Depeche Mode's debut single Dreaming Of Me was released in 1981 which is somehow 40 years ago. In that 40 years the band have moved from trilby wearing synthpoppers to metal bashing Berliners to accidental stadium fillers ending up as globe straddling titans of electronic music.
They have released a number of classic, era defining albums and are considered to be one of the biggest live acts on the planet. The thing is, Depeche Mode started out as a singles band, releasing three outstanding singles before anyone heard their debut album Speak & Spell. They have never stopped being a singles band either and there are very few, if any, bands who have released as many classic singles as Depeche Mode. Think about it - New Life, Everything Counts, Master & Servant, Stripped, Never Let Me Down Again, Personal Jesus, Enjoy The Silence, Walking In My Shoes, It's No Good, Precious - the list goes on and on.
I decided that this 40th anniversary had to be celebrated, As Depeche Mode don't do that sort of thing themselves, I have spent the last 18 months or so reviewing every Depeche Mode single released in the UK, looking in worrying depth at the reviews of each, the Top Of The Pops performances, the clothing, the at times remarkable and at times terrifying videos and the various formats each was released on. Below, you will find a link to each blog. Dive in and relive Depeche Mode's glorious career single by wonderful single.
Writing all these blogs has been a challenge but a fun one. Thank you to everyone who has read these articles and commented on them. Thanks too to depmod.com, dmlive.wiki, depechemode.com, Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group, Depeche Mode Press File for all of the help fact checking and info gathering. Any errors that you find in any of these blogs are all mine.
Finally, thanks to Depeche Mode. Happy birthday chaps - it's been an interesting 40 years.
Over the last few weeks I've had a look back at Depeche Mode's first fourteen singles. It was a remarkable period for the band really - sudden success, Vince leaving, Martin taking over the song writing, Alan joining, pop music mixing with industrial sounds and sampling and much more left the band on the cusp of global success. While their home country may have been losing interest, Europe was very interested indeed and America had finally taken notice.
Tired after their 1985 tour, the band briefly paused and releaesd The Singles 81-85, later renamed Catching Up With Depeche Mode in North America when it was given a different tracklist just to confuse matters.
They didn't stop for long however and late in 1985 Martin started work on and presented his first demos for new material to the band. The first taste the public got of that work was when Stripped was released on 10th February 1986.
Happily, as I am writing this on 5th February 2021, that means Stripped is 35 years old next week and as that is the next instalment of the singles reviews project, I'll post that as a birthday present to the great tune. Until then, here are links to the first fourteen reviews all of which form The Singles 81-85.
Everything was going so well for Depeche Mode. Dreaming Of Me saw them gain a large fanbase outwith their local area, New Life sold nearly 500,000 copies and made them a household name and Just Can't Get Enough built on that, turning the band into a Top Ten band in the UK. Their debut album Speak & Spell was about to be released and the world was their oyster. What could possibly go wrong?
NME, 2nd January 1982
Ah. The news of Vince's departure first appeared in December 1981 and that appeared to be that for Depeche Mode. Jaunty instrumental Big Muff and Tora! Tora! Tora! aside, Vince had written all the band's songs. Someone needed to step up and keep Depeche Mode going and that man was Martin L Gore. Turns out he wasn't too bad a songwriter at all.
WE CAN RELIVE OUR YOUTH - SEE YOU
The Single
Picture courtesy of depmod.com
See You was released on 29th January and entered the charts on 13th February at number 40. It crawled to number 31 the following week, but the band's appearance on the 24th of February edition of Top Of The Pops saw it fire up the charts to number 10. Another Top ten hit. Who said they were finished?
As you'll notice, there was a mystery fourth person with the band. That chap was Alan Wilder and, after initially joining as a live musician only, he soon became an official member of Depeche Mode. Alan stayed with the band until 1995 before quietly leaving with very few members of the fanbase noticing, a position that remains the same to date. People regularly say "I can't even remember if Alan was in the band" when his name comes up. He's a mystery and can only be remembered by very few fans indeed.
