BIOGRAPHY1986
Overview: Released this year was the single Stripped / But Not Tonight as well as the album Black Celebration; other singles were A Question Of Lust / Christmas Island and A Question Of Time. In addition, the video collection Some Great Videos was released, and Alan started his Recoil project and released 1+2.
The concentration finally left a bit from all the
clothing questions - but only a bit. At least half of the
year music was the main topic.
With Black Celebration DM mixed the third
album in Berlin.
David: "I can't work in England anymore. It's funny. The studio is
right next to the Berlin Wall but none of us has ever been to the East. Martin
tried once but they refused him entry. Didn't like the way he was dressed.
Thought he was a hooligan." (Joke of the year :D) "People imagine we work here
because it's wow, you know, really heavy, but I don't feel that. The place is
quite suburban. Berlin's like Brixton."[1]
And about the cellar of the Hansa Studios: "Oh, yeah. It is a bit weird, innit?
I was down here doing the vocals for Shake The Disease in the dark, last
time we were here, and I was terrified. I had all noises in me headphones like
whispers, and apparently sometimes you can see the shadow of a projectionist.
It's a bit haunted, this studio." Nevertheless they had come back to it for the
third time. "Mainly because we're too lazy to find another
studio! And we know when we come here that it's going to be good. It's
probably one of the best studios in the world. Working in London, it's
difficult to get into it because we just have so many people coming to see
us. We don't go through a manager or anything. The four of us. We are the
managers.[2]"
At that time the roles increasingly were defined more clearly within the band.
Something that wasn't free of conflicts.
Fletch: "Martin's the songwriter, he's the main creative source behind
the band. Alan's the chief musician, best musician in the band. Well Dave is
the frontman of the group. A lot of people don't like his stage performance,
but he really does get the crowd going, and you can't ignore that, basically.
And he's put a lot of effort into his stage performance and into improving
his singing over the years, and I think it's worked out really well. My niche
is really on the organisational front, because we haven't got a manager and
I provide all those functions." (Interesting here is that many years later -
when Alan sold parts of his large DM-Collection - Alan was the one who turned
out as being the "list-maker" and organizer, the one who kept a record of
everything.) "I also see myself on the morale front; getting,
keeping the band together and all that sort of thing, which I think is
really important. Every band's got to have that sort of person as well."[3]
Alan: "Generally me and Martin deal with the music side, and we seem to
complement each other quite well. He is much more involved in songwriting and
melody, while I'm more interested in the rhythms and overall production. Martin
gets bored with this side of things really fast."[4]
Sometimes it bothered him that Martin didn't really care about the production
but it also gave him more space to do what he enjoyed. On the other hand
this might have been the foundation for the forthcoming problems.
"We even have the theory that Martin is a lazy sod who writes an entire album
in an afternoon but pretends he hasn't so he can take ages to think about other
things and do nothing."[5]
And: "The NME made the point that we were not adventurous enough. They said
that we could pull more out of the bag, that we were actually quite lazy.
That is true to a point, but it comes from the problem that as a democracy
we always tend to end up with a compromise between the adventurous and
conservative sides of the band."[6]
The only option they had when a vote was split was an "independent arbitration
from those we respect the most, such as Dan Miller, Flood, Jonathan Kessler
etc."[7]
(Stripped - with friendly permission of © Steve Mishos)
The single Stripped / But Not Tonight, that was
released on February 10, was the first result of all
the cooperation, compromises and tension. Much
to the dismay of the band But Not Tonight
was released in the US as an A-side.
Martin: "The American record company just think of us as a disco band
and they usually release our B-sides.[8] We'd spent three weeks perfecting
Stripped. But Not Tonight was a throwaway thing we did in a day."[9]
Alan: "The U.S. market is completely different to Europe and the
rest of the world. I don't pretend to fully understand it but whenever we
'deliver' product, they always want to do things differently to 'suit their market'.
Their argument is that 'we know our own market better than you so let us decide'
- perhaps they are right. Certainly, radio in the U.S. is a strange animal
which dictates how the companies promote the product."
