Mode were considered a teen pop band during their early period in the UK, and interviewed in teen pop magazines such as Smash Hits.^[149][150] Following the departure of Clarke, their music began to take on a darker tone, establishing a darker sound in the band’s music, as Gore assumed lead songwriting duties.^[151] Gore’s lyrics include themes such as sex, religion, and politics.^[152] Gore has stated he feels lyrical themes which tackle issues related to solitude and loneliness are a better representation of reality, whereas he finds «happy songs» fake and unrealistic.^[153] At the same time, he asserts that the band’s music contains «an element of hope».^[154]

Depeche Mode’s music has mainly been described as synth-pop,^{[155][99][156][157][158][151]} new wave,^{[105][156][159]} electronic rock,^{[160][161][162][163]} dance-rock,^[164][165] post-punk,^[166] alternative rock^[151] and pop rock.^[167] The band also experimented with various other genres throughout its career, including avant-garde, electronica, pop, soul, techno, industrial rock and heavy metal.^[168]

Legacy[edit]

Depeche Mode have released a total of 14 studio albums, 10 compilation albums, six live albums, eight box sets, 13 video albums, 71 music videos, and 54 singles. They have sold over 100 million records and played live to more than 30 million fans worldwide. The band has had 50 songs in the UK Singles Chart, and one US and two UK number-one albums.^[169] In addition, all of their studio albums have reached the UK Top 10 and their albums have spent over 210 weeks on the UK Charts.^[25]

In 2006, music critic Sasha Frere-Jones stated that «the last serious English influence was Depeche Mode, who seem more and more significant as time passes.»^[170] Depeche Mode’s releases have been nominated for five Grammy Awards: Devotional for Best Long Form Music Video; «I Feel Loved» and «Suffer Well», both for Best Dance Recording; Sounds of the Universe for Best Alternative Album; and «Wrong» for Best Short Form Music Video. In addition, Depeche Mode have been honoured with a Brit Award for «Enjoy the Silence» in the Best British Single category, the first-ever Q Innovation Award, and an Ivor Novello Award for Martin Gore in the category of International Achievement.

Depeche Mode were called «the most popular electronic band the world has ever known» by Q,^[171] «one of the greatest British pop groups of all time» by The Sunday Telegraph,^[172] and «the quintessential eighties techno-pop band» by Rolling Stone and AllMusic.^[157][156] They were ranked No. 2 on Electronic Music Realm’s list of The 100 Greatest Artists of Electronic Music,^[173] ranked No. 158 on Acclaimed Music’s list of Top 1000 Artists of All Time^[174] and Q included them on their list of «50 bands that changed the world».^[4]

Other musicians have stated their admiration for Depeche Mode. In an interview in 2009, Simple Minds lead singer Jim Kerr argued that Depeche Mode and U2 were the only contemporaries of his band which could be said to have «stayed constantly relevant».^[175] Muse’s Matt Bellamy said, «They had their own thing, their own style, own sound. I respect them very much.»^[176] During Depeche Mode’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Coldplay’s Chris Martin remarked, «sonically, they were and are about throwing away all the rulebooks.» Arcade Fire’s Win Butler added, «I feel like their music still sounds like it could come out 20 years from now. Depeche were able to take that spirit and spread it, which is really kind of a sacred responsibility.»^[128][177]

Influence[edit]

Several major artists have cited the band as an influence, including: Arcade Fire,^[178] The Killers,^[179][180] Nine Inch Nails,^[151] Chvrches,^[181] The Smashing Pumpkins,^[182] Coldplay,^[179] Muse,^[179] Metric,^[183] No Doubt,^[184] A Perfect Circle,^[185] Marilyn Manson,^[186] Linkin Park,^[187][188] The Crystal Method,^[189] Fear Factory,^[190] La Roux,^[191] Gotye,^[192] Rammstein,^[186][193] a-ha,^[194] Tegan and Sara (on Sainthood)^[195] and Paul van Dyk.^[196] Depeche Mode contemporaries Pet Shop Boys^[197] and Gary Numan^[198] have also cited the band as an influence. Colombian singer Shakira described «Enjoy the Silence» as the song that first sparked her passion for pop music.^[199]

The dark themes and moods of Depeche Mode’s lyrics and music have been enjoyed by several heavy metal artists, and the band influenced acts such as Marilyn Manson and Deftones.^[186] Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails also cited Depeche Mode, in particular their 1986 album Black Celebration, as a major influence on his beginnings.^[151] They have also been named as an influence on Detroit techno^[151] and indie rock.^[200]

Philanthropy[edit]

Early in their career, Depeche Mode was dismissive of benefit concerts such as Live Aid. Gore himself stated, «If these bands really care so much, they should just donate the money and let that be it. Why can’t they do it without all the surrounding hype?».^[43]

Since 2010, the band has applied their celebrity and cultural longevity to help promote and raise funds for several notable charity endeavours. They lent their support to high-profile charities such as MusiCares, Cancer Research UK and the Teenage Cancer Trust. The band has also supported the Small Steps Project, a humanitarian organization based in the UK, aiming to assist economically disadvantaged children into education.^[201] They have partnered with Swiss watchmaker Hublot to support Charity: Water, aimed at the provision of clean drinking water in developing countries.^[202] Such collaboration led to the release of two different limited edition watches, the Hublot Big Bang Depeche Mode in 2017 and The Singles Limited Edition series based from the Big Bang model in 2018. The proceeds helped raise $1.7 million for Charity: Water.^[203] In 2014, the partnership hosted a gala and fundraiser at the TsUM building in Moscow, raising $1.4 million for the charity.^[204]

Band members[edit]

Current members

• Dave Gahan — lead vocals (1980–present)
• Martin Gore — keyboards, guitars, backing and lead vocals (1980–present)

Touring musicians

• Christian Eigner – drums, keyboards (1997–present)
• Peter Gordeno – keyboards, bass guitar, piano, backing vocals (1998–present)

Former members

• Andy Fletcher — keyboards, bass guitar, occasional backing vocals (1980-2022; his death)
• Vince Clarke — keyboards, lead and backing vocals, guitars (1980-1981)
• Alan Wilder — keyboards, piano, drums, backing vocals (1982-1995; touring member in 1982; guest in 2010)

Former touring musicians

• Hildia Campbell – backing vocals (1993–1994)
• Samantha Smith – backing vocals (1993–1994)
• Daryl Bamonte – keyboards, samplers (1994)
• Dave Clayton – keyboards, programming (1997)^[205]
• Janet Cooke – backing vocals (1998)
• Jordan Bailey – backing vocals (1998, 2001)
• Georgia Lewis – backing vocals (2001)

Timeline

Discography[edit]

• Speak & Spell (1981)
• A Broken Frame (1982)
• Construction Time Again (1983)
• Some Great Reward (1984)
• Black Celebration (1986)
• Music for the Masses (1987)
• Violator (1990)
• Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993)
• Ultra (1997)
• Exciter (2001)
• Playing the Angel (2005)
• Sounds of the Universe (2009)
• Delta Machine (2013)
• Spirit (2017)
• Memento Mori (2023)

Awards and nominations[edit]

Tours[edit]

See also[edit]

• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Malins, Steve (2001). Depeche Mode: A Biography. André Deutsch. ISBN 978-0-233-99430-7.
• Miller, Jonathan (2004). Stripped: The True Story of Depeche Mode. Omnibus Press. ISBN 1-84449-415-2.
• Tobler, John (1992). NME Rock ‘n’ Roll Years (1st ed.). London: Reed International Books Ltd. ISBN 0-600-57602-7.

Further reading[edit]

• Corbijn, Anton (1990). Depeche Mode: Strangers. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-7119-2493-7.
• Thompson, Dave (1995). Depeche Mode: Some Great Reward. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 0-283-06243-6.
• Zill, Didi (2004). Depeche Mode. Photographs 1982–87. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf. ISBN 3-89602-491-4.

External links[edit]

Depeche Mode на фестивале Wireless Festival в Лондоне, 2006 год
Основная информация
Жанры	Альтернативный дэнс[1] Синтипоп[1] Альтернативный рок[1] Новая волна[1] Дэнс-рок[1]
Годы	1980 — по настоящее время
Страна	Великобритания
Город	Базилдон
Лейблы	Mute, EMI, Reprise, Sire, Virgin, Capitol
Состав	Мартин Гор Дэйв Гаан Энди Флетчер
Бывшие участники	Алан Уайлдер Винс Кларк
Официальный сайт

Depeche Mode (рус. Депе́ш мод, в переводе с фр. «Вестник моды») — британский музыкальный коллектив, образовавшийся в 1980 году в городе Базилдон (графство Эссекс). Эта группа создала собственный стиль в жанрах электронной и рок-музыки и является одной из наиболее успешных и долгоживущих групп мира.

2 ноября 2006 года Depeche Mode победили в номинации «Лучшая группа» на церемонии MTV Europe Music Awards. К 2011 году было продано около 115 миллионов копий альбомов Depeche Mode^[2], а 44 сингла попали в британский хит-парад. Журнал Q назвал Depeche Mode «самой популярной группой электронной музыки которую только знал мир»^[3] и включил в список «50 групп, которые изменили мир!»^[4].

В 2010 году музыкальный канал VH1 определил Depeche Mode на 98-е место в списке «100 величайших артистов всех времен и народов»^[5].

На творчество Depeche Mode оказали влияние немецкие пионеры электронной музыки Kraftwerk^[6]. Позже Depeche Mode сами оказали значительное влияние на многих исполнителей, в основном благодаря своей технике звукозаписи и инновационному использованию семплирования. Несмотря на то, что группа значительно повлияла на развитие современной танцевальной электронной музыки, её обычно причисляют к жанру «альтернативной музыки».

Depeche Mode были образованы в 1980 как квартет, в его состав входили Дэйв Гаан (основной вокалист), Мартин Гор (клавишные, гитара, вокал), Энди Флетчер (клавишные) и Винс Кларк (клавишные). Винс Кларк покинул группу после выхода дебютного альбома в 1981 году. Его место занял Алан Уайлдер (клавишные, ударные), который играл в группе с 1982 по 1995 год. После ухода Уайлдера коллектив оформился как трио: Гаан, Гор и Флетчер.

История

1977—1980: Образование группы

Истоки Depeche Mode прослеживаются с 1977 года, когда Винс Кларк и Эндрю Флетчер создали группу No Romance in China,^[7] в которой Винс был вокалистом и гитаристом, а Эндрю — басистом. В 1978 году Кларк играл в группе The Plan вместе со своим школьным приятелем Робертом Марлоу (англ. Robert Marlow), который был вокалистом, а Кларк — гитаристом и клавишником.^[8] В это же время, в 1978—1979 годах, Мартин Гор в качестве гитариста участвовал в акустическом дуэте Norman and The Worms вместе со своим школьным другом Филипом Бёрдеттом (англ. Philip Burdett), который в настоящее время является фолк-певцом.^[9]В 1979 году Марлоу, Гор, Кларк и их приятель Пол Редмонд (англ. Paul Redmond) организовали группу The French Look: Марлоу — вокал/клавишные, Гор — гитара, Кларк и Редмонд — клавишные. Примерно через год, в марте 1980, Кларк, Гор и Флетчер создали новую группу Composition of Sound, в которой Кларк был вокалистом и гитаристом, Гор — клавишником, а Флетчер — басистом. The French Look и Composition of Sound однажды выступили совместно на концерте в июне 1980 года в молодёжном клубе школы Св. Николая (англ. St. Nicholas School Youth Club) города Саутенд-он-Си (англ. Southend-on-Sea), Эссекс.

Вскоре после образования Composition of Sound Кларк и Флетчер перешли на синтезаторы, зарабатывая деньги на их приобретение случайными заработками или занимая инструменты у друзей. Дэвид Гаан присоединился к группе в 1980 году, после того как Винс Кларк услышал его проникновенное исполнение песни Дэвида Боуи (англ. David Bowie) «Heroes» на одном из местных концертов.^[10] Так появился Depeche Mode. Новое название было взято у французского журнала мод Dépêche Mode, которое переводится как «Новинки моды», «Вестник моды» или «Последние вести моды», тем не менее, название часто переводят неправильно: как «Быстрая мода», из-за путаницы с французским глаголом se dépêcher (спешить).^[11]

1981—1982: Первые успехи

После одного из выступлений в клубе «Бридж Хауз» (англ. Bridge House),^[12] группе сделал предложение Дэниел Миллер (англ. Daniel Miller — основатель звукозаписывающей компании Mute Records), который хотел, чтобы они сделали дебютную запись для раскрутки его лейбла.^[13] Результатом этого устного контракта стала песня Dreaming of Me, которая была выпущена в феврале 1981 года. Ей удалось достичь 57-го места в британских чартах. Вдохновлённая этим неожиданным успехом, группа записывает свой второй сингл New Life, который значительно превзошёл первый, поднявшись до 11-й позиции. Через три месяца группа выпускает Just Can’t Get Enough — первый свой сингл, который вошёл в десятку лучших в Соединённом Королевстве, достигнув 8-го места. Эта запись во многих отношениях стала прорывом, и её успех проложил путь их дебютному альбому Speak & Spell, который вышел в ноябре 1981 года, в конечном итоге достигнув 10-го места среди альбомов в британских чартах. Критические отклики были разные. Журнал «Мелоди Мейкер» писал о нём следующее: «… великий альбом, именно такой, который они должны были записать, чтобы завоевать новую аудиторию и порадовать ненасытных фанатов»,^[14][15] в то время как журнал «Роллинг Стоун» был более критичен, назвав его полным провалом^[16].

Во время гастролей в поддержку альбома, Винс Кларк начал высказывать свое недовольство по поводу направления, в котором развивается группа. Позднее он сказал:«никогда не было достаточно времени, чтобы сделать что-нибудь».^[17] В ноябре 1981 года Кларк объявил, что покидает группу.^[18] Кроме того, утверждалось, что Винс Кларк был болен во время гастролей, на что Дэйв Гаан спустя несколько лет сказал :«фигня это, если честно».^[19] Вскоре Кларк занялся другими проектами. Он присоединился к блюзовой певице Элисон Мойе (англ. Alison Moyet) и сформировал Yazoo, а затем дуэт Erasure с Энди Беллом (англ. Andy Bell).

В конце 1981 года участники группы разместили объявление в газете «Мелоди Мейкер» следующего содержания: «Нужен клавишник для устоявшейся группы — не для времяпровождения».^[10]На объявление откликнулся Алан Уайлдер, 22-летний клавишник из Западного Лондона, и после двух прослушиваний у Дэниела Миллера он был принят в качестве четвёртого участника группы.^[20] Однако, несмотря на это, Миллер сказал Алану, что ему нет необходимости принимать участие в записи текущего альбома. Первый музыкальный вклад в деятельность группы Алан внёс в 1983 году.^[21]

Второй альбом группы A Broken Frame вышел в 27 сентября 1982 года.^[22] Этот альбом в целом выглядел как переходный. После ухода Кларка, Мартин Гор стал основным и фактически единственным автором песен Depeche Mode. Теперь композиции стали более мрачными, указывая на то, в каком направлении группа будет работать в следующие годы.^[23]

1983—1988: Рост международной популярности

Для выпуска своего третьего альбома Construction Time Again, Depeche Mode приняли решение о работе с продюсером Гаретом Джонсом (англ. Gareth Jones), на студии Джона Фоккса (англ. John Foxx) The Garden.^[24] В альбоме произошло резкое изменение в звучании группы. Отчасти это объясняется использованием цифровых семплеров Synclavier и Emulator, в добавление к ранее использовавшимся аналоговым синтезаторам.^[24] Использовав шумы от повседневных предметов, группа создала электрический, индустриальный звук, схожий со звучанием таких групп, как Art of Noise и Einstürzende Neubauten.^[25] Хорошим примером нового звучания стал первый сингл этого альбома Everything Counts, комментарий по поводу жадности транснациональных компаний,^[26] который стал № 6 в Великобритании, а также вошёл в 30 лучших в Южной Африке, Швейцарии, Швеции и Западной Германии. Алан Уайлдер сочинил две песни для этого альбома (The Landscape is Changing, Two Minute Warning).^[27] В первые годы своего существования Depeche Mode добились популярности только в Великобритании, Европе и в Австралии. Как бы то ни было, всё изменилось в марте 1984 года, когда они выпустили свой сингл People Are People. Эта песня, посвящённая проблеме расизма, достигла 13-го места в американских чартах, 4-го места в чартах Великобритании и Швейцарии и стала первой достигшей 1-го места в хит-парадах (Германия).^[28]Стараясь извлечь максимальную выгоду из неожиданного успеха сингла, Sire Records, звукозаписывающая компания группы в Северной Америке, выпустила сборник с таким же названием. Через месяц группа закончила работу над альбомом Some Great Reward, который в целом был воспринят хорошо. Газета «Мелоди Мэйкер» заявила по поводу альбома следующее: «вы будете приятно удивлены тому, что происходит здесь, прямо у вас под носом»^[29]. Some Great Reward показал что группа экспериментирует со всё более мрачными темами, такими как нестандартные сексуальные отношения (Master And Servant), внебрачные связи (Lie To Me), несправедливый суд Всевышнего (Blasphemous Rumours). Также в альбом вошла первая баллада Мартина Гора (Somebody) — идея, ставшая ключевой для всех последующих альбомов. Это был первый альбом Depeche Mode, вошедший в чарты США, а также в десятку лучших в некоторых странах Европы.^[30]Именно в этот период группа ассоциировалась с готической субкультурой, которая недавно зародилась в Британии и постепенно приобретала популярность в Соединённых Штатах. Там группа сначала приобрела известность благодаря студенческим радиостанциям и радиостанциям, транслирующим современный рок, таким как KROQ из Лос-Анджелеса и WLIR из Лонг-Айленда, Нью-Йорк, следовательно, они главным образом обратились явно к альтернативной аудитории.^[31] В этом плане группа резко контрастировала с ситуацией в Европе и Великобритании, несмотря на всё более мрачные и серьёзные тона в их песнях. Наибольшие изменения Depeche Mode претерпели в 1986 году с выходом их пятнадцатого сингла Stripped и сопровождавшего его альбома Black Celebration. Отказавшись, в основном, от «индастриал» звука, который был характерен для двух их предыдущих альбомов (но сохранив свой зачастую образный семплинг), группа представила тревожный, более атмосферный и текстурированный звук, сопровождающийся одними из самых безрадостных по сегодняшний день, проникающими в суть текстами, написанными Мартином Гором. Также в альбом вошёл переработанный вариант песни «Fly On The Windscreen», которая изначально вышла как сингл вместе с «It’s Called a Heart».

Клип A Question Of Time, который снял режиссёр Антон Корбейн (англ. Anton Corbijn), положил начало длительным рабочим отношениям, которые продолжаются по настоящее время.^[32] Антон снял большинство, точнее 19 клипов (последний Suffer Well снят в 2006 г.) и концертных записей группы, а также был дизайнером обложек большинства альбомов и синглов Depeche Mode.

Но самый главный и эпохальный период в истории группы был ещё впереди. 13 апреля 1987 года вышел сингл Strangelove, видео для которого также сделал Антон Корбейн. Сингл занял 16 позицию в чартах UK, но для поклонников группы это было нечто особенное. Так DM не звучали ещё никогда в своей истории. С выходом Strangelove можно говорить о Depeche Mode как о классике электронной музыки. Летом, 24 августа 1987 года, вышел второй сингл — Never Let Me Down Again, предваряющий новый, уже шестой по счёту, альбом группы, и по сей день остающийся у поклонников Depeche Mode одной из самых любимых композиций, которую многие называют лучшей песней группы. 28 сентября 1987 года выходит альбом «Music for the Masses», который разошелся миллионными тиражами. Альбом, наряду с предыдущим, является классикой группы.^[33] Осенью того же года начался тур «For The Masses», который стартовал в Европе, а затем продолжился в Японии и в США. Завершился он 18 июня 1988 года легендарным, 101-м по счёту, концертом на стадионе Rose Bowl, Пасадина (англ. Pasadena), Калифорния, где присутствовало 85 000 зрителей.^[34][35][36]

1989—1994: Два успешнейших альбома и уход Алана Уайлдера

В середине 1989 года группа начала записываться в Милане с продюсером Марком Эллисом (англ. Mark Ellis), более известным как Флад (англ. Flood). Результатом этой сессии стал сингл Personal Jesus, в котором Depeche Mode продемонстрировали запоминающееся, ритмичное звучание, радикально отличавшееся от того, что группа делала ранее. Перед выходом сингла в местных газетах, в разделах частных объявлений, появилась реклама со словами «Ваш собственный персональный Иисус». Позднее в рекламу был включён телефонный номер, позвонив по которому, можно было услышать эту песню. Разгоревшаяся вслед за этим полемика позволила синглу достичь 13-го места в Великобритании и стать одним из самых продаваемых синглов группы. В США он стал первым золотым синглом и первым попавшим в 40 хитов со времён выхода «People Are People», а также одним из самых продаваемых 12-дюймовых синглов в истории Warner Bros. Records.^[37] Кавер-версии этой песни были впоследствии выпущены такими исполнителями, как Джонни Кэш (англ. Johnny Cash), Нина Хаген (нем. Nina Hagen), Мэрилин Мэнсон (англ. Marilyn Manson) и др. В сентябре 2006 г. по результатам опроса читателей британского ежемесячого журнала Q песня была названа в числе 100 лучших песен всех времён. Также песня входит в 500 лучших композиций всех времён по версии журнала Rolling Stone. В это время группа получает дополнительную известность в США, где их влияние на сцене техно- и хаус-музыки становится всё более признанным.

