BIOGRAPHY1990
Overview: Released this year were the single Enjoy The Silence / Memphisto / Sibeling and the album Violator, other singles were Policy Of Truth / Kaleid and World In My Eyes / Happiest Girl / Sea Of Sin as well as another video-collection, Strange Too.
On February 5 Enjoy The Silence / Memphisto / Sibeling
was released. It became the band's most successful single to date,
reaching number six in the UK, number eight in the US and earning
the band a second gold single. It was in the top ten of many West European
countries and earned gold in Germany. It won "Best British single" at the
1991 Brit Awards.
Enjoy The Silence actually had been a ballad
before Alan had the idea to make it more upbeat:
"When I listened to the demo of
Enjoy The Silence the first time it occurred
to me that Neil Tennant could sing it. Something at the line
all I ever wanted sounded like hamster ...
er ... Pet shop to me. Martin's demos always had a complete set of
lyrics but musically they varied from sometimes being quite detailed to
often very simplistic. I felt that to have taken the simple ballad approach
for this song would have been to criminally pass on its massive commercial
potential. It was a great tune crying out for the kind of treatment it eventually
got. Flood and I worked on the backing track before calling Martin in to play
the guitar riff."[1]
Martin: "I thought the very nature of the song was, you know, enjoy the
silence, so it ought to have a very serene atmosphere. It took me a while to
get used to the idea, but as we took it further that way with the guitar riff,
it really pulled together."[2]
David: "I remember him sitting there and playing it, and he came up with
this riff, and then I sang the song and everyone was surprised that I sang
it so well - including myself." (laughs)
Fletch: "It's the first time ever in our whole career that we've
actually thought we've got a hit single. We just knew straight away."[3]
The same can be said about the video although DM didn't like Corbijns concept
at first. Especially David was very sceptical, and the band even asked Corbijn
to come up with another idea, but later not only David changed his
mind: Enjoy The Silence was Anton [Corbijn] at his best."
Fletch: "We went into a studio and Anton said 'This'll only take a
while.' And then he said after an hour, 'Well you can go home now,' and we
thought 'Oh, great!'. And poor old Dave, he had six days of filming in freezing
conditions."
David: "We spent about a week filming that. It was quite hard work, but
it was a lot of fun. And I got to dress up as king, with the crown and
everything. We done it in Portugal, we went to Scotland, at Balmoral, we
went up in the French Alps ... it was basically myself and Anton, and the
producer Richard Bell travelling all over Europe. There's shots in that
video that actually weren't me. Towards the end of filming there's this
one shot and I'd really had it, I just wanted to go back to the hotel.
We'd taken this helicopter which we had on standby at the top of this
mountain, and Anton wanted me to do this shot where I was like way way
away, and there was this beautiful scene, it was just all snow ... And
so I thought, 'You know what, Richard?'' I took the crown off, I put it on
his head, I took the robe off, I put it on him, I said, 'You f*** do it.'
And I got in the helicopter, went down and had a cup of hot chocolate in
the hotel."[4]
(Enjoy The Silence - with friendly permission of © Ingo B.)
In these days the band had to face something they hadn't known before, at
least not in such a massive dimension: being hip.
David and Alan gave an interview for a radio station
in Madrid on March 1. When they came back
to the car they were received by about 500 fans.
The driver wanted to take a short cut quickly, but
was held back by a lorry which blocked the street so
that the fans could catch up with the car and surrounded it.
On March 19 the album Violator was released, that would
become the most successful in their history. One day later
DM appeared at Wherehouse (a big record shop)
in L.A., to sign Violator. According to reports
about 5,000 fans had camped around the shop already
four days before. Then about 20,000 people came to the signing hour.
The traffic caved in, the police tried to bring
the situation under control but gave up after 90 minutes
and escorted DM back to their hotel to prevent worse.
Nevertheless there had been quite a number of
incidents and even injured people.
David: "It actually got quite scary. The whole thing got a little
bit out of control. There was no way we could have known that there was
going to be so many people turn up. They have these huge glass windows and
fans were pushing up against the window. You could feel the atmosphere in
the place building up. We just all kind of looked at each other and said, 'We
gotta get out of here!'"
Martin: "Eventually it got so out of hand that the police told us to
leave. So we went back to the hotel, switched on the TV and there we were
all over the nationwide news."[5]
David: "All sat down together and we flicked through all the news
channels and it was like, 'English rock band Dee-Pesh Mode tonight stopped
the traffic!'" (laughs) "It was really funny watching it all."[6]
Ironically this incident was the reason why DM became really big in the U.S.
from this day onwards. A lot of media got aware of them what created a general
interest.
