For the first time since the second last gig of the last Depeche tour we have a guest blogger today. Kevin May is the co-author of Halo, the forthcoming book he and I are writing about Depeche Mode's Violator, co-host of the wonderful Metapod podcast and much much more. He also wrote the review of that second last Depeche gig so it's lovely to have him back again. Thanks Kevin
picture (c) Kevin May
“Get your kicks on Route 66”… Or get your fix of Dave Gahan wherever and whenever you can.
This does seem to be the order of the evening, somewhat, with an almost full London Coliseum waiting (unless they went to the warm-up gig two nights before at Westminster Central Hall) for almost three-and-a-half years for a glimpse of the Depeche Mode frontman.
He’s back with his Soulsavers chums - well, collaborator Rich Machin and a squad of extremely talented live musicians - and an album of cover versions of artists ranging from Neil Young and PJ Harvey to Bob Dylan and, err, Eartha Kitt.
Gahan, of course, is not a complete stranger to cover versions, having recently reworked the classic Nothing Else Matters Metallica just prior to the release of the new Imposter album with Soulsavers.
With Depeche Mode, there is also the aforementioned Route 66 and, perhaps most notably, a rendition of David Bowie’s 'Heroes', which became a regular encore track during the Global Spirit Tour in 2017-2018 and has obviously historic significance to the foundation of the band in 1980.
So, here we are, gathered at a beautiful, 117-year-old Central London theatre (lots to look at pre-show, infinitely more interesting than another soulless arena, let’s be honest) and there’s the usual excitement and trepidation that surrounds such events when a band member is making his first appearance in a long time.
There is some Depeche royalty in attendance, with tour keyboarder Peter Gordeno sitting in one of the plush boxes, plus Gahan’s wife Jennifer and brother Phil in the Dress Circle.
A nice and unexpected touch on arrival is the programme given out (GULP - for free!!) to attendees, embossed with the same logo that appears on the curtain covering the stage just before the main act of the night begins.
Inside is a list of the songs that Gahan and Soulsavers covered in the album and will be performing, with some notes about why each was selected for the Imposter cover album. It’s a nice souvenir and a pointer as to how the evening is being positioned: a performance rather than a gig, with a nod to the often intimate feel that a theatre show can give the audience.
It’s worth mentioning that there are no accolades or any social media glory from pointing out how much you dislike Soulsavers and Gahan’s association with it now for almost 10 years - something that is rather irksome given that this is simply a performer who enjoys creating being involved in other things away from the day job… if we can call it that.
Creativity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, yet it sometimes feels as if fans want to punish him for filling the downtime between Depeche periods by not giving his extra-curricular work a chance to breathe and be enjoyed.
Rant over…
The work itself is exquisite. These are extremely talented musicians and backing singers who saunter onstage alongside Gahan with no obvious fanfare or lengthy intro music. It really is all about the performance, even if there are the inevitable whoops and screams during some of the more recognisable - yet, toned-down - moves by Gahan as he sings.
This is not a night for dancing in the audience either, at least not initially.
picture (c) Kevin May
The Dark End Of The Street (originally performed by Dan Penn) is a solid opener, teeing up what the rhythm and pace of the evening are going to be - slow, intricate, intimate and featuring performances that will have certainly impressed the actual musicians in attendance.
The first standout song of the night is Lilac Wine, the Kitt cover, with Martyn Lenoble on upright bass and Gahan going up and down the vocal range with ease. “Listen to me, why is everything so haaaaaaazy…” - it’s a near-perfect rendition from all involved.
Cat Power’s Metal Heart is perhaps the most Soulsavers-esque song in the collection, with it sounding like a fusion of a number of tracks from the previous Angels & Ghosts album. But this is no bad thing, as these songs - as have other songs in the catalogue that have been performed live over the years - come alive when performed onstage.
Another highlight is PJ Harvey’s The Desperate Kingdom Of Love, one of a number of songs from the album that ordinarily might leave folk scratching their heads as to why they were selected. But when showcased by a live band, in a setting that warrants such detailed and excellent musicianship, they become something else.
