DEPECHE MODE - THE SINGLES 1981 to 2021. PART 1: DREAMING OF ME

 

7" cover - courtesy of depechemode.com

2021 will see the 40th anniversary of Depeche Mode's first single Dreaming Of Me. To celebrate 40 years of Depeche Mode, I will be writing a blog about each of their singles looking at the song itself, b-sides, the various formats they were each released on and so on. I'll mainly focus on UK releases but I'll mention releases from elsewhere where they are noteworthy. As ever, the opinions no matter how ridiculous they may seem are all mine, this has nothing to do with the band or Mute and any mistakes you find are entirely my own. 

As this series develops there will be a few special blogs here and there and possibly a podcast or two if the people I've spoken to and I ever get round to that. There is no guarantee that they will ever happen however so don't delete your podcasts apps in fear of them actually happening. 

Thanks in advance in case I forget to depechemode.com, Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook group, dmlivewiki and depmod.com. Without the latter three sites' valuable resources, these blogs would be very brief. Without depechemode.com and indeed Depeche Mode themselves, this wouldn't be happening at all. All photos are mine unless otherwise credited

Over the next few months, feel free to join in the post blog apologies (me) and chat (hopefully you) on Facebook ,my Twitter page and the blog's Twitter page. I hope you enjoy whatever this turns out to be.

7" rear - courtesy of depechemode.com

DANCING WITH A DISTANT FRIEND - DREAMING OF ME

The Single

Dreaming of Me was released on 20th February 1981 and first charted in the UK on 4th April, entering the charts at number 75. It climbed to its chart high of 57 the following week before dropping to 64, climbing back to 63 and then dropping out of the charts altogether.

In those days, a band had to sell a large amount of singles to even get to the top 40. When Dreaming Of Me was released for example, the UK number one was the horrendous and probably offensive in numerous ways Shaddap Your Face by Joe Dolce. That single sold six million copies worldwide which is a damning indictment on 1981 society. Against that admittedly extreme background, Depeche Mode did very well indeed in getting their debut single to number 57. 

The single received a reasonable amount of airplay from Radio 1 (crucial in those days) and was generally well received by the UK music critics too. Smash Hits reviewed a Depeche gig at Cabaret Futura on 16 February (see dmlivewiki for gig info here) in its 5th March 1981 edition, calling Dreaming Of Me "simply wonderful" and adding "(T)asteful and tuneful, danceable and intelligent, it deserves to be utterly huge. Buy it!"

Sounds said that the song was "Deep, meaningful, heavy and arty" and the NME called it a "sweetly unassuming slice of electronic whimsy" with "a candyfloss melody" that made for "a pleasant three minutes." Record Mirror were sort of complimentary in saying "Floppy fringe nusic, as predictable and well crafted as any Ultravox song."

Smash Hits printed the lyrics too:

Dreaming Of Me really is a great introduction to Depeche Mode. It has all the hallmarks of classic Vince Clarke penned synthpop, with its lead riff giving a nod to OMD, one of Vince's early influences. It's a pure pop song and easily the equal of many of the more famous and, let's be honest, inferior tracks of the time. The band stuck with it for a few years and included it in their live sets until April 1983. In total, the band played the song live a numerically frustrating ninety nine times with the lucky attendees at Bangkok's Napalai Hall the last people to see the band play the song live on 10th April 1983. We're not going to count any of Martin's Hotel Session bootlegs before anyone asks.

Dreaming Of Me doesn't appear on the UK edition of Speak & Spell. The CD version issued in 1988 adds the track to the album. It's a pity it didn't feature on the original release as it would have worked well perhaps at the expense of one of the weaker tracks but conversely, it is quite special to have it as a standalone single. It did feature on the US release (among others), a move that saw Puppets promoted to track 2 and I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead harshly binned. What's Your Name stayed silent in the corner of Side A relieved that no-one had noticed it. For completeness' sake, the US vinyl version features the Remix version of New Life and the Schizo Mix of Just Can't Get Enough instead of the two album versions we know. I'm not writing about the album though and it's no spoiler to say that those two songs will feature prominently in the next two blogs, so I'll leave this for now.

