BIOGRAPHY1982
In the middle of January (unfortunately, no one seems to remember the exact
date) Alan had his first gig with DM at Crocs in Raleigh.
The band commented on Alan that "he's a good musician, though they're
not certain that's what they needed. He was somewhat shaken by the mayhem surrounding
Depeche as crushed kids in the front row were plucked out of their very shoes to
save them from severe damage."[1]
Remember that this happened just about one year after they'd started! They were really
a hip boy-band, especially loved by young girls.
Fletch: "The audience is less and less trendy - more school kids, 14 and 15
year olds. People who used to come and see us don't really come any more. - When you go
for the teenage market, in a couple of years the teenagers will be grown up and they'll
forget you."[2]
Sometimes they had to play special early gigs because most of these girls were too young
to go to a gig later in the evening.
Dave: "Well, mainly we're doing it because on the last tour we saw a lot of kids
that was sort of outside our gigs and couldn't get in because they were too young, because
we were playing places [that were] mostly over 18, and the people were strict about
letting people in. So we feel it's only fair to let the people that are buying our
records to see us."[3]
(If you were one of these girls, please, write an
e-mail to dmbiographie@hotmail.de and
tell me about your experiences and what you liked about the band at the time.)
On 22 and 23 January the band played at the club Ritz in New York. It was
the first time they played a gig in the U.S., and it wasn't one of their best
experiences.
Fletch: "Alan came to New York - I remember, it was so funny. He had a little
jacket on and a woolly scarf and I think New York was minus 40 degrees."[4]
Dave appeared with an arm in the loop. He had had a tattoo removed and the scars
swelled up. The rest of this mini-tour wasn't much better.
Fletch: "We'd done Top of the Pops the night before - why we agreed to,
I don't know. But Mute decided to send us over on Concorde. Unfortunately it
was probably the most disastrous gig of our lives. None of the equipment worked,
we didn't go onstage until 2.30 in the morning."[5]
These weren't the only difficulties they had when they tried to find their
way to the American market and it would take its time until they became really
big there.
(Leave in silence - with friendly permission of © Gergely Dervarics (Greg76))
When Alan was engaged as a stage musician, the media wasn't interested in him at
first. It was Vince who had the attention - although he wasn't there anymore.
Martin: "He presents you with riddles, things you can't explain."
Fletch: "The impression he likes to give is that no-one knows him."
Dave: "We thought we knew him, but we discovered we didn't."
Fletch: "Vince always wanted to do a lot in the studio and the rest of us
would feel restricted. If we had an idea we'd be frightened to say anything."
Dave: "No, not frightened. We were uncomfortable."[6]
Now Martin was writing the songs, and they tried to produce songs with more substance
and more difficult chords.
Fletch: "Martin writes music around his words, whereas Vince used
to write the tunes first and then fit the lyrics to them. Words were never Vince's
strong point. As a matter of fact, we were sometimes quite, er, embarrassed by his
stuff! We didn't understand a lot of his songs. He'd never tell us what they were
about!"
Dave: "I remember walking through town in Basildon one night and I saw
these two girls following along behind me. I knew they'd recognised me. And they
start singing, y'know", (high-pitched squeak), "I stand still stepping on a shady
street. And I start walking a bit faster," (laughs), "turns me collar up like
this! And then ...", (wails), "And I watch that man to a stranger. And I'm
thinking: 'oh no, this is embarrassing! Do they understand these lyrics?! Perhaps
they do and we don't!'"[7]
The media wouldn't make it easy for Martin: "We have problems with the rock
press: they don't like us, it's too nice, too cute. It was not aggressive enough for
their taste and it is true: Depeche Mode is not a malicious group. I bet that if you
swung a glass of beer at the head of our interviewers, they would write twice about us."[8]
Today we know him as a genius writer, but he was thrown in at the deep end in the
early days when See You / Now, This is Fun was released on 29 January.
Most people in the media and among their fans expected something like Speak & Spell.
Most other bands would have gone swiftly downhill after losing the main songwriter.
It was difficult for DM, but they were lucky that people didn't lose interest in them.
I think it was also part of the zeitgeist. In the early 1980s, Europeans were really up
for minimalist electronic music and were open for musical experiments.
There were two versions of See You available, the single version and an
extended version with a longer intro. This became the album version later. The
single's B-side Now, This Is Fun is an instrumental track and was available
in two different versions as well. The extended version has a bigger bridge in
the middle and a longer ending. The music video for See You was directed by
Julian Temple. The first part of the video was filmed at Hounslow railway station
in London.
