1990-03-20 Wherehouse record store incident

The Wherehouse record store incident was an incident in which Depeche Mode were infamously forced by the Los Angeles police department to evacuate a record signing event to promote their newly-released album Violator due to an unexpectedly high turnout of approximately 20,000 people. The fans' collective disappointment at the group's early departure resulted in near-riot conditions. Seven attendees reportedly suffered minor injuries due to being pressed up against store windows, and a mass of fans spanning six blocks outside the store created a major traffic hazard, necessitating a police presence the Los Angeles police chief described as the "biggest police operation since the Presidential visit." The incident is considered a major historical event for Depeche Mode, cementing their newly-established dominance over America and heralding a new decade of commercial success and prosperity for the British group.

Aftermath

As an apology to fans who were inconvenienced or suffered minor injuries as a result of the incident, approximately 25,000 copies of a promotional cassette were reported by Spin to have been produced at Daniel Miller's direction. The cassette included a selection of interviews recorded at the time of and following the event, as well as the Metal Mix of 'Something To Do', which had not previously been available on any official release in the United States. Depeche Mode fans in the Los Angeles area were instructed by local radio station KROQ to mail in a stamped self-addressed envelope in order to receive the cassette.

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Media coverage

Footage of the in-store event recorded prior to the band's evacuation was included in a feature on American entertainment news show After Hours in June 1990.

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Quotes

Dave Gahan: "It actually got quite scary. The whole thing got a little bit out of control. There was no way we could have known that there was going to be so many people turn up. They have these huge glass windows and fans were pushing up against the window. You could feel the atmosphere in the place building up. We just all kind of looked at each other and said, 'We gotta get out of here!'"

Martin Gore: "Eventually it got so out of hand that the police told us to leave. So we went back to the hotel, switched on the TV and there we were all over the nationwide news."

Dave Gahan: "[We] all sat down together and we flicked through all the news channels and it was like, 'English rock band Dee-Pesh Mode tonight stopped the traffic!'" [laughs] "It was really funny watching it all."

Music journalist Ted Mico described the chaos in the August 18th issue of Melody Maker:

[...] Modettes were spread over six square blocks and literally ground the entire city to a standstill. Nothing like this had happened in L.A. for years - even when U2 shot their video for 'Where The Streets Have No Name' on a Downtown roof. Depeche Mode bigger than Jesus? Not quite, but they'd give Bono a run for his money and are taken as seriously and followed as fanatically here as The Cure or New Order are in Britain.