Unreleased recordings

This page details studio and concert recordings known to have been recorded and/or mixed in preparation for a potential release that have yet to be made available on an official basis. Please bear in mind that due to the limited publicity naturally given to unreleased material, this is not an exhaustive list. Click here to view a list of all songs known to have been recorded or performed by Depeche Mode that have yet to be officially released.

Unreleased songs

Addiction

This song was performed during the 1980 Tour, and only one decent audience recording of this song exists from 1980-11-14 Technical College, Southend-On-Sea, Essex, England, UK. This date may have been the song's only live performance.

Sunday Morning

'Sunday Morning' is a early live-only track performed by Composition Of Sound prior to their final name change to Depeche Mode. It was performed only two or three times on early dates of the 1980 Tour and features a hymn-like vocal chant. It is mentioned in BONG magazine, issue 24 by Daryl Bamonte; see scan below. No live recording of this track is available.

Mirror Is Standing

'Mirror Is Standing' is an early live-only track, presumably performed on very early dates of the 1980 Tour. It is mentioned in BONG magazine, issue 24 by Bamonte. No live recording of this track is currently available.

Radio News

'Radio News' is an unreleased Vince Clarke-penned song by Depeche Mode that appears on the Summer 1980 demo tape. It was played at several early live concerts. Currently, 1980-09-20 Crocs, Rayleigh, Essex, England, UK is the only confirmed performance. The track was refutably described by Bamonte in BONG magazine, issue 24 as having never been recorded.

The entire song is available for streaming here. A lossless version is also available for download on the Summer 1980 demo tape page.

Reason Man

'Reason Man' is assumed to have been written by Vince Clarke. It is unknown why it does not appear on Speak & Spell as an album song or B-side. It was only performed during the 1980 Tour, and only one relatively poor audience recording of this song exists from 1980-10-30 Bridge House, London, England, UK (which happens to be the earliest circulating genuine recording of Depeche Mode).

A stream of the entire track, as well as lyrics transcribed to the best of our ability can be viewed here. 'Reason Man' is also mentioned by Bamonte in BONG magazine issue 24.

Secrets

'Secrets' is a early live-only track, presumably performed only on very early dates of the 1980 Tour. It is also mentioned in BONG magazine issue 24 by Bamonte. It is alleged by some that 'Secrets' was later reworked by Clarke into 'Unmarked', an album song on Yazoo's second and final studio album.

Tomorrow's Dance

'Tomorrow's Dance' is assumed to have been written by Vince Clarke. It is unknown why it does not appear on Speak & Spell or as a B-side. It was only performed during the 1980 Tour, and only one poor quality audience recording of this song exists from 1980-10-30 Bridge House, London, England, UK (which happens to be the earliest genuine Depeche Mode recording currently in circulation). The entire song as well as a transcription of its lyrics are available here. 'Tomorrow's Dance' is mentioned by Bamonte in BONG magazine issue 24 on page 18.

Summer 1981 Intro

The 'Summer 1981 Intro' is an instrumental concert intro confirmed to have been played at concerts between 1981-07-23 The Venue, London, England, UK and 1981-08-02 Jenkinsons, Brighton, England, UK. The instrumental resembles a slowed down version of 'Shout'. It is possible that this intro was also played at the following concert, 1981-08-05 Rafters, Manchester, England, UK, but the only available recording begins about thirty seconds into 'Television Set', so it cannot yet be determined whether it was played on this date.

Violence

'Violence' is the first of four songs featured on Alan Wilder's 1984 "Some Great Reward" demo tape. The track does not appear on any official release and has never been performed live. The song is available to stream here.

I Feel No Guilt

'I Feel No Guilt' is the third of four songs included on Alan Wilder's 1984 "Some Great Reward" demo tape. It does not appear on any official release and has never been performed live. The entire track is available for streaming here.

Until You've Sown The Seed

'Until You've Sown The Seed' is the final of four songs included on Alan Wilder's 1984 "Some Great Reward" demo tape. The song is unique as it lacks an official title and as a result is known by several fan-given titles. It is occasionally listed as 'Cliché' due to the song's tongue-in-cheek lyrics, and is also commonly mislabeled as 'Until You Saw The Sea' on some bootleg releases. This title does not make sense when considering the context of the lyrics, and is presumably the result of a misheard lyric which translated to a mislabeled song title on bootleg releases. This scenario is likely, as the song was only available as a poor quality recording prior for some time. 'Until You've Sown The Seed' does not appear on any official release and has never been performed live.

Love And Trust

Dave Gahan told Rolling Stone France magazine about the first song that he wrote at the end at of the 1980s: "My first song, I wrote it a long time ago with a guy named Daryl [Bamonte]. It was called 'Love And Trust'. Frankly, it was not due to the group's lack of interest [that it was not released], I simply did not insist." No recording of this song currently circulates.