Fletch: "After New Life a lot of people thought Depeche Mode were 'sweet'
and 'cute' and everything, and we wanted to show them we could be a lot of other
things as well. On the new B-side, Now, This is Fun we tried to ...", pause
while they all burst out laughing, "we tried to sound ... really ... mean! Didn't
work though."[9]
The understanding of the new lyrics didn't work that properly either. So Martin was
asked about the meaning of the line Well, I know that five years is a long time
and that times change but I think you'll find people are basically the same
from See You.
"It's good. Serious. But funny. I like it because those words aren't used much in
songs. It's just the things people say. I can't tell the story behind it. It's
private. I wrote it when I was 18."[10] (The age detail is different in each source,
15, 17 etc.)
"My style of writing has changed since I started writing more seriously. Sometimes
I write the words first, sometimes the music, sometimes both together. I have to
lock myself away. The thing is a lot of ideas I come up with are embarrassing
so you have to be on your own when you come up with them![11] See You isn't as
instant as the earlier singles, so we thought a lot of our old fans wouldn't buy it.
It's also full of musical references to people like the Ronettes and the Beach
Boys. I know they're not very fashionable at the moment, but everybody knows their
earlier songs, and we used to do And Then I Kissed Her as a live
cover version."
Dave: "Two years ago See You probably wouldn't have been a hit, but
the radio has been getting more adventurous. I think punk made all that possible.
After punk, you could do anything."[12]
Some of their early appearances on TV, performing the new songs, were also quite
adventurous.
Dave: "We arrived on time, at 12 o'clock, but there were no cameras or crew. We
went to have a bite to eat then returned at three o'clock. They told us they wanted
us to record six songs. They took about three hours to do the first song. The second
song took slightly less and the third song took about an hour. By the time we came
to the fifth song it was 11.30 pm and since the studio lights were due to be
turned off at midnight they had to film it in next to no time. The camera man was
jumping about all over the place trying to get us into shot. We didn't have time to
do the sixth song because the caretaker turned the lights off."[13]
Alan on his first appearance at TOTP, performing See You:
"It was an all-day affair, mainly spent hanging around in our dressing room
while the union-led BBC staff took their various tea, lunch and back-strain
breaks. The audience consisted of about 15 people being goaded with cattle-prods
to move them swiftly around the studio from stage to stage. We had the dubious
honour of appearing on the same show as one-hit-wonder Adrian Gurwitz.
The lyrics of his unforgettable tunes were as follows gonna write a classic,
gonna write it in an attic ..."
It's not surprising that he didn't like the video
for See You (nor any of the other videos which were made in 1982):
"You can pretty much lump all the Julian Temple videos (See You,
Meaning of Love, Leave in Silence) into one collective disaster.
But you should not forget that video was a very new and experimental genre
at that time so we weren't the only ones to suffer at the hands of spotty
students fresh out of film school."[14]
The See-You-Tour started in Cardiff on 12 February - with Alan as a
stage musician. The European leg, comprising 27 gigs, ended on 12 April in
St. Peter Port. Among others cities, DM played in Madrid, Stockholm, Hamburg,
Hanover, Berlin - and in Oberkorn in Belgium.
Thus it happened that on 26 April the single The Meaning of Love /
Oberkorn (It's a Small Town) was released.
Martin: "Oberkorn was a curious kind of village with a population that would
hardly fill the first few rows of any ordinary theatre so it was quite a
fascination for us to find out what was going to happen. Instead of our gig
being a handful of people, the place was packed as the audience came from all
around and even from across the borders. When we got back to our hotel our
record company told us that whilst the A-side of our single was all set, they
need a title rapidly for the B-side. Like I said we're never all that good on
names and the first thing that sprang to mind was the name of this village.
Oberkorn."[15]
The single version of The Meaning of Love was the same as the album version.
There was a second version available called Fairly Odd Mix. There were also
two versions of the single's B-side Oberkorn available, an instrumental track,
a shorter version and the longer Development Mix. The single was not released
in the U.S., but the 12" Fairly Odd Mix was released on the B-side of the
See You-U.S.-12" single.
