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. This live recording was later used on an official DM release. Martin, Fletch and Alan also gave interviews that day.
- Duration: 05:07
N.B.: Not only am I not very good at transcribing German, I'm even worse at transcribing Swiss German. 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
Host: 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?
Host (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.
Host: 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.
Host: Martin Gore schriebt jetzt die meiste liedern, Hits, für Depeche Mode. Wie kommt er drauf? Was heißt zum Beispiel Blasphemous Rumours, ihre neue Single?
Host (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.
Host: 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?
Host (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.
Host: 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:
Host (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
This 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.
