1.
Single (music)
–
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record, an album or an EP record. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats, in most cases, a single is a song that is released separately from an album, although it usually also appears on an album. Typically, these are the songs from albums that are released separately for promotional uses such as digital download or commercial radio airplay and are expected to be the most popular, in other cases a recording released as a single may not appear on an album. As digital downloading and audio streaming have become prevalent, it is often possible for every track on an album to also be available separately. Nevertheless, the concept of a single for an album has been retained as an identification of a heavily promoted or more popular song within an album collection. Despite being referred to as a single, singles can include up to as many as three tracks on them. The biggest digital music distributor, iTunes, accepts as many as three tracks less than ten minutes each as a single, as well as popular music player Spotify also following in this trend. Any more than three tracks on a release or longer than thirty minutes in total running time is either an Extended Play or if over six tracks long. The basic specifications of the single were made in the late 19th century. Gramophone discs were manufactured with a range of speeds and in several sizes. By about 1910, however, the 10-inch,78 rpm shellac disc had become the most commonly used format, the inherent technical limitations of the gramophone disc defined the standard format for commercial recordings in the early 20th century.26 rpm. With these factors applied to the 10-inch format, songwriters and performers increasingly tailored their output to fit the new medium, the breakthrough came with Bob Dylans Like a Rolling Stone. Singles have been issued in various formats, including 7-inch, 10-inch, other, less common, formats include singles on digital compact cassette, DVD, and LD, as well as many non-standard sizes of vinyl disc. Some artist release singles on records, a more common in musical subcultures. The most common form of the single is the 45 or 7-inch. The names are derived from its speed,45 rpm. The 7-inch 45 rpm record was released 31 March 1949 by RCA Victor as a smaller, more durable, the first 45 rpm records were monaural, with recordings on both sides of the disc. As stereo recordings became popular in the 1960s, almost all 45 rpm records were produced in stereo by the early 1970s
Single (music)
–
45
rpm single record
2.
Depeche Mode
–
Depeche Mode /dᵻˌpɛʃˈmoʊd/ are an English electronic band that formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group consists of founders Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Depeche Mode released their debut album Speak & Spell in 1981, bringing the band onto the British new wave scene. Original band member Vince Clarke, left the band after the release of the album, leaving the band as a trio to record A Broken Frame, released the following year. Gore took over the songwriting duties and, later in 1982, Alan Wilder officially joined the band to fill Clarkes spot. Depeche Mode have been a trio again since 1995, when Wilder left, the bands last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music for the Masses, established them as a dominant force on the mainstream electronic music scene. A highlight of this era was the concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. In the new decade, Depeche Mode released Violator, a mainstream success, now a trio once again, the band released Ultra in 1997, recorded at the height of Gahans near-fatal drug abuse, Gores alcoholism and seizures, and Fletchers depression. Depeche Mode have had 50 songs in the UK Singles Chart and thirteen top 10 albums in the UK chart, Q included the band in the list of the 50 Bands That Changed the World. Depeche Mode also rank number 98 on VH1s 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, Depeche Modes origins date to 1977, when schoolmates Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher formed a Cure-influenced band called No Romance In China, with Clarke on vocals and guitar and Fletcher on bass. Fletcher would later recall, Why am I in the band and it was accidental right from the beginning. I was actually forced to be in the band, I played the guitar and I had a bass, it was a question of them roping me in. In 1979, Clarke played guitar in an Ultravox rip-off band, in 1978–79, Martin Gore played guitar in an acoustic duo, Norman and the Worms, with school friend Phil Burdett on vocals. In 1979, Marlow, Gore and friend Paul Redmond formed a band called the French Look, with Marlow on vocals/keyboards, Gore on guitar and Redmond on keyboards. In March 1980, Clarke, Gore and Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound, with Clarke on vocals/guitar, Gore on keyboards and Fletcher on bass. Soon after the formation of Composition of Sound, Clarke heard Wirral band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, along with OMD, other early influences included the Human League, Daniel Miller and Fad Gadget. Clarke and Fletcher switched to synthesisers, working odd jobs in order to buy or borrow the instruments from friends. Dave Gahan joined the band in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a scout hut jam session, singing a rendition of David Bowies Heroes. When explaining the choice for the new name taken from a French fashion magazine, Dépêche mode, Gore said, I like the sound of that
Depeche Mode
–
Depeche Mode in concert, 2006. Additional musicians
Peter Gordeno (far left) and
Christian Eigner (centre-left), with original members
Dave Gahan (centre),
Martin Gore (centre-right) and
Andy Fletcher (far right).
Depeche Mode
–
Touring the Angel concert in
Bremen, June 2006.
Depeche Mode
–
Tour of the Universe concert at London's O 2 Arena, December 2009.
3.
