GET OUT THE CRANE - CONSTRUCTION TIME AGAIN TURNS 40

 

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.

DEPECHE MODE - THE SINGLES 1981 TO 2021 PART 40: GOODNIGHT LOVERS

 

With Freelove released on the day the Exciter tour ended, you would think that would be that for Exciter era Depeche Mode, but no. Ever keen to confound us, Depeche released a fourth single from the album, 3 months after the tour ended.

What we got was a lovely surprise AND the band's first UK Number 1!!!! 

Sort of.

BORN A LOVER - GOODNIGHT LOVERS

The Single

Originally given the working title of Born A Lover, Goodnight Lovers, BONG33, was released on 11th February 2002. The release was a fairly limited one, only seeing official releases in a few European countries. BONG 51, the issue of BONG that confirmed the end of the magazine, came out after the single had been released and curiously confirmed that the single had "finally been released" in February. They weren't wrong.

The single did pick up a couple of reviews. In Dotmusic (nope, no idea), Ben Gilbert said:

"The fourth single from last year's resoundingly well-received long-player 'Exciter' confirms the somewhat surprising but nonetheless commendable resurrection of Depeche Mode. Almost as much a prayer as a track, 'Goodnight Lovers' is a resolutely calm and reflective mesh of atmospherics, the embryonic incarnation subtly mirrored in rock and roll survivor Dave Gahan's gentle vocal lilt. Elsewhere, amid the deep, soothing vocal mix, chiming electronic flourishes resonate to the close. Nothing very much happens, but then, as some people in this business could do with learning, less is often more."

Thanks to the super Depeche Mode Press File site, I can also offer the opinion that matters - yes, it's the Huddersfield Daily Examiner:

When Exciter was reviewed, Goodnight Lovers caught a few ears. Stephen Dalton in the NME said:

"(B)etter still is beatific closing number Goodnight Lovers, where Dave purrs and whispers over a gliding ambient lullaby to 'all soul sisters and all soul brothers." This is the one to soften even hardened Mode haters, a gorgeous moment of sensual healing."

The best thing about Goodnight Lovers however is its chart position. Top 40 rules at the time excluded the song from the Top 40 because it contained three songs in addition to the single itself even though one of those is actually a remix of the single as we will see. The songs issue did however qualify the release for the Budget Albums Chart and on the week of release, Depeche Mode got a 

UK NUMBER ONE!!!

Ok, not quite what one would normally call a Number 1 single, but we'll take it. Technically it was the first time a Depeche Mode single had reached Number 1 in the UK so that is a win.

Goodnight Lovers is, of course, a wonderful song, both soothing and haunting. It's the warmest track on Exciter and ends the album perfectly. It has featured in the band's live sets too, but not on the Exciter tour. Instead, it was played 76 times on Touring The Angel and it was a joy. Dave and Martin sang together with Martin utterly drama queening it up at the end of the song most nights and the whole thing was tremendous fun. It was last played on 3rd April 2006 at Wembley Arena in London.

The Video

Third time lucky for John Hillcoat here as he makes a decent fist of this video. Perhaps that is because nothing actually happens.

The Depeche Mode boys are joined by the Exciter tour's backing singers Jordan Bailey and Georgia Lewis and everyone with the exception of Fletch has a good old singalong. Well, they do in the sense that they all appear to be in separate rooms with footage of everyone else playing on the walls. The video was filmed the day after the tour ended so perhaps they had all seen enough of each other and insisted on separate rooms for filming.

Everyone is of course dressed in black with Martin wearing what you would like to think is a leather shirt. Fletch only appears briefly and every time we see him he has his eyes closed. It had been a long tour for him.

We end with Dave shushing us all and with that gesture, the Exciter period comes to an end. I'm choosing to ignore the rather awkward appearance at the MTV awards a couple of days after this video was filmed. Stop bouncing around Martin. Just stop it.

The Formats

There's not much to look at here as there were only three official formats released. The 12" single was pressed in Germany and UK copies were imported in. 12BONG33 was available on black vinyl with a limited run of 9,000 on red vinyl. 3,500 of those were reserved for the German market. Initial orders from Mute Bank of the red vinyl single came with a free poster.

I think I remember reading that there were only 300 red vinyl 12" singles that came with the poster but that may well be something I have made up entirely. The 12" is filled with good music - well, almost. On Side A (above), we have Goodnight Lovers and When The Body Speaks (Acoustic), a lovely remix.

Once again, I really like the cover and the labels. On Side B, an attempt is made to do the impossible and make The Dead Of Night listenable. The Electronicat Remix tries its best but it didn't stand a chance. You can only work with the materials you are given and remixing that song is akin to being asked to build a workable spaceship with cheese. The second track on Side B is a joy however. Remixing Goodnight Lovers is a tough task, but the Isan Falling Leaf Mix does the job splendidly. It is a wonderful take on the song and one of my favourite Depeche remixes.

The black vinyl version features the same four tracks.

It doesn't come with a poster however. 

For any fans of promos who are feeling left out, welcome to your part of the blog. There was only one UK promo for Goodnight Lovers and here is RCDBONG33.