There has clearly been a lot of thought that has gone into both the selection of songs for the album and the live performance of them on this mini-tour.
Shut Me Down (Rowland Howard), Smile (Nat King Cole) and even Not Dark Yet (Bob Dylan) are so well done that you might be forgiven for forgetting their original interpretations. The fingerprints of Gahan and Machin are over everything, but those who recognise will acknowledge that they still contain some elements of the source material.
It’s cleverly done.
The closer is Always On My Mind, covered by all manner of artists over the years, including Elvis Presley and Gwen McCrae.
While it would obviously be fairly amusing to hear Gahan belt out the Pet Shop Boys disco-pop version from 1987, we get the standard ballad, with a vocal performance that once shows the astonishing strength of a voice that has taken a beating over the years.
The encore inevitably gives the devotees something to really cheer about, as a rocky interpretation of Personal Jesus brings the theatre to its feet for a nostalgic stomp. It’s not quite the Waldbühne in Berlin (the last time many of the attendees will have seen Gahan on a stage), but it’s a great moment.
Shine (along with All Of This And Nothing, arguably the best tracks from the previous album) gets a full-on, gospel-style outing ahead of probably the oddest song of the evening: a cover of John The Revelator from Depeche Mode’s 2005 album Playing The Angel.
It’s not a crowd-pleaser like Personal Jesus but is once again enough to get people out of their comfy seats for a little dance and waving of the arms. Some might question why a song that has split the Depeche audience over years made it the setlist but, again, tonight’s show is not about banging out old classics (Personal Jesus notwithstanding) but illustrating what a terrific group of performers can do.
Take Me Back Home, another Soulsavers track from the back catalogue in 2012, gives Gahan the chance for some Depeche-style back-and-forth with the audience - and then it’s all over.
Gahan, inevitably, is the last to leave the stage after the obligatory full band bow - clearly lapping up what appears to be genuine and, by then, rowdy appreciation from those in the theatre for an extremely accomplished, note-perfect performance from him and the musicians.
He has a lot to be proud of with the Imposter album and, especially, with this small run of shows with the band.
It’s often easy to forget - when fans hear many of the same songs in the Depeche catalogue tour after tour - that Gahan is a wonderfully talented vocalist and, when applied to compositions that test his range and style, he can legitimately stand alongside some of the best singers of his generation.
Marry all that to his ability to act and do the frontman thing - for want of a better description - and you get a character who clearly knows he’s good at what he does and genuinely loves doing it for an audience.
The Soulsavers sojourns are good for Dave Gahan - giving him the freedom to express himself in different and challenging ways. He should be forgiven for that by the hardcore Depeche masses and appreciated by everyone for that desire to test himself and enjoy himself at the same time as producing some stellar performances on stage.
Plus, as well all know, a period with Machin and friends often proceeds a return to The World Of Depeche Mode.
There is no indication at all that this latest bout of rock and gospel action with Soulsavers will lead to a similar pathway for Gahan - but if these performances and the reception to the album give him some encouragement to team up with Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher once again in the future, then we should all be grateful.
Depeche Mode's first remix album Remixes 81-04 was a success and it reminded everyone just how many good Depeche Mode remixes there had been. To fill the gap between Sounds Of The Universe and whatever was going to come next, another remix album was released, snappily entitled Remixes 2: 81-11.
A single needed to be chosen to promote the album and, having used and made a mess of Enjoy The Silence last time round, the band went for their second best known song and chose A Photograph Of You for the role. At the last minute however, everyone changed their minds and we instead got Personal Jesus 2011. The world will never hear the 23 long minute remix of A Photograph Of You by Brian Eno and Kylie Minogue and that is a shame.
Personal Jesus 2011 was so called because it was remixed and released in the year 2011. Here is the story of a mainly forgettable series of remixes, a nice piece of coloured vinyl and, sadly, the last ever BONG.