Sire Records decided to use But Not Tonight for the
soundtrack of the movie Modern Girls and therefore the single was flipped.
On his website Alan explained that "the entire backbone of Stripped
was based around an idling motorbike sound generated from the original
Emulator - preset 1, and a bass drone that was eventually fed through a Leslie
cabinet. Additional sounds such as the ignition of Dave's Porsche 911 and an
array of fireworks (after all, it was Guy Fawkes Night) were recorded by Gareth
in the studio car park using his assortment of unusual mics. The mics were
placed at varying distances and heights with the fireworks being let off at
the appropriate angle to create the full stereophonic effect. A hired drum
kit was also set up in the large reception area of Westside" studio, where they had
recorded before they moved on to Berlin, "and used to sample individual sounds, most notably the
distinctive toms with their special ambience."[10]
Fletch: "The idea of Stripped is to get away from technology
and civilisation for a day and get back to basics in the country. It's about
two people stripping down to their bare emotions. In the video we're seen
demolishing a car and taking a TV apart ... it's a bit, er, symbolic."[11]
It was Peter Care who had the idea for this video and shot the promo in Berlin
just around the corner from Hansa Studios.
Alan: "It was amazing, really. Just because in the video we are
demolishing cars - the British can't bear to see material goods wantonly
destroyed. We had lots of complaints. After it was on there was probably
a film of someone having their head shot off on the news."[12]
David: "It's not about sex. It's to do with having nothing except
yourself. The people in the song could strip off if they wanted to though."[13]
The rumour that Stripped was about sex was mainly stirred up by
the German teen-magazines which offered phrases like
"they dream of naked girls".
On March 17 the album Black Celebration was released.
Some tracks have six or eight little melodies all working together in a kind
of techno-fugue what brought a completely new feeling to the songs.
Alan: "We used some melodies from the original demo,
some came about in the studio. Actually, Dan and I often felt there were too many
counter-melodies and not enough space in the music. ...
The most unusual noise that we ever sampled was probably Dan Miller saying
horse very fast. This was used on Fly On The Windscreen."[14]
David: "Black Celebration sounds a bit morbid but it's a common
thing. At the end of a working day you go out and drown your sorrows no
matter how sh*** you feel or how bleak your future looks."[15]
Martin: "It Doesn't Matter Two is very desperate. Very very morbid.
There is one quite funny song called Sometimes which is about someone
who questions their surroundings and ends up becoming tiring and over
apologetic." He laughs nervously because he is a very autobiographical pop
writer and the song is probably about him.[16]
Or as Alan said once: "Martin is very honest in his songs, almost
embarrassingly honest."[17]
On March 29 the Black-Celebration-Tour started and was split up
into four legs. The first leg took place in Great Britain and included 13
gigs. It ended on April 17 in London.
David: "I think on this whole tour the band have got to all really
pull together. We've talked about it, and we know that we're going to have
real bad times. That's something we're good at doing, otherwise we wouldn't
still be together. We've gone through a lot of bad periods. We've not really
had musical differences, but just as people. It's usually between me and
Fletch. We tend to argue sometimes, but, obviously, we both really love
each other" (laughs) "but definitely not in a soppy way!"[18]
(Many interviews with other musicians (have a look at
the interview-examples here) show that most bands are able to compensate
personal problems as long as there aren't any deep musical differences. My personal
experiences (not in a band but in several teams) show that both mostly go
hand in hand.)
Fletch (about the tour): "The atmosphere backstage [in Oxford] was
slightly tense but when we arrived on stage the reception we received easily
calmed any nerves we had. The gig went well with only a few hitches,
the main one being when I tripped over on stage during the encore,
injuring myself and nearly putting the whole tour in jeopardy. People
still remind me of this incident much to my embarrassment."[19]
In this time DM developed into a "live-power" although - I hope
fans (and the band) will forgive me - they weren't a good live-band
in the traditional sense. DM was - on the first view - a static formation
with three boys
behind programmed keyboards and a frontman who was jumping around madly and
didn't sing every note right.
