Depeche Mode
[Time Out, 29th March 2006, Words: John Lewis. Picture: Anton Corbijn.]
John Lewis tells you 10 things you may not know about the Basildon synth poppers-turned-industrial goth monsters, who open the newly refurbished Wembley Arena on Sunday and Monday.
1 The band formed as Composition Of Sound in 1980. Provisional names were Peter Bonnetti’s Boots, The Lemon Peels, The Runny Smiles and The Glow Worms. Previous incarnations of the band included Norman And The Worms, The French Look and No Romance In China.
2 There is a dingy basement bar in Tallinn, Estonia, exclusively devoted to the band, playing nothing but their videos and music. Amid the memorabilia on display is a pic of Martin Gore visiting the bar, looking suitably terrified.
3 Andy Fletcher, a keen Chelsea fan, is good mates with Graeme Le Saux. “We meet up after games,” says Fletcher. “All I want to do is talk about football and all he wants to do is talk about music.” [1]
4 On their first visit to Detroit techno club the Music Institute in 1989, the band were shocked to be mobbed by black techno obsessives. Todd Terry and Derrick May are both huge fans. [2]
5 Their 1993/94 Devotional Tour was named “The Most Debauched Rock’n’Roll Tour Of All Time”, by Q magazine. Gore suffered stress-induced seizures; Fletcher had a nervous breakdown; Gahan got heavily into heroin and had to be carried into bed each night by his minions.
6 Even hard-living Primal Scream, who played support for some of the Violator Tour, were shocked into temperance after witnessing Depeche Mode’s excesses. [3]
7 Gahan’s smack habit developed during his marriage to the band’s former US publicist Theresa Conway. “She liked drug-ravaged skinny men with tattoos,” said Fletch in a recent Mojo interview. “So Dave became that person.” In May 1996, Gahan was clinically dead for several minutes after OD’ing in an LA motel.
8 Martin Gore’s dad worked at Ford in Dagenham. Martin once performed at an early gig at the Croc’s in Rayleigh wearing his dad’s bedroom slippers, painted black.
9 Andy Fletcher was a born-again Christian and member of the Boys’ Brigade. He and founder member Vince Clarke (now of Erasure) met at a Christian Fellowship group in Basildon.
10 For Anton Corbijn’s iconic video for “Enjoy The Silence”, Gahan spent a week being filmed up in mountains in Portugal, France and Scotland dressed as a king and carrying a deckchair before losing his rag. “You know what, you fucking do it,” he said to the producer. He then took a helicopter back to the hotel and drowned his sorrows with some hot chocolate. [4]
[Time Out, 29th March 2006, Words: John Lewis. Picture: Anton Corbijn.]
John Lewis tells you 10 things you may not know about the Basildon synth poppers-turned-industrial goth monsters, who open the newly refurbished Wembley Arena on Sunday and Monday.
1 The band formed as Composition Of Sound in 1980. Provisional names were Peter Bonnetti’s Boots, The Lemon Peels, The Runny Smiles and The Glow Worms. Previous incarnations of the band included Norman And The Worms, The French Look and No Romance In China.
2 There is a dingy basement bar in Tallinn, Estonia, exclusively devoted to the band, playing nothing but their videos and music. Amid the memorabilia on display is a pic of Martin Gore visiting the bar, looking suitably terrified.
3 Andy Fletcher, a keen Chelsea fan, is good mates with Graeme Le Saux. “We meet up after games,” says Fletcher. “All I want to do is talk about football and all he wants to do is talk about music.” [1]
4 On their first visit to Detroit techno club the Music Institute in 1989, the band were shocked to be mobbed by black techno obsessives. Todd Terry and Derrick May are both huge fans. [2]
5 Their 1993/94 Devotional Tour was named “The Most Debauched Rock’n’Roll Tour Of All Time”, by Q magazine. Gore suffered stress-induced seizures; Fletcher had a nervous breakdown; Gahan got heavily into heroin and had to be carried into bed each night by his minions.
6 Even hard-living Primal Scream, who played support for some of the Violator Tour, were shocked into temperance after witnessing Depeche Mode’s excesses. [3]
7 Gahan’s smack habit developed during his marriage to the band’s former US publicist Theresa Conway. “She liked drug-ravaged skinny men with tattoos,” said Fletch in a recent Mojo interview. “So Dave became that person.” In May 1996, Gahan was clinically dead for several minutes after OD’ing in an LA motel.
8 Martin Gore’s dad worked at Ford in Dagenham. Martin once performed at an early gig at the Croc’s in Rayleigh wearing his dad’s bedroom slippers, painted black.
9 Andy Fletcher was a born-again Christian and member of the Boys’ Brigade. He and founder member Vince Clarke (now of Erasure) met at a Christian Fellowship group in Basildon.
10 For Anton Corbijn’s iconic video for “Enjoy The Silence”, Gahan spent a week being filmed up in mountains in Portugal, France and Scotland dressed as a king and carrying a deckchair before losing his rag. “You know what, you fucking do it,” he said to the producer. He then took a helicopter back to the hotel and drowned his sorrows with some hot chocolate. [4]
Last edited: