Magic Mode Put Sins Behind Them
[Daily Mail, 25th September 1998. Words: Adrian Thrills. Picture: Anton Corbijn.]
Confirming [the] most remarkable comeback in recent pop history Depeche Mode will play their first British concerts for five years next week in London, Manchester and Birmingham, having returned from their own private hell to produce last year’s excellent Ultra album.
Their Swedish date reiterated their resurgence.
The band, almost wrecked by a combination of drink, drugs and emotional stress during the making of Ultra, now perform sober onstage for the first time in an 18-year career and the results are impressive. [1]
This show, in a giant, shell-like ice hockey stadium, emphasised the band’s rare ability to mix the dark flavours of alternative rock with mainstream pop.
The present tour coincides with a compilation album, The Singles 86-98, and the Gothenburg show focused on hits from this era.
Given the length of time since the band last toured, however, it also represented the first live airing of tracks from Ultra: songs such as It’s No Good, Useless and Barrel Of A Gun were eagerly devoured here.
Like many arena concerts, the show began slowly.
Mid-tempo songs from the late Eighties and early Nineties, such as Question Of Time, World In My Eyes and Policy Of Truth, served as an easy-paced introduction before the band hit their full stride on the Motown-esque strut of Walking In My Shoes, the soul-tinged Condemnation and the bubbling funk-rock of It’s No Good.
With the three core members, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher, backed by a drummer, an extra synthesiser player and two female singers – extravagantly attired in silver dresses and pink feather boas – the music had a richness and warmth not normally associated with electronic pop.
Depeche Mode are living proof that a band do not need loud guitars to enliven a big arena. Much of this is down to vocalist Gahan, who has wrestled with his personal demons and come through fighting.
Sporting newly cropped hair and clean-cut clothes, he worked the crowd with the pluck and punch of an old-fashioned cheerleader.
Alternating the showmanship of Freddie Mercury with the sombre intensity of Kurt Cobain, Gahan is a graceful frontman and athletic dancer.
Prowling the stage, he swung his microphone stand gymnastically and moved suggestively during a soaring, disco-influenced Enjoy The Silence. Guitarist Gore and statuesque synthesiser player Fletcher provided the foil to their singer’s antics.
Gore, the band’s main songwriter, took centre stage on two numbers, Question Of Lust and Home. His sweet, yearning vocals provided a contrast to Gahan’s deep, sonorous phrasing. His guitar playing, inaudible on It’s No Good, came to the fore as the set unfolded.
Opening a series of encores with the piano ballad Somebody, Gore also provided the night with its solitary Brian Adams moment – that part of every stadium show when the lights are dimmed for fans to hold pocket lighters aloft.
Normal service was quickly resumed in a doomy I Feel You and the surprise inclusion of Just Can’t Get Enough. The band’s first top ten hit back in 1981, it was a song which the trio had not played since completing a mammoth American tour at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in 1988.
A positive and upbeat finale, it was the perfect way for the boys from Basildon to stamp a triumphant return.
[Daily Mail, 25th September 1998. Words: Adrian Thrills. Picture: Anton Corbijn.]
Confirming [the] most remarkable comeback in recent pop history Depeche Mode will play their first British concerts for five years next week in London, Manchester and Birmingham, having returned from their own private hell to produce last year’s excellent Ultra album.
Their Swedish date reiterated their resurgence.
The band, almost wrecked by a combination of drink, drugs and emotional stress during the making of Ultra, now perform sober onstage for the first time in an 18-year career and the results are impressive. [1]
This show, in a giant, shell-like ice hockey stadium, emphasised the band’s rare ability to mix the dark flavours of alternative rock with mainstream pop.
The present tour coincides with a compilation album, The Singles 86-98, and the Gothenburg show focused on hits from this era.
Given the length of time since the band last toured, however, it also represented the first live airing of tracks from Ultra: songs such as It’s No Good, Useless and Barrel Of A Gun were eagerly devoured here.
Like many arena concerts, the show began slowly.
Mid-tempo songs from the late Eighties and early Nineties, such as Question Of Time, World In My Eyes and Policy Of Truth, served as an easy-paced introduction before the band hit their full stride on the Motown-esque strut of Walking In My Shoes, the soul-tinged Condemnation and the bubbling funk-rock of It’s No Good.
With the three core members, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher, backed by a drummer, an extra synthesiser player and two female singers – extravagantly attired in silver dresses and pink feather boas – the music had a richness and warmth not normally associated with electronic pop.
Depeche Mode are living proof that a band do not need loud guitars to enliven a big arena. Much of this is down to vocalist Gahan, who has wrestled with his personal demons and come through fighting.
Sporting newly cropped hair and clean-cut clothes, he worked the crowd with the pluck and punch of an old-fashioned cheerleader.
Alternating the showmanship of Freddie Mercury with the sombre intensity of Kurt Cobain, Gahan is a graceful frontman and athletic dancer.
Prowling the stage, he swung his microphone stand gymnastically and moved suggestively during a soaring, disco-influenced Enjoy The Silence. Guitarist Gore and statuesque synthesiser player Fletcher provided the foil to their singer’s antics.
Gore, the band’s main songwriter, took centre stage on two numbers, Question Of Lust and Home. His sweet, yearning vocals provided a contrast to Gahan’s deep, sonorous phrasing. His guitar playing, inaudible on It’s No Good, came to the fore as the set unfolded.
Opening a series of encores with the piano ballad Somebody, Gore also provided the night with its solitary Brian Adams moment – that part of every stadium show when the lights are dimmed for fans to hold pocket lighters aloft.
Normal service was quickly resumed in a doomy I Feel You and the surprise inclusion of Just Can’t Get Enough. The band’s first top ten hit back in 1981, it was a song which the trio had not played since completing a mammoth American tour at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in 1988.
A positive and upbeat finale, it was the perfect way for the boys from Basildon to stamp a triumphant return.