BIOGRAPHY1993
On 16 January Fletch married his long-termed girlfriend
Grainne.
On 15 February the single I Feel You / One Caress was released.
I Feel You peaked at No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart and also made No. 1
in many countries. It was the band's highest charting single worldwide.
Beside the 7" mix, there were some different versions of I Feel You available - the
Throb Mix and the Helmet at the Helmet Mix (both remixed by Mark Stent),
the Babylon Mix (remixed by Supereal and John Crossley), the Life's Too
Short Mix and the Swamp Mix (both remixed by Brian Eno) as well as the
Afghan Surgery Mix (remixed by Danny Briottet). The single's B-side was the album
track One Caress. There weren't any other versions of this track available.
On the single cover there are four symbols, each representing a member, the top
left corner represents Alan, the top right corner represents Dave, the bottom left
corner represents Martin and the bottom right corner represents Fletch.
Alan: "In typical fashion, the US record company wanted a different
release. So they insisted that we stand outside all day in the freezing cold and
make a video for One Caress which in the end they decided not to release
at all."
Directed by Kevin Kerslake, it was shot just outside Chicago and included an unusual
cast of animals and insects. "The only amusing part of the whole event was when
half of these creatures escaped into the trees and the crew had to spend the rest
of the night coaxing them down."[1]
The video for I Feel You was directed by Anton Corbijn.
The album Songs of Faith and Devotion (SOFAD) was released
on 22 March and the single Walking in My Shoes / My Joy
on 16 April.
The 7" version of Walking in My Shoes is not the same as the one on the album.
Additional versions were the Grungy Gonads Mix (remixed by Johnny Dollar with
Portishead), the Extended Twelve Inch Mix and the Ambient Whale Mix (both
remixed by Mark Stent), the Random Carpet Mix Edit (remixed by William Orbit) and
the Anandamidic Mix (remixed by Spirit Feel).
My Joy was the only real B-side of all SOFAD-single-releases. It was released
as 7" version and as Slow Slide Mix (remixed by Steve Lyon and DM - that's what
the credits say, but probably DM stands for Alan.)
The video for Walking in My Shoes was directed by Anton Corbijn.
At the beginning of the second verse, there's a shot of
Martin, Fletch and Alan with naked women on their laps. This was removed in the MTV
version in the U.S. and replaced with footage of the three members standing still.
The band tried to talk about the new album and to draw the attention to it.
Alan: "It's been a difficult album at times, there's no doubt about it.[2]
I don't agree at all that SOFAD is a dark album - it's the only DM
album that leaves you feeling really uplifted. I Feel You for example,
or Higher Love, Rush etc. all have an overriding sense of optimism.
If I remember correctly, everyone else felt I Feel You should be
the first single. The main reason for the choice was that the track had
attitude and was radically different to what we had done before. We hoped it
would surprise people and make them curious about the rest of the album.[3]
To me, SOFAD is quite a complex album. It was hell
to make at times. When you're in that situation, you just don't see that.
You can't imagine that when things are going wrong and everyone hates each other
that some good music can be coming out of it. You just think everything sucks
and everybody sucks. So it's only in hindsight that you see it."[4]
Dave: "It's still one of my favourite albums of ours. It felt like we
were trying desperately to challenge ourselves and break out of everything we
had done on Violator, which was very controlled, very polished, very clean -
a perfect pop album. We wanted to blow all that stuff away."[5]
Alan was quite satisfied with the overall artwork for SOFAD,
but not with the
cover. "I have to agree it wasn't one of the greats but nobody wanted to hurt
Anton's feelings having given him the job of artistic direction - one of his
problems is that he is quite inflexible once he has an idea for something.
When it comes to cover art, I always felt that Anton should have really focused
exclusively on his photography (which is what he does best) and let others
take care of layout and graphics."[6]
Martin: "Anton suggested that as the music was becoming more human, that
we should use our images on the cover. We weren't too sure about it but we told
him if he could come up with a good idea then we'd think about it. He came
up with a design that used our faces and obscured them enough for our
liking."[7]
Alan: "Walking in My Shoes was certainly one of Anton's more
surreal promos and the actual filming was quite a different experience for us.
