AS YEARS GO BY, ALL THE FEELINGS INSIDE - VIOLATOR'S LEGACY

As I declared at the start of this month, Violator is my favourite Depeche Mode album and is in fact my favourite album of all time. The same applies for many Depeche Mode fans and for us, ther is no real question of what Violator's legacy is; it's been with us for thirty years and will continue to remain with us for many more.

For the band, the album changed everything. People started to talk about their influence on house music and their peers acknowledged that Violator was Depeche Mode's finest work. The music press finally took note of their huge worldwide success and belatedly, and occasionally grudgingly, noted that this was well deserved. Violator made Depeche Mode a genuine stadium band and that was all on their own terms. They didn't compromise in any way when making the album by altering their sound to make it more mainstream or stadium friendly; instead they challenged their fans by adding guitars, bringing in a new producer and adding layers to their sound to make it darker and more intense. While the album had two genuine hit singles worldwide, this was an album of a breadth and scope unlike any previous Depeche album.

Of all the things that Violator should be praised for, achieving the career defining success the band did with this album entirely on their own terms deserves the most praise. It is a remarkable achievement. With The Cure having finished The Prayer tour, R.E.M. in transition from Green's arena filling to Out Of Time's stay at home acoustic vibe and U2 still working on Achtung Baby, for most of 1990 Depeche Mode were arguably the biggest live draw in the world. That is a remarkable thing. 

The album is now spoken of in near universally reverential terms by the media and is regularly cited as Depeche Mode's best and most influential album. It's place in musical history is secure.

The band's success meant that their next album Songs Of Faith And Devotion was very much "a big thing."  The whole world was waiting for a new Depeche Mode album and the band came back in style as we all know. Their were of course other issues involved in that album's recording and touring but they're not something we need to look at now, if ever. 

Violator's succcess was the catalyst for many things - Songs Of Faith And Devotion, Alan's departure, Ultra and no tour and so on. In terms of sales, the band have not come close to matching Violator but, as the huge success of 2017/18's Global Spirit Tour shows, the band have not lost their ability to attract huge crowds wherever they go. I don't think it's much of a leap to say that, without Violator, that type of tour at this stage in their career would not have been possible. 

Ultimately, Depeche Mode's enduring appeal and success is Violator's legacy. It is a legacy that truly deserve.

Writing a month long blog is an odd experience, especially when I consider that I'm testing people's patience by popping up each day and asking them to read something new that concerns something they love and have their own opinions about. Doing that against the background of a worldwide pandemic however quickly makes you realise how irrelevant this is when compared to the very real problems millions of people are facing worldwide.

Thank you all very much then for reading everything this month. It's always very humbling to find out that one person reads anything I do, never mind the large number of people who have got in touch over the last four weeks. If nothing else, I hope it's brought a smile or two to your face during whatever period of lockdown your Government has you under. 

Thank you very much too to the guest bloggers this month - Kevin May, Michael Rose, Glen Hammarstrom, Dicken Schrader, Amanda Stock, Panos Sialakas, Matthew Wolfe, Sean Salo, Niggels Uhlenbruch and Shaun Coward a.k.a @PollicyOfTruth. I couldn't have completed a month's worth of posts without your input.

Finally....

As I might have mentioned, Kevin May and I have a book coming out - it's called Halo and it's all about Violator.  We are still aiming for a late May release but recent global events have meant that Kevin's life has been taken over by work issues, so we may be a week or two late. After a month of Violator related posts on here, you may well welcome the delay.

To conclude the month, we thought it would be interesting to let the people we've interviewed give their thoughts on Violator and its legacy. Here are some quotes to give you a taste of what is to come and who’s involved, plus the names of fans who have contributed (some of whom you will have already seen snippets during this month).

For news about Halo, and for more of the usual Depeche Mode nonsense, keep an eye on the blog and also the book’s official website 

Halo Interviewees:

Francois Kevorkian, Violator mixer

When I saw them in concert, when Martin did a song by himself, which was just an acoustic guitar and singing, it was just like: "Well, I never got to see John Lennon but I got to see you. And that's good enough for me." 

Richard Smith, designer at Area

He [Anton] showed me the rose and explained his thought process behind it - about a delicate sort of object, violated, so it was a very subtle and simple nod to the title of the album. It’s painted red and it then has this kind of subtle reference to some sort of violation in a more gothic way, I suppose. The rest of the package was just me trying to sort of put my mark on my first album cover and exploring ways of treating the typography and the lyrics and using the photography. 

Andy Franks, tour manager for the World Violation Tour

There was a place – in Japan, I think – where smoke machines were banned. We weren’t sure what was going to happen but then, suddenly, we saw 200 guys outside with black bin liners that they were filling up with smoke for each machine. Then they were shaking the bags to let the smoke out into the stage - it was absolutely brilliant! 

Steve Lyon, Violator engineer in London

The tracks, before Francois mixed them - and he mixed them very well in the end - were slightly more robust and rocky. I remember the three of us - me at the helm, and then Flood and Alan telling me what to do on the desk; we did some rough mixes of the album. They were definitely rockier than the final version of Violator. 

Paul Kendall, owner Worldwide International and engineer on Enjoy The Silence (The Quad:Final Mix) 

I performed a few percussive in/out breath chugs (on my harmonica). To my absolute joy, my chug is immortalised in Personal Jesus, coming in around one minute in. It (Violator) is/was a great album and Flood succeeded in creating a new Depeche sound, aided and abetted by Alan and Daniel. 

Richard Bell, video producer and World Violation Tour stage film producer

Super 8 isn’t a slick format. It’s got a huge grain and is a non-professional format. It was designed for home use. So, they are not slick videos, generally. If you had shot Enjoy the Silence on a 35mm film, it would be completely different. And, I think that’s reflected in the music. The sound is right with Depeche. 

Pino Pischetola, Violator engineer in Milan

I remember one occasion, he [Fletch] came back from England and he had over 1,000 postcards to sign - so every bit of time off they had, it was signing postcards...forever! But it was a sign that they still wanted a great relationship with their fans. 