Black Celebration
–
Black Celebration is the fifth studio album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode, released on 17 March 1986 by Mute Records. To promote the album, the band embarked on the Black Celebration Tour, three years after its release, Spin ranked it at number 15 in its list of The 25 Greatest Albums of All Time. Contemporary reviews for Black Celebration in the British press were mixed, betty Page of Record Mirror felt that the band should be admired for their refusal to follow anything but their own fashion and unswerving ability to come up with great, fresh melodies. Black Celebration has since been reappraised in retrospective reviews, in 2007, Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone referred to the album as an instant classic for the bands fans that at the time of its release had seemingly been utterly ignored by everybody else. In 2007, Black Celebration was re-released with a bonus DVD and it was released as a part of the third wave of re-issues. The first CD was remastered and released on a CD/SACD hybrid, there are also several live versions of some of the songs from Black Celebration. The album is released the way it was intended and ends with New Dress. Like the other re-issues, the DVD includes a documentary on the album, the title is Martin paraphrasing Daniel Miller about his demos for Black Celebration in the film. The double-documentary discusses both The Singles 81→85 and Black Celebration, its more challenging commercial success and all five related singles and it also includes a plethora of behind-the-scenes footage of the making of Black Celebration and the ensuing tour. Highlights include the band meeting The Cure, and behind the scenes footage of several of the music videos, the documentary is nearly an hour long. It was released 20 March 2007 in the US,26 March in the UK and 2 April in the rest of Europe, the remastered album was released on deluxe vinyl on 2 April 2007 in Europe and on 11 September 2007 in the United States. All tracks written by Martin Gore, except Black Day written by Gore, Alan Wilder and Daniel Miller, credits adapted from the liner notes of Black Celebration. Album information from the official Depeche Mode web site Allmusic review Official remaster info
Black Celebration
–
Black Celebration
4.
A-side and B-side
–
The terms A-side and B-side refer to the two sides of 78,45, and 33 1/3 rpm phonograph records, whether singles, extended plays, or long-playing records. Creedence Clearwater Revival had hits with both A-side and B-side releases, others took the opposite approach, producer Phil Spector was in the habit of filling B-sides with on-the-spot instrumentals that no one would confuse with the A-side. With this practice, Spector was assured that airplay was focused on the side he wanted to be the hit side, the earliest 10-inch,78 rpm, shellac records were single sided. Double-sided recordings, with one song on side, were introduced in Europe by Columbia Records. There were no record charts until the 1930s, and radio stations did not play recorded music until the 1950s, in this time, A-sides and B-sides existed, but neither side was considered more important, the side did not convey anything about the content of the record. The term single came into use with the advent of vinyl records in the early 1950s. At first, most record labels would randomly assign which song would be an A-side, under this random system, many artists had so-called double-sided hits, where both songs on a record made one of the national sales charts, or would be featured on jukeboxes in public places. As time wore on, however, the convention for assigning songs to sides of the record changed. By the early sixties, the song on the A-side was the song that the company wanted radio stations to play. It was not until 1968, for instance, that the production of albums on a unit basis finally surpassed that of singles in the United Kingdom. In the late 1960s stereo versions of pop and rock songs began to appear on 45s. The majority of the 45s were played on AM radio stations, by the early 1970s, double-sided hits had become rare. Album sales had increased, and B-sides had become the side of the record where non-album, non-radio-friendly, with the advent of cassette and compact disc singles in the late 1980s, the A-side/B-side differentiation became much less meaningful. With the decline of cassette singles in the 1990s, the A-side/B-side dichotomy became virtually extinct, as the dominant medium. However, the term B-side is still used to refer to the tracks or coupling tracks on a CD single. With the advent of downloading music via the Internet, sales of CD singles and other media have declined. B-side songs may be released on the record as a single to provide extra value for money. There are several types of material released in this way, including a different version, or, in a concept record
A-side and B-side
–
Victor 17929A and 17929B.
A-side and B-side
5.
Gramophone record
–
The groove usually starts near the periphery and ends near the center of the disc. The phonograph disc record was the medium used for music reproduction until late in the 20th century. It had co-existed with the cylinder from the late 1880s. Records retained the largest market share even when new formats such as compact cassette were mass-marketed, by the late 1980s, digital media, in the form of the compact disc, had gained a larger market share, and the vinyl record left the mainstream in 1991. The phonograph record has made a resurgence in the early 21st century –9.2 million records were sold in the U. S. in 2014. Likewise, in the UK sales have increased five-fold from 2009 to 2014, as of 2017,48 record pressing facilities remain worldwide,18 in the United States and 30 in other countries. The increased popularity of vinyl has led to the investment in new, only two producers of lacquers remains, Apollo Masters in California, USA, and MDC in Japan. Vinyl records may be scratched or warped if stored incorrectly but if they are not exposed to heat or broken. The large cover are valued by collectors and artists for the space given for visual expression, in the 2000s, these tracings were first scanned by audio engineers and digitally converted into audible sound. Phonautograms of singing and speech made by Scott in 1860 were played back as sound for the first time in 2008, along with a tuning fork tone and unintelligible snippets recorded as early as 1857, these are the earliest known recordings of sound. In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, unlike the phonautograph, it was capable of both recording and reproducing sound. Despite the similarity of name, there is no evidence that Edisons phonograph was based on Scotts phonautograph. Edison first tried recording sound on a paper tape, with the idea of creating a telephone repeater analogous to the telegraph repeater he had been working on. The tinfoil was wrapped around a metal cylinder and a sound-vibrated stylus indented the tinfoil while the cylinder was rotated. The recording could be played back immediately, Edison also invented variations of the phonograph that used tape and disc formats. A decade later, Edison developed a greatly improved phonograph that used a wax cylinder instead of a foil sheet. This proved to be both a better-sounding and far more useful and durable device, the wax phonograph cylinder created the recorded sound market at the end of the 1880s and dominated it through the early years of the 20th century. Berliners earliest discs, first marketed in 1889, but only in Europe, were 12.5 cm in diameter, both the records and the machine were adequate only for use as a toy or curiosity, due to the limited sound quality
Gramophone record
–
Edison wax cylinder phonograph c. 1899
Gramophone record
Gramophone record
–
Emil Berliner with disc record gramophone
Gramophone record
–
Hungarian Pathé record, 90 to 100 rpm
6.