PUT ME TO THE TEST - PERSONAL JESUS 2011
The Single
Personal Jesus 2011, BONG43, was first released digitally on 18th April 2011 with The Stargate Mix, the lead version of the song, and the Alex Metric Remix Edit made available. The physical formats followed on 30th May 2011.
Reviews of the single were thin on the ground. In its review of Remixes 2: 81-11, Pitchfork described The Stargate Mix thus:
"And of the three mixes of "Personal Jesus" here, one is pretty good. (That would be the one by Stargate, who are big enough Depeche Mode fans that they snuck a musical quote from Master and Servant into Rihanna's "S&M". Their version is also one of only three tracks on these three discs to come in under the four-minute mark.)"
In the notes that accompanied some versions of the promo CD, Tor Hermansen of Stargate confirmed that Rhianna had told him she was a Depeche Mode fan. So there you go.
The review of the album on the website Superdeluxedition said of The Stargate Mix:
"The Stargate Mix of Personal Jesus, lifts the spirits as we approach the end of the disc, with what is an uplifting trancey radio edit of this classic song."
The band displayed their usual enthusiasm when promoting a new single and seemed to overlook any form of promotional duty whatsoever. By this point in time, sales of physical singles were dwindling with people preferring downloads to actual records and so on. Depeche Mode's grizzly old fanbase are very much the physical format generation however so we always expect, nay demand, a 12" single and CD so that we can drone on endlessly about how you really can't get a feel for the music on digital only and that's so much nicer to have an actual product in your hand (oo-err) etc. You know the script - let's be honest, rather than laugh at the last sentence, you were all actually nodding your heads.
Anyway, Depeche Mode and other heritage acts fanbases aside, no-one was buying physical formats in 2011 as at that was so 1990's. As a result, the few of us risked derision by going to an actual shop to buy this ("Depeche what mate? A record? Haha. I think Tainted Love came out on a 7" - is that them?") and the rest of us went to trusty Mute Bank, the Bank that always provides a vinyl service and the result of those combined efforts saw the single fly into the UK charts at.....
...number 119. Oh dear.
The Stargate Mix is decent enough in a radio friendly, bleepy, trancey way and it is about the best mix of the various Personal Jesus versions available on the single. It's alright basically, and not as bad as Peace or Hole To Feed so it has that going for it.
That version has never been played live and that seems reasonable. It would have been out of place on any tour really, apart from the Delta Machine tour with the 43 minute long slow intro the song had. That really was a shocker.
The Video
The original video for Personal Jesus was a Corbijn masterclass and showed off the band's slinky new Violator era style beautifully, creating the first of that era's iconic images.
The video for Personal Jesus 2011 has a lot in common with that in that it has people in it and they are wandering around while a version of Personal Jesus plays. Those things aside, it's a load of rubbish really.
It was filmed in the Pzlen region of the Czech Republic and once again doesn't feature the band. It instead features a gang of people trying to drown accused of being a witch. She had apparently said that if we were all honest we would admit that Sounds Of The Universe was a bad album. but that enraged the Black Swarm (Plzen Branch) who were having none of that. They tried to drown her just because she was different.
The star of the video has the last laugh however as she floats out of the water and flies away leaving the bewildered Sounds Of The Universe fans reconsidering their position.
Or something. I tried with this one, I really did, but there is very little to say about it at all.
The Formats
This was the last Depeche Mode single to have a BONG catalogue number. It had been with us since Leave In Silence, had given its name to the fanclub, appeared on the Strangelove megaphone and was a lovely unique Depeche Mode thing. The BONG prefix is much missed.
There were only two physical formats available for this release but there was a promo CD too (above).
PCDBONG43 is a six track affair. It contains the five tracks we will find on CDBONG43 and adds Personal Jesus (Alex Metric Remix Edit) for good measure.
The tracklist features in the photo above.
CDBONG43 was the first of the physical releases.