The video for The Meaning of Love was directed by Julian Temple again, and
again, the band didn't like it at all. (It's really an embarrassing video with the
band acting like some kind of magicians. It's only bested by the video for
Leave in Silence, when the band members smashed vegetables and other things
on a treadmill and jumped around on big balls, their faces painted in different
colours; and of course, by the backdrop and setting of a German TV show in which
the band members were forced to hold live hens in their arms while
performing See You.)
The American leg, comprising 8 concerts, took place from 7 to 18 May.
Even at this stage, DM played in Pasadena - but not at the Rosebowl.
On his first tour with the band, Alan had the opportunity to get used to
DM's early live set and wasn't fond of it.
"I have had the dubious pleasure of actually performing Television Set. I'm
also familiar with Tomorrow's Dance although I've never played or
heard an actual performance of the song. Dave's rendition / impersonation of
the embryonic DM performances were enough to have left an indelible imprint
on my musical memory."
Strange but true, there were really some songs Alan liked. ;)
"Tora, Tora, Tora is my favourite from Speak & Spell, The Sun and
the Rainfall from A Broken Frame."[16]
Alan, of course, also had the opportunity to get to know his new band mates
a bit better. "Fletch and Martin have a quite strange relationship. The main
role of Fletch seems to be Martin's voice because Martin is very shy - unless
he's drunk. If he has a problem you can't ask him directly but you have to
talk with Fletch."
So two groups quickly formed within the band - Martin and Fletch on the one hand,
and Alan and Dave on the other - because Dave also had little place in the friendship
between Fletch and Martin, and because "Dave's a very friendly and open person,
and easy to get along with. He has a very sharp and wicked sense of humour."
In this context Alan once said that it was fun to see those female fans who think
"he's sort of this poor little fluffy bunny-wunny
who needs to be protected all the time. If these girls ever met Dave for
more than 2 minutes after a show, or if they came on with this attitude,
he'd eat them alive with a few chosen words."[17]
Allegedly, Alan had huge problems adapting himself to the band. This is stressed
particularly in one biography, and the different social backgrounds - working class
and middle class - are emphasized. Of course, this makes a difference in British
society, especially in the generation the four lads belong to. But in my opinion,
it is wrong to say that THIS was the problem. The real problems seemed to be a)
that English men of this generation aren't able to talk about their feelings and
thoughts in general, and this group had communication problems in particular and
b) that the others, especially Martin and Fletch, had known each other for a long
time before Alan became a member.
It is also definitely wrong to say that Alan was not adaptable. He was self-confident
enough, and had the knack of being able to adapt himself to every situation, wherever
and whenever, giving the impression that he was part of the given picture and master
of the situation, anytime, anywhere. Have a look at the promotion shots of the bands
Alan had been a member of before joining DM, and then have a look at pictures of DM
taken in 1982. You will find Alan looking serious, grown up, cool and even
acceptably dressed on shots with Real To Real and The Hitmen, but looking as shy
and as "cute" as his new band members in 1982 - and dressed in the ugliest
clothes you could find on the planet. ;) And there are enough videos from the early
days showing him joking around with the others. It's also known that he was very fond
of Dave's parodies.
Maybe there had been some teething troubles in the first year - as happens to everyone
who is new at a company / school / group - and he probably had (as he said himself)
some problems "integrating" himself "fully into what was (and still is) a very tight
unit" (which is probably referring to the close friendship between Martin and
Fletch) but I think it's exaggerated to suggest he was never a real part of this
band, something some people still believe today.
At this point I would like to explain that my main personal ambition in writing this
biography was to find an answer to the question why Alan finally left the band in
1995, (and why it seems to be impossible to re-integrate him in the band
today).
Every reader will probably have one answer in mind and will say, "hey, he left
because ...", but you will see that it isn't that easy. When I asked this question
in the survey at depechemodebiographie.de I got 26 different answers! And reading
through message-boards you will find a lot of theories as well, some of them put
forward as irrevocable truth, e.g. like the one above, "Alan left because he had
never been a real part of the band and felt like an outsider." Well, if he had felt
unwelcome from the beginning, he would have left the band after the Broken-Frame-Tour,
and would have refused to become a full member.
I have a theory that has evolved over the course of time, based on all the available
information, that can sometimes be quite contradictory - probably the reason why
almost every fan has a different view about why Alan left the band.
My theory is simply that it came to a point when the team didn't work anymore.
Team-work is always difficult, no matter if it concerns a company, a project or a band.
