Blog friend, film star and general all round good guy Daniel Cassus returns to reporting duties for this review of the Depeche show in Berlin on 13 February. I'm been busy at work and unwell hence the delay in publishing this. Thanks very much indeed as ever Daniel. All pictures are his so don't use without crediting him please.
"Berlin is the Depeche Mode capital.” Yep, those words came out of my mouth and they are on film, much to the chagrin of my Los Angeles friends (I still stand that I said Berlin AND Los Angeles, but that got cut in the editing room). So it’s only fair Berlin would be the first European city to get more than 2 shows in a row. Except they weren’t in a row because there was a show in Hamburg between the second and the third one, but you get what I mean.
I arrived just as the opening act Humanist was playing Shock Collar, the song on which Dave collaborated with vocals though he is of course he is not on stage. Less than an hour later he is however, as the show begins with those bangs from the ending of Speak To Me blending into the beginning of My Cosmos IsMine. This was my first show seen from the front, so it was the first time experiencing the full imagery and lights. The giant “M” on stage slowly gets the brushstrokes, while the band is lit from behind.
We then move into Wagging Tongue where the lights above the stage are almost like an extra band member. Walking In My Shoes is a fierce performance with the screen all up in red. With It’s No Good, Anton reminds us of his passion for animals on film by showing donkeys on a beach. So far it’s the same show they played last year.
Now comes the first change. Sister Of Night got replaced with the seemingly mandatory Policy Of Truth. As much as I adore Sister Of Night and wished for a full band performance with Dave on vocals ever since the song was released, when it finally became a reality, it was a bit of a downer in an otherwise upbeat first few songs. I confess I prefer Policy Of Truth in this spot for once. The band tweaked the ending of the second bridge so Christian could do a power drum fill, but that was the only relevant change. In fact, most people probably didn’t notice this little nitpick of mine.
In Your Room was brought back in its Zephyr Mix form again followed by Everything Counts and Precious. At the point you start to think it’s the Global Spirit Tour setlist again (and you wouldn’t be that wrong). Both songs still rock and work great, but it was the song that followed that I was waiting for. Before WeDrown was a very positive surprise this winter leg brought. It takes the spot that was occupied by Speak to Me and My Favourite Stranger, neither of which I think work very well live, so the change was very welcome (don’t worry, these other two were played in the following Berlin concerts).
Time for Martin’s slot. Gone are the piano version of Soul With Me and the full band version of AQuestion Of Lust. Instead we get acoustic versions of Strangelove and Somebody. They’ve been playing Strangelove quite often on recent tours. This one is another I wish they played the full band version of.
Dave comes back and we get the great Ghosts Again, a song that still brings a tear to my eyes during the line “everybody says goodbye”. We’ve all said goodbye to lots of people in the 6 years since the last tour. Talking of which, we’re brought back to “GST Mode” with I Feel You and A Pain That I’m Used To, as usual, played as the Jacques Lu Cont Mix.
One change however saw World In My Eyes replaced with Behind The Wheel. The backdrop video is simply the original music video (album version recently reissued on the Strange DVD). Fletch still got a quick shoutout at the end. Wrong also got replaced with Black Celebration. This one got a slightly new intro with Peter fiddling with some chord progressions. Then the main set closes with Stripped, the slightly longer version of John The Revelator and Enjoy The Silence. No surprises on the former and the latter, though.
The encore starts with Condemnation, which seems to have become the main track for this slot instead Waiting For The Night. Then the stage goes totally colourful for Just Can’t Get Enough, a track that I never imagined they would still be playing in 2024. We then go to Never Let Me Down Again and the mandatory arm waving. We conclude with Personal Jesus, which still has the slow acoustic intro but thankfully not as painfully slow as in the “Delta Machine Tour”. Reach out and touch faith… and it’s over.
Overall I think the setlist improved from the summer leg. It was expected that it would default a bit to the “best of” setlist, but it works. And that was it. I definitely enjoyed it much more seeing the band from up front. In a way it was almost the first show of the tour I got to see Anton’s videos properly. To me the giant M on the stage works so much better than the split screen from the GST and the globe from the TOTU.
Picture courtesy of Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group
Depeche Mode and Berlin is always a special combination. Sarah Evans visited the city for her first Depeche Berlin experience earlier this month and here is her review. It's a great read - thank you very much Sarah. Follow her on Twitter at @sunforsarah All pictures here are Sarah's unless otherwise credited.
Picture courtesy of Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group
Is Berlin the Spiritual Home of Depeche Mode?
It's a big question and one Americans might challenge, especially with all the band history in Los Angeles; the recent declaration of Depeche Mode day, Dave nearly checking out forever at the Sunset Marquis and the legendary 101 Rose Bowl concert, so their special relationship with LA can't be denied.
But my question, takes me back to Berlin. Home of the famous Hansa Studio's, home of BlackCelebration and where DM played in East Germany before the Wall came down. There are many German influences that have seeped into Martin's songwriting.
I had heard all about the German fan base with elevated adoration levels of their beloved DM, I really wanted to experience a piece of this and see if the Berlin hype would be delivered.
Therefore a mini trip to Berlin for the 2024 back end of the tour was too good an opportunity to miss. Especially as we just don't know what lies ahead...devotees you'll have your own views on whether they'll tour again!