It features on track only and that is, rather unsurprisingly, Goodnight Lovers. For pedantry fans, there were also CD-R's kicking about and, apparently, a one-sided 12" acetate limited to 6 copies featuring Goodnight Lovers (Kreidler RMX). If you have that, well done.

Having had a CD promo, it made sense to have a CD single too. CDBONG33, like all releases from this campaign. comes in a cardboard sleeve with a thinner sleeve inside housing the disc. It is a lovely thing and my favourite CD single from the Exciter period. Now there's a fascinating fact.

It has the same four tracks as the 12" and a picture of the boys in hot live action on the inner sleeve.

Goodbye to both lovers and the Exciter campaign then. It had been a hugely successful one for the band and had seen them perform a lengthy tour to mainly capacity crowds everywhere. Releasing two singles after it ended seems odd right enough but there was a lot of momentum in DM world at the time so why not.

The next album would be three years away from this release but we would get a remix compilation before that. That means that I am contractually obliged to mention Enjoy The Silence 04. I'll skip over that quickly next time and instead focus on the excellent remixes that accompanied it.

HALO - THE STORY BEHIND DEPECHE MODE'S CLASSIC ALBUM VIOLATOR

One aspect of this month's blog special that I'm particularly happy to share with you is that it will feature exclusive excerpts from Halo - The Story Behind Depeche Mode's Classic Album Violator, the book I have co-authored with Kevin May which is to released this May. Kevin and I got in touch when I ran the last month long blog project on Black Celebration in 2016. He contributed a blog and that led to his involvement in The Global Spirit Tour Project and, ultimately, to my involvement in Halo. 

Last year Kevin very kindly asked me if I would co-author the book and I was delighted to accept his offer. He's done a remarkable amount of work on the project and has uncovered numerous Violator related gems that tell the album's story in a new and fascinating way. I've chipped in here and there and have been thrilled to have been involved in something that's subject is so close to my heart.

Depeche Mode fans are well known for their in-depth knowledge of the band and trying to work out athe way of telling the story of the band's best known album in a new and fresh way has been a challenge, but we are confident that you are going to enjoy what's in store.

Me (L) and Kevin (R) at the Spirits In The Forest premiere in London, October 2019

Kevin has been running his own blog about Halo for a few years ago. I'd certainly recommend you have a look at it for everything related to the book.  Here's what the Author Bio page has to say about us:

Kevin is a UK-based journalist who normally spends his time writing about the travel industry for a global news service called PhocusWire, where he is editor in chief.

A 25-year career has seen him edit business publications MediaWeek, Travolution and Tnooz, write about escapees from prison, robbers and other shady characters for the Police Gazette at New Scotland Yard in London, and cover the shenanigans of local politics for the Essex Enquirer in Depeche Mode’s home town of Basildon.

He was born and raised near Rochester in Kent, holds a degree in criminology, a postgraduate diploma in magazine journalism, has won a couple of press awards, yet misses the backpacking days of his 20s (but is lucky enough to travel regularly for “The Day Job”).

Kevin first saw Depeche Mode at London’s Wembley Arena with two mates in November 1990… on the World Violation Tour.

Links: Twitter, LinkedIn, Website and Email.

David is a Glasgow-based blogger who has hosted the Almost Predictable Almost website since 2011. The blog focusses on Depeche Mode and is especially known for The Global Spirit Tour Project which saw David publish a fan-written review of all 130 concerts on Depeche Mode’s 2017/18 Global Spirit Tour, three of which were written by his co-author, Kevin.

David was raised in Castle Douglas in South West Scotland, where the local Woolworths was his source of all things Depeche-related from Enjoy The Silence onwards. He now lives in Glasgow and, in between coming up with new ways to talk about Basildon’s finest, spends his time supporting and shouting at Liverpool F.C.

Links: Twitter, Facebook, Blog

At various points this month we will share highlights from the book and even a few exclusives that you won't find in the book or anywhere else. We've spoken to as many people as we can think of who were involved in the Violator era. You can look forward to exclusive interviews with the likes of Francois Kervorkian, Billie Rae Martin, Gareth Jones, Steve Lyon, Paul Kendall and many more on the musical side of things. We've also spoken to various actors from the videos, people involved in the artistic side of things and a few fans too to try and tell the story of Violator in as full a way as we possibly can.  We're really excited about the book and we hope you are too.

We are hoping to release translated versions in a number of languages in addition to the English language version. More on that later in the year.

In tomorrow's blog, Kevin May will give you an insight into his own views on Violator and how it inspired him to start the whole Halo project. After that, we'll return to the usual blog content that sees me ramble on about formats, cover art and other nonsense.

Halo - The Story Behind Depeche Mode's Classic Album Violator will be released in May 2020 on paperback and digital. Keep an eye on this blog and both the blog and Halo's Twitter feeds for more information.

NOW THIS IS FUN: DEPECHE MODE FACEBOOK TAKEOVER - 20 APRIL 2017

Well, that was an odd day.

As you probably know by now, Depeche Mode are running a Facebook Takeover for 365 days, inviting fans to apply to be in charge of the band's Facebook page for a day. I obviously couldn't pass this up, so I applied and, fortunately, got picked. It was a remarkable experience.

