BIOGRAPHY1988
Overview: Released this year were Hydrology, another Recoil project, the single Little 15 / Stjarna / Sonata No.14 (Moonlightsonata) and the video-collection Strange.
The third leg of the Masses-Tour began on January 9, included
11 concerts in Great Britain and ended on January 24.
Directly afterwards on January 25 Hydrology was released,
a kind of Recoil album with three long instrumental pieces
to which 1+2 was added.
Alan: "Hydrology was a step up from 1+2. It was done on
a half-inch 16-track Fostex machine. So there were limitations, but it was
much more versatile than the first thing I had done. Recoil was still very
much an aside to Depeche Mode, with no pressure or expectations placed upon
it. It was always going to be an 'antidote' to Depeche Mode in some ways; a way
to alleviate the frustrations of always working within a pop format. I have
nothing against the pop format, but if I was going to do something on my own,
there was no point in repeating what I was already doing in the group. It was
intended to be completely different and experimental. It didn't matter if it
was too left-field or too weird for people.[1]
Naive as they sound to me now, 1+2 and Hydrology still say
something about the idea behind Recoil and how the music is constructed.
From that perspective, they are still interesting.
The artwork was conceived by Martyn Atkins and the choice of images was
down to his interpretation of the music. I thought they fitted well."[2]
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 Grain:
(with friendly permission of © Recoil / Alan Wilder)
From February 6 till March 13 the second European leg
of the Masses-Tour with 25 concerts took place. In this time there also
was the legendary gig in East-Berlin on March 7.
DM had played some gigs in the Eastern Bloc before - mainly in Hungary - but
they had never been able to play in East Germany.
Fletch: "We really wanted to play in East-Berlin but we never were
allowed to. And one day
it finally worked! We knew we had a massive fanbase in East Germany: from
letters, from friends in West-Berlin, from the media. We were told we
were bigger there than the Beatles.
Later we were told that we were used as some kind of propaganda. We heard
that normal fans had no real chance to get a ticket. We didn't know this,
we just were enthusiastic to play in East-Berlin. Today I would say it
would have been better not to play that gig.
Nevertheless it was a great gig - but it was also frustrating. Fans
met somewhere but couldn't come closer to us. We hadn't known much about
our fans in East Germany before the gig and, unfortunately, we didn't know
much about them afterwards."[3]
The fifth and last leg of the tour started on April 18 in Tokyo,
included four gigs in Japan and 31 in the US. At this leg the band was
accompanied by the film director Pennebaker who filmed them and a group
of teenagers on this "roadtrip".
The film mainly shows the start of the massive success of DM in the U.S.
Alan: "The band had toured constantly in America and battled against
a radio-play brick wall for many years until suddenly things started to happen.
Of course, it was an important and exciting time for us in the U.S. and we
wanted to concentrate on this territory."
Only in L.A. things had been a bit different.
"DM has a massive following in the LA area which (more than anything else)
is probably down to one radio station - KROQ. Of course, since 1986 or so,
the band have worked that area very hard to capitalise on that success but
Richard Blade and co. have been staunch supporters of the band for many years."[4]
Fletch: "No-one believed an alternative band could play to so many people.
And again that set the ball rolling for a lot of bands after us. We were
conquering the world."[5]
David: "After that film came out, suddenly we were this 'stadium band',
which wasn't actually true - we'd played one stadium - but the perception
really changed. We started to get bigger than I'd ever imagined we'd be."[6]
David's drug problems increased already during this tour.
His preferential stuff at this time was cocaine. It was noticed by the other
band members but they didn't take care about. So obviously drugs weren't
unknown to them, otherwise they would have been alarmed.
At that time David also met Theresa [his future second wife],
what should have serious consequences later.
According to rumours things didn't run as smoothly as it
looked in the tour-film 101 in which also Jo and the baby
turned up.
There was even one
rumour saying that the tensions within the band should
have led to a fist-fight between Fletch and Alan.
Between the lines it was said that way:
David: "When you come offstage the tension is very high, you're on
an emotional high but also you can get at each other. A couple of members
of the band have come to blows just because of, maybe that's just because
someone's not playing their part properly. And it's so extreme and you're so
hyped up and you come offstage, and basically anyone gets it if they're
in the way. And a couple of times there've been fights - actually real -
they've been broken up and we've had to go back onstage to do an encore.
I think you sense a lot of the time in the film when there's real tension
in the band and possibly not getting on with each other, but then there's
other times when ..."[7]
When I had opportunity to ask Alan whether there
had been a fight or not, he said: "Yes, there was an
altercation post-gig concerning Fletch's comments about
Dave's performance during the show - which I felt were rather
rich in light of his own contribution."[8]
(Stjarna - with friendly permission of © Karen - °°k°°)
Little 15/Stjarna/Sonata No.14 (Moonlightsonata)
was the last single release although it wasn't released
in all countries. It was released on May 16.
Sonata No.14 is a piece
of Ludwig van Beethoven, an unusual choice for a pop band.
It was Martin who had the idea to publish it as a B-side,
and it was Alan who interpreted it at the piano.
About Little 15 it is said on Alan's website, that it
"was never intended as a single - in fact from the outset, it was touch and
go as to whether the track would even be recorded at all. However, encouraged
by Dan Miller, an experimental approach in the studio gave rise to a simple
ballad based around a Nyman-esque opening string arrangement. It was the French
record company who later insisted the song was perfect for their market,
resulting in a release geared towards this territory only."[9]
Over the course of time Alan answered a lot of questions about
touring with DM
while he was a member. His answers taken together give a good inside
into what, how and when happened when the band went on tour.
