No Mode Heartache
[Record Mirror, 7th May 1983. Words: Mark Cooper. Picture: Francesco Melling.]
NO MODE HEARTACHE
Depeche Mode
Kabuki Nightclub, San Francisco
Punk never penetrated the American charts, pure pop will (writes our former middle-aged correspondent). Punk stayed in the major cities, an urban cult. Powder puff pop is being beamed all over America by cable TV and radio stations that are playing dance music, calling it urban contemporary. Suddenly America has gone pop.
Pop in the States means British and teenage. The bands are British, the audience is teenage. Adam now gets the same screams here he got in Britain last year, Duran Duran are enormous. The altogether more worthy Depeche Mode are still a cult despite the fact that they are as teenage and suburban as their audience. Are they too ordinary to be pin-ups or will they wind up giving teenage kicks to teenage kids?
Ultimately the Mode offer only a bit of cheek and youth. Their pop is pretty and danceable and frequently intelligent. Like most pop, it’s too clean to be truly exciting live music. Whoever replaced rock and roll with pop forgot about that.
[Record Mirror, 7th May 1983. Words: Mark Cooper. Picture: Francesco Melling.]
NO MODE HEARTACHE
Depeche Mode
Kabuki Nightclub, San Francisco
Punk never penetrated the American charts, pure pop will (writes our former middle-aged correspondent). Punk stayed in the major cities, an urban cult. Powder puff pop is being beamed all over America by cable TV and radio stations that are playing dance music, calling it urban contemporary. Suddenly America has gone pop.
Pop in the States means British and teenage. The bands are British, the audience is teenage. Adam now gets the same screams here he got in Britain last year, Duran Duran are enormous. The altogether more worthy Depeche Mode are still a cult despite the fact that they are as teenage and suburban as their audience. Are they too ordinary to be pin-ups or will they wind up giving teenage kicks to teenage kids?
Ultimately the Mode offer only a bit of cheek and youth. Their pop is pretty and danceable and frequently intelligent. Like most pop, it’s too clean to be truly exciting live music. Whoever replaced rock and roll with pop forgot about that.