Nevertheless they had a very special magic that is so fascinating that
even very critical people couldn't ignore. You probably can't go to
a DM-concert without being "blown away", because they are so atmospheric.
Talking about his own experience seeing DM for the first time live from the
audience, Alan would be very impressed by the way David was controlling the
audience. This is true, and it was true back in 1986.
Trying to compare the concerts of former days with today the fans who like
the old gigs better had difficulties to explain what was so fascinating
about them. Maybe the conclusion is: "The static and unapproachable
performance of an electronic band was something absolutely new. It was unique,
mystical and very impressive." (To this Martin said once: "I think that pushed
Dave into becoming more of a frontman. Because for years we were totally static
behind our keyboard stands. He used a lot more of the stage, ran around and
got the audience participating."[20]) 45 percent said that the "live versions were
much more creative and complex" compared to today "what is,
of course, more interesting".
But this isn't a real explanation, especially because you already could
feel this magic in the very early days when they got on stage with a
tape recorder, wore awful clothes and David was moving as if he was at a
dancing lesson.
With the very atmospheric and dark Black Celebration
this magic was growing and increased until Devotional more and more.
(Black Celebration - with friendly permission of © Alessandro Pagni)
In between on April 14 the single A Question Of Lust /
Christmas Island was released. It was a rare single with Martin carrying
the lead vocal.
Alan: "It was usually fairly easy to predict whose voice would suit
particular songs. Generally speaking, Martin's voice tended to suit ballads
and Dave's tended to suit more raucous tracks."
At the beginning of the video to A Question Of Lust Martin appeared
naked in front of the camera.
Alan: "We were in a club somewhere and, as usual, Martin managed to
take all his clothes off. The director Clive Richardson decided to bring his
camera along and that's what he got."[21]
Right after that, on April 24, the European leg started in Oslo. It
included 24 concerts and ended in Rüsselsheim on May 25.
Almost without a break the next leg started in Los Angeles on May 28,
included 29 gigs in the US and three in Japan and ended on July 23.
David: "Towards the end of the European leg of the tour I was heavily
depressed. I just wanted to go home. I did a lot of sulking because, even
though this is an ideal job which I love, it's also physically and mentally
exhausting."[22]
Fletch: "Despite this we only had a few days' rest before the daunting
prospect of the American Tour."[23]
David: "In America we get everything thrown at us - bras, suspender
belts, knickers and even shoes. After one concert we had about 40 shoes on
stage and there were no pairs! Imagine all those people hopping home!"[24]
Fletch: "We were visiting places where no electronic band had been
before. Before we left these shores we expected to do well on the east and
west coast, but in middle America we were prepared for the worst. In the
end though the whole tour was a huge success. Everywhere we went people
wanted to hear our music, I don't think they had seen a band present
themselves in a way like us, with no Drums and Guitars."[25]
Alan: "We went on a tour that just seemed to take off, particularly
in America. It seemed to be where we stepped up a gear and went from playing
smallish club venues through to quite big arenas. So, things moved very
rapidly from that point onwards."[26]
It's interesting that at this time the general interest in the U.S. in
British (electronic) bands declined more and more. DM became "hip" in the U.S.
when English bands were more or less out and American rockbands were on the top.
Fletch: "So with America over, next on the agenda was Japan. A busy
schedule of three gigs in three days meant all we saw were Trains, Hotel
rooms and Concert Halls. Fortunately for Martin the last day fell on his
birthday. After a great Concert in Tokyo, we were on a T.V. programme
where the producer gave him a video camera as a present. My thoughts
went back three weeks earlier when I spent my birthday ill in bed in
Vancouver. The World Tour was now nearing the end. While the equipment
was coming back from Japan Alan and Martin had a short stay in Bali.