David Browne, engineer on Enjoy The Silence

One thing I would say about Flood is that he was very down to earth. I remember, bringing him into the control room, started to explain the desk to him, and he just stopped me half way and said: ‘Dave, it doesn’t matter. A desk is a desk.’” 

Bruce Kirkland, owner of Second Vision publicity agency

You know, not to be sort of blasé about it, but as a marketing person this [Wherehouse Records incident] was sort of what you look for you - a national event and, eventually, an international event. 

Billie Rae Martin, singer for Electribe 101

The album is what turned DM into a religion, which to this day they still are in Germany. Great songwriting and seminal production from Flood. It's sort of the ultimate DM album. 

Nils Tuxen, Danish steel guitar player and first outside musician on a Depeche Mode album

Depeche Mode is the biggest name I've worked for as a studio musician. I was free to play anything I wanted. It was only years later when my daughter found out that I was used on Clean that I became aware that Alan had used samples of my steel guitar.

Robert Baldi, Violator engineer in Milan

We saw a lot of movement, people getting the studio ready, so I assumed that it was probably a big band – someone famous. He didn’t tell us the name but I was a big fan of them, so it was shocking. When I saw Martin, I just thought: "Fuck my life - they're really here.” 

Gareth Jones, producer on Construction Time Again, Some Great Reward and Black Celebration 

There’s something about the architecture of the [Violator] album. The way the instrumentation supports the vocals, the songwriting, the power of the album. The sound of the album is very modern and contemporary and glossy, which is obviously the band, the producer, the engineers, the mixers, the whole thing - everything just kind clicked. 

Mistie Fowlks, daughter of the owners of Strange Too drive-in theatre, Salt Lake City

My brother and I snuck into one of the RVs and took some empty Corona bottles and a piece of chewed gum. We kept the bottles but my brother sold the gum to a girl at school that next school year and she put the gum in her mouth, chewed and said it was just like kissing Dave Gahan. 

Neil Ferris, promoter

Daniel always chose the singles. Funnily enough, he would play me the record, then say "take it home and play it to Gill", my wife, who was also in the record industry. And we'd go through a little scenario: that would happen on every record, where Daniel would ring and say: "Well, what do you think? No actually, what does Gill think?" Personal Jesus I knew was going to be a huge record but we also knew I was going to have problems with it on radio because of the content. 

Phil Legg, engineer on Enjoy The Silence

When I heard it on the screen with the video, I remember thinking “Wow!” All those things you try and do; I think in this digital world, we can do thinks much quicker but in those days you worked hard to get something to have some sort of flavor or appeal. We did that with Enjoy The Silence.

Angela Sheldon, actress in the video for Clean

I was a huge fan of Martin Gore and more than happy to make out with him. I was actually dating an extremely jealous guy who flipped out when I told him, so I broke up with him to do the video 

Pam Heffler, actress in the video for Halo

I am actually surprised by the video. I didn't know it was going to be so unusual - unusual in a great way! 

Contributors:
Caroline Rose, France
Chris Snodden, Northern Ireland
Emily von Spears, USA
Genevieve Munroe, USA
Niggels Uhlenbruch, Germany
Panos Sialakas, Greece
Ranjit Chal, England
Rob Rohm, USA
Michael Rose, England
Sean Salo, USA
Stephane Devillers, France

WORLD VIOLATION LIVE REVIEWS

There is universal agreement among Depeche Mode fans about the World Violation tour. Those who saw it will say that it was unforgettable and a must see Depeche gig; those who didn't see it will say that they wish they had done so. What did the press think of it though? And how many times did the British music press mention Just Can't Get Enough? Read on.

Picture courtesy of Michael Rose

The NME's reporter liked the Wembley Arena show but not Violator itself. He called the gig "(S)lick as hell, honed to perfection playing baseball stadiums that dwarf Wembley Arena," going on to note that "Here was total production, a show, as opposed to four sweaty oiks playing synthesizers." He then complimented the films that played behind the band and called Dave "(A)s close to a seasoned superstar as a Basildon boy gets."  Unfortunately, he then goes on to say that the actual music "(P)assed by virtually unnoticed," before adding that Personal Jesus was in his view "a mediocre single in anyone's book."  He liked the lights and films basically. 

Picture courtesy of Michael Rose

The London Evening Standard's review of the same gig was much more positive. It said:

"Their concert at Wembley Arena was much more akin to an evangelical meeting, such was the devotion of the saluting crowd."

I think we all know what that feels like. The reviewer, Spencer Bright, loved the show, concluding:

"(Dave's) bass voice monotonously whipped up the frenzy from oldies like Everything Counts through to the current first-rate Violator album, climaxing at the end of the main set with a mesmerising Your Personal Jesus (sic)...Unlike all their peers in that distant New Romantic movement of the early Eighties, Depeche Mode astonishingly seem as if they are yet to peak."

Song title error aside, a decent review.

Pictures courtesy of Michael Rose

Melody Maker's review of the Wembley show was again mainly positive. Paul Lester said:

"Here is a band who have stayed the course, survived the swerves and lane-changes of musical fashion, and basically kept, if not ahead of the times, at least in step with them like no other band of their era...Depeche take their mile-high stack of jukebox standards, polish them up, warp them in glistening Acid-metallic armature, slip a gleaming steel post-House chassis underneath when no-one's looking and turn them into monuments to new Sonic architecture."

A good review in other words but all very Melody Maker-y at the same time. 

The Guardian seemed to enjoy the show, saying "The final section of the show was akin to a celebration, if Clean or the lugubrious Never Let Me Down Again could be thus described. Personal Jesus certainly could, as Gore thrashed at his guitar to bring the Mode as close as they have come to Status Quo; busty cowgirls adorned the back-projection as the Mode swaggered moodily by in cowboy hats."

Picture courtesy of Paul Jeffrey

To try and work out why Depeche Mode were so big, Select Magazine headed to Germany to take in a gig or two. The reporter noticed that all 17,000 fans in Dortmund's Westfalenhalle were "feverish" with "Depeche Mode's spartan bedroom electronics and bass imperatives (stretching) out to fill the place, subdue it and make it theirs."  He goes to add "These days, they're totems of teenage sexual neurosis in Ray-Bans, corrupters of international youth, and the only people to sell the vaunted sonic metal disco sound of the mid-80's and still retain their credibility." 