Before your day goes live, you liaise with the lovely Carl and Ale who sort everything out for you. You can submit up to 5 posts including an opening bio post and, once they've been cleared, the DM Facebook team schedule them and post them. All you've got to do is be online when they pop up and interact with any of the band's 7.3 million followers who happen to get involved. No pressure there then.

I chose 4 posts in addition to the bio thing (see here) and after more thought that was no doubt necessary, went for these (click each for article):

My Gareth Jones interview from A Month Long Period Of Rejoicing

A post about my collection

Depeche Mode Live In Scotland Part 1 - 1981

But B-Sides That, What Have Depeche Mode Given Us 

I thought they offered a good spread of things from the interesting (Gareth Jones) to the collector geek friendly and that seemed to work. What was most surprising though was that, firstly, Live In Scotland has proved to be the most popular post and, secondly, that many, many more people than I expected got involved both on the Depeche Facebook page and on the blog itself.

Th experience of seeing my picture on Depeche Mode's official page together with a picture of my records was incredible. For that second, and in the picture I captured (below), I featured heavily on my favourite band's own site. If you'd told the 16 year old me that in 1990, once you'd explained what the internet and Facebook was of course, he'd have been beyond happy. To be honest, the slightly older than 16 year old me was very much beyond happy when he saw it yesterday.

Just me and Dave - remarkable

I'm a Depeche Mode fan and I know what we're like, but nothing prepared me for this. Before 2 p.m. yesterday when this all kicked off, my blog had had 251,000 visitors since I started this in 2011. I was happy with that figure and I've had consistent increases in hits each month since I began. Yesterday though caused these figures to go absolutely crazy. At the time of typing this, my blog stats are currently:

All time visits - 644,537 (an increase of just under 400,000!!)

Pageviews today - 222,673

Pageviews yesterday - 166,179

Good grief. The Live in Scotland post alone has had 180,019 reads since it went live at 9 p.m. on 20 April. That's less than 24 hours ago at the time of writing. I can't get my head round it really.

That's the Depeche Mode effect I guess, or really, that's the Black Swarm effect. Eager to read anything and discuss everything about Depeche Mode, the DM fans have blown my mind and the whole Facebook takeover thing was a one off, incredible experience. I even got responses like this from the clearly wise Camie Chance:

It was that sort of day!

Thank you very much for the chance Depeche Mode and thank you Carl and Ale for all your help. Thank you mostly to each and every Depeche fan who got involved. If you're new to this blog, welcome and I hope you'll stick around. If you're a regular, thank you for spreading the news around the world yesterday and making my day so much fun, if a little tiring. 

If you're a Depeche fan and you think you're interested in the takeover, apply and watch your Facebook notifications go through the roof. You'll love it. 

A GUEST BLACK CELEBRATION #6 - KEVIN MAY

Another guest post and another wonderful read. Today's blog is by Kevin May, a UK based journalist who usually writes about the travel industry and technology. Kevin is, as you'd expect given his appearance here, a bit of a Depeche fan and has been a Devotee since buying Get The Balance Right. The key thing you need to know about Kevin is that he is the author of the the forthcoming Depeche Mode book Halo which examines the story behind Violator. It is a book that you will not want to miss, trust me. Kevin has very kindly told me a bit about the content of the book and, if you knew what I know, you'd be beyond excited. I was delighted when Kevin agreed to write a piece for this month's project and, unsurprisingly, it's a wonderful blog. Luckily for me, he's included a few snippets from interviews he did with the likes of Gareth Jones for Halo. You're in for a treat

I should also mention a joint project that Kevin and I are about to embark upon. In the next couple of months, we'll be releasing a podcast called Violation Celebration which, as you might already have guessed, will be about Violator and Black Celebration. More to come on that soon. Anyway, enough from me - read on.

BLACK CELEBRATION - THE PERFECT DRESS REHEARSAL FOR VIOLATOR

Depeche Mode fans are genetically hard-wired to love a heart-felt debate about their favourite band.

In fact, some would argue that - perhaps ranking alongside actually listening to the music or seeing them at gigs - having the opportunity AND need to regularly discuss all things Depeche is actually one of the vital bits of glue that binds the band's fiercely loyal fans together.

Best B-side? That would be My Joy (leave a comment below). Favourite post-Alan Wilder album? Probably Ultra. Least likeable video? Quite a few, but It's Called A Heart. Most memorable concert? Paris Bercy, 1993.

Assuming you've got this far into the article, I am guessing that many of you are already formulating your own answers... We all, let's face it, have a point of view when it comes to Depeche.

My second favourite album by Depeche Mode is Black Celebration. That obviously goes against the grain of what David McElroy's excellent, month-long series is all about - but it's a now-unshakable opinion.

Black Celebration may have found itself one rung higher up my ladder of favourites if it wasn't for the masterpiece that came along four years later in the shape of Violator.

Whilst that point-of-view is certainly up for debate (and, yes, it has been a central and regular argument in my world over the past 18 months), very few fans could argue that both Black Celebration and Violator do not deserve the accolade of being the two most important albums in the career of the band.

