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Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode

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Depeche Mode: Construction Time Again (Mute)

Review by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 27 August 1983

"LOTS OF surprises in store/This isn’t a party/It’s a whole lot more," sings Dave Gahan in ‘More Than A Party’. It’s a song from Construction ...

Depeche Mode: Hanover Garbsen Stadium

Live Review by Paul Moody, New Musical Express, 19 June 1993

IN A marquee in the middle of a German field, Martin Gore is being cross-examined about the quasi-religious imagery of his lyrics by a frizzy-haired ...

Audio interviews

Depeche Mode's Martin Gore and Alan Wilder (1993)

Interview by Steven Daly, Rock's Backpages audio, Summer 1993

Messrs. Gore and Wilder talk about the stresses of recording their latest album, Songs of Faith and Devotion, and the band's internal dynamics in the studio; the effect that living in L.A. has had on singer Dave Gahan; electronic versus traditional musical instruments. Martin Gore also discusses his songwriting; the band's development from the early days... and fatherhood. Alan Wilder talks about touring, the future of Depeche Mode and his place in the band.

Part 1, Martin Gore: File format: mp3; file size: 29.3mb; Interview length: 30' 29"; sound quality: **½; File format: mp3; file size: 46.1mb; Interview length: 48' 03"; sound quality: ***

Depeche Mode's David Gahan (2003)

Interview by Chris Roberts, Rock's Backpages audio, 8 April 2003

David Gahan talks about doing his solo album; songwriting; being Martin Gore's mouthpiece; the Car Crash Years; on the road with Depeche Mode; the desire to be a rock'n'roll star; the influence of Grunge, and Dog Days in Santa Monica.

File format: mp3 File size: 56.1mb, interview length: 56' 27", sound quality: ***

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Depeche Mode: This Year's Mode(l)

Profile and Interview by Betty Page, Sounds, 31 January 1981

DISPEL FROM your minds the untenable notion that Futurists are either bored Mummy's boys tinkering with expensive gadgets or desperately earnest avant-garde merchants trying to ...

Depeche Mode: Depeche Guevara

Interview by Betty Page, Sounds, 27 June 1981

FIVE MONTHS ago the prospect of doing an interview shut inside an airless, sterile studio would have made Depeche Mode run all the way home ...

Depeche Mode: Play For Tomorrow

Interview by Peter Silverton, New Sounds New Styles, August 1981

SCENE ONE. Interior. Depeche Mode are rehearsing in a deconsecrated church on the south side of London's dockland. It's a part of the capital that's ...

Systems Muzak: Depeche Mode at The Venue, London

Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 1 August 1981

THOSE ARBITERS of modern taste who would wish on you the indecencies of things like Spandau Ballet are generally the same people who can be ...

Depeche Mode, the Chefs, Tarzan 5: ICA Rock Week, the Institute of Contemporary Art, London

Live Review by Leyla Sanai, New Musical Express, 5 September 1981

THE SECOND day of the ICA Rock Week sees the immaculate combination of the Chefs, Tarzan 5 and Depeche Mode. The Chefs are high-grade Peelie ...

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Report by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 1 October 1981

Merit Badges Goes To Dianaland ...

Depeche Mode: Speak And Spell (Mute)

Review by Betty Page, Sounds, 19 December 1981

THE FACT that the boys chose to depict an absurd, surreal swan draped in a plastic bag on their LP cover rather than to sell ...

Depeche Mode: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 20 February 1982

FAST FORWARD TO THE FUTURE! ...

Depeche Mode: Speak & Spell; Soft Cell: Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret; Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: Architecture & Morality

Review by Jim Green, Trouser Press, March 1982

PUNK BANDS made up in sheer energetic vitality and charm what they lacked in technique. The young electronic bands now taking the British charts by ...

Depeche Mode: No Time To Even Think

Interview by Mike Stand, New Sounds New Styles, March 1982

"HELLO MARTIN," I said to the spikey redhead peering round the door. "Andy," said Andy, smiling nonetheless. ...

Depeche Mode: Perkins Palace, Pasadena CA

Live Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 24 July 1982

TECHNO-BUBBLE gum came to Perkins in the form of Depeche Mode, the most melodic of the new English synthesizer bands and the one most steeped ...

