Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex, UK. They have been one of the longest-lived and most successful bands to have emerged during the New Wave and New Romantic era, though they are more akin to what was known as the "futurist" scene; many of their videos have been in heavy rotation on MTV.

As of 2006, it was estimated that Depeche Mode has sold over 73 million albums worldwide and has had forty-four songs in the UK Singles Chart. They have had more top 40 hits in the UK without a #1 hit than any other artist. They have influenced many of today's popular recording artists, in part due to their recording techniques and use of sampling. Though very influential in the modern electronic dance scene, they remain generally classified in the alternative genre.

Depeche Mode was founded in 1980 by David Gahan (lead vocals), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, vocals, chief songwriter after 1981), Andrew Fletcher (occasional keyboards) and Vince Clarke (keyboards, chief songwriter 1980—81). Vince Clarke left the band after the release of their 1981 debut album; soon replaced by Alan Wilder (lead keyboards, occasional drums, backing vocals), who played with the band from 1982 to 1995. After Wilder's departure, Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher continue to perform as a trio.

Early history

1976–1980: Formation

Depeche Mode's origins can be traced back to 1976, when Vince Clarke and Andrew Fletcher formed a band known as "No Romance in China", with Clarke on vocals/guitar and Fletcher on bass. In 1978, Clarke played guitar in an "Ultravox rip-off band", The Plan, with school friend Robert Marlow on vocals and Vince on guitar/keyboards. In 1978–79, Gore played in an acoustic duo, Norman and The Worms, with school friend Philip Burdett (who now sings on the folk circuit) on vocals and Gore on guitar. In 1979, Marlow, Gore, Clarke and friend Paul Redmond formed a band called "The French Look", with Marlow on vocals/keyboards, Gore on guitar, Clarke and Redmond on keyboards. In March 1980, Clarke, Gore and Fletcher formed a band called "Composition of Sound", with Clarke on vocals/guitar, Gore on keyboards and Fletcher on bass. "The French Look" and "Composition of Sound" once played live together in June 1980 at St. Nicholas School Youth Club in Southend on Sea, Essex. Soon after the formation of "Composition of Sound", Clarke and Fletcher switched to synthesizers, working odd jobs to buy them, or borrowing them from friends. Gahan joined the band in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a local scout-hut jam session, crooning to a rendition of David Bowie's 'Heroes'. "Depeche Mode" was born. The new name was taken from a French fashion magazine, "Dépêche mode", which translates to "Fashion Update" or "Fashion News Dispatch" (dépêche = dispatch) though it has commonly been mistranslated as "Fast Fashion", due to the confusion with the French verb "se dépêcher" ("to hurry up").

1981–1984: First releases

The band became part of Daniel Miller's Mute label by verbal contract, and released their first album, Speak and Spell, in 1981. While the band was promoting the album, Clarke began to publically discuss his discomfort with the level of success that Depeche Mode was achieving; he felt they were becoming too popular after the success of their second major hit single "Just Can't Get Enough". He soon left the group and went on to form several other bands including Yazoo (Yaz in the U.S.) with Alison Moyet, The Assembly with Eric Radcliffe, and later Erasure with Andy Bell. More than 20 years after, Depeche Mode still include the aforementioned "Just Can't Get Enough" in their live performances when touring, which has become kind of a humorous tip of the hat to their audience and a "flashback" break during their performances, given the much darker general tone that their compositions achieved in years to come compared to the naive synth-pop style of this song.

After Clarke's departure, Martin Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and "Big Muff" on their debut album, took over as the band's primary songwriter. In 1982 the album A Broken Frame was released by the remaining trio. Prior to this, Alan Wilder replaced Vince Clarke on tour, but he did not contribute to A Broken Frame. Shortly afterwards, he became a full-fledged member of Depeche Mode, in time for their 1983 non-album single "Get the Balance Right". He wrote "The Landscape is Changing" and "Two Minute Warning" for their 1983 album, Construction Time Again, "In Your Memory," the B-side to the "People Are People" single, and "If You Want" on the 1984 album Some Great Reward, and co-wrote with Martin Gore "Fools", the B-side to the "Love In Itself" single but his main contribution to Depeche Mode was in technical and musical production.