В феврале 1990 Enjoy the Silence, ставший одним из самых успешных синглов группы, достиг 6-го места в британских чартах. Несколькими месяцами позже в США он стал первым (и единственным на сегодня) синглом Depeche Mode, который вошёл в первую десятку, достигнув 8-го места, кроме того, он стал вторым золотым синглом группы. В 1991 году Enjoy the Silence побеждает в номинации «Лучший британский сингл» на Brit Awards.^[38] Эта динамичная песня была задумана как медленная гипнотичная баллада в до-миноре. В демозаписи, которую принёс в группу автор песни Мартин Гор, был только его голос в сопровождении фисгармонии. Идея убыстрить запись пришла в голову Алану Уайлдеру. Группе этот вариант понравился, но автор песни некоторое время обижался и противился такой «обработке».

Раскручивая свой новый альбом Violator, они устроили раздачу автографов в музыкальном магазине Wherehouse Records в Лос-Анджелесе, что привлекло около 17 000 фанатов и чуть не стало причиной беспорядков. Violator смог войти в лучшую десятку в Великобритании и в США. Он также стал трижды платиновым в США с продажами более 3,5 миллионов копий. Последующий мировой тур стал ещё одним заметным успехом, когда 40 000 билетов на концерт на Giants Stadium в Нью-Йорке было продано в течение 8 часов, а на концерт на стадионе «Доджер» в Лос-Анджелесе 48 000 билетов разошлись меньше, чем за час. Два других сингла из этого альбома, Policy of Truth и World in My Eyes, добились умеренного успеха в Великобритании.^[39]

В 1991 году Depeche Mode записали Death’s Door — одну из песен в саундтреке к фильму Вима Вендерса «Когда наступит конец света», а Алан Уайлдер записал для своего сольного проекта Recoil третий альбом Bloodline, который вышел в апреле 1992 года.

Значительные изменения стиля группы произошли в 1993 году с выходом восьмого альбома «Songs of Faith and Devotion». В это время Depeche Mode находились под влиянием таких групп, как Nirvana и Jane’s Addiction.^[40] В альбоме главный акцент сделан на инструментальные аранжировки, которые основаны, в основном, на сильно искажённом звучании электрогитары и живых барабанах (на которых играет Алан Уайлдер, чей дебют в качестве студийного барабанщика состоялся при записи песни Clean из альбома Violator), нежели на синтезаторах. К звучанию группы добавились живые струнные инструменты, ирландская волынка (англ. Uilleann pipes), а также женский вокал в стиле госпел.^[41]

Вслед за гранжевым синглом I Feel You альбом дебютировал на 1 месте и в США, и в Великобритании. Depeche Mode стали первой британской альтернативной группой, которая заняла первое место в чарте музыкальных альбомов Billboard 200. Затем последовало 14-месячное мировое турне Devotional. Оно было записано на видео, а позднее вышли концертное видео с таким же названием, который был номинирован на премию Грэмми и второй концертный альбом Songs of Faith and Devotion Live.^[42] К 1994 году Depeche Mode вошли в мировую элиту групп, собирающих стадионы, наряду с U2, R.E.M., INXS и The Rolling Stones. Несмотря на это, в группе нарастала напряжённость. Наркотическая зависимость Дэвида Гаана от героина начала сказываться на его поведении, он стал более непредсказуемым и замкнутым. У Мартина Гора случилось несколько приступов ярости, и Эндрю Флетчер отказался участвовать во второй «экзотической» части турне, сославшись на «психологическую нестабильность». В этот период на сцене его заменил Дэрил Бамонт (англ. Daryl Bamonte), который работал с группой в качестве личного помощника уже много лет.^[43]

1995—2000: Продолжение успеха

В июне 1995 года Алан Уайлдер заявил, что покидает Depeche Mode, по его словам, «из-за растущей неудовлетворённости внутренними отношениями и рабочей обстановкой в группе».^[44] Он продолжил работу над своим персональным проектом Recoil, выпустив четвёртый альбом (Unsound Methods) в 1997 году. Уайлдер заявил, что он проделал львиную долю работы во время создания последних альбомов и что «этот вклад так и не получил того уважения и признания, которых заслуживал».^[44] После ухода Алана Уайлдера многие скептически относились к тому, что Depeche Mode будут записываться когда-либо снова. Психическое состояние Дэвида Гаана и его пагубное пристрастие к наркотикам стали главной причиной беспокойства: чуть не ставшая смертельной передозировка наркотиками в лос-анджелесском отеле Sunset Marquis^[45][46] считается многими попыткой самоубийства, тем не менее Гаан неизменно это отрицает.^[47]

Несмотря на усиливающиеся личные проблемы Гаана, Гор неоднократно пытался в течение 1995—1996 гг. убедить группу записываться снова. Тем не менее, Гаан только изредка появлялся на запланированных сессиях, а когда всё-таки появлялся, ему требовались недели, чтобы записать какую-либо вокальную партию.^[48] Гор был вынужден задуматься о распаде группы и выпуске написанных им песен сольным альбомом.^[49][50] В конце концов беспокойство Гора оказалось безосновательным: в середине 1996 года Гаан начал проходить курс реабилитации от героиновой зависимости.^[47] После окончания Гааном курса реабилитации группа продолжила записываться с продюсером Тимом Сименоном (англ. Tim Simenon), и в следующем году был выпущен альбом Ultra, а также два предваряющих его сингла — Barrel of a Gun и It’s No Good. Альбом вновь дебютировал на 1-м месте в Великобритании. Из-за напряжения, возникшего во время предыдущего мирового тура, было решено полностью отказаться от тура в поддержку Ultra.^[51]

Второй сборник синглов The Singles 86-98 был выпущен в 1998 году. Выходу сборника предшествовал сингл Only When I Lose Myself который был записан во время сессий Ultra. В апреле 1998 года Depeche Mode провели пресс-конференцию в отеле Hyatt в Кельне, чтобы объявить о начале The Singles Tour.^[52]

2001—2004: Exciter

В 2001 году Depeche Mode выпустили альбом Exciter, который был спродюсирован Марком Беллом (англ. Mark Bell), бывшим участником группы LFO. Белл представил минималистический, цифровой звук под влиянием таких жанров, как IDM и глитч. Критическая реакция на альбом была неоднозначной. Exciter получил довольно позитивные рецензии от некоторых журналов (британского NME, и от американских Rolling Stone и L.A. Weekly), но большинство других (включая Q, PopMatters, Pitchfork Media), а также многие поклонники, отмечали, что альбому недостаёт глубины, вдохновения и блеска.^[53] Exciter стал первым студийным альбомом Depeche Mode, который в чартах США достиг более высокого места, чем в Великобритании. В марте 2001 года Depeche Mode провели пресс-конференцию в отеле Валентино в Гамбурге, чтобы объявить о начале нового мирового турне Exciter Tour, ставшего одним из самых успешных в истории Depeche Mode. Концерт проходивший в Париже в Palais Omnisports Paris-Bercy был снят, а затем выпущен в качестве концертного DVD под названием One Night in Paris.^[54]

В октябре 2002 года группа выигрывает премию «Innovation Award» журнала Q.^[55]

В 2003 году Дэйв Гаан выпустил свой ​​первый сольный альбом Paper Monsters и отправился в концертный тур.

В 2003 году вышел второй сольный альбом Мартина Гора Counterfeit ²^[56], а Эндрю Флетчер основал свой ​​собственный лейбл Toast Hawaii, специализирующийся на продвижении электронной музыки.

В 2004 году выходит сборник ремиксов Remixes 81-04, в который вошли новые и неизданные промо-миксы из синглов группы с 1981 по 2004 год. Майк Шинода сделал ремикс «Enjoy the Silence», выпущенный в качестве сингла под названием Enjoy the Silence 04 и достигший 7-го места в британских чартах.

2005—2007: Playing the Angel

17 октября 2005 года Depeche Mode выпустили свой одиннадцатый студийный альбом Playing the Angel, получивший хорошие рецензии. Многие поклонники рассматривают этот альбом как возвращение группы в былую форму. Это первый альбом группы со времён Some Great Reward (1984 г.), в котором представлены песни, написанные не только Мартином Гором: автором текстов к трём песням (Suffer Well, I Want It All и Nothing’s Impossible) стал Дэвид Гаан, а музыки — Кристиан Айгнер (англ.  Christian Eigner) и Эндрю Филлпотт (англ. Andrew Phillpott).

В ноябре 2005 года, раскручивая свой альбом Playing the Angel, группа отправилась в мировое турне Touring the Angel, которое длилось до лета 2006 года. В общей сложности группа сыграла более чем для 2,8 миллиона человек в более 30 странах. Touring The Angel был признан критиками одним из самых кассовых туров 2005/06 годов.^[3]

Группа была хедлайнером на двух фестивалях в 2006 году, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, в Калифорнии, и O2 Wireless Festival, который проходил в последние выходные июня в лондонском Гайд-парке. 25 сентября 2006 года вышел их концертный альбом Touring The Angel: Live In Milan, срежиссированный Блю Личем (англ. Blue Leach) и записанный 18 и 19 февраля 2006 года в Миланском Fila Forum.^[57]. Альбом состоит из двух DVD и одного CD. Первый DVD содержит полный концерт и две дополнительные концертные записи песен A Question of Lust и Damaged People. На втором DVD — 20-минутный документальный фильм, представляющий Антона Корбэйна, официальный анонс тура, о котором было объявлено на пресс-конференции в Германии летом 2005 года, а также некоторые другие материалы, посвящённые Playing the Angel. Третий диск представляет собой CD с концертными записями песен этого альбома.

Сборник лучших хитов был выпущен в ноябре 2006 года под названием The Best Of, Volume 1. В компиляцию также вошла новая песня Martyr, записанная во время сессий Playing the Angel.

2 ноября 2006 года Depeche Mode получили MTV Europe Music Awards в категории «Лучшая группа».^[58]

В декабре 2006 года Depeche Mode были номинированы на премию Grammy в категории «Лучшая танцевальная запись» (англ. Best Dance Recording) за сингл Suffer Well. Это стало их третьей номинацией на премию Grammy. Впервые они были номинированы в 1994 году в категории «Лучшее полнометражное музыкальное видео» (англ. Best Long Form Music Video) за концертное видео Devotional, а второй раз — в категориях «Лучшая танцевальная запись» и «Лучшая ремиксовая запись — не классика» (англ. Best Remixed Recording — Non-Classical), за сингл I Feel Loved в 2001 году.

В октябре 2007 года группа была номинирована в разделе «Inter Act» (лучший международный исполнитель) на MTV Europe Music Awards.

2008—2011: Sounds Of The Universe

6 октября 2008 года в Берлине на стадионе Olympiastadion прошла пресс-конференция Depeche Mode, на которой они анонсировали свое новое мировое турне, получившее название Tour of the Universe.^[59] Билеты на некоторые концерты европейской части турне, которая стартовала 10 мая 2009 г. в Тель-Авиве, поступили в продажу 13 октября 2008 г.^[60][61]

15 января 2009 года на официальном сайте группы был помещен пресс-релиз, посвященный выходу нового альбома.^[62]«Sounds Of The Universe» — именно такое название носит альбом, и он вышел в свет 20 апреля 2009 года. На этот раз внимание участников группы смещено в сторону аналоговых инструментов. Кроме того, по словам музыкантов, во время работы над новой пластинкой они записали немало дополнительного материала, который представлен в люксовой версии альбома.^[63]

Первым синглом с альбома стала композиция Wrong. Так же как и альбом 2005 года «Playing the Angel», «Sounds Of The Universe» содержит музыкальные произведения как Мартина Гора, так и Дейва Гаана. Релиз стал также воссоединением между группой и саунд-продюсером Беном Хиллиером.

21 февраля 2009 года на немецкой ежегодной церемонии вручения музыкальных премий ECHO Awards, Depeche Mode презентовали свою песню Wrong, которая стала первым синглом с альбома «Sounds Of The Universe». Сам сингл стал доступен для общественности 6 апреля 2009 года.

4 февраля 2010 года в Санкт-Петербурге и 6 февраля в Москве состоялись концерты группы Depeche Mode в рамках мирового турне «Tour of the Universe»^[59] в поддержку их нового альбома. Также группа впервые в полном составе посетила столицу Украины (Киев) 8 февраля 2010 года. Завершилось турне 27 февраля 2010 года в Дюссельдорфе, Германия.

17 февраля 2010 года в Лондоне (Royal Albert Hall), на концерте в поддержку Teenage Cancer Trust (Фонд по борьбе с раком у подростков) свершилось событие, которого поклонники группы ждали 15 лет: во время исполнения Мартином Гором песни «Somebody» ему аккомпанировал Алан Уайлдер, покинувший группу летом 1995 года.^[64][65] На официальном сайте Recoil (проект Алана Уайлдера) сказано, что Уайлдеру позвонил Гаан и пригласил поучаствовать в концерте. Уайлдер с удовольствием согласился.^[65]

3 марта 2010 на немецкой премии Echo Awards 2010 Depeche Mode победили в номинации «Best International Group — Rock / Pop» (лучшая зарубежная рок/поп-группа). На церемонии присутствовали Дэниэл Миллер, Мартин Гор и Энди Флетчер.^[66]

В 2011 году Depeche Mode выпустили второй сборник ремиксов, над которым работали все участники группы, включая Винса Кларка и Алана Уайлдера, давно покинувшие группу. Сборник получил название Remixes 2: 81-11. Релиз альбома состоялся 6 июня 2011 года. Сборник включает ремиксы, подготовленные Arcade Fire, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, вокалистом The Killers Брэндоном Флауэрсом, Бернардом Самнером из New Order, Ником Роудсом из Duran Duran, Röyksopp и многими другими.^[67][68]Ремикс на песню «Personal Jesus», подготовленный Stargate, вышел в качестве сингла 30 мая 2011 года под названием «Personal Jesus 2011».

Depeche Mode записали кавер на песню «So Cruel» группы U2 для трибьюта AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered в честь 20-летия альбома Achtung Baby. Сборник был издан в декабре 2011 года вместе с выпуском журнала Q.^{[69][70][71][72]}.

2012 — настоящее время: 13-й альбом

Во время своего выступления в Италии в ноябре 2011 года Эндрю Флетчер сообщил, что группа готова приступить к записи 13-го студийного альбома.^[73] Позднее, в январе 2012 года Мартин Гор подтвердил, что выход альбома состоится в начале 2013 года и затем группа отправится в новое мировое турне.^[74]. 2 марта 2012 года Дэйв Гаан заявил, что уже готово 20 демо-записей, а продюсером вновь станет Бен Хиллер.^[75] 21 июля 2012 года состоялся совместный концерт Дэйва Гаана с группой Soulsavers, после которого менеджер Depeche Mode Джонатан Кесслер заявил, что релиз тринадцатого студийного альбома состоится в апреле 2013 года^[76]. 23 июля 2012 года в интервью Дэйв Гаан объявил о том, что в студию возвращается продюсер Флад, для микширования тринадцатого альбома Depeche Mode^[77].

23 октября 2012 года на конференции в Париже была объявлена дата начала тура в поддержку нового альбома Depeche Mode, первое выступление планируется провести в Тель-Авиве 7 мая 2013 года, а завершится европейская часть тура 29 июля в Минске, также среди городов заявлены Москва (22 июня 2013, Локомотив), Санкт-Петербург (24 июня 2013, СКК) и Киев (29 июня 2013, «Олимпийский»)^[78].

Наследие и влияние

Depeche Mode оказали влияние на многих известных современных исполнителей, используя свои инновационные технологии звукозаписи, в частности семплирование.

Например, Pet Shop Boys привели в пример альбом Violator (и в частности Enjoy the Silence) в качестве одного из основных источников вдохновения при записи их альбома Behaviour.^[79][80] Нил Теннант говорил: «Когда мы слушали „Violator“, он казался нам просто замечательным альбомом, и мы ужасно завидовали Depeche Mode».

Пионеры техно Кевин Сандерсон, Хуан Аткинс и Дэррик Мэй регулярно упоминают Depeche Mode, как группу, оказавшую влияние на развитие техно-музыки во время расцвета Детройт-техно в середине 1980-х годов.^[81] Высокая значимость группы в современной электронной музыке свидетельствуют многочисленные ремиксы песен Depeche Mode, сделанные cовременными ди-джеями.

Брэндон Флауэрс, вокалист The Killers, заявил: «Раньше, когда я даже не думал о себе как о музыканте, я был привязан к Depeche Mode, как человек. Я думаю Some Great Reward или Songs Of Faith and Devotion сформировали меня как личность, прежде чем я даже написал песню «..»^[82]

Честер Беннингтон, вокалист Linkin Park, приводит в пример Depeche Mode как источник вдохновения.^[83][84] Другой участник Linkin Park Майк Шинода сказал: «Depeche Mode являются одной из наиболее влиятельных групп нашего времени. Их музыка является источником вдохновения для меня … » В 2004 году Шинода сделал ремикс песни группы «Enjoy The Silence».^[85]

Depeche mode также оказали немалое влияние на колумбийскую певицу Шакиру. В её биографии «Shakira — Woman Full of Grace» есть такие строки: «Когда Шакире было лет тринадцать, она просто обожала Depeche mode, электро-рок-группу из Великобритании. Однажды слушая песню «Enjoy the Silence» Шакира заметила, что она не только слышит эту музыку, но и чувствует её своим телом. Тогда она сказала своей маме: «Каждый раз, когда я слышу этот гитарный рифф, я ощущаю что-то фантастическое в своем животе».^[86]

Кен Джордан, участник электронного дуэта The Crystal Method сказал, что Depeche Mode являются одной из главных влияний в музыке.^[87]Рэймонд Херерра, бывший барабанщик индастриал-метал-группы Fear Factory также говорит о влиянии Depeche Mode на музыку.^[88]

В августе 2008 года Coldplay выпустили видео на сингл Viva La Vida, который был снят под влиянием клипа «Enjoy the Silence». В видео Крис Мартин одет как король и пешком идет через Гаагу.

В 2011 году певица Bat for Lashes записала кавер-версию песни «Strangelove» для рекламы нового аромата Gucci — «Guilty For Him «. Песня была доступна для бесплатного скачивания с канала Gucci на YouTube.^[89]

Интересные факты

• В записи альбома «Ultra» принимал участие Яки Либецайт, бывший участник известной краут-рок-группы Can.
• В первый год своего существования группа выступала на разогреве у самого первого исполнителя на Mute Records — Fad Gadget. Примечательно, что через 20 лет, в 2001 году, во время тура в поддержку альбома Exciter уже Fad Gadget выступал на разогреве у Depeche Mode.
• Black Celebration — единственный альбом Depeche Mode, название которого соответствует названию содержащейся в нём песни (в данном случае первой). Также это альбом, в котором наибольшее количество песен, исполненных Мартином Гором в роли главного вокалиста — четыре.

Дискография

Студийные альбомы

• Speak & Spell (1981)
• A Broken Frame (1982)
• Construction Time Again (1983)
• Some Great Reward (1984)
• Black Celebration (1986)
• Music for the Masses (1987)
• Violator (1990)
• Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993)
• Ultra (1997)
• Exciter (2001)
• Playing the Angel (2005)
• Sounds of the Universe (2009)
• TBA (2013)

Награды и номинации

Состав группы

Нынешние участники

Дэйв Гаан	Мартин Гор	Энди Флетчер

• Дэйв Гаан — ведущий вокал
• Мартин Гор — гитара, клавишные, перкуссия, бас-гитара, ведущий и бэк-вокал
• Энди Флетчер — клавишные, бас-гитара, перкуссия, бэк-вокал

Бывшие участники

• Винс Кларк — клавишные, гитары, бэк-вокал (1980—1981)
• Алан Уайлдер — клавишные, фортепиано, ударные, перкуссия, бэк-вокал (1982—1995)

Хронология

Трибьюты

• 1991: I Sometimes Wish I Was Famous: A Swedish Tribute to Depeche Mode — трибьют Depeche Mode в исполнении шведских музыкантов.
• 1998: For the Masses — трибьют Depeche Mode, в котором приняли участие такие известные исполнители, как The Smashing Pumpkins, The Cure, Rammstein, Apollo 440 и могие другие. В трибьюте также хотели принять участие Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson и Foo Fighters, но им помешал слишком плотный график.^[90] Альбом попал в чарты США и достиг 20-го места в хит-параде Германии.^[91]
• 1998: «Депеша для Depeche Mode» — трибьют Depeche Mode в исполнении российских музыкантов. В записи альбома участвовали Браво, Deadушки, Найк Борзов, Пелагея, DJ Грув и многие другие. Альбом был выпущен в виде двух отдельных компакт-дисков и аудиокассет: «Депеша1» и «Депеша2». Помимо этого вышло и коллекционное издание: двойной компакт, дополненный двумя бонус-треками.
• 2002: Personal Depeche — трибьют Depeche Mode в исполнении белорусских музыкантов.
• 2003: Color Theory presents Depeche Mode — трибьют Depeche Mode в исполнении Color Theory.

