Demos & Studio Outtakes

This page contains samples of every demo or studio pre-mix which is circulating and that has not been commercially released. Tracks are presented in chronological order by the album they are related to, then ordered according to their original source, if known, and otherwise ordered according to the album's track listing. All demo tracks are provided in their entirety (if available), but studio pre-mixes are limited to a length of 2 minutes and 30 seconds. All tracks are encoded from lossless sources to 96kbps HE-AAC, or in the case of MP3 tracks, cut losslessly using mp3directcut. Only two WMA files from Svenner's demo page (now defunct) were re-encoded to MP3 in order to be able to stream them on this page.

For a listing of demos and tracks which are known to be fake, please see Fake tracks.

Please note that this page does not include the demos which appear on the third disc of the "Sounds Of The Universe" box set as they are officially released.

There are more demos "out there" which are not currently circulating. Known demos are for the albums "Black Celebration" and "Violator" (referred to as its working title "Perversion"). Martin sings lead vocals for all of these demo tracks; the reported track listings are below.

• The "Black Celebration" demo tape reportedly contains: Shake The Disease, Here Is The House, It Doesn't Matter Two, Sometimes, It's Called A Heart, But Not Tonight, and Black Celebration.
• The "Perversion" demo tape reportedly contains: "Mother Me", Enjoy The Silence, Waiting For The Night, World In My Eyes, Halo, Happiest Girl, Sea Of Sin, Blue Dress, Personal Jesus, Memphisto, and Sibeling.

1980 / 1981 Speak & Spell Era

Composition Of Sound demo tape

• Four tracks appeared on Composition Of Sounds' first demo tape. Vince Clarke sings lead vocals, as Dave Gahan had not joined the band yet. The entire demo tape has not yet surfaced; only the four snippets found below are available. These snippets are the original files shared in this thread on depmod, courtesy of Recoil19.

Television Set (Demo)

• Television Set was a very popular track during Depeche Mode's 1981 tour, written by Basildon musician Jason Knott, which explains why the track doesn't appear on any commercial Depeche Mode release. More information regarding the background of this song can be found on the song's page.

Unknown Track (Demo)

• This song is sometimes said to be Sunday Morning, a track reportedly played during very early dates of the 1980 Tour. That has not been confirmed to date.

"Vince + Alison (Demo's)" demo cassette containing Let's Get Together - credit to Basildon: New Town - New Life

Let's Get Together (Demo)

• Unreleased track written by Vince Clarke long before he joined Depeche Mode. Vince is singing vocals here. Depeche Mode rehearsed this track, as can be heard in the ITV television program 20th Century Box filmed in late June 1981 (see here on YouTube), but the song was never performed live and there are no full recordings of the track available. The group Girl Authority covered the song as a single in 2007; watch on YouTube. More information regarding the background of the track can be found on this song's wiki page.

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Summer 1980 Demo Tape

Ice Machine (Demo)

• Andrew Fletcher plays bass in this track.

Radio News (Demo)

• Lyrics available on the Radio News page.

I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead (Flexipop Version)

• This version of I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead is found on a flexidisc that was bundled with Flexipop Magazine, issue #11. The track is referred to as "Sometimes Wish I Was Dead" (missing the first "I"). The track has several differences from the album version, most notably the beginning and the middle sections. You can listen to the entire track below.

1983 Construction Time Again Era

The second generation tape that contains these tracks.

Tracks are ordered as they appear on the second-generation tape these tracks are sourced from instead of the album's track order.

Told You So (Demo)

• The second verse has a different lyric compared to the album version. It sounds like Martin sings "I've gone to shoot the eyelet in the tall church spire" (it is very hard to understand that line, accuracy not guaranteed); the album version says "sights set higher than the tall church spire".

All By Themselves (Demo)

• This demo is a very gloomy, depressing sounding song with subdued vocals which are difficult to comprehend. Lyrics are available on this song's page.

1984 Some Great Reward Era

Master And Servant (Studio Pre-Mix)

• This pre-mix has some female backing vocals which are not present in the final album version.

Alan Wilder's 1984 "Some Great Reward" Demo Tape

The second generation tape that contains these tracks.

• Alan Wilder provided at least four demo tracks for "Some Great Reward". Find more information and a lossless download here. You can click on any song title below to find lyrics.

1985 - 1986 Black Celebration Era

The second generation tape that contains the first three tracks here.

Shake The Disease (Demo)

• Martin's demo version of Shake The Disease closely resembles the album version. The second verse has a different vocal; lyrics are "some people want to be permanently together / lovers devoted to each other forever / that's not what I mean / that's not for us, we want a different scene / but when I'm not there / in spirit I'll be there"

Here Is The House (Demo)

• Martin's demo has a different chorus vocal: instead of "body and soul come together, as we come closer together", the line is "colors and shapes merge together, as we come closer together"

I Love You Love Me Love

• This song appeared on the same tape ("Martin Gore 1985 Home Demos") as the above two tracks, so I am lumping this track in this category. It it unknown why Martin covered this song. It is rumored to have been recorded for a friend as a birthday gift.

It's Called A Heart (Studio Pre-Mix)

The second generation tape that contains pre-mixes of It's Called A Heart and Fly On The Windscreen.