All pictures courtesy of Paul Jeffrey

I've included all four pages of the Select article as it's an interesting read all round, showing the UK press getting to grips with Depeche Mode being something very big indeed. It ends on a note I think we can all agree on:

"But, believe it or not, World Violation is, first and foremost, a rock 'n' roll show on a panoramic scale. Perhaps it's just the volume, or the shock of finding such solitary in a context of size and excess, but in 1990, Depeche Mode win by simple power. It's not simply stunning - at times it's frightening.

Personal Jesus is a case in point. On record it snarls and spits, the perfect antithesis to the redundant pretty-boy image of Depeche Mode that still lingers in British minds.

Onstage the song becomes monstrous. For 17,000 German kids, David Gahan becomes their personal Jesus."

Sounds about right to me.

WORLD IN MY EYES - THE REVIEWS

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, getting interest in the fourth single from an album isn't easy. To prove that, World In My Eyes didn't attract too many reviews. It's shame given the quality of the three songs on the release.

Picture courtesy of Michael Rose

The NME review was predictably, well, hard to grasp first time round. It seems to praise them but can't help but mention Just Can't Get Enough. Some of the language used is a little off colour too, even by the standards of 1990.

Smash Hits 19th September 1990

The review in Smash Hits was a positive one. The guest reviewer that week was MC Tunes, a man very few of you will remember. He was from Manchester so that was almost enough on its own in 1990. That said, I did buy the cassette single of the song he released with 808 State called The Only Rhyme That Bites, but I was young. Anyway, Mr Tunes us highly complimentary called World In My Eyes "a bloody good dance tune" before going on to say that Dave sounds like Pavarotti compared to Shaun Ryder which isn't hard to argue against. Good stuff. 

Picture courtesy of Michael Rose

World In My Eyes didn't get too many more reviews, but when the album reviews came out six months earlier, it was greeted positively. Record Mirror (above) for example called it "the perfection introduction to this compromise between pop music and something a little more sinister."  Melody Maker meanwhile talked about how the song featuring "Andy Fletcher's two fingered keyboard motifs" gave it an "instantly recognisable DM stamp," whereas Sounds said the song "signalled optimism."  Q magazine referred to it as "a relatively straightforward love song" which seems a tad harsh.

People eventually catch up however and Violator now rightly revered as a classic album. Music journalist Ned Ragget has been a long time Depeche fan and his review on the AllMusic blog is a lot more positive, focussing on a review of the many tracks available across the whole single package. I don't disagree with anything he says there. Billboard, in a Violator retrospective, say:

"The album begins with Gahan playing horndog travel agent, inviting a lover to follow him someplace where pleasure reigns supreme and everything else ceases to exist. Helping him seal the deal are two synth hooks (one blippy and industrial, the other urgent and needling), a driving beat, and his own persuasive vocals. Hedonism like this practically sells itself."

Horndog indeed. Classic Pop magazine's retrospective said this:

"Described as one of Depeche Mode’s sexiest songs, World In My Eyes much sums up the mood of the band at the point of recording Violator – all were involved and in perfect unity. It originated from a Gore demo, as most Mode songs do, of course, but its evolution in the studio was a dramatic one. Not only that, but all the band contributed vocals to it – a rare occurrence but perhaps one that signified the unity and friendship that ran through the Depeche Mode camp at the time."

Fair enough. 

And that was that as far as World In My Eyes reviews went. Positive overall at the time, but as with most things Violator related, its reputation has grown with each year. We knew how good it was all along though didn't we?

VIOLATOR - THE REVIEWS

Picture courtesy of Michael Rose

As we saw earlier this month, Enjoy The Silence received a series of positive reviews in the British music press which was a rare and welcome thing. Violator fared equally as well, if not better. The NME gave it 8 out of 10 in its review (pictured above) without ever seeming to actually enjoy the album.

"Lyrically they're still dealing with raw emotions...(a)ll of those big subjects that can be hard to capture in a three minute pop songs, let alone being able to present such adult struggles to the pre-teen market. "

It goes on to quite madly say that "Enjoy The Silence is an excellent Pet Shop Boys' Opportunites soundalike" before adding "The nearest Depeche Mode ever get to being trippy is on their version oif Tangerine Dream's Clean."

I'm pretty sure Clean isn't a cover either unless I've been misreading Violator's writing credits all these years - and believe me I have read them. Still, 8 out of 10 eh? 

Picture courtesy of Michael Rose

Melody Maker didn't give scores out of ten like NME. Paul Lester gave the album a generally good review, noting

"Violator, their seventh studio album, contains Depeche Mode's most arresting work to date."

Quite right. He concluded his review, one which of course included reference to Just Can't Get Enough with the rather prescient:

"Violator is bleak and dark and not a little vicious. God knows what the hippy-happy, pastel coloured anti-style fascists of Clubland will make of it, but that's their problem. Depeche Mode's next venture should be quite murderous if this is anything to go by."

And we all know what happened next.

Picture courtesy of Michael Rose

Record Mirror gave the album 4 out of 5 and rather cleverly used the album's inner sleeve to accompany its review. I like that sort of thing. In his review, Tim Nicholson said:

" After years of trying, Depeche Mode have finally succeeded in making 'The Black Album'...with Violator they have fashioned a veritable dungeon of songs for you to jangle your manacles to."

Seems good I suppose? He went on to say:

"There are no noises out of place in this perfectly formed void. The songs are like bright stars in a black sky, or silver studs on a soft black leather jacket. The wonder is the more they strip it down the bigger they get. How low can they go?"

Again, I think that's a good review.

Smash Hits enjoyed the album, giving it 8 out of 10 and claiming "(t)here's no pop group quite like Depeche Mode, is there?"  One of the biggest compliments the review pays is when it says that Depeche "carry on making the same strange records that pay not the blindest bit of notice to what the rest of pop music sounds like."

If that isn't a reason to love Depeche Mode, what is? Only they could make an album like this, one that is "hypnotically addictive and...rather fab."