Литература на русском языке

• Depeche Mode. «Взлёты и падения» / Сост. — Жак Ю. Тати, М. Бочкин, А. Гончаров; пер. — А. Перевалов. — М.: «Скит Интернешнл», 1999. — 160 с. — ISBN 5-88775-004-9. — (Краткие сведения о группе, дискография, тексты песен из альбомов и их переводы на русский)
• Depeche Mode. Some great new art / Авторский текст — А. Глебов; оригинальный текст — Some great new art 1993 г.: О. Бочаров, А. Глебов. — М.: Rock Biz, 1999—256 c. — (Подробная история группы, критика альбомов, дискография, включающая бутлеги)
• Depeche Mode. Подлинная история — Джонатан Миллер; пер. — Е. Трифонов, О. Чеснокова. — СПб.: «Амфора», 2008—664 с. — ISBN 978-5-367-00826-5

Примечания

Ссылки

	Depeche Mode на Викискладе?

• Официальный сайт Depeche Mode  (англ.)
• Depeche Mode на сайте Twitter
• Официальная страница Depeche Mode (англ.) на сайте Myspace
• Видеоканал Depeche Mode на сервисе видеохостинга YouTube
• Радиопрограмма о концерте Depeche Mode в Москве.06.02.10

Depeche Mode
Дэвид Гаан · Мартин Ли Гор · Эндрю Флетчер Алан Уайлдер · Винс Кларк
Студийные альбомы	Speak & Spell · A Broken Frame · Construction Time Again · Some Great Reward · Black Celebration · Music for the Masses · Violator · Songs of Faith and Devotion · Ultra · Exciter · Playing the Angel · Sounds of the Universe
Концертные альбомы	101 · Songs of Faith and Devotion Live · One Night in Paris · Touring the Angel: Live in Milan · Tour of the Universe: Barcelona 20/21.11.09
Сборники	People Are People · The Singles 81>85 · Catching Up with Depeche Mode · Greatest Hits · The Singles 86>98 · Remixes 81–04 · The Best Of, Volume 1 · Remixes 2: 81–11
Синглы	«Dreaming of Me»  · «New Life»  · «Just Can’t Get Enough»  · «See You»  · «The Meaning of Love»  · «Leave in Silence»  · «Get the Balance Right!»  · «Everything Counts»  · «Love, in Itself»  · «People Are People»  · «Master and Servant»  · «Blasphemous Rumours / Somebody»  · «Shake the Disease»  · «It’s Called a Heart»  · «Stripped»  · «A Question of Lust»  · «A Question of Time»  · «But Not Tonight»  · «Strangelove»  · «Never Let Me Down Again»  · «Behind the Wheel»  · «Little 15» · «Everything Counts (Live)»  · «Personal Jesus»  · «Enjoy the Silence»  · «Policy of Truth»  · «World in My Eyes»  · «I Feel You»  · «Walking in My Shoes»  · «Condemnation»  · «In Your Room»  · «Barrel of a Gun»  · «It’s No Good»  · «Home»  · «Useless»  · «Only When I Lose Myself»  · «Dream On»  · «I Feel Loved»  · «Freelove»  · «Goodnight Lovers»  · «Enjoy the Silence’04»  · «Precious»  · «A Pain That I’m Used To»  · «Suffer Well»  · «John the Revelator / Lilian»  · «Martyr»  · «Wrong»  · «Peace»  · «Fragile Tension / Hole to Feed»  · «Personal Jesus’11»
Связанные статьи	Дискография · Список наград и номинаций · Mute Records · Sire Records · Reprise Records · Синтипоп · Антон Корбейн · Yazoo · Erasure · Recoil · VCMG

1980

New Life

For Depeche Mode

Early in 1980, Fletch, Martin and Vince agree to form a typical guitar trio, with the added accompaniment of a drum machine. Vince writes and sings all their early material — the band is named Composition Of Sound.

The guys spot their new vocalist in a local scout-hut jam session with another band. With a strong cover of the David Bowie number «Heroes», Dave Gahan charms the members of Composition Of Sound and is immediately invited to join the Band.

Dave is recruited as lead singer, and suggests the Band be re-named Depeche Mode after a French fashion magazine, which he has been reading in college.

Depeche Mode perform their first ever gig at St. Nicholas School in Basildon on May 31st, followed by several shows in Essex and London.

Depeche Mode headline the Saturday night electronic showcase at Crocs Club in Rayleigh. At one of their shows, they are approached by Stevo, of Some Bizarre Records, who persuades them to record a track for his Some Bizarre compilation, due out in February the following year.

It is Daniel Miller who eventually produces «Photographic», which appears on this album.

Dave and Vince proudly hand-deliver the Band’s demo tape to dozens of club owners and record companies, but Terry Murphy of Canning Town’s Bridgehouse is the only other promoter to recognise their ingenuity with a booking.

In December, Daniel Miller of Mute Records witnesses a live performance of Depeche Mode at the Bridgehouse and approaches the Band. Depeche Mode agree to make a single and enter an agreement on the basis of a 50/50 profit-sharing arrangement with Daniel.

Shortly before Christmas, Depeche Mode go into the studio to begin work on their first single «Dreaming Of Me».

«The songs, the arrangements and the presentation of the songs are what inspired me to sign Depeche Mode. I felt they were the first pop group to really use synthesisers as their first instrument.» Daniel Miller

«To us, the synth was a punk instrument. Because it was still fairly new, its potential seemed limitless. It really gave us a chance to explore.» Martin Gore

«I’ve never really questioned the band’s continued success and have definitely never analysed it. I believe, sub-consciously, I have always known they would get bigger and bigger, almost to the point of taking it for granted. » Daryl Bamonte

«We got turned down everywhere at first, and no-one was interested. Then all of a sudden, everyone was interested and the majors were queuing up to sign us. Suddenly that style of music came in, and they were all after us. We were associated with this movement and we had a tag. But we weren’t really anything to do with the Futurist or New Romantic thing.» Dave Gahan

1981

Depeche Mode

Say Go!

Depeche Mode play several dates across the UK through most of the year, and some European shows in September.

The first single «Dreaming Of Me» is released on February 20th and although it only reaches number 57, it is a good start, and according to Miller, who produced the single, it begins a long-term crossover trend for Indie releases into mainstream radio.

Shortly after the release of Depeche Mode’s debut album «Speak and Spell» on October 5th the Band leaves for their first official tour and play fourteen very successful nights throughout the UK.

The Some Bizarre album is eventually released in March, and although the anthology is considered «the watershed techno-pop album», Depeche Mode would later have mixed feelings about their involvement with the stylised Futurist scene.

With the press behind them, Depeche Mode’s popularity grows, and another single is released. «New Life» comes out on June 13th and it is already in the Top 75.

Their third single «Just Can’t Get Enough» (September 7th) becomes an international dance hit and climbs to No. 8 in the UK charts. The Band record their first video.

Vince Clarke announces he is to leave the Band in December and Martin is elected as chief songwriter. The Band also decide that a fourth member is necessary for touring. After several auditions, Alan Wilder, a classically trained musician, is chosen from ten finalists.

«Despite the narcissistic title, Dreaming Of Me is as sweetly unassuming a slice of electronic whimsy as anything by early OMD. Deadpan vocals, programmed rhythm rejoinders and a candyfloss melody makes for a pleasant three minutes. Live, they look great, make comfortable background noises, but don’t really sustain attention for much longer than that.» Chris Bogh, NME

«We’ve got nothing against guitars, and we have played them in the past. We may experiment with guitars again one day, but it’s so much easier with a synthesiser. There is a lot of good guitar music around but you have to be pretty good to use the guitar.» Andy Fletcher

«It was the way the whole thing was going. It lost its enthusiasm. It was turning into a production line and that was worrying me. The techniques were improving to an extent, the way we were playing, but even then I found there were things in the way. preventing us from experimenting. We were so busy, there was something going on every day and no time to play around.» Vince Clarke

1982

The Meaning

Of Depeche Mode

Alan first performs with Depeche Mode at Croes in Rayleigh in January and the Band continue touring in support of their debut album. They also play in front of a new audience in the US and Canada for the first time.

The single «See You», announcing the forthcoming album, is released on January 29th and peaks at No. 6 on the UK Chart. «The Meaning Of Love» comes out en April 26th, followed by «Leave In Silence» (August 16th), the first DM single bearing the catalogue name BONG.

Following a short break, the Band hit the road again in October, shortly after the release of their second album «A Broken Frame» (September 27th), visiting many European cities in a period of three months. It is during this tour that Fletch, Martin and Dave slowly integrate Alan into the permanent framework of the Band.

1983

Depeche Mode

Told You So

It’s not until the recording of «Get The Balance Right» (January 3 1 st) that Alan joins the Band as a full-time member. With this new track moving bodies on the dance floors the World over, the band commence on a Spring tour of North America and the Far East, the most extensive tour outside of Europe do date.

The Band work on new material in The Garden Studios in London and Hansa Studios in Berlin, which provides an ideal location for the album’s final mixing. It is also where Depeche Mode shoot the video for «Everything Counts».

«Everything Counts», their new single from the upcoming album, makes its debut on July 11th, followed by «Love In Itself» on September 19th.

Depeche Mode’s third studio album «Construction Time Again) is released on August 22nd and like its two predecessors hits the Top 10. The album has a more potent and refined sound and also introduces not only Alan’s musical talents, but also an ability to contribute his own songs.

The Band hit the road again in September to introduce the songs of «Construction Time Again» to an audience across the UK and Europe, also reaching North America and the Far East.

«A Broken Frame might give the reason to everyone to find the use of synthesisers very pedant, boring, devoid of ideas etc. We might also think that they let their keyboards play without a control. We can if really necessary remember The Meaning Of Love, which contains a bit of energy and melody. Just enough to make a single, but not an album. Despite a beautiful sleeve featuring a kolkhoz woman cutting wheat under a stormy sky.» Rock’n’roll, France

«The lyrics have matured from wide-eyed fun to wide-eyed frustration. A Broken Frame sounds sadly naked, rudely deprived of the formula’s novelty.» Steve Sutherland, Melody Maker

«I think we all like the idea (sampling). When we actually made the album we did go on a sound hunting expedition. We went down Brick Lane and just hit everything and then recorded it and took it back to the studio and put it into a keyboard. That’s how we made the track Pipeline. We were smashing corrugated iron and old cars. The vocals were recorded in a railway arch in Shoreditch…» Andy Fletcher

1984

Stories Of

Depeche Mode

The Band’s next single «People Are People» is released on March 12th and its success is followed by a concert on June 2nd, where they share the bill with Elton John, to a crowd of 50,000 in Ludwigshafen.

«People Are People» barrels its way to No. 4 on the British charts and it also holds the No. 1 spot in Germany for three weeks. It eventually reaches number 13 in the US.

The singles «Master And Servant» released on August 20th, and «Blasphemous Rumours» released on October 29th, both receive a lot of media attention for their controversial ideas.

The Band find themselves genuinely satisfied with the end results of their new album «Some Great Reward» which hits stores on September 24th and clinches a No. 5 spot on the British charts.

They immediately set off on a four-month tour to promote the new album, filming a sold-out show in Hamburg for a future video.

1985

It’s Called

Depeche Mode

Two new songs are recorded and released, which have no trouble finding their way into the charts. The first, «Shake The Disease» greets music stores on April 29th and the second single «It’s Called A Heart» is delivered to the fans on September 16th.

A month later sees the release of the compilation LP «The Singles 8 1-85», appropriately titled «Catching Up With Depeche Mode» in the States, covering all the singles from «Dreaming Of Me» to «It’s Called A Heart».

«Some Great Videos», a compilation of the greatest single videoclips, coincides with the release of the album, and «The World We Live In And Live In Hamburg», a live concert recording is also released.

«We’ve still got a long way to go before people will be proud to have Depeche Mode albums in their collection.» Andy Fletcher

«Pop goes to your house! OK, so I already expected to like this album, despite the Test Dept image plagiarism, despite the teen paper glamour and even the pop fashionability, Depeche Mode have always won through with that most endearing of qualities — good tunes» Carole Linfield, Sounds, UK

«…as long as David Gahan s big mascared eyes and Martin Gore’s cheeky rouged nipples continue to adorn album covers. they’ll be dismissed as teenybop fodder. This complete collection of the boys singles including the latest, It’s Called A Heart, provides convincing evidence that such a charge is nonsense.» Frank Owen, Melody Maker

1986

World Full

Of Depeche Mode

After three months of extensive recording at Westside Studios in West Kensington, London, then moving operations to Hansa Studio in Berlin, «Stripped» is released on February 10th, giving the listening audience only a taste of what is to come.

«Black Celebration» sees March 1 7th as its official introduction into a «black» society and offers a heavier, darker and harder sound than anything in the band’s past.

A world tour in support of the new album «Black Celebration» begins in March and takes the Band across Europe, North America and Far East for nearly six months.

The next singles «A Question Of Lust» (April 14th) and «A Question Of Time» (August 1 1 th) mark a turning point for Depeche Mode as they sound self-assured enough to take risks and succeed.

The filming of the video for «A Question Of Time», in the American desert, sets the beginning of a long running collaboration between the Band and Anton Corbijn, whose unique visual presentation has become a Depeche Mode hallmark…

Depeche Mode return to the recording studio after a few months break following their Black Celebration Tour to begin work on their next album.

«The crew tend to play tricks on us a lot. At one of the last gigs they covered the riser (back bit of the stage that Dave has to climb up on) with all these porno pictures to try and put me off. They succeeded.» Dave Gahan on Black Celebration Tour

«Here are some things to admire about Depeche Mode: 1) their self sufficiency; 2) their refusal to follow anything but their own fashion; 3) their refusal to be anything but themselves; 4) their unswerving ability to come up with great, fresh melodies.» Betty Page, Record Mirror

«If we are to have bands filling the World’s stadiums, then let them be like Depeche Mode.» John Peel

1987

Depeche Mode

For The Masses

Recording begins at Studio Guilliame Tell in Paris and finishes up at Konk, London. The new album is mixed at Puk Studios in Denmark.

The first single «Strangelove» is released on April 13th and becomes an immediate favourite. Several months later on, the second single «Never Let Me Down Again» (August 24th) greets music stores.

On September 28th, we see the highly anticipated release of «Music For The Masses», the band’s sixth studio album, which immediately goes platinum Worldwide.

Shortly after release of the album, Depeche Mode prepare to launch a six month World tour which is the most extensive one to date, selling out stadiums and concert halls around the globe.

The next single «Behind The Wheel» in released on December 28th, while the tour is underway and is added to the list of Top 20 hits.

1988

Depeche Mode

Are Behind The Wheel

The Music For The Masses Tour brings the foursome together on stage to deliver their passion and soul. Arriving in Los Angeles for their last stop at the Pasadena Rose Bowl Stadium on June 18th, Depeche Mode perform their historic 101 st show of the tour in front of 75,000 fans. The event is recorded and filmed for the later to be released documentary album and D. A. Pennebaker movie bearing the name «Depeche Mode 101».

Just a month before the tour ends, Depeche Mode release «Little 15» (May 16th), yet another track from the «Music For The Masses» album, but only in certain European countries.

«Strange», the first video compilation directed by Anton Corbijn is released. It contains five excellent videos, all in Corbijn’s black and white imagery.

Alan and Martin are busy working on side projects of their own. Alan finishes a solo project under the name of Recoil and releases his «Hydrology and 1+2» tracks at the end of the year.

«After six albums and a few thousand singles, you might expect the Mode to be full of ‘artistic exhaustion’ and all those things that befall groups when they’re a bit old. But not for these pop chirperers! Music For The Masses is the Mode’s most consistently excellent record yet — as tuneful and thoughtful and moody (especially moody) as anything they’ve created before. » John Barty, Smash Hits, UK

«This is the band’s most lifelike effort to date, and a compelling dance number.» David Hiltbrand of Rolling Stone on Never Let Me Down Again

«We weren’t able to enjoy the moment because we were just worrying about the logistics of the show too much. Nobody really enjoyed the gig and we didn’t play particularly well that night. It’s only really when you look back and it’s being captured on film and the sound has been tarted up a bit, that you realise what a big, special moment it was for us as a group. We should have just taken the time to enjoy it a bit more.» Alan Wilder on the Rose Bowl show

«I’d never been to any concert before with 70,000 people. It wasn’t just 70,000 people watching the concert it was 70,000 people participating in the concert, really responding. Everybody there was a fan, it wasn’t ‘let’s go and have a look at this, see what it’s like There were 70,000 Depeche Mode fans there.» Daniel Miller on the Rose Bowl show

1989

Depeche Mode

Count It In Large Amounts

A live single of the encore favourite «Everything Counts» keeps fans happy even after the tour is over. It is released on February 13th, and contains some live tracks from the Pasadena Rose Bowl performance.

The double compilation album «101» is released on March 13th and showcases the group’s entire performance at the Rose Bowl. The album goes gold in France within 24 hours of release!

«101», the D. A. Pennebaker film, a great road movie made up of live action. footage and all the band’s hits from the «Music For The Masses Tour» is released internationally on home video.

Martin, continuing work on his solo from last year, releases e. p. titled «Counterfeit». He then begins concentrating on new material for the next Depeche Mode album.

The Band enlists the help of a new producer, Mark «Flood» Ellis and legendary mixer, Francois Kevorkian, and begin work at Logic Studios in Milan, Axis in New York, London’s Church and Master Rock Studios and finish at Puk Studios in Denmark.

«Personal Jesus», the first single from the eagerly anticipated album, comes out on August 29th and becomes the biggest selling 12″ in Warner Brothers history.

«It would seem that Mute Records have decided it’s time to give Depeche Mode the Big Push that will elevate them into the league occupied by stadium rockers like U2. 101 should ensure there will be longer queues for tickets next time Depeche Mode come to town, but on the strength of this piece of vinyl, it II be well worth the wait.» Music Technology, UK

«I think we were more nervous about the recording and filming of the show than the actual number of people at the Rose Bowl. Personally, I’m blind so I can only see the front row!» Andy Fletcher

1990

World

In Depeche Mode Eyes

«Violator», the new album that covers a wide range of moods and styles is released on March 19th and climbs to No. 2 in Britain and No. 7 in the United States.

On March 20th, Depeche Mode appear for a promotional autograph signing of their album «Violator» at the music store The Wherehouse in West Los Angeles. Over 10,000 fans besiege the store to catch a glimpse of the Band and are simply too much for the security staff to handle. The event makes the national news with the headline: «English rock band Depeche Mode stopped the traffic at Beverly!»

Less than a week after its release, «Violator» goes gold in France, Germany, Britain, USA, Spain and Italy! The album later on receives ten platinum awards in UK, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, including double platinum in USA, Canada and France.

The second single from the new LP «Enjoy The Silence» is another million seller released on February 5th, followed by «Police Of Truth» (May 7th) and the final single from the album «World In My Eyes» (September 17th).

Depeche Mode’s new tour in support of «Violator» starts in May and takes the Band on nearly a year long trip over five continents and reaches over 1,200,000 people.

A new Depeche Mode video compilation by Anton Corbijn titled «Strange Too — Another Violation» is released on October 22nd.

«The Depeche Mode set-up is a vastly complicated network of interlinked musical computers used to recreate their songs in a live situation, perfectly every time. It takes several months beforehand to program everything up and make the machines communicate correctly, and two full-time technicians to look after the equipment on the road. » Jonathan Roberts, World Violation Tour Technician

«Violator marked a move away from Depeche Mode’s more adolescent infatuations, songwriter Martin Gore developing into a surprisingly subtle observer of emotional ruction without losing the gift for pop melodies which was largely responsible for their earlier success.» Q. Magazine, UK

1991

Depeche Mode

Enjoy The Silence

Depeche Mode’s «Enjoy The Silence», one of the Band’s strongest tracks to date wins the Brit Award for Best Single of 1990 voted by the listeners of Radio One.

Martin is honoured by ASCAP (The American Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers) for the songs «Policy Of Truth» and «Enjoy The Silence», both of which are among the most played songs in the US during 1990.

The soundtrack album of the Wim Wenders’ film «Until The End Of The World» is released in December and features a beautiful ballad titled «Death’s Door» by Depeche Mode.

1992

Faith And Devotion In

Depeche Mode

Martin is busy songwriting and when he comes back, he has a wide assortment of new themes for an album.

Depeche Mode reunite in February and set up a studio in a privately rented villa in Madrid, Spain to work on new material for their eight studio album «Songs Of Faith And Devotion» with Flood in the producer’s chair.