I remember how odd it was being surrounded by all these people with every
manner of deformity - especially at meal times. It brought a smile to my face
standing next to a hunch-back, dressed like a gothic nightmare and hearing him
ask the catering girls: 'Have you got any ketchup love?'"
(with friendly permission of © Marcin Ostrowski)
Despite the difficult recordings they decided to undertake a long tour. It seems
strange to do something like this when everything is in a mess. Maybe they simply
did it because it had already been planned (as early as April 1992 Alan
had said in a radio interview they would tour for a year). Maybe they didn't
realise what they were doing to themselves. Maybe they thought things could be
fixed during the tour. They had always enjoyed touring and partying together,
so maybe this was really the idea they had in mind. Nevertheless, they weren't
sure if Dave was able to do it.
Alan: "We had a couple of meetings where the question of Dave's drug
usage was addressed. It was put to Dave that if he didn't clean up his act,
we wouldn't make it through such a long tour. He agreed."[8]
They believed in his agreement, something that seems quite naive. But in the
music business drugs are a normal thing, and on the other hand, they obviously
weren't used to the habits of a real junkie.
Dave (before the tour started): "I'd like a life outside rock. But, at the same time, I'm
in it right up to my f*** neck, and I'm going to remain in it. My wife would
back me 100 percent, even if it meant us spending a lot of time apart. What
we have is much stronger than that."
Alan: "My wife and I have been together a long time and it's become
so normal. It doesn't seem weird to her when I go away."[9]
The marriage would break during the tour at which Alan started an affair with
his later second wife Hepzibah, who was a violinist of the opening act
Miranda Sexgarden.
Jeri's son Jason appeared as the lead singer of the band Parallax as an opener
for the DM concert in Liévin.
Alan: "Parallax released some singles on Mute before changing their
name to 'Hoodwink' who also released one or two more. They never got around
to completing their debut album and are no longer on the label."[10]
Dave (about how it feels if one tries to find one's way back
to everyday life after playing in front of so many fans):
"You're in this funny little world where you can do whatever you like whenever
you like. You start getting a bit crazy. You really get into it. You're a gang
and there's all the crew ... and then suddenly you gotta go to the supermarket
and get your groceries."
Martin: "You've got to sort of come back to reality and do all kinds
of normal things."
Alan: "You find yourself pacing around the room hating to talk in the
evening. Then you realize the reason is you're supposed to be on stage."[11]
Some reporters obviously weren't aware of the tensions. Instead, they preferred
to concentrate on putting forward the eternally same questions to Martin, whether
he is gay - maybe just a little bit -, and whether he likes BDSM and pornography.
(On the other hand, it has to be said that it was difficult to talk to the band
at the time. They were careful and tended to pretend everything was fine.)
Martin: "I've always tried to write from a personal point of view.
I don't see any of the things I write about as being pervy, you know? I
actually really like the imagery of SM, and the clubs and things like that,
but I wasn't just glorifying it. It's also a topic on this album. We had
someone down the other day, and it was really funny because he was talking
about this pervert thing as well. We played him four or five tracks and
when it got to One Caress and it started off, Well I'm down on my
knees again, he went, 'Oh good!'." (laughs) "I think, probably, 70 percent
of our songs are about, or touch on, sex. Personally, I find it an important
thing, I find it amazing when I talk to people and they consider it a
secondary thing in life. For me, it isn't something that's very secondary.[12]
Maybe it's very naive, but the only religion for me is love. I believe in love.
So that's why the songs touch on love, sex and religion; for me they're the
same thing.[13] I should imagine from reading the lyrics they'd think I was
dark and moody with quite a perverted sense of things. The BDSM reference
comes up so often in songs that I must be interested in but if I practise it
I think that's personal stuff, really. If pornography is well done I like it.
It always amazes me that so much pornography is done badly. If it's done
well ... You have to choose your words carefully here, you're always treading
on dodgy ground. I think I like the idea of androgyny. Maybe it's to do with my
dislike of normality. I've always thought a macho image really boring. I think
a lot of people think that I'm gay, which doesn't offend me or worry me in
the slightest. People can think what they like."[14]
And here are some answers from Martin which are quite funny or interesting with
hindsight of the future:
Question: "Do you sometimes get fed up with being in Depeche Mode?"