By the way - did you know that Violator is not only the most successful
album but it is also on the top of the favourite albums in almost all polls
of several message-boards and fan-websites? Taken eight different polls together
Violator is lonely on the top in front of SOFAD, Music For The Masses,
Black Celebration and Ultra. These are the top 5. A Broken Frame
is on the last place. (Note that some of these polls were done before the release
of SOTU but they all included Playing The Angel.)
Martin: "I just write about things that affect me ... I find it very
unappealing to write songs that are safe, that go nowhere, that do nothing.
I know that Clean has a lot of holy imagery, and that intertwines with
the sex theme, which are two ideas I find interesting to mix together. But
I don't try to analyze things.[7] I was never a Christian but I did go to
church regularly for about two years and it's certainly rubbed off on me.
I'm almost obsessed with the idea of good and evil. I suppose my songs do
seem to advocate immorality but if you listen there's always a sense of guilt.
On Halo I'm saying 'let's give in to this' but there's also a real
feeling of wrongfulness. Then there's Blue Dress - that's the pervy song! -
the idea of watching a girl dress and realizing that this is
what makes the world turn. On the opening track World In My Eyes
you seem to be saying 'just for this moment pleasure and gratification are all
that matters'. It's a very positive song. And I don't mind you bringing up
existentialism because I am influenced by that. I'm probably as influenced
by Camus, Kafka and Brecht as I am by pop songs.[8]
Perhaps we should have described ourselves as a rock group. Maybe if we'd
done that people might have taken us a bit more seriously. But we aren't.
We are a pop group and proud of it. The only songs I can write are pop songs,
no matter how dark and pervy some people might find them. We called it
Violator as a joke. We wanted to come up with the most extreme,
ridiculously Heavy Metal title that we could. I'll be surprised if people
will get the joke. However, when we called an album Music For The Masses,
we were accused of being patronising and arrogant. In fact it was a joke on
the uncommerciality of it. It was anything but music for the masses!"
(The "connection" between DM and Metal are quite funny indeed. While Martin has
his fun to name three DM-albums (Violator, Ultra and Exciter) in
a "metalwise" way (there are lots of bands in the Metal-scene that are using
these names as band-name or album-titles), you can find lots of DM-titles with
Metal-bands on the other hand. Just to give one example of many: In 1991
Massacra published an album with the title Enjoy The Violence. There is
also a Metal-tribute-album to DM with some amazing versions. When you talk to
"metalheads" you'll find lots who like DM because "they have substance".)
Alan: "There's much more humour than we're given credit for. Perhaps
it's just that ours, or particularly Martin's is a little specialized.
It's no bad thing to be dark once in a while. Radio 1 don't particularly
want to play us but they're forced to because of our following. It's good
that there are a few bands like us to counteract all that
'jolly-jolly-party-Kylie'."[9]
David: "People nevertheless like us. It's just down to the songs, and the care we take with them. We've never jumped on any bandwagons or tried to go along with the trendies. Even though we're into our second decade, it still seems very fresh. We never wanted to be big for five minutes and that's it. Plus, we've changed, and all the changes have been natural. No one has ever pushed us in any direction - we do exactly what we want, the way we want. There's still that naivety of learning, of trying to better ourselves, and it's all done with an intense energy, a power and urgency that's lacking in so many other bands around. We're off in our own little world, really.[10] Nowadays, I think pop and rock is a lot more normal and controlled. That's sad. I think the music business itself is partly to blame for that because of the way bands are manipulated. The way management sells bands. Yeah, it's sad that the rebellion has gone out of pop. That's what interested me in the first place in bands like Sham 69, The Clash, The Damned and The Banshees. That's what made me want to be in a band, y'know. For me, that was the most exciting period of my life. At the time, nothing else mattered. I did the classic thing - dropped out of school, not bothering with exams. Now I look back and wish I'd done it. I wish I'd got a better education. Learned some languages. When I got to France, Italy or Germany, I realized how thick I am. Just another stupid Englishman who hasn't learned another language. An ignorant bastard basically.[11]"
Although this sounded indeed much more seriously than within
the earlier years there were nevertheless still some highlights
from time to time. Sometimes the band members were to blame for it themselves.
So Alan entered a hotel bar in Florida, in which they had an
appointment for an interview and immediately said: "I've been called a
faggot about twenty times today. Mostly from guys leaning out of trucks.
This is a sort of backward place, isn't it?"
David: "It's the haircut. In America, people think you're homosexual
just because you've got short hair. Except for the marines. We'll just have
to hang out with the marines."[12]
Later David sent his bodyguard for an
orange juice. A fan used this change to approach him:
"Martin, can I have your autograph? Have you got a pen?"
"Sure", David replied smiling, "but my name is Dave."
The scene recurred with another fan a little later:
"Martin, can I have your autograph?"