Down In The Boondocks

Martin Gore covered this song for his first Counterfeit e.p. but it did not make the album. As co-producer Rico Conning recalls on his blog:

Martin’s nifty guitar playing was a major revelation. He’d often turn away from the cranky computer, pick up his acoustic and launch into an Everly Brothers song, or even John Denver, and I’d happily join in on harmony. I managed to record one of these jams (without my harmonies), the old Billy Joe Royal classic Down In The Boondocks (written by Joe South). We thought this was great until Fletch came down for a visit and opined “sounds like bleedin’ Dave Edmunds”, so that killed that one. Somehow though it has found its way onto YouTube.

Michael Lyons, Andrew Fletcher's brother-in-law, stated on the Home forum:

"This track was fully completed as part of the project but Martin was unable to obtain the relevant permission for releasing it as part of counterfeit." "[This track was] originally recorded and included on the very early Mute studio tapes."

A second generation copy of 'Down In The Boondocks' is available for streaming here.

Mother Me

The demo for 'Mother Me' appears on the "Perversion" demo tape and features Martin Gore performing lead vocal duties. The demo does not currently circulate and its lyrics are not known.

Schism

'Schism' is an instrumental that bears a resemblance to 'Oh Well'. It was created and demoed for the Delta Machine album. Further information on the Delta Machine demos, along with a download, can be found here.

Toast Hawaii

Toast Hawaii is an unreleased solo album recorded by Andrew Fletcher singing cover versions of his favorite songs, accompanied by either Alan Wilder and/or Martin Gore on piano.

See more Andrew Fletcher | Toast Hawaii

Unreleased live recordings

1982-03-30 Rainbow Club, Oberkorn, Luxembourg

This concert was professionally filmed by RTL Luxembourg. On December 6, 2020, RTL Today published an article about this concert along with 2 minutes and 14 seconds of concert footage; the footage is of Just Can't Get Enough, New Life, and See You, in that order.

On May 28, 2022, in memoriam of Andrew Fletcher who had passed away two days prior on May 26, 2022, RTL Luxembourg published pro-shot videos of three songs in full: See You, New Life, and Just Can't Get Enough, in that order. The video footage can be watched on RTL's website, and is available for download here.

It is currently unknown whether more video footage or audio from this concert exists and is still viable for preservation.

1982-10-25 Hammersmith Odeon, London, England, UK

This concert was filmed for Mute Records, as stated in the December 1982 issue of the December 1982 issue of the Depeche Mode Information Service newsletter. The intention was to offer this recording to DMIS subscribers on video cassette, but neither that nor an official release of the video had occurred.

However, the video was eventually broadcast on a Danish television station and has since been shared online. In early 2020, a PAL DVD of the video, sourced from a pre-broadcast Digibeta version, surfaced and became available for streaming and download here

'Monument', 'Shout', 'Photographic', and 'Dreaming Of Me' were not featured on the aforementioned video recording. It is my hope that they were filmed and hopefully will appear on a future official release.

1984-09-29 Empire Theatre, Liverpool, England, UK

'Two Minute Warning', 'Somebody', 'Ice Machine', 'Told You So', and 'Everything Counts' from this concert were officially released on the 'Blasphemous Rumours' single as B-side tracks. While the existence of additional audio recordings from this concert remains uncertain, I remain hopeful for their eventual official release.

1984-12-09 Alsterdorf Sporthalle, Hamburg, Germany

This concert was filmed for the video release The World We Live In and Live In Hamburg.

11 songs from this concert were also prepared for radio broadcast. Notably 'Ice Machine', which does not appear on any official video release, was prepared for broadcast. 'Puppets' from this concert has no recording circulating to date, including audience recordings.

1986-04-10 N.E.C., Birmingham, England, UK

'Black Celebration', 'Something To Do', 'Stripped', 'A Question Of Time' and 'More Than A Party' from this concert were officially released across various editions of the 'A Question Of Time' single release, the X2 box set, the Black Celebration reissue, and as part of the iTunes The Complete Depeche Mode compilation.

You can find the most complete and best-sounding FM broadcast recording, created from multiple sources, available for download here.

July 14th, July 15th 1986, Irvine Meadows, Irvine, CA, USA

The two-night stint at Irvine Meadows was recorded for a planned live album release, according to an interview with the band on NRJ Radio in France, October 1986. Alan Wilder said "the time wasn't right and [we] wanted to get back into the studio to record a new album".

1988-01-11 Wembley Arena, London, England, UK

This show was recorded with intent to broadcast on Capital Radio FM as a part of the "NatWest Live Action Concert Series". However, due to the upcoming release of the 101 film, this plan was shelved. The recording has found its place within the archives of The British Library.