Neil Ferris, Depeche Mode's radio and TV plugger throughout the 1980s, is right when he says that Violator eventually became the "seminal" album for the band.

He says this in the context of how important Construction Time Again was in the making of the Depeche sound, and the reception it subsequently received from fans and critics.

But any seminal-like status heading the way of Construction Time Again was later overtaken when Violator was released in 1990.

But why?

Analyse a little further, add some other pivotal moments into the mix, and you start to see a pattern: the debut album Speak & Spell, 1983's Construction Time Again, Black Celebration in 1986, Violator, Ultra in 1997 and Playing The Angel in 2005.

Every two "eras", Depeche create something new... something that changes how they work, or how they are perceived and received, all with lasting consequences.

This simple calculation makes sense: Speak & Spell put the band on the map; Construction Time Again saw the emergence of the "Depeche sound" (not least with the studio and musical influences of Gareth Jones and Alan Wilder respectively); Ultra showed that band could reconvene successfully despite their well-documented personal issues; and Playing The Angel set the modern strategy in place (production-promotion-tour time-line, structure and style) which pretty much continues to this day.

But it is arguably the two long-players in the middle of that aforementioned collection of pivotal moments, Black Celebration and Violator, that have the most cause to be celebrated (no pun intended).

If Black Celebration gave rise to a certain depth and sonic to Depeche's music, Violator brought that same intensity alongside a pop accessibility to the masses (again, no pun intended).

If Black Celebration allowed the band to start to create a certain style and culture around their image (later mirrored by legions of their fans), Violator gave artistic collaborator Anton Corbijn the opportunity - with the band's universal blessing - to finally unleash his creativity across the album, videos, photography and merchandise.

If Black Celebration illustrated that there was a world for Depeche beyond their European heartland, as until-then relatively unknown audiences in the US suddenly flocked to see them on the album's tour, 1990's World Violation Tour saw the band accelerate their status as genuine stadium and arena act to extraordinary heights, at a global scale.

Breathing in fumes (of motivation)

It is perhaps easy to reflect on two landmark periods in the history of Depeche Mode through rose-tinted spectacles.

Do we, as fans, end up placing these eras on musical pedestals because we now have the benefit of 30 years to reflect on Black Celebration and 25 years for Violator?

The answer is a bit of no, and a fair amount of yes.

I've lost count of the number of times that fans have told me that they can remember where they were when they first heard Personal Jesus or A Question of Time.

Or how they felt when seeing the band on the tours that accompanied albums (a thunderous Halo during the World Violation Tour remains reasonably indescribable for me, 25 years on).

These are all influential and valid moments, for us as fans.

But it would be optimistic to suggest that fans and critics genuinely realised the career-defining qualities of either Black Celebration or Violator in the immediate aftermath of their respective releases.

They were obviously both special albums at the outset, but for reasons that were more to do with the quality of Martin Gore's songs and how each album made people feel.

But we can now see how Black Celebration and Violator - a quarter of a century later - are intertwined in a unique and hugely important way.

The experience of creating Black Celebration in late-1985 and early-1986, paved the way for how the band would consider working in the studio by the time they got to Milan in the spring of 1989.

Producers Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones had pushed the band during the recording of Black Celebration, using the so-called "live the album" idea.

The result was an intense experience that caused obvious tensions in the studio, but helped shape the mood of the album.

It was this concept, of testing themselves as creative artists, which ignited something exciting within the team that later saw them appoint Flood (Mark Ellis), a figure that most within the camp considered the best person at the time to really take Depeche to a new level.

Flood was considered much more of a collaborator than a producer by the time that Depeche Mode had got to the recording sessions for Violator - someone who knew which buttons to push (both literally and figuratively) in the studio to get the very best out the songs and the production.

But that having someone alongside them to not only help but challenge their preconceived ideas of "how it should be done" was born during Black Celebration.

Gareth Jones and Kevin in Gareth's studio 2015 - picture (c) Kevin May

A lot of the credit for this should go to Gareth Jones, the co-producer of Black Celebration who had started work with the band as a engineer on Construction Time Again and whose open-minded style and approach (especially to emerging concepts back in 1983 as sampling) unlocked their confidence - not least Alan Wilder's musical prowess - to try new things.

Jones knew that in the right atmosphere, despite the tensions that ensued during the recording, he and Miller could inspire the band to dig deeper into their creative arsenal to produce a series of songs that were unsurpassed in their depth and intensity at that point.

Experimentation and "getting out of your own way" (a phrase that was mentioned fairly frequently in the interviews for HALO) always seems to trigger the best from Depeche Mode.

Interestingly, talking to me in 2015, I learned that Jones was disappointed to have been "abandoned" after Black Celebration when he learned he would not be asked to work with the band again for the follow-up album, Music For The Masses.

In some respects it is easy to sympathise with Jones, having completed a "trilogy" with Depeche (including Some Great Reward in 1984), but those who have met him or listened to and read his interviews realise that there is now, with age, an enormous respect he has for the band and how they engineered their way through the late-1980s.

