DEPECHE MODE

Random and bite-sized facts on all things from the mythical figures that make up Depeche Mode. Totally random but totally fascinating if you're into it. Do you know Depeche Mode now?

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"ENJOY THE SILENCE" WAS ORIGINALLY A BALLAD

Martin Gore originally wrote "Enjoy the Silence" as a slow, almost ballad-like song. Alan Wilder and producer Flood persuaded him to speed it up and add a beat. Gore initially hated the idea and sulked for two days before eventually adding the guitar part that became so important to the finished recording.

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"PIPELINE" WAS MADE FROM THINGS THEY HIT IN THE STREET

For "Pipeline", Depeche Mode went out around East London recording the sounds of things they could hit. They smashed corrugated iron and old cars, then turned the recordings into electronic sounds in the studio. Even the vocal was recorded in a railway arch in Shoreditch.

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"WORK HARD" WAS BUILT FROM JUNKYARD NOISE

For the B-side "Work Hard", the band and producer Gareth Jones went into East London junkyards with a hammer and toolbox. They recorded things being smashed and broken, then cut the noises up repeatedly until they could be turned into rhythms.

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"STRIPPED" CONTAINS ACTUAL FIREWORKS

The strange crackling sounds at the beginning of "Stripped" aren't a synthesizer effect. Gareth Jones recorded fireworks for the track during the "Black Celebration" sessions, helping create its distinctive industrial atmosphere.

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"HERE IS THE HOUSE" USES A VERY UNUSUAL GUITAR SAMPLE

The mandolin-like sound in "Here Is the House" was actually made from an acoustic guitar. The band sampled one downstroke and one upstroke separately, then alternated them to create the unusual pattern. It sounds almost like a real stringed instrument.

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"Just Can't Get Enough" was the final Depeche Mode single written by Vince Clarke before he left the band in 1981. It was also their first UK Top 10 hit and their first song to receive a music video.

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THEY CARRIED THEIR SYNTHESIZERS TO TOP OF THE POPS

When Depeche Mode first appeared on "Top of the Pops", the members travelled to the BBC carrying their own synthesizers. At the time the equipment was still relatively unusual for a young pop band, and the group were effectively transporting their whole musical setup with them.

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BLACK CELEBRATION WAS RECORDED WITH A VERY INTENSE ROUTINE

For "Black Celebration", producer Daniel Miller wanted the band to "live the album". They were expected to be in the studio every day, and the sessions eventually became extremely intense, with the band and producers working very long hours over several months.

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"STRIPPED" STARTED WITH A CAR ENGINE

The strange mechanical sound at the beginning of "Stripped" was made from the engine of a Porsche 911. The band recorded the engine being revved and used the sound as part of the track's rhythm.

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"STRIPPED" HAS FIREWORKS AND A MOTORCYCLE

The sounds used on "Stripped" included fireworks and a motorcycle engine as well as the Porsche. Depeche Mode and producer Gareth Jones were deliberately turning ordinary recorded noises into musical sounds.

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"BUT NOT TONIGHT" WAS ALMOST LEFT BEHIND

"Stripped" had "But Not Tonight" as its B-side in the UK, but the American version of "Black Celebration" actually put "But Not Tonight" at the end of the album. It wasn't part of the original UK album sequence.

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THE UK AND US "BLACK CELEBRATION" WERE DIFFERENT

The original US vinyl version of "Black Celebration" contained "But Not Tonight", while the UK LP ended with "New Dress". The US edition also had a different version of "A Question of Time", with an altered intro.

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"BREATHING IN FUMES" WAS BUILT FROM "STRIPPED"

"Breathing in Fumes", released on the "Stripped" 12-inch, was created by heavily manipulating material from "Stripped". It became one of the earliest examples of Depeche Mode using sampling and studio manipulation to turn an existing song into something almost completely different.

