DEPECHE MODE - THE SINGLES 1981 TO 2021 PART 11: MASTER AND SERVANT

 

Is there anything that says mid 1980's Depeche Mode more than Master And Servant? Chains, Berlin, leather, whips, drills and lyrics all about kinky sex. This was Depeche Mode as a 16 year old teenager, striking out on their own, thinking they were being all edgy, when all they were really doing was looking a bit silly but in a lovely way.

"Awww...look at wee Martin with his leather clothes. And doesn't Fletch look adorable swinging around on those chains?"

Don't get me wrong, Master And Servant is simply fantastic and it is rightly beloved by Depeche Mode fans of all ages. So let's all slip into something black, squeaky and unflattering, wrap ourselves up in a chain or two and read all about Master And Servant.

IT'S A LOT LIKE LIFE - MASTER AND SERVANT

The Single

The Depeche Mode Information Service newsletter of July 1984 told the world that a new Depeche Mode single would be released on 20th August, the as then untitled Martin written track backed by another Martin song that was apparently "very boystown." Nope, me neither. The following month's newsletter confirmed what was going on, announcing the release of Master And Servant. 

The single was released before Some Great Reward and, like People Are People, it gave a clear indication of where the band were headed with its use of samples of items such as drills, air compressors and Andy Fletcher's arse. Yes, as Andy confirmed in a 2009 interview for a German magazine "I was once whipped. The result can be heard on Master And Servant. That was really strange."  Poor Fletch. That sort of thing wouldn't have happened if Martin had stayed in Basildon.

The song was subject to the usual mixed reviews. Dave Walters in Time Out stated "What do you expect from this bunch of lame dickheads, which was a tad harsh. Robert Hodgens of one hit blunders The Bluebells didn't like it either, telling Smash Hits readers "I'm afraid that, except for the lovely See You, Depeche Mode have consistently failed to evoke any melancholy in me"  and Paul Simper of No. 1 magazine simply said that the song saw "their simple formula reduced to drivel." Lovely stuff.

The British public of course paid no attention to this. Following the song's release on 20th August, it entered the charts at 24, leading to the above performance on Top Of The Pops on 30th August. This performance was the exact point Alan Wilder turned into that Alan Wilder. No longer the new boy, Alan stands there leathered up with sunglasses on, gargantuan hair and a chain round his neck that could only reasonably be used for pulling something the size of an elephant out of a hole. Like Martin he spends the whole 3 and a bit minutes hitting things and, let's all be quite honest here, he looks great. Martin is fully clothed oddly, this being the only day in the period 1983-1988 that he wasn't topless. He is sporting a jaunty leather beret however and the make up levels are rapidly increasing. Dave dances a lot and sports the single drumstick he was holding for the People Are People appearance we read about last time. Fletch has been promoted however, good behaviour seeing his drumstick and cymbal rations doubled from last time.

The song climbed the charts the following week, moving to 12 and then 11. It didn't stall there however as another Top Of The Pops appearance on 12th September when the band appeared as cover act Depechey Mode and played "The Master And The Servant" saw the song leap into the Top 10.

Honestly, how hard can it be to actually read the title out correctly? Anyway, that performance is worth watching for Martin's hugely unenthusiastic drumming. The next week climbed to number 9, giving the band yet another Top Ten hit, before it fell to 14, 24, 33, 50 and then somewhat appropriately 69, before leaving the charts

I don't need to tell you much about what Master And Servant actually sounds like as you all know that already. It's a deliberately loud and thumping track that the band somehow managed to take seven days to mix. It was a live favourite for many years, appearing 345 times on the Some Great Reward, Black Celebration, Music For The Masses and World Violation tours. Each different version is worth checking out on dmlive.wiki. It disappeared post World Violation but made a surprise return on the Tour Of The Universe in 2009, appearing 25 times before being binned for much better songs like Hole To Feed. The 2009 version was rather flat and the new arrangement pretty poor. That said, I do wish it had stayed in the set as I would have loved to have seen it.