Picture courtesy of Stuart Cowan (@kpdcowan)

Q's review of the album was just as enthusiastic, with Violator being awarded 4 out of 5 by the magazine, Bonus points to Q too for that incredibly cool picture. The review said:

"The music remains neither particularly upbeat nor commercial, yet it's full of insidious songs that creep up on you and hug the brain with disrtrssing tenacity."

Superb. The review goes on:

"Yet this is not so much an album of doom and gloom as a seductive sharing of openness and intimacy...Creative but disciplined and always interesting...(i)n short Violator is a fine record which may not set the world on fire but deserves to singe it a bit."

The reviewer was certainly on the right track there.

Picture courtesy of Melvin Hardy

Sounds was harsh on Violator, only giving it three and a half out of five, It's a puzzling review, more trying to impress with its literary references than its assessment of the music:

"If Burroughs wrote for Gahan, Depeche Mode would be terrifying. But he doesn't. Martin Gore writes for Gahan and Depeche Mode are hilarious."

You've read William Burroughs have you? Impressive.  It then ends

"What a load of Ballards."

Very well done.

Picture courtesy of sacreddm.net

The Times summed Depeche Mode up perfectly, well at least in the last part of this paragraph:

"The most enduring of all those funny Eighties synth-pop groups with singers who looked like Eric Idle (Harsh - very very harsh) Depeche Mode now has the assured touch of an international touring colossus, yet continues to inhabit its own mysterious universe, parallel to the rock mainstream."

Calling Sweetest Perfection "an unabashed hymn to the pleasures of intravenous drug taking" seems a bit too much of leap but the description of Halo as a song that retains the band's "cold grandeur" is rather nice, if a touch music critic by numbers.

Picture from newspapers.com

Away from Britain, The Boston Globe enjoyed Violator, but seemed to feel it was a bit too subdued calling it "(B)older in name than content." I think we'd all have been a bit worried if they'd released an album that matched the title. Megadeath style thrash or Rollins Band like hardcore would have been a bit too much of a leap from Music For The Masses.

In its review of 14th June 1990, Rolling Stone gave the album 2 and a half out of 5. The review which you can read here spends most of its time talking about New Order, The Beloved and AB bloody C before somewhat oddly saying:

"New Order broke pop only after it finally discarded Ian Curtis’s gloom, but Depeche Mode won its ever-growing audience the opposite way — the group has been single-mindedly suffocating in Doorsy depression ever since songsmith Vince Clarke left for Yazoo, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that the group will never again make a number as compelling as the 1981 gleeful rubber-duckie disco tune “Just Can’t Get Enough.” Teens too old or too kinky for New Kids on the Block apparently find David Gahan’s quavering moan sexy, but on Violator he sometimes comes off as slimy and self-involved. Depeche Mode has got a way with cute little mechanized blips, and the train whistles and raga rhythms and air-traffic-control signals put monotony on hold. Depeche Mode’s more tranquil hymns do have an ambient charm. But when the boys in the band try to make you dance, they revert to morose pop psychology and then never tell you how come they’re so sad."

Mainly bollocks isn't it?

Entertainment Weekly's review on 16th March 1990 seemed to like the album. It's hard to tell in many ways as I'm not entirely sure what a B- actually is:

"They’ve been around for years, Depeche Mode and their synthesizers, and surely by now everyone who knows about them has come to some conclusion. For some, they’re pop kings; for others, they’re too vapid, too mechanized, or too pompous.

But on Violator, anyway, their music is more varied than catchy pop needs to be. ”World in My Eyes,” the opening track, begins with music that sounds like some ungainly cartoon animal dancing. The second song, ”Sweetest Reflection,” starts low, then quickly adds something high and eerie, like the keening of a thousand tiny neon gnats...

Even ”Waiting for the Night,” on its surface a song about tranquillity, drifts on a sea of unease. There’s a worm eating at Depeche Mode’s gut. Maybe at heart they’re not wholly pop."

A sweet enough, erm,  reflection on the album. 

Overall, Violator was well received by the music press around the world. Reviews still suffered as a result of the media's inability to move beyond the band's earlier days, but that, I think, is partly if not wholly due to Depeche Mode's capacity to evolve a great speed. The release of Violator doubtless caused many to question their pre-conceived notions of the band and later reconsiderations of the album or reviews of the reissue have almost fallen over themselves to be the review that shouts loudest about Violator's status as an era defining release.

Welcome to the party music journalists. We knew how good this album was all along.

GUEST BLOG NUMBER 5 - AMANDA STOCK

Today's guest blog is by regular contributor and all round superstar Amanda Stock. Amanda has written this great article about Violator, its impact on her life and how, even 30 years later, she is still discovering new things about the album. Thanks very much Amanda.

Violator – My Personal Obsession 

I was 22 years old when the brilliant, captivating Violator was released in March 1990. 

I was a total fan girl by then. I still felt, the ONLY fangirl in the WORLD - well certainly in the UK. I seem to remember that the charts were full of hits produced by Stock, Aitken & Waterman at the time and whilst I loved a bit of pop, it was all about Depeche Mode for me. Dutch photographer and film director Anton Corbijn had taken over the creative reins for the band’s videos and he has to take full credit for making Depeche Mode look stylish and cool with his black and white, slightly “film noir”, obscure direction. It was bloody fabulous being a fan girl back then. Those videos definitely piqued my interest. I was lucky enough to have seen the band in 1988 on their Music For The Masses tour and when the documentary film of their final and 101st show, aptly titled 101, came out, I remember buying the video at HMV, Oxford Street and watching it about 50,000 times. Yes, the fans in the film were alright but it was all about the band’s performance on stage along with the snippets of interaction between band members. And not forgetting, Alan Wilder’s two minute demonstration of his keyboard skills on Black Celebration. Yes, it was really all about that. Anyway, Music For The Masses had strengthened my love for the band and their music but with Violator - my adoration became an obsession. One that has lasted 30 years. 

There were three reasons for this: - 1) - Violator was a hypnotising, faultless, innovative masterpiece from start to finish, 2) - the band’s image and accompanying videos were REALLY sexy and 3) like I say, I was 22 - and hopelessly in love with Dave Gahan. As it happens, those three points are still true today. Except I’m 52 – but I digress. 