So far this Memento Mori tour has been reviewed as being tremendous. The Twickenham gig last summer was a great day. Meeting Twitter friends for a spot of day drinking on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon in a pub garden, where the DJ cranked up our excitement, not only by being a "looky likey" Dave resplendent in shiny waistcoat, but by playing DM all afternoon to a boozy swarm of middle aged UK fans in a swathe of black t-shirts. Seeing our boys again that evening after 4 years, was sweaty and glorious.
Then more recently to a more favourable indoor gig at the O2 Arena London, where up to that time (pre-Berlin!) personally this was the best I have ever seen them play.
Before we get back to why I love DM and sharing my Berlin gig experience. I need to share....strap in.....I was a late comer to the DM scene, becoming a convert only in 1996.
"Good grief," you say, "you missed out on your teenage years lying in front of the stacking hifi system, taping vinyl onto cassettes, learning all the words to every song and you definitely missed out on Dave in his tighty whitey jeans era."
I know!! Roxy Music, Spandau Ballet, The Cult and Stevie Nicks predominantly, were the tracks of my teenage years. The only memories I have of early DM, were in my catholic school form room, where Joanne (the only DM fan in our year) would play the boppy sounds of See You and People Are People from the double deck cassette player and she would top up the white hand painted words DEPECHE MODE that were Tipp-exed onto her green army school satchel, before we light headily sauntered off to assembly to sing 'Salve Regina'.
Let's jump ahead a decade to 1996 and I'll introduce you to Mr E. He was the electronic DM fan and he had been there from the start through to the heady iconic Crystal Palace Devotional gig. On our second date, Mr E knows he onto a good thing with me (*winks) and takes me back to his. He then pulls out the Devotional live concert DVD. I expect it was a test, if I dissed DM, I probably wouldn’t have made date 3.
Oh my goodness! The form room bops had been replaced by atmospheric drums, huge visual screens projecting an assortment of sensual images and Dave with arms outstretched and gyrating arse, fed his addiction from the worshipping crowd. By the time In Your Room came on, I was mesmerised. Dave sacrificially launched himself into the adoring mob below and just as Dave loses his white t-shirt, my goosebumps cause my own clothes to self-combust!! I AM HOOKED!
For me, Jesus Dave at that very moment (whilst off his face wasn't good for his health) is the absolute zenith of his performances. My lapsed Catholicism was overtaken by the religion that is Depeche Mode, chapters and verses to be learnt by heart from the genius of Mr Martin L Gore.
A year later Mr E and I dance our wedding song to Enjoy The Silence...of course.
My first time seeing DM live was in 98' at the old Wembley Stadium for The Singles Tour. Mr E was almost crying when a newly clean, back to life Dave walked on stage and I was completely unaware Daniel Miller was sat near us. Holidays over the next 25 years combined oversees gigs to see the boys in Paris, Madrid, and Miami... and now Berlin.
Right, let's get into it. Berlin...
We had very civilised pre gig cocktails with Dave & Jane, two of the lovely devotees we have met through Twitter (never X). Both huge fans from teenage times and devoted travellers where seeing the Global Spirit Tour finish in Berlin Waldbuhne was their highlight from following DM.
Mr E and I are up high on the side seats, and the excitement in the German crowd is rippling through the arena. Humanist plays as support, the drums and guitars are good and I'll certainly take a listen to their 2020 album.
I'm next to a very no nonsense German woman, who it would turn out, had the loudest claps and whooooooooops known to womankind every time Dave spun, gyrated or wiggled his bum. She was already standing and bumping along to the build-up tracks before I get to my seat.
I ask her if the German crowd will be amazing tonight, she answers without hesitation "of course". She's probably thinking I'm a stupid Brit and no wonder we left the EU.
I press on "why is that?", and quite simply she says; "It's Berlin"
The stage is reset, the Germans are already bouncy, about 5 minutes before the gig starts, the energy is almost making me well up, my emotions are held together with a big breath.
The boys walk on stage and we're off, everyone in the seated block is on their feet. What songs will get Berlin ecstatic? How will this gig differ from London just 3 weeks ago?
Observation to start with; German fans don't leave their seats for beers and wees, there are in it for 2 hours of unbroken adoration. No one's chatting, everyone knows the words and there is a lot of cheering.
Walking In My Shoes is sublime and the Germans are now hypnotised. Mr E post-gig rated Policy OfTruth and My Favourite Stranger as his favourite tracks of the night. Everything Counts sends the Arena into a frenzy, I do love the white gloved hand visuals.
While Dave takes a break (Do you ever wonder what he does for 10 mins especially as he is getting older?, little lie down on the chaise longue maybe?) Martin sings beautiful renditions of Strangelove and Heaven.
Ghosts Again is very well received by the crowd, I was really hoping for the setlist with Before WeDrown and Behind The Wheel but it wasn’t to be tonight. I Feel You gets my German gig neighbour excitable, which is a joy to me. We rock it out as if we're strippers in a dodgy communist backstreet joint. Outstanding!!
With the return of World In My Eyes I've got tears seeing the audience gesturing their love to the images of Fletch on the big screens with their fingers joined to make Andy eyes.