Dave and myself feeling a bit homesick went home. The last leg of the
tour was a few concerts in Southern Europe ending with a final concert
in Copenhagen. This all sounds very nice but in the end we were plagued
by the weather. The concert in Bordeaux had to be cancelled because
of rain."[27]
David: "As a live band we play very loud - we're talkin' Motörhead -
but that's what it's all about. That's the power of rock 'n' roll! We've never
called ourselves a 'rock 'n' roll' band; we do everything there is to do in
rock 'n' roll. It's Called A Heart was rock 'n' roll, man!" (laughs)[28]
Martin: "We kinda subtly corrupt the world. Basically if you call
yourself a pop band you can get away with anything."[29]
And another theory of his: "Four people is the right number for a pop group.
History bears me out. Five people looks wrong and three is plain stupid.
Four looks powerful."[30] (One should remember this statement for later ...)
Already during this US-tour the band began to fall into the "party-trap" and
they started to live a real rock 'n' roll-life.
Alan: "It's exciting to be able to visit so many different places and
meet new people but constant travelling and hotel life can get you down.
Obviously the social side of things is great - clubs and restaurants want you
to frequent their establishments and will lay everything on for you. The downside
of this kind of treatment is that it's very easy to get carried away and lose
track of reality and it's very true that life on the road is like living in a
bubble. As far as the shows go, it can get boring playing the same things
night after night. I always found being on stage a surreal experience -
at times my mind would be somewhere completely different whilst my body was
on automatic pilot.
A usual day on the road is to check out of hotel at 1 or 2pm, travel to local
airfield, fly by private jet with immediate entourage (about 12 people) to
next city. Arrive 4pm approx. Go straight to gig for sound check, back to
hotel at 6pm, quick sauna / work out if there was time, leave for gig 7.45pm.
On stage 8.30 / 9pm.
When you come from stage it is 11 p.m. You need two hours for
changing clothes and some small talk and you drink one or two beer. Now it is
one o'clock in the morning and you have to go out. Before you notice it
really it is 7 a.m. and you had a lot of drinks. During a tour you get
used to that lifestyle so much that you are sleepless every night and drink without
ever feeling drunk. This became such a normal thing that you don't
recognize it as debauchery."[31]
This is the typical lifestyle of almost any band on the world. Reading
thousands of interviews with different musicians I found exactly this description
hundreds of time. One musician describes it in an interview with
depechemodebiographie.de like this: "It was like this: I came to the rehearsal -
let's have a drink first. We settled down in the tourbus - let's have a drink.
We arrived at the venue - let's have a drink. Soundcheck ... After show party ...
before you realise it you are caught in a vicious circle. It seems to be normal
to you but it'll end up in being an alcoholic." And another said, "It is easy to
lead a debauched way of life. I drank lot of beer already on stage, then we had
party the whole night through and I took a lot of drugs - to do it all over again
the next evening. A life like this is extremely short: you'll end up in prison,
you'll die or you'll stop doing that sh**!"
But before you realise the shadow sides of this lifestyle you of course enjoy
it - and at that stage of their career DM definitely enjoyed it ...
Between August 4 and August 16 the band
played a last small leg with seven gigs - mainly in Italy.
David: "It's nice to come at this time of year when, obviously,
the weather helps, but it's chaos! The actual country's in total chaos!"
Martin: "They're nice people and everything, but they're renowned for
their disorganization. A lot of the time it's untrue what countries are
famous for, but in Italy's case, it's dead true."[32]
Alan: "In this country absolutely anything can happen. It's renowned
for being totally disorganised. The last gig we played here was in a tent
and it was actually raining with condensation over the keyboards! We also
did one somewhere like this where the power chord ran through the crowd and
just as we started the last song someone cut through the cable and everything
went off. It was pitch black."
Fletch: "Oh yeah, and remember that Italian TV show we did? They kept
saying we'd be on any minute and we ended up waiting 13 hours."
David: "There was that bloke poking fun at our haircuts. I said 'Well
at least we've got some'. He was wearing a toupee. And when he said to Mart
'Boy or girl?' we beat him up. We're banned from that station."[33]
This is definitely not correct. You can watch this
interview on YouTube. The presenter asked Martin whether he
is a boy or a girl but they didn't beat him up (at least not in
front of the camera).
In between, on August 11, the single A Question Of Time,
was released.
