1981-04-26 Lyceum, London, England, UK

Notes

This night was organised by Mute, called the 'Mute Night, Silent Night'. Furious Pig, Palais Schaumburg, NON, Depeche Mode and Fad Gadget played in that order.

Daniel Miller told the NME beforehand:

"I fought against the idea of a Mute night for years. There were all these Rough Trade tours and Factory nights – I hate all that corporate idea. But Fad Gadget and Depeche Mode wanted it, [Lyceum's promotor] John Curd phoned me up and in a moment of weakness I said yes. There aren't even enough Mute bands to fill the whole bill!"

Jäki Eldorado, tour manager for DAF and tour manager for DM's first tour in Germany, said:

"I went with Palais Schaumburg to the first Mute festival in London. Called 'Mute Night, Silent Night at the Lyceum', the event took place on one Sunday in April in '81. Frank Tovey, a.k.a. Fad Gadget, headlined, and I met Depeche Mode there for the first time. Boyd Rice had not received a visa for England so he instead played over the telephone. He punished the audience with his white noise and everything, and all done over the phone. Next on the bill was Depeche Mode, who looked exactly like their own fans; they'd secured a support slot with Daniel's help."

Thomas Fehlmann elaborates:

"I first met Depeche Mode in 1981, when they'd just released the first or second single. Daniel Miller had invited the band I was in at the time, Palais Schaumburg, over to England to play the Mute Night, Silent Night at the Lyceum. The headliner was Fad Gadget; we played first, then Boyd Rice did a contribution over the phone from America — which I think went over the heads of the audience because it was just some static noise and some noise noise — then Depeche Mode, then Frank [Tovey, Fad Gadget]. It was the same day that Computer World by Kraftwerk was released and we all had the record under our arms, keen to get it on the turntable. Obviously, meeting Depeche Mode at this point in their career felt like a normal thing, there was nothing spectacular to be thought of it; you couldn't predict the kind of obverse curve they would take with their music, their career, not in the slightest. This was the first time that I heard their music too, and I wasn’t even super hot on it; these were the first singles which were super electro-pop. But because of Daniel, we certainly had an open mind. We felt that he had something to contribute to the world of music. And we were very pleased that he asked us to go over, it was our first gig in England, and therefore a happy meeting, but as I said it wasn’t really something dramatic."