In the early 1980s, the band's popularity was largely confined to Europe (particularly Germany) coupled with some recognition in Australia. However, in 1984 Depeche Mode made inroads into the United States, spawning the North American-only releases of the compilations People Are People and their 1985 release, Catching Up with Depeche Mode, the former featuring their first transatlantic hit, "People Are People".

1985–1989: Growing success

This period is seen as the beginning of the band's long association with Britain's goth subculture that was gaining popularity in the United States. Meanwhile, the music intelligentsia in Britain dismissed Depeche Mode throughout the 1980s as "fluffy synthesized teenybopper pop stars" because of the cheery and "cute" style of many of their early songs, such as "Just Can't Get Enough" and "The Meaning of Love", in spite of the darker, more complex sound they had developed. In Germany and other countries in continental Europe, Depeche Mode were considered major teen heartthrobs. But in America, where the band's music had first gained popularity on college radio and modern rock stations such as KROQ in Los Angeles, Depeche Mode's appeal was to a decidedly different, more cultish audience.

The gothic tag the band was given in the United States may have owed more to its sound than to its image, due to the band's late exposure to the American market and its unfortunate string of inconsistent, budget-driven music videos prior to this time. As heard with 1984's "Blasphemous Rumours", a bitter commentary on the unfairness of life, and the B-side to 1985's "It's Called a Heart", called "Fly on the Windscreen" (thereafter remixed and released as "Fly on the Windscreen — Final" on the 1986 album Black Celebration), the dark, brooding Depeche Mode was born.

After the video of their 1986 single "A Question of Time" garnered attention, its director Anton Corbijn began a long-lasting friendship and working relationship with the band, eventually directing 20 of their videos (the latest being 2006's "Suffer Well"). For his part, Corbijn — an internationally renowned photographer and newly emerging music video director (U2's "Pride (In the Name of Love)" (1984) and Echo and the Bunnymen's "Bring on the Dancing Horses" (1985)) — was catapulted into near stardom, eventually directing music videos for the likes of Joy Division ("Atmosphere" (1988)), Front 242 ("Headhunter" (1988), "Tragedy for You" (1991)), Bryan Adams, Nirvana, and U2 ("One" (1991), "Please" (1997), "Electrical Storm" (2002)).

On the heels of their 1987 album Music for the Masses, Depeche Mode played a follow-up world tour in 1987—88 to sold-out venues. The tour culminated in a final concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl with a sell-out attendance of 80,000+ (the highest in eight years for the venue). The tour was documented in a film by D.A. Pennebaker, notable for its portrayal of fan interaction. An album release of the concert, titled 101 (the show was the 101st and final stop on the tour) became a bestseller in 1989 and is considered an excellent live document of their 1981—1987 recording years.

Later that year, after Martin Gore had made a brief detour to record his Counterfeit EP, with six cover versions of some of his favorite songs, the band recorded the bluesy country-western-influenced "Personal Jesus", in Milan. Prior to its release, advertisements were placed in the personal 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 ensuing controversy helped propel the single to number 13 on the UK charts, becoming one of their biggest sellers and their first gold single in the U.S. It was also the biggest-selling 12-inch single in Warner Brothers Records history. The song was later covered by Johnny Cash and by Marilyn Manson. In September 2006, it was voted by readers of music monthly Q as one of the 100 greatest songs of all time.

Middle history

1990–1994: Two hit albums

File:DepecheMode Violator.jpg

Violator was a major hit UK, Europe and the US

In the mid-1980s and 1990s, the band's popularity in the U.S. grew, as did their influence on the emerging techno and house music scenes. Techno pioneers Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson and Juan Atkins regularly quoted Depeche Mode as an influence in their development of proto-techno music during the Detroit Techno explosion in the late 1980s.