It was mainly recorded at Hansa-Studios "with its unique ambience leaving its mark
on A Question Of Time", as Alan said, "it's difficult to say what
effect the studio had on the end results but Hansa definitely had an atmosphere
about it. Even though we were predominantly working at the very top of the
building in studio 4, we hired out the main recording room of Studio 2 and
set up a 2K PA system to send individual sounds through - effectively to beef
them up and get the atmosphere of the room. This was done much to the annoyance
of the Hansa cafe owner I might add, who had to endure 4's on the floor pounding
directly above his head for 3 days on the trot - something akin to a road
drill placed six inches from your ear. God knows what he used to put in our
food as retribution ..."[34]
A Question Of Time was the first promo to be directed by Anton Corbijn,
who would change their image in a drastic way. With Corbijn the band lost their
naive image. They were no longer a "young, poppy boy-band that might be gay".
Their music became more matured, and Corbijn gave them a darker, more masculine
style. Sometimes even a bit macho-esque (especially in his later videos like
Personal Jesus). By the way: did you know that he didn't like DM's
music in the past? This changed with A Question Of Time. It
also gave him the opportunity to film in America, something he really wanted to do.
Martin: "We had been trying to work with Anton for quite a while,
but he wasn't interested in working with us, because he felt we were too much
of a pop band, and he didn't really like what we were doing. It was probably
the third attempt when we sent him the single A Question of Time, and asked
him if he was interested in doing a video for it. And finally he actually
liked something we were doing.[35] We had a lot of bad experiences in the early
days with videos. I think that a lot of the time directors came in, I think
they just saw how young and naive we were and they were just taking the piss
- 'Let's see how stupid we can make them look, see how far they'll go!'"
David: "Video wasn't an area where we had ever felt comfortable. We
kind of stood in the background and afterwards went, 'Urrrgh, that looks
really bad dunnit?' The moment we sat down with Anton and started talking
about ideas it was pretty obvious that he was going to be part of the team."[36]
Fletch: "In the early days it was a bit of a lottery how the video turned
out. It was kind of frustrating, because we felt we weren't in control. Really,
up to the day we met Anton Corbijn, we were sometimes looking okay and sometimes
looking terrible. We didn't have a unified image really. We didn't really look
like a united band. When we started working with Anton we suddenly started to
look like a cool band."[37]
But then the focus of this first promo laid mainly on Alan: "I can't really remember the circumstances but it is possible that I was the only one prepared to get up early enough. The location was two hours outside L.A. and I think the shoot was on a day after a gig. Directors always get you to the shoot at 5 a.m. just out of spite. Later we had to struggle with the little baskets, sorry babies for hours before they would do what was required. There were mothers, nappies, bottles, toys - all kinds of chaos."[38]
Martin (to the question who is meant with the
15-year-old in A Question Of Time: "Well ummm, yes, it was written about
a person in particular. Full stop, no comment." (laughs)
David: "I think it's just looking really, observing. Rather than ...
just writing about what would happen to that person, a young attractive girl
who was very innocent, and obviously, once us lads get our hands on them,
they change."
A horde dipped teenagers appeared exactly at the moment, and one of the
girls asked whether she might kiss David on his cheek.
"No, no", he said before he gave in, "oh, alright then."[39]
(A Question Of Time - with friendly permission of © Camilo Rueda López)
On August 18 Alan released 1 + 2, two long songs
with a lot of samples and sounds, and chose the name Recoil for the
project.
Question of a fan: "Where does the name 'Recoil' come from?"
Alan: "The dictionary."[40]
(In 2010 he would answer the same question less ironic: "It's what
happens when you shoot a gun and the power of the gun throws you backwards,
that's the recoil. And I thought that was quite nice if music has that effect
on people as well ... you don't want music to wash over people and have no
effect. So I quite liked the word for that reason. But apart from that,
there was no great reason, really. It's just that it sounded good at the
time."[41])
Alan: "I did a couple of refinements at home with samples
and recorded them on cassette. Sampling was brand-new
at that time and it was exciting for me to play around
with that just for the fun of it.[42] It was a cassette demo on a 4-track
Fostex or Tascam, and only ended up being released after I played it to
Daniel. He said, 'could you re-do this?'' I didn't really have time to do
it properly, so we just decided to release it inconspicuously, as it was,
and not pay too much attention to it.[43]
We felt it was good to get anything out there and perhaps I didn't feel
that precious about it because it was only a side project at the time."