Each member of the team needs a specific task, has to fit into the whole picture,
and "deliver" his part regularly, exactly and punctually. Everyone has to rely on
everybody else. These tasks needn't necessarily have anything to do with the creative
process itself. It can also mean organising something, or being responsible for a good
equilibrium, or a good team-spirit.
As long as each member works in the way he or she is supposed to, the team will work,
no matter whether the members like each other personally. But as soon as something
no longer fits, the whole thing is inevitably going to crumble.
I think the friendship between the band members is overstated. You don't need to be
friends to play in a band together or work on a project generally. Martin and Fletch
definitely were and are friends, but they weren't and aren't good friends with Dave.
They don't see each other much outside the band, simply because they have different
interests. Also Dave and Alan are quite different - they were buddies, but probably
not real friends.
When a project is as interesting and as successful as DM, you don't need to be good
friends at all to work on it together. But of course, when there are personal differences,
it is "easier" to spoil the whole thing at a certain point - mostly when additional
problems arise: musical differences, or different working methods.
I'll come back to this later, because at that point, in summer 1982, the team
hadn't started working together.
(A Broken Frame - with friendly permission of © Annette Pehrsson)
Even though Alan, a trained musician, became part of the band, Martin, Fletch and
Dave decided to record the next album on their own and went into the studio
(Blackwing Studios in London) in July together with Daniel Miller and the
engineers John Fryer and Eric Radcliffe.
On the one hand, Alan was a bit frustrated, "I had been on tour with them and
they expected from me to promote the new album with them", on
the other hand, he understood, "They were very carefully because of me.
They blamed Vince that he had left and had the feeling they must prove him
that they could go on without him. I think it was a question
of pride and they didn't want someone to think they just get
someone new at the 'transfer market'. They were very
self-critical and little self-confident. I had never met
such a band before and I wondered how they had come so far
in such a short time. Then it got clear to me which great influence
Daniel Miller had on them. He and Vince were it who had taken them there."[18]
He probably was quite right here. Some journalists also suspected Daniel Miller
of manipulating the band in some way.
Dave: "Daniel's like a friend really. It's not like a business relationship.
He comes everywhere with us. In the studio he doesn't actually take part in the
recording apart from the producing."
Fletch: "He advises us what to do, but we find it hard to say no, so in
a way he manipulates us."[19]
Dave: "In a way, Daniel acts as our manager, because we don't actually
have one. He's also the head of our record company though, so he can't do everything
that a manager would. We have group meetings to discuss tours, money and things
like merchandising."[20]
The band claimed it had been their decision to go into the studio without Alan.
According to rumours, there had been some trouble between the band members and
Alan because of this decision, but Alan said, "I would have liked to have been
involved in the studio for that album but was told by Daniel Miller
(the band have never spoken to me about it) that I wouldn't be needed."[21]
On 16 August the single Leave in Silence was released, followed
by the album A Broken Frame on 27 September.
Leave in Silence was the band's first single in the UK with the "Bong"
label on it (Bong No. 1) and the first song to have more than one remix of itself.
(By the way - I was asked by a reader what a "bong" is, and why the label (or better
said: catalogue series) was called that. Well, a bong is a water pipe, used to consume
cannabis. I once found an interview in which Fletch explained that they chose that name
because they thought it was funny. I suppose it's the same story as with "Oberkorn",
they needed a name and took the first one that sprang to mind.)
The single version of Leave in Silence is the album version with the small
interlude removed at the end. There also were a longer version and a quieter version
available. The longer version replaced the album version on the American and Japanese
releases of A Broken Frame. The quieter version is an almost a cappella version.
The single's B-side Excerpt from: My Secret Garden is an instrumental version
of this song. Further Excerpts from: My Secret Garden is a longer version
which appeared as a bonus track on the American and Japanese releases of
A Broken Frame.
In those days they found that A Broken Frame was more mature concerning the
music and the lyrics. They put a lot of time and effort into every single song and
tried to explore new ways of recording.
Dave: "The new album has the same sort of weight really. Rather than
doing more of the light weight pop we decided to experiment in the studio.
Martin can write poppy things as well, there's a couple of poppy tracks on the
album like The Meaning of Love and there's one called A Photograph of You
but we also wanted to do something really different to see if we could do it and
I think it has turned out well."
Fletch: "There's a lot of percussion on the new album, you know just hitting
things plus there's walking and marching and that sort of thing, but nothing you
could really call an instrument."