Martin: "Yes."
Question: "What would you do if one of the other three said they were leaving?"
Martin: "Give up."
(We all know he wouldn't.)
Question: "Would you prefer it if the other three wrote songs as well as you?"
Martin: "I like being in control of the music."
(And we know that he had to give in here when Dave forced him to let him contribute songs.)
Question: "What one thing couldn't you live without?"
Martin: "Two things equally - sex and alcohol."[15]
(I don't know about sex, but he would quit drinking a couple of years
later - and he's still alive. ;))
And another three funny / interesting pieces:
Martin: "I'm not passionate about anything other than music. I bore
my friends to death with music! I often invite friends to come and stay with
me, and I get drunk and I play then every one of my favourite records. At
the end of the night, everybody is crawling to bed, and I'm still left
saying, 'But you have to listen to this one!'"[16]
Fletch: "I think we've lost a lot of the naive enthusiasm. You gain experience, but you lose enthusiasm. Because of that we won't be making as many records in the next 10 years. There won't be as many tours because we've lost that bubbly enthusiasm."[17]
Fletch told the others about the budget suggestions for the next video.
Dave: "How much?"
Fletch: "A hundred thousand."
Dave: "Pounds or dollars?"
Fletch: "Pounds."
Dave: "F*** hell!"
Fletch: "And it's only black and white!"[18]
Some people noticed, however, that something was going on and asked questions
like whether the band members still got on well with each other.
Alan: "I think most successful groups have a unique blend, if you like,
that chemistry thing. And I'm sure we do have that, but we also have had the
type of problems that you talk about, it's just that you don't hear about it,
I'm sure. You always have internal wrangles; you always have internal problems.
There isn't a group that exists that hasn't had that, and we're no different
in that respect, but we tend to keep that kind of thing fairly private because
it's not for anyone else's ears really."
Martin: "I think ... obviously we have our disagreements, and after
thirteen years you know everybody's personality so well, and when there are
disagreements you can predict how they're going to go. But I think we get on
as well as we can after thirteen years, which is ... That makes it sound bad,
but we actually get on well."
Dave: "To be honest I find it a little bit sad that I haven't become
much closer to the other people that I work with, and have worked with for
a lot of years. I'd like to have changed some of the things that we done,
in that... you know, our relationship: to me it's really important, what
we have, the whole atmosphere that Depeche Mode creates when they're in a
room together, as much as, sometimes, I hate it, I love it so much as well.
And each person I love, as well."[19]
On the whole, Dave was sometimes much more honest than his band mates, who tried
not to publicly air the band's internal problems. Dave also admitted that
his marriage to Jo went wrong from the beginning.
"Over the years, I think I was a pretty sh*** person.
I'd been with my ex-wife, Joanne, for a long while, and we used to be
really great friends, and that had deteriorated - mostly on my part. Ninety
percent of that was my doing, definitely. But I now know that it had to end.
There's a big difference between what you believe is love and what hits you
as actually being love."
Now, he claimed to be overjoyed with Theresa, but a moment later his thoughts
would switch to the son he left behind. "It's really difficult for me to talk about
this because I still haven't got over the fact, really, that I'm now a
part-time dad, you know? And that, no matter how hard I want to think I
can influence my son's life, there's very little I can do. My dad left
myself and my sister when we were very young, in a very vulnerable position,
and I've done the same thing with my son.[20] It's a heartache. I want to
influence him, but I'm not there, so get real, you know? I don't want him
to grow up with the same feelings I had when my stepfather died, wondering
what was going on. I want Jack to know that he has a father.[21] I'm determined,
much as he might hate it, to force myself on him. I'm going to see him next
week, actually. I'm going down to his school next Friday to meet all his
teachers and that kind of stuff. And Joanne's really good about all that -
she understands the importance of me seeing him and Jack being able to see me.