The rest of the band didn't pay much attention to this.
Alan: "They didn't say much about it. And I was quite reserved about it
at the beginning. The first release wasn't much more than a demo.
There wasn't the impression given they had been very interested in."[44]
While I never got any answer according to the question if I might stream excerpts
of Depeche-Mode-songs on this website, Alan kindly granted me to do so with
Recoil-songs.
So here is an excerpt of "2":
(with friendly permission of © Recoil / Alan Wilder)
It was a year of rather unsuccessful interviews.
There was one in which David simply talked and talked
and ... The reporter didn't manage to put forwward her questions, instead
she got things like this:
"I got really drunk at the last gig we did and didn't get back to the hotel
until four in the morning. There I was lying on the bed and suddenly I
wanted to go pee. I went into the bathroom and fell asleep on the loo.
After about an hour I tried to stand up but I slipped on a towel and went
flying through the shower - flat out on my backside, I was. I cried out for
Jo who got me back to the bed. I sneaked a look down at my ankle and nearly
died when I saw the size of it. It was like an elephant's foot. Huge. It still
hurts me now."[45]
But you shouldn't think that this had meant to cancel a show. No matter
what kind of viruses or injuries would be there - the show must go on.
Alan: "You can't just decide to have a night off just because you
feel a bit tired and once on stage, a natural adrenaline rush would always
see you through."[46]
David: "You wouldn't believe how much money I spend on clothes. Tonight
I actually ran out of leather trousers so I had to wear white cotton ones.
I get soaking wet every night and the leather goes all hard. Five gigs and
they're ruined. Tonight I even slipped about on stage it was so wet."[47]
And if you might think he would look after his wardrobe himself -
Alan: "Each band member had a travelling wardrobe and a wardrobe
person was responsible for making sure everybody's stage gear was washed
and ready to wear etc."[48]
And there was one interview
in which the reporter wanted to know something completely different but David
and Fletch didn't bother, talked about whatever they wanted to.
David: "Yes, I've got plans to have kids. I want to try everything.
Plus I'm in a good position to look after them properly, but that doesn't
mean I'll send them to private school. I want them to live and learn as I have."
Fletch: "I'm 24 now and I often get the urge - to have children that
is - but my girlfriend's just started her career and I wouldn't want to
interrupt it." (He was talking about his later wife, Grainne.)
David: "Some people are so dedicated to their job, nothing else matters
but I think that's very tunneled vision. For example, our engineer has just
had a vasectomy and he’s only young. I find that really stupid."
[And I find it very impolite to tell this in public :D] "Why not take your
baby into the office? What's wrong with that?"
Fletch: "Don't be silly."
Then they changed to another topic still far away from what the reporter
wanted to know.
David: "I think that if you've got money it's wrong to feel guilty
about spending it. I've always spent what money I've had whether it be a
fiver or five hundred."
Fletch: "That's a ridiculous attitude. You've got to have certain
values, Dave, and you need to draw a line somewhere. Personally, I think the
huge amount Martin has just spent on his new sofa is completely stupid."
David: "But Fletch you've got to enjoy life."
Fletch: "I do."
David: "I know, but you only live once and it's silly to have money
sitting in the bank."
Fletch: "Yeah Dave, but for you everything's got its price."
David: "I often don't look at prices."
Fletch: "Sure, but ..."[49]
And there really were some articles about Martin's
clothes again. Why he wore a bra with a tin of beer on
each side on stage lately? (And why did the reporter even dare to ask about?)
Martin: "It's just something I like doing. It's a laugh, it makes me
laugh when I look in the mirror, it makes other people laugh when they see
me and I'm making the whole world happy!" (laughs)
David: "And it makes people cry. Especially Fletch. 'You can't wear
that, oh God!' he comes in with his new gear on and it's quite a big event
because we wonder what he's got on this time."
