101
This  double live album  had different working titles such as  "Mass" or "A brief period of rejoicing"  but finally ended as 101 for the 101st concert and last concert in the ROSEBOWL, Pasadena. In France, this album was later re-released as "Total Live", because of an ever-increasing demand  for a "best of".

Agent Orange
Agent Orange is a defoliant, one of an array of herbicides sprayed over Viet Nam between 1962 and 1971 by US military forces. Chemical defoliants, which destroy vegetation, were used to deny Vietnamese forces protective cover and lay waste to the country's food supply. Agent Orange, one of the most extensively used herbicides, accounted for almost 60% of the total volume sprayed over Viet Nam.
At the end of "Agent Orange"  you can hear some morse code, and this signalwas mistaken as a distress signal saying "If anybody can hear this, please help me", but the translation of the morse code heard doesn't give a sentence that has a real sense.

A Question of Lust
In the cover of "A Question of Lust"  lot of people thought it was Alan kissing that woman , but it isn't him, it's a model used for the photo cover ( it was confirmed in Alan website's: Shunt)

A Song for Europe
"A Song for Europe" is a song of Roxy Music covered by David Gahan in the tribute album to Roxy Music called  Dreamland Heartaches....

Big Muff
The Big Muff is an Electro Harmonix distortion pedal.

Birth dates

  • Martin Lee Gore : July 23th 1961.
  • David Gahan : May 9th 1962.
  • Andrew John "Fletch" Fletcher : July 8th 1961.
  • Alan Charles "Slik" Wilder : June 1st 1959 (left Depeche June 1st 1995)
  • Vincent Clarke : July 3th 1960 (left Depeche after Speak & Spell Tour)
check up Band Info / Recoil section and Erasure section in this site for more infos...

Black Celebration
At the beginning of Black Celebration you can hear a sample of a strong deep voice which is in fact  a sample of Daniel Miller doing his best impression of Winston Churchill saying : "A brief period of rejoicing".

But not tonight
There is  a 12" that has "But Not tonight" on side A instead of "Stripped" , it's the American release because  Sire Records decided at the last moment to flip the roles of the songs and made "But not tonight" the A-side and "Stripped" the B-side, due to the inclusion of the "But not tonight" track in the film "Modern Girls".  Depeche Mode  weren't too happy about it.

Bong
BONG is the reference  code on the  CD of Mute Records about DM which allow to identify all the english  singles  (since Leave In Silence). Bong is also the name of the official fan club of the band as well as its magazine...

Christmas Island
Christmas Island, republic of Kiribati, central pacific ocean. One of the Line Islands, it is the largest atoll in the Pacific. Explored in 1777 by Captain James Cook, it was annexed by Great Brittain in 1888. The island was an air base of the U.S. during World War II and served as a base for British nuclear tests in 1957-58 and for U.S. nuclear tests in 1962. Area, about 575 sq km, population (1985 preliminary) 445.

Chronicles
Chronicles was the working title for at least three years of the Japanese box sets which were finally released as X1 and X2 by Alfa Records.

Clarke, Vince
Writer of most of the first LP of Depeche Mode : "Speak & Spell" , Vince Clarke will fade out real quicly and is now  member of Erasure , with Andy Bell .
There are some continuous rumours always coming  about Erasure such as Erasure being the guest in a DM concert or VInce Clarke not letting the band play Just can't get enough live..
Vince also was a member / founderpart of a few other bands...

  • Yaz(oo) : With Alison Moyet
  • The Assembly : With Eric Radcliffe
  • Erasure : With Andy Bell (still together)
check up Erasure's section in this site...

Contract with Mute Records
It wasn't until Black Celebration that Depeche Mode signed a legal contract with Mute Records. Prior to this all with Daniel Miller were made with nothing more than a handshake and a gentleman's agreement. Now they have consequtive one-album contracts with Mute Records to cover mainly what would happen in the event that Daniel Miller might die. Along with this, they also hold contracts with the other record companies that distribute their albums.