As a late comer to DM, Violator and Songs Of Faith And Devotion will always be my go-to DM listen. When Black Celebration starts up however, this is my chance to really experience what this song means to Berlin. I see a couple dancing together as if they are all alone in a Euro club, totally engrossed in each other. Everyone else around me are just losing it by singing aloud and then I simply get it. It's a deep seated Berlin anthem overcoming the challenges of the past, East and West long since united but still with that bleak history that will never be forgotten. But my interpretation of this industrial track may have been influenced by spending too much time at the remnants of the Wall!
Enjoy The Silence is gorgeous – it is such a crowd pleaser; the skull visuals are perfect.
For the encore Waiting For The Night was beautiful, the arena filled with twinkling phone lights.
And then my second set of tears start as the wonderfully euphoric Berlin crowd give it all, hard and energetic arms are swinging in the air to Never Let Me Down Again. As I looked around the Arena it was triumphant from front to back, it was an OUTSTANDING wheat wave. I have never seen a crowd react in such a way!
To “We’ll see you next time” Dave, Martin, Peter and Christian receive huge applause, there’s a lot of hugging and back slapping, they truly looked like they enjoyed their performance and revel in the deep love from their German fan base.
So is Berlin the spiritual home of DM?
My gig neighbour's words "It's Berlin" resound, of course we wouldn’t expect anything less.
To celebrate Depeche Mode's landmark Construction Time Again reaching its 40th birthday, here is an article I wrote for the 2023 Classic Pop Depeche Mode special. I was asked to write about an album that had not had that much coverage previously and Construction Time Again seemed an ideal choice. If you want to buy the magazine this first featured in, go to https://www.classicpopmag.com/2023/04/classic-pop-presents-depeche-mode/
Depeche Mode’s third album, Construction Time Again, represents a crucial step in the band’s career. With this album, they moved away from the pop-focussed sound of Speak & Spell and A Broken Frame and, combining Martin’s interest in the industrial sounds of Einsturzende Neubauten and the sampling skills of “Tonmeister” Gareth Jones, they created a collection of songs that brought an experimental edge to their electronic pop music. The album also of course saw them use Hansa Studios in Berlin for the first time, the start of their fruitful relationship with Jones, and it produced a classic Depeche Mode single in Everything Counts.
To properly consider Construction Time Again, we must go back to the band’s January 1983 single Get The Balance Right. That release saw Alan Wilder officially join Depeche Mode and the single’s 12” remix, the Combination Mix, gave a clear indication of the direction in which Depeche Mode were headed. The harder sounding edge of the remix saw the band move on from the more standard 12” remixes to something entirely different, and that sound and feel resonate throughout Construction Time Again. As we will see, having co-written Get The Balance Right’s B-side, the curious instrumental The Great Outdoors with Gore, Wilder also wrote two of that album’s nine tracks, thus quickly cementing himself as an integral part of the band he had only recently joined.
Recording for Construction Time Again began in April 1983 in The Garden studios which were owned by John Foxx. The band, Gareth Jones and Daniel Miller stayed there for two months, and, during that time, they revolutionised the way Depeche Mode approached making music. The band’s first two albums were predominantly, if not wholly, analogue recordings but the use of The Garden’s digital facilities together with the introduction of Daniel Miller’s new purchased Synclavier sampling synthesizer opened up a new world of possibilities for the band. Like Gore, Jones was fascinated by the possibilities of sampling and he and Depeche Mode used his Stellavox SP7 reel-to-reel recorder to add textures and atmosphere to the album itself. The Garden was based in Shoreditch and that area was far from the area it now; it was run-down and full of building sites, old railway yards and all sorts of places filled with sampling possibilities.
The album’s third track, the Gore lead vocal Pipeline, is the album’s best example of the studio’s team’s eagerness to sample anything they could. The song is constructed entirely from found sounds, made up from the band, Miller and Jones hitting, banging and recording anything they could find in their Shoreditch playground. The vocals were recorded in a railway yard in the area and, as can be heard from around four minutes fifteen seconds into the track, a train passed by as Martin sang. The decision to keep that noise in the song is an inspired one; if you’re going to make a song influenced by industrial music, made entirely from samples of noises you found in railway yards and building sites, you may as well retain the noise of a passing train for extra authenticity. More Trans East End Express than Trans Europe Express perhaps?
Pipeline is the only track on Construction Time Again that is entirely made up of samples. Jones estimates that only “15-20%” of the album is made up of samples with the rest played on the band’s usual synthesizers. It’s worth noting too that on Love, In Itself and And Then… an acoustic guitar makes an appearance, a novelty for Depeche Mode at that time. The use of “real” instruments is taken further on the Love, In Itself remix Love, In Itself 4 which sees the band take on a lounge style persona with Dave crooning to a guitar and piano backing. Experimentation was very much in the air.
Once the London sessions were concluded, the band moved to Berlin to mix the album at Hansa Studios. That studio became the band’s home for the next few years and they recorded the next two albums, Some Great Reward and Black Celebration, there. Their newfound love of sampling married to their growing sonic ambition meant that they needed somewhere more specialised to mix Construction Time Again. Jones was already familiar with the studio, and, in September 1983, Dave Gahan told Record Mirror:
“We’ve been working in The Garden Studios in Shoreditch, and we just wanted to go to Berlin to get a different atmosphere. If you work a lot in one place it gets quite boring and we were using so many channels, we couldn’t possibly mix on a 24 track.”