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"101" WASN'T JUST A LIVE ALBUM

The 1989 "101" project included a documentary as well as the famous Pasadena Rose Bowl concert. The film followed Depeche Mode fans travelling to the concert on buses, including the group later known as the "Bus Kids".

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THE ROSE BOWL SHOW WAS FILMED IN FRONT OF 60,000 PEOPLE

Depeche Mode's Pasadena Rose Bowl concert on June 18, 1988 became the live performance used for "101". The show was the final date of the Music for the Masses tour and became one of the defining live documents of the band's 1980s period.

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"ENJOY THE SILENCE" HAS A LOT MORE VERSIONS THAN THE ALBUM TRACK

The official Depeche Mode archive lists several different mixes of "Enjoy the Silence", including the "Bass Line Mix" and "Ecstatic Dub". The Bass Line Mix was mixed by François Kevorkian in New York, showing how much the song was reshaped outside the album version.

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"LITTLE 15" WAS BASED ON A REAL STORY

Martin Gore said "Little 15" was inspired by a real incident involving one of his schoolmates, who had an affair with a middle-aged woman when he was 15. Gore said the song is about the woman trying to give the boy a new lease of life, rather than simply being a song about sex.

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"LITTLE 15" WAS ALMOST LEFT UNTIL THE LAST DAY

Alan Wilder said the band struggled to work out how to arrange "Little 15" and left it until the last day of the sessions. After seeing Peter Greenaway's film "A Zed & Two Noughts", Wilder suggested trying something influenced by Michael Nyman. The arrangement then came together very quickly.

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"PIMPF" WASN'T MEANT TO BE ON THE ALBUM

"Pimpf" was originally intended to be just a B-side to "Strangelove". Producer Dave Bascombe remixed it while the band were away making a video, and the group liked his version so much that they put it on "Music for the Masses" as the closing track.

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"PIMPF" OPENED THEIR CONCERTS

"Pimpf" became the opening music for Depeche Mode's concerts on the "Music for the Masses" tour. Alan Wilder later said that hearing its opening melody immediately brought back the memory of standing backstage waiting to go on.

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"NOTHING" CONTAINS A PNEUMATIC DOOR

The sharp rhythmic sound in "Nothing" that can sound like a hi-hat isn't a hi-hat at all. Depeche Mode sampled the noise of a pneumatic door closing because they liked the sound it made.

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"PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE" WAS RECORDED IN BERLIN

"People Are People" was recorded at Hansa Studios in West Berlin with producer Gareth Jones. The same Berlin sessions helped establish the harder, more industrial sound that became increasingly important to Depeche Mode.

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THE "PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE" VIDEO WAS SHOT ON A WARSHIP

The video for "People Are People" was filmed aboard HMS Belfast on the River Thames. The former Royal Navy cruiser was already a museum ship when Depeche Mode used it as the setting.

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"ARE PEOPLE PEOPLE?" COMPLETELY REWORKED THE SONG

The B-side "Are People People?" wasn't simply another mix of "People Are People". It was a much more radical reworking of the song, and its title deliberately reversed the words of the original.

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THE US "CONSTRUCTION TIME AGAIN" HAD A HIDDEN DIFFERENCE

The original US vinyl of "Construction Time Again" ended with a short reprise of "Everything Counts". It was actually the tail end of the much longer "Everything Counts (In Larger Amounts)" 12-inch mix, faded in and used without being credited on the album sleeve.

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THE US ALBUM HAD A DIFFERENT BONUS TRACK

The original US CD of "Construction Time Again" didn't use the little "Everything Counts" reprise found on the American vinyl. Instead, it included the full "Everything Counts (In Larger Amounts)" as a bonus track.

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"EVERYTHING COUNTS" HAD A 7-MINUTE VERSION

The extended "Everything Counts (In Larger Amounts)" runs for more than seven minutes. The 12-inch release paired it with "Work Hard (East End Remix)", which runs for nearly seven minutes itself.