«This was the only time ever in the studio when we thought we had a hit single. When I finished the demo of Enjoy The Silence it was more of a ballad and sounded a bit like the harmonium version that came out on one of the formats. Alan had this idea to speed it up and make it a bit more disco which I was really averse to at first, because l thought ‘the song is called Enjoy The Silence and it’s supposed to be about serenity, and serenity doesn’t go with the disco beat’. So I was sulking for about two days but after he sped it up, I got used to it and added the guitar part, which adds to the whole atmosphere. We could really hear that it had a crossover potential. I have to say that I was sulking for two days for no reason.» Martin Gore

«A Depeche Mode fan is anyone who still gives us the time of day after having heard It’s Called A Heart (Slow Mix).» Alan Wilder

«Right now there’s a lot of dance techno music out there. I think everyone expected us to come up with a hard dance album, but there’s so much of it out there right now that the songs are really getting lost. I think I subconsciously tried to rebel against that.» Martin Gore on SOFAD

«Nobody thought they were going to make it through that album. Even l, for the first time, wasn’t sure if they were going to make it. I felt there was a really good chance, but I started having my doubts because of what was going on. I think the fact that they did was a shock to everybody who was close to the band, and to the media, who were watching with interest.» Daniel Miller

1993

Walking In

Depeche Mode Shoes

The first Depeche Mode single from the new album «I Feel You» arrives on February 15th and goes straight into the upper reaches of the music charts. The video for the song directed by Anton Corbijn is nominated by MTV’s annual Music Awards for the Alternative Video Of The Year.

The newest studio LP «Songs Of Faith And Devotion» is released on March 22nd and goes straight to the top of the music industry, debuting at No. 1 on both the American and British charts, and goes on to dominate album charts the World over.

The sales of the «Songs Of Faith And Devotion» exceed everyone’s expectations and the album receives eleven gold disc awards in Britain, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and two platinum awards in the USA and Canada.

To celebrate the release of the long-awaited album, Depeche Mode throw an exclusive «Global Release Party» on March 12th at the club Ministry Of Sound in London. The Band meet fans and take part in an interview that is broadcast World-wide by satellite.

Depeche Mode embark on the extensive Devotional Tour in May, which takes them across the globe twice, playing to devotees throughout Europe and North America by the end of the year.

The second single from the album, «Walking In My Shoes» is released on April 26th, followed by «Condemnation» (September 13th), featuring the haunting ballad «Death’s Door».

A live video, directed by Anton Corbijn, is shot during shows in Lieven, Barcelona and Budapest. The video captures Depeche Mode at their finest and is released in December, accompanied with a live album titled «Songs Of Faith And Devotion Live».

«Songs Of Faith And Devotion is a work of untouchable excellence.» What’s On, UK

«My favourite song from this album has to be Walking In My Shoes’ as I love the sounds on it enormously — also it is one of my own favorite videos tor Depeche Mode.» Anton Corbijn

«I’d like to feel that this music will lift people and make them feel better in whatever they do. I’m just trying to push myself further.» Dave Gahan on SOFAD

1994

On The Road

With Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode are back on the road in February, performing in front of audiences in far off places like South Africa, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong. Philippines, Hawaii, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico.

Depeche Mode return to the United States in May for the final leg of the tour simply called USA 94 where they finish off after 14 months during which Depeche Mode have visited 122 cities in 27 different countries and played for over 2,000,000 people in 156 shows.

Anton Corbijn receives a Grammy nomination for the live video recording of the «Devotional».

«In Your Room», the fourth and final single out of «Songs Of Faith And Devotion» is released on January 10th.

1995

Coming Back To

Depeche Mode

Martin Gore covers a Leonard Cohen song «Coming Back To You» for the Cohen tribute album «Tower Of Song: The Songs of Leonard Cohen».

At the end of May, Alan Wilder announces his departure from Depeche Mode. The remaining band members decide not to seek a replacement.

Depeche Mode are in the recording studio for six before Christmas working on some new material with Tim Simenon producing.

«It’s all faultlessly conceived and presented, and equally well filmed and edited. An absorbing experience, even for non-die hard fans. Devotional is a wonderful, creative example of achieving success without artistic compromise.» Q. Magazine, UK

«I think that every video I had to do while they were on tour, was the hardest to make and in particular Condemnation because of Dave’s mental condition at the time. The easiest was probably Strangelove, as it doesn’t feature the band so much…» Anton Corbijn

«I think my decision to leave the band came during the making of that album. I can remember one or two occasions during the recording that stick vividly in my mind, particularly those first sessions where I thought this is just not enjoyable, this is last time I want to be in this situation.» Alan Wilder

«Martin’s an amazing songwriter, and I want people to take their hats off to him. Songs, songs, songs, that’s what it’s all about.» Tim Simenon

1996

It’s All Good For

Depeche Mode

Dave accidentally overdoses on drugs in Los Angeles in May and is arrested. Upon his successful completion of the drug treatment and rehabilitation program, all charges against him are dismissed.

Depeche Mode are recording in New York at Electric Lady Studios. They also put in some extra time in London, including a one day return to Westside Studios (after ten years) to record some strings.

Following a short summer break, the Band are back in the studio in September, mixing the first single at Sarm Studios in London. They later on return to Eastcote and Rak Studios for more recording.

In December, Depeche Mode shoot the video for their first single «Barrel Of A Gun» in Morocco under the direction of Anton Corbijn.

«There’s not really a concept or a theme, but quite a lot of the songs deal with destiny. Religion is probably touched on less on this album than it has been in the past, but it’s still got a quite spiritual feel.» Martin Gore on Ultra

«Ultra reveals a band who have weathered the storms to produce their finest work. Its minimalistic, moody grooves are influenced by recent trip-hop happenings, while Gore’s lyrics are his finest yet. From boys to men, through good times and bad, Depeche Mode are still very much around. And they’re getting the balance right.» Gary Crossing, Big Issue, UK

1997

Ultramode

The first single «Barrel Of A Gun» is released on February 3rd, also featuring an alternative track called «Painkiller». It goes straight into the UK charts at No. 4, equalling their highest ever chart position with «People Are People».

Depeche Mode visit seven European countries on a promotional tour in February, giving interviews to all the major press, TV and radio stations. The promotional trip continues towards the end of April.

The Band spend the last week of February in New York and in addition to loads of interviews, they are shooting the video for the second single «It’s No Good» (March 31st) which becomes a smash hit and one of the most requested songs on radio stations everywhere straight after its release.

During March, London’s Mute Records organises a chain of listening parties with a playback of the tracks from the new album. The evenings welcome nearly two thousand DM fans and Bong members from all over the UK.

A huge launch party is held by Mute Records on April 10th at London’s Adrenaline Village featuring the first live performance by Depeche Mode in three years.

The release date of the long-awaited album «Ultra» is set for April 14th. It is Depeche Mode’s 9th studio album, featuring eleven original tracks, all written by Martin Gore and produced by Tim Simenon.

Attacking the highest positions in most of the European countries, «Ultra» sells 3,000,000 in seven months and goes gold and platinum around the globe.

Depeche Mode launch their official web site on May 13th, initially focusing on «Ultra», but creating a centralised resource for Depeche Mode fans world-wide, including the extensive history of Depeche Mode.

«Home», an epic string-drenched ballad sees Martin taking over the vocal duty from Dave, is the third single from «Ultra» released on June 16th.

The gently funky song with the moaning guitar riffs «Useless» and the fourth single from «Ultra» is released on October 20th. The accompanying video is shot at an old lead mine in North Wales at the end of August, with Anton Corbijn directing.

Dave sings «Song For Europe» which is included on a Roxy Music tribute album «Dreamhome Heartaches…Remaking, Remodelling Roxy Music», proceeds of which go to a children’s charity.

«Barrel Of A Gun is about understanding what you’re about and realising that you don’t necessarily fit into somebody else’s scheme of things. You can have slight diversions from your path, but I think there is something that is written for us that is meant to be. I’m not being totally fatalistic, I think that we do have a say in things, but I don’t think that say is very strong. » Martin Gore

«Trying times for the band, yet with the guidance of producer Tim Simenon, Depeche Mode have come back with an album which will — once the headlines are forgotten — be seen as one of the most outstanding and enganging in their 16-year career. » Music & Media «I’m pleased that we have consolidated our position as an influential and still popular group in the 1990s. The high points for me were playing live at the Ultra launch parties in London and Los Angeles.» Andy Fletcher

1998

Lost In

Depeche Mode

Martin is busy writing songs for inclusion on the long awaited double CD package «The Singles 86>98», featuring all the Band’s hits since 1986, along with a new song.

In February, the Band meet in London to discuss their plans and ideas. They decide to go into the studio in March to begin work on new material. Tim Simenon, is once again in charge of production.

Depeche Mode hold a press conference on April 20th in Cologne, Germany to announce their upcoming tour The Singles Tour 96-98, coinciding with the release of the retrospective double CD set «The Singles 86>98» (September 28th).

The Band are on location in New York City during July, to film the video for their new single «Only When I Lose Myself» directed by Brian Griffin, who collaborated with Depeche Mode on their first four album covers.

The production rehearsals for the upcoming tour take place during August at Three Mills Island Studios in East London.

The new single called «Only When I Lose Myself», featuring Dave on vocals is released on September 7th. The single also includes two more new titles, «Headstar» and «Surrender».

Depeche Mode embark on a world tour, starting in September, which takes them for the first time ever to Russia, Estonia and Latvia. Following the European leg, the Band tour North America in November and December. As soon as the dates are announced, tickets sell like hot cakes with some shows selling out within hours!

The stage-set design and video projection is provided once again by Anton Corbijn and Depeche Mode are accompanied on stage by Christian Eigner on drums. Peter Gordeno on keyboards and Jordan Bailey and Janet Cooke, the two backing vocalists.

During The Singles 86-98 Tour Depeche Mode visit 29 cities in 15 different countries around Europe, 27 cities in the North America and play 64 shows to almost 800,000 fans.

A new video compilation of the singles coincides with the release date of «The Singles 86>98» and features a special intro and an exclusive short film.

Sales figures of more than 1.5 million copies in a couple of months since its release secure «The Singles 86>98» several gold and platinum disc awards across the world.

Depeche Mode headline at KROO’s Almost Acoustic Christmas show on December 12th in Los Angeles. Their one hour performance includes an acoustic version of «Sisters Of Night», and during «Never Let Me Down Again» Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins appeared on stage with the Band.

«With Only When I Lose Myself, I started with the opening motif and the words were suggested to me by what was happening in the music. I find that a very natural way to write.» Martin Gore

«Essex electronica veterans don’t get out of bed for less than an arena tour. Here (The Singles 86-98 Tour) they’re promoting a hits package, a singular pop affair that traces dark-lines between Basildon and Berlin.» Evening Standard, UK

1999

Dreaming Of

Depeche Mode

The Band members get together during April to discuss their future plans. Meanwhile, Martin is getting down to some serious work in the song-writing department. The Band hope to be in the studio next year.

In the Music Week Creative and Design Awards 1999, «The Singles 86>98» wins «Best Album Design» and «The Singles 86>98» album campaign wins «Best Design of a Series of Sleeves».

In May, Martin is presented with an «Award for International Achievement», by the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters, at the 44th Ivor Nowello Awards in London. Martin is presented with his award by Daniel Miller.

2000

Depeche Mode

Get Exciting

Depeche Mode celebrate their 20th anniversary since they formed in Basildon, named themselves Depeche Mode and conquered the World.

Martin is songwriting, and working at home in his studio with Gareth Jones and Paul Freegard. The Band announce plans to go in to the studio.

The International Bong Convention is held on April 15th in Depeche Mode’s hometown Basildon. It is a celebration of 20 years of Depeche Mode and although the Band members are not present, a concert-like atmosphere is created by more than 250 fans from all over the World.

Several new songs are ready for the Band to work on. Martin is still busy writing more tracks for the new album and the Band start recording during June and July in studios in both London and New York with producer Mark Bell. The recording process continues in September and concludes just before Christmas in New York.

«I think we’ve always made weird pop. and I think Exciter is a great example of that. I don’t think it fits into a defined musical category, but we never have, so that’s not a particular worry. I just like being able to make music that’s different. and if it’s successful as well, then that’s good. » Martin Gore

«I’m very proud of the work that i’ve contributed to this record, and I want people to hear it. I’ve really enjoyed singing on this album too, and I’ve enjoyed it more because I’m in a good place, I feel really content. Yes, I want it to sell millions of copies, I’d love to pick up a Grammy next year, and get an MTV award. I’d like to pick up a Brit award — l’d be lying if I said I didn’t — but if it doesn’t happen, c’est la vie…we’ve made a great record and we’re going to go out and tour. I know our fans are really loyal and they’ll be coming out to see us. There’s not much else you can really ask for. I’m doing what I want to do in my life.» Dave Gahan

2001

Feel Loved By

Depeche Mode

The video for the first single «Dream On» is shot in Los Angeles in February. The man behind the camera this time is the world famous video director and fashion photographer Stephane Sednaoui.

The official web site celebrates a victory in the second annual MidemNet Awards, which are announced in Cannes in January, winning the award for Best Artist Web Site. The site hosts two exclusive MP3 extracts from «Exciter» per day marking the release of the Band’s tenth studio album.

The Band finish mixing the album in London in January, and after a well-deserved break and some promotional activities, release their first single «Dream On» on April 23rd, with «Easy Tiger» on the B-side. It enters the German Top 100 Single Charts on pole possition and becomes the first number one single for the Band in Germany since «People Are People» (1984)!

Depeche Mode announce their world-wide tour at a press conference in Hamburg in March and start pre-production in April: The rehearsals begin in London in May and continue in June when the Exciter Tour starts rolling in Canada. The second leg of the tour brings Depeche Mode to Europe towards the end of August.

The excellent and highly anticipated new album «Exciter» is released on May 14th. There are a total of thirteen tracks, including two instrumentals. Anton Corbijn is once again asked to do the album artwork. The new album immediately hits the charts across the World and the sales reach award status gold or platinum in many countries around the globe.

The massive tour sees Depeche Mode performing to 1,2 million people in 24 countries over a five-month period and again features the innovative stage design and unique visual element of Anton Corbijn. Martin, Fletch and Dave welcome the return of the musicians Christian Eigner, Peter Gordeno and backing vocalist Jordan, with newcomer Georgia Lewis.

«I Feel Loved» is the second single from the album with the official release date of July 16th, featuring a cover of the legendary The Stooges song «Dirt» as a B-side. The radio friendly track makes it to heavy rotation on most radio stations across Europe.

The third single from «Exciter» is the beautiful ballad «Freelove» out on November 5th. The video is directed in July by the Australian director John Hillcoat, who is also responsible for the «I Feel Loved» video.

Depeche Mode win The Best International Artist A Music Channel VIVA «Comet» Award ceremony, beating Madonna, Jennifer Lopez and U2!

The Band performed the old time classic «Never Let Me Down Again» at the MTV Europe Music Awards held in Frankfurt in November. The official DM web site receives a nomination and although it doesn’t win, it is selected by MTV Europe as one of only five web sites up for Best Band Web Site.

The filming of the video for the new single «Goodnight Lovers» takes place in November in Frankfurt and is once more directed by John Hillcoat.

«The word Exciter sounds like typical Martin word and has a sexual meaning in a way…and that sort of pictures on the album too, but at the same time it’s quite a broad nature and it goes down the core of things. I think the music is a bit like that as well…it’s quite relaxed…it has beautiful sounds and it’s a very different Depeche again.» Anton Corbijn

«I’m a lot more confident vocally. I really wanted to bring something beautiful to these songs. When you’re singing a song, it’s like you can just disappear into it. It’s the only way I can describe it really. And I did that. It’s really a luxurious place to be. I wanted to do that with every song. On Ultra I was not able to do that because I wasn’t physically able to bring all of myself to it. Now I feel like I’m firing on all cylinders.» Dave Gahan

«Blame it on the sunshine, or the settled wile-and-kinds lives of all three members, but Exciter is the most optimistic record the band have made in 20 years.» Dorian Lynskey, Q Magazine, UK

«Gahan has stripped off his shirt, and proceeds to spin across the stage with comical, sweaty abandon, shouting ‘Hello London!’ as if he’s never been here before. His sheer happiness in his work is hard to resist, as he leads crowd-clapping so synchronised it gives fresh life to the old comparison between stadium shows and Nuremberg rallies. He won’t rest until we’re singing the new single Freelove as if we’ve loved it all our lives.» Nick Hasted, The Independent, UK

2002

One Night With

Depeche Mode And…

«Goodnight Lovers», the fourth single from «Exciter», is released on February 11th, coinciding with the announcement of two nominations for Depeche Mode in this year’s Grammy Awards in the categories of «Best Dance Recording» for «I Feel Loved» and the «Best Remixed Recording/Non-Classical» for Danny Tenaglia’s remix of «I Feel Loved». The Band is also nominated for Echo Pop 2002 Awards in the category «Best International Rock/Pop Band».

The eagerly awaited live DVD of the «Exciter Tour» titled «One Night In Paris» hits the stores on May 27th and, apart from the live footage, contains some extras, such as rare personal interviews, stills gallery and many more. The exclusive two-hour event is directed by Anton Corbijn at the sold-out Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy in front of 16,000 wildly enthusiastic fans.

«The venue itself is probably one of the best in the world. We’ve played this venue many, many times, so for us it’s almost like a second home in Paris. Depeche Mode fans will travel from all over the world to see a concert in Paris.» Andy Fletcher on Paris’s Bercy

«As far as performing goes, I enjoyed this tour more than any other before. I really felt it was the best we’ve ever played and that the musicians that were playing really brought new life to the older songs and the new songs from Exciter. I was just floating out there.» Dave Gahan

«A great project to work on is always the design of an album cover, including photographs and title-lettering. I also enjoy video making and think the band are better when they have to work to a clear idea than standing in front of a stills camera for a photograph. I love doing the stage sets too so in a way I am a happy bunny in whatever discipline I work with Depeche Mode.» Anton Corbijn

2004

Songs Of Faith and Devotion

DEPECHE MODE

The new, and tenth, Depeche Mode album Songs Of Faith and Devotion, is one of the most eagerly expected awaited albums of 1993. Their last album, Violator, was their most successful to date and, after the tour finished playing to 1,200,000 people over eight months, group decided to take a year’s sabbatical.

It took the young Essex group only three weeks to record their first album, Speak and Spell, in 1981. The new work, however, was made by David Gahan, Alan Wilder, Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher over an eight-month period from April to December, 1992, with long breaks between recording sessions in Madrid, Hamburg and London. «Your standards go up,» Martin explains. «It takes longer until everybody is happy. And we’ve tried so many things before, that to be experimental and different takes longer.»

One of the secrets of the lasting appeal of Depeche Mode has been that way are indeed different from any group and any trend. Their music is always a welcome alternative to whoever and whatever happen to be in vogue. The voice of their lead vocalist Dave Gahan is one of the most distinctive and riveting in rock.

Writer Martin Gore deals with subject matter that doesn’t even occur to most lyricists, let alone get expressed in song form. Musician Alan Wilder stays on top of the latests developments in recording technology, with added input on the last two albums from co-producer Flood. As Alan explains, «He had the rare ability to be able to step back and have a producer’s perspective and also the technical know how to be completely hands on with all the equipment. He’s now become a crucial member of our team, and hi contribution is vast.»

The group Queen, who were born in the seventies and survived through the eighties, were long considered the classic example of how four very different individuals could maintain a professional partnership that was in all their interests, realizing that people don’t have to be personal friends to work well together. With Depeche Mode, conceived in the eighties and destined to outlast the nineties, there has been the pleasant discovery over the years that the four members have naturally gravitated to different tasks, respect each other’s performance in the seperate jobs and have no desire to compete. In simplistic terms, Dave is the singer, Martin is the songwriter, Alan the musician and Andrew the co-ordinator. «I think this is the way a modern band should be,» says Andy, referred to as Fletch. «If more bands were like that, they could run their affairs more successfully.»

Important financial matters that might bore many artists fascinate Fletch. «I liaise with our accountant, our office staff and our business staff, and I really enjoy it, to be honest. It’s important to keep an eye on merchandising and royalties. Mute, our record company, didn’t have a computerized accounts system until recently, so it’s a good thing Daniel Miller (who founded the label) is one of the most honest people I’ve ever met. We’ve got one of the best record deals in the music industry.»

«There has been a natural delegation of responsibility,» Alan confirms. «I’ve always had a strong interest in the production side. Alot of the time it’s myself and Flood who are left there in the early hours of the morning doing what we call ‘screwdriver’ work. It’s sifting through bits of peromance and restructuring it, which bores Martin most of the time and Dave to an extent, but I actually quite enjoy it.»

«I prefer the writing,» Martin confirms. «Although you know you are creating when you’re in the studio, you’re starting totally afresh when you’re writing. I’ve always found it a fascinating process. Sometimes I’ll look at a song that I’ve just written and think that I know where it came from.»

Some of the most startling Depeche hits have had religious themes, including the 1984 UK top twenty hit «Blasphemous Rumours» and, in 1989-90, «Personal Jesus.» «I’ve always had a fascination with religion,» Gore admits. «I don’t really understand it, but I’ve always longed for some sort of belief. A few of the songs on the new album have a sort of gospel feel.»

One of them, «Condemnation», is a particular favorite of Dave Gahan. «I think that’s the best lyric and melody I’ve ever sung,» he affirms. «I wish I could have written it.» Other group members are full of praise for his performance of this and other songs on the album.