She's been really good about it. What I hope, what I really hope, is for her
to meet somebody and fall in love and realise that, probably, we weren't in
love at all. That would be the best thing for me, because it would remove
a lot of the guilt that I now feel."[22]
A journalist cautiously asked whether alcohol and drugs were in his PAST, but
you only had to look at Dave's condition at the time to know the past was nothing
in comparison with the present.
Dave (of course only heard what he wanted to hear):
"Drinking? Yeah. When you're in a band, you're in a gang. And when you go
out, you rule. You hit a town and take over. You can go to any club. Whatever
you need you can get. And you do."
And on the question whether he had been addicted to
drugs: "Mmmm. Not really. No, no. I was drinking way too much, but then
I think most people do when they get to that age."[23]
Meanwhile, Alan and engineer Steve Lyon were working on the tapes for the tour.
They worked alone, without the other band members. First they worked in the Olympic
Studios in London, and then later in Alan's studio The Thin Line.
Alan: "While the earlier tours included some tracks that were recycled
to some extent for the last couple of tours (Violator and Devotional) they
were re-worked from scratch. All the live tracks were re-structured by myself
although the running order for the show was a collective decision. It's a lot
of hard work and involves imagining the songs in a different way from the album
versions. But it also was fun. The motivation was that if I was going to play
those older songs for 18 months on the road, then they had to be revitalised to
make it an enjoyable task.
Unfortunately, putting the Devotional live show
together proved to be more of a handful than either myself or Steve had
bargained for. It isn't just about revamping the songs. There are a million other
jobs to be tackled like deciding what will be on the backing tapes and what
will be live, or who will play what parts and how that will effect the way I
program the keyboards (which is a logistical nightmare in itself!). There are also
questions about the track running order and the different set lists themselves -
this was to be a long haul and to play exactly the same songs night after night
for 15 months would have been agony. You also have to consider each different
country because every audience reacts differently, preferring favourite songs
that have been particular to their territory. Consequently, we had 4 set lists -
red, green, yellow, blue - with a similar overall structure but some variation
in terms of which ballads and encores we'd perform.
We knew when we started that we didn't have a lot of time on our hands and it
didn't help that the Roland sequencer was giving us continual problems. However,
we persevered and had nearly completed the work when disaster struck. The machine
couldn't handle the sheer volume of traffic we were demanding from it and one
day the whole system just crashed - we lost everything. Three and a half months
of work. Luckily we had had the foresight to back up all the music onto multitrack
but the edits had gone."[24]
It was Steve Lyon who had the idea to back up the music. "Alan and I
had finished our time at Olympic [in London] but still had an enormous amount of
work to do, Alan also wanted to play some live drums, so we went to his house.
I remember on our last Olympic Studio evening we said, 'ok Pub!' But I said, 'Wait,
I'm going to record from the Roland samplers onto 32 Mitsubishi as a back up.'
So, I set it up, hit record and we went for a beer. Thankfully that saved us as
the system crashed a week later and we would have lost everything, 2 months of work."[25]
Then there were only two weeks left to get ready, and they had to work day and night.
On 19 May the Devotional-Tour started. It consisted of five legs. The first
leg was a European one, comprised 41 concerts, and ended on 31 July in London.
Additional background singers
on stage were Hildia Campbell and Samantha Smith (much to the dismay of many fans).
Martin: "Before that, wherever we went, it used to be the four of us
together. We were a gang, we'd go out - always go out together, and that just
didn't happen so much anymore. Dave was definitely off somewhere on his own,
Alan was definitely off somewhere on his own."
Fletch: "And we agreed to do this year-and-a-half tour - straight from
the album, straight off on tour, and then ... it was probably the worst two
years of our lives."
Martin: "I went through periods when I thought 'What am I doing?',
you know, 'What is the point of all this?' This is supposed to be about
enjoyment and nobody seems to be enjoying it anymore."[26]
It wasn't just a very excessive tour it was a different tour, different to the
previous tours. So Dave added stage diving to his performance.
Alan: "I think Dave had a very demanding job to go out there every night
and engage the audience so it would be unfair to criticise him for stage diving,
no matter how much of a rock cliché it was. He never announced that he was
intending to do it but you could see the idea brewing in his mind over the
course of several gigs so it was no surprise when he went for it."