In February 1990, "Enjoy the Silence", one of Depeche Mode's most successful singles to date, reached #6 in the UK. It won 'Best Single' at the 1991 Brit Awards. To promote their new album Violator, they held an in-store autograph signing in Los Angeles, which attracted 17,000 fans. The album (Top 10 in the UK and U.S.) and the subsequent World Violation Tour were further successes. To date, the album has gone triple platinum in the U.S., selling over three million units. Notably, 40,000 tickets for the (New York) Giants Stadium show sold within eight hours, and 48,000 tickets for the (Los Angeles) Dodger Stadium show sold within an hour of going on sale.

By 1991, Depeche Mode had emerged as one of the world's most successful acts, relying on a proto-techno sound to distinguish it. A one-off contribution to the Wim Wenders film, Until the End of the World, entitled "Death's Door" and another solo album released by Alan Wilder under the Recoil moniker bridged the gap between albums.

The band changed pace in 1993 with Songs of Faith and Devotion. The arrangements were based as much on heavily distorted electric guitars and live drums (played by Alan Wilder, whose debut as a studio drummer was the track "Clean" on Violator as on electronics. Live strings, uillean pipes and female choir vocals were further departures from the band's earlier sound.

The album debuted at #1 in both the U.S. and the UK; highlights included the country-blues/techno "I Feel You", the soulful "Walking In My Shoes", and the gospel-tinged "Condemnation". The 14-month "Devotional" world tour followed. A second live album, Songs of Faith and Devotion Live, was released in December of 1993; essentially a track-by-track reproduction of the eponymous album, it proved a critical and commercial failure. Strains became apparent when Fletcher declined to participate in the second "exotic" leg of the tour, due to "mental instability." During that period, Daryl Bamonte, who worked with the band as personal assistant for many years, filled in for him, playing keyboards.

1995–2000: Continued success through turmoil

In June 1995, Alan Wilder left the band, citing "unsatisfactory internal working conditions". He continued to work on his personal project, Recoil. Contributing factors that have been suggested include the drug addiction issues of Gahan, Gore's admission of "battling his own demons" at this time, growing tensions between Wilder and Fletcher and his own deteriorating health whilst on tour.^{[citation needed]} Wilder had stated that he contributed a lion's share of work while receiving the least credit on past albums. His departure was quickly followed by news of Gahan near-fatally overdosing at his home in Los Angeles; he later entered a drug rehabilitation program to battle a heroin addiction.

In 1996, with Gahan out of rehab, Depeche Mode held recording sessions with producer Tim Simenon; the next year, the album Ultra and its two preceding singles, "Barrel of a Gun" and "It's No Good", were released. The album again debuted at #1.

A second singles compilation The Singles 86>98 followed in 1998, with the new track "Only When I Lose Myself". The band set off on a 4 month tour that cemented their place as a quasi-permanent attraction, with a large touring attendance regardless of album sales. (U2, R.E.M., the Rolling Stones, and Rod Stewart are some others in this category).

Also in 1998, the tribute album For the Masses was released. It featured Depeche Mode covers by among others The Smashing Pumpkins, The Cure and The Deftones.

Depeche Mode in the 2000s

2001–2004: Exciter

In 2001, Depeche Mode released Exciter, which did not place well in the charts outside of Continental Europe. Although it spawned several dance club hits such as Danny Tenaglia's remixes of "I Feel Loved", many fans and critics felt the album was uninspired and underproduced^{[citation needed]}, although the record was noted as containing some of the strongest vocal stylings of Dave Gahan since joining the band.^{[citation needed]}

2003 saw the release of Gahan's solo album, Paper Monsters, followed by a worldwide tour and a DVD taken from it, titled Live Monsters; Martin Gore continued his solo career with the release of Counterfeit² (a follow-up to his 1989 release Counterfeit); and Fletcher launched his own label, Toast Hawaii (the most notable outcome of which has so far been the synth-pop group, Client).