As a younger man, he says, "I was a bit prejudiced about Music For The Masses and didn’t realise it to be the good album that it was, perhaps".

"But anyway, by the time Violator came along, enough water had passed under the bridge that I was able to embrace it and listen to it, and enjoy it.

Visually saved us

Of zero influence to the sonic contained on Black Celebration, but of equal importance to the style that emerged during Black Celebration, was the arrival of Anton Corbijn.

Plenty has been noted on previous occasions about the Dutchman's role in the history of Depeche Mode - a relationship that has now spanned three decades, yet began with an unpretentious, unusual (for a synth band) and fun video for A Question Of Time.

But given the creative partnership (as arty-types would call it) they now have, it's easy to forget - or difficult to comprehend - that the collaboration started off in as low-key a way as possible.

Richard Bell, Corbijn's official producer on the Depeche videos from Stangelove until the turn of the century, told me last year that as young system producer at product company Vivid, he was unable to travel to Los Angeles to help with A Question Of Time.

The band was on tour at the time, budgets were tight, so Corbijn handled much of the video's on-site work himself, with a few helpers for the equipment.

Bell did all the setting up of the video's production remotely, from a facility in London, whilst the band (not least Alan Wilder, who did an extra day's filming) worked with Corbijn at various locations in California.

Fast forward a few years and the Corbijn team was "all in" with Depeche Mode.

After the trademark, grainy, black and white style that was used on most of the Music For The Masses videos, Corbijn was given full reign to create some of Depeche's most iconic visual work, such as Enjoy The Silence.

It is reasonably safe to say that if Corbijn had not gained the confidence of the band during the creation of that simple video for A Question Of Time, during that scorching summer of 1986 in the US, Depeche's history may have taken an entirely different path.

Poor ol' Music For the Masses

It is worth noting briefly the album in the middle of Black Celebration and Violator, 1987's Music For The Masses, which has its own special place in the story of Depeche Mode, but for wholly different reasons.

It doesn't sound or feel as "seminal" as Violator, nor is it anywhere near pioneering as its predecessor.

Lest we forget, Music For The Masses is a great album (as we all know, spawning Never Let Me Down Again, Strangelove, Behind The Wheel and - for me - the hugely underrated Nothing), but it doesn't quite create the same frisson amongst fans that Black Celebration and Violator somehow manage to do.

In fact, strangely, and with the benefit of hindsight again, Music For The Masses now feels like a stepping stone between those two albums.

Yes, it has some classic Depeche Mode songs; yes, it inspired a pivotal moment in the shape of the Pasadena Rose Bowl gig in 1988; and , yes, it stands proudly alongside Songs Of Faith And Devotion as an important and great album.

But it doesn't have the same place in the history of the band as Black Celebration or Violator.

If the former and latter didn't exist, Music For The Masses would perhaps be up there as the iconic album from the band.

But Black Celebration's depth, tone and overall feel was only matched (improved on, some argue) with Violator.

Yet what we should all recognise now, and appreciate, is that without Black Celebration setting a standard for process and focus, some of it subconsciously, some of it due to the decisions that were made as a band about things other than their visual output, Violator may never have become the seminal moment in the band's career that it did.

I'll happily "drink to that".

Told you you'd enjoy that!.

Keep an eye on the Halo Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/halotheviolatorbook/?fref=ts) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/HALOBook) for news about the book. Needless to say, I'll be talking about it a lot on here too. 

Thanks very much Kevin.

FLY ON THE WINDSCREEN - THE ONE THAT NEARLY GOT AWAY

Of all the songs on Black Celebration that weren't released as singles, Fly On The Windscreen has to be one of the most popular among Depeche Mode fans. We've already read Gareth Jones' views on the song and I certainly share them. A driving, dark, moody masterpiece, Fly On The Windscreen is a classic Depeche track. This is the story, at least the story as I see it, of this hugely important song.

To consider Fly On The Windscreen, we must first go back to 1985. Depeche decided to release a singles compilation, and so they set about recording new tracks for use as new singles for the project which ultimately ended up, of course, as The Singles 81-85. For the first new single released for that record the band got it 100% correct - the glorious classic Shake The Disease was released, backed with the very B-side like B-side Flexible. Shake The Disease is simply one of Martin's finest ever tracks and would have been entirely welcome on Black Celebration. The fact it only got to number 18 in the U.K. remains one of the great mysteries of all time. The second new single the band released was the entirely unwelcome anywhere near Black Celebration overly poppy and generally shoddy It's Called A Heart. If, as I presume you have done, you have seen the Black Celebration re-issue dvd, you'll have heard the band's general contempt for this song. For numbers fans, it also got to 18 in the U.K. charts, equalling Shake The Disease. There is no justice.

"But David," you say, "this month is apparently all about Black Celebration. Why are you telling us things we already know from your excellently written In Spirit I'll Be There - The Singles 81-85 and 1985 piece?"

You're right. Whilst you may still wish to read that article (http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/depeche-mode-singles-81-85.html), this is a Black Celebration thing. The reason I mention It's Called A Heart is its B-side, Fly On The Windscreen. It was a track the band preferred, but one that, again according to the Black Celebration  re-issue dvd was rejected as the A-side because the first word was "death." It wasn't rejected because it was a worse song that its A-side - nobody would have thought that in any event.

