Stripped: Depeche Mode [Hardcover]

Depeche Mode are among the world's best-selling synth-led groups, selling in excess of 40 million albums. From Basildon boys to globetrotting stadium superstars, clean cut to drug-fuelled and back again, Depeche Mode have done it all and survived - quite literally in the case of vocalist Dave Gahan. By 2002, they had toured the world twice over, playing to a combined audience of over two million people, collecting numerous awards along the way. For this biography, the author has carried out exclusive interviews with founder member Vince Clark and producer Gareth Jones, and has included previously unpublished interview material with the band members themselves. Friends and family have also assisted Miller in unravelling Depeche Mode's unconventional working dynamic and artists including Gary Numan, Howard Jones and Thomas Dolby have helped to set the electronic music scene that Depeche Mode have come to preside over.

As implied by its title, ‘Stripped: Depeche Mode’ aims to reveal how, against all odds, Depeche Mode became the world’s most consistently successful synth-led group – indeed, one of the world’s best-selling groups (with over 40 million albums sold to date) – achieving fame, fortune and that elusive musical nirvana of longevity and respectability while remaining loyal to their integrity and independent label roots. As well as being a striking word in itself, ‘Stripped’ just so happens to be the name of Depeche Mode’s 15th consecutive UK hit single, reaching number 15 in February 1986 and, as such, is a particularly apt title for this exciting endeavour.

From Basildon boys to globetrotting stadium superstars, teenage bubblegum synth popsters to seriously popular late-thirty ‘serious’ musicians, clean-cut to drug-fuelled and back again, Depeche Mode have done it all, and survived – quite literally so in the case of vocalist Dave Gahan.

Despite being written off as early as 1981 when, dissatisfied with the promotional and touring rigmaroles, then-principal songwriter Vince Clarke unexpectedly departed immediately following the release of their lightweight debut LP, ‘Speak & Spell’ (going on to find fame with Alison Moyet in Yazoo and longevity with the Erasure), the remaining members of Depeche Mode joined forces with classically trained keyboard player Alan Wilder and admirably reinvented themselves as purveyors of dark, yet somehow uplifting songscapes that have become their latter-day trademark. For a while, Depeche Mode looked unstoppable, first conquering Europe, then, when the time was right, America. World domination status effectively came following the conclusion of their 101-date ‘Music For The Masses’ world tour in front of a 65,000-strong audience at Pasedena’s Rose Bowl in California on June 18, 1988 (captured for posterity on the ‘101’ rockumentary by filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker of Bob Dylan’s ‘!
Don’t Look Back’ fame).

What goes up usually comes down. Following 1993’s difficult ‘Songs Of Faith And Devotion’ album, the 158-show trek to over two-million fans took its toll in more ways than one, not least Wilder’s 1995 dramatic departure, put down to "dissatisfaction with the internal relations and working practices of the group." Doom merchants again predicted Depeche Mode’s disbanding, not least because of Gahan’s substance abuse. They were nearly right.

Yet come 2002, a fully revitalised Depeche Mode has released two more multi-million selling studio albums and twice toured the world to total audiences approaching two million people. With a host of accolades, including the inaugural Q Innovation Award, a new award "which recognises creativity, invention and courage in the face of adversity" (to quote ‘Q’ magazine), Depeche Mode has truly ascended to the hallowed ranks of rock’s aristocracy.

What’s the secret of Depeche Mode’s success? How have they managed to live long and prosper when almost all their contemporaries have long since fallen by the wayside? These are just some of the taxing questions that author Jonathan Miller attempts to tackle through exclusive interviews with founder member Vince Clarke, engineer-cum-producer Gareth Jones (who, together with Mute Records founder Daniel Miller, has played a pivotal role in shaping Depeche Mode’s unique sound over the years) and latter-day producer Mark Bell, plus a wealth of hitherto unpublished interview material with Miller and the band members themselves. Friends and family members have also assisted the author in unravelling Depeche Mode’s unconventional working dynamic that has served them so well. Meanwhile, various pivotal artists like Gary Numan, John Foxx and Karl Bartos (ex-Kraftwerk), whose names will probably forever remain synonymous with synthesizers, help authentically set the electronic music scene that Depeche Mode have come to undisputedly preside over – Thomas Dolby kindly co-wrote the book’s introduction, for example.

MillerMusicAndMedia.com

Born out of the post-punk backlash in the early '80s, Depeche Mode took their name from a phrase in a French style magazine and became the definitive international synth pop group. Vince Clarke, Andy Fletcher and Martin Gore had started out as an Essex guitar band but it was their bright and upbeat synthesizer-driven brand of pop fronted by Dave Gahan that was to find global acceptance and enjoy unlikely success in the US.

Despite a handful of early plaudits in the music press, the group won only intermittent critical acceptance over the years, its often light musical approach contrasting with lyrics that sometimes okunge into darker topics like S&M, religious fetishism and the scourge of capitalism. But whatever the music press said, the fans finally bought into Depeche Mode in a big way. Their ‘Violator' tour at the start of the 90s sold millions of records and turned them into major US concert stars.

In true rock style, Depeche Mode's members have suffered their share of internal strife over a long career. Dave Gahan reinvented himself as a lead singer with both a harder musical edge and a near-fatal drug habit, while internal acrimony often marred the later stages of their career.

Jonathan Miller has made an exemplary job of telling the Depeche Mode saga in its entirety and goes a long way towards explaining how the group have managed to thrive when almost all of their post-punk contemporaries fell by the wayside long ago.

An electrifying new biography about the four Essex lads who became award-winning stadium superstars and champions of synth pop!

Jonathan Miller's groundbreaking book features in-depth interviews with founder member Vince Clarke and producers Gareth Jones and Mark Bell, and contains never-before-seen interviews with the band members themselves.

With additional input from Gary Numan and Thomas Dolby, this is an unique portrait of a band that almost lost control when their lives went off the rails and lead singer Dave Gahan's heroin addiction nearly killed him. In the end Depeche Mode not only survived, they triumphed, racking up a staggering 40 million+ album sales on the way.

This is their amazing story, told in full for the first time...

Jonathan Miller is a British freelance writer with over 100 features and articles in print.