A Brief History
Depeche Mode was formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex, by guitarist/vocalists Andy Fletcher and Martin Gore
and keyboardist Vince Clarke. After recruiting David Gahan, the group abandoned their guitars for
synthesizers and became an all-electronic band. For this unusual approach, Depeche Mode earned a loyal
London following, and within a year of their formation, were signed to Mute Records. Depeche Mode's first
single "Dreaming of Me" was a minor U.K. hit. It was followed by "New Life", which climbed to No.11, and by
"Just Can't Get Enough", which cracked the British Top Ten. "Speak & Spell", Depeche Mode's debut album,
was released in November of 1981.
Signed to Sire Records in the U.S., Depeche Mode found initial exposure for their music with club
audiences. "Just Can't Get Enough" became a major dance hit, receiving airplay on American
alternative radio stations. After a tour of England and Europe, Vince Clark left Depeche Mode to form
Yazoo. Alan Wilder then joined the band as the group released its fourth single "The Meaning of Love". A
second hit album titled "A Broken Frame" was then released in 1982. In 1983, Depeche Mode released
"Construction Time Again", which contained the dance favorite "Everything Counts".
With the release of "People Are People" in 1984, American audiences discovered what their European
counterparts had known since 1981. "People Are People" was Depeche Mode's first North American success,
which Depeche Mode built on with their fourth release "Some Great Reward". "Catching Up With Depeche
Mode" and "Black Celebration" followed in the next two years. It became evident with the "Black
Celebration" album that Depeche Mode were starting to, as Martin put it, "make harder sounding records".
But "Black Celebration" was not an easy album to make; Martin had a very fixed idea of how he wanted it to
sound. The songs on this album reflect on how painful it was for Depeche to record this album. As Dave put it,
"If there was ever a time that Depeche Mode would break up, it would have happened during the making of
Black Celebration". Depeche also showed a distaste for corporate manipulation; when Sire flipped the
"Stripped" single - which Depeche had spend three weeks perfecting - to take advantage of it's B-side,
"But Not Tonight", (a throwaway song that was recorded in one day), the band's displeasure was evident.
Following the Black Celebration Tour, their most successful American tour to that date, the band followed it
up with "Music for the Masses".
Released in 1987, Depeche Mode went with David Bascombe as their new producer, wanting a fresh start
after almost aborting the "Black Celebration" sessions. "Strangelove", the album's first single, had no less
than 14 different remixes. "Music for the Masses" itself had struggled to reach the UK Top Ten, and "Little
15", released only in Germany, scraped no higher than number 60, as a foreign release. But still, Depeche
Mode continued to have higher concert attendance figures than album sales. After an extensive world tour,
Depeche Mode played their 101'st concert at a sold out Pasadena Rose Bowl in front of 70,000 fans. A live
album and video, entitled "101" was then released in 1988, warming fans up for Depeche Mode's breakthough
album "Violator".
"Personal Jesus", the first single from this album, was a huge success, becoming one of the largest
selling CD singles in U.S. history, and gave Depeche Mode their first U.S. gold single. Then followed
"Enjoy the Silence", a massive hit, which has become Depeche Mode's trademark song. Depeche even
whipped 17,000 fans in L.A. into a near riot at a in-store autograph signing to promote the release of Violator.
As fast as the ticket offices opened, the demand for the "World Violation Tour" swamped them. In New York,
Depeche sold 40,000 tickets for their Giants Stadium show within 8 hours and 48,000 tickets to the Dodger
Stadium show in L.A. were sold within one hour of going on sale. But not all was well, frayed nerves, the
wear and tear of touring, and internal battles caused Depeche Mode to part company at the end of the Violator
Tour, not knowing if they were ever to work together again. Dave re-located to L.A. while the other members
concentrated on their families. But in 1992, when Dave felt he didn't want to make another "dance" record
with Depeche, Martin sent a demo comprised of "electrifying, bluesy" songs for the next album, which Dave
described as "a total relief, soaring, majestic, beautiful". Not only did these songs match Dave's dreams, it
equalled them. Dave had now felt that Depeche was pushing the limits of their music further, which he had
been wanting for a few years now.
In 1993, after a three year period between albums, Depeche Mode released "Songs of Faith and
Devotion", a much more rock oriented approach to their music. This would be the first Mode album
that would utilize live drums, as well as outside musicians. With "I Feel You" as the first single, and
a much anticipated album release, SOFAD debuted at #1 on Billboard's Top 100 and on the British charts as
well. It was the first truly "alternative" album to ever achieve this distinguished double. It remained on top for
just one week, and by November, it had slipped so swiftly that "Rolling Stone" had spotted the album in the
bargain bins. But none the less, Depeche set out on a extensive 14 month world tour, leading the band to such
places as South Africa, Australia, Hong Kong, and South America. Even with the quick demise of Songs of
Faith and Devotion, Depeche Mode continued to sell out shows in North America and Europe. The band has
somewhat become a permanent attraction, in which album chart positions don't affect their concert attendance
figures.
On June 1st/1995, keyboardist/drummer Alan Wilder decided to leave Depeche Mode, stating unsatisfactory
internal working conditions as the reason why he left the band. Fletch, Martin, and Dave will continue on as
Depeche Mode and in 1997 released "Ultra" album.
Ultra is Depeche Mode's first album following the departure of Alan Wilder. The album has a lot more
guitar on it than on previous albums, and there
are a lot fewer tinkly keyboard sequences. Martin Gore's songwriting shows vast improvement over the
previous album, Songs of Faith and Devotion. Dave Gahan's voice has also improved considerably,
although he still seems to be incapable of doing any vibrato.
In 1998, Depeche Mode released Singles 86->98 double album.
Here's a good compilation of DM singles for both fans and the casual listener. Fans get the superior
single versions of "A Question of Time", "Strangelove", and "Behind the Wheel". "In Your Room" is the
Zephyr Mix and the new single "Only When I Lose Myself" is here, so the compilation is more than
simply hashing out old songs. The casual listener also gets a good retrospective of the band's music.