There are five remixes on here, all of Personal Jesus, and they are:
1. The Stargate Mix
2. Alex Metric Remix - starts off ok but becomes relatively aimless
3. Eric Prydz Remix - no, just no.
4. M.A.N. Remix - this is by Mark Ronson and it's therefore as smug as you'd expect. At least he doesn't drag Bruno Mars into it which is at least something. The backing track, which Nick Rhodes of D**** D**** seems to have had a hand in, sounds like an Erasure B-side from the 90's
5. Sie Medway-Smith Remix - decent enough but a tad long.
12BONG43 is a lovely purple(ish) coloured vinyl release. It features the same five remixes we found on CDBONG43 but in a different order. On Side A (above), they appear as follows: Alex Metric Remix, M.A.N. Remix and The Stargate Mix.
On the B-Side, we have Eric Prydz Remix and Sie Medway-Smith Remix. A second digital release was available featuring all those tracks with the exception of the already digitally released The Stargate Mix.
Elsewhere on earth, it was fairly dull release wise with two exceptions. Promo CD-Rs were available in Denmark (two of them in fact), France and Germany and promo DVD-Rs in Greece and Sweden, A CD single was released in Taiwan. Once again, it was just CDBONG43 with a sticker in Taiwanese on it.
The first of the interesting releases is from the Ukraine.
picture courtesy of depmod.com
The single was released on 12" there in a numbered edition limited to 300 copies with the words "Personal Jesus" written in Ukrainian on the front, back and labels. This one is still on my wantlist.
The second interesting release is the US 12". It was given away at certain indepedent stores with the purchase of the 3 CD version of Remixes 2: 81-11. It contains four tracks:
The sticker on the sleeve explains what they are.
On Side A, we have two remixes of Personal Jesus - Alex Metric Remix and M.A.N. Remix
Side B is where the real action is. Despite the sticker saying it features The Sun And The Rainfall (Black Light Odyssey's Further Excerpts Dub) it in fact features the normal version of that remix, not the Dub version. Who cares though as this remix is outstanding. It is a superb remix of a wonderful track and is filled with a love of the song from real fans of the band. Brilliant. No-one will ever be able to rationally explain why this wasn't on the Remixes 2: 81-11 album. Its exclusion was madness.
The other track on Side B is The Sinner In Me (SixToes Remix), another highly enjoyable SixToes take on a Depeche track.
As with Enjoy The Silence 04, Personal Jesus 2011 is an odd thing. It's a shame that it doesn't follow Enjoy The Silence 04 and feature some remixes of other tracks but what are going to do? The UK vinyl is a nice thing as is the US 12" so there's enough there to keep people like me happy.
Next time we heard from Depeche Mode, we'd be in Heaven. We'll look at that experimental club banger next time.
A sad footnote. I recently learned that Doug Graystone, an English Depeche fan passed away suddenly. He was a regular contributor in the comments section on the blog's Facebook page and we'd exchanged messages there throughout this series. Rest in peace Doug.
Everything Counts (Live) marked the end of Depeche Mode's life as one of the best kept secrets in the music world. A single recorded live in a sold out stadium at the end of a rapturously received world tour meant that the Basildon synth poppers could go one of two ways: (1) no further than that and perpetually doomed to be viewed as a comedy 80's band like Duran Duran (or more appropriate band name not entered simply to wind people up) or (2) onwards and upwards until they filled even more stadia and made a landmark album so era defining that people like me and Kevin May would ultimately write a book about it (Halo - The Story Behind Depeche Mode's Classic Album Violator.....coming soon).
It had to be number 1 didn't it? How could chicken hugging, spacehopper bouncing, leather dress wearing Depeche Mode get any bigger than the Rose Bowl? This lightweight band of chancers had surely come to an end.
Balls to that. It was option number two and, as a taster for their world conquering phase, they released a single that still sounds as fresh as a daisy, annoyed people who get annoyed too easily and that had a video in which the band (ok, just Dave) look as cool as anyone has ever looked before.
Reach out and touch Personal Jesus.