The Meaning Of Mute

Profile and Interview by Johnny Black, Masterbag, September 1982

(1) Not emitting articulate sound:NOT THAT YOU could blame him if his utterances were totally inarticulate, because Daniel Miller has been having a hard and ...

Depeche Mode, Fad Gadget: Ace Cinema, Brixton

Live Review by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 8 January 1983

SOME OF the many moods of Mute were on show tonight. Label mates Depeche Mode and Fad Gadget would appear to be polar opposites, but ...

Depeche Mode: Modes to Freedom

Interview by Betty Page, Record Mirror, 22 January 1983

A YELLOW PLASTIC watering can rests idly on the floor, haying just recovered from a bashing the previous night in the name of 'percussive effects'. ...

Depeche Mode: Crushing The Wheels Of Industry

Report and Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 7 January 1984

SPARKLERS. That's how German audiences display affection and appreciation. Sparklers, plus the odd lone klaxon crying out like a wolf with a peg on its ...

Depeche Mode: Are These Men Really Miserable?

Interview by Johnny Black, Smash Hits, 15 March 1984

Believe it or not, they aren't. Depeche Mode still haven't quite made the Big League but they don't seem to mind much. They're huge in ...

Depeche Mode: Empire, Liverpool

Live Review by Penny Kiley, Melody Maker, 6 October 1984

SOFT SELL ...

Depeche Mode: Modeahead? Uh-Uh… But How Do You Rate The Review, Lads?

Review by David Quantick, New Musical Express, 6 October 1984

Depeche Mode: Some Great Reward (Mute) ...

Depeche Mode: Strange But True

Report and Interview by Neil Tennant, Smash Hits, 22 November 1984

WHEN DEPECHE MODE were in Berlin a few months ago, they got a bit drunk while doing an interview and let a photographer take some ...

Depeche Mode: Deconstruction Time Again

Interview by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 20 December 1984

You thought they were prissy pinkos. But no! They drink, talk to girls, wear leather mini-skirts! Don Watson walks tall with Depeche Mode, the new ...

Depeche Mode: Boys Keep Swinging

Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 19 January 1985

Pop groups come and go, but Depeche Mode keep on getting bigger and better. Max Bell joined them on tour in German — and if ...

Private Lives: The Depeche Mode Story, Pt. 2 – Martin Gore, The Decadent Boy

Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 11 May 1985

In the second part of our exclusive Depeche Mode series Martin Gore talks about his steady progression from milkmaid to bank clerk to popstar in ...

Depeche Mode: "Four people is the right number for a pop group. Five looks wrong and three is plain stupid."

Report and Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 22 February 1986

FOR DEPECHE Mode, Berlin has become a second home. It's a city which suits their temperament and throws a reflection across their music. Berlin is ...

Depeche Mode: One Of Those Days...

Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 26 March 1986

...you know, when the alarm doesn't go off and you've got a cold and your radio's conked out and the gerbil's chewed the corner off ...

Depeche Mode — A Black Celebration

Live Review by Max Bell, No. 1, April 1986

MAX BELL TAKES A LOOK AT DEPECHE MODE before, during and after their Black Celebration! ...

Depeche Mode's Kinky Moods

Interview by David A. Keeps, Creem, July 1986

WHAT WOULD you call a band that wears a lot of black leather, sings about 'Masters And Servants' and claims that "God has a sick ...

Depeche Mode: Fzss!... Zwiing! Aaargh!... Hahahahah!!

Report by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 6 May 1987

Hark! Depeche Mode are having a party — i.e. they're having "a" drink, scoffing streamers, pretending to be space-men, cavorting under tables, stealing "a" drink ...

The Montreux Pop Festival

Report and Interview by William Shaw, Smash Hits, 3 June 1987

What are Curiosity Killed The Cat, Boy George, Whitney Houston, Beastie Boys, A-ha and three squillion other pop stars doing in a little town in ...

Depeche Mode: The Dire Straits Of The Synth Generation?

Interview by Jack Barron, Sounds, 5 September 1987

THE SUN RISES just after five in the morning. As a freshly finished glitter-mix booms, "Everyone's looking for a reason to live/If you're looking for ...

Basildon Bondage: Depeche Mode: Music For The Masses (Mute)

Review by Jane Solanas, New Musical Express, 3 October 1987

PERSONALLY, I couldn't care less whether The Pet Shop Boys are gay or not. What I want to know is, are Depeche Mode perves? ...

