1981-04-28 Sweeneys, Basildon, England, UK

Notes

Seymour Stein, cofounder of Sire Records, has attended this concert. He said in Simon Spence's DM biography:

"Several months later [after befriending Daniel Miller] I'm up early in New York and I read - I think it was in the NME - that Daniel Miler signed Depeche Mode, and they're playing their first gig. I look and - oh, shit, it's tonight, he wouldn't sign anything unless they're great, too. So I call up British Airways and get a seat on Concorde. In those days I wasn't flying Concorde and I had to pay a very exorbitant price because it was last minute. Most people would have thought I was crazy to do this. I hadn't heard a note, but I booked it. I saw the band and they were brilliant. What I liked most about them, aside from their material, was the fact that even though they were young and really not that experienced they put on a good show. Most of the bands that were coming out of that genre, no matter how good the records were, they weren't exciting live. That's where Depeche Mode had the big difference, plus the material. It was fabulous. I said: Daniel, I want to sign this band. Rod Buckle was there. We did a deal right there. I was very excited. I knew I had signed a band that would become very important. I just felt it in my gut. I remember feeling so good about it."

Stein also said in the documentary for the Speak and Spell remaster DVD in 2006 (with Martin Gore commenting):

"I called my office, I said, "Look, if I get on the Concorde - I just have a hunch about this - if I get on the Concorde and come over, can you guys pick me up and take me to Basildon?" And I said, "You know where it is, it's right off the A1", which of course it wasn't. But they knew where it was, fortunately, at least I had the town right, and I saw them. At that point, there were similar bands around, but I don't know how you could watch them for an hour without falling asleep. Depeche Mode were the first of those bands that were so fucking great live that it was just amazing."

Martin: "We were really shocked that someone from New York would bother to come all the way to Basildon to see us."

Andy Fletcher said in the March 1993 issue of American 'Raygun' Magazine:

"Seymour Stein supported us from the very beginning. He was actually there before Stevo (Some Bizarre) and Daniel. He came to see us in some small club in Basildon. Here was this big U.S. record company president that signed the Talking Heads and the Pretenders coming to this small club that held about 150 people. We didn't even have a dressing room. We had to meet him on the stairway. He signed us from that first single. He's quite an incredible character. Warner Bros has been really good for us [in America]."

Daryl Bamonte in Steve Malins' Depeche Mode biography:

"He came to Sweeney's disco in Basildon in late April '81. This New York guy who'd discovered Madonna - he came to Basildon! Sweeney's wasn't a very leftfield kind of place. It was a full-on Basildon disco but the manager of the place realised Depeche Mode were happening. The band love characters and Seymour Stein was a riot. I remember he took us out for a Chinese dinner and held court with all these fantastic stories about the music business. He became very fond of the group and felt very involved in them, although once they became big the Warner Brothers machine started to take over."

Vince Clarke remembers in Jonathan Miller's biography:

"When Daniel was sorting out different deals for us in Europe, Mute wanted to get an American deal, so Seymour flew over to a gig in Basildon. He said, 'By the way I like that song 'The Price Of Love' that you do - it's REALLY good!"

DJ Ian Ritchie was the support act.