Counterfeit
Solo album of Martin Gore made of covers of other artists such as the  Sparks and many others...
check up Martin L. Gore section for more info...

Corbijn, Anton
The big success of Depeche Mode visual appearance is thanks to this guy from Holland  who , as time went on, has become a close friend of the band
He made for them many albums and singles covers, such as also videos and official pictures.
He worked for long time only in Black and white for his videos and start doing color videos with Depeche Mode for:" Enjoy the Silence" which was a real big success
He workds also with many other artists such as U2, and some others ...
as for a good reference to Corbijn's work you should check these books :

  • "Strangers" (only about Depeche Mode)
  • "Famouz" where Corbijn made many portraits of celebrities such as David Gahan to Clint Eastwood, and also U2 and many more...
DEPECHE MODE
The name Depeche Mode comes from the french fashion magazine that is also called "Depeche Mode".As David Gahan was in an arts school  he knew that magazine.as he found the name real good, and believed the name meaned "FAST FASHION" they took Depeche Mode as a name for the band instead of Composition of Sound ( their previous name) .
The magazine still exists and the name of the magazine doesn't mean FAST FASHION at all, it means: the NEWS ABOUT FASHION  , and in all these years i've been a fan i've never seen the mag speaking of the band... isn't that strange???
As for information, it seemed that while the band was choosing for another name for the band instead of Composition of Sound
one of the few names they had intentions to use was LEMON PEELS , thanks god they kept Depeche Mode instead !!!

E.P.
Extended Play.

Erasure
See Clarke , Vince
check up Erasure's section in this site

Fletch  (Fletcher Andrew)
Nickname given to Andrew Fletcher
for more infos check up Band info section in this site...

Fletch in the summer tour
Fletch never let the band, but Daryl Bamonte replaced him for the live performances during that tour, because Fletch had to take care of financial bussiness at that time and his wife giving birth.

Gahan , David
See David's Bio in the Band Info Section in this site ...

Gascogne
"Gascogne"is the name of Fletch's Restaurant  and here is its  address : 12 Blenheim Terrace, NW8, OEB, North London.
And there is also the "GASCOGNE BAR", 12 Blenheim Ter, NW8 London, NW8 0EB, +44 (0)171-625 7036, +44 (0)171-625 7034

Gore, Martin
Here are the songs performed by Martin L. Gore in studio with Depeche Mode sont les suivantes :

    • Speak And Spell :

      • Any Second Now (Voices)
    • A Broken Frame :

      • Shouldn't Have Done That (in duo with Dave)
    • Some Great Reward :

      • Somebody - It Doesn't Matter
    • Black Celebration :

      • A Question Of Lust - Sometimes
      It Doesn't Matter Two - World Full Of Nothing
    • Music For The Masses :

      • The Things You Said - I Want You Now
      Route 66 ( B-side of Behind the Wheel)
    • Violator :

      • Sweetest Perfection - Blue Dress
      Enjoy The Silence (harmonium)
    • Songs Of Faith And Devotion :

      • Judas - One Caress
      Death's Door (B-side of Condemnation)
    • ultra :

      • Home - The Bottom Line
      Insight (Duo with Dave)
    • The Singles 86>98
       Surrender ( Duo with Dave)
    • Exciter
      Breathe
      Comatose

       

    for more infos about Martin check up Band Info section on this site or Martin Gore's section...
Grabbing hands Music
This is the name of the company that publishes the songs and lyrics of Martin Gore .Of course the name is taken from the song  "Everything counts".

I feel you
There are  numbers , written in the symbols , on the sleeve of the single "I feel You", each symbol represents a band member, and the numbers in the corner refer to their birthdates in the DD/MM/YY format.

Interludes
Here are the differents names of the interudes in Depeche Mode 's albums :

  • Interlude on "Music for the masses" after "Pimpf" : Mission impossible.
  • Interlude on "Violator" after "Enjoy the silence" : Crucified.
  • Interlude on "Violator' after "Blue dress" : Interlude No. 3.
It's No Good
Peter Rauhoffer is the one who made the famous "Club 69" mixes on US 12" of It's No good

KMFDM
KMFDM is the name of a band from whiwh a rumour said that theinitla of the band name  mean "Kill Mother Fucking Depeche Mode", but its real mùeaning is : KEIN MITLEID FUR DIE MENHRHEIT which means  death to majority / to the power , in german .