1988-06-18 Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA, USA

Depeche Mode's famous 101st and final concert of the 1987-1988 Music For The Masses Tour at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. A documentary and double live album, 101, was released of the concert.

Unfortunately, the 101 documentary does not include the complete footage of the concert. However, you can watch 90-second video snippets of the performance on Vimeo.

Additionally, for more information about this gig, you can watch a brilliant special feature on the official site's archives titled "Archives Special: A Concert For The Masses, June 18, 1988".

1990-08-04 Dodgers Stadium, Los Angeles, CA, USA

You can enjoy 90-second clips of every song from the concert on depechemode.com. Additionally, for this particular night, there is very good soundboard audio sourced from the NTSC VHS tape recorded by the Dodgers Stadium crew, which is available here.

October 21st, October 22nd, October 23rd 1990, Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, Paris, France

Reportedly, one concert during Depeche Mode's three-night stint in Paris 1990 was recorded for a live album release. Several fans reported seeing mobile recording units outside the venue. All three nights have good to very good sounding audience recordings available.

1998-10-05 Cologne Arena, Cologne, Germany

MTV recorded and aired nine tracks from this concert. However, according to Jody's diary entry, the entire show was recorded. The diary is quoted below:

After a much needed day off on Sunday we flew to Cologne yesterday and played in a brand new venue, the Koln Arena. We were the first international band to play there - all went extremely well. MTV filmed the whole show and were most pleased. They will be editing their footage down to make two specials which should be aired on MTV soon!

A flawless soundboard recording of nine tracks, reportedly sourced from the DigiBeta master that MTV Italy used for their television broadcast of this recording, is available here. An excellent pro-shot DVD of unknown lineage is also available here; this source is a broadcast source, not a pre-broadcast.

It is unknown whether any further footage of the concert exists in MTV's archive or the band's official archive.

1998-12-12 KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas, Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA, USA

You can find pro-shot video excerpts from this concert on Vimeo. Additionally, a very good soundboard recording, sourced from a silver CD bootleg, is available here.

2001-06-30 First Union Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Three tracks from this show appeared on the 'Freelove' single DVD. Among these tracks, only a video rendition, filmed by Anton Corbijn, of the song Freelove is included, while The Dead Of Night and Breathe are included in audio-only format.

Additionally, an excellent 7-track lossless soundboard recording, containing interim mixes, is available for streaming and download here.

There is also a 5-track FM broadcast, likely sourced from an in-house promotional CD; the quality is great, but unfortunately, it's only available as a 320kbps MP3. You can find it here.

2001-07-23 E Center, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Soundboard recording excerpts of several tracks from this concert circulate online and are mirrored here.

2003-05-07 Mayan Theatre, Los Angeles, CA, USA

The final concert of Martin Gore's brief 2003 "A Night With Martin L. Gore" tour has a professionally mixed soundboard recording. It is unknown whether a release was ever planned. A snippet of 'Sweetest Perfection' from this soundboard recording is available for streaming.

2005-12-09 Patriot Centre, Washington, DC, USA

This concert was filmed by video director Blue Leach, and the three singles ('Precious', 'A Pain That I'm Used To', and 'Suffer Well') were released for promotional use to EMI affiliates around the world. These pro-shot video clips are particularly notable as they share visual similarities with the official Live In Milan DVD, except for the video effects added in post-production.

'Precious' and 'Suffer Well' are available on the concert’s page in high quality, sourced from a MiniDV tape; however, 'A Pain That I'm Used To' is unfortunately not present on that tape. The best quality version available for 'A Pain That I'm Used To' is the "high" bandwidth copy on depechemode.com's website back in 2006, available here on archive.org, but it's only at a paltry 15 frames per second with a resolution of 320x175 and 22khz audio – making it a tough watch. The remainder of the concert video is not available.

April 2nd, April 3rd 2006, Wembley Arena, London, England, UK

These shows were recorded by Live Here Now as a test-run for the (then) upcoming series of live releases; the recordings were mixed but never released.

2006-05-10 Starlight Amphitheater, Kansas City, MO, USA

After Martin Gore sang his two songs in the middle of the set, Dave Gahan didn't return to the stage. The band started playing 'In Your Room', but stopped it after a few seconds. Gore went on to play several more songs solo. This concert was recorded by Live Here Now but is unreleased to date. An anonymous poster on the Home forum informed DM Live (edited for clarity):

I know LHN recorded this, because I went up to the mixing desk and [personally asked an audio engineer] if the [recording] would be released, [to] which he [replied] "I hope so."

2009-05-06 Rockhal, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

This show (and the rehearsal the day before) were recorded by Live Here Now, but never released.

References

Note: Some background information on this page was compiled from the "Home" forum post "It's a Question of World Violation Footage" (registration required to view).