It’s both unbelievable and incredible to me that Violator is celebrating its 30th anniversary this month because it still sounds as fresh and original as it did back then which are hallmarks of a great classic album. 

If anyone unfamiliar with Depeche Mode’s music asks me for a recommendation, I will always say “start with Violator”. I think the vast number of “Devotees” would agree that it is their best work ever. 

I have no significant personal recollection of the lead up to the album’s release or buying the album or listening to it for the first time. I remember the album cover and loving it. A black outer sleeve with a beautiful red rose – at odds with the album’s aggressive title. That image of the red rose and Depeche Mode has become one and the same, intertwined. 

I have really struggled to put down into words how insanely perfect this album is which has surprised me because I thought it would be easy. But, there are no words to do it justice really. It needs to be listened to - absorbed and consumed to be truly appreciated. So that would be my advice to anyone reading this who has never listened to Violator before – please just give it a listen. It’s superb. In the meantime, I write from my heart about the love I have for the nine songs on Violator. 

Personal Jesus was the first single released ahead of the album. It’s safe to say that the video of the band dressed as cowboys in the desert hanging out with sexy “senoritas of the night” was a joy to behold. The song itself opens with two bluesy twangs of an electric guitar (yes, GUITAR) and a swaggering shout from Dave: - “Reach Out and Touch Faith”. Thumping, stomping drum rhythms and a cool, bluesy guitar riff take you on your own religious journey. In fact, Salvation and Sin, Guilt and Obsession are all central themes on Violator which I will write about more as we go. Personal Jesus is a song that still grabs me and sweeps me away. All worship surely should feel as good as this. That’s why this song is a massive favourite at gigs – because we are a congregation at that point, hands aloft, as we all sing together as one: “REACH OUT AND TOUCH FAITH!!” It’s a totally awe-inspiring, spiritual, listening experience. 

The majestic, resplendent Enjoy the Silence was the next single. Even non DM fans love Enjoy The Silence. It’s a perfect pop song – it has an extremely catchy chorus and a fantastic dance beat with a sublime accompanying video of Dave climbing up mountains and crossing beautiful landscapes dressed as a King holding a deckchair. 

Enjoy The Silence is a timeless classic. There is something beautifully haunting and melancholic about it. The opening, glistening, sighs of dark electronica always give me goose bumps and at the centre of the song is that gorgeous, rich guitar riff which makes me feel quite emotional. As with the rest of Violator there is divine poetry to be found in the lyrics of Martin Gore: “All I ever wanted, All I ever needed, is here, in my arms, Words are very unnecessary, they can only do harm.” That’s why Enjoy The Silence is without doubt, one of the greatest pop songs in modern times. And that’s why it is my favourite Depeche Mode song and will remain so forever. 

As well as Personal Jesus and Enjoy The Silence, Waiting For The Night is a song around the theme of Salvation. I actually remember singing along to this – I loved the subdued tones of Dave and Martin together – the stillness, the calmness of this track. Gentle throbs and buzzes of electronica open the song then Dave sounding pensive, introspective: “I’m waiting for the night to fall, I know that it will save us all” – then Martin joining in harmony: “When everything’s dark, keeps us from the stark reality”. I loved the rhyming of “dark” and “stark” – no real reason, it just appealed to me. The song has a solitary, nocturnal atmosphere, restrained and insular and is a great song to listen to when you just want to be alone. Martin and Dave’s vocals connect and blend effortlessly together. It’s absolutely bewitching. I listened to it recently on my drive to work – it was early morning, still really dark and there was a full moon and I must admit I did have a tear in my eye. 

Clean is a song about sin and redemption. Not necessarily drug-related but a song about moving on from any bad situation, ultimately a song of forgiveness which makes it a fitting, closing end to the album. The song has an intoxicating, heavy, electronic pulse and a foreboding, throbbing drum beat throughout. String sounds intensify the atmosphere two thirds of the way in and Dave has never sounded so good – his vocal deep and defiant. There is an ominous undertone to the lyrics: “I don’t claim to know where my holiness goes, I just know that I like what is starting to show…….sometimes”. The addition of that final word gives the listener the impression that Dave isn’t quite as clean as he proclaims. An interesting point here about Clean - whilst listening to the song for this article, I noticed a dark whisper at 3.43 minutes in which I have never, ever noticed before! That’s what I love about music – I have listened to Clean for 30 years and never picked up on that before! Just goes to show, there is always something new to discover about your favourite album. I must mention the video. Female fans of Martin were quite frankly, not very impressed when they saw Martin snogging the face off that girl. But, let’s move on. 

Album opener, World In My Eyes is the one song that doesn’t quite neatly fit in with the themes of salvation, guilt and obsession. But it’s certainly sinful in sound and is a fabulous song about lust. Dave sounds like a rather persuasive travel companion as he opens up World In My Eyes with “Let me take you on a trip, Around the world and back, And you won’t have to move, you just sit still” – that one line eloquently suggesting this is a journey of the body not a physical trip. The metal bass sounds from the opening chords hook you in immediately and the track has a seductive, heavy, electronic beat. It’s a killer tune and a great dance track – and another favourite of mine. The video is fantastic too – Dave driving to an outside cinema with a hot model, interspersed with grainy, black and white concert footage of the band, notably Martin in shorts and Dave on stage in those white jeans strutting his stuff, completely in his element.

Onto the theme of Guilt - Halo (the single that never was) is quite simply STUNNING. I will never tire of this track. Sinister, pounding bass and shadowy synths give the song a sombre gloom and the lyrics are some of the best that Martin has ever written: : “You wear guilt, like shackles on your feet, like a halo in reverse” – just exquisite. So is the chorus which evokes the fall out of guilt so perfectly: “And when our worlds they fall apart, when the walls come tumbling in, though we may deserve it, it will be worth it”. Halo is quite simply magnificent. I have so many emotions wrapped up in this song. Policy Of Truth has the same underlying themes of guilt with a video where, if I’m being honest wished I had played a part – it involves lots of shadowy embracing with the band and is a spot-on song about betrayal and lies: “Never again is what you swore the time before” – how clever is that line? I love the sensual synth waves at 2:26, the slide guitar-esque instrumentation, the crystal clear electronics, everything. 

