#andyfletcher

DEPECHE MODE: THE CONCERT IN PASADENA

To Hal Morris

1988. Four blokes from Basildon, England, are about to put fire to the Rose Bowl Stadium of Pasadena, CA. In the air resonates the heady, obsessive, hypnotic instrumental ‘Pimpf’. The event has begun. Gigantic curtains of light colors, transluscent, hide and show the performers. 70 000 people, young people for most of them, have paid their ticket to hear and see a band which is not their compatriots, far from there, and for Dave, Martin, Alan and Fletch, they’re not home either. But it’s a wedding night. England and America. Like the Beatles in their time. I’m sure each people at the Rose Bowl that night secretly knew they were crossing a line after which there was no coming back. Depeche Mode’s birth date is that June 18th of 1988. And Depeche Mode is nothing else but a revolution in the history of music.

Second title: the dry beat of ‘Behind the Wheel’ plays as the perfect support to the introducing of the amazingly deep barytone of a young man, Dave Gahan. All dressed in white under a black leather jacket, he will soon demonstrate his skills as one of the sexiest, most appealing lead singers to have burst on the scene. The transe will last for more than two hours. Some of us never went down of it…

After Pasadena, Depeche Mode will have reached the pick of the few millions copies sailing groups. They’ll turn the world after each album in stadiums or huge concert halls. Despite the dramatic accident of Dave Gahan with drugs, in 1993, and Alan Wilder breaking up in 1995, the three left Depeche Mode – Dave, Martin, Fletch – maintained their success at its highest until now.

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