Dave: "There is a saxophone. But you wouldn't be able to make it out.
It's recorded backwards and it sounds like an elephant!"[22]
Later they wouldn't be so satisfied with this album anymore. (The same with
Speak & Spell.) But considering their age, their background and their story
so far, they probably had to record this album exactly as it is.
The A-Broken-Frame-Tour started on 4 October in Chippenham.
It consisted of three legs. Until 29 October the band
played 20 gigs in Great Britain.
From 25 November to 14 December DM played 14 concerts in
Europe, mainly in Germany. The third leg took place in 1983.
Despite all success, it was a tough time for the band. They still weren't taken
seriously by the media and general public, and they still didn't manage to get rid
of the image of the New Romantics and Futurists.
Dave: "Obviously the sort of people who buy Duran Duran or Spandau Ballet
records might buy ours as well, but I think we're in a slightly different market.
There's not so many New Romantics in our audience as their used to be. I mean we've
done about thirty interviews - mostly in Europe -[23] and we are still asked
about New Romanticism and Futurism. We
tell them that we have nothing to do with this.[20] And then they go and print this
right next to these awful photos of us in frilly shirts! That was from the first
photo session we ever had done and they were so bad! They keep turning up all
over the place."
Martin: "That is why we'll never be like Duran Duran. 'Cos our photos are so
awful!"[24]
Next to the known problems some new ones arrived. They had the impression that
the audience didn't listen to them anymore ...
Fletch: "Even when you make a lot of mistakes and think you've been terrible
they don't seem to care. They don't come up and say 'Great gig' any more either.
The music aspect has gone. At Crocs they didn't even clap for us to come back,
just stood there and waited. All they want to do is watch you. We've become
an event."
... and time ran shorter and shorter.
Martin: "Last summer we could sort things out from week to week. It's horrible
now to look in your diary and see that every day for the next six months
is planned."
Fletch: "No time to even think! What's happened is we've become more and
more busy and less and less involved with all the small decisions which affect
us. When you've got enough money you end up giving it to someone else and saying
'Do this for us'."[25]
Dave: "Every day there seems to be something. Up until a certain point you
get used to it. But you do begin to wonder what good it actually does."[26]
Another problem they had to face now was the fame.
Fletch: "There was a thing in the Sun reviewing our single and it
said another record by a faceless group. I think people who read music papers
might know about us, but the general public couldn't put a face to the name.
People say, what's it like to be famous? But there's no difference. When I walk
along in Basildon they might recognise me, but if I go up to London and walk along
the King's Road, I wouldn't be recognised."
Dave: "I think it's better not to be hip, it's definitely safer.[27] We
don't go clubbing it in London or anything. I don't know how bands can do that.
They're touring the world and they've got records out every week. They must be
so tired.[28] There was this time when I did a personal appearance at the Camden
Palace and I was practically pulled apart. It was really scary, when I got inside
I was trapped and there were people clawing at me, ripping my clothes, pulling
my hair - I was so frightened I ran and hid myself in the loo, I just didn't want
to come out. I think that was one of my worst experiences, those kids could
kill you."[29]
Fletch: "We don't get massive guest lists with stars on them. I think
that's why people relate to us. We don't attract that sort of audience. We're not
a liggers band. Backstage there's just a load of our friends.[30] But we've also
lost a lot of friends that we used to go out with. You lose touch."
Dave: "You know who your real friends are though. They haven't changed
from the beginning. You know when you talk to them and when you're out with them,
they don't see you as a different person. But then you get some of them who
weren't really your proper friends when you began and then they become your
real big friends when you're successful."
Fletch: "I think there were about 10,000 people who used to go to school
with you."
Dave: "Yeah, the class must have about 1,000 people in it according to some
people. There were only 40. You think you're going mad when people say they were
at school with you and you can't remember them."[31]
It got increasingly difficult to have a private life. Dave's girlfriend Jo[anne]
gave up her job as a nurse, and ran the fan club, together with Martin's girlfriend
Anne, who had just finished school. They also accompanied the band on every tour.
The band called this "luxury". I personally think that it offers a basis for an
"excellent" conflict potential.