The single continued its relentless march up the charts, moving from 10 to 8 and then to 6, the band's highest chart position to date. It was an outstanding result for them. The single dropped from 6 to 11 and then 13, 27 and 42 before a final stop at 59 and then into the eternal darkness of life beyond the Top 75.
Before I move onto the single itself, we have to pause to appreciate another of the band's television performances promoting See You. As we'll see later, the single was released in West Germany on red vinyl 7" and on the cover there is a sticker that says "Aus der TV-Sendung Bananas" which basically translates as "as seen on the TV show Bananas."
There was a German pop programme called Bananas in 1982 and on the 27th of April that year, Depeche Mode appeared on the show performing See You. As you'd expect for a TV show, they just mimed to the track but they did so, and there is no easy way to say this, while holding chickens. Live chickens in fact. As you can see, the band did their best in what could only have been trying and highly troubling circumstances:
There is much to mention here from the notion of playing electronic instruments amidst bales of hay (surely a fire risk) to Fletch's "Focus on the chicken Andy FOCUS" face at 1 minute 8 seconds in while two Germans get frisky in the hay behind him. You could also embrace Martin at 1 minute 30 or so thinking "A fancy suit while holding a chicken is the limit. From now on it's leather, women's clothes and heavy make up. That'll get me taken seriously." I would heartily recommend you watch on repeat Alan at 1 minute 56 holding a prime piece of poultry, pondering his new job and thinking "What the fuck have I got myself into here?"
Whatever you do, do not forget to watch this most legendary of Depeche Mode performances. There is only seven years between this and Personal Jesus. That is remarkable.
See You is a gem of pop song and it was praised by most reviewers. Melody Maker came up with the rather catchy "Vince splits, world gasps, Depeche fade, no? No!" which I enjoy. Smash Hits claimed the single was "light years ahead of the rest," leaving Danny Baker to kill the buzz with the harsh "Their last single was trying and now this is insipid." That's Danny Baker for you - as a rule, if he likes it, it's usually bad. That means See You was therefore bound to be good.
Smash Hits 23 January 1982
See You is far poppier than any of Vince's Depeche work and it clearly has the aim of ensuring a chart smash. It's filled with glorious melodies and harmonies throughout and features some lovely bubbling electronics - what's not to love about it? For a band who were put in the position they were by Vince's departure it was a strong response.
The song was played live 211 times between the Crocs gig on 20 January 1982 and the gig at Torwar Hall in Warsaw on 30th July 1985 which was a show that marked the last live outing for a number of early Depeche tracks as we've already seen. DM Live Wiki has you covered for all recordings that exist of See You. I particularly love the version from the wonderful recording of the 21st February show at Tiffany's in my home town of Glasgow where the band sing the vocal sample line instead of using a sample. They do bloody well too - check it out on DM Live Wiki here
The B-side is a curious track. Now, This Is Fun initially sounds like something that should have very much stayed in the studio, but on repeated listens it gets catchier and catchier ultimately forcing you to admit that it is not too bad at all. The band played it live a remarkable 86 times on the See You and Construction Time Again tours with the last live airing taking place on 2nd June 1984 in Ludwigshafen in Germany. Lie To Me has only ever been played live 77 times, nine times less than Now, This Is Fun.
When Depeche Mode were preparing the A Broken Frame - The 12" Singles boxset, a photograph of the 12" master tape appeared on the band's Facebook page that showed the song was originally called Reason For Fun:
The Video
The See You video is, relatively speaking of course, on a far grander scale than Just Can't Get Enough's budget video. It opens over a smoke-filled railway platform with a bow tied Dave distracted from waiting for his train by a haunted photobooth firing out pictures of Dave and his girlfriend. The person playing the girlfriend was in fact Martin's actual girlfriend at the time, Anne Swindell.
