Dave Gahan and Martin Gore will be with us in the coming days for two Depeche Mode concerts. Their show in Quebec, Sunday evening, will occur 30 years after the famous altercation at the Château Frontenac which had led to an appearance by Gahan at the courthouse. What should we know about this band that was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020? The newspaper presents you with seven facts.
• Read also: Praises for the new concert of Depeche Mode, which will come to Quebec and Montreal in a few days
1) Appearance and concert
In September 1993, Depeche Mode made headlines twice with its visit to Quebec. Arrived at the Château Frontenac the night before the concert, the musicians had had trouble with the security service of the hotel, then with the police, due to a power cut planned by the establishment. Singer Dave Gahan and his bodyguard Daryl Levy even had to appear at the courthouse on the day of the show for assault and obstructing police work. The charges had been dropped. In the evening, the approximately 7,000 spectators saw nothing but fire with a flawless performance by the musicians. Depeche Mode has only returned to Quebec once since these events: June 11, 2001 at the Colisée Pepsi.
2) An acclaimed new album
On March 24, Depeche Mode launched its 15e career album: Memento Mori. The album was the first to be written without keyboardist Andy Fletcher, who died in May 2022. The record soon received critical acclaim. The aggregator Metacritic.com, which counts professional reviews, gave it an overall rating of 85/100. “An absolute triumph,” wrote The Quietus, who gave it a perfect score. “Their most powerful work of this century,” said Uncut.
3 ) A tour without Andy Fletcher
Fletcher’s sudden departure last year – from an aortic dissection at the age of 60 – could have spelled the end of Depeche Mode. But the two remaining founding members, Dave Gahan and Martin Gore, decided to roll up their sleeves and hit the road again. In its new concert, the group plays its successes and some new titles for two hours. There again, the echoes of the first concerts were very positive.
4) Dave Gahan remplace Vince Clarke
Considered a co-founder of Depeche Mode, Vince Clarke did not last long with the group. The musician collaborated on the band’s first album, Speak & Spelleven writing their first success, Just Can’t Get Enough. In November 1981, however, he announced his departure from the group, because he lived badly with the public aspect of the job. It was enough for Dave Gahan to take the microphone left vacant by Clarke.
5) Martin Gore the mastermind
Due to his outgoing nature and presence on stage, singer Dave Gahan is often the face of Depeche Mode. But you should know that almost all of the band’s songs were written by guitarist Martin Gore. We owe him, in particular, the successes Enjoy the Silence, Personal Jesus, People Are People et Policy of Truth. Gore also wrote most of the tracks on the new album, Memento Mori.
6) A belated success in America
Depeche Mode had some dance hits on this side of the Atlantic in the early 1980s. People Are People, in 1985, that the group succeeded in breaking through to the general North American public. The song then rose to 13e place on the Billboard Hot 100. Three years later, the band was filling the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, California to capacity. No less than 60,453 spectators attended, an impressive feat considering that Depeche Mode had so far only had one song in the Top 40 in the United States.
7) Au Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
For Depeche Mode, the third time was the good one. After being nominated in 2017 and 2018, the group was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020, along with the likes of Whitney Houston and Nine Inch Nails. The British have not stolen their place since they have sold more than 100 million albums in their career. The magazine Q also included Depeche Mode in its list of 50 bands that changed the world.
Depeche Mode will be performing on Sunday (Centre Vidéotron de Québec) and Wednesday (Centre Bell de Montréal). depechemode.com