Depeche Mode is an english band that was created in the early 80's in the London suburbs, and more precisely in the small town of
Basildon.
At the beginning the band came from 2 different other bands that gathered people like
Vince Clarke,
Martin Gore and
Andrew Fletcher, all around 17 or 18 years old. The first name of the band was
Composition of Sound. In that time groups like
Kraftwerk were really popular for using electronic music. What was missing to that band was a real singer. It was during a meeting at their school that Vince noticed a guy with a very special voice :
David Gahan. He asked him to perform to the band to see if he could fit to the role. That was the time when he performed a cover song of
David Bowie : "
Heroes".
Once the group had all its members, they started to look for another name, and it was Dave Gahan who found it :
Depeche Mode, inspired by the French fashion magazine that had the same name.
Though they decided to write a few songs and started looking for a record company. They were the first part in a concert of an artist called
Fad Gadget and that was there that they were noticed by
Daniel Miller, head of
Mute Records.
So the first single came out quite quickly : "
Dreaming of Me", that entered the charts and had success, quickly followed by "
New Life" and finally what is still DM 's major hit : "
Just can't get enough"
The album will gather all those singles and will be called "
Speak and Spell" released also in
1981, followed by a successful tour
The band lost a member at that time:
Vince Clarke who didn't wish to work anymore with Depeche Mode. After he leaves DM he will be member and founding member of other famous bands like :
the Assembly ,
Yazoo and
Erasure where he's still active today.
In
1982 Depeche Mode went on without Vince, who was the main writer at that time, but instead gave the work to
Martin Gore. At that time was released the album: "
A Broken Frame" and a new member:
Alan Wilder.
In
1983 the band continued on working with new styles, started using samples in their songs, and developed a new style on their own that would lead to the album: "
Construction Time Again".
In
1984 the band still went on with successful songs like "
Master and Servant" and "
People are People" all from the album: "
Some Great reward"
In
1985, the group took a break with their first "best of" album gathering all their singles from 1981 to 1985 with the title:"
The Singles 81>85" or "
Catching Up with Depeche Mode" in the US. You find an additional song in this album called: "
Shake the disease".
In
1986 the band release what's for me their first great album that would show the true Depeche sound : "
Black Celebration" that gathers the following tracks : "
Stripped", "
A Question of time" and "
A question of Lust". It's one of the darker and more personal and emblematic album of DM. It will also be the first time
Anton Corbijn and DM work for a video together.
1986 is also the year in which the EP
1+2 is released. It's an album composed from samples of Depeche Mode mixed with other sounds that makes the first work released from
Alan Wilder as a solo project under the name of
RecoilIn
1987 is released the famous album: "
Music for the Masses" that has the following songs: "
Strangelove" (with Pimpf as an instrumental on its B-side), "
Never let me down again" and "
Behind the wheel".
This album will be followed by a massive tour around the world, that will be recorded on video for the famous:"
101" that was also released as a live album with the same name.
1988 is also the year in which is released a new EP / mini album of Alan Wilder under the name Recoil called :
Hydrology. Electronic and experimental instrumental tracks …
1989 is also the year that features the release of the first solo album from
Martin Gore called "
Counterfeit", that is a cover album from artists he appreciates.
In
1990 is released what is considered as the masterwork album of the band : "
Violator" that gathers the singles : "
Personal Jesus" , "
Policy of truth", the wonderful and magnificent "
Enjoy the silence" and "
World in my eyes" , that will be also followed by a gigantic tour around the world.
In
1991 Alan Wilder takes a short break profite in order to release a new album for Recoil :
Bloodline which gathers talented people such as
Moby or
Toni Halliday from
CurveThe group will be reunited only in
1993 for the release of "
Songs of Faith and Devotion", adopting a more "rock electro" style and also a "grunge" look for Dave Gahan. With this album, you can find those singles: "
I feel You", "
Walking in my shoes", "
Condemnation" and "
In Your Room". This album was followed by what still is the biggest tour of the band that will tire them a lot. This tour will be also released on video titled "
Devotional" and will have an audio live release of the tracks from SOFAD, in the same order as the studio album but with the live versions of songs called: SOFAD live
The following years will be very difficult for the band because: they will lose a member with the departure of
Alan Wilder in
1995, and the suicide attempts by
Gahan, who was a drug addict at that time.