«With this record we’ve tried to make Dave sing in a different way,» Alan explains. «In simple things, like raising the register of the song so he had to sing higher than he would normally, forcing him to approach songs differently and making him go over and over things, trying different environments in which he hasn’t sung before, not using headphones like we normally do… anything to try and get a different performance. He’s responded really well. Dave had a very good attitude. He’s willing to try things because he understands that by repeatedly doing over things eventually something will click and a special moment will occur.» With «Condemnation», the new environment turned out to be a marble-tiled garage in the Madrid villa.

Five key singles in Depeche’s career can be identified. The first is «Just Can’t Get Enough», their technopop sound with founding member Vince Clarke, «before the group was a democracy,» as Fletch quips. Early Depeche Mode material continues to sell to new fans.

The second crucial Depeche single was «Everything Counts», a 1983 UK hit that brought criticism of the music business onto the airwaves and introduced an adult tone to the young band’s music. As Fletch points out, the group had the freedom to make this statement because of it’s close relationships with Daniel Miller’s Mute Records in the UK and Seymour Stein’s Sire in the U.S.

«People Are People» was a particularly important record. It achieved what is still the group’s highest British chart position (4) and introduced them to the American top twenty in 1985. Despite these distinction, it is one of Martin Gore’s least favorite compositions. «It’s just not very subtle,» he mourns. «I like the songs to be ambiguous enough for people to get their own meaning from them.»

Martin broke new ground for top forty radio with the lyrics of «Personal Jesus,» on of the best selling 12-inch discs in American history and their firt U.S. gold single. As happened with Bruce Springsteen’s «Born in the USA», many listener read their own meaning into the song. «We often get fans coming to concerts with meanings that are a million miles away from what I intended,» Gore related, «but they still seem very passionate about what they feel. I like that.»

A final key single was «Enjoy The Silence», the first Depeche US top ten single and another million seller. In Britain this was chosen as Best Single if 1990 by listeners of BBC Radio for the BPI awards.

Now a new group of songs stand ready to join this select list. First in line is «I Feel You», chosen as the single both because of its infectious appeal and because its hook line «this is the dawning of our love.» Other tracks, including «Condemnation», are likely to follow. One piece noteworthy for it’s distinctiveness is «One Caress», on which Martin sang live to the accompaniment of a twenty-eight-piece string orchestra.

With this album Depeche Mode continues to make musical progress. As Alan explains, «We’ve placed the emphasis on performance, using sequencers and other technology to rearrange it in a way we couldn’t if we were simply playing through the entire song.» Wilder himself will be playing more live drums on tour, and Gore will come forward more to play guitar. Gahan is as fervent as an artist can be about his new work and the opportunity to perform it live.

«I’d like to feel that this music will lift people and make them feel better about themselves and better in whatever they do. I’m just trying to push myself further.»

Central to Depeche Mode’s determination to excel as a group is its member awareness that each of the other individuals are performing at a peak standard. «I value what Dave does on stage,» Alan says. «Without his performance as a front person we would be a very boring band to watch. There are very few good front men around, and I think he does it well.»

Gahan returns the compliment to Wilder in a discussion about his studio technique. «Alan will sit there for twenty-four hours until it’s right. It’s very special to me when people care that much about everything and want it to be that good. That’s what is unique about Depeche Mode.»

It has been three years since Depeche Mode issued their last album, Violator, which achieved career high chart positions of two in Britain and seven in America. 1990 was spent on the World Violation Tour, which ended at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, and 1992 was predominantly devoted to recording the new work. In between, band members have managed to get some personal time off from the virtually non-stop schedule that has given them nin top ten UK LP’s in nine releases and D.A. Pennebaker’s documentary film Depeche Mode 101, filmed in part at the Pasadena Rose Bowl concert in front of 75,000 fans.

The way Depeche Mode feels about returning to the road is best summed up by Dave. «We’re getting to a stage now where the music’s moving onto higher ground, at it really moves me. The most important thing in my life right now is to get out and bring this music to the fans; now it’s the circus, now it begins.»

Depeche Mode will play near you in 1993.

2005

Playing The Angel

DEPECHE MODE

This October, Depeche Mode release their first album since 2001’s two million-selling Exciter. «I really felt, before we started this album, that there was unfinished business,» says Dave Gahan of their 11th studio album, Playing The Angel. And so it is that the world’s foremost subversive electronic pop group have reconvened to, as the singer puts it, «make the best record we can.» They just can’t shake the disease.

Playing The Angel is an astonishingly fresh, exuberant release from the band who have, over 25 years, sold upwards of 50 million records worldwide and amassed a staggering 38 hit singles in the UK and no fewer than 13 Top 10 albums. And yet they sound like a new group, not one halfway through their third decade together. «Precious», the first single, is quintessential Mode, all cyber pulse and glorious chorus. «The Sinner In Me» perfectly balances the organic and synthetic, and climaxes, as do most of the tracks, with staccato blasts of noise and FX. On «Suffer Well» Dave’s voice is more powerful than ever. «Macrovision», sung by Martin Gore, is hi-tech pop with an enormous hook. «John The Revelator» is one of many potential hit singles. «I Want It All» is one of the slower tracks with its minor-key menace, like trip hop from hell. «A Pain That I’m Used To» kicks off what would have been Side 2 in fine, furious style with its savage bursts of guitar.

The title for the album was taken, according to Fletch, from the lyric of a track called «The Darkest Star». The LP was recorded in Santa Barbara, New York and London. Recording began in January 2005 in California, with producer Ben Hillier at the helm providing a sense of challenge. «You have to work hard at reinventing yourself,» admits Dave, «so you have to choose new people who push you.» Playing The Angel is faster-paced than the last two Mode albums, heightening the sense of urgency and vibrancy. Ben’s fondness for analogue synths over digital ones helped shape the sound.

It is also the first Depeche album to feature Dave Gahan credits — three of the tracks («I Want It All», «Suffer Well» and «Nothing’s Impossible») were written by the singer, who was encouraged by the reaction to his debut solo album Paper Monsters (2003). Martin was responsible for the remaining nine tracks. As usual, he was unflinching in his depiction of the dark side of the human condition. In fact, he jokes, the back cover of the LP sleeve may well feature the subtitle: Pain And Suffering In Various Tempos. «Dave said I’ve made a 25-year career out of one subject. I disagree: it’s two!»

When asked what the broad, overarching themes of this record are, Martin smiles: «Anything that appeals to really dysfunctional people.» It would be wrong, however, to dismiss Depeche Mode as harvesters of sorrow. «I never see our music as over-dark. There’s always an element of hope. And I hope that comes over in the music.»

A sense of optimism, of renewed vigour, of pleasure at what they’ve achieved, can be discerned from Playing The Angel. It’s also obvious from the sheer delight Dave, Martin and Andy feel at being back with Depeche Mode, on the eve of the release of a brilliant album and a mammoth, sell-out world tour that confirms the enormity of their global audience.

Dave counts his blessings that he’s still actually here to do this. «That we’ve achieved so much in 25 years, and survived so much… Of all the bands, this is the one I’d have put money on not still being around!» he laughs. «I see ourselves alongside U2 and R.E.M. more than any of the bands we came up with, although really we don’t fit in and we never have, and I’ve come to embrace that — there’s no one like Depeche Mode. I might have lost some of my drive in the mid-’90s, but now I’ve got it back. It’s better being in Depeche Mode now than it has been for 15 years.»

2006

On 13 January 2006 the European leg of the tour started in Dresden. It comprised 52 concerts and ended on 3 April in London.

In the meantime, on 27 March, the single Suffer Well / Better Days was released. It is the first single that was written by Dave. It was nominated in the category of «Best Dance Recording» at the 2007 Grammy Awards but lost out. The video was filmed by Anton Corbijn in mid-December 2005 in California. It was the first time after some years break that Corbijn made a video for DM.

Dave (about the line where were you when I fell from grace in Suffer Well): «It was definitely a little dig at them. I didn’t write it like that but when I sang it, I did picture Martin. It was, ‘What didn’t you understand that I needed you the most then. Where was the f*** answers when I needed them most?’ When I finally hit a wall, of crawling across the floor of that apartment in Santa Monica, I felt myself dying. I felt my soul had gone and inside I was screaming, ‘Where the f*** are you?!’»

I suppose this is one of those statements about which Martin said he’d think, ‘What?!’ And I don’t think Dave meant it as he’d said it. He just jumped on a suggestive question from the journalist because it sounded so nice at that moment.

Martin: «I’ve been accused of being closed, emotionally, and it’s true up to a point. Sometimes I find it difficult, dealing with life in general. Music helps me there. It’s some kind of therapy. There are obviously things I feel guilty about in my life. I’m in the middle of my divorce at the moment. I’ve got three children.» — That’s what the lyrics of Precious are about. — «I feel like I’ve failed in my marriage. I feel guilty about that because of the children. Maybe the marriage was partly a charade for a while anyway. Maybe I felt guilty about that for … I don’t know how many years. We’re a very non-talkative band. I think, deep down, we all want the same thing, but it only takes one person to say something slightly off the beaten track for someone to take it wrongly and for it all to go off. But why not look at it another way? We’ve been together 25 years, so we must be doing something right.»

From 27 April to 21 May the band returned for 12 concerts to the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

On 2 June the second European leg started, comprised 33 concerts, including many festivals, and ended on 1 August in Athens.

In the meantime, on 5 June, the single John the Revelator / Lilian was released. It was the first double A-side release since Blasphemous Rumours / Somebody in 1984. John the Revelator was edited down several seconds for the single, while Lilian was slightly remixed and the introduction was shortened.

John the Revelator is based on an early 20th century gospel/folk song performed by Son House, Blind Willie Johnson, and later by The Holy Modal Rounders, The Blues Brothers and John Mellencamp. It’s not a cover song as such but is working with several elements of the original track.

On 25 September the concert video Touring the Angel: Live in Milan was released.

On 30 October the single Martyr was released. It was linked to Best of Depeche Mode Volume One which was released on 13 November. The song, originally titled Martyr for Love, is a missing track from the Playing the Angel sessions. It was considered to be the first single but in the end it did not make it onto the album.

Fletch (about the Best of): «It isn’t a release for the big fan. This one has the songs anyway. The record is aimed more at people who only have a few DM records, or even none at all. We discussed the selection of the songs a lot. It was difficult. Every big DM fan probably has a completely different list of favourite songs. I associate many memories with every song, for example how we recorded it and whether we had good or bad times.»

Altogether Playing the Angel (including the tour) was a great success. Many fans liked the livelier and «edgier» Playing the Angel better than Exciter, and it brought many new fans to the band. The internet helped, too, or the fact that in 2006 many more people had internet access than in 2001. Many fans are in networks nowadays talking about their collections and interests and making appointments for parties and concerts. The «devoted community» (or Black Swarm) came alive a second time, although in a different way than in the 1980s.

Sometimes it doesn’t work at all because some «old» fans, who still hang on to «their» band but have increasing problems with what DM is doing and releasing today, get into trouble with «new» fans. And the difference gets bigger so there are almost two communities today — «the fans who want Alan back moaner community» and the «I like most what they do who the f*** is Alan community».

While the «old timers» often have their difficulties with the newer stuff from the band, the younger fans often don’t understand the real old stuff, but it’s interesting that most of them nevertheless often name Black Celebration, Music for the Masses, Violator or SOFAD as their favourite albums, along with the newer ones with which they found their way to the band. There are only a few who say that they have difficulties with Violator or SOFAD because of «all the drug stories.»

Every album from the «post-Alan-era» had its critics, (although critics of the critics say that even an album like Violator got bad reviews) and these critics get louder from album to album. The highpoint was reached at Sounds of the Universe (SOTU) which divided the fans more than ever before.

Of course, the fans are still devoted — and there are many new fans — but it’s noticeable that in the survey of depechemodebiographie.de most answers (34%) applied to «the former days». Of those there are 24% saying that «the sound (without Alan) is not longer that complex / rich / bombastic / atmospheric / orchestral». And 24% — applying to «today» — said that the «quality isn’t as high anymore». It is also noticeable that 77% of the answers applying to former times are positive, while there are only 54% positive answers applying to today. That they «lost their typical sound» is one of the central points in the endless «Alan-discussion».

I found an interesting statement from Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) about this. Of course, he is referring to Iron Maiden but it nevertheless suits DM as well. «I think that fans are very old fashioned in general — whatever they are fans of. In that very moment you discover something you like you want to keep this for you. If you like a painter who tells you one day that he won’t paint anymore but works as a sculptor, you’ll be disappointed. It is the same with the music business. Musicians are always trying to find something new so as not to get bored. But fans are only entertained by songs they really like. They don’t want completely new things, but consistency.»

2007

After having released Liquid Alan announced that he would release another album quite soon. But it took until 25 June 2007 before the single Prey was released, followed by the album SubHuman on 9 July, for which he won the IGN-Award (best electronic album).

The media was astonished by the long break, so almost every interview would start with the question as to why Alan had been away for such a long time. His answers varied from that he wanted to spend more time with his family to «I did make some feeble attempts to write music on a few occasions but didn’t posses the will to battle through — which I took as a sign that I needed a longer break» and ended with explanations that he had been a bit frustrated about having put so much work into Liquid, but people had difficulties finding the albums in the shops. «I know that times are changing, as well as the way to buy and sell music. Today I’m aware of it. Nevertheless I was frustrated by it seven years ago because we got good feedback, everything went fine — and then people weren’t able to buy the record in the shops. For a musician this is really frustrating.»

There were also interviews in which he — between the lines or directly — admitted that he hadn’t done much during that time, until his wife had had enough of all this hanging around, drinking, watching sports, doing nothing …, and «encouraged» him to go back into the studio. He realised then that he was more pleasant when he was creative. After a technical update in his studio, he started to work on SubHuman.

Alan: «I had no real idea where the album was headed when I started. I simply started working. It soon became clear that the basic of the album was blues, an interesting mix of electronic and swampblues. Therefore, I was looking for an intensive, authentic blues singer.»

He found Joe Richardson (a white blues singer from New Orleans) via the Internet and started to work with him. He sent him some music to which Joe worked out some lyrics and then finally, they met in Texas.

Alan: «I think one of the most exciting moments was going over to Texas to record with Joe. He’s such a fantastic musician anyway. He was able to give me even more than I expected because he’s also a great guitarist and harmonica player and has a wonderful voice. We recorded in a very very special sort of semi-commercial studio, it’s really open to only friends, really, with a guy who had massive of old vintage equipment. There were moments then when I thought: ‘This is what Recoil is all about.’ The mixture of musicians from completely different areas coming together to make something modern and new in an interesting way, you know. It was great.»

After this recording session, Alan was looking for a second voice to bring in a balance to Joe’s very distinctive voice. It took some time before he found Carla Tresvaskis.

Finally, the title was found — SubHuman, which led to some speculations whether it might be a «political» album.

Alan: «I do not have some great political message to bring to the world — the SubHuman concept is much more to do with human nature. The title is designed to be slightly provocative but not directed towards any specific group — it can also apply to racism and homophobia, class or politics and so on. It represents a repeating pattern of human behaviour where subordination occurs in a seemingly endless cycle, often with tragic consequences, and where people are rendered as worthless. The artwork design came from Jesse Holborn who came up with various ideas and I was attracted to the mannequins, shown in everyday situations to represent recyclable life-forms.»

In 2007 Alan also collaborated in the re-releases of old DM albums. «I don’t think that any other band member would have had the time or the interest to get involved with this project. I’m interested in everything that has to do with records, recordings or production. But the main reason why I was asked was: I had all the rare sounds.» (laughs) «But the aim wasn’t to produce radical new mixes of the old songs. I was involved only sporadically, just listened to the songs, saying ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘yes’ …»

He also provided some of his private film-material for the re-released documentary. While he didn’t really like the commentaries (I can see why: they tend to brighten things up. They don’t lie! They understate things in a way the band members wish they had happened) he enjoyed the short films nevertheless.

Dave: «It’s something we started years and years ago, like twenty years ago. It’s kind of interesting because you get to give your music that you’ve finished to somebody else to mess around with and put their own input into it. Yeah, it’s something we’ve always done. It’s become a part of what we do.»

Speaking of Dave — on 8 October he released his solo-single Kingdom / Tomorrow, followed by the album Hourglass on 22 October.

Again, he had worked together with Andrew Phillpott, who belongs to the DM-Team, and Christian Eigner, the live-drummer of the band.

The album was some kind of «accident» or «occupational therapy» because after the end of Touring the Angel Dave didn’t know what to do with so much free time. «I went home and tried to get back in the swing of things. It’s always quite difficult after a tour — you’re kind of waiting for somebody to put a note under your door with what it is you’ve got to do that day.» (laughs) «You create new obsessions, like how to load the dishwasher correctly and stuff like that. All the big fights with my wife start with the dishwasher. It shows you how it’s supposed to be loaded: knives and forks go pointed-end downwards. You get more in if you put everything where it’s supposed to go. If Jen goes out of the room and I get the chance before it goes on, I will fiddle with it. It’s like you get locked into this type of personality that functions pretty well in the performance mode, but is not what you want to take home. It’s like, ‘I want it all, I want it now, I’m going to take it whenever I want it, and I don’t really care what you think about it.’» He also admitted that he, «still can be the kind of person that’s like, ‘F*** it! You know what? This ain’t working, it’s over.’ I jump straight to that rather than, ‘Let’s talk about this.’ It’s very childish. My wife often says to me, ‘God, you’re like Jimmy! You’re acting like a teenager!’ And I’ll stomp around the room saying, ‘So what?!’ But it doesn’t work.»

After he had annoyed his family for about a month, as he said, «it was suggested to me to do some work, so I called up Christian and Andrew and we planned to get together and do some writing.»

The first song they worked on was Saw Something.

Dave: «The lyrics are about sitting, waiting for something to come — protection of some kind, or some kind of answer. What I’ve come to learn is that you’ve got to go find it, take some action. I prefer to sit and wait, but it just doesn’t work. It sounds kind weird, but I do believe in that sort of divine intervention, if you allow it. If you allow life to happen, not try to push it in the direction you think it’s supposed to go in — which is what I spend a lot of time doing — then really amazing things happen, things that you didn’t expect. But you’ve got to take some action.»

Otherwise there wasn’t any concept at first. «When we started, we had a few musical ideas, but nothing song-like in any way. We really wrote as we went along. After two weeks, we looked around and realized we weren’t just demoing, so we thought, ‘Why don’t we just make a record?’ We decided to produce it ourselves, which was a lot more work than we thought. But it turned out to be a great learning experience.» Nevertheless, they finished the recording process in a speedy eight weeks.

And not Saw Something became the first single but Kingdom.

Dave: «It’s this idea that there’s a better place, and it’s not up there in the clouds, it’s right here. And it’s about becoming more accepting of life and the way it is. I would be lying if I said the world didn’t affect me. I have children and I want to protect them; and sometimes I don’t really have the ability to do that.»

After Paper Monsters had been a very personal album one could suspect that Hourglass also contains autobiographical elements.

Dave: «I’m becoming more accepting of the fact that I’m getting a little older. It always seems to be a theme in my life that I’m racing against time. I’m a 25-year-old in a 45-year-old man’s body. I wrote about those themes more, like, this is who I am and these are my frustrations. My inspiration comes from the life that I have around me — you know, being part of a family and desperately trying to do better at that» (laughs) «and falling flat on my face most of the time. And New York is a great place to feel inspired all the time. I quite often spend time walking around being among people here. My little studio is on one of the busiest streets in the city so you get the flavour of New York all day and all night long: On the track called Endless, you can hear the street in the background. At one point you’ll hear the ‘woop’ of a cop car. But we just left it.»

So maybe he used it as some kind of therapy?

Dave: «Well, I’m not in therapy — I actually now have a run-of-the-mill psychiatrist. I’ve moved away from the ‘be gentle with yourself’ kind to, like, getting down to the nitty-gritty. I actually find it a lot more ordered. With a psychiatrist, it’s more like, ‘So, what do you think that means, David?’ That kind of stuff. ‘I don’t know, I’m paying you to tell me what it f***ing means!’»

On 14 January 2008 the single Saw Something / Deeper And Deeper / Love Will Leave was released. Dave decided not to tour because on 5 May, DM started to record SOTU.

2008

In spring 2008 DM began to record Sounds of the Universe.

Again, they recorded in three different cities — Santa Barbara, New York and London. Again, they worked with Ben Hillier as a producer — «We thought that it worked very well with Playing the Angel, and we were very comfortable with him,» Fletch said — and again Martin and Dave shared the songwriting. Once more, they had a «nice friendly atmosphere» and a lot of fun in the studio. Again, these were the main topics in the media. After you had read one article about it, you didn’t need to read another. (I nevertheless did it of course. ;))

Fletch: «Dave was in quite a strange position — it’s rare for a frontman not to write lyrics, but now he’s been writing songs for the last two albums and he feels more a part of it. I think generally Dave writing songs has really glued him a bit more to the group, and he’s so much more confident and fulfilled. It’s one of the main reasons the band is really gelling together. Dave’s songwriting is improving all the time. You know, it’s sometimes hard to actually distinguish between Dave’s songs and Martin’s songs.»