Blue Dress and Sweetest Perfection are songs of Obsession and both sung by Martin and may be the reason why there were alot of girl fans obsessed with him too. Blue Dress was known as “the pervy song” and for good reason – the song centres around Martin watching a girl put a dress ON and how it “makes him a happy man”. He asks: “Put it on, and don’t say a word, put it on, the one that I prefer”. The song is an erotic one with an enticing guitar twang and sultry layers of synth and as I write this, I have just realised I don’t listen to this song enough. 

Sweetest Perfection opens with a shuffling, scatter drum start and bluesy, spiral keyboards which mesmerise and hypnotise. “I stop and I stare too much, afraid that I care too much, and I hardly dare to touch, for fear that the spell may be broken”. It’s a tantalising portrayal of obsession. 

I saw the band on the World Violation tour at the old Wembley arena in November 1990. They were on fire. A lot is written about the brilliant stage images used on the next tour - the infamous Songs Of Faith and Devotion tour in 1993/4 that went on forever but I was spellbound by the black and white footage played in the background on the World Violation tour. For me, it was Depeche Mode’s best gig. They were still in tune with their audience before it got messy later on. I distinctly remember losing my voice that night because I didn’t stop screaming. I am so lucky I got to see them during those years. 

Violator has been a constant, musical companion to me for the last 30 years – I have lost count of the amount of times I have reached for it. If ever I am lucky enough to meet the band, I’m not sure what I would say to them but I would thank them, from the bottom of my heart, for Violator. 

I leave you with a photo of my Violator mementos: my tour programme, my ticket, the vinyl release purchased back in March 1990 and two CDs. One I bought several years later and the other, a signed copy by the whole band - a very special gift to me I will treasure.

GUEST BLOG NUMBER 4 - DICKEN SCHRADER

The fourth guest blog of the month comes from a man you probably all know - Dicken Schrader. Dicken is one of the stars of Spirts In The Forest and, along with his children Milah and Korben, is DMK, the quite wonderful Depeche Mode cover band.  I'd originally envisaged a DMK related blog, looking at the Violator songs they had covered, but that idea changed once Dicken started writing. As you will see, he's written this tremendously personal blog that looks at the impact Violator has had on his life. I'm sure you will agree that it is a fantastic contribution to this month's Violator celebration. Personally, the fact that Dicken and I both discovered Enjoy The Silence in the same way - sitting in our mother's cars - is a beautiful thing.  Thank you very much indeed Dicken.

Violator. The pinnacle of Depeche Mode’s career in terms of creativity, artistry, sound, innovation and emotion. The album with the most iconic cover, imagery and music videos. The one that catapulted the band into worldwide mainstream, and their best-selling and most-acclaimed record to date. Personally, I’m still amazed at how after 30 years I still find something new in it every time I listen to it, some meaning in its lyrics, some mysterious sound, something I had never heard before. 

Violator is truly a timeless piece of art that never grows old and sounds as fresh today as it did 30 years ago. It certainly is the one that I prefer.

But, beyond these trivia facts and personal assertions that you’ve probably heard before from many people, to me, this album brings back some very special memories. And that’s the story I want to share with you today: the one you haven’t heard before.

At 46, there aren’t many memories that I can remember vividly. I can’t remember very well the day I graduated from high school, nor the day I was drafted into the Colombian army. To be honest, even the day I got married for the first time is kind of hazy at this point. But I can certainly remember in perfect detail the day in 1990 when I heard Enjoy the Silence for the very first time. It was a sunny Saturday afternoon in Bogotá, and I was riding with my mother, María Eugenia, in her white Renault 9 through the hilly streets of the Suba neighborhood. We were driving back from my high school after enrolling myself for the upcoming 10th grade. As always when riding with her, I took control of the radio and was turning the dial back and forth from Superestación 88.9 to Radioactiva 102.9, the two local stations that would play American and European rock and pop music. Most of the time, their music selection would go from mainstream pop (Michael Jackson, Madonna) to mainstream rock (Bon Jovi, Guns ‘n Roses), but once in a while, they would play one or two songs from what they called “alternative” music: The Cure, New Order, and yes, Depeche Mode. 

It was in one of these stations where I heard their music for the very first time a few years back, an event that led me into buying my first DM vinyl (Music For The Masses), my first DM Compact Disc (the 101 live double album), and eventually collecting their entire back catalogue and wallpapering my room with their posters. By 1990 I was a hardcore, full-fledged devotee --although back then, obviously, we still didn’t use that term to define ourselves. I was just one of those weirdoes who liked New Wave music and dressed accordingly. My mom didn’t understand where that fascination for black clothes and moody lyrics came from. She was more into soft rock bands like Chicago and Air Supply, so there were a couple of DM songs that she enjoyed: Somebody and A Question of Lust. “Now, those are nice,” she’d say, “Why can’t all their songs be like that?” But even though she didn’t precisely share my musical tastes, she did respect and even encouraged them. My mom was always supportive of me. “One day I’m going to buy you a keyboard so you can play Depeche Mode in it, if that’s what you want,” She’d say. “Follow your dreams, Gatico,” she used to tell me all the time. “My dream is simple, mamá. I just want to meet Depeche Mode someday.” She had the most contagious cackle in the world that made everyone around her laugh along with her. She was lovely, beautiful and kind. María Eugenia was a true lady.

That day in her car I was brimming with excitement about the news of a new DM album hitting the stores soon. A few days earlier I heard in one of those stations the back end of Personal Jesus, and listening to this song for the first time with its thumping guitar riff --an unusual feature for Depeche Mode’s sound at the time-- made me even more anxious about getting this new album, which by then it was rumored to be called Violator. Just by its name alone I knew it would be something special. Back in the day in Colombia the only way you could buy music was on record stores that sold imported albums on CD, vinyl and cassette, for an absurdly high price once translated into pesos, and their selection was very limited: There was no way you could find a single for sale anywhere. So with the album still unreleased, my only chance to hear Personal Jesus in its entirety was to catch it on the radio. That’s why I was turning the dial endlessly and hoping to God I’d get lucky. “Gatico, you’re gonna break my knob,” my mom said, laughing her catchy laugh. “I just gotta hear their new song, mom,” I replied. “They have to play it, sooner or later.” 

