Blasphemous Rumours

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Notes

Martin Gore tells WLIR in 1986:

"['Blasphemous Rumours'] was mainly inspired from the early days of the band or even before the band got started, when Andy and Vince were regular churchgoers, and I just used to go along because they were my friends. I just thought it was quite interesting. I was never a practicing Christian, although they were. And when you're not involved in it, I think you really notice the hypocrisy and just the funny side to things. One thing I often quoted is this thing called the "prayer list": every week they would sit and pray for people who were seriously ill, and you could guarantee that most of them, the majority of the people who they prayed for, would die. But they took that as, like, being very, very positive, that was "God's will" and "They've gone to somewhere better". And it's just, when you're not part of it, it just seems very ridiculous, very funny. I know a lot of people out there are not gonna agree with me."

Andy Fletcher told the 18th May 1985 issue of No.1 Magazine:

"The song 'Blasphemous Rumours' stems from our experiences then. There was a prayer list of people who were sick in some way and you'd pray for the person on top of that list until they died. When Martin first played me 'Blasphemous Rumours' I was quite offended. I can see why people would dislike it. It certainly verges on the offensive."

Alan says in the November 1984 issue of International Musician And Recording World:

"We sampled some concrete being hit for what turned out to be the snare sound. All that entailed was us hitting a big lump of concrete with a sampling hammer. The engineer / producer we use, Gareth Jones, has got this brilliant little recorder called a Stellavox which we use with two stereo mikes and it's as good as any standard 30ips reel-to-reel but this is very small and therefore very portable. So we just took the Stellavox out into the middle of this big, ambient space and miked up the ground and hit it with a big metal hammer. The sound was… like concrete being hit. I can't really put it any other way."

Throughout this track, an "arr, arr" sound can be heard that can be heard at the beginning of 'Something To Do' as well. When Alan Wilder was asked about this on Shunt, he replied:

"I can't really remember exactly - you are asking me about a sound made about 14 years ago! It sounds like it was a piece of speech put through a modular synth (possibly some other effects) and distorted. I would think it was then sampled and reproduced from either the Emulator or Synclavier."

Quotes from the documentary on the DVD of the Some Great Reward remaster from 2006:

Neil Ferris: "The problem came with Blasphemous Rumours: that was a very, very difficult record, and there were a lot of people who felt that that song, lyrically, and just the title of it, that the record shouldn't be on the radio. And we did struggle with radio play, and there were certain people who objected to playing it, and they made their feelings very strongly known."

Dave Gahan: "Alternatively, over in the States, it got played. You know, stations out here in Long Island, WDRE, played us, started to play it, on the sort of underground, alternative stations."

When Depeche Mode was interviewed about the songs on the '101' CD for the April 1989 issue of French magazine 'Best', Martin Gore said (translated from French):

"Of all of our songs, this is one that gets the most response. I'm not just talking about live on stage. Although it's a track that is starting to age, I continue to receive letters from fans who tell me about it. Nowadays, they tell me they like it. But when it was released, I received a lot of letters from people who were shocked by the lyrics. They wanted to have 'Blasphemous Rumours' banned on the radio."

Dates with available recordings of Blasphemous Rumours

There are currently 197 recordings of Blasphemous Rumours available.

Dates where Blasphemous Rumours was played

1984-1985 Some Great Reward Tour

Blasphemous Rumours was played 81 times during this tour.

1986 Black Celebration Tour

Blasphemous Rumours was played 75 times during this tour.

1987-1988 Music For The Masses Tour

Blasphemous Rumours was played 101 times during this tour.

1990 World Violation Tour

  • Blasphemous Rumours was not played during this tour.

1993 Devotional Tour

  • Blasphemous Rumours was not played during this tour.

1994 Exotic Tour

  • Blasphemous Rumours was not played during this tour.

1997 Ultra Parties

  • Blasphemous Rumours was not played during this tour.

1998 The Singles Tour

  • Blasphemous Rumours was not played during this tour.

2001 Exciter Tour

  • Blasphemous Rumours was not played during this tour.

2003 Paper Monsters Tour (Dave Gahan solo)

  • Blasphemous Rumours was not played during this tour.

2003 "A Night With Martin L. Gore" (Martin L. Gore solo)

  • Blasphemous Rumours was not played during this tour.

2005-2006 Touring The Angel

  • Blasphemous Rumours was not played during this tour.

2009-2010 Tour Of The Universe

  • Blasphemous Rumours was not played during this tour.

2013-2014 Delta Machine Tour

  • Blasphemous Rumours was not played during this tour.

2017-2018 Global Spirit Tour

  • Blasphemous Rumours was not played during this tour.