So what is it about Fly On The Windscreen that appeals so much? The first thing to consider is the context in which we first heard the song. It was easily the darkest Depeche track released to date. Ok, you could argue that there's a darkness in Blasphemous Rumours, but that's offset by what is essentially one of Martin's poppiest choruses. The songs on Construction Time Again and Some Great Reward have an edge to them certainly, but that speaks more to Depeche Mode's bold experiments with pop and their fusion of industrial elements, sampling and so on to that genre. Going further back, Satellite from A Broken Frame talks of being "(a) satellite of hate," but that was more just teenage stroppiness than anything else. Fly On The Windscreen is where Depeche Mode first found the power, and the darkness, that drove them to global success. The dark, death filled motif of the song is beautifully counterbalanced with the hope of the "Come here...kiss me" section however. Yes, we're all going to die eventually, as the flies on our car windscreens remind us daily, but let's be in love while we can, because that's the best thing you can do isn't it? There's a certain poetry in the fly based image too as we can all relate to that.

The B-side version isn't that much different to the Final version that appears on Black Celebration. It has fewer samples and sounds a bit rawer, but other than that it's pretty much the same. It towers over its A-side brother on the single, and I guess hearing it at the time must have been a sensation. The song is a world of joys, but one of its highlights must be Dave's "Come here...kiss me" backed with Martin's "Touch me" which is the first recorded evidence of Depeche having sex appeal. The proto-acid bassline is also a joy and the punchy, driving rhythm of the track a precursor to so many Depeche highlights. It's a truly wonderful track all told. The Extended Mix on the 12" single has a distinct appeal too. Its percussion heavy start is tremendous and, like all good extended mixes of the time, you get a sense of all the sounds that were used in its production and that's never a bad thing.

Until the Hole To Feed/Fragile Tension double 12", Depeche Mode's only previous double 12" release was the limited It's Called A Heart one. Their two worst singles and they both get the double 12" treatment - how's that fair? Anyway, the double 12" contains the Extended Mix of Fly On The Windscreen and another new Gareth Jones mix, the record company defying Death Mix. This one is filled with samples with phrases like "Death," "We overdid it a bit right there" (which sounds a lot like Gareth himself), "The Holy Ghost" (in a scary, shouty voice) and "The blood of nations" (at least I think it's nations) appearing throughout. It has an element of Yazoo's I Before E Except After C about it with all the samples and it's really quite enjoyable. It's certainly a billion times better than the Slow Mix of It's Called A Heart which is something you never want to hear. The whole mix focuses on death, highlighting the death based parts of the lyrics, albeit that morose sense is offset by the appearance of the "Come here...touch me" etc section.  It's a really interesting, experimental remix and one I'd recommend to you all. Note too that the "I don't care how you feel" sample from the album version pops up right at the very end too.

At that stage in the band's career, that would be the last we'd hear of a Depeche Mode B-side. I don't imagine, for example, that Flexible was ever on the list on songs for potential inclusion on Black Celebration. Fly On The Windscreen didn't just vanish there though. It was deemed to be an obvious choice for the album (see Gareth Jones interview) and it also appeared on the Stripped 12" as one of that 25 minute long record's five tracks. There it turns up as the Quiet Mix and it's a beauty. It's quiet because a lot of the track's muscle is stripped away, leaving only (by my count) 6 or 7 tracks plus the vocals. It still has a definite edge to it and it's somehow spookier when rendered down to the minimal take we see on this release. Excellent really.

But they weren't done with Fly On The Windscreen even then. What was apparently the last ever mix of it appeared on Black Celebration in its most famous and, to my ears, most wonderful guise - Fly On The Windscreen - Final. I've already covered this track, and Gareth Jones has said so much more about it than I ever could. All I'll say now is that it is one of the key Depeche Mode tracks and, if for some reason you haven't heard it, and let's be frank, if you're THIS far into an article about that song you probably have done so, but if you haven't heard it, go and sort that out right now.

So, by the time Black Celebration came out, we had five different versions of a song that was originally only deemed fit to be a B-side. Bear in mind that, at that point in Depeche Mode's career, only the likes of Everything Counts and Master & Servant had had 4 (or possibly 5 if you count the last track on Construction Time Again) versions each released over different formats and singles. Stellar B-sides like Ice Machine remained under represented (two appearances only) and certainly didn't appear on any albums. Fly On The Windscreen bucked the trend. The song was one of the standouts on the Black Celebration tour too where it was played 76 times. For me, there's a hesitancy in certain key tracks from the album on that tour, where their power doesn't quite transfer to the live arena, but Fly On The Windscreen doesn't fall into that trap. Powerful, intense, a few bits of metal being hit and Martin's REMARKABLE run of "Touch Meeeeeee"'s towards the end make it a must hear. And you can hear, and see, it now:



How cool is that? Bonus points for the electric fans beside the keyboards and Martin's stage wear.