Martin: «This time I did go about the whole song writing process in a totally different way. The actual writing process I did on a lap top. It’s so much quicker. I think that was the reason why I wrote so many songs this time. I think I wrote 18 or 20 songs this time. With Dave’s songs included I think we had 22 songs of which we recorded 18.»

There were only a few new things that happened. One was that Martin stopped drinking — a topic you could find in almost every article in that time. Of course, it was at least more interesting than getting on well, although Martin had already given up drinking three years previously during Touring the Angel.

Dave: «He is a changed man. There’s a different side of Martin that has always been there, but sometimes it gets clouded when the drinking and stuff becomes more important than anything else. I think it got to that phase on the last tour, and Martin was the one that stood up and said, ‘You know what? I’ve got to stop this.’»

Martin: «It was just a decision I made. I didn’t go to AA or any of that stuff. I’ve found that I’ve got plenty of things to do with my time. It was all part and parcel of being in a band. It’s almost encouraged for you to be drunk almost all the time if you’re in a band. People are disappointed if you’re not! There’s always someone somewhere who wants to give you something!» (laughs) «I think I am more spiritually connected now. More a part of the universe, no pun intended. I feel like I’m more in touch with my emotions. You have to be careful when you talk about spirituality and stopping drinking in the same breath. You start sounding a bit holier than thou. That’s the last thing I want to do — come across as some new-age guru.» (laughs)

Now Fletch is left over as the last one who sometimes likes to take a drink: «I’ve cut down but …»

Dave: «He’s under pressure.»

Fletch (obviously doesn’t like being under pressure): «These things are happening to make the atmosphere better. So it’s got to be good.»

The second new topic was that Martin swapped alcohol against buying old analogue synthesizers and other stuff on ebay. Although he bought the stuff under his real name only few people commented on it — and it didn’t even make the round. Dave: «Literally every day something new would show up. Drum machines, synthesizers, sequencers. So there was some of the fun that there was in some of the early recordings in exploring a new piece of equipment and seeing what sound we could get out of it.» But there was also «a lot of performance. Martin playing guitar, me singing, every day in the studio.»

Fletch: «That was quite an inspiration. Generally, I think it’s more of an electronic album. There is guitar on it, of course, but much more electronic than Playing The Angel.»

They warded off the prejudice that this album was «retro». For Martin it was more a kind of «yesterday’s future». «I started buying these old, vintage synthesisers, and the sounds they produced conjured up images of the universe and space travel. That’s how we came up with the album title.»

Later it became clear that the band — or at least Dave — wasn’t happy with SOTU and the way it was recorded throughout.

Dave: «Sounds of the Universe was a bit too much production, too smooth, too much was going on. You can not force out good music. It is a delicate thing. So it is with Depeche Mode, albums come when they are supposed to. And they are not like they were planned to be.» Nevertheless, «it was certainly more landscape-y, more filmic, and I think this was more of a combination of the two elements there. It’s very driven, it’s very out front, and it still has some of those kinds of dreamy qualities to it as well.»

Maybe this was one of the reasons why they wouldn’t play many of these songs live later. It was too difficult to transpose the complex studio versions into live versions.

2009

After the new single had been represented at the Echo-Awards in Berlin on 21 February, the single Wrong / Oh Well finally was officially released on 6 April. There were several different versions of Wrong available, while there was just one different version of Oh Well available, the Black Light Odyssey Remix. The video for Wrong was directed and filmed by Patrick Daughters in December 2008. The actor in the video was Liars drummer Julian Gross. The video was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Video.

At a fairly early stage, the band had decided to release Wrong as the first single because it was quite different to anything they had released before. And it really stood out of the album tracks.

Fletch: «Wrong was the song of which we thought it would make a big impact. We thought it would be good to come back with a bang. The first single has to be challenging to the audience, something to makes them react.»

They thought the same about the video. «Anton Corbijn normally does our videos, and we had an idea from Anton and we had ideas from for other people. One of them was Patrick Daughters. And Patrick’s idea didn’t include the band very much, and Anton’s idea did include the band. And, y’know, I think on these days MTV doesn’t play many videos anymore. So finally we decided for Patrick’s idea because it we thought it had more effect on the audience. We don’t like making videos anymore, so it was quite enjoyable.»

Oh Well was the first track to be released which had been co-written by Martin and Dave.

Martin: «It wasn’t a real co-write because I had originally written the song as an instrumental but Dave heard it and liked it and he took it back to his hotel room and wrote some words and a melody over the top. It wasn’t like we sat in a room and wrote it together.»

Unfortunately, some demos leaked out, and finally the whole mastered album. They took it as it came, and comforted themselves in the knowledge that the fans would buy it anyway. They were less happy about the leaked demos, as it seemed to them like showing someone an unfinished painting.

On 20 April the album Sounds of the Universe (SOTU) was released. A year later they received the award for Best International Group — Rock / Pop at the 2010-Echo-Awards in Germany for it.

The band, of course, tried to explain the album, said things like that they wanted it to sound as if they drove with a car in a tunnel by night and that this album was less «dark» than Playing the Angel. Again, they tried to point out that there was a lot of humour in their lyrics.

Martin: «There’s always a lot of humour on our records but there’s definitely more on this one. It’s mainly dark humour but this time it’s sometimes more obvious. In the song Little Soul there’s a small musical break, and every time I hear that I laugh. I hope the listener will laugh when they hear this too. Well, I think Jezebel is a good name for an exotic booze. I imagine it would taste like a strong-smelling perfume. There must be a perfume called Jezebel.»

Fletch: «You can’t drink perfume!»

Martin: «Well, you can, but they take it away from you if you go to rehab.»

Fletch: «It would be quite good for goth girls, wouldn’t it?»

Martin: «Women are different now; they like wearing T-shirts with things like SLUT and WHORE and stuff. I’m sure a bottle of Jezebel would go down well.»

While Martin changed the title Footprint to Little Soul and was worrying that Miles Away was a Madonna song title, and wanted Dave to change the title to Miles Away/The Truth Is, he wasn’t worried about Jezebel. Of course it’s a biblical figure, but nevertheless it’s also a song title on Alan’s album Liquid.

On the SOTU-box set they also released some old demo-tracks.

Fletch: «Initially it was my idea to put the demos on the box set. I was convinced that this was unique content that people would appreciate and that would make the purchase of this box set worthwhile. Martin didn’t mind at all. He was fine with it. The main problem we encountered was to actually find the demos. Basically the 5 people that you’d think who would logically have the demos would be Alan, Daniel Miller, Dave, Martin and me. But as it ended up, Alan had them somewhere tucked away and couldn’t find them directly and that was also the case with Daniel, Martin and Dave. I knew I had lots of demos but they were in storage so I dug them up. In the end I recouped about hundred demo songs — which also means that there are hundreds that we don’t have anymore … and that includes for instance the demo for Personal Jesus which seems to be lost forever.»

He promised that they would release some more demos in the future. (They didn’t when Delta Machine was released, but they had some problems with the various labels, and on the other hand, you don’t know how many albums they will make in future.)

Then they prepared for the tour. There was no question of not touring the album, because especially for Dave this is the thing that makes sense for him. And of course they were aware that you sell a record by touring today.

Martin: «We’ve done a lot of touring for a so-called ‘electronic band,’ and we’ve proven that electronic music works in a live format and in a huge live format. In a way, what we’re going to do now is a landmark like the Rose Bowl gig. We’re going out to play our first stadium tour. There’s not another electronic band that has gone out to play a stadium tour.»

Although for them it’s always a bit of a nightmare to pick a setlist, —

Fletch: «We’re a democracy, so it’s like the Eurovision Song Contest. We have to cast votes for our favourite tracks.»

Dave: «We’ll do some old stuff and some staples. And we’ll have fun doing songs like Just Can’t Get Enough. We can’t ignore that. It would be like the Stones not doing (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.»

— in the end the setlist turned out like most previous setlists.

This caused lots of discussions on several message-boards about the question whether DM might have become too «Rolling Stones». In fact, DM had never played as many different songs on a tour as on this one, although all of the all-time classics like Personal Jesus, Enjoy the Silence and Never Let Me Down Again appeared. That the live versions aren’t as varied as they used to be in former times is probably mainly a problem for the hardcore fanbase. People who sometimes listen to DM and have been to one concert on a tour probably wouldn’t notice it. But it is noticeable that although the band had announced that they wanted to play as many songs from the new album as possible, they didn’t play many from it in the end.

Martin: «When we’re playing, you look in the front row and there’s a lot of younger kids as well as the older audience. People are coming to hear the new record as well as songs we made 20 years ago. Obviously, we are the worst people to have any subjectivity on the matter, but we are really aware of our legacy and not repeating ourselves. The day we start making music and don’t think we’re achieving something — or stop enjoying it — we’ll stop.»

This led to the question whether this was the last album and the ultimate tour (as they had been asked before during the promotion for Playing the Angel).

Martin: «We’ve been together for 29 years and we’ve had ups and downs, but I think if Depeche Mode ended tomorrow we’d end on a positive note.»

Fletch: «It’s hard to think about your farewell gig and where it would be.»

Martin: «It would have to be the Pyramids.»

On 6 May the Tour of the Universe began in Esch-sur-Alzette in Luxembourg as a warm-up gig. The first real gig was played in Tel Aviv. They started the tour there because they were supposed to end Touring the Angel there «but unfortunately the Israel/Lebanon war got in the way of it,» Martin said.

Fletch: «They’ve got different agendas. They like music, but missiles are just more important.»

Martin: «Yes. We had to make the decision not to fly in and do the gig because there were missiles flying around and to make up for that we’re starting this time in Tel Aviv.»

It was astonishing to read in some comments in the internet that they were blamed for cancelling the gig in 2006. Some people thought it would have been a political statement to play there, no matter if there was a conflict going on or not. I think it’s harsh to demand playing a gig in a crisis region. You not only endanger yourself and your crew members, you also endanger everyone in the audience.

DM has never been a political band. They did not even react to the attack on 11 September 2001, although they were on tour at the time. While other artists cancelled gigs, made a speech or asked for a minute’s silence, DM did nothing. They simply played their gigs (11 September in Vienna and 12 September in Budapest) without saying or doing anything special. Some people thought it was a strange, even a cold reaction. But maybe it was the best reaction to show. If you don’t have words for something, it’s always the best to say nothing at all and carry on as usual, showing that the world still turns (from Insight, Ultra).

Some political statements were made from the recording of SOTU onwards, like supporting gay rights. But you couldn’t get rid of the feeling that their way of not mentioning political issues, as they had done before, was the better one.

However, it seems that Tel Aviv and DM weren’t a good combination, because with this gig some problems started.

Fletch: «Actually on the first gig of the tour in Israel, I had the first bit of bad news: My father died.»

The gig in Athens had to be cancelled because Dave fell ill. It was said it was a severe bout of gastroenteritis. While in hospital, further medical tests revealed a low-grade malignant tumour in Dave’s bladder.

Fletch: «Actually, Dave was very lucky because he had gastroenteritis and they found this tumor very early. It was low grade. It was just a question of zapping it out. I said to Dave to other day, ‘I can’t wait for your autobiography.’ It’s quite a story developing.[12] Dave has really got a competitive spirit in him. If anything, he thrives on these sorts of things.»

This information was released very late. Too late. Instead, an extremely bad new policy was in practice. While Dave had a surgery in New York, fans thought the concert in Poland might still take place. While he was recovering from surgery, fans thought other planned concerts might take place. A lot of rumours were floating around, it seemed to take ages before it was confirmed that the gigs were cancelled. The band apologized, saying that they hadn’t known how things would continue. Sure, but if someone undergoes surgery, it’s obvious that they won’t be able to play a concert on that day, and that they will need some time to recover afterwards.

With the release of Exciter in 2001 the band had established a presence on the Internet. The Bong-magazine that had been used for information and interaction until then was stopped in the same year. Instead, they now had a website and a message-board. And while they had shown some interest in this new way of communication, it was now diminishing increasingly. Around the time of SOTU the band remarked that their official forum was a «big moan» because people were complaining about a lot of things, and Dave even wondered whether the people posting there had a job at all.

And while other bands are using the Internet a lot, providing news, using Facebook and Twitter, and being interactive with their fans, DM’s official website and Facebook site got less interesting over the course of time. They went retro, and they became much more retro with the next album, Delta Machine, at least as far as their way of communicating was concerned.

The tour was re-started in Leipzig on 8 June, comprising 18 concerts in Europe, until 9 July, when another concert had to be cancelled because Dave injured his leg.

In the meantime, on 15 June, the single Peace was released. The single version of the song has a completely different introduction than the album version. It charted at No. 57 in the UK charts; this is the band’s second lowest UK singles chart position since Little 15. In Germany Peace reached No. 25. It was not commercially released in the U.S. The video was filmed in Romania by French duo Jonas & François. It featured the Romanian actress Maria Dinulescu and was the first video without any of the band members, but this was due to Dave’s illness.

On 24 July the American leg started in Toronto, comprised 22 concerts, and ended on 5 September. In August, they had to cancel some concerts again, this time because of Dave’s voice-problems.

He wasn’t well at all, but this turned out much later.

Dave: «Physically, I had some problems. I got sick for a bit and I got through that. Then I had some other problems with my voice, which I think all has to do with the fact that I was struggling to try and get my body back together after being diagnosed with cancer, unfortunately, at the beginning of that tour. Every time we took a break, I went back to the hospital for some more treatment. It was the first tour I felt like: ‘I can’t do this anymore. This is fucking hard.’» Nevertheless, «I was very lucky. The cancer hadn’t spread through the walls of my bladder so all the chemo was localised. It still made me sick but I didn’t lose all my hair.»

Despite all these problems, Martin did enjoy this tour, the first one he experienced sober completely. «It was difficult as we were on the road and that’s always difficult to avoid drinking. I just got to a point where I knew if I carried on then I wouldn’t be alive for much longer. I was drinking all day — literally getting up and drinking with breakfast. I’m just thankful some of the madness missed the age of smartphones. Back in the day when I was drinking and out of control I would have been all over YouTube.» (laughs) «Just for the fun of it I’d just get naked in hotel bars. Can you imagine doing that now?»[16] (Oh, I think lots of people would have enjoyed this. ;)) But this time «I’d really been lucid enough to take in everything and enjoy the concerts and then enjoy the cities the next day.»

From 1 to 17 October they played 9 concerts in Central and South America, before the second European leg started on 31 October, which comprised 27 concerts and ended on 18 December

In the meantime, on 7 December, the single Fragile Tension / Hole to Feed was released. Both songs have been slightly edited and remixed for the single. Fragile Tension has some new instrumentation and clearer vocals, while Hole to Feed has been re-arranged and some sections have been removed. The video for Hole to Feed was directed by Eric Wareheim. The Fragile Tension video was directed by Rob Chandler and Barney Steel.

2010

The last leg of the tour — another European one — started on 9 January 2010 in Berlin, comprised 24 concerts and ended on 27 February in Dusseldorf. Luckily on this leg there weren’t any incidents.

The concert on 17 February was a very special one. It was the first time in their career that DM did something they had never wanted to do: they played a charity concert.

Martin: It’s «something we should have done long time before. A friend of us is part of the Teenage Cancer Trust and asked us to join in.»

I don’t know if they should have done this before. They never wanted to be one of those bands who «push their career with charity.» Many fans liked DM because of their being consistent, and different to mainstream bands. Although the good cause was appreciated, the new opinion of the band about charity nevertheless caused some discussion among the fans. (It became even more charity with the next release, Delta Machine.)

However, everything was special about this concert. It took place in the Royal Albert Hall (funny when you think about what especially Dave thinks about British symbols — nothing good) in London, and they had a special guest.

Martin: «We asked Alan to join us on stage. It’s a long time ago that we saw him. I think it’s nine years ago that I saw him the last time and we asked him to play one song with us tonight and he very kindly agreed.»

Alan: «Well, I got a call from Dave and he just said: ‘we would like to invite you to take part at this event, the Teenage Cancer Trust.’ And my reaction was that I hoped, it was the whole band who wanted it not just Dave. So I asked him that question and he said, ‘yes, definitively.’ And so I didn’t think twice about it because it’s a great thing to do for many reasons, y’know, the good cause, getting together after such a long time …»

So he joined Martin for Somebody on stage.

Alan: «To choose Somebody was quite natural. It was the song that makes sense for this. We wouldn’t have much time to rehearse. Luckily it was all still there. It’s still here in my veins.»

It seems that the band and especially Alan enjoyed the show.

Alan: «The reaction of the crowd was a bit special, very heart warming, emotional, I got goosebumps … it was a great day. It was not only that moment, it was seeing Martin and Fletch and Dave again. We had a good chat and it was good to see them again. I haven’t seen Martin and Fletch for a long time, it was really interesting to catch up. And Martin was on very good form I thought, not just vocally but in himself. He seemed sharper, more focused and more open than I have ever known him. It’s a little piece of history for us, y’know. Being on stage with Depeche since … 1994 … the end of the Songs of Faith and Devotion-Tour … about 16 years.»

That the reaction of the crowd was «a bit special» is the understatement of the century. People hadn’t known before that Alan would be on stage, so the crowd almost «exploded» when they realised that he was playing the piano. They screamed, shouted, cried and were difficult to silence. Maybe it was the most emotional DM moment ever.

A few days later Alan had the opportunity to watch a DM concert for the first time in his life from the audience, something he had never wanted to do.

«At Royal Albert Hall I hadn’t got the time and opportunity to watch the show properly. But tonight I got an impression of how it is to watch a Depeche Mode show. It was a very interesting and enjoyable experience. Y’know, I had feelings for every song because I know them all so well … so … y’know when you hear the versions they play now you remember the versions we used to do. I thought some of the versions were really good, and some I wasn’t so keen on. I felt the same about the stage set, too — some things looked great, and some didn’t work for me. The sound balance was poor unfortunately, but neither that nor the staging could be blamed on the band. Their own performance was impressive. Dave was on good form and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Martin’s song Home sounded especially good. The after-show was fun and I was able to catch up with all kinds of people I hadn’t seen for a long time. I missed Dave however as he always disappears as soon as he leaves the stage.[2] They talked about «mainly usual things that you chat about with people, you know, families, what their habits are these days, do they still drink as much as they used to do, how is the partying situation on tour … I mean, things have actually changed quite a lot with Depeche Mode since I was in the band. Martin doesn’t drink anymore, Dave goes home after every show so he doesn’t go out anymore. We used to go to big parties after every concert. So, it must be a very different thing for them to be on the road these days. But in their personal lives things have changed a lot, I think. I was very impressed with Martin because he has been sober for four years and he is like a new person, someone I almost didn’t recognize.»

Dave left the venue right after the concert and didn’t talk much to Alan but nevertheless, he appreciated Alan’s input.

«I think Playing The Angel was great but Alan always brought something extra to Martin’s songs. We email each other and when he joined us on stage for the Teenage Cancer Trust concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 2010, it was awesome. When Alan left we missed him and it became apparent on the next couple of albums for sure.»

This is a good reason to do some surveys about how much Alan is still present to the fans. The result of a survey in a big message board was that 69% want him back as a band member, and 20% at least as a producer. The survey of depechemodebiographie.de had similar results. For 71% he «still belongs to the band somehow» (at least as a legend), and for 21% he is even still a part of the band today, «because he was part of them at their highest point and had a big influence on their music and success.» For the minority, however, he is the «most nerve-racking discussion whenever it comes to DM.»

The appearance at the Royal Albert Hall and the promotion for his own tour took place almost at the same time, so one could come to the conclusion one fan had: «It’s amazing that it is mostly Alan, who is using the history of DM for his own project.»

Alan had a difficult time after the release of SubHuman in 2007. «I separated from my wife and now have a lovely new partner, Britt. It has been a difficult two years. I share custody of my children so you have to plan 6 months ahead in your diary, who is going to have them when etc, and I have to fit the music somewhere in the gaps. That has made working on a new album almost impossible, although I have made a start on new material but it’s a long way off being near to completion.»

Instead, he started the Selected-Tour on 12 March. The first leg comprised 24 events, mainly in Europe, and ended on 18 May. The idea to tour Recoil evolved when Alan decided to undertake some promo visits. But he didn’t want to keep making personal appearances to sign CDs and shake hands. «I just couldn’t do the same thing over again — I needed to do something more, so it evolved from that.» So he decided to do a kind of audio/visual presentation, a mixture of DJing and playing live, while showing special films.

On 19 April Selected was released, a kind of Best Of Recoil.

Alan: «Mute Records approached me with an idea for a compilation and it was initially just going to be a quick ‘best of’ selection. But we then started to discuss releasing it on multiple formats and performing it live so the project got bigger and bigger. I had to decide which were my favourite tracks and which ones worked together. I really wanted to avoid a mish-mash which most compilations are. So this involved going through a lot of the old master tapes to pick out the best versions and even ‘baking’ some of the tapes in an oven to prepare them for digital mastering. The weird thing about this baking process is that I found a lot of these older tape versions sounded better than the digital masters I originally walked out of the studio with. So hopefully the tracks on the compilation sound better than the versions of the original albums!»