In August that year, Mute released the DVD version of Devotional, filmed during their 1993 world tour, as well as a new remix compilation album Remixes 81—04 that covers some new and unreleased promo mixes of the singles from 1981 to 2004, including a re-release and new renditions of their classic "Enjoy the Silence". The single peaked at #7 in the UK, but did not fare as well in the U.S.

2005–present: Playing the Angel and current events

On October 17, 2005, the band released their 11th studio album Playing the Angel and received very good reviews. Fans and critics hailed this album as the band's return to form after Wilder's departure and two minor albums.

File:Dm2005.jpg

Depeche Mode, 2005.

Produced by Ben Hillier, this Top 10 hit (peaking at #1 in several European countries) featured the hit single "Precious", peaking at #4 in the UK charts. The album was backed by the band's first in-store signing since 1990, on the day of release in New York City. This is the first Depeche Mode album to feature lyrics written by Gahan and the first album since 1984's Some Great Reward featuring songs not written by Gore.

With an prototypical version having been leaked onto the Internet some months earlier, the official video for "Precious" was released on September 12 on the Depeche Mode website, www.depechemode.com. The second single from the album, "A Pain That I'm Used To," was released on December 12, and the third single from the album was "Suffer Well," the first ever post-Clarke Depeche Mode single not to be written by Gore (lyrics by Gahan, music by Philpott/Eigner).

Also on March 2, 2006, they released a video version of single "Suffer Well" sung in Simlish as it is featured on The Sims 2: Open for Business PC game soundtrack along with accompanying video (the group featured as Sims). They join 1980s pop bands, Kajagoogoo and Howard Jones in the PC game as musical contributors with their performances in Simlish.

To promote the Playing the Angel, the band launched the worldwide Touring the Angel in November 2005, taking them to fans in North America and Europe. The tour continued through the spring and summer of 2006. Depeche Mode also headlined the 2006 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Some of the gigs were their first ever shows in certain countries like Romania and Bulgaria. In March 2006, the website announced two dates in Mexico (a country they had not visited for twelve years). More than 55,000 tickets for a stadium in Mexico City were sold immediately, causing the band to schedule another date for the same venue and demonstrating that their popularity in Mexico is as significant as in many countries in Europe, where their audiences are frequently of 40,000 people. (To see information on "Touring the Angel" and other Depeche Mode tours, view Depeche Mode Tours)

On September 25, Depeche Mode released their live DVD-CD set Touring The Angel: Live In Milan, directed by Blue Leach and recorded at Milan's Fila Forum on February 18th and 19th 2006. The DVD has a full concert on disc 1, bonus live songs "A Question of Lust" and "Damaged People" along with a 20-minute documentary featuring Anton Corbijn, official tour announcement from Germany in the summer of 2005, and the Playing The Angel electronic press kit on disc 2, and disc 3 is a CD with selected tracks from the concert.

On April 3, 2006, remastered editions of Speak & Spell, Music for the Masses, and Violator were released, featuring remastered audio on CD and SACD, extra tracks and B-sides. In addition, each album comes with its own documentary charting the history of the band and the production of each album. The second installment of remastered albums were A Broken Frame, Some Great Reward and Songs of Faith and Devotion, all of which were released on October 2, 2006. The remaining four pre-Playing the Angel Depeche Mode albums are planned to be re-released in 2007.

In addition, there will be a "best-of" compilation in November of 2006, entitled The Best Of, Volume 1 featuring a new single "Martyr" (an outtake from the Playing the Angel sessions, Martyr was actually the first song recorded for that album and was considered by the band as the first single, but they decided it was not a match in tone for the dark album), and the Touring The Angel live DVD on September 25, 2006.

On 2, November, Depeche Mode received the MTV Europe Music Award in the Best Group catagory.

