BIOGRAPHY1998 and 1999
Overview: Released this year were the Recoil-single Stalker / Missing Piece and the DM-single Only When I Loose Myself / Headstar / Surrender as well as a video- and a singles-collection.
On March 09th the Recoil-single Stalker / Missing Piece was
released.
On September 02nd - yes, up to this date nothing was to be seen or heard
of the band except of a press conference at the Hyatt Hotel in Cologne to
announce the tour - DM started their Singles-Tour with the concert in Tartu (Estonia).
The tour was splitted up in two legs. The European leg included 32 concerts
and ended on October 17th.
This tour was the first one to feature two backing musicians in place of Alan -
Austrian drummer Christian Eigner and British keyboardist Peter Gordeno.
After the Devotional tour had been that disastrous the
band was careful not to let the Singles-tour get out of control.
Martin: "We've got rules that we keep. I only drink two days a week -
you may laugh."
Dave was very nervous before the start of the tour:
"Well sitting here, desperately stopping my body from shaking ...
But I think it is good to be nervous, you know nervous energy can be put
into performing. For me personally, it is pretty important. If I wasn't
feeling nervous then I would think there was something wrong, but yes, I
am really nervous."[1]
Then he, however, could manage it quite well and got
accustomed to go to bed immediately after the concerts:
"I've reached a certain level in life where I can trust myself, but not
completely. To be honest I'm so tired after the shows that I'm asleep within
five minutes of my head hitting the pillow."[2]
The tour went very well then. On September 2nd, 1998, the first concert
in Tartu, Estonia, took place. During the sound-check the following
conservation took place: Dave: "Good crowd tonight ... and lots of
flags. I might grab the 'Union Jack' and wrap it round myself." - "Oh,
very patriotic Dave." - "Not really, it's the nearest one and I'm f*** freezing."
This time there were only small incidents like being held at a small Russian
village for nearly six hours while a customs point there 'sorted out'
some paperwork, a small cold went through the touring party, trouble for
the trucks at the border to Austria, heavy rain in Berlin, voice-problems
in Zurich, and the concert in Birmingham in which near the end of the show
Martin realized the zip on his trousers had been undone.[3]
(Surrender - with friendly permission of © Wojciech Welc)
In between, on September 07th, the single Only When I Lose Myself /
Headstar / Surrender, for which they had worked together with Tim Simeon
again, was released, and on September 28th The Videos 89-98 and
The Singles 89-98 were released.
For the release of The Singles 86-98, of course, Alan was involved but he
didn't talk to any band member (just record company and management etc.), although
he had his input on the box sets, which versions to be used, artwork, label copy,
promo items, marketing ideas aso. And he was ignored by most journalists.
Alan: "I never pushed myself forward as a member of the band and the media
tends to concentrate on lead vocalists and songwriters - to a lot of people, the
'techno-nerd' in the studio isn't really that glamorous. I also haven't been to
death's door and back and more importantly, I committed the heinous crime of
leaving the band - so, out of sight, out of mind. I can accept all these things
but I was annoyed in particular with the DM Singles E.P.K (a short film) which I
thought was extremely imbalanced - to have 10 years of one's hard and dedicated
work represented by about 30 seconds out of a 20 minute piece is pretty insulting.
I was also excluded from (and not even advised about) the interview with Anton
Corbijn where the other band members discussed his videos for the singles -
the same singles that I worked and performed on."[4]
The American leg started on October 27th, included 33 concerts and
ended on December 22nd in Anaheim.
Dave: "Before we went on that tour I thought maybe this is going to be
the last thing that we do together. I was ready to move on and felt totally
okay with that. During the tour I realised how much I loved performing. It was
overwhelming every night how much support I felt from the fans."[5]
Fletch: "It was great. A real buzz. We felt like a band again, no
stupid arguments, no ego-ridden rubbish."[6]
For some fans the new presentation of "dry" (from the second half of
Touring The Angel on even completely, when Martin gave up drinking)
live-performance of DM wasn't exactly brilliant. There were a lot of changes:
Alan was no longer in the band, a permanent live-drum, a new stage-keyboarder,
the whole thing became rockier and more conventional.
Many fans think that "they lost something of their former magic" and many
more people are not really happy with the live versions of the songs.
But although there are fans, who say that "Gordeno goes
on my nerves", "the visual effects were much more impressive in former times",
that it is "a too often seen play without any spontaneous ideas" and that
"Dave's voice was much better in former days", they will nevertheless go
to the concerts. Because of a strange reason they are still
fascinating and there's something hypnotically. It must be the reason for
why the "old" fans can't get away from them - as much as they might moan.
And it must be the reason for that there are many new fans,
people who didn't know the DM with Alan at all. They are tempted by this
special charisma that some people tried to explain with that the
"interaction with the fans and on stage is much better today" and "Mart has
really developed". It's all in all "still a great event to see them live".
Some fans say that DM is a "life
philosophy", I have the suspicion that it's some kind of drug.
They are able to attract a large audience and this is a fact that can't be
ignored when it comes to discussions about DM's live-performances.
(with friendly permission of Mute/EMI)
In 1999 Dave got married for the third time,
to Jennifer, and became a father for the second time, of Stella Rose.
He also took Jennifer's son as his (he adopted him officially in 2010),
so that he calls now three
children "on his own".
Also in 1999, Martin got the Ivor-Novello Award awarded by the British
academy for composers and songwriters - probably the only good prize DM ever got.
References:
[1] 20th April 1998 Depeche Mode Press Conference, Bong 36, June 1998
[2] Cleaning Up, Q, November 1998. Words: Nick Duerden
[3] Information were taken from: Singles Diary, Bong 40, June 1999. Words: Jez Webb
[4] recoil.co.uk
[5] In the Mode for Love, Time Out, 4th April 2001. Words: Omer Ali
[6] The Basildon Bond, The Times Magazine, 14th April 2001. Words: Paul Connolly
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