Dave: "We don't feel they get in the way, although there are quite a lot
of bands who feel girls on tour are an unnecessary burden. With us, it's like
taking your best friend along. Although I reckon it's fair to say that when we
first took the girls they took a while to adjust to the fan reaction. That was
funny really, because our girls also run our fan information service so you'd
figure on them knowing what to expect. But the reality of hundreds of girls
trying to rush us and kiss us was a bit too much! It seems to be Alan the girls
are attracted to. We don't mind him shouldering that responsibility!"[32]
While the others had given up asking for the name of everyone who wanted their
autographs, Alan, who was still a "part-time Mode" at that time, still did it. This,
and the fact that he was pretty handsome, was the reason why most of the girls were
screaming for him.
Anne, Martin's girlfriend: "I'm glad they're screaming for Alan. It makes
him feel more a part of it."
Martin: "If this keeps up he won't be part of it for much longer."[33]
And they still tried to find an image for themselves - or to have no image at all.
Dave: "I think it's good that we haven't really got an image."
Fletch: "The band with the best image of all is Pink Floyd, they're a really
faceless group. I mean I don't really like their music, but although they're one of
the world's biggest bands if you saw Brian Waters ..."
Dave: "Roger Waters you idiot."
Fletch: "Oh yeah, well that's what I mean, they're really anonymous."
Dave: "We don't have any pictures of us on our record covers, because they
date so quickly. Like the Duran Duran cover, they were all dressed up, had all
the gear on."
Fletch: "Bet they're really embarrassed about that now!"
Martin: "They should've been at the time!"
Dave: "And that's there for life - it's much better to have some kind of
design. The new LP sleeve is really good, much better than the last one, that was
awful! The guy who did it, Brian Griffin, when he was explaining it he was going -
I imagine a swan floating in the air - and we're going, yeah, right, then he's
talking about it floating on this sea of glass and it sounded really great.
It turned out to be a stuffed swan in a plastic bag! It was meant to be all nice
and romantic, but it was just comical!"[34]
Nevertheless, Brian Griffin took several other photos for album- and singles-covers,
so the Speak & Spell-cover couldn't have been that bad - or they were too shy
to tell him that they didn't like it. However, according to polls, most fans think
that the Speak & Spell-cover isn't the worst one DM has ever had.
So there was a lot they had to learn. And they had to learn it quickly.
Fletch: "We realise 1982's the most important year for us. We either establish
ourselves or go to pot."[35]
(My secret garden - with friendly permission of © Tuxedofeline)
Here are two bits with hindsight to the future:
Fletch showed the first symptoms of his depressive vein which was to have
serious consequences later: "I get depressed, on tour especially, because I've got
quite a lot of friends at home, and I miss keeping up on the gossip and all that.
Martin and Dave have Anne and Jo and that's their company, but I don't see anyone.
I've lost a lot of friends because I can't talk to them; we've always told each
other what we're doing, but now it's a case of well, we flew to Spain and did a TV
thing, we're going on tour ... I feel really guilty, and I can't talk about what
I'm doing 'cos all I'm doing is the band. But I think more than them, really. Well,
I worry. I'm more depressing."
Laughter all round. Don't you mean depressed?
Alan: "Both, probably."[36]
The next one isn't that serious, but it is one of those things that show how people
change over a period of time, also due to the circumstances of their lifestyle.
Martin: "We're not the kind who enjoy partying it up every other night or
travelling to clubs. Most of the time when we're not working we tend to stay at
our parents' places in our home town. We all feel that it's essential to have
this firm home base, because otherwise you tend to find yourselves leading a
very insular existence, only mixing with people in the music business, and that
isn't really good for your mind or your lifestyle. I can't see us changing. We've
no desire to move up to the bright lights of London."[37]
According to Martin (especially when you look at the lyrics of See You)
people basically stay the same. This applies to the (former) band members quite
nicely. All of them still have "this firm home base", and in essence they are still
just normal people. Today all of them are family men, and they have never really
mixed with people from the music business. But the fans, of course, know that the
part with the "enjoying partying it up every other night or travelling to clubs"
would change drastically in the following years.
At the end of the year, Alan was declared as a full member and future plans
were made.
Martin: "After Vince left and went to form Yazoo, we were getting ready to
record a new album. Alan started playing with us but we wanted to make certain
that any change in direction in our music wasn't attributable to Alan joining.
We needed to show we were capable of musical alteration by ourselves. So we
recorded A Broken Frame with that in mind, although Alan will be playing
on our tours when we perform songs from the album. Now we feel free for him to
be a full time recording member of the group now that the change in pattern has
been established!"[38]
Well, the real development began with Construction Time Again, and Martin
would reconsider the "established change".