And it saw Alan on the drums.
"I only started playing drums more seriously for the Devotional tour but I'm
really glad I did because it was very enjoyable. It was prompted by a desire
to challenge myself on stage and to try to make the DM live show a bit more
varied."
But of course, he didn't like that some journalists described him as the
"drummer of Depeche Mode" after that. He wasn't just the drummer, but also the
musical director, keyboard player and
"I had many different bits to play in quick
succession that occasionally led to having to cross hands to play a part
(with my left hand) at the top of the keyboard, whilst also playing a part
with my right hand as well as changing a preset with a foot pedal."[27]
Dave: "It's just a completely different feel. Alan's playing a lot
more live drums. He's right behind me on stage; I can feel him, hear him.
Martin's playing guitar right next to me on stage. We wanted more emphasis on
us playing and doing the songs, with the energy more coming from the band rather
than the lights and theatrics of a modern-day rock show. It's a lot sleazier,
a lot more live, basically a lot more fun."[28]
(with friendly permission of Alan Wilder)
The journalist Gavin Martin accompanied DM on the tour for a couple of days
(whoever had this idea - it was a bad one) and published two long articles
about his experiences in the magazine NME. These are the saddest articles
one could ever read about DM and they presumably give a good insight into
this time. On the other hand, one has to be careful because it is, of course,
a subjective sight.
David Gahan is breathless, still on that adrenalin-surging,
post-showtime high, he has just come offstage after a performance
in front of a 25,000 crowd at a football stadium in Budapest,
Hungary.
Notice, that the concert in Budapest took place on the very first leg of the
tour! It is also remarkable that Dave tried to make people to call him "David"
at the time. Almost no one did, though. Gavin Martin was at least polite
enough to do so.
Gahan's own private dressing room has been transformed into
a darkened coven. Candles burn on table tops, on flight cases
and other surfaces provided by his makeshift road furniture.
Loud music blasts from his hi-fi. Such are the trappings that
befit a Cool Icon, a man playing, or trying to play, the role
of A Rock God.
David Gahan has all the trappings, and a few of the problems,
of a Rock God. His "problems" have become Depeche Mode's
dirty little secret - everybody in the camp knows about them
but no-one mentions them. Gahan talks about them in vague terms.
He doesn't look or sound like a well man. His skin is sickly
grey in the half light, his eyes sunk into bluish sockets.
Beneath his vest, tattoos embellish his biceps and torso,
but the inside of his long skinny arms are all bruised and scratched.
[...]
The Jane's Addiction song "Wings" is playing on his ghetto
blaster.
"It was just like everybody could have wings for
one night. That's the greatest feeling and this is possibly
my all time greatest song for everything. Everybody has wings.
You just have to fly," David says.
What was the last tattoo you had done?
"The last I had done was two weeks before I left. I
had to have the first bit done and then it had to heal a bit
and then I had to go and have the rest done. But I had to get
it done, we'd drawn it and everything and so ... It was like my
wings, really, for the tour [a massive pair etched on his back].
It was, like, my weapon for the tour - if you can do this,
you can do anything, y'know? If you can sit under the
needle for ten hours, you can do anything, man."
It was sore, then?
"Pretty sore for a while. You forget how many times it's
nice to do that [he stretches], and you can't for about
two weeks. It really killed me. Then of course we went into
rehearsals, it was funny. But I had to have it done, I had to do it."
[...]
"For me, it always seems that I'm stepping out of real
life into a film," reflected Gore in his funny little
lisping voice. "From the moment you start on the first day
of the tour until you get home it just seems you're living
in a total fantasy land."
How do you deal with that?
"Personally I just accept it, try to have as much fun as I
can in fantasy land and then come back down to earth at the end of it."
Sounds like you can do anything you want, if it's fantasy land.
"Yeah, pretty much."
Are there any dangers in that?
"I'm sure there are."
What frightens you?
"I think death for some strange reason. Death in general,
specifically my own death, that's why I'm a total hypochondriac.
I can't work out if it's normal to be a hypochondriac. I think
it's normal for men to be hypochondriacs. Every now and then
on tour I have these panic attacks where I think my heart is
beating too fast, my pulse seems strange in my arms and I think
I'd better get a doctor, I think I'm going to die at any moment."