David (rolled his eyes, irritated obviously): "To begin with, my name's
Dave, and I don't have a pen."[13]
(with friendly permission of © Adrianna
- the picture was painted by her and signed by Dave)
On May 7 the single Policy Of Truth / Kaleid was released.
The Worldviolation-Tour was in comparison with Masses-Tour much shorter and
was splitted up in three legs. To use the success in the US they started with
the US-leg on May 28. It included 42 concerts and ended
on August 5.
Many fans have been wishing up till today there would have been a DVD about
the Worldviolation. About the reasons why there hadn't been released a DVD
after the tour Alan explained: "After 101, to have released
another live record or even live B-sides would have been milking it too much.
The Worldbiolation tour was too soon after the Music For The Masses.
The 101 LP + film
seemed to sum up DM live very well and we felt it was time to give the live
tracks a rest. I'm sure there are some recordings from Worldviolation but
I don't know if they will ever be released."[14]
According to insiders Worldviolation had been a very wild and debauched
tour, on which all band members had taken Ecstasy.
Although it's obvious and Jonathan Miller quoted Martin with that he had taken
Ecstasy, it's nevertheless something
to be careful with. While Miller quoted Fletch with that he had never taken any Ecstasy,
one of Malins' insider told he had.
They themselves - except David - always were a bit vague when it came to
this topic.
Alan: "The more Martin drinks the more affectionate he
becomes. He collects complete strangers around him and tells
them his life-story, but different to Dave he has never
left an expanse of rubble. Perhaps Dave must make trouble
to humble himself. Martin remains cool and many things never
come to the light. To be honest, the alcohol was worse than
any other things, but drugs played a large role during the
Violator-time: Ecstasy, cocaine - everything
apart from heroin - then Dave began with heroin
during Worldviolation. I think it must be up to his personality.
He simply needs the ultimate extreme."[15]
Martin: "To be honest, I don't like talking about drugs too much.
It's something that doesn't sit comfortably with me in interviews. We
did go to raves in those days. I discovered them in '88, just before I
started writing Violator ..."
Fletch: "I think the answer is yes, maybe!"[16]
Martin: "Everybody has a honeymoon period with drugs where everything's
fine and you can bounce back the next day. But that didn't last very long for
me. I was always depressed for weeks afterwards."[17]
So I think the answer is yes, maybe ;)
Besides there are insiders, saying they had had a lot of groupies during
both tours - Worldviolation and later Devotional as well - but here it is
the same: it's only David who said he had some. The other three are much
more diplomatic here, talking about that they "had their fun", and there
was one interview in which a "girl" appeared too early for a "date"
with Martin.
According to interviews with other musicians in the 80's and beginning 90's
it was extremely easy to have as many groupies as they wanted to have. One
remarked in an interview with depechemodebiographie.de: "In the 80s and 90s
is was much easier to have sex with groupies. Nowadays this is more difficult.
It's not because of the girls but everything is more distanted. And you are
observed much more. If you take a groupie with you to your hotel room, the
other day someone will report about it in some f*** message board."
That there aren't any girls who sold their stories to the media isn't
astonishing to the fans. 41 percent think that DM "isn't mainstream
enough to create a general interest" so that "the yellowpress wouldn't have
been interested in stories like these."
However, their lifestyle became more and more debauched, and David was no
longer that relaxed. At parties he lost more and more control and often overdid it.
Fletch: "I think he just felt that performing was the only thing he
could do right. He was very emotional with all of us. I personally tended to
steer clear of him."[18]
In 1990 David still tried to express himself very
diplomatically and didn't name the things clearly:
"Our lifestyle does have its ups and downs, and it's sometimes a struggle to
keep things together because I'm away so much. That's a massive pressure,
trying to maintain a family and do year-long tours at the same time. I
definitely want to have more children but at the moment it's really difficult.
When Jack was born two years ago, I was with him for his first three weeks
and then I was off on tour for the whole of the next year. It's a schizo life
and it can cause arguments, but I love both parts of my life so much that I
carry on. It'd be a lie to say we haven't done those things, whether in the
past or the present. I think we've experienced pretty much everything. You
can get tempted by things, certainly, like drugs or girls, but they can't
help but affect your relationships, marriage, whatever. I've been through
this myself, and it's only when I saw how I could lose the things that
were really special to me that I realized how superficial those
on-the-road attractions really were. I'm talking from personal experience
here, but I don't really want to go into it. [19] You go through these
extremities - playing the field, excesses of alcohol and stuff - and you
come out of it a lot wiser. I'm a family man now. I like to go back home and
be with my wife and little boy.[20]"
At that time he still was trying to save his marriage. When there wasn't
anything to save anymore things sounded quite differently:
"I cheated my wife. Often. You make yourself blind and you go
out there. It's great to meet lots of different girls and have fun, but then
you realise what a s*** you are and how you're destroying other people's
lives - or life - with it. And it had been building up for years. I think ...