Nevertheless, the most requently-asked question, of course, was whether there might be a reunion with DM. Alan got tired of it quite soon. It started with a friendly «I doubt you’ll see me in the Depeche Mode line-up in the near future. They haven’t asked me being their producer. It would certainly be weird», went on to «Well, we’ve not discussed anything like that so there aren’t any plans. But you never know», then to «It’s just boring — it’s the question I get asked more than any other» and ended up in saying nothing at all when the question was put forward again.

The second leg of the Selected-Tour started on 16 October. This time it was more concentrated on the U.S. and South America, but there were also some more events in Europe afterwards. The tour ended on 4 December in Budapest.

The reunion rumour was fed with Martin DJing at the event in Santa Ana on 24 October, and Dave appearing as a guest at the event in New York on 1 November.

The discussions about whether Alan might re-join DM again or at least might produce their new album eased off when it became clear that DM would produce Delta Machine with Ben Hillier again. But it never really stopped.

The reasons why Alan had left the band were brought up again — each time a different one — and were used to substantiate the different opinions as to whether Alan might or might not re-join the band.

Even if you left out all his other reasons — family, his own projects, not wanting to be in a band anymore — the «driving force» in his leaving the band after Devotional, the bad team-spirit, would be the main reason for not re-joining. Why should something that didn’t work anymore 20 years ago suddenly work again? Because everyone had grown older, become wiser? I don’t think so. In fact, the working methods of DM and Alan have become more different over the years than ever before. They would find the same situation again, with Alan focused on studio work (maybe more than ever, remember what he said about recording Liquid), while the others aren’t really interested or meanwhile have become interested, but nevertheless use different working methods. Martin has started to develop a fondness for studio work. «I love being in the studio. If I’m at home, I will go to the studio pretty much every day anyway. It’s just something that I like to do.» I don’t think this new passion would work with Alan’s passion for studio work.

The former musical heads, Alan and Martin, have developed in different musical directions over the course of time. They are farther away from each other in their musical interests than ever before. Listening to SubHuman and then to Delta Machine is all you need to do to know how these two see «electronic with Blues elements.»

Although some people think that the most interesting thing about DM was the combination of these two extremes, that it was this «that made it work» as some people say, I doubt that they are really interested in trying it again. Maybe both sides thought about it at one point or another, especially after Alan’s appearance at the Royal Albert Hall (and insiders say not all rumours about a reunion were baseless), but it’s hard to say if it was a heart’s desire.

And what would happen to Dave and his new role as a songwriter? Maybe he would be the one who would benefit most from working together with Alan. On the other hand, it’s probably much too late. It would have been interesting to know what would have happened if Dave had played his early demos to Alan, and had asked him if they could work them out together. Maybe the whole story of DM would have taken a completely new direction. But he didn’t, and found his own formulas to write songs now. Although he is open to collaboration and to new ways, it might be difficult for him to work with an over-accurate musician like Alan, especially because he says several times during the recording of Delta Machine that he would prefer not to overproduce, but rather to make things simpler and more direct. That wouldn’t suit Alan’s working methods at all.

The only one who probably wouldn’t care at all is the one who is mostly accused of being against a reunion — Fletch. The only reason I can think of why he should be against it is that he might fear new tensions.

Another point that hasn’t changed at all is the communication. They didn’t talk to each other in the old days, and they still don’t. Sometimes you find some friendly remarks about Alan from Dave, and even from Fletch and Martin, or about the band members from Alan, but there aren’t any signs that they sat down at a certain point and really talked WITH each other.

In 2010 Mute became independent again, but DM stayed signed to and marketed worldwide by EMI Music. In 2011 this contract ended with the release of Remixes 2: 81-11. Alan and Vince were both involved in Remixes 2: 81-11, which was released on 6 June 2011.

Martin: «Toward the end of the last tour I asked Alan if he would come onstage at London’s Royal Albert Hall and he agreed.» (This is an interesting new perspective because until then everyone said that Dave phoned Alan and asked him to join.) «Then he came on tour in America. It seemed natural to ask him» to collaborate at the Remix-album. «With Vince, I got an e-mail from him out of the blue about nine months ago saying, ‘I’m thinking of making a techno album. Are you interested in collaborating?’ That’s finished now, but we need to mix it. It was natural to ask him to do a remix as well.»

So Vince remixed Behind the Wheel, and Alan remixed In Chains.

Alan: «It was the Depeche Mode manager Jonathan Kessler who suggested it. It had been suggested a long time before that, by the guys at Mute organizing the whole remix album. They asked me if I would be interested and I said quite possibly.» (Hasn’t Martin just said that he asked Alan to contribute? Hm, maybe it was Martin’s wish, but he told Dave to phone and Kessler to ask. ;))»They never came back to me. I thought: ‘oh well that’s not going to happen.’ I wasn’t bothered by that at all and then I was speaking to Jonathan about something else, I think it was about Martin DJing at one of the Recoil nights and the idea was put to me again. By then they needed it within something like two weeks, and this was just before we were going back on the road again. I wish they would have given me more time, we’d booked a holiday in the south of France and I ended up spending the whole holiday encamped in a room doing the remix instead of being out in the beautiful sunshine drinking wine. Jonathan told me the band would prefer that I did something new, from the era after which I left the band, and I thought it was a good challenge to do that. I hope they like it, they said they do. Martin seemed to be really keen on it, which was nice of him. I think the others like it too; don’t know about Fletch — he didn’t say anything. I think it is a more dynamic version of what they had.»

Some fans speculated whether this remix had been some kind of a «test» to see if Alan suited the current line-up. It’s possible, if there really were some considerations about a reunion.

But again — it seems that the band and Alan didn’t talk to each other about this remix. «Martin seemed to be really keen on it», «I think the others like it too» says all you need to know about their communication. And if you think that Dave and Alan write to each other very often, you are wrong. Dave sometimes says he e-mails Alan (although there are other interviews in which he says he doesn’t like computers and just texts a bit sometimes) but Alan says Dave writes about twice a year. This is not what you could call a «lively conversation».

Unfortunately, things still didn’t go well for Alan. «Times are tight for everyone these days, and divorce plus lack of any finance for making records means I need to do some belt-tightening. The record business has been in crisis for some time now.»

This even endangered the planned DVD-release (Selected). «We recorded and filmed the last European show from 2010, in Budapest, and we’re at rough edit stage. Personally, I think it looks stunning, but we still have quite a lot of work to do on it. It doesn’t seem like my record company is interested in it though. So far it’s been completely self-financed, and I will find a way to release it myself.»

Alan finally decided to sell parts of his large DM collection. The auction was held on 3 September 2011 in Manchester, and was a rather bittersweet event for many fans. And if there ever had been considerations about a reunion, it seems that Alan spoilt things with this auction. According to rumours, the band was upset because he sold keyboards still programmed with original samples.

However, in some ways it seems as if Alan burnt some of his bridges in connection with DM and his former life. There was a re-launch of his website in 2012 (almost all sections about DM are gone now), and in 2013 he even sold his house and his studio. It’s exciting to wait and see what will happen next. Maybe there will a reunion some day, maybe he will surprise the fans with something completely different.

Meanwhile Dave recovered. «For a while there I almost turned to my manager and said ‘I’m not coming back.’ I spent a lot of time with my wife and kids. It was beautiful in New York, the blossom was on the trees, everything seemed a little brighter. It was similar to the feeling of waking up after a week or two in rehab. You notice s***. I was noticing a lot of stuff that I liked in my life and I was afraid to leave it in case I didn’t get the chance to come back to it. That lasted a couple of weeks, then I really wanted to get back on the road.» He laughs.

He didn’t go directly back on the road but got involved in a record project that would have some kind of influence on the 13th album of DM — Delta Machine.

2012

In 2011 and 2012 Martin and Dave were busy with some solo projects. The band just recorded the cover version of So Cruel, which was released on a tribute album to U2 in 2011.

Martin was the vocalist of the song Man Made Machine by the band Motor and he collaborated with Vince; the project’s name was simply VCMG. The EP1 Spock was released on 9 December 2011, the EP2 Blip on 27 February 2012, the album Ssss on 13 March, and finally the EP3 Aftermath was released on 20 August. It is an instrumental techno-like record.

The collaboration started when Vince thought about making «some kind of a techno album», although he had «never taken an interest in techno music at all but I was just completely blown away by the way the people were using synthesisers.» So he thought, «‘Well, I never worked with Martin, really,’ and I knew he was interested in synths. It felt like a good email to send.[2] After drinking six beers, I composed an email. I think he was genuinely surprised to hear from me.»

Martin was surprised indeed. «I didn’t even know Vince had my email address. It’s funny because he tweets all the time and everyone thinks he’s really, really talkative and really, you know — he’s not. And I just got a really short email that said, ‘Thinking of making a techno album. Interested in collaborating? Vince.’»

Dave: «After 25 years, you know, you expect a little more, but …»

Martin: «So I felt, I mean, I like techno. It might be quite an interesting thing to do. So I said, ‘Yes. Martin.’» (Sometimes communication can be so easy …)

He had some downtime at the time, so he decided to collaborate. They didn’t work together physically but worked via the Internet.

Martin: «I started by taking out bits I didn’t particularly like that he sent me, adding bits to it and sending it back to him, then he’d take out bits that he didn’t like that I’d put in and send it back to me. There were usually three or four versions of the track before we were both happy. And after a while I started coming up with ideas that I would send to him as well. One of the reasons I had fun doing this project is that I wanted to make a ‘dancy’ album: I think the electronic scene is really alive, and today many young people can create dance music on a budget.»

They seldom met personally, and if they did, they didn’t talk about the record.

Martin: «We met at the Mute festival last May [Short Circuit at the Roundhouse, London], and we didn’t really talk about it then. We just talked about our kids.»

Dave: «I think making Ssss together helped Martin. It certainly cleared up a lot of weird old resentments that they had.»

Dave had the opportunity to meet Vince again, too. «We were all in a room together, and Vince was checking out all Mart’s modular synthesizers and I was sitting back and watching them. I said, ‘Nothing’s really changed.’ We shared all the same jokes and he came out to dinner with us. Vince and I walked and talked. We walked 15 blocks chatting. I hadn’t talked to Vince for 25 years.»

After Dave had recovered from Touring the Universe he was asked to collaborate in a project of the band Soulsavers. It consists of two people: Rich Machin and Ian Glover. Dave got to know them through bassist Martyn LeNoble, a friend of his, and became friendly with them when Soulsavers opened for DM during TOTU.

Dave: «Martyn LeNoble was doing some session work with them in a studio in LA, and I just happened to call him up for a chat on that day, and it happened that he was in the studio with them. Rich was in the background and yelled out ‘you should take us on tour!’ I said to Martyn ‘Is he serious? Does he really want to go on the road with Depeche Mode?’, because, you know, it’d be a little bit difficult opening for Depeche Mode. You never know which way it’s going to go: whether you’re going to get rocks thrown at you, or something else, I don’t know. It’s a difficult opener, but he was totally into it, and so we took them on tour.»

On tour he talked a lot with Rich Marchin, also about songwriting. «He said, ‘Can I send you some ideas, maybe, and see if we have something going on …’ I didn’t think anything would come of it, but he did indeed send me something and I immediately felt inspired by it.»

And he started working on this project although «I had no intention of doing anything, really, after that tour — The Sounds of the Universe Tour. I had medical issues and stuff like that. I was taking care of myself, and I talked to my wife about it. I really wanted to take care of myself and spend time with the family, but Rich started sending me these lines, and I started writing too. It felt very natural, and I started sending things back to him. I would complete an idea, work out some melodies … the words sort of played off what Rich was giving me, and I’d go into the studio with a friend of mine, and we’d lay down some vocals and send them off to Rich. Basically, Rich would then start to build the instrumentation around what I was doing. He’d send something back and I’d be, like, ‘Oh, wow’. I Can’t Stay was one of the first things I worked on. These songs really kind of wrote themselves. I can’t describe it in any better way.»

The album The Light the Dead See was recorded at studios in London, New York, Los Angeles, Berlin and Sydney and was released on 21 May. Dave wrote all lyrics and was the leading vocalist.

Probably for the first time, many DM-fans bought an album of the Soulsavers. It was quite successful, peaked No. 69 of UK album charts, No. 28 of US Top Heatseekers Albums Chart and No. 12 in Germany. The latter shows that Germany is still one of the most important markets for DM.

The first single taken from the album Longest Day was released as digital download on 2 April. The second single Take Me Back Home was released as digital download on 20 August.

Dave: «It was definitely a very new experience for me. I know some of the songs will come across as quite dark and moody, but it was the most uplifting experience I’ve ever had making a record.»

It wasn’t only a new experience for him, he also became inspired for the songs he wrote for DM’s next record. Delta Machine and The Light the Dead See aren’t similar, but there’s an influence, nevertheless.

Dave: «The title The Light the Dead See works so well because sometimes when you’re still and not trying to steer things in a certain way is really when the magic can happen.»

The project also had an influence on his way of singing. «I think some of that stuff comes from the way I used my voice. I go to a very visual place when I’m singing. It’s very cinematic and I get this feeling of space. I love when music does that.»

His way of singing, that had changed from Playing the Angel to SOTU, caused a lot of discussion among the fans. Some people didn’t like that he almost over-emphasised the syllables, and tried to vary his voice a lot. On The Light the Dead See he sang differently again, and he carried this style over to Delta Machine.

Because of the new DM album Dave didn’t tour with the Soulsavers. However, the band played an invitation-only «secret show» at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles on 21 July.

In May Dave said, «We have begun to record the album [Delta Machine] I have written 6-7 songs,» — he was working with Kurt Uenala -, «Martin has 13 or 14, we play into all, and we’ll see what we include on the album. I think three or four of my songs going with, so it gets the more than before. The album seems to have a strong sense of the blues. Not as Violator and Songs of Faith and Devotion, but definitely more blues, and more direct. We will take good care not to overproduce this time. Too many sounds are not necessary. If the melodies are good, they do not need more. I push all the time, much to the annoyance of the other guys sometimes, to keep things as raw as possible. They get a little bit afraid of that, in case we’re all gonna get judged. Yes, you are going to get judged, but I’d rather get really s*** reviews than mediocre reviews. I’d rather hear people saying ‘what the f***’s going on with the band?’ than just ‘yeah, hmmm, it’s an okay record’.»

But exactly this would happen when Delta Machine was released. Many fans liked the album a lot, saying it’s the best since SOFAD (or since Ultra), many said it’s an okay record, and only a few asked what the f*** is going on with the band. It is noticeable that many of the critical fans had lost interest long before the release, and didn’t say anything at all about Delta Machine. Sometimes this says a lot. It seems that the band lost some fans along the way, but it hasn’t done them any harm. Delta Machine and the tickets for the upcoming tour sold well.

The band met in January 2012 to listen to demos, and started recording Delta Machine in March in Santa Barbara. This time they only worked in Santa Barbara and New York, but they worked with Ben Hillier again.

The original plan was that Martin was going to co-produce the album.

Dave: «Well, the truth is when we first did get together, like, this last January, we went to Martin’s place and, you know, listened to the songs. You know, I came, did a few demos and Martin did these demos and we’d just kind of sit and we’d listen. And Martin’s demos were so well produced. And we didn’t want to mess with that too much. So once we decided that we wanted to get Ben Hillier involved again, it seemed logical.»

Fletch: «I think it’s better than the last album. I think there’s a lot more energy on this album. Amazingly we actually finished ahead of schedule, which we’d never done in our careers so that was incredible as well. That tells you it must be a good album if you finish early!»

There were some things different in comparison with previous albums. So Martin re-worked Dave’s demos before starting the recording session probably to give all the demos a sense of consistency in terms of sound and direction. It was really difficult later to guess who had written which song.

And they had a kind of second producer with Christoffer Berg.

Dave: «He’s a great musician and has a lot of fantastic ideas. He’s not afraid to stand up and say, ‘I got an idea.’ I like that. It’s quite intimidating working with a band like ours because you have certain expectations of how it is. A lot are true and some aren’t. Martin and I are open to other people’s ideas.»

They also had «a guy called Ferg [Peterkin] who’s the engineer,» Fletch added. About Christoffer Berg he said that «he makes his own music and he’s a real genius and a lot younger than us so he brings some young energy in. He was excellent.»

The band members don’t spend much time with each other when they are not in the studio or on tour together — or at least Dave doesn’t meet Martin and Fletch very often — so, it always takes a while to get on with each other after a break.

Dave: «Coming into the studio with Depeche for the first time in a while is just a different process. We have a lot of time and there are lots of people helping — programmers, engineers and so forth. That said, to still be doing this after 30-odd years means we’ve certainly come to a new place with all that. It’s all gravy now. We’re probably not finished til the end of the year, and we’re talking about touring next year. But right now it’s like a science lab here. We’re working in two rooms at the moment, just full of electronics and guitars and everybody’s getting very creative.»

But, as we’ve seen before, they completed recording ahead of schedule. This time another problem had to be dealt with. It was the first time in their career that they didn’t have a label.

Dave: «What happened was around the time of Exciter, Daniel, with our blessing, signed Mute to EMI. And he gave over a lot of control to them. He retained complete artistic control, but right before we were set to record Delta Machine, there were rumours about EMI folding. We didn’t want to be stuck in limbo and have this thing stuck in the courts, because you hear about this stuff happening. Now Daniel still owns Mute Artists, but not Mute Records, which he tried to buy back after he sold it, without success. He got outbid and was very upset, which I only found out recently. He wanted to take it all back, but we basically told him, ‘Dan, we’ve got to move on.’ Sony came up with the best offer to make sure Daniel is still around for us, and to make sure we were able to gain control of what we’re doing. Most importantly, in 2015, we’ll be able to get control of our entire catalogue. We’ll own it. After Delta Machine, we’ll be in real control.»

It meant that they released a record without the famous Bong label. This was especially disappointing for collectors, but it seemed to be the best deal for them, because they were still aware of keeping some independence. They took on all the costs for the production themselves, because they didn’t want to be tied to a record company. So the deal with Sony is obviously a kind of logistic deal rather than a real record deal.

There were plans to collaborate with other musicians but it didn’t work.

Dave: «Our producer Ben Hillier interviewed all sorts of musicians to work on this record, and they all said, ‘Oh yeah, we know electronics.’ But what they meant was that they knew how to program software and things on the computer. They didn’t know really how to use the massive modular hardware systems — ARP gear and all that.»

So there weren’t many other people involved. And, of course, they got on well again.

Dave: «There was definitely a time in my life where I was like, ‘You’ve got to be bigger, faster, stronger, better’. Over the years, this being our 13th studio album … working on this record somehow felt like a new thing. Martin and I were really on the same page what we were doing writing-wise, and we just really came together, so it was a really enjoyable experience to do.»

On the other hand it seemed that he wasn’t patient enough. «Making a record with Depeche Mode is not a simple process. It’s quite complicated and long. We have the luxury of time. I’m not sure that’s such a good thing when you’re being creative. I kind of like that process of working a little faster in the studio. It gets boring for me. They are in their laboratory surrounded by all these twiddly things with all these things that make bleeps and noises and I sit there, like, ‘Can I sing now? Can I sing now? Can I sing now?’ We’re not a band band. We’re not The Rolling Stones, jamming together in the studio. Things are very constructed between Martin and me. Fletch has ideas and input; he’s the one who’ll say, ‘What are you doing? You’ve been working on this for three days, it’s rubbish!’ But he’s not conceptual. He’s the mediator. He’s the luke-warm water between fire and ice.» (laughs). «He’ll do his crossword, and as long as he gets to lunch by one o’clock, he’s fine.»

Martin: «I think this album was one of the easiest to make.»

You remember the last time he said that a record was easy to make, in fact it was very difficult, but I don’t think that this time we will hear unpleasant stories afterwards.

When it came to the mixing process, an old acquaintance appeared.

Dave: «It was good on this record to kind of have Flood back on board and have Flood mixing the record. That technology was good there, because Martin and I would get on Skype with him and he’d be in London mixing while we were in New York still recording. That’s the only way we’d communicated with him! We did not spend any time in the studio with him. I think this record as well is the end of a trilogy of records that we’re doing with Ben Hillier.»

As has been previously referred to — fans tend to attach too much importance to the role of the (former co-)producers, especially to the role of Flood. Hearing that he was to mix the record, some people had very high expectations. But mixing a record doesn’t mean producing a record, and producing a record doesn’t automatically mean having a huge musical influence.

2013

As the first single of Delta Machine, Heaven / All That’s Mine was released. It was the 50th single of the band. It was released digitally in most territories on 31 January, and physically the following day. In the UK it was released digitally on 17 March and physically the following day.

The video for Heaven was directed by Timothy Saccenti and filmed at The Marigny Opera House, a former Catholic church in New Orleans in November 2012.

The chart performance was low in the average, but it was No. 1 of the US Hot Dance Club Songs and in Hungary and No. 2 in Germany.

Heaven was a courageous choice because it is a quite slow and moody song, nothing you could call a hit-single.

Fletch: «It flopped a bit because of the sound. We’re old timers. We thought radio might play a slower track. Turns out, they won’t.»