Hansa offered a state-of-the-art studio with 64-input Solid State Logic mixing console, facilities that perfectly suited the ideas the band, Miller and Jones had for the sound of the album. Berlin suited the band perfectly too with its 24-hour nightlife particularly appealing. Gore ended up moving to the city to live with his new Berlin native girlfriend and that move’s influence on him directly informed the band’s next two albums and Gore’s newfound dress sense, a style still tediously not forgotten by his home country’s press today.
The album’s release was preceded by its first single, Everything Counts, which came out on 11th June 1983. The single perfectly exemplifies what Depeche Mode were trying to achieve with Construction Time Again; the pop sensibilities were still there but the daring addition of sampling and industrial influences meant that the band were doing something very different from their peers. This experimentation often gets overlooked and Depeche Mode do not receive the credit they should do for the bold way they mixed two very different genres while at their pop height. The band’s television appearances in their home country still suggested a band playing the pop game and that sadly seems to have led to the album’s new direction and sonic pallet being overlooked. Gary Bushell’s typically coarse review of Everything Counts in Sounds (“And the band played on…whether the members of Depeche Mode are actually dead or alive is a question that’s baffled the medical profession for years.”) sums up the majority of the UK music press’ attitude to the band at the time.
The single was rightly a hit, reaching number 6 in the UK charts, accompanied by the band’s first wholly watchable video, filmed by Clive Richardson in Berlin. The 12” features a wonderful remix Everything Counts (In Larger Amounts) while the single’s B-side, the enjoyably throwaway Work Hard, takes the album’s name and themes a little too literally. Like the Combination Mix of Get The Balance Right, Everything Counts (In Larger Amounts) shows just how far ahead of their peers Depeche Mode were when it came to remixing their own songs for 12” single releases, a cause rightly celebrated by the band’s ongoing 12” Boxset release programme.
Get The Balance Right had also seen the band’s first limited edition 12” release, a stunning numbered, blue sleeved record that featured four live tracks from the band’s Hammersmith Odeon gig on 25th October 1982 alongside the single version of the track. That trick was repeated with Everything Counts, with a red sleeved 12” featuring the single and four more tracks from the same concert. The green sleeved limited edition 12” released for Love In Itself, the second and final single from Construction Time Again, gave fans a further four songs from Hammersmith gig, and all three 12” singles together provide a wonderful record of the live Depeche sound of the time which comprised three things: unforgettable melodies, synthesizers and screaming fans. Interestingly, the songs from A Broken Frame that most pointed to the direction Depeche Mode were headed, Leave In Silence and The Sun & The Rainfall, while played at Hammersmith were not present on these 12” singles. Perhaps the band were using them to say goodbye to their first phase as they moved on to darker, more interesting places?
The artwork for Everything Counts showed a sketch of a man hitting an anvil with a hammer, a precursor to the striking Brian Griffin shot artwork that graced the album sleeve. The album cover showed a worker wielding a sledgehammer on a mountainside, the worker in fact Griffin’s brother posing on Mont Blanc. The image matches the album’s themes and tone perfectly, though it did lead to some over-interpretation of the band’s political motives during an infamous interview with X Moore in the NME in September 1983. His attempts to have them engage in deep conversation about their newfound political direction failed however as the band shied away from any notion of that at all.
That is not to say that Construction Time Again ignored wider issues. Alan Wilder’s two songs on the album, Two Minute Warning and The Landscape Is Changing, dealt with subjects new to Depeche Mode releases. The former tackled the then ever-present fear of nuclear destruction and the latter, written after Wilder watched a documentary on acid rain, considered the environment and the impact we were having on it. Neither topic could be said to be topics particularly covered by pop bands of the time, never mind Depeche Mode themselves.
Most of the album was of course written by Martin Gore and, while he didn’t follow Wilder’s lead and write songs that posted clear comments on world events, there is a theme that runs through many of his songs that perhaps shows X Moore wasn’t too far off the mark. Pipeline gave the album its overall theme and atmosphere. In that song, the construction of the titular pipleline is seen as a joyous event (“On this golden day, work’s been sent out way”) that provides something for the workers involved (“Taking from the greedy, giving to the needy”). In Everything Counts on the other hand, a song inspired by a trip the band made to Asia, the greed of money-makers is seen very much as a bad thing (“The grabbing hands, grab all they can, all for themselves, after all.”) Elsewhere, Shame sees Gore point the finger at anyone complacently watching others suffer and doing nothing to help them (“Soap won’t wash away your shame”) and Told You So borrows from William Blake’s Jerusalem, turning that poem on its head, highlighting that the green and pleasant English land envisioned by Blake was far different in reality. More oblique than Wilder’s songs no doubt, but still very much not what was expected of Depeche Mode.