Well, I know, well ... I think pretty much I know ... that my wife, my previous
wife, was completely faithful to me. And I'd go back to her and ... not lie,
because Joanne wouldn't even ask me things. I'm sure she suspected it.
She wasn't stupid.[21] I felt trapped by everything that was around me.
The last go round was great, we had a lot of success and Violator was
huge round the world - and I should have been on top of the world, and I
wasn't. I had everything I could possibly want, but I was really lost. I
didn't feel like I even knew myself any more. And I felt like s***, cos I
constantly cheated on my wife, and went back home and lied.[22] I was really
bored and really safe. I felt really safe in my life in England in lots of
ways, and I didn't like it. There I was with a loving, caring wife, a new
baby, a big house in the country, a couple of cars in the drive, and it
just didn't feel right.[23]"
Besides, he thought he had fallen in love with Theresa.
"It was like being smashed on the head with a hammer. You look at yourself in
the mirror one morning and suddenly everything's very, very different and the
whole perspective has suddenly changed. Teresa brought out some emotions in me
that I hadn't discovered, like love. I think I was just denying my true
feelings a lot of the time, having to lie my way through a lot of my life
with people I was supposed to respect and love and care for."[24]
In 1990 also David's physical father died what was another
heavy blow for him and contributed that it pulled the rug
out from under him.
(Waiting For The Night - with friendly permission of © Pablo Maza Castillo)
From August 31 until September 12 the "world-leg" with
concerts in Australia and Japan took place.
On September 17 the single World In My Eyes / Sea Of Sin / Happiest
Girl was released, before on September 28 the European leg started
that ended after 38 concerts on November 27 in Birmingham.
In between on November 6 the video-compilation Strange Too was
published.
The band had a break afterwards, a break that wouldn't do them good.
As if with hindsight to this and to the future David said: "We'd wonder
if we'd still be around in another five years. It comes down to whether we'll
carry on being friends and how long we'll want to record together.
Depeche Mode is a group of four people, those four people make the sound
of Depeche Mode. If one of those people left the group, it wouldn't be
Depeche Mode anymore. If we split up, that would be it."[25]
Of course, you know that he would change his mind later. But it has to be
noticed that already at that time Alan lost interest in touring increasingly ...
References:
[1] www.recoil.co.uk
[2] Faith, Hope and Depravity, Select, December 1990. Words: Andrew Harrison
[3] Depeche Mode: A Short Film, EPKMUTEL5, included with The Singles 86>98 promotional box set, PBXMUTEL5. Director: Sven Harding
[4] Interview with Depeche Mode, The Videos 86>98, Mute MF033 and Videos 86>98+, Mute MF042. Director: Sven Harding
[5] User's Guide: Depeche Mode, Kingsize, May 2001. Words: Uncredited
[6] K-ROQ FM, L.A., February 1997, DJs: Kevin and Bean
[7] Faith, Hope and Depravity, Select, December 1990. Words: Andrew Harrison
[8] Sin Machine, NME, 17th February 1990. Words: Stuart Maconie
[9] Sin Machine, NME, 17th February 1990. Words: Stuart Maconie
[10] Real Gahan Kid, Sky, March 1990. Words: Paul Lester
[11] Depeche Mode Hip it up and Start Again, Melody Maker, 10th March 1990. Words: Jon Wilde
[12] Violator, Alligator, NME, 7th July 1990. Words: Jeff Giles
[13] Violator, Alligator, NME, 7th July 1990. Words: Jeff Giles
[14] www.recoil.co.uk
[15] www.recoil.co.uk
[16] Mode Ahead, Muzik, July 2001. Words: Ralph Moore
[17] Just Can't Get Enough, Uncut, May 2001. Words: Stephen Dalton
[18] In the Mode, Details, April 1993. Words: William Shaw
[19] Real Gahan Kid, Sky, March 1990. Words: Paul Lester
[20] Depeche Mode Hip it up and Start Again, Melody Maker, 10th March 1990. Words: Jon Wilde
[21] In the Mode, Details, April 1993. Words: William Shaw
[22] "I Never Wanted to Destroy Depeche Mode", Melody Maker, 3rd April 1993. Words: Jennifer Nine
[23] The Basildon Bond, The Times Magazine, 14th April 2001. Words: Paul Connolly
[24] In the Mode, Details, April 1993. Words: William Shaw
[25] Depeche Mode Hip it up and Start Again, Melody Maker, 10th March 1990. Words: Jon Wilde
To the
Message-board.
About DM in general & News, questions,
discussions and feedback.
Review to Violator.
(You don't need to become a member to reply to topics in public forums.)