Alan: "I don't blame the others for being cautious about me, after what
happened with Vince.[39] Somebody in their position doesn't get somebody new in the
first week who might turn out to be a complete a***h***. So I was touring and
doing TV but wasn't actually recording with them.[40] The last tour has really
made me feel more at home in the band, although playing to big audiences, like
Hammersmith Odeon, made me quite nervous.[41]"
In 1987 he said, "They were a very tight-knit bunch, and it took me quite
a while to become one of them. Between 1982 and '83 I was never sure if I was in
or out until one day Fletch just told me I was a full-time member."[42]
(In different source he is quoted that Daniel Miller told him.)
References:
[1] No Time to Even Think, New Sounds New Styles, March 1982. Words: Mike Stand
[2] Andy Fletcher interview, Electric Sleeve Notes, May 1982. Words: David Martin.
[3] Cassette interview with Dave Gahan, January 1982, SFX (UK). Interviewer: unknown.
[4] The Story Of Depeche Mode, BBC Radio London Live94.9, 7 May 2001, Producer: Tony Wood
[5] Just Can't Get Enough, Uncut, May 2001. Words: Stephen Dalton
[6] No Time to Even Think, New Sounds New Styles, March 1982. Words: Mike Stand
[7] A Clean Break, Smash Hits, 21 January - 3 February 1982. Words: Mark Ellen
[8] Chronique Just Can't Get Enough et See You, January 1982, Best N°174. Words: Gerard Bar-David.
[9] A Clean Break, Smash Hits, 21 January - 3 February 1982. Words: Mark Ellen
[10] No Time to Even Think, New Sounds New Styles, March 1982. Words: Mike Stand
[11] "Some people think you're cute, but other people think you're slightly vile ...", Look In, May 22nd 1982, Words: Phil Parsons
[12] A La Mode, Kicks, 6 April 1982. Words: Johnny Black
[13] Welcome to the Working Week - 7 Days In The Life of Dave 'Have A Banana' Gahan of Depeche Mode, Flexipop, June 1986. Words: Dave Gahan.
[14] recoil.co.uk
[15] The Name's the Game! Zig Zag, November 1982. Words: John Kercher
[16] recoil.co.uk
[17] recoil.co.uk
[18] recoil.co.uk
[19] Sound of the Suburbs, NME, March 20th 1982. Words: Lynn Hanna
[20] A La Mode, Kicks, April 6th 1982. Words: Johnny Black
[21] recoil.co.uk
[22] Modey Old Dough, unknown magazine, 1982. Words: Bill Prince
[23] A Clean Break, Smash Hits, 21 January - 3 February 1982. Words: Mark Ellen
[24] Source can't be found anymore
[25] A Clean Break, Smash Hits, 21 January - 3 February 1982. Words: Mark Ellen
[26] No Time to Even Think, New Sounds New Styles, March 1982. Words: Mike Stand
[27] Sound of the Suburbs, NME, 20 March 1982. Words: Lynn Hanna
[28] Sound of the Suburbs, NME, 20 March 1982. Words: Lynn Hanna
[29] The Bright Side of the Moon, Sounds, 4 September 1982. Words: Karen Swayne
[30] Sound of the Suburbs, NME, 20 March 1982. Words: Lynn Hanna
[31] Essex Appeal, Record Mirror, 21 August 1982. Words: Simon Tebbutt
[32] The Name's the Game! Zig Zag, November 1982. Words: John Kercher
[33] On The Mode, Record Mirror, 20 March 1982. Words: "Sunie"
[34] The Bright Side of the Moon, Sounds, 4 September 1982. Words: Karen Swayne
[35] A Clean Break, Smash Hits, 21 January - 3 February 1982. Words: Mark Ellen
[36] On The Mode, Record Mirror, 20 March 1982. Words: "Sunie"
[37] The Name's the Game! Zig Zag, November 1982. Words: John Kercher
[38] The Name's the Game! Zig Zag, November 1982. Words: John Kercher
[39] A La Mode, Kicks, 6 April 1982. Words: Johnny Black
[40] Hanging in the Balance, NME, 26 March 1983. Words: Matt Snow
[41] A La Mode, Kicks, 6 April 1982. Words: Johnny Black
[42] Depeche Mode Magazine, Circuit Communications, 1987. Words: Mike Martin