I'LL MAKE YOU A BELIEVER - PERSONAL JESUS
The Single
Personal Jesus (BONG17) was the first taste of what was to become Violator. It was released on 29th August 1989 following an interesting promotional campaign. Back in those days, unless you were very fancy, you didn't have a mobile phone, but your standard telephone could still be used to call numbers to find out information about what player your football team were signing or listen to top pop songs all at terrifyingly expensive prices. In the late of summer of 1989, newspaper adverts started appearing in regional newspapers. One looked like this:
Picture courtesy of Michael Rose
Imagine that you'd called Data-Mate and got nowhere and then attempted to land a job as a Trainee Travel Agent only to get rejected. You might need salvation and so, looking for some hope, you call the number in the black advert and wait for help only to hear Depeche Mode. Ok, for all of us, that would have been immense, but some people were annoyed by this faux religious assistance.
Picture courtesy of Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group
Similar adverts appeared in the London Underground and the single got off to a controversial start, though not really by 2021 standards you have to say.
For once, the single was pretty much universally well received. Stuart Maconie in the NME said:
"A hit even as we speak, but in the frantic rush to lionise surly adolescents in black jeans and people with their caps on back to front, we seemed to have overlooked the latest release by the most subversive singles band of the decade. Depeche Mode make criminally brilliant pop records about God, death, crazy sex and alienation and as far as I'm concerned they can do no wrong. 'Personal Jesus' sounds like The Glitter Band in the throes of an intense personal crisis. Huge fun."
His co-reviewer, Martin Gilks of The Wonder Stuff, got it wrong however, saying:
"It's great that they don't play all the Radio One rules, that they remain independent and make these weird records, but I can't say I like them. I don't care if I never hear that again. It's just so cold and lifeless. I respect them but it means nothing to me"
As much as I enjoyed Hup and The Eight Legged Groove Machine, it's fair to say that the cold and lifeless Personal Jesus has perfomed a little better over the last 30 years than Size Of A Cow. The usually Depeche friendly Smash Hits didn't review the single, but it did feature the lyrics:
Record Mirror looked kindly on the song, with Iestyn George awarding it Single Of The Week on 2nd September 1989. He said:
"Basildon's finest plunder the past, dress it up in leather trousers and add a Duane Eddy guitar lick for good measure. I never thought the day would come when I would say something nice about Depeche Mode, so this is something of a personal landmark."
Melody Maker talked their usual rubbish:
"Heavy stuff from The Mode whose neat Billy Graham spoof advertising campaign has raised a few eyebrows and maybe caused the odd Grahamite passer-by to question the great man's authority. Having said all this however, it grieves me to say that musically this is the same old DM - all nasal vocals and weedy keyboards circa '81. What's more, the lyrics pack none of the ad campaign's clout and the tune is a monotonous drone. But the point is, at least they're trying. And that isn't a pun."
Oh go away. Finally, Sounds were much more supportive:
"Great stuff. A trembling hypnosis underpins Gahan's dangerously sensual, betoken voice as lingering, unspoken meanings trail off into infinity. It'll be nice to see the DM's back where they belong, breeding discontent, shitting over all else in their devout intent. It's hard to imagine this lot were ever the simpering leather-clad toy boys of yore - this reeks of evil and the satin of sweaty sheets."
Quite. Simon May made it Radio 1's Record Of The Week too and who can argue with that? Depeche Mode were getting (mainly) good press in their homeland and all that they needed to do was appear on Top of The Pops and it would be Top 10 all the way. They didn't do that of course. Instead, the video, more of which to come, was shown on Britain's top pop show and the single performed reasonably well rather than splendidly so. It entered the UK charts at number 25 on 9th September 1989 and then climbed to 13 the next week. It then stalled sadly, dropping to 14, 19, 30 and the 43, before fading away via 65, 75 and finally 86. Ok, it was the band's highest chart placing since Master And Servant, but it's yet another damning indictment on the British public that this song didn't at least make the Top 10.