As we saw earlier, the B-Side of Master And Servant was a track that promised to be "very boystown." Now, I have no idea what that means but if (Set Me Free) Remotivate Me is a boystown track then fair enough. Alan was given a rest from B-Side duties and Martin came up with this pleasant enough poppy track. There's not a great deal more to say about it really. It's never been played live, but that's not a surprise is it?

The Video

OK. Where do we start with this one?  The first 8 seconds alone are truly terrifying. We thought and indeed hoped that we had seen the back of the Basildon Boyzone after Everything Counts but here they are once again and this time, they have a quite horrendous dance routine. Add to that the first of many shots of band members swinging about on chains and you are almost pining for Leave In Silence as at least that made you feel like you were on drugs. Just as you get over that and attempt to ignore Dave's grey suit, you are then bamboozled by the introduction of footage of women in kitchens loading dishwashers and so on. What? Oh wait...there's an old guy putting cement in a cement mixer. This must all mean something right? RIGHT? At this point we are only 17 seconds in. There's a man laying a paving slab. And some people in gardens. Hmmmmm.

At this point, confused yet still just holding it together, your eyes begging you to close them, you are greeted with something that no Depeche Mode fan should see. It feels like a month since the video started, but it's only been 23 seconds. It's at this point, we see this:

Dave's shoes, or to put it another way, sandals. With socks. What the hot buttered Christ is going on here? People still have a go at Martin about the way he dressed in the 80's but no-one brings this up. IN a career littered with clothing issues, this is the low point. Perhaps it's never mentioned because they are trying to ignore it or perhaps the shadowy forces of Big Sandal do all they can to put the focus on Martin - who knows? All I know is that if this series of Depeche Mode Singles blogs ends here, you all know that the murky forces behind the Master And Servant Sandalgate have got to me. 

Anyway....the video carries on and we see Dave singing, once again interposed over footage not of wars this time, but of Alan pulling Martin about on the floor by chains that have wrapped young Martin up at the wrists. Is this the chain Alan was wearing on Top of The Pops? Who knows and, more importantly, who cares? At 51 seconds, we see Alan and Martin on the floor, this time being dragged along by Fletch as they hold onto his ankles, mistaking him for Dave in a doomed attempt to get rid of the sandals. This video is genuinely dreadful.

There then follows a relatively normal 30 seconds or so of Dave jiving around and Martin and Fletch floating about on chains. Oddly, a woman appears in the video singing along as if she is in the band. I have no idea why. We then see quite a bit of footage of the anti nuclear campaign at Greenham Common in England as the first "It's a lot like life/and that's what's appealing" section is played in a move that boldly puts two things together that have no business being put together at all. The mood is lifted by Fletch appearing looking very serious as he drills into a wall for no obvious reason.

On we go, with things once again relatively normal. There's more stock footage, more Dave dancing, band members buggering about on chains and the occasional glimpse of the s****ls but nothing too terrifying. And then, 2 minutes 28 seconds in, it happens. The "It's a lot" section. Oh my word. How this got past quality control I will never know.  It's like a compilation of the worst parts of the preceding couple of minutes minus the footwear - chains, people rolling around, more Basildon Boyzone and more chains. Any attempt the song made to sound a bit underground is quickly and terminally undone. It then mercifully heads to a conclusion using all the tricks it has used before with the addition of some sterling drilling work by the boy Wilder.

As it ends, you close your laptop and stay silent for a while. There's a lot to take in there and a lot more to try to forget.

The Formats

BONG6 appeared on the then usual three formats. 7BONG6 has sleeve art that fits the theme as you can see above. The label is great too and that band name font one of their finest.

The boystown side is much more befitting of the poppy nature of the track that it features, with the emphasis on confetti and good times rather than chains and darker times.

12BONG7 features yet another solid gold masterpiece of an early Depeche remix. The Slavery Whip Mix may have a fairly useless name but it is a bloody marvellous thing. It's thundering beast of a remix that takes the song on a 9 and a half minute sonic adventure, twisting and turning it in several directions at once before ending on what can only be described as a pissed up singalong acapella version that is splendid in every way. 