Lee
that's the L. you see on DM  albums and singles of DM between  Martin & Gore .

L.P.
Long Play

Love is the drug
"Love is the drug" is a song of "Roxy Music" performed by  David Gahan whe he plays on flipper in the "101" video .
here are the lyrics singed by David :
"Lumber up, limbo down
The locked embrace, the stumble round
I say go, she say yes
Dim the lights, you can guess the rest".

Memphisto
The name  Memphisto is a small hommage to the town  where the King Elvis was born ( in the band they like some of the King's songs...)  and is being mixed with the name Mephisto which is a shorter name to the devil named Mephistopheles ... maybe showing there's evil in being a too blind fan of any artists...

Miller, Daniel
Founder of the music label record Mute Records that he created and still directs... He was the producter of all DM albums until 1987 ( Music for the Masses)

MODEified
It's a project started on BONG that would accept covers of DM songs to be compiled on a tape - a fans tribute album.

Mute Records
It's the independant Music label created by Daniel Miller. The other artists that are In Mute Records are  Erasure, Recoil, Nick Cave, Moby...  and many others...

Nicknames
there is  Fletch, for  Fletcher or  Slik & Ron Fellini for Alan Wilder.

Oberkorn
Oberkorn (it's a small town) is the B-side of  'the Meaning of love' ,and Oberkorn is a town located in Luxembourg

Personal Jesus
Personal Jesus was the name of a book written by Priscillia Presley about her life with the King and the way she called him in privte: her own personal Jesus., Martin Gore just found that nickname she gave to Elvis funny and took it as an idea for the song.

Pimpf
"Pimpf" was one of several youth organizations created by the Nazis in Germany. The pimpf organization was for 6 to 10 year olds who were making their way into the Hitler Youth.
I wanted also to say that i have no nazi ideologies, i just like the instrumental song and the way it sounds, that's why i used  it as my nickname a few years ago...

Pleasure, Little Treasure
In the glitter mix version of Pleasure Little Treasure from 4:18 to 5:02 ( quite at the end of the song) you can hear a sample which has been  reversed and slowed up.in this sample  you can hear Andy saying "It could probably work" and what sounds like Martin saying "Back to Back".

Policy Of Truth
12" The Trancentral mix on the is completely different than the trancentral mix on CD
This is another printing error, track 5 on the CD should be titled "pavlov's dub". Another printing error is "Violater" in stead of "Violator" on the single reissues.
here are  some other errors :

  • Another printing error is omitting "Photographic" from the track listing of the "Some Great Video's video
  • Another printing error is that the full title of "Waiting for the night" was supposed to be "Waiting for the night to fall"
  • Another printing error is that one of the "Enjoy the silence" mixes is missing on some of the Double Japanes Violator CD's
  • Another printing error is on the German "In your room" 12", the tracks on the back of the sleeve are completely wrong !
  • The UK cd of WIME was originally detined to be a 3"CD, so the songs were edited down to fit on a 3"CD. Mute never fixed this problem, so the uk pressing of WIME is quite unique.
and there are still some other ones ...

Here are some interesting facts about  Policy of Truth :

  •  The lovely woman on the sleeve of the single is supposed to be .... Suzanne , Martin Gore's wife
  • Many  samples are  present in the mixes of Policy Of Truth  : "Everybody can't get what they want", "I'm not a politician, I'm a businessman", "I want to tell you my side of the case". These last ones are taken from a speach of  vice-president Nixon , said in  1952  to explain  himself about the financial scandal in which he was impliqued at that time
Redflag
Redflag is a band  which has released  many songs looking like  what Dm did in the 80's just like  "I confess", "Violence" or "I feel no guilt". The voice of the singer is real close to David Gahan's voice and their music is real close to what DM used to do for  Construction Time Again, Some Great Reward, or Black Celebration.