The album’s opening two tracks, under-performing second single Love, In Itself (it only reached number 21 in the U.K.) and the thunderous More Than A Party, are a good start to the album but don’t offer too many clues to what lies ahead as from Pipeline to Told You So, the album changes direction and becomes more serious as discussed above. The closing track And Then… calms everything down, offering the idea that we “pull it all down and start again,” which, given the state of the world address the band have just delivered, seems a reasonable idea. It’s a very clever, enjoyable closing track and a hidden gem in the band’s rich back catalogue. Just when we think that And Then… has served its purpose however, a 59 second long reprise of the chorus of Everything Counts plays, perhaps suggesting that starting all again is futile as those with the power and the money will always win.
While easy to dismiss Construction Time Again as just another early Depeche Mode album featuring a great single, it pays to look much deeper into this album. Depeche Mode used Construction Time Again to push the boundaries of what synthpop bands could do. Instead of repeating the previously successful formula, they looked to industrial music, saw the potential of new sampling technology and, while never losing their pop edge, created a mature, focussed album that set them firmly on the path to their dominant late 80’s/early 90’s period. In terms of innovation and experimentation, Construction Time Again is one of Depeche Mode’s boldest and best albums.
In just four years, Depeche Mode had come a long way. They started by instantly mastering synthpop and, despite the sudden departure of the man behind most of that mastery, changed songwriter, invented leather and hammers, finished off synthpop and turned into gloomy purveyors of experimental pop meets industrial music. All in four years. It really was a remarkable journey.
As 1985 dawned, Depeche Mode had a break after the Some Great Reward tour ended. They met up again in Berlin (obviously) and recorded a new song, Shake The Disease.
Shake The Disease is the moment Martin moved from a great songwriter to become one of the songwriting Gods. It's a glorious song that should have been number 1 forever but, because people wouldn't know good music if it bit them on the arse, it performed badly. I'm annoyed about that, you probably are too, so let's get annoyed together as we look at Shake The Disease.
Press release - courtesy of Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group
I'VE TRIED AS HARD AS I COULD - SHAKE THE DISEASE
The Single
Shake The Disease (BONG8) was released on 29th April 1985. The Depeche Mode Information Service newsletter told everyone the good news in its April 1985 edition, adding the blatant lie that no limited edition 12" would be released.
The band and producer Gareth Jones don't like how the song ended up. Alan said that despite the track being one of his favourites, the band did not "get the best out if it." Gareth meanwhile felt the session hadn't gone as well as the band and his previous sessions. The reviews however were more positive. Number 1 magazine said "Shake The Disease...is a moody, melancholy track with a haunting chorus - it's deceptively simple but completely charming." Rip It up meanwhile said this:
"I've always thought Depeche Mode made interesting records. The fact the elusive big hit avoids them hasn't induced them to write the number one single still swelling inside them. In five years time when people only vaguely remember Tears For Fears, Depeche Mode will be selling more records than ever."
The reviewer was right about selling more records than ever as the 1990 blogs will prove. Sadly, he was wrong about Tears For Fears as people still remember them and indeed celebrate their quite dreadful music to an extent that confuses and terrifies me in equal measure. A dreadful, tedious band. Anyway, back to a song with the word disease in the title that the public failed to embrace.
Shake The Disease crawled into the charts at number 32 on 11th May rising to 25 the next week and 21 the week after that. The they appeared on Top Of The Pops (above) on 23rd May and that managed to send the single flying up the charts to...erm...the same number it was at the week before. The next week it climbed 3 to 18 before falling to 29, 31, 44 and 67 and then out of the charts, not even remaining there in spirit.
The Top Of The Pops appearance is interesting showing them on the way to their Black Celebration look. Martin of course has no top on, just a leather jacket and is wearing a dress. People always mention this in a "ooh it's funny he dressed like a lady" type way but what Martin chose to wear should be of no consequence. Let us not forget SandleGate - Dave is the real clothing villain in Depeche Mode's poorly dressed past. Alan bangs drums, Martin appears to play the side of a shopping trolley and Fletch, as ever, looks like he's having a lovely time.
Ok, Shake The Disease is certainly not the band's poppiest moment and perhaps the world wasn't ready for this new type of sound from Depeche Mode but NUMBER BLOODY 18? How on earth did this song not do better? The lyrics are perfect, the melody glorious and the strange noises you'd expect from a Depeche Mode song of that era are strange and therefore magical. In the week that the song reached its peak of 18, the Top Ten was littered with oafs like Jimmy Nail, Billy Ocean and, yes I'm saying it again, Duran Duran with their typically bafflingly rubbish Bond song. Shake The Disease takes each song in the Top Ten that week outside and single handedly kicks the crap out of them. Number 18 for goodness' sake.
Happily, the band didn't ignore the song live. As well as 8 dates on the festivals tour in 1985, it featured at every gig on the next three tours including the adorable 101 version. From 2005 it became a Martin solo set song and featured on Touring The Angel, Touring The Universe, Delta Machine Tour and twice on the Global Spirit Tour. All in all, Shake The Disease has been played live 392 times.
The B-Side was the much poppier Flexible. The song talks about the effects of fame in a way, although whether being flexible when the boat comes in is a sin is another matter. Martin told Record Mirror in 1986 that the song was written as a joke and you can very much see that. Still, it's fine as B-sides go.
The band have never been flexible enough live to play it however.