The B-side (above) houses two tracks, We have the Release Mix of (Set Me Free) Remotivate Me which is quite excellent in places, and Master And Servant (Voxless) a slightly remixed, instrumental version of the song. Instant Depeche Mode karaoke.

You can pick up a white label of this track if you so wish. I got the one above a couple of years back with its handwritten label. I have played it and happily it is the 12" and not some random record.

The September Depeche Mode Information Service Newsletter announced that "Depeche Mode have released a Limited Edition Radical by Adrian Sherwood" and that "radical" remix appeared on L12BONG7 (above). Titled An ON-USound Science Fiction Dance Hall Classic, the remix is more experimental than the previous On-Usound remix of People Are People but it is really rather enjoyable. 

The B-side features the seven inch version of (Set Me Free) Remotivate Me alongside a real Depeche Mode catalogue oddity. Are People People is another Adrian Sherwood remix that takes People Are People to a very strange place indeed. It occasionally sounds as if your record is damaged but has some interesting moments, The "dang dang dang zoom zoom zoom bop bop bop" sample is from the song When I Woke Up This Morning by The Citadels.

The 1991 CD single reissue took the tracks from the 7" and standard 12". Now to head to Germany.

Another lovely red vinyl 7" is our first exhibit.

It's as lovely on its A-Side as it is on its B-Side.

The 12" comes in the gorgeous marble coloured vinyl above. 

It features the same three tracks as the UK 12"

Not to be outdone with Radical Remix 12" singles, the Germans also put that out on marble viny too.

Again it features the same three tracks as the UK version.

It is of course available in boring black vinyl too.

The blue stripe CD takes the 12" tracks and adds the 7" version of Master And Servant.

The French CD single does the same. There's also a French version of the 12" and L12.

While we're on France, a random 12" promo from 1995 is available. It is for an album called Les Annees New Wave and it features Master And Servant. It seems odd to have it on a bus, but it's at least not a bus that's covered in a lie about NHS funding to fool people into voting for Brexit. 

The US had their own 12" which features the US Black & Blue Version on its A-side. It's a decent enough remix but lacks the punch of the Slavery Whip Mix.

The B-side features the US 12" Mix of (Set Me Free) Remotivate Me, again a decent enough thing, and Are People People?

Picture courtesy of depmod.com

There is also a US promo 12" featuring the two tracks above. I have this but can't find the bastard thing, so I've borrowed from the wonderful depmod.com.

Another single, another top ten hit for Depeche Mode. The lyrics had caused an issue or two at the BBC but nothing that got the song banned. Curiously, this would be the last time Depeche Mode would visit the UK Top Ten until 1990. If only Dave had worn better shoes....

The BBC's failure to ban the song angered Martin so he was determined to once again wind them up with the band's next single. Thankfully, the lyrically explicit and frankly violently offensive Somebody was made a double A side with the much more palatable Blasphemous Rumours and we'll take a look at that next time.

BOXSETS ARE BOXSETS - DEPECHE MODE'S CONSTRUCTION TIME AGAIN AND SOME GREAT REWARD 12" SINGLES BOXSETS

The release of Depeche Mode's first two 12" single boxsets (review here) was greeted with a mixture of delight and complaints as with every Depeche release these days it seems. Many people felt that they were too expensive especially when they would be paying for things they already had, which is a perfectly understandable view to take. There's no getting away from the fact that they are expensive and as the series continues the prices will only go up. When we get to the Violator boxset for example, we're looking at at least nine 12" singles. If you've been a collector since the early days then, you'll have all these records already. However, if you're new to Depeche Mode collecting, these boxes are a great way of starting things off.

Again using Violator as an example, a look at Discogs this morning shows me that the cost of buying the full set of 12" singles released in 1990 in mint condition (as the 12" singles in the boxset are) is £273 plus postage. I presume, indeed I desperately hope, that the Violator boxset will cost less than that - I'm sure you'll remind me if it doesn't.

Anyway, my point is that, while costly, these boxsets are a great way to get a hold of mint condition Depeche Mode 12" singles for less than you'd pay on Discogs etc. They're a good thing as far as I'm concerned. There are of course people like me who already have the 12" singles AND buy the boxsets but we're beyond help. 