Compact disc
–
Compact disc is a digital optical disc data storage format released in 1982 and co-developed by Philips and Sony. The format was developed to store and play only sound recordings but was later adapted for storage of data. The first commercially available Audio CD player, the Sony CDP-101, was released October 1982 in Japan, standard CDs have a diameter of 120 millimetres and can hold up to about 80 minutes of uncompressed audio or about 700 MiB of data. The Mini CD has various diameters ranging from 60 to 80 millimetres, they are used for CD singles, storing up to 24 minutes of audio. At the time of the introduction in 1982, a CD could store much more data than a personal computer hard drive. By 2010, hard drives commonly offered as much space as a thousand CDs. In 2004, worldwide sales of audio CDs, CD-ROMs and CD-Rs reached about 30 billion discs, by 2007,200 billion CDs had been sold worldwide. In 2014, revenues from digital music services matched those from physical format sales for the first time. American inventor James T. Russell has been credited with inventing the first system to record information on an optical transparent foil that is lit from behind by a high-power halogen lamp. Russells patent application was first filed in 1966, and he was granted a patent in 1970, following litigation, Sony and Philips licensed Russells patents in the 1980s. The compact disc is an evolution of LaserDisc technology, where a laser beam is used that enables the high information density required for high-quality digital audio signals. Prototypes were developed by Philips and Sony independently in the late 1970s, although originally dismissed by Philips Research management as a trivial pursuit, the CD became the primary focus for Philips as the LaserDisc format struggled. In 1979, Sony and Philips set up a joint task force of engineers to design a new audio disc. After a year of experimentation and discussion, the Red Book CD-DA standard was published in 1980, after their commercial release in 1982, compact discs and their players were extremely popular. Despite costing up to $1,000, over 400,000 CD players were sold in the United States between 1983 and 1984, by 1988 CD sales in the United States surpassed those of vinyl LPs, and by 1992 CD sales surpassed those of prerecorded music cassette tapes. The success of the disc has been credited to the cooperation between Philips and Sony, who came together to agree upon and develop compatible hardware. The unified design of the disc allowed consumers to purchase any disc or player from any company. In 1974, L. However, due to the performance of the analog format
Compact disc
–
The pits in a CD are 500
nm wide, between 830 nm and 3,000 nm long and 150 nm deep
Compact disc
Compact disc
–
700
MiB CD-R next to a
mechanical pencil
7.
Synthpop
–
Synth-pop is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic, art rock, disco, and particularly the Krautrock of bands like Kraftwerk. It arose as a genre in Japan and the United Kingdom in the post-punk era as part of the new wave movement of the late-1970s to the mid-1980s. In Japan, Yellow Magic Orchestras success opened the way for bands such as P-Model, Plastics. The development of polyphonic synthesizers, the definition of MIDI. This, its adoption by the acts from the New Romantic movement, together with the rise of MTV. Synth-pop is sometimes deployed interchangeably with electropop, but electropop may also denote a variant of synth-pop that places emphasis on a harder. In the late 1980s duos such as Erasure and Pet Shop Boys adopted a style that was successful on the US dance-charts. Some artists and bands were criticised for gender bending, Synth-pop was defined by its primary use of synthesizers, drum machines and sequencers, sometimes using them to replace all other instruments. Borthwick and Moy have described the genre as diverse but, many synth-pop musicians had limited musical skills, relying on the technology to produce or reproduce the music. The result was often minimalist, with grooves that were woven together from simple repeated riffs often with no harmonic progression to speak of. Early synth-pop has been described as eerie, sterile, and vaguely menacing, using droning electronics with little change in inflection, common lyrical themes of synth-pop songs were isolation, urban anomie, and feelings of being emotionally cold and hollow. Synthesizers were increasingly used to imitate the conventional and clichéd sound of orchestras, thin, treble-dominant, synthesized melodies and simple drum programmes gave way to thick, and compressed production, and a more conventional drum sound. Lyrics were generally optimistic, dealing with more traditional subject matter for pop music such as romance, escapism. According to music writer Simon Reynolds, the hallmark of 1980s synth-pop was its emotional, at times operatic singers such as Marc Almond, Alison Moyet and Annie Lennox. Because synthesizers removed the need for groups of musicians, these singers were often part of a duo where their partner played all the instrumentation. Later synth-pop saw a shift to a style influenced by other genres. Electronic musical synthesizers that could be used practically in a recording studio became available in the mid-1960s, the portable Minimoog, which allowed much easier use, particularly in live performance was widely adopted by progressive rock musicians such as Richard Wright of Pink Floyd and Rick Wakeman of Yes
Synthpop
–
The
Prophet-5, one of the first
polyphonic synthesizers. It was widely used in 1980s synthpop, along with the
Roland Jupiter and
Yamaha DX7.
