LET'S HAVE A BLACK CELEBRATION

Depeche Mode's Black Celebration is rightly regarded as one of the band's masterpieces. It's not as widely feted as the likes of Violator and Songs Of Faith And Devotion, but Black Celebration played as big a role as those albums did in elevating Depeche Mode to the position they occupy today as one of the most influential acts of all time. 

The album was released on 17 March 1986, and its subsequent tour saw the band first play arenas in the U.K, as well as seeing them properly break through in America, where they moved from a cult concern to a band who filled large venues, albeit with little to no radio support. Without Black Celebration, we wouldn't have the Depeche Mode we have today, and that would be a very bad thing indeed.

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the release of Black Celebration, this month on Almost Predictable Almost is going to be devoted to this wonderful album, with a new article each day offering insight, opinions and inevitable overuse of the words "Black" and "Celebration."  There will be a few guest posts, the usual things from me, a hugely interesting and, for me, incredibly exciting, exclusive interview with Gareth Jones recalling his time producing the album, interviews with Speak & Spell and Forced To Mode, a chat with Dennis Burmeister, author of the extraordinary Monument book and much more as you can see below.

March 1 - Let's Have A Black Celebration
March 2 - Dressed In Black Again (Again)
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/dressed-in-black-again-again-depeche.html
March 3 - Stripped - The Journey Into The Dark Heart Of Depeche Mode
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/stripped-start-of-journey-into-dark.html
March 4 - The Curious Tale Of But Not Tonight
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/the-curious-case-of-but-not-tonight.html
March 5 - Guest Post #1: Aidan Berry
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-guest-black-celebration-1-aidan-berry.html
March 6 - An Exclusive Interview With Gareth Jones
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/an-interview-with-gareth-jones.html
March 7 - Archives Special: Depeche Mode Interview With No.1 Magazine 29 February 1986
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/retro-1-depeche-mode-interview-from-no.html
March 8 - The Black Celebration Reviews courtesy of DM TV Archives
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/retro-2-black-celebration-reviews-with.html
March 9 - Interview: Speak & Spell
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/an-interview-with-speak-spell.html
March 10 - Let's Have An Art Celebration - The Black Celebration Artwork Featuring An Exclusive Interview With Brian Griffin
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/lets-have-art-celebration-black.html
March 11 - Guest Post #2: Panos Sialakas
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-guest-black-celebration-2-panos.html
March 12 - A Question Of Lust
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-question-of-lust.html
March 13 - The One That Nearly Got Away : Fly On The Windscreen
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/fly-on-windscreen-one-that-nearly-got.html
March 14 - Black Celebration Rarities
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/the-black-celebration-era-rarities.html
March 15 - Guest Post #3: Amanda Stock
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-guest-black-celebration-3-amanda-stock.html
March 16 - Black Celebration Formats, with a little help from Depmod.com
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/the-black-celebration-formats.html
March 17 - Black Celebration Release Day - You Can Change The World
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/black-celebration-release-day-you-can.html
March 18 - Guest Post#4: Niggels Uhlenbruch
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-guest-black-celebration-4-niggels.html
March 19 - A Depeche Mode Classic Photos And Videos Special
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-depeche-mode-classic-photos-and.html
March 20 - The Black Celebration World Tour
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/the-black-celebration-world-tour.html
March 21 - A Depeche Mode Live Wiki Black Celebration Special
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-dm-live-wiki-black-celebration-special.html
March 22 - The Black Celebration Tour Live Reviews courtesy of DMTV Archives
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/the-black-celebration-tour-live-reviews.html
March 23 - Guest Post #5: Sean Salo
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-guest-black-celebration-5-sean-salo.html
March 24 - A Question Of Time
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-question-of-time.html
March 25 - A Black Celebration DJ Mix by Glen Hammarstrom
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-black-celebration-dj-mix.html
March 26 - Guest Post #6: Kevin May
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-guest-black-celebration-6-kevin-may.html
March 27 - Here Is The House - A Lost Depeche Mode Classic
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/here-is-house-lost-classic.html
March 28 - Interview: Forced To Mode
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/interview-forced-to-mode.html
March 29 - More Gore Than Ever Before
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/more-gore-than-ever-before.html
March 30 - Black Celebration's Legacy
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/black-celebrations-legacy.html
March 31 - A Month Long Period Of Rejoicing - Final
http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-month-long-period-of-rejoicing-final.html

I hope you enjoy as many of the next 30 days worth of posts as you can. Please feel free to join in the chat about it here, on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/almostpredictablealmost/) and on Twitter, either on my own page (@davidjmcelroy) or on the blog's page (@almostprdalmost). Finally, there will be pictures of records and so on throughout and you can see more of these on my Instagram - @djm3875. As well as the Black Celebration stuff there are and always will be loads of other Depeche stuff if that floats your boat.

Finally, some credits. In preparing this month's worth of posts, I've used pictures from three very important Depeche Mode fan sites who I have endeavoured to credit each time. The odd picture may slip the net though, so if you're from one of the sites and see I haven't given you credit please let me know. Those sites are:

Depeche Mode Classic Photos and Videos Facebook group - a private Facebook group that contains more pictures of Depeche Mode than Depeche Mode have themselves. It's an incredible source of information and a wonderful, wonderful thing

Depmod.com - http://www.depmod.com/misc/index.html  - THE collector's site. There isn't one Depeche release from any country on earth that isn't covered here. Want to know about the Philippines 12" of Strangelove?  Go there. Need to check how many editions of the A Broken Frame album there are on cassette? It'll tell you.  The forum is a treasure trove of information.

Depeche Mode Television Archives - http://www.dmtvarchives.com/  - An attempt to get a record of EVERY DM television, radio and media appearance from the band's first day to now. The amount of stuff on the site is bewildering and you can lose days there. You can view the archives forums even if you aren't a member of DM TV Archives, but go and register as it's a wonderful site

Do go and check out these sites. The first one is trickier I admit, but the latter two are sites every Depeche fan must see.

Thanks very much to all three sites for their help in putting all this together.

Also, thanks very much indeed to Aidan, Panos, Amanda, Niggels, Sean and Kevin for their articles. and Glen for his DJ skills. Thanks too to Dennis, Matt, Brian Griffin and Gareth Jones too for all contributing so much to this project.

See you tomorrow....