As you can see, the story appears to be Dave goes out to buy a record and, while doing so, walks past his bandmates playing cash registers and stumbles upon another haunted photobooth which reveals his girlfriend has been hanging around with the other band members and mystery new man Alan Wilder. "Alan who?" you ask. I'll explain it one day. He used to be in Depeche Mode.
The video ends with Dave breaking all chart rules and actually buying his own single. He is still wanted in Essex for crimes against the Top 40 and remains an outlaw to this day.
The Formats
There were only two formats released in Britain. Firstly, we have the standard 7":
The sleeve seems to show a very short man smoking while looking through a window at a very tall woman while the label is a lovely thing with a love heart at the centre because this is very much a love song. Now, This Is Fun isn't that, but as you can see below, it still gets the love heart label:
Sadly, despite its appearance, the sleeve isn't made of wood. The 12" single has an entirely different cover:
It features two tracks being Extended Versions of See You and Now, This is Fun
Neither remix is a radical reinterpretation of the song it remixes; in fact all the really are are slightly longer versions of each song. See You's 3 minute 55 second single version becomes a whopping 4 minutes 50 seconds long and Now, This Is Fun is stretched from 3 minutes 27 all the way to 4 minutes 45 seconds. The whole 12" then takes 9 minutes 35 seconds to play. I'm sure there's a version of Hole To Feed that is at least 4 times that long or perhaps it just felt that way (see future blog).
There were a few represses of this record and one of them stands out as it has a different sleeve. On the sleeve, the girl's face on the cover leans to the left:
Other than that, there is no difference between this and the standard 12". This one is more collectable and once sold for £58 according to Discogs. No, it wasn't me. See You joined the world of digital music as part of the UK CD singles boxset in 1991 and features the 7" version of Now, This Is Fun and the two tracks from the 12":
As I mentioned earlier, there is a German red vinyl 7" version of See You. This was the first of a series of such releases that ran all the way up to and including Never Let Me Down Again. Here is the front cover with that Bananas sticker:
It features the same tracks as the UK 7" as does the German 12". As well as a black vinyl release though, that format was also released on majestic red/purple marbled vinyl. Just look at this:
How lovely is that? If you like it, here's the back of the sleeve and the B-side as a treat just for you:
There is also the German blue stripe CD which is always a lovely thing:
The French CD is a nice item too:
The later re-press of that doesn't have the greyed out centre. If you are going to collect the French CD singles, go for the ones with the greyed out centre - that seems to be the thing to do.
The single was also released in America, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Japan and Sweden among others. In "Formats I Don't Yet Have But Want" corner, my favourite is the Spanish 12":
An especial discoteca indeed.
See You may not be regarded by many as one of the most important Depeche Mode singles there ever has been, but it's arguably the most crucial. They needed to come out fighting after Vince left and they did that with their own Martin-written pop gem. It kept Depeche Mode firmly in the spotlight, proved the doubters wrong and landed the band their biggest hit to date.
Plus it gave us the chicken video. We'll always have the chicken video.
"Oh yeah. I remember them. (sings) I Just Can't Get Enough. That was a great song. What happened to them?
"They're still going."
"Really? I thought they'd stopped years ago. (sings again ffs) I just can't get enough, I just can't get enough. I love 80's music like that"
*punching sound*
Ok, an extreme reaction perhaps and not one we should end this all too frequent discussion with, but Just Can't Get Enough (note non DM fans - there is no I there) is, like it or not, one of the band's most famous songs. It's barely representative of the Depeche Mode we've come to love but, let's face it, it's a bloody good song and yet more evidence of Vince Clarke's pop song writing superpowers. It was also a massive hit in 1981 as we shall see.