Synthpop
–
Kraftwerk, one of the major influences on synthpop, in 1976.
Synthpop
–
Yellow Magic Orchestra in 2008.
Synthpop
–
Gary Numan performing in 1980
8.
Industrial music
–
Industrial music is a genre of experimental/electronic music that draws on transgressive or provocative sounds and themes. In general, the style is harsh and challenging, allMusic defines industrial as the most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music, initially a blend of avant-garde electronics experiments and punk provocation. The first industrial artists experimented with noise and aesthetically controversial topics, musically and visually, such as fascism, serial killers and their production was not limited to music, but included mail art, performance art, installation pieces and other art forms. Prominent industrial musicians include Throbbing Gristle, Monte Cazazza, SPK, Boyd Rice, Cabaret Voltaire, Musicians also cite writers such as William S. Burroughs, and philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche as influences. These artists expanded the genre by pushing it into noisier and more electronic directions, over time, its influence spread into and blended with styles including ambient and rock, all of which now fall under the post-industrial music label. Electro-industrial music is a subgenre that developed in the 1980s. These three distinct genres are often referred to as simply industrial, Industrial music drew from a broad range of predecessors. Industrial music was created originally by using mechanical and electric machinery, monroe also argues for Suicide as an influential contemporary of the industrial musicians. Groups cited as inspirational by the founders of industrial music include The Velvet Underground, Joy Division, genesis P-Orridge of Throbbing Gristle had a cassette library including recordings by the Master Musicians of Jajouka, Kraftwerk, Charles Manson, and William S. Burroughs. P-Orridge also credited 1960s rock such as The Doors, Pearls Before Swine, The Fugs, Captain Beefheart, chris Carter also enjoyed and found inspiration in Pink Floyd and Tangerine Dream. Boyd Rice was influenced by the music of 60s girl groups, Cabaret Voltaire cited Roxy Music as their initial forerunners, as well as Kraftwerks Trans-Europe Express. Cabaret Voltaire also recorded pieces reminiscent of musique concrète and composers such as Morton Subotnick, Nurse with Wound cited a long list of obscure free improvisation and Krautrock as recommended listening. 23 Skidoo borrowed from Fela Kuti and Miles Daviss On the Corner, many industrial groups, including Einstürzende Neubauten, took inspiration from world music. Many of the industrial musicians preferred to cite artists or thinkers, rather than musicians. Simon Reynolds declares that Being a Throbbing Gristle fan was like enrolling in a university course of cultural extremism, John Cage was an initial inspiration for Throbbing Gristle. SPK appreciated Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucault, Walter Benjamin, Marshall McLuhan, Friedrich Nietzsche, Cabaret Voltaire took conceptual cues from Burroughs, J. G. Ballard, and Tristan Tzara. Whitehouse and Nurse with Wound dedicated some of their work to the Marquis de Sade, another influence on the industrial aesthetic was Lou Reeds Metal Machine Music. Pitchfork Music cites this album as inspiring, in part, much of the contemporary avant-garde music scene—noise, the album consists entirely of guitar feedback, anticipating industrials use of non-musical sounds
Industrial music
–
Frank Zappa and
Captain Beefheart in 1975, cited as inspirations by Herman Taylor
Industrial music
–
Re/Search reference guide to the philosophy and interests of a flexible alliance of "deviant" artists.
Industrial music
–
William S. Burroughs, a conceptual inspiration for the industrial musicians.
Industrial music
–
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails in 2008.
9.
Mute Records
–
Mute Records is a British record label owned and founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller. It featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Fad Gadget, Goldfrapp, Grinderman, Inspiral Carpets, Moby, New Order, Nitzer Ebb, Wire, Yeasayer, and Yazoo. During 1978, Daniel Miller began recording music using synthesisers under the name The Normal and he recorded the tracks T. V. O. D. and Warm Leatherette, and distributed them through Rough Trade Shops under the label name Mute Records. The label was formed initially just to release the one single, T. V. O. D. /Warm Leatherette became a cult hit ensuring the future of the label. Warm Leatherette was later covered by Grace Jones and Chicks on Speed, after meeting Robert Rental, Miller began recording and playing live as Robert Rental & The Normal. In 1979 the band went on tour supporting the punk band Stiff Little Fingers, in 1980, Miller released the single, Kebab-Träume, by the German band Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, who had recently moved to London. The bands 1980 album, Die Kleinen und die Bösen, was the first album released by the new label, the album had the catalogue prefix STUMM, a play on the record labels name, meaning mute in German. This prefix would continue to be used through most of the labels album catalogue, also in 1980, Miller recorded and released the cover single, Memphis Tennessee, under the name Silicon Teens. The band was Miller’s realisation of a dream Mute Records group, in mid-1980, Mute Records released the Silicon Teens album, titled Music For Parties. Around this time the artist Fad Gadget had begun recording new demos and this was released as a single in 1980, followed by the next single Rickys Hand and the album Fireside Favourites recorded at Blackwing Studios. September 1980 saw the release of the double-holed, multi-speed 7 single by Non & Smegma, Boyd Rice went on to release several more recordings with Mute Records. After touring with Daniel Miller as Robert Rental & The Normal, Robert Rental released his only Mute Records single, Double Heart, a rare, remaining trace of this late electronic music pioneer. Miller approached Depeche Mode in 1980, after seeing them perform in London, wanting them to record a single for his label and their loyalty to Mute was reciprocated by the label’s rapid expansion to cope with their success. In defiance of the recording labels predictions of failure, Depeche Mode became a successful charting band worldwide. The bands consistency was unbroken even by the departure of principal songwriter Vince Clarke, Martin Gore took over the main songwriting role, opening the band up to different influences and sustaining their creativity as a band. Mute continued to other experimental artists, such as NON, releasing an album of Boyd Rices pre-NON recordings. 1982 began with the release of the 12-inch single, Rise, by Boyd Rice, Fad Gadget released his third album for the label, titled Under the Flag, influenced by the current Falklands War and the feeling of being British in the most unseemly of times. The album spawned the singles For Whom the Bells Toll and Life on the Line, Mute Records big commercial success of 1982 was the band Yazoo, the duo of Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet
Mute Records
–
Mute Records
10.