Spreading A Pack Of Lies About Depeche Mode

Interview by Jon Young, Creem, April 1988

OR, NEW WAYS TO HAVE FUN ...

Depeche Mode, Wire, Thomas Dolby, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: Rose Bowl, Pasadena CA

Live Review by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 16 July 1988

WIRE HAVE probably not played to 100,000 people in total as they've skimmed their precious stones across the edges of a strange pop history. And ...

Depeche Mode: California Screaming

Report by Paul Mathur, Blitz, September 1988

In Britain, they're known as just another plinky plonk band. But in the USA, the boys from Basildon are megastars. Paul Mathur visits California during ...

Depeche Mode's Synthetic Survival

Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Musician, October 1988

You can't stop the beating of a human heart ...

Modus Operandum: Depeche Mode in Detroit

Interview by John McCready, The Face, 1989

IT'S JUST after one at the best club on the planet. This is Detroit’s Music Institute, an all-night and most-of-the-next-day juice bar with a sound ...

Depeche Mode: Modernists à la Mode

Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 12 March 1989

JON SAVAGE enters the futuristic visions of Depeche Mode, where androgyny meets electro-pop ...

Depeche Mode: 101

Review by Robert Sandall, Q, April 1989

72,000 sunny Californians go monkey-poo to the pitch-perfect sound of Depeche Mode. ...

Depeche Mode: The Unlikely Lads

Profile and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, April 1989

The latest stadium-filling attraction in the States is a band that began as a cheaply equipped electronic pop act from Basildon. Today, Depeche Mode are ...

Depeche Mode: Violator

Review by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 10 March 1990

DEPECHE MODE have always been the poor relations of New Order and Kraftwerk, offering pedestrian, sometimes inconsequential variations on the electro-pop theme. Their simplified interpretations ...

Depeche Mode: Violator **

Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 14 June 1990

AS EDISON MIGHT have put it, most great disco is one-percent inspiration, ninety-nine-percent perspiration. Its unguarded vulgarity is what puts it over – "I'm not ...

Staying Mute

Profile and Interview by John McCready, The Face, August 1990

ELECTRONIC. TEUTONIC. Independent. European. Regardless of the reality of its catalogue, Mute Records has a certain image. Like any record label with a desire to ...

Depeche Mode: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Smash Hits, 25 December 1990

A "STOCKY" BLOKE in white jeans and perv-o-sparkle glitter jacket! A fright-wigged blonde bloke in a chain-mail mini skirt! A bespectacled bloke who stands grimly ...

Depeche Mode: Songs of Faith and Devotion

Review by Andy Gill, Q, April 1993

THEIR LAST album, Violator, was a quantum leap over Depeche Mode's previous output, as if the live-double compilation, 101, had purged their past. Buoyed by ...

Depeche Mode: In the Mode

Interview by William Shaw, Details, April 1993

Depeche Mode are (1) techno pioneers, (2) synthpop pervs, (3) the Second Coming. During the making of their new LP, Songs of Faith and ...

Depeche Mode, The Sisters Of Mercy: Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, London

Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 7 August 1993

GOOD VIOLATIONS ...

Depeche Mode/Sisters of Mercy: National Sports Centre, Crystal Palace, London

Live Review by Chris Roberts, Melody Maker, 7 August 1993

"THAT'S IT THEN," bellows the portly juggler, with some relief, on the train back to civilisation. "Done The Mode. Tick that one off." ...

Depeche Mode: Faith And Devotion

Discography by Dave Thompson, Goldmine, 27 May 1994

DEPECHE MODE emerged from within one of the most confused periods British pop has ever undergone, a period during which punk's predatory napalm was still ...

Dave Gahan: Dead Man Talking

Interview by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 18 January 1997

IN AN UPSTAIRS lounge at Abbey Road Studios, a man perched on the edge of a large black sofa stares at the video images on ...

Depeche Mode: Synth and Sensibilities

Interview by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 25 January 1997

Last week Dave Gahan flabbered your collective 'gast with his terrible tale of all-round narcotic foolishness. In the second part of our DEPECHE MODE exclusive ...

Depeche Mode: They Just Couldn't Get Enough

Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, March 1997

"I heard it on the radio: Dave had overdosed, nearly died, then been arrested for drugs offences. That was when I thought Depeche Mode were ...