Recoil
Recoil is the personal project of Alan Wilder and his actual work also. His last  album, "Unsound Methods" is quite surprising ,and quite far from all usual standards of Pop music . He enjoys doing this kind of music in which he seems to fulfill his big talent...
The official website of Alan Wilder is called  Shunt and it  contains lot of intersting stuff and news...  In his site Alan dismiss al the false rumours about  DM  or even say to the internauts about thehis current work and how his project is going on... the important thing and the most remarkable one  is that it is Alan himself who answers to fans questions and who takes a bit of time to involves himself in the website...
check Recoil Section in this site  to learn more about it

Rumours
Rumours are spreading a lot on the internet  but you have to be cautious of most of their contents cause most of the time they're not true... let's say the most suppposed rumours are: the Band memebers are gay OR Martin Gore had a car accident  OR David Gahan rgets back into drugs OR that the band has finally decided to split, of course this last one is repeated at each time the band releases a new album...
Here is an example of rumour about the release of Ultra in  1996 et concerne Ultra and its supposed tracklisting :
The new title album of Depeche Mode is  : _Words_
Songs: "Within Reach" "No Good" "Barrel of Gun" "Amen" "Get It On"

Sibeling
Sibeling except being close to the word Sibeling which means familly and and expressing those feelings..  it is in fact a hommage to an artists from Finland called John Sibelius that Martin likes a lot...

Slik
Alan is called Slik because of the way he looked when he started with Depeche Mode. David, Fletch and Martin called him that because of two reasons.

  • Alan used to slick his hair back, brill creme style, like some sort of sophisticate [or at least to early 1980's Basildon teens]
  • Alan seemd so much more mature and wordly and experienced than themselves, so they referred to him as Slik.
Songs  never released
    • I Like It  : A cover of a song originally done by Gerry And The Pacemakers.
    • The Price Of Love  : A cover of a song originally recorded by The Everly Brothers.
    • Reason Man  : Early Vince Clarke composition, apparently not performed after 1980.
    • Television Set : Written by a friend of Vince and was performed as late as 1981 on the Speak & Spell Tour.
    • Ghost Of Modern Time  : Actually titled Addiction. What is being sung in the chorus is ".. closer all the time..". Supposedly the Yazoo song "Don't Go" is based on this.
    • Tomorrow's Dance  : A cover, but the original artist is unknow.
    • Down In The Boondocks   : Originally by Billie Joe Royal
    • I Love You Love Me Love   : Originally by Gary Glitter.
    • Radio News : Not much is said about this one. Never recorded.
    • Mouldy Dough : A cover of a '70s song, originally by Lieutenant Pigeon.
    • Secrets : Later became Yazoo's "Unmarked".
    • Mirror Is Standing : The band doesn't remember this song.
    • Then I kissed Her : A cover of a 650's song done by The Crystals, originally titled "Then he kissed me".
    • Sunday Morning : One of the early Composition of sound songs that was performed only two or three times. Sung in the style of a hymn-like chant.
    • Mamma Mia : A cover of an ABBA song that was done to the "Photographic" backing tape.
    • Operator : Title was later changed to "Puppets".

    Songs  covered by Depeche Mode members
    • Moonlight Sonata : Originally written by Ludwig Van Beethoven.
    • Route 66 : Originally written by Robert William Troup.
    • Compulsion  : Originally written by Joe Crow.
    • Gone  : Originally written by Comsat Angles.
    • In A Manner Of Speaking  : Originally written by Tuxedomoon.
    • Motherless Child  : A traditional song (also performed by Boney M) .
    • Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth  : Originally written by Sparks.
    • Smile In The Crowd  : Originally written by Durutti Column.
    • Faith Healer : Originally written by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band.
    • Dirt : originally written by Iggy Pop while he was in the Stooges
    • A Song for Europe : originally written by Bryan Ferry / Roxy Music

    St Jarna
    St. Jarna is the result of a printing error on behalf of the record company. It should have been "stjarna", which is the Swedish word for "Star".

