Essex Appeal
[Record Mirror, 21st August 1982. Words: Simon Tebbutt. Pictures: Eugene Adebari.]
ESSEX APPEAL
At last, I can exclusively reveal the truth about the famous Blancmange versus Depeche Mode swimming contest.
Blancmange won the battle but Depeche Mode won the war.
Mystified readers might recall last week’s Blancmange feature in this very rag where the electronic duo, who’ve been supporting Depeche Mode on tour, claimed to have beaten the Basildon boys fair and square during a swimming race in Jersey. Here’s the Mode side of the tale.
‘Nah, they didn’t win,’ they all scoff in unison. ‘Well, they won the swimming…’ ‘That was only because I got cramp,’ protests Andy Fletcher, the tall goodlooking one with the spiky fair hair.
‘No, you didn’t,’ corrects singer Dave Gahan, the almost as tall goodlooking one with the dark hair. ‘You just dived in and because everyone was in front of you thought, ah I’ve got cramp.
‘But after the swimming,’ he continues, ‘everyone was in the pool with dinghies. It was like an Armada, and we had a battle against Blancmange in which we had to try and turn each other over. We beat them loads of times.’ [1]
So now we know. But enough of these fripperies. Depeche Mode, now shrunk to a three piece since the departure of Vince Clarke to Yazoo type pastures, have been busy these past few months down in the depths of London Bridge with maestro Daniel Miller recording a new album and single in a studio that’s a converted church.
‘It’s a really strange place,’ says Dave. ‘There’s a statue of Christ on the cross that someone’s painted with blood outside in the garden. We had a load of photos down there, but none of those came out. It’s really weird.’
Curiouser and curiouser. Still that hasn’t stopped the lads taking the train down from Essex every morning and getting down to work. And after a hearty and affable, if somewhat greasy, breakfast in the café across the road, we settle down to the business of discussing exactly what they’ve been up to.
‘Well, we’ve done eight tracks now and we’re in the middle of the ninth with one more to go,’ explains Dave, who doubles up with Andy as band spokesman most of the time, while Martin Gore – that’s the slightly smaller one with the fluffy blonde hair who writes the songs – comes in when he feels he’s needed. ‘We’ve done the new single, ‘Leave In Silence’ which we’re very pleased with.’
‘It’s getting away from dance music,’ says Martin feeling needed. ‘It’s not that you can’t dance to it – it’s just that the charts are getting too dance orientated. Our publishers advise us to write dance hits. In America they tell us we won’t have a hit if we don’t do a dance number, because the only way they can break a record through there is through the discos.’
‘Whereas the stuff on the last album was Euro macho dance music really, beaty synthesizer music, this album’s a lot weightier. It’s got a lot more in it,’ Dave elaborates.
‘There are real extremes. We’ve only got working titles at the moment, ‘Meaning Of Love’, ‘Photo You’ and ‘You Shouldn’t Have Done That’ [2], which is like a nursery rhyme, a folky old English song with four harmonies all working together. A bit of a monk’s chant.’
[Record Mirror, 21st August 1982. Words: Simon Tebbutt. Pictures: Eugene Adebari.]
ESSEX APPEAL
At last, I can exclusively reveal the truth about the famous Blancmange versus Depeche Mode swimming contest.
Blancmange won the battle but Depeche Mode won the war.
Mystified readers might recall last week’s Blancmange feature in this very rag where the electronic duo, who’ve been supporting Depeche Mode on tour, claimed to have beaten the Basildon boys fair and square during a swimming race in Jersey. Here’s the Mode side of the tale.
‘Nah, they didn’t win,’ they all scoff in unison. ‘Well, they won the swimming…’ ‘That was only because I got cramp,’ protests Andy Fletcher, the tall goodlooking one with the spiky fair hair.
‘No, you didn’t,’ corrects singer Dave Gahan, the almost as tall goodlooking one with the dark hair. ‘You just dived in and because everyone was in front of you thought, ah I’ve got cramp.
‘But after the swimming,’ he continues, ‘everyone was in the pool with dinghies. It was like an Armada, and we had a battle against Blancmange in which we had to try and turn each other over. We beat them loads of times.’ [1]
So now we know. But enough of these fripperies. Depeche Mode, now shrunk to a three piece since the departure of Vince Clarke to Yazoo type pastures, have been busy these past few months down in the depths of London Bridge with maestro Daniel Miller recording a new album and single in a studio that’s a converted church.
‘It’s a really strange place,’ says Dave. ‘There’s a statue of Christ on the cross that someone’s painted with blood outside in the garden. We had a load of photos down there, but none of those came out. It’s really weird.’
Curiouser and curiouser. Still that hasn’t stopped the lads taking the train down from Essex every morning and getting down to work. And after a hearty and affable, if somewhat greasy, breakfast in the café across the road, we settle down to the business of discussing exactly what they’ve been up to.
‘Well, we’ve done eight tracks now and we’re in the middle of the ninth with one more to go,’ explains Dave, who doubles up with Andy as band spokesman most of the time, while Martin Gore – that’s the slightly smaller one with the fluffy blonde hair who writes the songs – comes in when he feels he’s needed. ‘We’ve done the new single, ‘Leave In Silence’ which we’re very pleased with.’
‘It’s getting away from dance music,’ says Martin feeling needed. ‘It’s not that you can’t dance to it – it’s just that the charts are getting too dance orientated. Our publishers advise us to write dance hits. In America they tell us we won’t have a hit if we don’t do a dance number, because the only way they can break a record through there is through the discos.’
‘Whereas the stuff on the last album was Euro macho dance music really, beaty synthesizer music, this album’s a lot weightier. It’s got a lot more in it,’ Dave elaborates.
‘There are real extremes. We’ve only got working titles at the moment, ‘Meaning Of Love’, ‘Photo You’ and ‘You Shouldn’t Have Done That’ [2], which is like a nursery rhyme, a folky old English song with four harmonies all working together. A bit of a monk’s chant.’
