the autograph collection of
Brian Borup
Depeche Mode
CEU - September 24th 1996
This one was really unexpected. I wasn't even going to go see Depeche Mode but my good friend, Andrea, called me asked if I wanted to see
them and even go backstage. She was working at X-96 at the time. Some how they ended up with extra backstage passes. So, of course I wanted to go!
This was the first time that I have actually gotten a backstage pass. The whole experience was kind of weird. The concert was at the Delta Center so they had us go down in the basement into this long narrow room that looked more like a hall way. They gave us the rules: no touching and only one thing can be signed. (I really didn't want to touch them anyway.) I guess the previous night they had had some trouble with the fans in Denver. So they were just being a little cautious. Then they had us line up against the wall.
A few minutes later the band members came through the door. David Gahan was the first. He's the only one missing from the picture above.
My backstage pass was on my Depeche Mode Violator CD. When he signed the pass, the pen accidentally got on the CD case also. He was really
apologetic. (And of course I could have cared less that he got ink on the case.) But it was still funny that he was apologizing for it. The
other band members signed it also.
In the picture below that's me on the left, then Andrea, Kristen (from "Bitch and Moan"), Kristen's friend, Alan Wilder (who left DM and now has a new group, Recoil), Martin Gore, and Andy Fletcher. The picture was taken by the record company rep and sent to Andrea, she gave me a copy.
About Depeche Mode
Originally a product of Britain's new romantic movement, Depeche Mode went on to become the quintessential electro-pop band of the 1980s;
one of the first acts to establish a musical identity based completely around the use of synthesizers, the group began their existence as
a bouncy dance-pop outfit but gradually developed a darker, more dramatic sound which ultimately positioned them as one of the most
successful alternative bands of their era.
The roots of Depeche Mode (French for "fast fashion") dated to 1976, when Basildon, England-based keyboardists Vince Clarke and Andrew Fletcher first teamed to form the group No Romance in China. The band proved short-lived, and by 1979 Clarke had formed French Look, another duo featuring guitarist/keyboardist Martin Gore; Fletcher soon signed on, and the group rechristened itself Composition of Sound. Initially, Clarke handled vocal chores, but in 1980 singer David Gahan was brought in to complete the lineup; after one final name change to Depeche Mode, the quartet jettisoned all instruments excluding their synthesizers, honing a slick, techno-based sound to showcase Clarke's catchy melodies.
After building a following on the London club scene, Depeche Mode debuted in 1980 with "Photographic," a track included on the Some Bizarre Album label compilation. After signing to Mute Records, they issued "Dreaming of Me" in early 1981; while neither the single nor its follow-up "New Life" caused much of a stir, their third effort, "Just Can't Get Enough," became a Top Ten U.K. hit, and their 1981 debut LP Speak and Spell was also a success. Just as Depeche Mode appeared poised for a major commercial breakthrough, however, principal songwriter Clarke abruptly exited to form Yazoo with singer Alison Moyet, leaving the group's future in grave doubt.
As Gore grabbed the band's songwriting reins, the remaining trio recruited keyboardist Alan Wilder to fill the technological void created by Clarke's departure; while 1982's A Broken Frame deviated only slightly from Depeche Mode's earlier work, Gore's ominous songs grew more assured and sophisticated by the time of 1983's Construction Time Again. Some Great Reward, issued the following year, was their artistic and commercial breakthrough, as Gore's dark, kinky preoccupations with spiritual doubt ("Blasphemous Rumours") and psychosexual manipulation ("Master and Servant") came to the fore; the egalitarian single "People Are People" was a major hit on both sides of the Atlantic, and typified the music's turn towards more industrial textures.
1986's atmospheric Black Celebration continued the trend towards grim melancholy, and further established the group as a major commercial force. After the superb single "Strangelove," Depeche Mode issued 1987's Music for the Masses; a subsequent sold-out tour yielded the 1989 double live set 101, as well as a concert film directed by the legendary D.A. Pennebaker. Still, despite an enormous fan base, the group was considered very much an underground cult phenomenon prior to the release of 1990's Violator, a Top Ten smash which spawned the hits "Enjoy the Silence," "Policy of Truth" and "Personal Jesus."
With the alternative music boom of the early 1990s, Depeche Mode emerged as one of the world's most successful acts, and their 1993 LP Songs of Faith and Devotion entered the charts in the number one slot. However, at the peak of their success, the group began to unravel; first Wilder exited in 1995, and then Gahan was the subject of a failed suicide attempt. (He later entered a drug rehabilitation clinic to battle an addiction to heroin.) After a four-year layoff, Depeche Mode -- continuing on as a trio -- released 1997's Ultra, which featured the hits "Barrel of a Gun" and "It's No Good."
-- Jason Ankeny, All-Music Guide
Other Depeche Mode CDs