They did promote it abroad however, One such appearance was on the Dutch show Countdown which was a mercifully different version of the UK programme of the same name. Here we see Dave looking exceptionally cool, Martin fully clothed, Fletch being Fletch and Alan topping the leatherometer up to a pleasing 97.64% albeit while wearing a Bob Dylan or Neil Young-like mouth organ frame thing for no reason whatsoever. Enjoyable stuff.
Personal Jesus is not a song you need me to tell you anything about because you know it and, unless something has gone badly wrong with your ears, you love it. The single version is a nice edit that ends on that perplexing noise but it is glorious. In Britain it is currently being used as the soundtrack to an advert for the series Deutschland 89 and every time I hear that first "Reach Out And Touch Faith" it is as thrilling as the first time I heard it. This song simply cannot, will not grow old. It is a masterpiece and surely one of the finest British pop singles of all time. No other band could have done this. Sneer all you want non believers, but to deny that Personal Jesus is nothing other than very special is a denial made only to prove a point and that point is that you can't accept that Depeche Mode are capable of moments this special. Admit you love it, you know you do.
The band love it too of course and not just because it has ensured that they are very famous people indeed. It has been played live 874 times, featuring on every tour since World Violation with the exception of the Ultra parties which I add only to head off pedantry. Personally, it is always a highlight of the concert. The song is one of the few that lends itself to a full band approach and, the quite dreadful slow start to the Delta Machine version aside, it never lets you down.
The B-Side to the single is Dangerous, a real gem of a B-Side. Dangerous is like a bridge between Music For The Masses and Violator era Depeche Mode, not quite slinky enough to appear on Violator but perky enough to suggest that Depeche Mode were capable of taking their purely electronic sound to new, more complex levels. It's bloody marvellous basically. It has never been played live however. perhaps because if it suddenly popped up in a set, everyone at the venue would have a pleasure induced heart attack and every fan not there would have an anger induced seizure. Literally a Dangerous song.
The Video
It's hard to cast too much of a critical eye over the Violator era videos as I am quote openly in love with every single aspect of them, but here we go.
Personal Jesus was filmed at the Texas Hollywood Theme Park in Tabernas Desert, Almeria Spain in June 1989. You can still hire the place out if you want to have a go at recreating the video - click out and hire faith
Anton returned to directing duties after sitting out the last two videos and we therefore immediately return to grainy footage, prostitutes and general sleaze. We open on a shot of the pretend cowboy town the band are storming and see a woman running to let the town's only inhabitants, a gang of ladies of the night, that Depeche Mode are arriving. Alan and Dave turn up on horseback and Fletch and Martin arrive by pick-up truck, those two still traumatised by the See You chicken incident, clearly still not ready to go near any form of animal. Alan and Dave are made of sterner stuff.
The lads variously tie up and park up their modes (ho ho) of transport and saunter into town. It has to be said that Martin does not make a convincing cowboy. Fletch kind of does and Alan looks ok, but Martin looks like he's been dressed up against his will. Dave looks incredibly cool however, taking on the Martin role of wearing a jacket and nothing underneath it. He even manages to sing beside a horse and not look like out of place.
We enter the bordello pausing to see a quite stupendous black and white shot of the band at its entry. The women inside look unconvinced. They'd just finished watching The Videos 81-85 so were clearly worried about who was going to be turning up. "Are these the guys that played space invaders while milkmen stood behind them giving them coins?"
We then get a load of shots of women and Dave all in grainy black and white, posing around with Dave singing along before Depeche Mode repair to their individual rooms. Not much happens really until we get to the breathing sample bit in the middle of the song where we see Martin miming along and what could only be called a horse's arse. Hmmm. I have resolved that if I do ever meet Martin and, presuming he doesn't quickly run away having realised I'm that oddball that writes long blogs about his singles, I'm going to ask him what inspired that middle section in this song. I'm sure there are 100 better things I could ask him ("Martin...Hole To Feed...what do you really think?) but this will be the question I was my one meeting with him on.
