1981-11-10 Raquels, Basildon, England, UK

Notes

Tim Michael Williams, a Basildon photographer, says:

"First on the bill were 'Film Noir' from Basildon and this was their first live performance. 'Film Noir' included Robert Marlow and Perry Bamonte. [...] Film Noir played about 6 original songs this night while including a storming version of the 'Velvet Undergrounds' 'White Light, White Heat'. [...] When Depeche Mode finally came on stage at 10.00 pm the girls crammed against the safety barriers in front of the stage went wild. This was a new experience. [...]"

Robert Marlow remembered in Jonathan Miller's 'Stripped':

"It was quite funny, because Vince said to just ring up this promoter, who was a real cowboy of a fellow, and he said, 'They've already got Blancmange supporting them.' I said, 'But Vince said we can play,' and he said, 'Well, you can play, but you won't get any money for it.' In the end, Vince gave me the money - 50 quid, it was. But that wasn't important; he'd asked us to play, so we went on before Blancmange, and then it was Depeche Mode. It was nice for me. I really enjoyed supporting them. I played guitar and we had a synthesizer player; Perry [Bamonte] was playing bass, and we had a tiny [Boss DR-55] 'Dr Rhythm' drum machine - one of the programmable ones. It was good; we went down well. Blancmange were excellent - I'd never seen them before; they were really, really good, and they were nice guys as well. The Modes were themselves, but Vince was quite withdrawn and not very happy. It was quite funny. Vince had a dose of diarrhoea! They'd been on tour up and down the country for a while, and so I think he was happy to be home. But I remember going around his flat during the day for a chat and he said , 'It's alright; I've been dosing myself up with syrup of figs. Silly arse."