The Video
Quick - someone sound the "Good Video" horn. We have a good video on our hands
Directed by Peter Care and filmed in London's Docklands area, then still derelict and free from overpriced housing, the video for Shake The Disease is wonderful at least in comparison to the videos that had gone before it. It starts in a dreadful looking bathroom, the sort you find in a serial killer's house, before 13 seconds in what appears to be a large poodle enters the picture. It is of course not a large poodle - it's Martin with his exploding hair. He's dressed just he was on Top Of The Pops although he's not had the benefit of a make up artist as he did on that show. He appears to have attempted it himself.
This being a Depeche Mode video we are never that far away from our first visual metpahor. 25 seconds in, the noise that sounds like someone running a bit of metal on a fence is illustrated by someone running a bit of metal along a fence. Fair enough. Dave appears in the serial killer room singing the first line of the song and we seem to be all set for the usual Depeche video when....wait a minute....there's Fletch falling down. And there's Dave doing it. What is going on?
We're then back to Dave singing until the chorus kicks in. Fletch again appears, this time with a camera shoved basically up his nose as he sings the chorus. His hair is terrifyingly blonde. Martin gets the same treatment before we see the unasked for return of Basildon Boyzone, thankfully not performing any dance moves. Alan gets hit in the face with the camera, swirling around the room before the "understand me" part when Martin comes into his own, singing those beautiful lines looking part bored and part angry. Alan hits something with a hammer and we're off to verse two.
Verse two is all Dave's bar a couple of shots of a falling Alan and Martin with Martin having sensibly zipped up his coat to avoid catching a cold. Dave even gets the chorus to himself before we are returned to Martin And His Exploding Hair's Understand Me Bathroom.
And from there, we get more falling, more in your face cameras, a bit more fence hitting and that's that. The falling of course was the result of a rotating pole up the back of each member's jacket. Clever looking stuff and probably the first Depeche Mode video that you would happily watch again rather than punching your laptop until the screen broke. Good work.
The Formats
BONG8 featured the two tracks we've already read about. The artwork is baffling really. I don't know what it's meant to symbolise and the label on the A side (above) seems to show the hairy character from the sleeve attempting to perform an obscene act on the letter A.
The label on the B-Side is much more straightforward.
12BONG8 features only two tracks both advertised as Remixed Extended Versions and that is very much what they are. Shake The Disease (Remixed Extended Version) is a superb remix and one I recommend to everyone. The label is again troubling, especially if you consider where the hole is.
The remix of Flexible is fine and the label mercifully free of obscenity. If anyone can tell me why the hairy chap is falling while being chased by a turtle as displayed on the artwork, then do please get in touch.
For reasons I can't recall, I was obsessed with getting hold of a copy of L12BONG8 (above). I finally tracked it down in a second hand section in a record shop in Aberdeen in 1994 and literally ran home to play it. I was nearly 20 at the time. Despite the Depeche Mode Information Service saying so, a limited edition did pop out and it is a fantastic record, full of splendidness. The A-Side features the Edit The Shake version of Shake The Disease. It is a monster of a remix that is one of my all time favourites. It's accompanied by a blistering live version of Master & Servant recorded live in Basel on 30th November 1984. The artwork is nice too, with the hairy chap confined to a box. The "Special Edition" on the cover is an oddly pleasing touch.
We get two more tracks on the B-Side. There's the Pre-Deportation Mix of Flexible which is again fine and then a stunning remix of Something To Do named Metal Mix. It's noisy, tinny and immense in every sense. Many people dislike it and while no-one can ever dictate anyone else's music taste to them and it would be wrong to do so, they clearly need to take a long look at themselves and admit the error of their ways.
The 1991 CD single reissue CDBONG8 features the 7" and standard 12" tracks adding Edit The Shake and the Metal Mix of Something To Do from L12BONG8.
As ever, let's now head to Germany. We have the usual red 7" which copies the single artwork but not the label artwork.
It features the same tracks as 7BONG8.
The coloured vinyl 12" (standard black vinyl editions are also available) is a marbled affair.
A beautfiul thing that features the same tracks as 12BONG8
There is an equally marbled and equally lovely version of the L12 too.
It features the same tracks as L12BONG8.
The German blue stripe CD single features the same tracks as L12BONG8 and calls itself CDL12BONG8. There was no blue stripe CD version of the 12".
The French CD single features the L12BONG8 tracks plus the Single Version of Shake The Disease
There was a cassette version of the L12 in France too. One variation features above, the other has a different sleeve which is a cassette sized version of the L12 sleeve.
As ever, there are formats from all over the world. Let depmod.com be your guide. I will happily accept free copies of both Phillipines versions.
Number 18. Ridiculous.
So that was Shake The Disease. Depeche Mode would busy themselves with some tour dates before finishing another two new songs ahead of their first compilation album.
Fly On The Windscreen was one of those and it is a masterpiece. Unfortunately, due to what I can only imagine was an error in the pressing plant with the letters A and B, It's Called A Heart was chosen for the next single and we'll overanalyse that next time.
Is there anything that says mid 1980's Depeche Mode more than Master And Servant? Chains, Berlin, leather, whips, drills and lyrics all about kinky sex. This was Depeche Mode as a 16 year old teenager, striking out on their own, thinking they were being all edgy, when all they were really doing was looking a bit silly but in a lovely way.
"Awww...look at wee Martin with his leather clothes. And doesn't Fletch look adorable swinging around on those chains?"