Nobody really thought the band could come back (including me!) and though…
In
1997 the band releases the new Depeche Mode opus :
ULTRA, a wonderful comeback with powerful songs like "
Barrel of a gun", "
It's no good", "
Home", and "
Useless". The band had the help of
Tim Simenon as a producer for the recording of the album and the result was really amazing, even though Alan Wilder wasn't there anymore. The band also decided to not tour for promotion, in order to leave some time for Gahan to recover.
1997 is also the year in which Alan Wilder releases is new album as Recoil called : "
Unsound Methods", probably one of the best Recoil albums.
1998 Depeche doesn't stop anyway because they decide to release a new compilation of singles to follow "The Singles 81>85", that is called "
The Singles 86>98" featuring the new single :"
Only When I lose myself" .
That year will also see the release of a first official
tribute album to Depeche mode called "
For the Masses" ; This album gathers an impressive list of known artists covering DM songs such as
The Cure,
the Smashing Pumpkins,
Rammstein ,
LFO and many more.
In
2000 is released the new album for Alan Wilder /
Recoil :
Liquid , an album that is more oriented to spoken word style that disturbs a bit Recoil fans but really gets better and better in time just like a good wine.
In
2001 is released
Exciter which is produced by
Mark Bell who collaborated previously with artists such as
Bjork . This albums features the following singles : "
Dream On", "
I feel Loved", "
Freelove" & "
Goodnight Lovers". It's a nice album from DM but with slow motion songs, sometimes with a folk feeling, that didn't please most of the fans and that I don't consider as one of their best albums.
The tour that follow the release of Exciter is a huge success and it will be concluded by the release of a new video :
One Night in Paris which is a concert filmed on the base of the two concerts from Paris of that Tour!
In
2003 were released the 2 solo albums from
Martin Gore (
Counterfeit²) and
Dave Gahan (
Paper Monsters).
In
2004 Depeche Mode releases a remix compilation called : "
Remixes 81 > 04" that gathers all their remixes from their regular singles and their various promos, that will have a lot of success among their fans. A new version of one of their classic song called : "
Enjoy the Silence 04" is released and remixed by
Mike Shinoda from
Linkin Park that has also a huge success.
In the middle of
2005 is released the new studio album of Depeche Mode: "
Playing the Angel" produced by
Ben Hiller and with a 1st single called : "
Precious", the band succeeded in pleasing most of their fans with that album, going back to a more electronic sound, using even analogic keyboards that are close to the sound everybody knows of DM.So, I can say it's an album that reunites in the right way the band and their fans and that gathers many impressive songs such as : "
Suffer Well", "
Nothing's impossible" (both written by Dave Gahan who succeeded submitting and got approved for some of his songs for the 1st time in a DM album) , "
John the Revelator" , "
A Pain that I'm used to" and many more.
This time the world tour was even more a success than the previous one and was concluded also by a new video taken from the Milan concert : "
Touring the Angel"
In
2006 is released the first best of :
The Best of Depeche Mode, vol.1(EMI 's Work) from Depeche Mode, gathering what they consider their best tracks and also featuring a brand new exclusive song called : "
Martyr" that follows the mood of the the songs from Playing the Angel.
DM news isn't really calm between
2006 and
2007 because there was the release of
the remastered SACD versions of all the DM albums in high quality and with some video and audio bonuses for some of the albums
2007 Is also the year in which is released the second and new solo album of
Dave Gahan called :
Hourglass . In that albums he gets away from the blues, jazzy and rock style of the 1st album to have a style closer to a classic Depeche Mode album ( thanks to the help of
Andrew Philpott and
Christian Eigner who helped him produce and compose the songs ).
2007 is also the year in which
Alan Wilder releases his new
Recoil album:
subHuman. With a mire blues approach thanks to the voice of
Joe Richardson, and still some wonderful & touching songs with the help of
Carla Trevaskis who reminds a bit of
Toni Halliday…
2008 will still be a busy year for the Mode men as they are about to enter in studio in
March 2008 to record a
new Depeche mode album.
If you want to know a bit more about Depeche Mode there's the official site of course but I have also a personal website about DM :http://www.pimpf.fr or http://www.pimpfdm.comand another for Alan Wilder's project , Recoil :http://www.recoiline.fr or http://recoiline.free.frand finally another one for Dave Gahan solo project :http://www.paper-monsters.comEnjoy ! 