Songwriter
–
A songwriter is an individual who writes the lyrics, melodies and chord progressions for songs, typically for a popular music genre such as rock or country music. A songwriter can also be called a composer, although the term tends to be used mainly for individuals from the classical music genre. The pressure from the industry to produce popular hits means that songwriting is often an activity for which the tasks are distributed between a number of people. For example, a songwriter who excels at writing lyrics might be paired with a songwriter with a gift for creating original melodies, pop songs may be written by group members from the band or by staff writers – songwriters directly employed by music publishers. Some songwriters serve as their own publishers, while others have outside publishers. The old-style apprenticeship approach to learning how to write songs is being supplemented by university degrees and college diplomas, a knowledge of modern music technology, songwriting elements and business skills are necessary requirements to make a songwriting career in the 2010s. Several music colleges offer songwriting diplomas and degrees with music business modules, the legal power to grant these permissions may be bought, sold or transferred. This is governed by international copyright law, song pitching can be done on a songwriters behalf by their publisher or independently using tip sheets like RowFax, the MusicRow publication and SongQuarters. Skills associated with song-writing include entrepreneurism and creativity, songwriters who sign an exclusive songwriting agreement with a publisher are called staff writers. In the Nashville country music scene, there is a staff writer culture where contracted writers work normal 9-to-5 hours at the publishing office and are paid a regular salary. This salary is in effect the writers draw, an advance on future earnings, the publisher owns the copyright of songs written during the term of the agreement for a designated period, after which the songwriter can reclaim the copyright. In an interview with HitQuarters, songwriter Dave Berg extolled the benefits of the set-up, unlike contracted writers, some staff writers operate as employees for their respective publishers. Under the terms of work for hire agreements, the compositions created are fully owned by the publisher. In Nashville, young writers are often encouraged to avoid these types of contracts. Staff writers are common across the industry, but without the more office-like working arrangements favored in Nashville. All the major publishers employ writers under contract, songwriter Allan Eshuijs described his staff writer contract at Universal Music Publishing as a starter deal. His success under the arrangement eventually allowed him to found his own publishing company, so that he could. keep as much as possible, songwriters are also often skilled musicians. In addition to selling their songs and musical concepts for other artists to sing, songwriters need to create a number of elements for a song
Songwriter
–
Songwriter and singer
Chris de Burgh.
11.
Martin Gore
–
Martin Lee Gore is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist, producer, remixer, and DJ. He is a member of Depeche Mode and has written the majority of their songs. His work now spans four decades. In addition to composing music and writing lyrics for the majority of Depeche Modes songs and he has been a backing singer on many others. In 1999, Gore received the Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors for International Achievement, Martin Lee Gore was born in Dagenham, Essex in England. Gores biological father was an African-American G. I. stationed in Britain, Gore was raised by his stepfather and biological mother. He believed his stepfather was his father until age 13. When he was 13, he learned that his father was an African-American serviceman and, as an adult. Gore responds to the information and is quoted in Millers book saying, It brings up family traumas. He left Nicholas Comprehensive, Basildon in 1977 and took a job as a bank cashier. During evenings, weekends and any spare time, he was involved with the local band Norman. Gore has two younger half-sisters, Karen, born in 1967, and Jacqueline, born in 1968, in 1980, Gore met Andy Fletch Fletcher at the Van Gogh club. Fletcher recruited Gore into his band Composition of Sound along with Vince Clarke, soon the band drafted Dave Gahan to be the lead singer after hearing him sing Heroes by David Bowie. Clarke left Depeche Mode in late 1981, shortly after the release of their debut album Speak & Spell, Clarke wrote most of the album, with Gore contributing two tracks, Tora. Tora. and the instrumental Big Muff, any Second Now features Gores first lead vocals for the band. Gore sings lead vocals on several of the songs, notably ballads. When Clarke announced his departure from Depeche Mode in 1981, citing the pressures of fame and creative differences, Gore had been writing material since the age of 12. Songs Gore wrote for Depeche Modes second album, A Broken Frame differed musically and lyrically from Clarkes, Gores writing became gradually darker and more political on subsequent Depeche Mode albums
Martin Gore
–
Martin Gore in 2009
Martin Gore
–
Martin Gore, Los Angeles, July 1986
12.