[...]
Depeche Mode are gathered back at their hotel bar - base camp
for their three days in Hungary. They've played their game of
table football, watched by the girls and boys backstage, after
the gig. Now it's time to fuel up with some more juice before
hitting the town - a grubby little disco bar in a backwater of Budapest.
Andy Fletcher has thrown caution, and Yoga tea, to the wind and
is taking his chances with a sizeable draught of lager. The
last time Fletcher was interviewed by the NME the journalist
started out by asking if he drank a lot on the road. The press
officer was livid: sat behind the journalist, he started
signalling to Fletcher to terminate the interview.
Alan Wilder is knocking back double tequila shots and his
face is becoming a well-worn road map of rock'n'roll excess.
When he left the hotel for more tequila at the disco club,
a group of Hungarian fans clambered outside at the window.
Wilder staggered up towards them. "Go on, f--- off!"
he said. "Get away from the f---ing window."
[29]
To this Alan explained, "I remember being chased through the
streets of Budapest. It started out as a few fans seeing us eating outside a
restaurant and following us back to the hotel asking for autographs. Then,
as on-lookers became more inquisitive, the crowd began to grow. My security
man Joel started getting nervous and said, One, two, three, RUN!!! and we had
to leg it back to the hotel with a crowd of excited Hungarian's hot on our
trail. When we eventually made it inside, they were all banging on the windows
of the bar so I went out to have a word. I explained that we weren't the only
guests in the hotel and it may be slightly unsettling for other people in the
bar to feel like they were in 'Night of the Living Dead' but that I'd sign a
few autographs if they promised to leave us in peace. This was subsequently
translated as, Alan Wilder told us all to f*** off. The aspect that I did find
rather hurtful, was the fact that people reported that I'd told them to 'F***
off' when I was only attempting to ease the situation for the comfort of other
guests in the hotel."[30]
It's up to every reader to draw a conclusion from these two different stories.
Maybe Gavin Martin exaggerated his story. He's a journalist, and journalists
sometimes tend to make stories more interesting than they actually were. On the
other hand, he was a neutral observer, not integrated into the crew, and it's
difficult to think up a situation like this from nothing. He described Alan as
being drunk, so maybe the "control freak" had lost control in this situation
and was wrong in his self-assessment. And maybe both descriptions are correct
in some way.
One should never forget that, besides all the debauchery, there were a lot of
people saying that they had fun, and that the band was always able to run a
professional tour and sell its products. They even became famous for it.
Dave: "At the height of our partying, everyone in the band was on
something. We became known as a band who could party into the early hours,
but still get the job done on stage."[31]
He described them as being a "band on stage", but offstage everyone being on their
own. It's amazing that he once said that Martin, Fletch and himself went out to get
drunk or get high separately while Alan did the work. But it's known - not only
from articles by Gavin Martin - that Alan drank a lot as well. Maybe he started
drinking after he had done the work. It would suit him.
In August Alan mixed the sound for the live album and for the video,
together with Steve Lyon, so he couldn't go on holiday.
The North American leg started on 7 September in Quebec, comprised 51
concerts, and ended on 3 December in Mexico City.
In the meantime, on 13 September, the single Condemnation was released.
The 7" version is the Paris Mix, with female backing vocals added and an
emerging drum beat scheme. It was remixed by Steve Lyon and Alan during a few
days off in Paris. There weren't any other remixes of this song available.
The single's B-Side was the Jazz Mix of Death's Door of which the
original track had been released in 1991. Some releases included live
versions of Condemnation, Personal Jesus, Enjoy the Silence and Halo
(recorded in Milan, Italy in 1993), as well as remixes of Rush -
the Spiritual Guidance Mix (remixed by Jack Dangers), the Amylnitrate Mix -
Instrumental and the Wild Planet Mix (both remixed by Tony Garcia
and Guido Osorio). The video for Condemnation was directed by Anton Corbijn.
It didn't appear on The Videos 86-98 in 1998, was replaced by
the live version from Devotional. (The reason is unknown.)
