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Depeche Mode My Time With Depeche Mode In East Berlin (More Intelligent Life.com, 2009)

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My Time With Depeche Mode In East Berlin (More Intelligent Life.com, 2009)

MY TIME WITH DEPECHE MODE IN EAST BERLIN
“Hi, I'm Conny Rudat. I was your interpreter at your first concert in East Berlin on March 7th in 1988.” “So I heard”, was Andrew Fletcher’s terse reply when I met him for a quick chat before Depeche Mode’s "Sounds of Universe" gig in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium over the summer. What did I expect? Did I really believe the band's bassist/keyboardist would recognise me after 21 years?
Depeche Mode Berlin.jpg
In 1987, two years before the Wall came down, East and West Berlin celebrated the city’s 750th anniversary by engaging in a bit of cultural one-upsmanship. An unspoken competition for the most attractive events inspired the East German regime to allow Western rock bands to perform, provided they agreed to be paid in East German marks (which had to be spent locally) or in kind. So Joe Cocker bought a Meissen porcelain dinner set; John McLaughlin bought high quality Praktica SLRs made in Dresden, and others spent their marks on fine musical instruments made in the GDR.

As an interpreter and translator in East Berlin, I had a unique chance to work with British and American bands and singers from 1987 to 1990. I will never forget my first job with Shakin’ Stevens, who toured East Germany in March 1987, or my last with Mick Hucknall of Simply Red in March 1990.

Depeche Mode, a British band that has long been popular in Germany (having recorded three albums in the legendary West Berlin Hansa Studios in the early 1980s), was one of the bands that benefited from East Berlin’s modest relaxation of cultural rules. I was appointed their interpreter for a couple of hours in 1988. A photo of me with the very handsome band (pictured above), taken during a press conference, hung on my bedroom wall for years.

The band is still incredibly popular in Germany. When they performed in Berlin this summer, I managed to arrange a brief meeting with Fletcher. (Unfortunately David Gahan, the band's singer, and Martin Gore, the songwriter and guitarist, couldn't be there.) When I showed him the photo, which includes Alan Wilder, my secret personal hero, who sadly left the band in 1995, Fletcher smiled and relaxed a bit.

Our conversation naturally turned to aging (we are all around the same age), our grown-up kids and the band's health (including Gahan's recent cancer surgery). Fletcher described the challenge of keeping fit for their marathon Tour of the Universe 2009. “No drugs anymore?” I asked. “Well”, he said, “music is a powerful drug.” Later, among a nearly hypnotised crowd of 68,000 fans, who had their arms up from the very first song until the very last, I conceded it had to be.
Depeche Mode 2009 001.jpg
Standing this time on the other side of the stage, I vividly remembered how it felt to be part of the backstage crew. At the time it was just a job for me, like many others. Only much later did I appreciate the singularity of the experience. After the show, I went with the four musicians and their crew to an East Berlin discotheque. It did not take long before all four had groupies on their laps, but they still needed me to translate these exchanges. The situation soon felt awkward, however, and I decided to head home, fuming and perhaps a little jealous.

But I was very proud to be the one to see them off at the airport next morning. All four of them sweetly thanked me for my work and for looking after them so well, and kissed me good-bye. Their last kiss on East German soil was definitely mine. I was in heaven.

Depeche Mode: Tour of the Universe 2009 travels to London on December 15th and 16th and then heads back to Berlin on January 9th 2010
 

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