1984-11-30 DRS3, Basel, Switzerland

Notes

When Depeche Mode performed for the first time in Switzerland, on the 30th of November in Basel, radio station DRS3 was allowed to air it live. Radio DJ François Mürner got to moderate this event in his show 'Sounds!', and the show was interjected by interviews with Alan, Fletch and Martin from earlier that day. Some of the songs from the live recording of the concert were later used on various single and remaster releases. The complete report of the event (sans live broadcast of the concert) is estimated to have been about 20 minutes long. We are still looking for the entire report.

• Duration: 08:58 + 05:07 minutes

N.B.: Not only am I not very good at transcribing German, I'm even worse at transcribing Swiss German. I have not transcribed the DJ's 4-minute intro in which he describes Depeche Mode, nor have I transcribed his personal commentary in between questions and answers. I have just translated the questions asked to Depeche Mode, and transcribed their answers. So although I think I have captured the gist of what is being said by the host, I would appreciate if a native speaker could verify the transcript of the host's words.

Audio

Transcript

[Clip 1:]

François: How did the previous concert go?

Alan: Very good, yeah, we were very pleased. We thought our performance was pretty good. There was a small problem with one of the synthesizers, but I don't think anyone noticed. And I think the audience reacted very well and enjoyed it, and it was very good, yeah. François: What would Depeche Mode do when the floppy discs are being rejected by the computers, and so their tunes and sounds are not being played?

Martin: Panic. Luckily, I use an Emulator 1, and I used that on the last tour as well, and we've not had very many problems with that. It's just, just for this tour, Alan started using an Emulator 2, which is sort of, like, pushing it a bit, because they've only just come out. And on the British tour we have had quite a few problems.

François: Do DM ever dream of long solos on a guitar?

Alan: Sorry, Martin can play the guitar quite well.

Martin: And Alan can certainly bash out a steady beat on the drums.

Alan: But no, we just prefer to do it this way, because, in the long run, it's easier to get the right sounds, and it's easier to do it live, with keyboards, really.

Martin: It's not even easier to get the right sounds, it's easier to get interesting sounds. The guitars is very boring, really.

François: Aren't you making musicians unemployed by making music with digital instruments?

Alan: No, I don't... Firstly, I think, they will get a job, because there will always be work for those people. And secondly, you can't find technology. If the technology is there, use it. I think the only thing is, like Martin said, you have to use it in a good way. You have to have the good ideas and as many [clip is cut off].

François: After this techno-scene, there will likely follow an acoustic-revival-scene. How do they feel about this?

Martin: As you say, there is already a slight backlash. There's, like, a jazz revival or whatever, but-

Dave [in the background, sarcastically]: Yeah, there's a jazz revival.

Other people: Wow!

Martin: Yeah, there is. But I don't really think you can fight the technology, though, because it's by far the most interesting thing that is happening. Everything else is just regressive.

[Clip 2:]

François: Depeche Mode. Am letzten Rubrik live auf die Bühne in die Sporthalle St. Jakob, Basel, für über 6000 Leute. Wo, wie man höre, lebe dort sehr ungewöhliche Töne, weil Depeche Mode die Gitarre haben abgespeichert, live am Freitagabend, und konsequent gibt's kein andere Band. Warum die harte Töne: für ihnen, oder von der Studio Genie die hintem ihnen steckt, Daniel Miller?

François (translation): Depeche Mode. As last item, live on stage at the St. Jakob Sporthall in Basel, in front of 6000 people. Where, as you can hear, are sounding very unusual sounds, because Depeche Mode have put away their guitars, live last Friday night, and who consequently have no rivals. Why the hard sounds? Do they come from them, or do they come from the the studio genius behind the band, Daniel Miller?

Martin: It's partly us, and it's partly Daniel. It's actually Daniel's computer, he obviously understands it best. But as we've been working with it now for like 2 years or so, we understand it sort of fairly well, and we're actually able to use it, like, to a certain extent.

François: Plus you already come with melody lines, or they will come from Mute?

Martin: No. Don't ask Daniel for melody lines.

Alan: That is not his strong point.

Martin: Daniel is very good at sounds, and song structures, and things like that, but he's not when it comes to melody.

Alan: Melody and vocals he doesn't really get.

François: Martin Gore schriebt jetzt die meiste liedern, Hits, für Depeche Mode. Wie kommt er drauf? Was heißt zum Beispiel Blasphemous Rumours, ihre neue Single?

François (translation): Martin currently writes the most songs, the hits, for Depeche Mode. How does he get to those songs? What does, for example, their new single Blasphemous Rumours mean?

Martin: All the time I just come across instances where I just expect something to happen and it just doesn't, but I just imagine that God is somewhere, laughing. A famous occasion, if you like, a famous instance, is, me and Andy used to go to church. I was never heavily into it but Andy quite, and every week there was like a prayerlist, and everyone had to sit down and pray for these people who were ill. And every week, the person at the top of the prayerlist died. [laughs] Especially for me, not being a Christian at the time, it always struck me as slightly funny.

François: In England, wo man die Texte besser versteht, war die Text intensiver als bei uns für Blasphemous Rumours. Hätte Martin und Depeche Mode mit Blasphemous Rumours sehr viel Leute geschockt. Ist dass absichtig? Wollte sie mit ihre Texte etwas verändern?

François (translation): In England, where the people there understand the lyrics better, the lyrics to Blasphemous Rumours were found to be a lot more intense than over here. Martin and Depeche Mode have shocked many people with Blasphemous Rumours. Was that intentional? Did they want to change anything with the lyrics?

Martin: When we write songs, we never think that we're going to change anything, it just... I don't like that this has gone a bit quite near [=personal], hasn't it? [laughs] We never intend to change anything, but basically I just write what I'm feeling at the time. And I don't really think about the consequences, I didn't really... At the time, I was a bit naive, I didn't think it was such a strong subject.

François: Depeche Mode gehalt sich, vor allem durch Martin, sie sind kein politsche Band, was soll dass Volk von ihnen? Davon wurden sie furios bereits, dafür fuhlen sie sich verantwortlich:

François (translation): Depeche Mode maintain, especially Martin, that they are no political band, because, why should people care about that? This makes Depeche Mode angry, it makes them feel responsible:

Martin: It's a horrible tag to be called a political band. It's just something that we don't wanna get tied down in.

Alan: It puts so many people off.

[Interview cut]

Martin: ...slightly political, but I think, I'm very naive, I'm very young, I don't really know anything. Who am I to tell everybody, "This is this, this is this", you know? I'm very dubious about politicians as well. Politics is just, like, a dubious subject.

Lineage

The first file was uploaded by DJ François Mürner, which seems to have been the first 9 minutes of this report. The second file was taken from the site blackswarm.de/museodepechemode.com, owned by Dennis Burmeister and transferred by him. The file has been taken down since then.