Don't get me wrong, Master And Servant is simply fantastic and it is rightly beloved by Depeche Mode fans of all ages. So let's all slip into something black, squeaky and unflattering, wrap ourselves up in a chain or two and read all about Master And Servant.
IT'S A LOT LIKE LIFE - MASTER AND SERVANT
The Single
The Depeche Mode Information Service newsletter of July 1984 told the world that a new Depeche Mode single would be released on 20th August, the as then untitled Martin written track backed by another Martin song that was apparently "very boystown." Nope, me neither. The following month's newsletter confirmed what was going on, announcing the release of Master And Servant.
The single was released before Some Great Reward and, like People Are People, it gave a clear indication of where the band were headed with its use of samples of items such as drills, air compressors and Andy Fletcher's arse. Yes, as Andy confirmed in a 2009 interview for a German magazine "I was once whipped. The result can be heard on Master And Servant. That was really strange." Poor Fletch. That sort of thing wouldn't have happened if Martin had stayed in Basildon.
The song was subject to the usual mixed reviews. Dave Walters in Time Out stated "What do you expect from this bunch of lame dickheads, which was a tad harsh. Robert Hodgens of one hit blunders The Bluebells didn't like it either, telling Smash Hits readers "I'm afraid that, except for the lovely See You, Depeche Mode have consistently failed to evoke any melancholy in me" and Paul Simper of No. 1 magazine simply said that the song saw "their simple formula reduced to drivel." Lovely stuff.
The British public of course paid no attention to this. Following the song's release on 20th August, it entered the charts at 24, leading to the above performance on Top Of The Pops on 30th August. This performance was the exact point Alan Wilder turned into that Alan Wilder. No longer the new boy, Alan stands there leathered up with sunglasses on, gargantuan hair and a chain round his neck that could only reasonably be used for pulling something the size of an elephant out of a hole. Like Martin he spends the whole 3 and a bit minutes hitting things and, let's all be quite honest here, he looks great. Martin is fully clothed oddly, this being the only day in the period 1983-1988 that he wasn't topless. He is sporting a jaunty leather beret however and the make up levels are rapidly increasing. Dave dances a lot and sports the single drumstick he was holding for the People Are People appearance we read about last time. Fletch has been promoted however, good behaviour seeing his drumstick and cymbal rations doubled from last time.
The song climbed the charts the following week, moving to 12 and then 11. It didn't stall there however as another Top Of The Pops appearance on 12th September when the band appeared as cover act Depechey Mode and played "The Master And The Servant" saw the song leap into the Top 10.
Honestly, how hard can it be to actually read the title out correctly? Anyway, that performance is worth watching for Martin's hugely unenthusiastic drumming. The next week climbed to number 9, giving the band yet another Top Ten hit, before it fell to 14, 24, 33, 50 and then somewhat appropriately 69, before leaving the charts
I don't need to tell you much about what Master And Servant actually sounds like as you all know that already. It's a deliberately loud and thumping track that the band somehow managed to take seven days to mix. It was a live favourite for many years, appearing 345 times on the Some Great Reward, Black Celebration, Music For The Masses and World Violation tours. Each different version is worth checking out on dmlive.wiki. It disappeared post World Violation but made a surprise return on the Tour Of The Universe in 2009, appearing 25 times before being binned for much better songs like Hole To Feed. The 2009 version was rather flat and the new arrangement pretty poor. That said, I do wish it had stayed in the set as I would have loved to have seen it.
As we saw earlier, the B-Side of Master And Servant was a track that promised to be "very boystown." Now, I have no idea what that means but if (Set Me Free) Remotivate Me is a boystown track then fair enough. Alan was given a rest from B-Side duties and Martin came up with this pleasant enough poppy track. There's not a great deal more to say about it really. It's never been played live, but that's not a surprise is it?
The Video
OK. Where do we start with this one? The first 8 seconds alone are truly terrifying. We thought and indeed hoped that we had seen the back of the Basildon Boyzone after Everything Counts but here they are once again and this time, they have a quite horrendous dance routine. Add to that the first of many shots of band members swinging about on chains and you are almost pining for Leave In Silence as at least that made you feel like you were on drugs. Just as you get over that and attempt to ignore Dave's grey suit, you are then bamboozled by the introduction of footage of women in kitchens loading dishwashers and so on. What? Oh wait...there's an old guy putting cement in a cement mixer. This must all mean something right? RIGHT? At this point we are only 17 seconds in. There's a man laying a paving slab. And some people in gardens. Hmmmmm.
At this point, confused yet still just holding it together, your eyes begging you to close them, you are greeted with something that no Depeche Mode fan should see. It feels like a month since the video started, but it's only been 23 seconds. It's at this point, we see this:
Dave's shoes, or to put it another way, sandals. With socks. What the hot buttered Christ is going on here? People still have a go at Martin about the way he dressed in the 80's but no-one brings this up. IN a career littered with clothing issues, this is the low point. Perhaps it's never mentioned because they are trying to ignore it or perhaps the shadowy forces of Big Sandal do all they can to put the focus on Martin - who knows? All I know is that if this series of Depeche Mode Singles blogs ends here, you all know that the murky forces behind the Master And Servant Sandalgate have got to me.