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THEY PUT "ONE CARESS" ON A SINGLE BY ACCIDENT OF HISTORY

"One Caress" was originally an album track and B-side to "I Feel You". In America, the record company later decided to promote it as a single. They didn't even need to manufacture a completely new release at first: they put stickers on existing "I Feel You" singles announcing "One Caress" as the new single.

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US RADIO DIDN'T LIKE THE START OF "I FEEL YOU"

The original "I Feel You" begins with a loud screeching sound. Some American radio stations didn't want to broadcast it, so Sire issued a special promotional CD containing an "Intro Edit" that simply removed the screech and started the song directly on the beat.

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"SONGS OF FAITH AND DEVOTION" WAS RELEASED ON MINIDISC

The original UK release of "Songs Of Faith And Devotion" appeared in several formats that now seem almost bizarre: LP, cassette, CD, MiniDisc and Digital Compact Cassette. The MiniDisc and DCC editions are particularly hard-to-find versions of the album.

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THE LIVE ALBUM WAS RE-ORDERED TO MATCH THE STUDIO ALBUM

"Songs Of Faith And Devotion Live" wasn't simply a concert reproduced in its original running order. The live recordings were edited and rearranged so that the album followed the sequence of the studio "Songs Of Faith And Devotion".

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"HALO" DIDN'T HAVE A NORMAL TV VIDEO

Anton Corbijn directed the video for "Halo" for the "Strange Too" collection of Depeche Mode videos. Unlike the main "Violator" singles, it was made specifically for the video compilation and received comparatively little television exposure.

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"MUSIC FOR THE MASSES" WAS TWO ALBUMS ON ONE CASSETTE

There was a very unusual UK cassette release that combined "Black Celebration" and "Music For The Masses" as a double album. Even stranger, it used the same catalogue number as the normal single-album cassette.

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THE US "MUSIC FOR THE MASSES" HAD FOUR EXTRA TRACKS

The original US cassette and CD of "Music For The Masses" added four tracks that weren't on the standard UK album: "Agent Orange", the "Aggro Mix" of "Never Let Me Down Again", the "Spanish Taster" of "To Have And To Hold" and the "Glitter Mix" of "Pleasure, Little Treasure".

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"PIMPF" HAS AN UNLISTED INTERLUDE

After "Pimpf" on the original "Music For The Masses" album there's a short instrumental passage called "Interlude #1 - Mission Impossible". It isn't credited on the album itself, which is why it can easily go unnoticed.

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MARTIN GORE RECORDED BACKING VOCALS THROUGH A WATER BOTTLE

During the recording of "Sounds Of The Universe", Martin Gore experimented with recording backing vocals through a water bottle. The band's own studio diary documented the bizarre experiment.

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THEY USED VINTAGE EQUIPMENT AGAIN FOR "SOUNDS OF THE UNIVERSE"

For "Sounds Of The Universe", Depeche Mode deliberately went back to vintage analogue synthesizers and old drum machines. The album was recorded in Santa Barbara and New York, with the old equipment used to create some of its retro-futuristic sounds.

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"WRONG" WAS ALMOST R&B

Martin Gore described "Wrong" as being unlike anything Depeche Mode had previously released and said it was probably the closest they had come to R&B. He knew quite early that it would be the first single from "Sounds Of The Universe".

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ALAN WILDER STILL HAD SOUNDS THE BAND NEEDED

When Depeche Mode's albums were being reissued, Alan Wilder was brought in partly because he still had access to certain sounds from the original recording sessions that had never been transferred to tape. He said individual sounds could instantly bring back memories of how they had been recorded.

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"SOMEBODY" EXISTS AS A 1984 LIVE RECORDING

The official Depeche Mode archive lists a live version of Martin Gore's "Somebody" recorded at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool on September 29, 1984. It was recorded by Mobile One and mixed later at Garden Studios in London.

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ALAN WILDER DIDN'T LEAVE BECAUSE OF THE AMOUNT OF WORK

Alan Wilder later made an important distinction about leaving Depeche Mode. He said he actually enjoyed the production and programming work and did not resent the amount of it. His frustration was that the work had come to be taken for granted.