Also in September, Dave and the chief safety officer were arrested because
of a fight in Quebec and were set free, however, the next day.
Dave: "The staff was very rude to us and wanted us to leave. We
tried to convince them we were guests in the hotel. I ended up smacking one
of the guys. Nothing really out of the ordinary. We just happened to get arrested
this time, that's all. No one was really hurt in the end."[32]
In the same month Alan and Martin were on their way on a short holiday trip from
Dallas to the Caribbean when their aeroplane got caught in a hurricane.
Martin: "The only thing that was going through my mind at the time was
that my daughter's not going to ever know me! She was only two at the time."[33]
Alan: "After 20 minutes or so, there was a loud bang and I think all the
oxygen masks came down. It was some kind of pressurisation problem. There was a
fair amount of panic and the air-hostesses, tearfully embracing one another,
didn't exactly inspire confidence. I tried to keep calm, and Martin
was like one of these decline prophets: Oh God, we'll all die!
The pilot had to turn around and we sat
through a hair-raising 20 minutes as the plane tried to make it back to Dallas.
Later on, we were reliably informed that had we been at our proper cruising
altitude, this would have been a major incident. We ended up getting blind drunk
in the airport, eventually hiring a private plane at great expense and woke
up in the sunshine of the West Indies with a headache."[34]
In a different source Alan is quoted further on as saying that Martin had been
the one who had hired the private jet, and that he had mixed a sleeping-pill
in Alan's drink because Alan had been so scared of flying.
If this quotation was correct it would be slightly contradictory to Alan's
statement "the relationship that never worked was the one with Martin." And
it's also difficult to understand why Martin said that "Alan definitely was off
on his own." Their relationship was good enough to go on holiday together and
to look after each other. But as it has been mentioned before, maybe it was a
relationship that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't.
In October Dave suffered from a circulatory collapse.
"At the end of the gig I couldn't go back for the encore, Mart had to do a song
solo while all the paramedics rushed me off to hospital. I'd overdosed, I'd
had a heart attack. Next day, we didn't think any more about it."[35]
It's almost sure that it was a circulatory collapse or maybe cardiac arrhythmia
but no heart attack.
In November Martin was arrested because of disturbance
of the peace. "I had a party in my room and there were about 50 people and it was really
loud. The night of the arrest, it was me and a friend and the music was really quiet.
They rang me and asked me to turn it down, so I did. They rang me again and asked me to
turn it down, so I turned it off. Next thing I know there's complete silence and the
police knocked on the door. I stupidly opened it. They burst in, threw me on the bed
and handcuffed me. There was no music whatsoever playing. I think they were out to
get me for the night before. I can't remember much about it. I was really drunk at
the time and it seemed like fun."[36]
According to rumours, all relationships were broken off, everybody was either
stoned, drunk or depressed, and it is said that only swear words were used about
Dave behind his back. It's possible that all these things are correct.
A psychiatrist was in attendance during the first part of the tour.
Alan: "When I look back, it seems incredible that we paid an on-the-road
psychiatrist $4,000 per week to listen to our ramblings - something I think I
instigated. The idea was that he could provide some kind of support for those
people who wanted it - although the real reason was to try to persuade Dave
to come off smack because we weren't confident he was going to make it to
the end of the tour. Ironically, I think everybody went to see the shrink at
some point apart from Dave."[37]
Dave once said that the psychiatrist told them that they had really bad problems
and then left saying he couldn't help them.
(with friendly permission of © Heather Bee)
The band adhered to their "bunker mentality" whatever might be published about
them, and they sometimes gave an impression of being a bit blundering.
Martin: "In Germany, they're writing these stories at the moment that
Dave has AIDS or he's dying or he's on heavy drugs, and it's so funny because
it doesn't actually do us any harm, it sells more records." (laughs) "Anyone
reading it must think 'that sounds really interesting, I've got to go and
buy that'!"[38]
On 23 November the video Devotional was released, followed
by the album SOFAD Live on
6 December.
Alan: "The SOFAD live CD with its particular running order was
a marketing tool instigated by the record company as a deliberate (some might
say cynical) attempt to prolong sales of the studio album of the same name.