Anyway....the video carries on and we see Dave singing, once again interposed over footage not of wars this time, but of Alan pulling Martin about on the floor by chains that have wrapped young Martin up at the wrists. Is this the chain Alan was wearing on Top of The Pops? Who knows and, more importantly, who cares? At 51 seconds, we see Alan and Martin on the floor, this time being dragged along by Fletch as they hold onto his ankles, mistaking him for Dave in a doomed attempt to get rid of the sandals. This video is genuinely dreadful.
There then follows a relatively normal 30 seconds or so of Dave jiving around and Martin and Fletch floating about on chains. Oddly, a woman appears in the video singing along as if she is in the band. I have no idea why. We then see quite a bit of footage of the anti nuclear campaign at Greenham Common in England as the first "It's a lot like life/and that's what's appealing" section is played in a move that boldly puts two things together that have no business being put together at all. The mood is lifted by Fletch appearing looking very serious as he drills into a wall for no obvious reason.
On we go, with things once again relatively normal. There's more stock footage, more Dave dancing, band members buggering about on chains and the occasional glimpse of the s****ls but nothing too terrifying. And then, 2 minutes 28 seconds in, it happens. The "It's a lot" section. Oh my word. How this got past quality control I will never know. It's like a compilation of the worst parts of the preceding couple of minutes minus the footwear - chains, people rolling around, more Basildon Boyzone and more chains. Any attempt the song made to sound a bit underground is quickly and terminally undone. It then mercifully heads to a conclusion using all the tricks it has used before with the addition of some sterling drilling work by the boy Wilder.
As it ends, you close your laptop and stay silent for a while. There's a lot to take in there and a lot more to try to forget.
The Formats
BONG6 appeared on the then usual three formats. 7BONG6 has sleeve art that fits the theme as you can see above. The label is great too and that band name font one of their finest.
The boystown side is much more befitting of the poppy nature of the track that it features, with the emphasis on confetti and good times rather than chains and darker times.
12BONG7 features yet another solid gold masterpiece of an early Depeche remix. The Slavery Whip Mix may have a fairly useless name but it is a bloody marvellous thing. It's thundering beast of a remix that takes the song on a 9 and a half minute sonic adventure, twisting and turning it in several directions at once before ending on what can only be described as a pissed up singalong acapella version that is splendid in every way.
The B-side (above) houses two tracks, We have the Release Mix of (Set Me Free) Remotivate Me which is quite excellent in places, and Master And Servant (Voxless) a slightly remixed, instrumental version of the song. Instant Depeche Mode karaoke.
You can pick up a white label of this track if you so wish. I got the one above a couple of years back with its handwritten label. I have played it and happily it is the 12" and not some random record.
The September Depeche Mode Information Service Newsletter announced that "Depeche Mode have released a Limited Edition Radical by Adrian Sherwood" and that "radical" remix appeared on L12BONG7 (above). Titled An ON-USound Science Fiction Dance Hall Classic, the remix is more experimental than the previous On-Usound remix of People Are People but it is really rather enjoyable.
The B-side features the seven inch version of (Set Me Free) Remotivate Me alongside a real Depeche Mode catalogue oddity. Are People People is another Adrian Sherwood remix that takes People Are People to a very strange place indeed. It occasionally sounds as if your record is damaged but has some interesting moments, The "dang dang dang zoom zoom zoom bop bop bop" sample is from the song When I Woke Up This Morning by The Citadels.
The 1991 CD single reissue took the tracks from the 7" and standard 12". Now to head to Germany.
Another lovely red vinyl 7" is our first exhibit.
It's as lovely on its A-Side as it is on its B-Side.
The 12" comes in the gorgeous marble coloured vinyl above.
It features the same three tracks as the UK 12"
Not to be outdone with Radical Remix 12" singles, the Germans also put that out on marble viny too.
Again it features the same three tracks as the UK version.
It is of course available in boring black vinyl too.
The blue stripe CD takes the 12" tracks and adds the 7"version of Master And Servant.
The French CD single does the same. There's also a French version of the 12" and L12.
While we're on France, a random 12" promo from 1995 is available. It is for an album called Les Annees New Wave and it features Master And Servant. It seems odd to have it on a bus, but it's at least not a bus that's covered in a lie about NHS funding to fool people into voting for Brexit.
The US had their own 12" which features the US Black & Blue Version on its A-side. It's a decent enough remix but lacks the punch of the Slavery Whip Mix.
The B-side features the US 12" Mix of (Set Me Free) Remotivate Me, again a decent enough thing, and Are People People?
Picture courtesy of depmod.com
There is also a US promo 12" featuring the two tracks above. I have this but can't find the bastard thing, so I've borrowed from the wonderful depmod.com.
Another single, another top ten hit for Depeche Mode. The lyrics had caused an issue or two at the BBC but nothing that got the song banned. Curiously, this would be the last time Depeche Mode would visit the UK Top Ten until 1990. If only Dave had worn better shoes....
The BBC's failure to ban the song angered Martin so he was determined to once again wind them up with the band's next single. Thankfully, the lyrically explicit and frankly violently offensive Somebody was made a double A side with the much more palatable Blasphemous Rumours and we'll take a look at that next time.