Record producer
–
A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu
Record producer
–
Alan Parsons in an
ESO 50th anniversary video.
Record producer
–
A
Danish recording session
Record producer
–
Mixing Console
13.
A Question of Lust
–
A Question of Lust is Depeche Modes sixteenth UK single, released on 14 April 1986. It is the second Depeche Mode single with Martin Gore on lead vocals, after Somebody, however, the 12 single was released as a double A-side with A Question of Time in the US, like Somebody. The single hit number 28 in the UK single charts, in West Germany, the single became a top ten hit on the sales chart. The B-side is an instrumental called Christmas Island, named after the island of the same name and it is penned by both Martin Gore and Alan Wilder and was produced by Depeche Mode themselves. The live tracks available on versions of the single are taken from a 1984 concert in Basel. The music video for A Question of Lust features the return of director Clive Richardson for his last video with the band. It also became the last music video the band filmed before the arrival of Dutch director Anton Corbijn, a Question of Lust –4,29 Christmas Island –4,51 The Single version is basically the Album version, but without the cross-fade from the previous track. CBong11 was released as a 12 single in Germany and as a very rare CD single in France. Alan Wilder is quoted as saying that when Flood eventually delivered his remix of A Question Of Lust and they were understandably annoyed therefore when it emerged that Mute Records hadnt actually sent him both the multitrack tapes. The only difference between the Edit and the single version is that it is faded about 20 seconds earlier. It was released in 1986 All songs written by Martin L. Gore, except Christmas Island was written by Martin Gore and Alan Wilder, Single information from the official Depeche Mode web site Allmusic review Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
A Question of Lust
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"A Question of Lust"
14.
Stripped (song)
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Stripped is Depeche Modes fifteenth UK single, released on 10 February 1986. It was the first single from the album Black Celebration, Stripped is well known for its innovative use of sampling. The underlying beat is a distorted and slowed-down sound of an engine running, while the main melody begins with a cars ignition starting. The bands U. S. label Sire Records, however, decided to use the B-side But Not Tonight on the soundtrack to the movie Modern Girls and included the song on US editions of Black Celebration. As a result, the single was flipped, and released as But Not Tonight in the United States to help promote the movie, the band was not happy with this decision, seeing But Not Tonight as a useless pop track recorded in less than a day. The other two B-Sides are Breathing in Fumes and Black Day, Breathing in Fumes was a new song using samples from Stripped, mixed by the band and Thomas Stiehler. The Highland Mix of Stripped was mixed by Mark Ellis, who in the future would produce Depeche Modes Violator and Songs of Faith, some editions of the Black Celebration CD include the extended remix of But Not Tonight along with Black Day and Breathing in Fumes as bonus tracks. The music video for Stripped was the last Depeche Mode video to be directed by Peter Care and was filmed outside of Hansa Studios in Berlin, the music video for But Not Tonight was directed by Tamra Davis. Two differently cut versions of both Stripped and But Not Tonight are available on Video Singles Collection, Stripped was featured in the film Say Anything. The 12 mix later appeared on the fourth disc of Depeche Modes remix compilation, Remixes 81–04. Stripped –6,42 But Not Tonight –5,12 Breathing in Fumes –6,07 Fly on the Windscreen –4,24 Black Day –2,37 This is the UK Extended 12 version. Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein released a cover of Stripped in 1998 and this version cuts the line Let me see you stripped down to the bone to Let me see you stripped, which was due to singer Till Lindemanns difficulty singing down to the bone. The song was originally on the tribute album For the Masses, the song also appears as a hidden track on some special editions of the bands sophomore release Sehnsucht. It was the first English song released by the band, the video for the song incorporated footage from the Leni Riefenstahl Nazi propaganda film Olympia, which led to threats against the band. Members of Depeche Mode, especially Dave Gahan, responded positively to the cover, also, in 1997, the Swedish electro/synth-pop band Statemachine released a version of Stripped on their album Legerdemain. The Italian progressive death/doom metal band Novembre covered Stripped on the album 1995 album Arte Novecento The USA one-man based black metal Leviathan covered Stripped on Demo Five, in 2001, Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots covered But Not Tonight for the soundtrack to Not Another Teen Movie. In 2004, German techno band Scooter covered Stripped on their album Mind the Gap, in 2007, they produced a download-only orchestral version of the song. In 2005, Shiny Toy Guns covered Stripped on Goth Electro Tribute to Depeche Mode, the single can also be found in the second version of their 2005 album We Are Pilots in addition to Blood & Chocolate, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Stripped (song)
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"Stripped"
Stripped (song)
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"But Not Tonight"
15.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
United Kingdom
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Stonehenge, in
Wiltshire, was erected around 2500 BC.
United Kingdom
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Flag
United Kingdom
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The
Bayeux Tapestry depicts the
Battle of Hastings, 1066, and the events leading to it.
United Kingdom
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The
Treaty of Union led to a single united kingdom encompassing all Great Britain.
16.
