The unusual name of Depeche Mode was chosen by Gore after the title of a French fashion magazine. It would roughly mean fashion news, but the members of the band loved the way it sounded. It was also very much in style with the new wave tastes and ideas.
After a successful first album, Speak and Spell (1981), Vince Clarke - who was the main composer and leader of the band - anounced that he was disatisfied with the way things were working out, that he was in it more for the music than commercial hits, and chose to leave Depeche Mode. He would later play in Yazoo, The Assembly and in Erasure, but he never enjoyed the same level of popularity as with Depeche Mode. Many thought it was the end for the new group, like so many others before them had simply disapeared, but Martin Lee Gore thought differently. He became the composer, lyricist and leader of Depeche Mode, they found a fourth member (Alan Wilder) and in a short time they began recording their second album, A Broken Frame (1982), better, darker and gloomier than the first.
By the middle of the 80s Depeche Mode was in a strange predicament - their records (both LPs and singles) had mediocre sale and rarely were hits, but their concerts were almost always sold-out, and the number and dedication of fans (especially in Germany and Eastern European countries) were truly shocking. It would be the beginning of the very best years for Depeche Mode.
It was also in the mid-eighties, in 1985, that they first played behing the Iron Courtain, in Budapest and Warsaw, and released their very first video concert, a VHS titled The World We Live In and Live in Hamburg, containing most of a 1984 show.
In 1986-1987 Depeche Mode released two essential albums for electronic music, Black Celebration and Music For the Masses, followed by huge tours for the band, setting new records in the American and European concerts.
While the 1990 LP Violator was a huge hit for Depeche Mode, the band would later go through difficult times and would almost broke up over the following years, especially after Alan Wilder chose to quit the group.
So far Depeche Mode has sold over 100 million albums and singles all over the world and are recognised as one of the most influential and important bands in the world.
Photo: classicalbumsunday.com
May 2016