After that though, Fly On The Windscreen disappeared for a few years. It first popped back up on the Devotional tour and it was revelatory. There are tales of tracks that were planned and rehearsed for that tour including Nothing and the-I-Can't-Believe-They-Didn't-Do-This Leave In Silence. There was clearly an eye on playing older classics that never quite took off (see Something To Do's one and only appearance) but Fly On The Windscreen was a near constant on the Devotional leg of the tour. Something To Do replaced it on the second night in Brussels (25 May 1993) so perhaps it was the intention to rotate the songs, but that never came to pass. Of the 98 gigs on the Devotional Tour, Fly On The Windscreen  featured all but 15 times, either because of a run of multiple gigs (the five L.A. Forum shows from 20th to 26th November saw Somebody replace it on the 23rd and 26th) or, as was common at the time, "other" problems. Interestingly, it was dropped for the Dublin show and all four of the U.K. shows that ended the tour, with Somebody again standing in. Its last appearance was in Sao Paulo, Brazil on the 4th of April 1994, where it appeared for the one and only time in the 1994 shows.

The thing is this though. The version of Fly On The Windscreen on the Devotional tour was a sex charged, throbbing love beast of a song, all slinky beats and gyrating Dave and, as can be seen from the Devotional video, it drove the fans crazy. Alan and Steve Lyon turned it from a dark, brooding track, to a lust filled perv of a track and it worked magically. I don't want to annoy Depeche Mode any more than my writing about them incessantly does already, so I'm not posting the Devotional version here. Instead, here's a bootleg from the Orlando gig on the tour where Dave invites some fans onstage. To see the full thing, watch Devotional, or to hear it that version in all its sexy glory, get either the limited edition 12", the limited edition cd single or the reissue cd of In Your Room all of which contain a live version from the show in Lievin, France on 29 July 1993.




Post Devotional, the song disappeared again until it was resurrected on the first couple of legs of the Touring The Universe, in support of the sleep inducing Sounds Of The Universe. In keeping with that album's lack of spark, the song lost most of its punch and felt a tad flat really. It was officially released on the tour's live DVD, so again, I'm not posting the official version. The version you're about to see is from Tel Aviv on 10 May 2009. There's no sexiness, there's no darkness - there's just Dave's singing/shouting ("toonaaaaaaaaiiighhhhhhttttaahhhh") and the HORRIFIC trumpet sound that somehow replaces the original. Some of the samples make it sound like a cover band playing a bad version. Oh and there's the never welcome live drums too. Sadness all around. That it didn't survive on the setlist to the end of the tour perhaps says something.




I don't want to end on such a negative note though. I don't think Depeche are beyond criticism of course, and the 2009 version of Fly On The Windscreen deserves criticism, but that version is just a footnote to what is an exceptional Depeche Mode track, and one that is key to the band becoming the band we all love today. Fly On The Windscreen showed that there was another side to Depeche Mode and, thankfully for us, they seemed to realise that it was a track worth sticking with. I would argue that Fly On The Windscreen is as important as any other track on Black Celebration and it is one that I think the vast majority of Depeche Mode fans hold very dear indeed.

Here's to you Fly On The Windscreen  - the one that nearly got away

A QUESTION OF LUST

The second single from Black Celebration was a first for Depeche Mode in that it was the first stand alone single to feature Martin on lead vocals. Somebody was part of a double A side with the apparently controversial Blasphemous Rumours in 1984, so, as far as I'm concerned that makes a difference. Given the proportion of Martin sung tracks on Black Celebration, it was perhaps no surprise one was picked as a single and, of his tracks, A Question Of Lust is really the only obvious choice as a single. It's an enduring track and one that it's still cool to hear Martin perform. 

Did the British record buying public like it at the time though? No. No, they didn't. It popped out on April 14 1986 and promptly stalled at number 28, the band's lowest placing since Dreaming Of Me.

A Question Of Lust U.K. Magazine advert - courtesy of depmod.com

The single had some good press - Smash Hits said:

DEPECHE MODE: A Question Of Lust (Mute)

With a "provocative" word in the title and a couple snogging on the cover, one would expect this record to be at least slightly "steamesque" and pervy. But no. They don't take any of their clothes off at all! Once the black electro clanks of the intro have settled down, we are presented with a floating, melancholic tune and a wheezing, breathy voice that's singing about "love" not "lust" (a word employed solely to rhyme with "trust" and "dust"). Moody and pretty but entirely saucefree. What a swindle!

Tom Hibbert

and No.1 magazine liked it too

Depeche Mode

A Question Of Lust (Mute)

On first hearing, this sounds like it should never have been released as a single, but a few plays later and the first fully fledged DM ballad really begins to have an effect. It's a s-l-o-w, hauting track, mournful without being depressing and more proof of their increasing maturity. A nice twist to all the usual love songs, too.