Having the identical running order meant that it could be given the same
catalogue number - hence the elongated chart position. I also think that the
general consensus was that it was too soon after 101 to do another
similar live album and anyway, we were putting together a Devotional video
that would give an even greater feeling of a live DM show. As for the choice
of performances; there are many considerations as to what can be used, the most
obvious being the best vocal performance. We couldn't find a decent version of
One Caress using the various 'real' string quartets which accounts for
the sampled one. Most of the hired musicians played astonishingly poorly."[39]
Another five concerts were played in the UK from 12 to 20 December.[40]
Directly after Christmas Steve Lyon and Alan spent three weeks in Milan
programming the tapes for the next leg - because there wasn't any end in sight.
They replaced the intro song Higher Love with a dynamic version of
Rush that started with a frenetic techno sequence. Alan also worked out
some kind of a trip-hop version of I Want You Now which
"the other members of the band didn't hear until it was played on stage"[41], another
point that shows how much work Alan put into the project while no one else in the
band seemed to show any real interest.
References:
[1] recoil.co.uk
[2] Devout Moded, Vox, February 1993. Words: Martin Townsend
[3] recoil.co.uk
[4] Songs of Praise and Emotion, Blue Divide, Volume 2, Issue 1, 2000. Words: Uncredited
[5] In the Mode for Love, Time Out, 4 April 2001. Words: Omer Ali
[6] recoil.co.uk
[7] It's Just Devotion, Press Magazine, 2 March 1994. Words: Andrew Mast
[8] recoil.co.uk
[9] Devout Moded, Vox, February 1993. Words: Martin Townsend
[10] recoil.co.uk
[11] Mode Squad, Creem, April 1993. Words: Jeremy Helligar
[12] Devout Moded, Vox, February 1993. Words: Martin Townsend
[13] The Life and Loves of Depeche Mode, I-D, October 1993. Words: Michael Fuchs-Gambock
[14] In the Mode, Details, April 1993. Words: William Shaw
[15] Ask Martin, Bong 18, April 1993
[16] The Life and Loves of Depeche Mode, I-D, October 1993. Words: Michael Fuchs-Gambock
[17] Mode Squad, Creem, April 1993. Words: Jeremy Helligar
[18] In the Mode, Details, April 1993. Words: William Shaw
[19] Songs of Faith and Devotion EPK / Interview CD, 1993. EPK: taken from The Videos 86-98+, MF042. Interview CD: VERBONG1
[20] Devout Moded, Vox, February 1993. Words: Martin Townsend
[21] In the Mode, Details, April 1993. Words: William Shaw
[22] Devout Moded, Vox, February 1993. Words: Martin Townsend
[23] In the Mode, Details, April 1993. Words: William Shaw
[24] Depeche Mode: A Short Film, EPKMUTEL5, included with The Singles 86>98 promotional box set, PBXMUTEL5. Director: Sven Harding
[25] depechemodebiographie.de
[26] recoil.co.uk
[27] Future Unknown, L.A. Daily News, 21 May 1994. Words: Mark Brown
[28] Penance Extra, NME, 18 September 1993. Words: Gavin Martin / Tattoo Unlimited, NME, 25th September 1993. Words: Gavin Martin
[29] recoil.co.uk
[30] They just can't get enough: One-time synthesiser sissies Depeche Mode are back on song, Mail Online, 3 April, 2009. Words: Adrian Thrills
[31] recoil.co.uk
[32] Future Unknown, L.A. Daily News, 21 May 1994. Words: Mark Brown
[33] Flaunt, May 2001, Words: Tom Lonham
[34] recoil.co.uk
[35] They Just Couldn't get Enough, Q, March 1997. Words: Phil Sutcliffe
[36] Pavement, 16 April 1997. Words: Uncredited.
[37] Just Can't Get Enough, Uncut, May 2001. Words: Stephen Dalton
[38] The Life and Loves of Depeche Mode, I-D, October 1993. Words: Michael Fuchs-Gambock
[39] recoil.co.uk
[40] Dates and events on tour were taken from: Devotional Diary II, Bong 23, December 1994. Words: Daryl Bamonte
[41] recoil.co.uk
