Their sound influenced an entire genre of 80s synth-pop. Now, this might be their last album and their last tour. But as Depeche Mode says in their newest single “Ghosts Again,” “everybody says goodbye.”
The date is March 30, 2023. At around 9 PM, Depeche Mode begins their concert at the T-Mobile Arena in the Las Vegas strip. Lights dim in the stadium as the projectors turn on and the performance begins. Dave Gahan spends the first half of the first song “It’s No Good” spinning wildly as he sings.
The audience's excitement is a testament to Gahan’s long decades of being considered one of the greatest frontmen in music.
As the show goes on, however, a realization fills the air.
Even before the tributes to dead former band member, Andy Fletcher appear, the audience notices it. Depeche Mode’s surviving members are getting older.
Depeche Mode was formed in Basildon, Essex in 1980. Originally the brainchild of Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher, new members Martin Gore and Dave Gahan would join in later to complete the lineup. Named after the French word for fashion dispatch, the band released Speak & Spell on October 5th, 1981. Bringing a synthesizer-driven sound to the mainstream, several of their singles end up on Top of the Pops. Even still, a rift was beginning to form.
By the end of 1981, Clarke left to pursue his projects Yaz and Erasure. 1982’s “A Broken Frame” reflected this musical uncertainty in Clarke's absence. With him gone, it was up to Gore to take on the creative direction of the band. Gore’s lyrics were more existential than Clarke’s, and his composition was more experimental. “A Broken Frame” was largely lauded as a critical flop.
That same year, Depeche Mode put out an ad in a magazine called Melody Maker. It read, “Keyboard player needed for established band – no time wasters.” It was then that 22-year-old Alan Wilder joined the band. First, he joined as a backup keyboardist, then as a full-time member.
To say that Depeche Mode’s sound changed dramatically is an understatement. Fully shedding their bubble-gum-pop image, the band took on a darker musical persona. Goth clubs everywhere came to consider Depeche Mode a classic in the coming decades.
As for Wilder, he became integral to the band’s sound all through the late 80s and early 90s. This catapulted Depeche Mode to Rose Bowl performance status in 1988, shortly after the release of “Music for the Masses.”
It would be impossible to name every techno band influenced by Depeche Mode in the past 40 years. Their influence is just that integral to the synth-pop, house, and techno genres as a whole. While every member was important, it was Wilder’s spontaneous composition that led to the critical success of 1990’s “Violator”. Speaking to New Music and Entertainment (NME) in February 1990 Wilder said, “This time we decided to keep all pre-production to a minimum. We were beginning to have a problem with boredom in that we all felt we’d reached a certain level of achievement in doing things in a certain way.”
Looking back on those days, to see Depeche Mode now feels like night and day. Martin Gore struggles through Black Celebration’s “Question of Lust” at the T Mobile Stadium concert. While the atmosphere from their glory days is still there, you can tell from Depeche Mode’s performances they're getting tired.
It is easy to see how this happened. Not accounting for age, Depeche Mode had been collectively spiraling since the late 1990s. Depeche Mode frequently had an issue with drugs, and Gahan’s increased heroin use in the 90s threatened to tear them apart.
“It is no secret that Dave was already heavily into drugs by this time and he really separated himself from the rest of the band,” Depeche Mode’s longtime producer Daniel Miller said, “In the old days he used to do a great impression of a wasted rock star but at this point, he had become the character he used to mock. Dave is one of the funniest people I know but he completely lost his sense of humor and ability to laugh at himself.”
The band barely got through releasing 1993's “Songs of Faith and Devotion.”
In explaining the context of the creation of their eighth studio album, Miller wrote on the vinyl copy’s blurb, “I left them alone for the first couple of weeks to settle into the session,” he said, referring to Depeche Mode’s time spent in the Madrid house that would become their studio. “When I went out to see how they were getting on, they had basically done nothing in two weeks. Dave was locked in his room, Martin and Fletcher were reading “The Sun”, the engineer was asleep with his feet on the desk, Flood (their other producer at the time) was lying on the floor fiddling with some equipment and Alan was in some other room on his own practicing the drums. It was a very bad vibe and this was the beginning of the album.”
“Songs of Faith and Devotion” never surpassed the success of “Violator,” and the band was beginning to split. Wilder departed in 1995 and the band was left to continue without him.
In May 1996, Gahan overdosed on speed (a concoction of heroin and cocaine) and flatlined a year before the release of “Ultra.”
That summer, he went to rehab where he met his wife.
After the end of the '90s, a shift occurred in Depeche Mode. They started becoming musically quieter.
Releasing five albums of somber music over the span of 20 years, Depeche Mode did alright for themselves. They would never again achieve the type of success that “Violator” brought them, but they were getting older. There was no rush to create.
Both Dave Gahan and Martin Gore both had their solo careers to fall back on most of the time. Even still, that tranquility wouldn't last forever.
“Memento Mori” was on track to being workshopped when Andy Fletcher died of an aortic dissection in 2022. He was 60 years old.
This devastated his surviving bandmates, most of all Gore, who had known Fletcher since middle school.
Shared grief becomes a part of Depeche Mode's performance on this tour. Compared to the punchy feel of the setlist on the “Spirit” tour, this tour's setlist became far more somber. Death is more palpable now to Depeche Mode than it was when they made the gothic, death-centered “Black Celebration."
Much has changed for the band. Neither of its surviving members live in Britain anymore. Gahan is in New York, and Gore lives in Santa Barbara, California. The two men are in their 60s now, worn down by years of performances and drugs.
Even still, the music means something. Spawning super fans known as “Devotees” across the globe, Depeche Mode developed an unprecedented cult following that has a lasting spirit.
For what it's worth, some things never change. Though the band is dealing with grief, Gahan makes time to connect with his audience. “Put your phones down for fuck's sake,” Gahan says before the encore. He notices a sign in the crowd and brings a 13-year-old girl on stage to wish her happy birthday. When the tribute to Fletcher appears, the audience whoops and hollers.
In making their devoted fans happy, Depeche Mode ensures they’re never alone.
Commentaires