• Other than the different intro, the pre-mix is nearly identical to the single version.

Fly On The Windscreen (Studio Pre-Mix)

• The pre-mix lacks the reverb found in the single version and also has different percussion samples.

World Full Of Nothing (Alternate Version)

• This version was uploaded to Soundcloud (file private/removed) as an "alternate" version with an additional background melody and some different samples. From Svenner's demo page (now defunct); the file below was re-encoded from WMA to be able to stream.

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Dressed In Black (Pre-Release Version)

• This pre-release version of Dressed In Black appears on the 7" vinyl Record Mirror RM1 which was bundled with the February 8th, 1986 issue of the UK Magazine "Record Mirror". The most easily noticed difference is the castanets in the background during certain parts of the song (the excerpt below depicts this). There are some other slight differences, but they are not too noteworthy.

1987 Music For The Masses Era

"Guillaume Tell Studios 1987" low-generation cassette

All of the following excerpts are sourced from a low-generation tape transferred by the webmaster in October 2015. Quality is much improved compared to the previously bootleg-sourced copies which had insanely destructive noise reduction applied, though this tape has its own flaws such as strange volume issues, probably the result of poor automatic gain control on a cassette deck sometime in the generation. Tracks appear based on their order on the tape.

Sacred (Studio Pre-Mix)

• There is an additional synth line not present in the album version, as well as other small differences.

I Want You Now (Studio Pre-Mix)

• The pre-mix is significantly different from the album version; due to this fact, this version is sometimes thought to be a demo, but it is truly a pre-mix.

Strangelove (Studio Pre-Mix)

Martin's backing vocal "it's important" before the line "pain, will you return it / I won't say it again" is present on this pre-mix. It is not present on any mix of Strangelove until the Strangelove '88 single releases, where it is present on the "Hijack Mix" (aka "Tim Simenon / Mark Saunders Remix") and possibly others. The excerpt below depicts this.

1989 Martin's Counterfeit e.p. era

The second generation tape.

Down In The Boondocks

• Martin covered this song for his first Counterfeit e.p. but it did not make the album. As Rico Conning, the co-producer of Counterfeit e.p. recalls on his blog regarding the song:

Martin’s nifty guitar playing was a major revelation. He’d often turn away from the cranky computer, pick up his acoustic and launch into an Everly Brothers song, or even John Denver, and I’d happily join in on harmony. I managed to record one of these jams (without my harmonies), the old Billy Joe Royal classic Down In The Boondocks (written by Joe South). We thought this was great until Fletch came down for a visit and opined “sounds like bleedin’ Dave Edmunds”, so that killed that one. Somehow though it has found its way onto YouTube.

Michael Lyons, Andy Fletcher's brother-in-law, stated:

"This track was fully completed as part of the project but Martin was unable to obtain the relevant permission for releasing it as part of counterfeit." "[This track was] originally recorded and included on the very early Mute studio tapes."

The version below is sourced from a second generation tape (see right photo), and is likely the best you will hear.

Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth (Flexidisc Version)

• A flexidisc attributed to Depeche Mode containing a cover of the Ron Mael track "Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth" was sent to members of the official fan club around Christmas 1987 (Discogs info). It differs somewhat from the version later released on Counterfeit e.p., but it sounds very similar to how the track was performed live during the final two legs of the 1987-1988 Music For The Masses Tour.

1989 - 1990 Violator Era

The second generation tape that contains the Halo pre-mix.

Enjoy The Silence (Demo)

• The "Harmonium" mix of Enjoy The Silence closely resembles this original demo version. That version of the track is basically a re-recorded version of the demo, included at Martin's insistence.

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Interlude #3 (Studio Pre-Mix, entire track)

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1995-1997 Ultra Era

Barrel Of A Gun (Demo / Rough Mix)

• This version of Barrel Of A Gun is strikingly similar to the final album verison, but has Martin singing lead vocals. There is also an instrumental break in the middle of the song not found in the album version.

Sister Of Night (Demo)

• Martin singing over an acoustic guitar. Only this short 30-second snippet is available as an MP3; the track was speed-corrected and normalized, then encoded as WAV to prevent further quality loss. I am told that this is not what appears on the "Ultra" demo tape, so this may be some sort of fake.

2001 Exciter Era

Freelove (Studio Pre-Mix)

• No guitar; from Svenner's demo page.

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2009 Sounds Of The Universe Era

Hole To Feed (Early Studio Version)

• This is an early, strongly synth-driven, studio version of the track.

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Fragile Tension (Studio Pre-Mix)

• This pre-mix / rough mix is seemingly identical to the album version, although the penultimate verse misses Martin's backing vocals; the excerpt below illustrates this. The rumor is that a remixer was the origin of this leaked track.

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Come Back (Early Studio Version)

• This is an early studio version of the track, quite different than the "demo" found on the third CD of the "Sounds Of The Universe" box set. Like Hole To Feed above, it is primarily synth-driven. This is personally my favorite version of the track.

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References

• Svenner's demo page contains further information about demos as well as some info about unreleased mixes, fake demos claimed to be Depeche Mode's, some backing track samples, etc. Two samples are from his site and are credited as such. The page seems to be defunct now.