Martin (laughs loudly): "In France a couple of years ago, we'd never
really had much success and I put on this gear in the dressing room when we
were doing this TV programme and Fletch took one look at me and said 'Mart,
we're never going to do anything in France if you go out looking like that!'
The next thing we knew, we had massive hits there. That was what started it."[50]
Legendary the interview Martin gave in Berlin, lying
on the asphalt. One can't say with precision
who made oneself more ridiculous.
So the reporter wanted to learn something about Martin's ambitions
as a male stripper ...
Fletch: "If he carries on drinking he could strip!"
Martin: "It's something I never really wanted to do when I was younger,
but as I've ... I've not got great ambitions to be a stripper, but I quite
like stripping."
What about doing it right here?
Martin: "It's not a question of not being an exhibitionist. The reason
I wouldn’t strip in front of Woolworth's in Berlin is it's just not the right
place to do it."
And then she asked about the leather.
Martin: "I love wearing leather. I love wearing black, but apart from
that I love the idea of ... being tied up, because I love the feeling of
helplessness, and that's the only reason. I'm not really into pain. Well,
it is about whips and chains, but it's not ... As in most of my songs, I hate
writing about a certain subject. I like writing songs that are maybe about
a certain subject, but, like, take in a greater spectrum. I hate having to
describe songs because if you try and describe them in a few words, you
never describe them fully. 'Cos sometimes I write a couple of lines and I'm
not sure what they're about. I don't know exactly what I'm trying to say, but
they fit exactly the atmosphere of the song and the music, at that point.
I hate interviews, actually, because I find it so difficult coming across
natural. I hate reading them, too. That's one reason why I don't like doing
them. I don't blame journalists, I blame myself for what I say. I know it's
really bad. It's just a question of ... I reckon if you interview us, a lot
of the time you're going to get a lot of stuff that's real rubbish. I know
when you interview me, you're going to get a lot of stuff that you're not
going to be interested in at all."[51]
The journalist probably thought she had learnt something about Martin's
personality but this interview is a good example for Martin's humour and for
being very clever when someone was too curious about special things.
Talking about funny things ... here are two tit-bits:
David: "I suppose A-Ha will take away everyone's girl audience
for a while because they're hunky good looking chaps. The problem is that
they probably speak funny."
Fletch: "They probably speak better English than you do."
David: "Rubbish. I bet they don't."[52]
[Er ... Unfortunately, Fletch is right here.
A-Ha speak English very well while it was sometimes hard work to
translate David to German. ;-)]
Fletch: "At the beginning of this project I started taking lots of
vitamins. But as soon as I stopped taking 'em I got ill. I'm not saying it's
connected, mind you, but I've been ill for the last week and a half, trying
to 'shake the disease'. Still it's better than being constipated, that's
the worst thing!"
David: "Toilet talk is one of his favourite topics. It's all he ever
talks about!"
Fletch: "Well, it's a weird thing. I mean you do it in private ..."
David: "You should interview him about toilet style ..."
Martin: "Can I just interrupt for two seconds? They need the video
title now! I've thought of something I don't like very much: Some Great Videos."
Fletch: "Yeah, because some of our videos are pretty bad, so it's not
The Videos, all of them, but some of 'em."[53]
Some Great Videos was released on September 22.
For the rest of the year the band took a little break.