Already at the time of the Masses-tour DM had "a crew of a couple of
hundred people to take care of"
all kinds of things that were needed on tour. But some of the planning they
still did themselves with "our agent and Jonathan. Between us all, (taking
into account many factors) we would decide which countries and cities to play
and when. Once we had a general plan, the specific routing would be optimised,
again depending on travel times, venue availability, local promoter advice,
record release dates and other logistical considerations etc."
For the backing-tapes they used "two identical machines which ran in sync -
one was purely a back-up to the other in case of breakdown. The machines would
be started by the keyboard tech., Wob Roberts, at the beginning of the set
and were only stopped and re-started inbetween encores."
Alan was responsible for re-working the tracks so they could be used as
different live performance. "There are many subtle differences one would
apply depending on the nature of the track, what you're trying to achieve
with it, and where it comes in the set etc. Generally, live versions can take
more dynamic contrast, longer dance sections and a big ending!"
He usually worked out "8 separate tapes - basically 4 different set-lists
(red, green, blue and yellow I think) which were each split into two halves
and broken up by an acoustic song somewhere in the middle - which allowed for
the tape change. Effectively therefore, we could mix and match any combination
of 1st and 2nd half tapes. Along with a few different alternatives for Martin's
acoustic songs, this gave us the opportunity to perform many different
running orders although all of them had the same overall shape and structure.
So, for example, a quick chat beforehand might result in 'let's play the
blue / red set tonight with Somebody instead of I Want You Now
in the middle.' We could also change tapes for the encores, if necessary."
They also started to change their appearance on stage, began to use guitars and
other instruments because they "thought
it would add to the dynamics of the show as well as giving Martin and myself
an opportunity to move away from standing behind keyboards all the time.
As DM's popularity increased, it was necessary for the music and shows to
grow - it would have looked pretty ridiculous to have 4 blokes bleeping away
on little synthesisers in a massive stadium."
About 50% of the music was played live while the rest was pre-recorded
music. "Our policy was to always play as much as we could manage (without
bringing in lots of extra musicians). For me, I can't stand being on stage
with nothing to do. I would feel uncomfortable, so I always gave myself plenty
of parts to play. I liked the challenge of having to remember lots of things.
There were no special rules" about who had to play which musical parts. "It was
a question of logistics. I would just spread the sounds over the two
keyboards [Martin's and mine] as conveniently as possible."
It was also quite easy to choose the positions on stage. "Being short with a
bizarre appearance, Martin always seemed to look better in the middle. I
always chose the position nearest the monitor desk for communication with
the sound engineer." From the mixing board, there were always
recorded some "rehearsals and the first few shows of a tour. These don't
always give you an accurate balance but are good for checking performance etc."
For other bands it had never been easy to support DM. "Daniel always tried to
encourage Mute bands for obvious reasons but we would consider anyone who
seemed to vaguely fit the bill. As always, everybody had different opinions
as to who was most suitable. I must admit, it wasn't something that I felt
very strongly about so Martin or Dave usually had final say."
One of the support bands for the Masses-Tour was Nitzer Ebb. From these days
also date the several collaborations, especially between Alan and Douglas
McCarthy.[10]
(with friendly permission of © Anja - compositionofsound)
The tour ended on June 18 with the legendary 101st concert in the
Rose-Bowl of Pasadena. It became the biggest
success of the band so far and was described by the band members
as one of the greatest moments of their career, (but not as their best
performance).
Alan: "The Rosebowl performance wasn't actually one of the best
due to monitoring problems but it certainly gave us a lot of credibility
back in Europe where nobody could quite believe our popularity in the States."[11]
Fletch: "It was a turning point for us in the US and in alternate music."[12]
David: "When the curtain goes down and you see that amount of people
going crazy it's very, you know, lump in the throat stuff. Towards the end
of the concert it got so emotional that I actually found myself having
trouble singing. That sounds probably a bit twee - but it was really like
that. And I went backstage afterwards and just felt really upset that it
was all over."[13]
All band members would recall Rosebowl as their highest point and best memory
for a long time. It was obviously difficult for them to move onwards from this
point. Especially David, who got more and more into trouble, had the feeling
that there couldn't come much afterwards, that there wasn't any higher point
they could reach.
On July 12 Strange was released, a video collection with mainly Corbijn-videos that was important for the image of the band. And for the rest of the year they finally had some free time.
References:
[1] Unsound Recordings, Sound On Sound, January 1998. Words: Bill Bruce
[2] www.recoil.co.uk
[3] FR Online.de 1st November 2009. Words: Nadja Erb / Steven Geyer
[4] www.recoil.co.uk
[5] Just Can't Get Enough, Uncut, May 2001. Words: Stephen Dalton
[6] Many Smack-Free Returns! Q, June 2001. Words: Dorian Lynskey
[7] In Movie Mode, "TV-AM", ITV, February 1989
[8] Depechemodebiographie.de
[9] www.recoil.co.uk
[10] www.recoil.co.uk
[11] www.recoil.co.uk
[12] Masters Of Their Universe, The Times, 3rd May 2009, author unknown
[13] In Movie Mode, "TV-AM", ITV, February 1989
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