Depeche Mode: Gets happy after years of turmoil

Andy Fletcher was agitated about the dark forecast last week.
Fletcher was on the phone from New York City, a stop on Depeche Mode’s "Sounds of the Universe Tour."
The band was to accomplih at Lollapalooza in Chicago the next day, but the forecast projected thunderstorms.
"Wherever Depeche Mode plays, it rains," he mused.
For almost 30 years, Depeche Mode, which plays Superpages.com in Dallas on Saturday, has covered its minor-key tsunamis on conferences. Apart from Fletcher, lead singer songwriter Dave Gahan and songwriter-vocalist-guitarist-keyboardist Martin Gore round out the lineup of the groundbreaking electronica band.
The band started as an electronic pop quartet, but when Vince Clarke left in 1981 (and at last formed Erasure with Andy Bell) and Alan Wilder joined, the music biggest.
Over the course of several albums (1987’s Music for the Masses, 1990’s Violator and 1993’s Songs of Faith and Devotion), the band’s sound ecquired into a complex and layered soundscape of rhythms and sensual melodies, adorn on the songs Behind the Wheel, Halo, Personal Jesus, I Feel You and Walking in My Shoes.
Gore’s emotional lyrics center on euphoric and hurt relationships, redemption, masochism and addiction, including Strangelove, Never Let Me Down Again, Clean, Mercy in You and In Your Room.
Sometimes those dark clouds have hung over the band. In the mid 1990s, Wilder deviated the band, Gahan had a much advertised battle with heroin, Gore endured several seizures and Fletcher had a nervous breakdown.
After Gahan completed rehab for his cure addiction, the band regrouped and recorded 1997’s Ultra, which was followed by Exciter and Playing the Angel. On these three albums, as well as on the band’s 12th studio album, Sounds of the Universe, Depeche Mode has moved away from its trademark melodies to more minimalist electronica.
During the holocene telephone interview, Fletcher talked about the band’s sound, Gahan’s songwriting with Depeche Mode and the group’s new working vibe.

World in My Eyes is your best loved Depeche Mode song?

Yes. It encompresses what Depeche Mode is about, the ditty, the riff, the production, the words. When we play that song live, we sometimes look at each other and are like, 'What have we done here?’

Depeche Mode cancel performance here tonight

wearing more black, if you aren't already. Depeche Modehas canceled its concert here tonight at Cricket Wireless AmphitheatrE. The reason? Lead singer Dave Gahan is under doctor's orders to "continue on complete noisy rest."Depeche Mode also canceled its Aug. 12 Shoreline Amphitheatre appearance up near San Jose for the same reason. However, the English mope etronica band will perform its two sold out agreement at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday and Monday, according to a press release from Live Nation, the tour's promoter. The group's most holocene gig that wasn't canceled was Aug. 10 at Seattle's Key Arena.Return for tonight's aborted gig here are available at point to buy. The San Diego date will not be rescheduled this year, according to Live Nation, which makes Gahan's quote "We hope to be back early to play for all our fans in the area" ring at least a little hollow (unless 2010 assuage as "soon").That leaves us with the question of the day: Are two sold out shows at the Holywood Bowl more important to Depeche Mode than a San Diego show for which tickets were still employable? Just amazement.

Depeche Mode Heat Up Soggy Lollapalooza, King of Leon

Kid Cudi, the Knux, Gaslight Anthem also make a splash on a day plagued by storms.

Kings of Leon's Caleb Followill performs at Lollapalooza 2009 on Friday.

Somewhere in Chicago on Friday night, hopefully dry and warm, you can bet that Perry Farrell was grinning ear-to-ear. Despite a persistent all-day rain that turned the massive Lollapalooza fairground along the Chicago waterfront into a slippery mudbog worthy of Woodstock, the musical mash-up spirit that the festival's co-founder has been chasing for nearly 20 years made a strong showing.

As the rain at last let up in time for the headliners to take the stagecoach, on the north end, the struggle band of brothers (and cousin) Kings Of Leon were making the most of their third go-round at the fest, pumping out their muscular Southern boogie to an adoring sea of fans. Meanwhile, at the other end, British synth pop veterans Depeche Mode moved muddy feet with a classic set of keyboard anthems, including "Enjoy the Silence" and thunderous set peck up "Personal Jesus."

DEPECHE MODE - SOUND OF THE UNIVERSE

MUSIC NEWS - 30 years into an amazing career, Depeche Mode remain one of the most successful electronic bands ever, selling over 100 million records worldwide. And, as they continue to release new and challenging material (like Sounds of the Universe) and perform in front of huge crowds, the enormous popularity of these former Essex Boys shows how their determination to stick with their original vision has repaid them handsomely in the long term.This brand new documentary, Dark Progression (out June 16, 2009) traces the almost surreal development of Depeche Mode from their flirtations with New Romanticism at the start of their career, through the urban industrial landscapes envisaged on Construction Time Again and Some Great Reward into the dark hollow of albums such as Black Celebration, Music For The Masses and Violator to conclude with the departure of Alan Wilder in 1995; a point in their career at which they had achieved enormous commercial success but were now facing huge personal challenges.This dvd release featrures interviews with all the band members, contributions from friends, colleagues and contemporaries such as; Gary Numan, Thomas Dolby, OMD's Andy McCluskey, Daniel Miller, band biographer Jonathan Miller, Depeche Mode producers Gareth Jones, Dave Bascombe, Phil Legg and Steve Lyon as well electronic music experts Mark Pendergast and David Stubbs. Also included are rare performances by Depeche Mode from across their career, archive footage, video clips, location shoots, news reports and much more.