Suddenly, the DJ in one of the stations dryly announced it, without the fanfare it deserved: “Now, here’s new Depeche Mode song from their upcoming new album, Violator.” I started yelling as if I had won the lottery. “Here it is, mom, here it is! Pull over, pull over!” I cranked up the volume expecting Personal Jesus, but something else came up, something I had never heard before in my lifetime but with the first few notes I just knew it would become my all-time favorite song and would by my side until the day I died. The trance-like bassline. The hypnotic chords. The sweet guitar melody. Dave’s moody crooning. And the lyrics… Oh, my God. The lyrics. I got wild goosebumps as soon as the song started, and by the first chorus I was already crying my eyes out. Witnessing such an emotional response on her only son, and somehow understanding the transcendence of the moment, my mom did pull over to allow me to listen to the song as cleanly as possible. Then, feeling the need to comfort me, she hugged me the way only a mother could:

“All I ever wanted, all I ever needed is here, in my arms, 

Words are very unnecessary, they can only do harm…”

That was the first time in my life in which those lyrics made perfect sense to me, the first of many to come. By the end of the song, we were both crying… That song orchestrated a bonding moment between us. I felt so proud of my boys from Basildon. I knew right there and then they had created a masterpiece, and, in a way, I felt a bit jealous because I knew that they would no longer be my band; from that point on I would have to share it with the rest of the world. I knew that after Enjoy The Silence, Depeche Mode would be huge. When the song ended, the DJ announced the release of Violator on March 19th, and my mom made me realize it would be on the same week she’d get married to her second husband in Florida. “Maybe you can buy it in Miami when we’re there for my wedding,” she said, and I realized what a great idea that was, considering that it wouldn’t be available in Colombia for weeks after its official release. Suddenly, the prospect of a Miami trip that featured my mom marrying a guy who’s not my dad became less uncomfortable to bear for me.

My parents separated when I was about 2 years old, and I grew up without knowing my father. I was raised by my mom, who was always dedicated to me, sometimes putting aside her own happiness in lieu of mine. She renounced her dreams of being an architect and took a job as a flight attendant to be able to provide for me, a job she kept for her entire life, jumping from airline to airline, first Braniff, then Eastern, then American Airlines. That’s where she met Michael, an American customs agent based in MIA. I remember her having a few suitors throughout the years, but none of them serious, nor lasting. Michael was the first man who seemed like a possible companion for my mom for the rest of her life. 

My mom and I arrived in Miami for her wedding on the last week of March, 1990, and went straight to her new home in the suburb of Kendall, where she had recently moved in with Michael. I had been to that house before as my mom took me there a couple of times to meet the guy she was dating. Michael was an OK guy, but the whole situation was a bit awkward for 16-year-old me, as I guess it was for him as well. He made an effort to connect with me, but it was difficult because we didn’t have much in common. He had never heard of Depeche Mode and his favorite musician was Jimmy Buffett, for crying out loud. But, evidently, he made my mother happy, and that was reason enough for me to at least try to like him. 

I enjoyed visiting him in Miami because he would take us out on a small boat that he owned into the ocean to do snorkeling, and also because he had MTV at home, something I didn’t have in Colombia, at least not until 1993 when MTV Latin America launched. I turned it on as soon as I got home, and one of the first music videos they played was Enjoy The Silence, which, to my surprise, was in heavy rotation: They would run it at least once every hour or two. That’s when I grasped the magnitude of Depeche Mode’s newfound popularity in the United States. The ironic joke they played on the title of their previous record, Music For The Masses, was not a joke anymore. Now they were truly massive. It was weird seeing my favorite band on TV for the first time. Obviously, I had seen some of their music videos before, but mainly from VHS tapes that I had purchased in Colombia, never in a situation when I knew that millions of other people were also watching them at the same time. It was a surreal experience. I loved the Enjoy The Silence video since the first time I saw it, and I knew Anton and the band had created their best collaboration yet. MTV was also playing the video for Personal Jesus, which I also thought was absolutely genius. Now I just had to get the album and listen to the whole damn thing!

These were the last few days before her wedding day, yet still my mom took some time out of her hectic schedule to drive me to the Dadeland mall. I was almost running through its halls, my mom keeping up with my accelerated pace. When I walked into Sam Goody, that was the first time that I saw Violator’s cover with its iconic red rose, plastering the walls in the form of huge posters. My excitement couldn’t get any higher. I went straight to the CD racks looking for the “D” on the Rock & Pop section. Finally, after so much anticipation, there it was: Violator. When I grabbed the CD by its plastic theft-protection case, my hands were shaking. Next to it were the CD maxi-singles for Enjoy The Silence and Personal Jesus, which I also convinced my mom to get for me. After she paid for all three, we left the store as quickly as we came in. I couldn’t wait to listen to Violator. When we got into the car, I unwrapped its cellophane very carefully, as if it were a delicate jewel --spoiler alert: it was. “Don’t you want to wait until we get home so you can listen to it properly?” my mom asked. I just gave her the look like saying “Seriously, mom?” I popped it into the CD player. This was it. No more waiting, no more dreaming, no more hoping that some DJ at a Colombian radio station had the hunch to play some of it. This time, I was the DJ, and there was nothing else to prevent me from listening to Depeche Mode’s new album in its entirety. I cranked up the volume again.

All that expectation was finally over with the first bass notes of World In My Eyes. What a sensation that was, even being listened through a shitty stereo like the one we had on that rental car. I remember opening the booklet, sniffing that glorious new CD smell, and going through the lyrics one by one. I loved each and every song on that record. The sexual energy of World In My Eyes. The anguish of Halo. The melodic beauty of Waiting For The Night. I was entranced on how each told a separate, meaningful story, but also how they all worked together, morphing one into the next, telling a larger story, the story of Violator. When I listened to this album for the first time, it was the absolute confirmation that I had chosen the best band in the world to be a fan of. 