Anyway, horse's arse dispensed with (erm...), we're back outside and Dave is singing away again. Whatever went on in the bedrooms clearly tired the rest of them out, as we see Martin asleep in a chair and Alan sitting in the sun, cooling himself with is cowboy hat. Fletch is much perkier and, rather than sleeping, jumps onto his rocking horse and happily rocks away. There is only one member of Depeche Mode who could have handled this role and come out of it well. Once again, I salute you Fletch.
Feet are stamped and then we get hot live band action. Martin plays his guitar, Alan for thematic rather than musical reasons blows a harmonica and Fletch lazily prods at an acoustic guitar, desperate to get back on his rocking horse. Alan suddenly gets a call and literally picks up a receiver, the band play on, Dave pops back inside for a bit and we head to the end with a mic of band shots and Dave singing.
A tremendous video.
The Formats
I'm starting with promos this time. They are not official formats as such and are only collected by idiots like me, but there are far more of them from this single onwards so it makes sense to look at them first. Here is the 7" promo for Personal Jesus which features the same sleeve as BONG17 albeit with a Ferret & Spanner sticker on the front telling you the release date.
Here is the rear of the sleeve which, as keen eyed readers have noticed is all black. Why, you ask?
Well, the standard issue 7" is shown above, As you can see, it features nudity and the last thing that anyone wanted was every copy of Personal Jesus being destroyed by shocked radio stations. To ensure airplay, a censored 7" was prepared and sent out. A tad over the top perhaps, but Britain was a different place then.
By 1989, radio stations had started buying CD players, so a promo CD single was sent out too. This 3" single was also censored. It features the same tracks as CDBONG17 which we'll look at shortly. The front sleeve of the CD is identical to the official release. If you fancy getting a copy of either of these censored promos, be ready to spend a silly amount of money.
A promo 12" was issued too. P12BONG17 uses the classic Mute promo sleeve so it didn't need any censoring. It features the Pump Mix of Personal Jesus and the Hazchemix of Dangerous.
The normal 7" features the single versions of Personal Jesus and Dangerous. The sleeve art is simple, yet stunning and the label really rather lovely. As we've seen above, Martin features on the rear of the sleeve hugging the nude model. No-one is entirely sure why any of that was necessary.
While we are on the 7" single, you may want to collect the Scandinavian version as it features Dave rather than Martin. I don't have it so the above picture has been kindly supplied by my friend Joeri whose Instagram account depechemode7inchheaven is one you very much want to visit.
Back in the UK, the single was released on cassette too. CBONG17 features the same tracks as the 7".
Fletch is the cover star this time. It looks like the model is having a go at him and Andy looks like he'd rather be on his rocking horse than having whatever discussion he is currently having.
There was a new format this time - a gatefold 7" with booklet. GBONG17 is a three track single and it is a really nice package.
On the A-Side, we have the single version of Personal Jesus.
The B-side features the Hazcehmix Edit of Dangerous which is an enjoyable electro take on the song and the Acoustic version of Personal Jesus which is a lovely thing. We also see the full band on the back, with Martin on hugging duty.
The gatefold section of the release features a big D and beside that we have a four page booklet stapled into the sleeve. There's Dave there on page 1.
Andy and Alan are our centrefolds.
Martin concludes the booklet and there's a big M on the inner sleeve. The Violator The 12" Singles boxset brilliantly recreated the shots from the booklet when it was released. I drooled on about that length here if you can bear even more of this once you've finished this blog.
12BONG17 is a marvellous thing. On the A-side (above), we have the brilliant Holier Than Thou Approach version of Personal Jesus.
The B-side features the Sensual Mix of Dangerous, one of my favourite remixes and the Acoustic version of Personal Jesus. Dave is the cover "star." Later versions of this 12" have red labels rather than black ones. I don't yet have one of those unfortunately.
In the same way as night follows day, where there is a 12BONG there will soon be an L12BONG and that's what we got here. L12BONG17 features three tracks and comes with a sticker telling you it's a Limited Edition. Handy. The A-side features the majestic Pump Mix of Personal Jesus.