The Singles 86-98
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The Singles 86>98 is a compilation album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode, released on 28 September 1998 by Mute Records. It was released as a follow-up to the previous compilation, The Singles 81→85. The compilation covers the bands 7-inch single releases spanning five studio albums, also included is Little 15, and the live version of Everything Counts which was released as a single in 1989. All tracks on The Singles 86>98 were newly remastered, as was the case with the re-release of The Singles 81→85, the Singles 86>98 has sold 500,000 units in the United States, achieving Platinum certification. The album was listed on Blender magazines 500 CDs You Must Own. To coincide with the release of The Singles 86>98, the released a VHS/DVD called The Videos 86>98 featuring the music videos for all of the songs. In 2002, the DVD was re-released as The Videos 86-98+, all tracks written by Martin Gore. Credits adapted from the notes of The Singles 86>98. Depeche Mode Depeche Mode – production, mixing David Gahan – lead vocals Martin Gore – lead vocals Additional personnel Album information from the official Depeche Mode web site Allmusic review
The Singles 86-98
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The Singles 86>98
17.
Blasphemous Rumours / Somebody
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Blasphemous Rumours/Somebody is Depeche Modes twelfth UK single and first double A-side single, released on 29 October 1984. Both A-side songs are from the album Some Great Reward, somebody is the first single with Martin Gore as lead vocals, one of only three. The music videos for songs were directed by Clive Richardson. The single charts number 16 in UK single charts, the verses to Blasphemous Rumours describe a 16-year-old girl who attempts suicide but fails. She experiences a religious revival but is killed in a car accident aged 18 and dies. The chorus uses these incidents to conclude, I dont want to start any blasphemous rumours / but I think that Gods got a sense of humour /. Like other songs on Some Great Reward, the uses a dense sound with extensive sampled percussion. No Bong number, same cover as the vinyl version, Filipino R&B band Freestyle revived the song in mid-2000s, the band is the first Filipino musician to cover the song. Filipino musical group BoybandPH is the second Filipino musician to cover the song in 2017, english singer Damian Wilson covered the song for his 2016 solo album Built For Fighting. Single information from the official Depeche Mode web site Allmusic review Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
Blasphemous Rumours / Somebody
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"Blasphemous Rumours"/"Somebody"
18.
Anton Corbijn
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Anton Johannes Gerrit Corbijn van Willenswaard is a Dutch photographer, music video director, and film director. He is the director behind the visual output of Depeche Mode and U2, having handled the principal promotion. Anton Johannes Gerrit Corbijn van Willenswaard was born on 20 May 1955 in Strijen in the Netherlands and his father, Anton Corbijn van Willenswaard, took up the same position in Hoogland and Groningen, moving his wife and four children with him. His mother, Marietje Groeneboer, was a nurse and was raised in a parsons family, photographer and director Maarten Corbijn is a younger brother. Grandfather Anton Johannes van Willenswaard was an art teacher at Christian schools in Hilversum, Corbijn began his career as a music photographer when he saw the Dutch musician Herman Brood playing in a café in Groningen around 1975. He took a lot of photographs of the band Herman Brood & His Wild Romance, from the late 1970s the London-based New Musical Express, a weekly music paper, featured his work on a regular basis and would often have a photograph by him on the front page. One such occasion was a portrait of David Bowie wearing a loincloth backstage in New York when starring in The Elephant Man, in the early years of London-based The Face, a glossy monthly post-punk life style / music magazine, Corbijn was a regular contributor. He made his name photographing in black-and-white but in May 1989 he began taking pictures in colour using filters and his first venture in this medium was for Siouxsie Sioux. Other album covers featuring work by Corbijn include those for Springsteen, Nick Cave, Siouxsies second band The Creatures, Bryan Adams, Metallica, the Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, The Killers, Simple Minds, R. E. M. The Bee Gees, Saybia and Moke, Corbijn began his music video directing career when Palais Schaumburg asked him to direct a video. After seeing the video for Hockey, the band Propaganda had Corbijn direct Dr. Mabuse. After that he directed videos for David Sylvian, Echo & the Bunnymen, Golden Earring, Front 242, Depeche Mode, Roxette and his first video in colour was made for U2 in 1984 for their single Pride. In 2005 Palm Pictures released a DVD collection of Corbijns music video output as part of the Directors Label series, in 1994 Corbijn directed a short film about Captain Beefheart/Don Van Vliet for the BBC called Some Yoyo Stuff. He made his film debut with Control, a film about the life of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis. It premiered to rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2007, the film is based on Deborah Curtis book Touching from a Distance about her late husband and the biography Torn Apart by Lindsay Reade and Mick Middles. 2010 Corbijn returned as a director with the character-based thriller The American, on 26 October 2011 Corbijn directed a webcast by Coldplay from the Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas in Madrid, Spain. His film A Most Wanted Man was released in 2014, the John le Carré novel of the same name, which is loosely based on the true War on Terror story of Murat Kurnaz, was set in part in Hamburg, as parts of the movie were. In February 2014, he start filming his next project Life about James Dean, author William Gibson refers to a fictitious portrait by Corbijn of the character Hollis Henry in his 2007 novel Spook Country
Anton Corbijn
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Anton Corbijn in 2012
19.
The Best of Depeche Mode Volume 1
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The Best of Depeche Mode Volume 1 is a greatest hits album by the English electronic band Depeche Mode, released on 8 November 2006 by Mute Records. The album has sold one million copies in Europe alone and has been awarded the IFPI Platinum Europe Award. A few of the videos feature songs that were not on The Best of Depeche Mode Volume 1, the cover art has a pink flower rather than the white flower depicted on the cover of the regular CD. The electronic press kit contains commentary on all the singles made it onto the CD release of The Best of Depeche Mode Volume 1. On 16 March 2007, the DVD was released on its own as The Best of Videos Volume 1
The Best of Depeche Mode Volume 1
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The Best of Depeche Mode Volume 1
20.