References:
[1] Back to the Wall, No. 1, 22nd February 1986. Words: Max Bell / Mark Booker
[2] "I Love the Idea of Wearing Leather and I Love the Idea of Being Tied up, Because I Love the Feeling of Helplessness ...", Record Mirror, 8th February 1986. Words: Nancy Culp
[3] Depeche Mode: The Interview, Talking Music SPEEK013, 1988
[4] Basildon Bond, Blitz, April 1986. Words: Bruce Dessau
[5] Back to the Wall, No. 1, 22nd February 1986. Words: Max Bell / Mark Booker
[6] Basildon Bond, Blitz, April 1986. Words: Bruce Dessau
[7] recoil.co.uk
[8] Celebrity Squares? Sounds, 26th April 1986. Words: Dave Henderson
[9] Devout Moded, Vox, February 1993. Words: Martin Townsend
[10] recoil.co.uk
[11] Back to the Wall, No. 1, 22nd February 1986. Words: Max Bell / Mark Booker
[12] Basildon Bond, Blitz, April 1986. Words: Bruce Dessau
[13] Back to the Wall, No. 1, 22nd February 1986. Words: Max Bell / Mark Booker
[14] recoil.co.uk
[15] Back to the Wall, No. 1, 22nd February 1986. Words: Max Bell / Mark Booker
[16] Back to the Wall, No. 1, 22nd February 1986. Words: Max Bell / Mark Booker
[17] Videointerview during Masses-Tour 1988
[18] "I Love the Idea of Wearing Leather and I Love the Idea of Being Tied up, Because I Love the Feeling of Helplessness ...", Record Mirror, 8th February 1986. Words: Nancy Culp
[19] Information Service newsletter, September 1986
[20] My interview with Depeche Mode, 29.01.2010, words: oyvindholen
[21] recoil.co.uk
[22] Yes, it's Two Typical Days on Tour with Depeche Mode, Smash Hits, 27th August 1986. Words: Ro Newton
[23] Information Service newsletter, December 1986
[24] One of those Days ..., Smash Hits, 26th March 1986. Words: Chris Heath
[25] Information Service newsletter, December 1986
[26] The Story Of Depeche Mode, BBC Radio London Live94.9, May 7th 2001, Producer: Tony Wood
[27] Information Service newsletter, December 1986
[28] Depeche Mode's Kinky Moods, Creem, July 1986. Words: David Keeps
[29] If You Call Yourself a Pop Band You Can Get Away With Anything, Record Mirror, 23rd August 1986. Words: Andy Strickland
[30] Back to the Wall, No. 1, 22nd February 1986. Words: Max Bell / Mark Booker
[31] recoil.co.uk
[32] If You Call Yourself a Pop Band You Can Get Away With Anything, Record Mirror, 23rd August 1986. Words: Andy Strickland
[33] Yes, it's Two Typical Days on Tour with Depeche Mode, Smash Hits, 27th August 1986. Words: Ro Newton
[34] recoil.co.uk
[35] My interview with Depeche Mode, 29.01.2010, words: oyvindholen
[36] Interview with Depeche Mode, The Videos 86>98, Mute MF033 and Videos 86>98+, Mute MF042. Director: Sven Harding
[37] My interview with Depeche Mode, 29.01.2010, words: oyvindholen
[38] recoil.co.uk
[39] If You Call Yourself a Pop Band You Can Get Away With Anything, Record Mirror, 23rd August 1986. Words: Andy Strickland
[40] Ask Alan, Bong 6, July 1989
[41] Recoil in Bucharest - Otiliei Haraga, depechemode.ro
[42] recoil.co.uk
[43] Unsound Recordings, Sound On Sound, January 1998. Words: Bill Bruce
[44] recoil.co.uk
[45] Yes, it's Two Typical Days on Tour with Depeche Mode, Smash Hits, 27th August 1986. Words: Ro Newton
[46] recoil.co.uk
[47] Yes, it's Two Typical Days on Tour with Depeche Mode, Smash Hits, 27th August 1986. Words: Ro Newton
[48] recoil.co.uk
[49] From Lads to Dads, Just Seventeen, 19th March 1986. Words: Jenny Tucker
[50] If You Call Yourself a Pop Band You Can Get Away With Anything, Record Mirror, 23rd August 1986. Words: Andy Strickland
[51] "I Love the Idea of Wearing Leather and I Love the Idea of Being Tied up, Because I Love the Feeling of Helplessness ...", Record Mirror, 8th February 1986. Words: Nancy Culp
[52] Back to the Wall, No. 1, 22nd February 1986. Words: Max Bell / Mark Booker
[53] Depeche Mode's Kinky Moods, Creem, July 1986. Words: David Keeps
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