JUST LIKE A RAINBOW - JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH
The single
The brief press release - picture courtesy of Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group
Just Can't Get Enough was released on 7th September 1981, creeping into the charts at number 44 twelve days later. It started to climb the following week, reaching number 24 before a Top Of The Pops appearance on 23rd September saw the song rocket to number 12. Could they breach the Top 10? Not immediately no, as the following week the single equalled New Life by reaching number 11. On October 7th however, Depeche breached the Top 10 for the first time with Just Can't Get Enough landing at number 8. The 23rd September Top Of The Pops appearance was then repeated on the show on 8th October. Surely the single would climb higher? Top 5 maybe? No, it dropped to 12, before sliding out of the charts via 17, 22, 33 and 46.
The single's reviews weren't all that great. Smash Hits said that it was a "less memorable but sound follow up to New Life," adding that it was "good for dancing." The magazine featured the lyrics to allow you to sing along with this good dance music:
Record Mirror gave the song Single Of The Week, proclaiming it "hugely enjoyable, bouncy and boppy and very close to irritating."
NME said that the single had "some lovely textures" adding "It's a slight but memorable song" which seems harsh, while Melody Maker stated, in its smartarse way, "I can, you will."
As we can see from the 23rd September Top Of The Pops, the public must have been initially charmed by this bunch of oddly, or in Martin's case barely, dressed individuals all armed with toy trumpets. Dave looks like he's just finished a shift at a local Italian restaurant, Fletch was clearly off out afterwards, Vince looks as if he dressed for the radio rather than the TV and Martin, well, Martin has somehow found the time to select a hat but not a shirt. We should have known that Mr Gore was going to be an interesting dresser from this point. The public quickly tired of Martin and co's looks, as the repeat TOTP performance saw the song drop out of the Top 10. Never mind. Just Can't Get Enough was a bona fide smash hit and deservedly so.
If you want an example of pure, unadulterated pop genius, Just Can't Get Enough is it. As with the previous two singles, there is a lot more going on here than first meets the eye. Behind the seemingly simple lyrics and melody is a lot of syntheszied cleverness and it's that attention to detail that makes this song and plenty of the other Speak & Spell era tracks stand out from their peers. Ultimately though, I can say as much as I want about Vince, Daniel and Eric Radcliffe's huge synth brains but the main point is this - Just Can't Get Enough is one of if not the best synthpop song of its era.
Despite moving on to bigger and darker things, Depeche Mode have never managed to outrun the song. They played it live on every tour from Speak & Spell to Music For The Masses and it only dropped out of the running during World Violation and the Devotional/Exotic/USA94 tours, returning for The Singles Tour in 1998. Think of 101 without it? It wouldn't be the same. The shot of D A Pennebaker being taken up the ramp by Dave to see the crowd first hand is one of the film's iconic moments. The song would certainly have sounded out of place in 1994, or at least sounded absolutely mental with whatever distorted guitar part Martin came up with for it, but, like it or not Just Can't Get Enough is a big hit at Depeche gigs. The fact it's been played live 613 times speaks to that.
It last turned up at the last gig of the Global Spirit Tour in 2018 and everyone, me included, lapped it up. Ultimately, a good song is a good song no matter how much you think Rush or Blasphemous Rumours etc etc should be there in its place.
The b-side is Any Second Now a quite wonderful instrumental full of those marvellous synth sounds that instrumentals then contained. The song of course would go on to feature on Speak & Spell as Any Second Now (Voices) so called because it had vocals. Clever stuff.
The Video
This is a new section as this was the first time Depeche Mode had ever filmed a video. It's an odd thing really, somehow moving between a bizarre leather clad "live" section complete with dancing girls, and a cocktail drinking section where the band dress quite appallingly and treat the dancers to a selection of terrifying looking drinks. Everyone finds time to tool around on some steps blowing plastic trumpets before an awkward ending where everyone mouths along to the lyrics pretending that they are actually saying "Just Can't Get Enough" to each other like four spies desperately saying a codeword over and over again in the hope the SAWT team finally break in and free them.