Depeche Mode and Primal Scream: The Most Debauched Tour Ever

Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Q, August 1998

Depeche Mode have been touring for almost a year. Drug and alcohol abuse is rife and the group are close to breaking point. The obvious ...

Depeche Mode: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Carl Loben, Melody Maker, October 1998

CITED BY MANY electronica artists as an early influence, Depeche Mode began life as chirpy synth-poppers in the early '80s before moving into superb clangers ...

Depeche Mode's sonic revival: The godfathers of techno tour again

Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, October 1998

IT'S ABOUT A month ago, and Depeche Mode -- Martin Gore, David Gahan, and Andy Fletcher -- are in England, on the eve of a ...

Various Artists: Dawn Of Electronica

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 2000

Founding fathers of technopop come together in electro land ...

Depeche Mode

Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, May 2001

DAVE GAHAN can't breathe. He can also hear nothing. Which is a little odd because there are 30,000 Depeche Mode fans just yards away, screaming ...

Depeche Mode: Waldbühne, Berlin

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 22 September 2001

STILL GAHAN STRONG ...

Dave Gahan: New life

Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 26 May 2002

In the early days of Depeche Mode, cider was Dave Gahan's worst vice. Then came speed, smack and a trip to hospital. Now, he tells ...

The Day I Met Four Terrified Teenagers Called Depeche Mode

Memoir by Beverley Glick, beverleyglick.com, 2005

In the fourth extract from my '80s memoir, another brand-new pop group gets interviewed by Sounds' Betty Page, who is fast establishing herself as the go-to ...

Depeche Mode: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 9 April 2006

THE LAST DEPECHE Mode gig I attended, right here at Wembley in October 2001 when they were promoting the dreary (and criminally mis-named) Exciter album, ...

Dave Gahan meets Brandon Flowers

Interview by Ken Scrudato, Working Class, 2009

RECENTLY, while immersed in the eerie drug-sex double entendre of 'Never Let Me Down Again', a friend commented to me, "What's with Depeche Mode? They ...

Depeche Mode

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The National, April 2009

IF THERE was a manual that rock bands could follow to guarantee long-term success, Depeche Mode would probably fail every test. During three decades together ...

Depeche Mode: Universal Truths And Sounds

Interview by John Doran, The Stool Pigeon, April 2009

It's all tea and biscuits for Depeche Mode these days, and a trip back to the future ...

Depeche Mode:

Review and Interview by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, 17 April 2009

How the trio escaped their demons to make a great album ...

Depeche Mode: Sounds Of The Universe

Review by Dorian Lynskey, Q, May 2009

AT THE 12th time of asking, to play the fan-pleasing goth-pop card, or to attempt something more testing? Alas, once again, it's the former. ...

Depeche Mode

Retrospective and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, June 2009

JUST 29 YEARS into Depeche Mode's evolution from hoppity-boppity three-minute wonders of Futurism to global phenomenon of electronic rock and here's sempiternal hit songwriter Martin ...

One Nation Under a Moog: How Britain Went Synthpop

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 10 October 2009

As new BBC4 documentary Synth Britannia shows, the synthesizer first dehumanised then re-humanised British pop, fulfilled the DIY promise of punk, and changed how bands ...

Vince Clarke and Martin Gore: Silent Mode

Report and Interview by Rob Hughes, The Word, May 2012

Vince Clarke and Martin Gore were out of touch for 30 years, then made a record by email, only speaking to discuss the title. Weird ...

Palma Violets: 180

Review by John Aizlewood, bbc.co.uk, 23 February 2013

South London quartet's debut suggests they've the potential to be unstoppable. ...

Depeche Mode: Delta Machine

Preview by Luke Turner, The Quietus, 7 March 2013

DEPECHE MODE are back with their 13th album, and Luke Turner sits down with it for an instant, track-by-track appraisal ...

Depeche Mode

Profile and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, June 2013

SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST, "the world's leading music industry event". Depeche Mode are onstage in a conference room at Austin Convention Center answering questions about the ...

Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan: "Why I don't understand my own band"

Profile and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 1 June 2017

WHEN NEIL TENNANT of the Pet Shop Boys was the assistant editor of Smash Hits, he made the following observation: ...

see also Yazoo

see also Dave Gahan

see also Recoil

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