Live supporting musicians

Peter Gordeno – keyboards, occasional electric bass and electric guitar (1998—)
Christian Eigner – occasional songwriting, drums (1997—)
Jordan Bailey – backing vocals (1998–2001)
Hildia Campbell – backing vocals (1993–1994)
Samantha Smith – backing vocals (1993–1994)
Daryl Bamonte – keyboards (1994)
Dave Clayton – keyboards (1997)
Janet Ramus – backing vocals (1998)
Georgia Lewis – backing vocals (2001)

Between 1998 and 2006, both Gordeno and Eigner were considered semi-official members of Depeche Mode by many fans as they were present on three consective tours, with Eigner ever-present on drums and contributing to some of the songwriting (albeit in a very minor capacity), and Gordeno almost ever-present on keyboard duties, filling Alan Wilder's role.

Discography

Main article: Depeche Mode discography

Known instruments and samples

A Broken Frame
9. "Shouldn't Have Done That" - marching, baby crying, Martin's reversed talking and laughter, saxophone

Construction Time Again
1. "Love, In Itself" - Guitar Lick
3. "Pipeline" - Ping Pong Ball
4. "Everything Counts" - hammering anvils, clanging pipes, xylophone, melodica

Some Great Reward
3. "People Are People" - flight hostess, coin
7. "Master and Servant" - whip sounds with mouth (Daniel Miller)
9. "Blasphemous Rumours" - bicycle spokes on corrugated iron

Black Celebration
1. "Black Celebration" - ""A Brief Period of Rejoicing"" (Daniel Miller, in impersonation of Winston Churchill)
2. "Fly on the Windscreen" - "Horse", "Over and Done With" (Daniel Miller), power drill
6. "A Question of Time" - moaning woman
7. "Stripped" - Dave's Porsche 911, slowed down motorcycle, Guy Fawkes Day fireworks
8. "Here is the House" - ticking clock, acoustic guitar

Music for the Masses
1. "Never Let me Down Again" - overdubbed guitar sample
6. "Behind the Wheel" - wheel cover
7. "I Want You Now" - heron, heavy breathing, accordion
10. "Pimpf" -

"Interlude #1" - dropping wooden blocks, sample of "Strangelove"

B-Sides:
"Agent Orange" - helicopter

Violator
3. "Personal Jesus" – suitcases used as percussion
6. "Enjoy the Silence" -

"Interlude #2: Crucified" - "Crucified" (Andy on vocals)[1]

8. "Blue Dress" -

"Interlude #3" - scratching guitar strings (Dave)[2]

9. "Clean" - samples of previous Depeche Mode songs "World Full of Nothing" and "Sometimes"

Songs of Faith and Devotion
5. "Judas" – Uilleann pipes
7. "Get Right With Me" -

"Interlude #4" - Excerpt from "I Feel You (Swamp Mix)" - additional guitar (Jamie West-Oram), additional synths (Brian Eno) [3]

Exciter
4. "When the Body Speaks" – cello (Knox Chandler)

Playing the Angel
1. "A Pain That I'm Used To" - electric bass (Andrew Fletcher)
3. "Suffer Well" - electric bass (Martin)
4. "The Sinner in Me" - electric bass (Andrew Fletcher)
12. "The Darkest Star" - electric slide guitar (Martin), acoustic piano (David McKracken)

Bonus, Exclusive, & B-Sides
"Surrender (Bare)" - electric bass (Andrew Fletcher)
"Clean (Bare)" - electric bass (Andrew Fletcher)

References

Print references

Corbijn, Anton, Depeche Mode: Strangers, 1990, Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-7119-2493-7
Malins, Steve, Depeche Mode, 2001, Cooper Square Press, ISBN 0-8154-1142-1
Miller, Jonathan, Stripped: The True Story of Depeche Mode, 2004, Omnibus Press, ISBN 1-84449-415-2
Thompson, Dave, Depeche Mode, 1995, Pan Macmillan, ISBN 0-283-06243-6

Online references

External links

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