It's a video - it does what it needs to do. Is it any good? No, obviously not. Depeche Mode didn't do good videos until Shake The Disease as we'll see, but you'd rather have a bad video and a good song as opposed to a nonsensical video and a quite hideous and mid-bendingly overrated one wouldn't you? I mean Rio by Duran Duran there specifically or, if you like, any Duran Duran "song" ever.
The Formats
The UK 7" single sleeve features at the top of this blog and the back of the 7" single is above. As you'll see, it says that Any Second Now features on the b-side. The a-side label looks like this:
and the b-side label, perhaps unsurprisingly, like this:
Depmod.com tells me that there are seven different variants of that record. I have no reason to doubt that.
There was a 12" too. As you can see from the picture above, the cover is different from the 7". Gone is the large white cat to be replaced by a man tied up and blindfolded. Lovely stuff. The 12" version of Just Can't Get Enough is the mighty Schizo Mix, a Depeche Mode do Kraftwerk reconstruction of the track that doesn't as much remix it as re-write it. It is marvellous and something everyone must hear.
The b-side of the 12" is a remix of the 7" b-side. Any Second Now (Altered) is very much an altered version of Any Second Now and it it just as enjoyable as its standard version. The 12" sleeve mirrors the 7" in that Just Can't Get Enough and Any Second Now have a side of the sleeve to themselves with the remix names added on the 12". As you can see, the cat reappears on the b-side of the 12" no doubt delighted to be far away from whatever the hell is going on with the bloke on the other side of the sleeve.
The 1991 UK CD single brought all four tracks together.
As ever, there were releases all over the world and some of these have gone on to become highly sought after with one of them being one of those seemingly insanely rare releases that drive collectors nuts. Firstly, we have an American release. This lovely 12" promo features the Schizo Mix and New Life (Remix):
There is also a US 7". There are not one but two German coloured vinyl versions of the record. As you can see, Just Can't Get Enough was once again proclaimed a Top Hit Aus England (and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland....) and the sleeve uses the 7" art rather than the UK 12" art. There are black vinyl 7" and 12" releases of course and the more common of the two coloured vinyl versions on white vinyl:
There is then also this - the grey vinyl version. It took me years to get hold of and to date it rarely appears for sale. If you want to buy one just now, it'll cost you £1,300 on Discogs. £1,300! That's nearly two Anton art books.
As ever, there is the lovely German CD single with the blue stripe:
The French CD single is a nice thing too:
There are of course other versions of the single available, including a lovely Japanese 7".
The cover is a work of art in itself. The Speak & Spell swan is there, regal and covered in what looks like clingfilm and Martin, Dave and Andy appear too, all cuddled up in a phone booth. We wouldn't actually see that phone booth until the next single so why is it on this sleeve? Well this single wasn't released in Japan until 26 June 1982 by which time Depeche were down to a trio.
On the B-Side, we get Just can't Get Enough (Schizo Mix) which is marvellous. We also get the lyrics in Japanese and English.
By the time Just Can't Get Enough dropped out of the charts, Depeche Mode were a confirmed Top 10 band and undertaking a successful UK tour. Suddenly though, everything changed when Vince's departure from the band was announced on 30th November. The genius behind their first three singles and most of the debut album was off. That would surely mean the end of Depeche Mode?
No, no it wouldn't. A new songwriter, previously only known for his topless, trumpet holding Top Of The Pops triumph would appear and Depeche Mode would become a very different band.
We'll talk about that next time. See You then. Ouch.
A very fancy, gorgeous looking Depeche Mode book has just been released. Depeche Mode by Anton Corbijn is an illustrated history of Corbijn's work with the band and it is full to the brim with over 500 photographs of the band many of which have never been seen before.
Fans of the band are more than familiar with Anton's work. As you all know, I have droned on for hours about his Violator era work and there is no doubt at all that Anton's iconic work with the band has helped create the aura that still surrounds them today. The music is of course first and foremost, but in the case of, for example, the Music For The Masses singles videos or the glorious Devotional, Anton's work is so bound to the music that it becomes part of it almost. I certainly feel that way about everything from the Violator period; there the artwork complimented the music perfectly, creating a flawless package.