    Stumm
    STUMM is the reference code used on MUTE CD's that allows to identify the english albums.

    The Ocean Song
    The Ocean Song is the song written by David Gahan but that was never been officially recorded , because it didn't fit to the concept of the album ULTRA.

    To Have And To Hold
    What is being said in Russian at the beginning of

    • In Russian : "V dokladah rassmatrivayutsya evolyutsiya yadernyh arsenalov i sotsial'no-psihologicheskiye aspekty (problemy?) gonki vooruzheniy".
    • In English : "Evolution of nuclear arsenals and socially-psychological aspects (problems) of arms race is considered in these reports"

    Tora!Tora!Tora!
    Tora!Tora!Tora! is actually about the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour. It means Tiger Tiger Tiger and it was the Japanese code for KILL.

    Tours  of DM

    • Pre-Speak & Spell : May, 1980 to September 1980.
    • Speak & Spell Tour : October 1980 to November 1980.
    • See You Tour : Februari 10th, 1982 to April 3th 1982.
    • A Broken Frame Tour : October 3th 1982 to December 14th 1982.
    • Construction Time Again Tour : September 5th 1983 to April 1984.
    • Some Great Reward Tour : September 23th 1984 to July 1985.
    • The Celebration Tour : March 29th 1986 to August 16th 1986.
    • The concert For The Masses Tour : October 1987 to June 18th 1988.
    • World Violation Tour : May 28th 1990 to November 27th 1990.
    • The Devotional Tour : May 19th 1993 to December 20th 1993.
    • The Exotic Tour : Februari 9th 1994 to April 16th 1994.
    • Devotional Summer Tour - USA|94 : May 12th 1994 to July 8th 1994.
        check  DM on Tour section in this site  to learn more about it...

    Ultra hidden track
    the name of the 12th  track on album ULTRA  is called "junior painkiller",which is a small part of  the B-side of "Barrel of a Gun". It's just not credited on the CD, not really hidden.

    Wilder , Alan
    He worked with some other bands alsoappeared on some other peoples recordings.

    • Daphne & The Tenderspots : Disco Hell (single 1979)
    • Real To Real : Tightrope Walkers (Album 1979)
    • The Hitmen : Bates Motel (single 1980)
    Alan Charles Wilder has been a member of  DM from 1982  until 1995 after his departure after the Devotional /Exotic Tour .
    He's the writer of the following songs for DM  :
    "Two Minute Warning" /  "The Landscape Is Changing" /  "If You Want" /  "Fools" / "In Your Memory"

    He also helped in the writing of the following songs:
    "The Great Outdoors" /  "Work Hard" / "Christmas Island" / "Black Day" / "Stjarna"

    As for his departure from Depeche Mode there have been many hypothesis  which had been diffused but the only one valuable is the exact message of Alan for his departure from DM :

    Here is Alan 's letter and reasons for his departure from DM
    "Due to increasing dissatisfaction with the internal relations and working practices of the group, it is with some sadness that I have decided to part company from Depeche Mode. My decision to leave the group was not an easy one particularly as our last few albums were an indication of the full potential that Depeche Mode was realising. Since joining in 1982, I have continually striven to give total energy, enthusiasm and commitment to the furthering of the group's success and in spite of a consistent imbalance in the distribution of the workload, willingly offered this. Unfortunately, within the group, this level of input never received the respect and acknowledgement that it warrants. Whilst I believe that the calibre of our musical output has improved, the quality of our association has deteriorated to the point where I no longer feel that the end justifies the means. I have no wish to cast aspersions on any individual; suffice to say that relations have become seriously strained, increasingly frustrating and, ultimately, in certain situations, intolerable. Given these circumstances, I have no option but to leave the group. It seems preferable therefore, to leave on a relative high, and as I still retain a great enthusiasm and passion for music, I am excited by the prospect of pursuing new projects. The remaining band members have my support and best wishes for anything they may pursue in the future, be it collectively or individually."
    1st June, 1995.

    For more info about Alan and Recoil check out Recoil's section in this site