The b-side of Dreaming Of Me is something rather special. Ice Machine is a dark, brooding track that tips the hat firmly to Kraftwerk albeit through a gloomy Basildon filter rather than a euphoric Europe Endless style one. Ice Machine is certainly more representative of the way Depeche Mode's sound would develop over the years after its release and it's a song that has certainly stood the test of time. Neither of the two tracks here featured on Speak And Spell and while Dreaming Of Me would have slotted in nicely on the album, Ice Machine would perhaps have stuck out as being too dark and almost industrial at least when compared to the likes of What's Your Name.  There is something wonderful about such a strong song being a b-side, only accessible to those who bought the single. A 7inch single needs to be, or at least should be, a perfect package and the two tracks here more than pass the test.

Ice Machine featured on the band's original demo tape with Fletch playing bass guitar on the track. The song has sadly not been heard live for years, but it was played 132 times by the band, all the way from the Composition Of Sound gig at Nicholas Comprehensive School on 14th June 1980 to the concert at Nakano Sun Plaza in Tokyo in 12th April 1985. A live version from the gig at Liverpool's Empire Theatre on 29 September 1984 is available on the Blasphemous Rumours 12”.

The Formats

As this series moves on, this part will get harder. Happily, Dreaming Of Me was only released on 7" in the UK so this should be easy.

The sleeve was designed by Mark Crick, a Basildon school friend, and the front and back of it can be seen earlier in this blog. The 7" labels are plain enough designs; the A-Side is above and here is the B-Side

If you are one of those people who needs to collect everything by the band, there are six variations of the UK 7" alone some with different style openings to the sleeve, some with slightly different colourings on the shirt of the person on the sleeve and so on. There is also a version with a Ferret Plugging Sticker on the back. Ferret, later Ferret & Spanner, was the plugging company Mute used to promoting Depeche and other artists records. You will have seen Neil Ferris on the documentaries that accompanied the CD/DVD reissues. Depeche Mode promos are pricey as it is - a Ferret & Spanner sticker adds a few pounds to their value or, in my and may other people's case, the money you inevitably spend on it for reasons best known to yourself.

The single was released on CD in the UK in 1991 as part of DMBX1 and then on 12" for the first time ever with 2018's Speak And Spell 12" Boxset. I was one of the people involved in the unboxing of that box - the video and my review of it can be found here - cringe

UK CD single

Elsewhere on earth, the single appeared on 7" in Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Canada (promo only). A lovely 3" CD single was released on Germany in 1988:

German CD single with adapter

German CD single inlay

There are a few other versions of Dreaming Of Me out there and, as ever, do check out depmod.com to view them all. As a random pick from those, here is the French CD single:

There we have it then - Depeche Mode's first single. Only Vince knows what a "man switch" is and perhaps that knowledge allowed him to climb "the rising cast," laughing as he did so. One thing we all know however is that Dreaming Of Me and Ice Machine were quite marvellous introductions to a career that would become something very special indeed.

That career has been filled with 56 singles and the second of those (leaving me with only 54 blogs to go....) would be New Life. We'll have a look at that next time

COMPOSITION OF MODE - A 40TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

When you think of iconic venues Depeche Mode have played, there are a few names that spring to mind immediately. Dodgers Stadium, London Stadium, Waldbuhne and, of course, the Rose Bowl all stand out, each one a venue that Depeche Mode fans can spend hours talking about, no doubt debating whether the set at the particular venue was better because of Alan/no Alan or drums/no drums or Martin's solo set and so on. We've been there many times before and we don't need to go there again just now.

One venue that is rarely thought of as an iconic Depeche Mode landmark is Nicholas Comprehensive School in Basildon. Arguably, it is one of, if not the most important live venue in the band's history, because 40 years ago today, Dave Gahan first appeared live with Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke, performing lead vocals with Composition Of Sound, the band renamed as Depeche Mode in September 1980. 

Nicholas Comprehensive School is now called the James Hornsby School following a merger in 1998. Martin and Andy attended the school, as did Alison Moyet. There can surely be very few schools that can boast as many global record sales as Nicholas Comprehensive and it's hard to think of any establishment outside Kling Klang Studios that has had more of an impact on electronic music. The school is proud of its connection to Depeche Mode and has erected a plaque beside its stage to commemorate the June 1980 gig:

We can forgive the error about the name of the band who played the gig. Prior to the 14th of June show, Composition Of Sound had been a three piece consisting of Vince playing guitar or keyboards, Martin on keyboards, Fletch on bass guitar and a drum machine. Having famously noticed Dave covering "Heroes" in April 1980, Vince recruited him for the band, though the three piece version of Composition Of Sound did play a handful of gigs before Dave's debut, mainly in people's living rooms or at parties. Their final gig as a three piece was at Woodlands Youth Club. After that, Dave joined and took the job that he still has forty years later.