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WILDER DECIDED DURING "SONGS OF FAITH AND DEVOTION"

Wilder later said that the recording of "Songs of Faith and Devotion" was when he finally decided he didn't want to repeat the experience. The band were living together in Madrid while recording, and he described the atmosphere as involving tension, arguments, apathy and drug problems.

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HE DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE BEFORE THE TOUR

Although Wilder had decided he was unhappy with the band during the "Songs of Faith and Devotion" period, he stayed for the huge Devotional tour. He later said that he enjoyed touring and wanted to complete the commitment before leaving.

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WILDER SAID HE WANTED A LIFE CHANGE

After leaving Depeche Mode, Wilder explained that one of the reasons was wanting to spend more time at home with his family. He had reached a point where being in a permanent group no longer suited the life he wanted.

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HE SAID THERE WAS NO SINGLE FINAL STRAW

When asked whether one particular incident caused him to leave, Wilder said there wasn't one. He described his departure as the result of an accumulation of problems that had peaked during the making of "Songs of Faith and Devotion".

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WILDER SAID HE HAD GONE AS FAR AS HE COULD

Wilder eventually said he didn't believe there was anything more he could personally achieve within Depeche Mode's boundaries. He wanted to work differently and have greater control over his own projects through Recoil.

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HE DIDN'T THINK THE GROUP WAS THE RIGHT FORMAT ANYMORE

A couple of years after leaving, Wilder put it very simply: he didn't feel that the confines of a group suited him anymore. He said he was happier being his own boss and working with other people when he chose to.

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HIS DEPARTURE STATEMENT WAS DELIBERATELY CAREFUL

Wilder later explained that he issued his famous departure statement because he wanted to give his own explanation before the press could speculate about why he had left. He deliberately avoided naming individual band members or turning it into a public argument.

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PERSONAL JESUS HAD A PHONE NUMBER

Before "Personal Jesus" was released, Depeche Mode placed advertisements in the personal columns of regional UK newspapers saying "Your own personal Jesus". The campaign later included a telephone number people could call to hear the song.

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PERSONAL JESUS HAD A VERY DIFFERENT MIX

The "Personal Jesus" single went through several different mixers. François Kevorkian handled the single version and several of its mixes, while Flood mixed the acoustic version and other material. There was even a "Kazan Cathedral Mix" that wasn't available on the singles.

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VIOLATOR WAS RECORDED IN FIVE DIFFERENT STUDIOS

"Violator" wasn't made in one studio. Its recording sessions took place at Logic Studios in Milan, Puk Recording Studios in Denmark, The Church and Master Rock Studios in London, and Axis in New York.

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BLACK CELEBRATION WAS MADE IN LONDON AND BERLIN

"Black Celebration" was recorded between November 1985 and January 1986 at Westside and Genetic Studios in London, with work also taking place at Hansa Mischraum in Berlin.

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"BLACK DAY" WASN'T JUST A MARTIN GORE SONG

The bonus track "Black Day", associated with the "Black Celebration" era, is credited to Martin Gore, Alan Wilder and Daniel Miller. That makes it an unusual Depeche Mode songwriting credit.

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MASTER AND SERVANT HAD AN INSTRUMENTAL VERSION

The 12-inch release of "Master And Servant" didn't just contain an extended version. It also included an instrumental version of the song, alongside an extended version of "(Set Me Free) Remotivate Me".

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THE ORIGINAL 101 "EVERYTHING COUNTS" LASTS OVER 12 MINUTES

The live "Everything Counts" on "101" is listed at 12 minutes and 32 seconds. It is effectively the enormous closing performance rather than a normal-length live rendition.

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MARTIN GORE SANG THROUGH A WATER BOTTLE

During the recording of "Sounds Of The Universe", Martin Gore experimented with recording backing vocals through a water bottle. The band's own studio diary documented the experiment.

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