Anton first worked with the band in 1981 of course, the results of which can be seen above. This was for an NME cover feature in August 1981. At that point, Anton though they were too poppy however, by 1986 his attitude had changed somewhat and he directed the video for A Question Of Time. Suddenly, Depeche Mode had an image.
The book is split into different chapters looking at Anton's work with the band in different eras. The photograph above helps illustrate that point as you can see. Much Depeche fan fury (more of which in a bit) was unleashed yesterday when a still from this video showed 4 initials - VC, AF, DG and MG:
"BUT WHAT ABOUT ALAN," people cried, tearing apart their black leather sheets and weeping into their Black Celebration tour T-shirts. "THEY'VE INSULTED HIM AGAIN. HE WAS A MEMBER FOR 12 YEARS OF THE BAND'S 40 YEAR HISTORY. WHY MUST THEY DO THIS?"
As Anton explains in the video, those initials relate to chapter 1, the pre-Alan era. All is well and Alan features plenty in the book as he rightly should.
(I know I'm veering off course with this but does every single Depeche release in whatever form it comes have to generate this debate? Yes Alan was massively influential in the band's most magnificent period and yes it's entirely arguable things might have been different if he stayed but let's not bring him into everything? Let's remember the good times. I'm sure Alan doesn't need this. Also, I'm just having a bit of fun here too. These are dark enough times as it is and this blog is never the most serious of places)
Alan's picture. But wait! It's smaller. STOP HATING ALAN
The unreleased photographs are the real gold here and every single one of us Depeche Mode fans wants to see every single one of them. Any unreleased Depeche Mode item, especially in these days of blanket internet coverage and blogs that spam your timelines with flippant articles about b-sides, books and other nonsense (hello), is in exceptionally high demand. Unseen pictures from the time the band were the biggest and best on earth are therefore a bewilderingly enticing prospect.
And that's where there has been something of a problem in the Depeche Mode fan universe in the last couple of days.
The last Depeche book Anton released was the marvellous Strangers, a book positively bursting with magical late 80's to the end of World Violation imagery. You could but that in shops or from the band's World Violation Merchandise leaflet for £13 or so. It costs more now if you buy it second hand but it's well worth it.
This book is a different proposition. As you can see from the video, it's a massive bastard of a book and that's because this release is through Taschen, a company who specialise in publishing art books. This isn't a book you'll find in Waterstones or Saturn, it's one aimed more at the art fan albeit safe in the knowledge that Depeche fans will snap it up.
The price of this book has caused consternation too. There are 1986 copies signed by Anton and the three current members of the band ("BUT ALAN WOULD HAVE MADE THE SIGNATURES BETTER.") They retail at the frankly terrifying price of £750. The first two hundred copies sold for £1,500 each, the first hundred accompanied by a "SOFAD, London 1992" print and the second hundred coming with a "SOTU, New York 2008" print. They've all sold out.
There are therefore 1,486 copies left although you should note that they are going fast. Helen at Taschen has kindly said that I can share her email here (H.Turner@taschen.com) and told me to tell you to email her if you wish to buy a copy of if you have any questions.
Please not that Helen works for Taschen and not Depeche Mode. She doesn't know when the new album is out, she doesn't know Dave's mobile number and, no, she's not heard anything about a former member coming back at any time. I'm sure that Vince wouldn't tell her even if he was thinking about it.
(See what I did there?)
sighs at the perfection of this forever
So there you have it. Anton has released a Depeche Mode book full of things we've not seen before but it's very expensive and there are not that many of them at all. If you buy it, good luck to you as you'll have a wonderful item. For the rest of us, I'm sure we're all hoping that this appears in a Strangers like form at some point in the future. It would be wonderful for as many of Depeche Mode's fans as possible to have the chance to see this treasure trove of photos first hand.