My mom and Michael got married a few days later, and in 1994 I moved to Miami to live with them and attend college at FIU. To drive to school from our hew home in Pembroke Pines and back, I bought a used Toyota Corolla, which I painted black and pimped with the vanity license plate “VIOL8OR” --I could only use 7 characters, so I had to improvise-- and with a giant red rose sticker on the back of the car that I made with Con-tact paper. On my first Christmas at my new home, my mom finally gave me the keyboard that she had been promising me for quite some time, a Yamaha PSR-150, along with a Violator book that included all the tablatures for its songs so I could start practicing them right away. Of course, that’s what I did. I learned Enjoy The Silence, Personal Jesus, World In My Eyes, Policy Of Truth, and recorded them using a little Tascam 4-track mini-studio that I bought with my own money after I got my first job working at a record store. I had always loved listening to music, but this present from my mom is what got me started in understanding it and playing with it and making it my own, something that would eventually become my passion in life. I will always be grateful to her for that. 

A few years later, my mother was diagnosed with brain cancer. It was ravaging to me to witness the body of such a strong woman begin to crumble in the way that it did. Her will to live didn’t falter, though, nor did her positive outlook on life. In 2003 she received a burst of happiness and another reason to keep living with the birth of Milah, her granddaughter. From the first moment she saw that baby she devoted all of her energy and attention to her. She loved Milah so much that her cancer began to recede, and at that point she promised to be by her side for many years to come. Sadly, the cancer came back and broke that promise for her. 

Maria, Dicken and Milah

María Eugenia, my mother, died on October 25th, 2005, at her Pembroke Pines home, as hurricane Wilma was outside ravaging her beloved flower garden. Just a few months earlier she gave away another keyboard as a present, this time to her granddaughter on her second birthday: a bright blue toy keyboard with keys that lit up when you played them. “Now you can teach your kid how to play Enjoy the Silence,” she told me before bursting into laughter. She was always happy, even when the cancer was eating her alive. I did teach Milah how to play that little keyboard, and a few years later I also taught her brother Korben, the grandson that my mom didn’t have a chance to meet but would have surely loved with all her heart. My mom had a great imagination, but she would have never guessed, not in a million years, that the PSR-150 that she gave me and the bright blue toy keyboard that she gave Milah would become the instruments of a Depeche Mode tribute band formed by her progeny who would play those keyboards on viral videos and stages around the world. She would have loved to have seen DMK’s Enjoy the Silence cover, and to have witnessed Martin L. Gore saying how much he enjoyed it. I know she would have been very proud of us, and also very proud of herself for what she had created. With her unconditional support, love and dedication, she gave me the tools, the right advise and the direction that eventually helped me develop my passion for music --a passion that now I share with my own children--, and to turn my dream into reality: Not only did I meet Depeche Mode, but my story ended up being intertwined with theirs. That’s beyond the stuff that dreams are made of.

If she were still alive, this month my mother would be celebrating her 30th wedding anniversary. 

But even though she’s not here with us, at least we are celebrating and remembering her life through the 30th anniversary of the release of Violator, because that album, to me, is intrinsically woven with her memory. And that’s the power of music, and the reason why we love to listen to it, collect it and cherish it the way we do: like nothing else in the world, it can take us back in mind and spirit to relive some of our happiest moments. And that, my friends, is true magic. Happy birthday, Violator. May you live forever with us like the memories you help us keep.

ENJOY THE SILENCE - THE REVIEWS

Enjoy The Silence was Depeche Mode's most successful single in Britain since Master & Servant in 1984. Even thought Shake The Disease should have been number 1 for around 2 years, Master & Servant's number 9 placing was as high as Depeche got in the charts for six years with the band seemingly unloved by the media and pop fans in general. The public loved Enjoy The Silence however, and it beat Master & Servant in reaching number 6 where it stayed for two weeks.  It also managed to please the notoriously Depeche phobic music media.

Picture couresty of Paul Moss

Firstly, on 3rd February 1990, the NME made Enjoy The Silence its Single Of The Week.  The reviewer was joined by Steve Waddington and Jon Marsh of the temporarily and somewhat remarkably successful band The Beloved. Marsh, who would soon go on to remix World In My Eyes, saying that he thought it was Depeche Mode's "(b)est for a very long time."  The NME reviewer called it a "brooding, tender piece" though wrong mentioned it was the "first cut from their forthcoming album" which is rather unfair to Personal Jesus.

Picture courtesy of Melvin Hardy

Simon Reynolds at Melody Maker thought differently saying the song felt "very dated." Hmm.

Picture courtesy of Melvin Hardy

The review above was another typical of the UK music media at the time. It's a lot of nonsense that seems to grudgingly agree that the song is "Understated and, golly gosh, utterly pleasant." Describing a song in those terms was essentially high praise for Depeche Mode at that point in their career.

As it had done with Personal Jesus, Smash Hits featured the lyrics but no review, with the picture above featuring in its 21st February issue. 

The general positivity about the song coupled with its unmatchable genius meant that it enetered the charts at number 17. It then moved to its peak of number 6 where it stayed for 2 weeks before falling to numbers 12, 20, 32, 52 and finally 62. Impressively, the song reached number 8 in the US and number 1 in Denmark and Spain. Overall, it was Depeche Mode's best global chart performance for a long time.

The single even led to Depeche Mode receiving their first and, thus far, only Brit Award. After some, erm, gentle encouragement in an issue of BONG (below) the band won the best single of 1990.

Picture courtesy of Depeche Mode Classic Photos And Videos Facebook Group

The awards ceremony took place on 10th February 1991, long after the band were finished the World Violation Tour. Depeche didn't turn up so British DJ Simon Mayo accepted the award on their behalf in a very, very odd way:

Positive reviews were a relatively new thing for Depeche Mode and Enjoy The Silence had gone down well all over. If the band thought this new wave of positivity was impressive, the reviews of Violator that shortly followed took the notion of actually praising Depeche Mode to a new level indeed as we shall see later on this month.