4 stars

Melody Maker got it all so very wrong though, even down to the identity of the singer

A QUESTION OF LUST - released April 14, 1986

Like unwilling bedfellows thrown together by sheer happenstance, Depeche Mode and yours truly meet for the third time on the singles page. Each successive release convinces me afresh that the only factor impeding this groups' ascent to ultrastardom is the unrelenting glumness of singer Dave Gahan. A less oafish reviewer would recognise his juiceless tones for the affirmation of his sensitivity they obviously are; I hear a pretty good song, which incorporates the swelling grandiosity of Godley and Creme's "Cry", rendered stultifying by Gahan's pallid murmer

but none of that made any difference as the single didn't perform at all. Perhaps if the band had tried the birthday cake idea in the U.K. that they tried in Japan in August 1986, it might have made a difference:

Anyway, what of A Question Of Lust and its formats? Well, the single appeared in a number of guises in the U.K. including the band's first ever cassette single (CBONG11), which was quite a fancy package. As you can see from the promotional poster below, it came with a booklet, a badge and, of course, a cassette which featured five tracks - A Question Of Lust (Flood Remix), Christmas Island and versions of Shame, If You Want and Blasphemous Rumours, all recorded live in Basle on the Some Great Reward tour. 

A Question Of Lust limited edition cassette single poster - picture courtesy of depmod.com

The artwork for this package is quite cool. The arrow pointing to the explosion as referred to in my earlier post on the album cover icons is there and that appears again on the booklet. The thing is, that icon on the album is linked to A Question Of Time. Stripped's icon on the single is the same as the one on the album, so this arrow explosion business here only serves to confuse. The DM logo that appears with A Question Of Lust  is nowhere to be seen here either. All that said though, there is a very real chance that I am the only person on earth who cares about this.

The booklet itself contains four fairly dreadful pictures of the band, lyrics for the 5 songs on the tape and a small picture of the single's cover sleeve. Curiously, the front of the package has a checklist on it where you'd certainly hope to see ticks beside the three selections - cassette, booklet and badge. The words "Limited Edition" also have an exclamation mark after them for some reason. Excitement maybe?  Full pictures to follow in a later rarities blog. The other thing to note is the "dM" sticker on the back which holds everything in place. I have an open version and a sealed version because that's the sort of person I am. The sealed one looks like this:

Anyway, it's all about the music really isn't it? The Flood remix of A Question Of Lust is decent enough though slightly sparse, missing some sounds. That wasn't a trick of Flood's own doing however. It transpires that Mute only sent him both multitrack tapes which wasn't terribly clever. It's a nice mix though. Christmas Island is a doom laden, nuclear themed instrumental written by Martin and Alan which the band produced all on their own. The live tracks are all excellent, crisp recordings and are all worth hearing. As for the other formats, the standard 7" single comes the with album version of A Question Of Lust albeit without the Fly On The Windscreen fade out/in and Christmas Island.  The front cover is not Alan kissing someone, but instead it is two friends of the photographer. The rear of the sleeve shows the band standing on the stairs in Hansa. 

Rear of A Question Of Lust 7" single 7BONG11 - picture courtesy of Depeche Mode Classic Photos 7 Videos

The only other U.K. release was the 12", like Stripped, 5 tracks full but they didn't shout about that this time. There were no claims about the length of the record either.  On it you have A Question Of Lust, an extended Christmas Island that doesn't really add a great deal to the 7", a live version of People Are People, again from Basle, an instrumental of It Doesn't Matter Two, which really is quite lovely and finally, A Question Of Lust (Minimal). The last track is the star of the show - an eerie, minimal take on the track, prepared by the band, Gareth Jones and Daniel Miller. Time for a gratuitous record collection shot:

You'll note a few things there that I haven't mentioned. Firstly, the two cd singles on the right are the 1991 U.K. reissue and the 1986 West German Intercord cd single which, like all those lovely Intercord issues, has that blue strip in the middle. That single features same tracks as the U.K. 12". The West Germans, as we'll hear later on in a rarities piece, loved their coloured vinyl in the 80's and the standard U.K. 12" is reproduced above in wonderful marbled vinyl. The 7" also got a red vinyl edition. Finally, the yellow record above is the West German 12" version of the U.K cassette single albeit you don't get a badge with that. Still get the booklet though. The French also released a cd single at the time, featuring the tracks on the cassette single. It's ridiculously difficult to get and, sadly, doesn't feature in my picture above.

Finally, somewhat inevitably, we come to the video. As with around 95% of all Depeche videos pre Anton, it's not that great. Clive Richardson was in the director's chair, and he took the bold move of starting the video off with footage of Martin jumping around naked and somewhat refreshed in a dressing room. It then, mercifully, moves to shots of the band being all moody on a hillside, hitting bits of metal, with Dave doing his best to stay involved playing a tambourine now and then. Not great, not the worst thing they'd done at that point either. Have a look:

The single was also released in America, albeit in a curious double A side thing with A Question Of Time so I'll visit that later on. What is nice though is the U.S 12" promo which comes in a cool cover and features a Remix Edit by Robert Margouleff of But Not Tonight "fame." 

So that's the story of A Question Of Lust. As I said at the start, it's a track that's certainly endured and the 101 version is particularly wonderful, especially where Martin goes up a notch on the last "And you know that I'd rather be home."  In an album full of great songs, like the record company said, there weren't too many singles, so maybe A Question Of Lust was one of very few options they felt they had. I'm glad they released it though - if only for the Limited Edition! cassette single if nothing else.