Martin: «Funnily enough, Heaven, the lead single, is not very representative for the rest of the sound. So for a lot of» the songs on the album «I would start off with like, you know, like a bass line and then create some drums and some effects with the modulars and start from there, really, and then just start singing along. That’s what I do. I’m sorry. And when I sing along, I don’t sing along like, you know, little pretend words. When I sing, then sort of words just come out. It starts with words. A lot of people do that, you know, like, singing, you know, strange languages or whatever. But I always just start singing.»

Dave: «To be honest, we were all gung-ho on the track Angel, which is a little more aggressive and a little more typical of what you’d expect from a first record.» But he thinks that, «Heaven is one of the best songs Martin’s written in many, many years, for many reasons. It’s just one of those songs that makes me want to continue making music, long story short. As soon as I heard it, I was excited to sing it. Martin and I felt Heaven represented the record in lots of ways, which is why we wanted to put it out first. It’s not like we felt it was going to be a big hit or something, but that doesn’t really drive us to make music. We all like to have hits, it’s nice to have hits, of course, but after making 13 records together, it’s not what drives you. What drives you is to make a great record. That’s what still drives me. Certain songs propel that. Heaven is one of those songs. When Martin played the demo for me, I was in. It’s gospel-y bluesy, it’s right up my street. Songs like that speak to me.»

On 22 March the album Delta Machine was released. It was labelled to Columbia Records and Mute Records in the U.S. and to Sony Music in the rest of the world.

The album debuted at No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart, selling 28,450 copies in its first week. In the U.S. the album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 6 with 52,000 copies sold in its opening week. And it debuted at No. 1 on the German Albums Chart with first-week sales of 142,000 units.

«Delta» stands for the blues elements and «Machine» stands for the electronic elements of the album. The title immediately caused some irritations in the message-boards because some people started to use the short cut «DM» for «Delta Machine». Unfortunately, this has been the short cut for «Depeche Mode» for 30 years.

Dave: «We had a few permutations of the title, like ‘something’ Machine and Delta ‘something’ before Martin said, ‘Delta Machine?’ But I wouldn’t dare say this is a blues record as Fletch has said a couple of times. That’s insulting, to blues musicians, on so many levels. Well, OK, we have influences coming from the blues. And Depeche Mode is fundamentally us whining, searching for something, moaning our way through life.» (laughs)

As usually they didn’t tell much about the single songs of the album.

Dave: «Broken is uptempo, but lyrically it’s dark.[6] The lyrics of Broken are probably based on a friend who’s been struggling for a while with his own demons. I see myself in him, and you can’t make somebody change. All I can say is that Delta Machine is a truthful record. This is who we are, and this is what Martin and I can conjure up together. If I had my way, and it might not be the right way, we’d probably do things a lot looser. Martin is a great guitar player, but he likes to work with electronics, and I have to support that.»

Martin (about My Little Universe: «Funnily enough, I think that out of all of my songs on the album, that’s the one that changed dramatically. You know, for ages we were thinking that it wasn’t going to go on the album because it somehow didn’t quite fit. It was too fiddly. There were, you know, chord changes in it that it didn’t need. So, you know, we stripped it right back. And I think our programmer, Christoffer Berg, should take a lot of credit for that. You know, he was the one who kind of started stripping it back and started it on that path.»

About Should be Higher Dave explains that, «it’s reflecting on my interest quite often initially in something that is not necessarily real.» (laughs.) «And can quite often get me in trouble. But I’m still quite often attracted to this, the other side of things I think influence the optimistic side of my head. But sometimes I do find that the line is basically, saying initially how you might, something seems more exciting that could be quite dangerous for you. But the truth takes longer to achieve. But it ultimately is more rewarding. Cause the line that follows that line is: you should be higher. I’ll take you higher. And I’m referring to something that I feel quite often in life, which is life itself — which is just a beautiful thing. But you have to work a little harder to be part of it. And I also follow those lines with the line: Love is all I want.»

A little surprise was the song Slow.

Fletch: «That, believe it or not, was a song that was written for Songs of Faith and Devotion and for some bizarre reason never got recorded. Martin was going through his demos and came across it and said, ‘Actually, this is quite good’, so he did a new demo and it’s a great song.»

Dave: «As soon as I heard it, I said to Martin, ‘That’s an old song’. And he said, ‘Yeah, I needed to reinterpret it.’ He’d kind of reworked it. When Martin was demoing before, I seem to remember sitting in a meeting when we listened to the demos, and Alan kind of not getting it, just kind of … well, out of songs that we were going to record it just wasn’t chosen at that particular time. So I guess Martin put it away, and it fits really well with everything we’re doing now.»

Slow caused a little discussion among the fans. One group thought it would have suited SOFAD well, the other group thought that there must have been a good reason why it wasn’t chosen at that time. «Alan kind of not getting it» is probably a diplomatic way to say that he didn’t like it, that he saw it as too «lightweight» (one of his favourite descriptions to say that he doesn’t like something), as too simple. And well, if you look at the lyrics of most SOFAD-songs and at the lyrics of Slow, which are quite simply about having sex in a slow, intensive way, you might get an idea why it was turned down. Lines like I don’t need a race in my bed when speed’s in my heart and speed’s in my head instead or Slow, slow, slow as you can go that’s how I like it (from Slow) cannot really compete with ambivalent lines like oh girl, lead me into your darkness when this world is trying its hardest to leave me unimpressed (from One Caress) or thoughtful lines like Is simplicity best or simply the easiest? The narrowest path is always the holiest (from Judas).

Nevertheless, a song like this can fit into a different context, which the band thought they had found with Delta Machine.

During the promotion for Delta Machine Martin said in an interview — being asked for his opinion about the general music business — that «somebody should shoot Simon Cowell», (an English A & R executive, television producer, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is known for his role as a talent judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and American Idol), something that caused some trouble, at least when Cowell Twittered, «A ton of people have got shot this year, and people like weirdo Gore encourage this.»

«That was great,» Martin laughed. He didn’t think that «a little flippant comment» would get such a response. «I think the majority of the world agreed with me.» He grinned.

To be honest it was almost the only funny bit that I was able to find. The band members hadn’t lost their sense of humour, but most interviews showed them as being serious and more mature. Also, almost all journalists brought up the same old stories again — at least Dave’s overdose in 1996 was mentioned in almost every article. It’s 17 years ago now, they should be over it. But you still find this angle — Dave almost died in 1996, then he suffered from cancer during TOTU and now he has written a song like Broken, so the lyrics MUST have a connection to all these experiences. When you are being asked about the bad things in your life all over again, it’s definitely difficult to be anything but serious. I personally think you could have a funny chat with Dave (and nevertheless get something serious about the new album) if you just leave out the subjects of drugs and cancer.

The second single release was Soothe My Soul. It was physically released as CD single and CD maxi single in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on 10 May, worldwide on 13 May, in the U.S. on 14 May, and as 12″ single worldwide on 10 June, in the U.S. on 11 June. CD single, CD maxi single and 12″ single were labelled to Columbia Records. Only in Hungary it was a No. 1 hit.

The music video directed by Warren Fu was premiered on 28 March.

Of course, they planned to tour the album.

Dave: «This tour, we’ve got some ambitious plans. We’re starting out pretty large in Europe, going to some big stadiums for a bunch of shows, and then we come back to the States and go into more reasonable sized venues, lots of arenas, and that brings us close to Christmas. We’re already now planning another European leg and then definitely South America and possibly Asia. Then I think we’re planning to come back to America, and some more festivals in Europe in the summer of 2014.»

As usual they had their difficulties to find a setlist (and as usual it turned out not being that different to the previous tours, except that they played some more songs from the new album this time).

Fletch: «Our last album, Sounds of the Universe, I don’t think many of the songs really translated live that well, but this album seems to be completely the opposite, it’s quite a minimal but powerful album and a lot of the tracks are sounding very good like Soft Touch/Raw Nerve. Angel is sounding really, really powerful, and Should Be Higher. We can’t play, unfortunately, too many songs from the new album because we have fans that go back such a long way, it’d be a bit selfish, I think, just playing a lot of songs off the new album and disregarding tracks from our career.»

Dave (about how to find a setlist): «Well, it starts out with putting together a list of songs that we want to play — particularly from other albums like Black Celebration, Music for the Masses, and Ultra — all of which ultimately should fit with Delta Machine. Also, we’re thinking about reviving songs that we never really played that much, like Barrel of a Gun. Naturally you have to throw things in the fans want to hear. With us it’s a constant debate: ‘Should we do Just Can’t Get Enough?’ — ‘I don’t know, should we?’ You’ve got to look at it as a song that means a lot to a lot of hardcore fans, but when you do something from thirty years ago, it can be like putting on a pair of pants from thirty years ago: they don’t quite fit anymore, you know? You might really, really like them, but they might not, uh, work.»

The hardcore fans probably don’t need songs like Just Can’t Get Enough, Enjoy the Silence and Personal Jesus anymore because they have heard them too often but of course, fans who don’t go to many gigs will enjoy it.

Speaking of fans, the band was asked again why they thought they were so popular and had such a strong, faithful following.

Martin: «I think people do see us as their little secret. Even though it’s not that much of a secret — if you go into Europe about every third person has got one of our records somewhere.»

Fletch: «A lot of people know the name Depeche Mode but can’t point to the individuals in the band.»

Martin: «There are certain places where people seem have more of an affiliation with us; generally Europe as a whole — even Holland’s starting to get on board a little bit more than it used to. But the UK is the one place where we probably do least well. In Europe and especially when you get to places like Germany and anywhere eastwards, it seems to be more than just about the music, it’s like a lifestyle for them. They follow us, they wear uniforms of black — we call them the black swarm — we seem to be really really important to them.»

Dave: «I think it’s also because we come from a real place emotionally. I mean there’s an image which has developed over the years and we’re quite comfortable with that as well: we’d much rather be with the misfits than be with the norm. That’s always been the case, we were ridiculed for it in the beginning and now we’re praised for it.»

It seems that they have learned a lot about their followers over the course of time. So they were very critical of the film The Posters Came from the Walls by Jeremy Deller which tries to depict the fan culture. It was released in 2008 originally, but went online in 2013, that’s why Dave was asked about it.

Dave: «First of all, no disrespect to Jeremy Deller. He made an extremely good documentary film about this band that’s pretty accurate in terms of how important we are to some of our fans: in their growth, in their lives, in their beings. When people come up to me on the street, it’s not usually like, ‘Whoa! It’s the guy!’ Rather, most people look me straight in the eye and say: ‘Thank you so much for the music. It’s truly helped me.’ That’s an amazing thing. But what I felt about the film was, and I can’t speak for Martin and Fletch, the whole thing was just too sycophantic, almost to a point of being comedic. And not in a good way. It didn’t show the diversity of our fans and focused in one area. The whole drum corps and the Russian girl with the drawings of us, and of course the German family … it wasn’t objective enough for me. Even if it was well done. And the timing was weird, much too focused on what was and not what is today.»

Well, the fan culture was born in the 1980s, so it might be no surprise that the film focused on the past. Of course, the film shows mainly real fanatics, not the «normal» fans, but the «normal» fans mostly came a long way with the band too. The average DM fan is between 30 and 50 years old, and got to know the band and its music in the 1980s, or at least in the early 1990s. There are some younger fans as well, but they are definitely in the minority. (And sometimes these younger fans came to the band through their parents.) The survey of depechemodebiographie.de shows a ratio of 70% to 30%. 70% of respondents became fans before Ultra (1997). So the fan culture is almost as old as the band itself, and maybe this is one of the reasons why the fans are so faithful, and sometimes weird.

On the tour the band members were confronted with them again, but obviously they weren’t bothered.

The tour started on 7 May in Tel Aviv with the European leg. It comprised 36 gigs, and ended on 29 July. Before that there had been some short promotion gigs, and a warm up concert in Nice on 4 May.

At this tour the band, especially Dave, showed up in a very good shape and mood. This is the complete opposite to the picture the media and the general public obviously still have about them. As I’ve said above, it was difficult to find something funny and up-lifting these days although the band maybe has never been in a better mood. It became obvious now that Dave had really been ill during TOTU. At Delta Machine-Tour he was full of energy and very present, and his voice was much better than on previous tours.

I asked a fan if I may tell an anecdote which happened during this first leg of the tour. As I’ve said above the hardcore fan as such doesn’t need songs like Personal Jesus or Just Can’t Get Enough anymore. Nevertheless, the band decided to play Just Can’t Get Enough again. Now, this fan thought that there are many other old songs they could play instead. He noticed that the starting beat of the live version of Just Can’t Get Enough is similar to the beat of Boys Say Go! So he initiated a little campaign with shouting Boys Say Go!, whenever Just Can’t Get Enough was played. More and more people got involved shouting, «Boys Say Go! Boys Say Go! Boys Say Go!» during Just Can’t Get Enough at each gig on this leg.

At the show in Dusseldorf on 5 July, one Boys Say Go!-group was loud enough to be noticed by Dave. «And now, Boys Say Go,»» he said. Nevertheless, they played Just Can’t Get Enough. «Yeah, this is Boys Say Go,» he said in the middle of the song and was quite amused. The group enjoyed themselves and didn*t notice it at all, learned about it later.

And almost every time, when Martin was singing But Not Tonight (Oh God its raining) it started to rain. Two or three times it even happened that it just rained during this song. Martin’s face when getting aware that he could make it rain tells more about him than any interview.

The North American leg started on 22 August in Detroit and ended on 11 October in Austin, Texas. The third leg, another European one, started on 7 November in Belfast and ended on 07 March 2014. The tour DVD Live in Berlin was released on 14 November 2014.

Before the last leg had started, the band was the headliner at the Yasalam After Race Concert, after the Formula One Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi on 3 November. This was another thing they have never done before. Not all their fans were really enthusiastic about it. Their band is going increasingly mainstream, and there were critical voices talking about «a complete sell-out,» and that the band members are apparently trying to make as much money as possible while they are still on the road.

2015

After the end of the Delta Machine Tour, both Dave and Martin worked solo. Martin released an instrumental record titled MG on 24 April 2015, Dave worked with the band Soulsavers together again and released the album Angels & Ghosts on 23 October 2015.

«When I was writing for the Delta Machine project I had about four or five instrumentals written which we didn’t use,» Martin said about MG. «I had all these instrumentals without a home and that gave me the idea to continue in that vein and complete a whole instrumental album. I just thought that was a good concept, and something new for me, something I’ve never done.»

«We never really stopped writing after the first Soulsavers album,» Dave explained about Angels & Ghosts. «Even when I was on tour with Depeche, ideas would pop into my head. At the end of that Depeche tour I spent a bit of time staring at the walls, as you do, but this time it seemed more severe. I felt a tremendous sense of loss. «It’s over.» It hit me pretty hard. So I sat around moping for a bit, and when Rich from Soulsavers started sending me music over, I started to find working on it quite therapeutic. I started to write myself out of the hole I’d fallen into.»

The «transformation» from the solo project to the new DM record was an easy one. «When I finished my MG solo project in 2015, I just kept writing,» Martin said. «When I felt as if I had enough songs like Going Backwards together, and Dave — who had finished his solo — had enough songs together, we met up. We talked about changing producers as we did the last three with the same man, found James Ford, and we were off.»

2017

Spirit was released on 17 March 2017 by Columbia Records and Mute Records.

The production of Spirit was a fast one.

«We have a different producer this time, James Ford,» Fletch explained, «and we worked at a much faster pace than we normally do. We actually finished early, which is unbelievable. It normally is four sessions, plus mixing. This was done in three sessions. Normally, we finish the album just before Christmas, then we go out, have a couple of weeks off before we go into promotion mode. But this time, we actually had some more time off.»

«We called the album Spirit, because it’s like, ‘Where’s the spirit gone?’ or ‘Where’s the spirit in humanity?’» Dave explained. «We considered calling it Maelstrom — that was a bit too heavy metal.» Would have been an interesting title, though.

Spirit was a lot more political than any other album before.

«I really felt during the writing process for Spirit that the world was in a complete mess,» Martin said. «Humanity had lost its way. By pointing that out, maybe you could somehow get some sort of values back. Now, I may just be imparting too much importance to music and what it can do — I don’t know if it can change the world — but even if one person is affected, then maybe I’ve achieved something.»

Dave saw the line Where’s the revolution? Come on people you’re letting me down as «a linchpin on the album. We’re really asking that question of ourselves and of the world. What’s happening? What’s happening? We’re all feeling it and none of us seems to have the answer. I would say that this album definitely reflects what’s going on outside more than what’s going on inside. And the outside world is becoming too much.»

Where’s The Revolution was not directly influenced by current events.

«Martin wrote the song a couple of years ago,» Fletch said. «We didn’t jump on the bandwagon because it was literally a couple of years ago.»

But they have become experts on American elections because their first year of recording is almost always a year when the election takes place.

«Normally, we write songs about the world we live in and life in general,» Fletch said, «you know about relationships and problems people have in their lives. Martin felt there were so many things going astray, that he felt that he should write about it.»

And Martin explained: «It’s quite coincidental that the album has come out right now. I can’t claim that the songs were all written for Trump. It just seems like such perfect timing, because the world is in such a mess. But the majority of these songs were written in 2015-2016, so the world was in a mess then too. It’s just gotten a little worse.»

He was shocked about how many people had elected «that idiot,»» but nevertheless, alt-right leader Richard Spencer called them «the official band of the Alt-Right.»

«We were quite shocked, I have to say,» Fletch said. «We’re the opposite of that if anything.»

«He says he’s a big fan,» Martin added, «but he obviously hasn’t completely listened to our lyrics. I just think he’s not all there. I think people always kind of know where we stand politically — everyone in the world except Richard Spencer.»

Dave thought that one could listen to the songs quite differently as well. «Some on the songs have a political content lyrically, but I don’t listen to music like that. Music informs me. So it informs you to do something or to raise a question or to check your own position about how you feel about something, great. But at the same time, it’s music and its there to entertain you.»

But Martin also wrote a few personal songs. «There’s dark, humorous lyrics in Eternal, which was written for my daughter. I had to slip in a vision of a black mushroom cloud rising and the radiation falling.» Well, I have to admit that the vision of radiation falling is kind of strange when you think about your baby girl …

As usually, they claimed that the atmosphere and the communication had been great, just to find an example that showed that they still don’t understand each other completely.

«It’s about the beauty of communication, of wanting to be understood and loved,» Dave said about Cover Me. «I’ve spent most of my life trying to get that. But sometimes when I get it, I don’t know what to do with it. When I feel that side of me that is yearning for connection, I try to get it — and then it goes away again.»

He showed the lines to Martin who didn’t understand the metaphor, which drove Dave crazy. «What the f*** do you know? I never question your songs, Martin, I just sing them!»

Before, on 3 February 2017, the single Where Is The Revolution was released, followed by Going Backwards on 23 June 2017 and Cover Me on 6 October 2017. As usual in the past years, there were several remixes and different digital and physical releases.

Dave contributed four songs to the album, You Move (co-written with Martin), No More (assisted by Kurt Uenala) Cover Me and Poison Heart (both assisted by Christian Eigner and Peter Gordeno.) He took care of the lead vocals, except of Eternal and Fail, which were sung by Martin. There were no instrumental tracks.

And of course, they were planning to tour the album, especially as Dave is still a restless guy. «I try desperately to do nothing — it seems like a good idea at the time. But I get into a weird place if I’m not doing things. My wife will indulge that for a while, then she’ll tell me to go and do something.» That will probably be the main reason for going on tour. Not so much the money, as some people suspect.

«The stage is the only place where I dont feel my age,» he explained. On the other hand: «It horrifies me to think that I might be on stage at 70 years old. It really horrifies me. I’ve got the idea of me walking on some remote beach somewhere, hopefully still with Jennifer, and a couple of dogs, and a beard that’s down to here. I feel like I’m getting close to the point where I will actually have to stop doing this.»

Well, not for now. After some pre-tour performances in different cities between 1 March and 3 May, the Global Spirit Tour kicked off on 5 May in Stockholm and saw a European leg with 33 gigs until 23 July.

The second leg started on 23 August, took place in North America and saw 30 gigs until 27 October. The third leg was a European one again and started on 15 November.

There is a fourth leg planned in South America and an fifth leg in Europe again in summer 2018, which will probably end on 25 July in Berlin.

The tour saw a tribute to David Bowie by singing the song Heroes, which was the one — as every DM fan knows — that brought Dave to DM. «I had seen the news but it wasn’t until my wife told me he had died that I just broke down in tears. My daughter came out and they were both hugging me. It really affected me. I felt a huge gap. Bowie, since I was in my early teens, had an extraordinary effect on me. He represented something that was a little different and he didn’t feel comfortable going along with what was considered to be the norm. That really appealed to me and somehow comforted me, certainly as a teenager. His music has been with me throughout anything I’ve ever done. And I’ve seen him time and time again over the years. My daughter and his daughter went to the same school for a couple years, so I’d see him at these school functions. One thing I regret — of course when he passed away — is never telling him how much his music had meant to me all these years. I always thought it was kind of weird to do that, especially when we were at school together, just two dads with their kids, but it was shocking to me when he passed away. He was too young.»

All about Depeche Mode 1980-2005