On the B-Side we get the Telephone Stomp Mix of Personal Jesus and the Hazchemix of Dangerous. The same full band picture as appeared on GBONG17 appears here too.
CDBONG17 is a 3" CD single.
It features the same three tracks as 12BONG17 and it's where Alan finally makes an appearance.
LCDBONG17 is another 3" release, contains the same tracks as L12BONG17 and features the full band photo on the inner sleeve. Some versions, but not mine, have the same sticker the L12 does.
CDBONG17 received a 5" reissue in 1992.
The 2004 boxset version CDBONG17X brought together every single track from the original release including the Hazcehmix Edit, until that point a mix only available on GBONG17.
At this point, I'll pause and tell you that Personal Jesus was released in a lot of places and I am not mad enough to own every single format that it appeared on across the entire planet. To see a full list, head to depmod.com and get ready to collect. Here are a few of the releases I have, starting in Germany
There are two German 12" singles. The first is the same as 12BONG17
The second is of course the same as L12BONG17 other than the label.
The German equivalent of CDBONG17 is a 5" affair with a rather nice design.
The LCDBONG17 German version comes on a similarly nice CD.
The French stuck a Depeche Mode sticker on their 12BONG17, just in case the buyer had no idea what band had recorded the song.
The French L12 repeated the trick and added a sticker that said REMIX for good measure.
A slightly too large sticker was stuck on the front of the French CDBONG17 too. The CD itself is a mad looking thing.
The LCDBONG17 in France was sticker free abut the large REMIX hadn't gone away. As you can see, it moved to the CD single. On the topic of stickers and France, there are three variations of the 7" single. It has the same cover as BONG17 but either has no sticker saying Depeche Mode, has a sticker saying Depeche Mode or has the words Depeche Mode printed on it instead of being stuck on it.
Here's the Belgian equivalent of LCDBONG17. It's on a very nice 5" and comes in a thick box.
Next we move to Italy. Here is the Italian version of 12BONG17. There is also an Italian L12.
Spain released only one 12" and it features the same three tracks as 12BONG17.
In America, a 2 track 12" promo was released, featuring Personal Jesus (Acoustic) twice. Basically, a one track promo.
The US 12" famously became Warners' biggest selling 12" to date and rightly so. It's a five track spectacular. Personal Jesus in its Holier Than Thou Approach and 7" Version guises feature on the A-side.
The Pump Mix appears on the B-side together with the Sensual Mix and 7" version of Dangerous.
Th2 US CD single, the first Depeche Mode CD I ever got, is an 8 track release featuring all the tracks you find on BONG17, 12BONG17 and L12BONG17.
Want to see a Brazilian CD single? Well there you go. It features the same tracks as CDBONG17.
The Japanese CD single features the same 8 tracks as the US one. It comes with an OBI and a booklet.
The booklet features many pictures, not least this bizarre Martin hat lifting one.
This South African 12" is an odd one. On Side A, you have the same tracks as appear on 12BONG17 yet on the B-Side, you have Route 66 (Casualty Mix) and Behind The Wheel (Megamix). Goodness knows how that happened.
Finally, we come to this, one of the most sought after non promo releases - the Australian blue vinyl 12" single. It features five Personal Jesus remixes. On the A-side, there are the 7" and Holier Than Thou Approach.
The B-side features the Pump Mix, Acoustic Mix and Telephone Stomp Mix. If you fancy buying this 12", head to Discogs and get ready to spend around £1,000.
Personal Jesus showed the world that Depeche Mode were not prepared to rest on the laurels of their 1980's success and were ready to keep pushing themselves in new directions. It would be a few months until the next album was released and at that point, everything would change.
Before then however, there would be another single, a song so good that for years people would make the preposterous claim that it changed their life.
I am one of those people. I'll attempt to avoid going over the top about the greatest song that anyone has ever recorded at any time on earth now and in the future next time.