 Dave, May 1980 - Picture (c) Deb Danahay

Dave's debut gig was arranged by a Steve Burton, a friend of Andy's. Steve told Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group:

"I was on the committee of the Nicholas Old Pupils Association who were looking to arrange an event to promote the organisation. I said that some friends of mine had recently formed a band and were looking for opportunities to perform live. I assured the committee that the band were good and that people would come along to support a gig. So it was agreed to clear the large locker room out in Nicholas School to make a stage and set big enough for Composition of Sound."

Steve spoke about the gig in Simon Spence's excellent book Just Can't Get Enough too, saying:

"It was a ticket-only do and a load of the local yobbos who couldn't get in got a load of stones and went around smashing a load of school windows."

As anyone who has seen Depeche Mode anywhere will attest, that doesn't sound a million miles away from the atmosphere at the band's gigs now among the...erm...more devoted elements of the band's fanbase.

Picture (c) Deb Danahay

It seems the gig took place on the school's stage rather than in a cleared-out room. Deb Danahay kindly provided me the picture above which shows Nicholas Comprehensive School's stage which, as you can see, has the plaque I mentioned above to its right-hand side. Deb used to run an event that involved a walking tour of early Depeche Mode hotspots and the stage in the picture was included in that. 

Martin was a busy man on 14th June as he also played in French Look who were the other band on the bill as you can see on the event poster at the top of this blog. The poster was designed by Vince's brother Rodney. I very much like the reel to reel tape player that it features, an at that point unknown nod to how that machine would feature in Depeche Mode's live sets in the next couple of years. The fact Martin played in both bands caused some tension between Robert Marlow and Vince as both wanted Martin to be in their band and thought he shouldn't be in the other one. Luckily Vince was the more persuasive of the two as, without that, I very much doubt this blog would exist. It may be the case that in some parallel universe French Look have just played two nights at the Waldbuhne to end an 18 month long world tour however. We'll never know.

After Martin changed from his French Look wear into his Composition Of Sound gear, the new four piece took to the stage and Depeche Mode were born. Sadly no recordings of this gig exist and no-one is certain what the setlist was. In his interview with the Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group, Steve Burton suggests that the set could have been along these lines:

Ice Machine

Virginia Plain (Roxy Music cover)

Mirror Is Standing

Television Set

Photographic

Then He Kissed Me (The Crystals cover) (NB - it's likely that instead of Then He Kissed Me, the song played at the 14th of June gig was Then I Kissed Her which would be a cover of the Beach Boys' reworded cover of The Crystals song ) 

Big Muff

Sunday Morning

Of the original songs performed by the band, there are no known recordings of Mirror Is Standing and Sunday Morning in circulation. Both were early Vince compositions and according to band associate Daryl Bamonte in Bong, the much missed Depeche Mode fanclub magazine, "no-one remembers" Mirror Is Standing and Sunday Morning was "performed maybe just two or three times and was performed in the style of a hymn-like chant." In Bong 24, the issue I've taken the quotes from, you can see early setlists, one of which is not too far from the setlist Steve has mentioned. Swap Virginia Plain for Price Of Love, a song that Composition Of Sound played around that time, and the handwritten list to the bottom right of the picture below may be the one from the 14th of June 1980. It's a longshot or course but you never know.

Bong24, page 18

As the "hymn-like chant" of Sunday Morning ended (is anyone else thinking of the "oh -ee -oh" of Pimpf when they read that? No. Just me then), it's unlikely that anyone present at Nicholas Comprehensive School thought they had just witnessed the first steps of a band who would go on to be one of the world's biggest, most influential bands. It seems a long way from a cover of a cover of a Crystals song on a school stage to Just Can't Get Enough going Top Ten. From there it seems an even longer way to Everything Counts, Black Celebration, 101, Violator and so on. 

The remarkable thing is that three quarters of the band who played the last gig of the Global Spirit Tour at the Waldbuhne on July 25th 2018 are the same people who played together with Vince Clarke for the first time ever forty years ago today. What a journey they've been on and what a journey they've taken us all on. 

So much that I love and so much that you love exists because of this concert and that is why Nicholas Comprehensive School, Basildon deserves to be mentioned alongside the Rose Bowl, Dodgers, London Stadium and Waldbuhne. After all, without it it's likely that those four names would mean nothing to us at all. 

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Thanks very much to Deb Danahay, Debbie Rawhouser, Tracey Dunne, Simon Spence and Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group.