Right - enough rambling. What about the boxsets themselves?

Construction Time Again The 12" Singles Boxset

Look at those beauties. The Construction Time Again era contains some of the band's most iconic cover art with the album and Love In Itself covers superbly photographed by Brian Griffin. The attention to detail throughout that era's releases is superb. From the worker icons on both Get The Balance Right singles (which may have slightly influenced this blog's logo) which fit the theme of the at that point unreleased album perfectly, to the matching designs of the three limited edition 12" singles, everything the band released in 1983 had a marvellous symmetry to it, each released tied to the themes of the album itself. 

The 12" singles in the boxset are of course faithful reproductions of the originals. For people who get excited about that sort of thing, and I of course am one of those, the covers of the limited edition 12" singles have the same texture as the original releases. The labels on the records are also identical to those on the original releases and again, that is a very good thing. That sort of attention to detail is what makes these boxsets worthwhile. As ever, thanks to Daniel Barassi for all his work here.

The contents of each 12" are well known to everyone by now so I won't go through them all. If for some reason you have never heard Get The Balance Right (Combination Mix) or Everything Counts (In Larger Amounts) then you really need to remedy that. They are two of the band's great self produced remixes. The limited edition 12" singles are all worth hearing too as each one contains four live tracks from the band's show at London's Hammersmith Odeon on 25 October 1982. The A Broken Frame era was an interesting one for the band given that they had to deal with Vince's departure. These live tracks show that they were trying to strike a balance or even trying to get the balance right (sorry) between pop (A Photograph Of You, The Meaning Of Love) and the more experimental side of things that the album had already hinted at (see My Secret Garden and its Oberkorn intro). These three records are the only officially released A Broken Frame era live recordings and that makes them worth having.  

The peerless DM Live Wiki has more tracks from that show available for streaming by the way. To further prove my point about the band's more experimental side coming to the fore, check out The Sun And The Rainfall from that show with its pre Construction Time Again metal bashing noises. You can listen to it here. 

This release also contains Alan Wilder's first Depeche Mode songwriting credits. He and Martin co-wrote the frankly awful The Great Outdoors and the "ok lads we get it - it's all about work and metal and all that" decent b-side Work Hard and Alan penned the rather good Fools all by himself. The Great Outdoors  is probably the band's most terrifying track, sounding like the music you would hear as you are murdered by an enraged gnome with the hammer shown on the album's cover.

Finally, the boxset comes with a reproduction Love In Itself promo poster and the box itself shows the oil derrick from the Love In Itself limited edition 12", recreated for this release. There's a download card to allow you to enjoy all these digitally too. One thing that Sony want to change for future releases is the tagging of these songs on all boxsets when downloaded and put into ITunes. When downloaded, the individual track names are all garbled and therefore almost entirely  useless e.g. "ConstructionTimeAgain12"boxset_EverythingCountsA1InLargerAmounts" etc. It's not the biggest problem in the world, but entering the names individually is a pain in the arse. 

By the way, if you bought all these 12" singles in mint condition on Discogs today, you'd pay £117 plus postage. That's more expensive than the boxset,

 As with the previous boxsets, there was an unboxing video and here it is:

Some Great Reward The 12" Singles Boxset

The Some Great Reward boxset unsurprisingly contains all the 12" singles from the era plus a new 12" in the shape of L12BONG7 which is the 12" version of the original 7" ep featuring Somebody (Remix), Everything Counts (Live), Blasphemous Rumours (Single Version) and Told You So (Live). I'm really pleased with that as it means the release is a complete record of the era. It'll be interesting to see what happens with GBONG17 when the Violator boxset comes around.

The artwork for this era isn't as impressive as Construction Time Again, the album cover art aside. It's a lot starker and, while the Master And Servant 12" cover is marvellous, the rest are a little bland. I'm not sure how well known this is or not, but on the People Are People cover, the arm on the right hand side belongs to Hugh Grant the entirely one dimensional English actor. There's a fact to entertain your loved ones with.

