The Blah Brothers

Band members

• Andrew "Nobby" Marr - vocals, tambourine, saxophone
• Daryl Bamonte - keyboard, keytar, drum pads

History

first concert in Warsaw

second concert in Denver

third concert in Salt Lake City

The Blah Brothers was a band active from 1985 till 1986, during Depeche Mode's tours in those years. The band consisted of Depeche Mode's crew members Daryl Bamonte (Equipment/stage manager, Backline) & Andrew "Nobby" Marr (Stageset operator). This was not a real band, but an "emergency" band created for Depeche Mode's tours whenever they needed a support act. Daryl says that they performed 6 times in total, but only 4 dates are known.

The first Blah Brothers concert happened at 1985-07-30 Torwar Hall, Warsaw, Poland: Depeche Mode were behind the Iron Curtain for the first time that year. They were not allowed to earn any money with this gig since it was still behind the Iron Curtain, and they presumably did not know any Polish bands that could be their support act. So, The Blah Brothers was created on that day. A fan who filmed the entire concert by Depeche Mode on this day had also filmed a minute's worth of footage of the Blah Brothers: this can be watched and downloaded here. Daryl has also uploaded that same footage on his YouTube channel and on MySpace. He also uploaded four audio excerpts of this gig on MySpace. In the intro, tour manager Andy Franks can be heard announcing the band, and says that they are "from Basildon".

The following concert was not until 1986 when The Blah Brothers had to perform on two consecutive nights, at 1986-07-01 Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Denver, CO, USA and 1986-07-03 Park West, Salt Lake City, UT, USA. Presumably, these concerts were relatively large gigs for Depeche Mode, and even though Book Of Love was already scheduled as a support act for all 1986 gigs including these, it was nevertheless decided to have The Blah Brothers on stage too, before Book Of Love.

The final gig took place on 1986-08-04 Arènes de Frejus, Fréjus, France. Eyeless In Gaza were asked to be Depeche Mode's support act for six concerts, but were only informed of this on August 3rd, a day before their first support gig. This band drove from the UK to Fréjus but arrived fifteen minutes too late, so The Blah Brothers had to go on instead.

Songs, style, and equipment

Looking at the video and audio uploads on their MySpace channel, The Blah Brothers had at least four songs: "Theme From Blah", "Listen To My Name", "Life Is A Game", and "Bullerjahn". In the photo section of the same site, a photo of concert organiser Karsten Jahnke has been uploaded, with the caption "There is only one word to describe this man - "Bullerjahn"", which would suggest that the eponymous song was named after Jahnke, or vice versa.

Since The Blah Brothers were not active on their own, it can be assumed that the efforts put into the band was minimal. The Blah Brothers probably did not rehearse or work on songs until they were scheduled to perform before Depeche Mode. Since they used a lot of Depeche Mode's equipment, their sound would have been quite similar to that of Depeche Mode. Smash Hits magazine, reviewing Depeche Mode in Fréjus, wrote that "they sound like a weedy version of Blancmange, with every song having the same drumbeat and squealing saxophone (not to mention a singer who sounds like he’s got a ton of cement lodged at the back of his throat)."

The song excerpts from Warsaw '85 reveal keyboard sounds that sound just like those of Depeche Mode: the photo of them at this concert (see right) indeed shows Daryl using Andy Fletcher's keyboard. Another photo on their site (see right), from them at Red Rocks in Denver in 1986, shows Daryl Bamonte hitting Andy Fletcher's drum pads. However, the photo of The Blah Brothers in Salt Lake City (see right) shows that they also had a tambourine and keytar on stage, which were not used by Depeche Mode. The quote from Smash Hits above also mentions a saxophone being used, also not used by Depeche Mode.

Dissolution

Andrew Marr appears to have stopped working as a stageset operator for Depeche Mode after 1986, since he is not credited in the list of crew members in the crew's 'Music For The Masses' tourbook, meaning that The Blah Brothers could no longer exist. Daryl Bamonte continued working for Depeche Mode in numerous roles up until 1995. Andrew now works as a prop hand for British TV movies. Daryl is a manager for several bands and is involved in a band called Compact Space.

Links

The Blah Brothers' MySpace page

bamonte.com

Andrew Marr's IMDB page