One of the best things about this boxset for me is the digital download element, track name nonsense notwithstanding. Unless I'm very much mistaken (awaits "OMG YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT DEPECHE MODE MAN" attack from the Black Swarm), this release sees the first official digital versions of People Are People (On U-Sound Remix by Adrian Sherwood), Are People People? and Master And Servant (An On-U Sound Science Fiction Dance Hall Classic Re-Remixed by Adrian Sherwood) and that is very much a good thing. I love these remixes and the fact I can now sing along to Are People People's Zing Zing Zings and Boom Bop Bops on the train is great for me and terrifying for my fellow passengers. 

For completeness' sake, I should point out that Alan (no he's not coming back) has another song here, the superb In Your Memory, the b-side to People Are People. It's far better than Martin's (Set Me Free) Remotivate Me which lets the Master And Servant  release down rather dramatically. The 12" versions of People Are People and Master And Servant - Different Mix and Slavery Whip Mix - are both towering gorgeous beasts of remixes and should be on everyone's playlists. The live tracks on the Blasphemous Rumours releases are from the band's show at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool on 29 September 1984. 

As an aside, the huge pulsating Depeche Mode brain that is Michael Rose pointed out on depmod's Facebook page a thing that will annoy people like him (and me) for the rest of time. It takes a certain type of person to get annoyed by this sort of thing, but as I mentioned earlier, we are beyond help. Look at the alignment of the spines in the boxset:

Photo courtesy of Michael Rose

WHAT IS L12BONG5 DOING THERE? GET BACK IN LINE.

Sorry.

Finally, there was another unboxing video and this time it features, among others,  the silky sounds of Sean Salo. Here it is:

And what would this cost you if you bought the records all in mint condition on Discogs? £148 plus postage is the answer which seems high to me but there you go. If anyone is remotely interested by this point, I included the 7" ep in that.

And Then...

So there we have it - two more excellently curated releases and two great additions to my collection. If you want them, go and get them. If you don't want them, don't go and get them. Let's not argue about their worth or otherwise. Let's not get along so awfully. Boxsets Are Boxsets.

DEPECHE MODE - PEOPLE ARE PLAYMOBIL

I was doing my usual work avoiding internet checking for Depeche Mode things the other day, and I came across a rather marvellous site run by Berlin based artist Dorit Bialer called I Want Everything which has a section where you can buy ready made custom toys in a box. So what you say? Well, Dorit is a huge Depeche Mode fan and she has made 5 Depeche Mode video tribute boxsets, all of which look incredible. I got in touch with Dorit to ask her a few questions.

Shake The Disease

APA: What first inspired you to start the Box series?

DB: The box series started in 2011 when I started portraying local Berliner types in boxes. After hearing Enjoy The Silence on day, I thought "why not create an Enjoy The Silence box?" After choosing that and putting it online, I got an invitation to participate in the Depeche Mode retrospective fan exhibition so for that, I made three more boxes 

APA: And why choose Depeche Mode for a series?

DB: They're my all time favourite band. I fell in love with them the first time I heard them as a thirteen year old punk in the Tel Aviv alternative scene and they are still a big part of my identity. I chose Enjoy The Silence as the first box because it's the band's most iconic song plus it's the first song of theirs I ever heard. My favourite DM song is Shake The Disease so that was the next box I created. I create boxes mainly based on the band's earlier years although I made one for Heaven recently as a fan requested that.

APA: Are there any more Depeche boxes planned?

DB: Yes there are. In January I will be releasing boxes for Never Let Me Down Again, Behind The Wheel and I Feel You

Master And Servant

The boxes cost 75 Euros plus shipping or can be collected directly from Dorit if you happen to be in Berlin. As well as the two boxes I've pictured, you can also currently buy boxes for the Heaven, World In My Eyes, Enjoy The Silence and It's No Good videos, the latter of which looks superb.

For more info on Dorit and all her projects check out her page above and then go and like her Facebook page too https://www.facebook.com/youinabox

Thansk very much to Dorit for the Q&A session and for letting me use the pictures