Martin L. Gore
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Martin Lee Gore is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist, producer, remixer, and DJ. He is a member of Depeche Mode and has written the majority of their songs. His work now spans four decades. In addition to composing music and writing lyrics for the majority of Depeche Modes songs and he has been a backing singer on many others. In 1999, Gore received the Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors for International Achievement, Martin Lee Gore was born in Dagenham, Essex in England. Gores biological father was an African-American G. I. stationed in Britain, Gore was raised by his stepfather and biological mother. He believed his stepfather was his father until age 13. When he was 13, he learned that his father was an African-American serviceman and, as an adult. Gore responds to the information and is quoted in Millers book saying, It brings up family traumas. He left Nicholas Comprehensive, Basildon in 1977 and took a job as a bank cashier. During evenings, weekends and any spare time, he was involved with the local band Norman. Gore has two younger half-sisters, Karen, born in 1967, and Jacqueline, born in 1968, in 1980, Gore met Andy Fletch Fletcher at the Van Gogh club. Fletcher recruited Gore into his band Composition of Sound along with Vince Clarke, soon the band drafted Dave Gahan to be the lead singer after hearing him sing Heroes by David Bowie. Clarke left Depeche Mode in late 1981, shortly after the release of their debut album Speak & Spell, Clarke wrote most of the album, with Gore contributing two tracks, Tora. Tora. and the instrumental Big Muff, any Second Now features Gores first lead vocals for the band. Gore sings lead vocals on several of the songs, notably ballads. When Clarke announced his departure from Depeche Mode in 1981, citing the pressures of fame and creative differences, Gore had been writing material since the age of 12. Songs Gore wrote for Depeche Modes second album, A Broken Frame differed musically and lyrically from Clarkes, Gores writing became gradually darker and more political on subsequent Depeche Mode albums
Martin L. Gore
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Martin Gore in 2009
Martin L. Gore
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Martin Gore, Los Angeles, July 1986
21.
Birmingham
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Birmingham is a major city and metropolitan borough of West Midlands, England lying on the River Rea, a small river that runs through Birmingham. It is the largest and most populous British city outside London, the city is in the West Midlands Built-up Area, the third most populous urban area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2,440,986 at the 2011 census. Birminghams metropolitan area is the second most populous in the UK with a population of 3.8 million and this also makes Birmingham the 8th most populous metropolitan area in Europe. By 1791 it was being hailed as the first manufacturing town in the world, perhaps the most important invention in British history, the industrial steam engine, was invented in Birmingham. From the summer of 1940 to the spring of 1943, Birmingham was bombed heavily by the German Luftwaffe in what is known as the Birmingham Blitz. The damage done to the infrastructure, in addition to a deliberate policy of demolition and new building by planners, led to extensive demolition. Today Birminghams economy is dominated by the service sector and its metropolitan economy is the second largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $121. 1bn, and its six universities make it the largest centre of higher education in the country outside London. Birmingham is the fourth-most visited city in the UK by foreign visitors, Birminghams sporting heritage can be felt worldwide, with the concept of the Football League and lawn tennis both originating from the city. Its most successful football club Aston Villa has won seven league titles, people from Birmingham are called Brummies, a term derived from the citys nickname of Brum. This originates from the citys name, Brummagem, which may in turn have been derived from one of the citys earlier names. There is a distinctive Brummie accent and dialect, Birminghams early history is that of a remote and marginal area. The main centres of population, power and wealth in the pre-industrial English Midlands lay in the fertile and accessible river valleys of the Trent, the Severn and the Avon. The area of modern Birmingham lay in between, on the upland Birmingham Plateau and within the wooded and sparsely populated Forest of Arden. Birmingham as a settlement dates from the Anglo-Saxon era, within a century of the charter Birmingham had grown into a prosperous urban centre of merchants and craftsmen. By 1327 it was the third-largest town in Warwickshire, a position it would retain for the next 200 years, by 1700 Birminghams population had increased fifteenfold and the town was the fifth-largest in England and Wales. The importance of the manufacture of goods to Birminghams economy was recognised as early as 1538. Equally significant was the emerging role as a centre for the iron merchants who organised finance, supplied raw materials. The 18th century saw this tradition of free-thinking and collaboration blossom into the phenomenon now known as the Midlands Enlightenment
Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham
22.
Clan of Xymox
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Clan of Xymox, also known as simply Xymox, are a Dutch rock band formed in 1981. Their 1980s releases included synthpop/electronic dance music, though the band is still active and continues to tour and release records, of the original songwriters, only Moorings remains in the band today. After the departure of Nooten and Wolbert in the early 1990s, assuming the name Xymox, the group released a mini-album, Subsequent Pleasures, in 1983. They were invited by Brendan Perry to support Dead Can Dance on a UK tour and were signed to the indie label 4AD, which released their eponymous debut album in 1985. The track 7th Time, with Anka Wolbert on lead vocals, was picked up by John Peel, Peel referred to the bands dark and melancholic sound as darkwave. In 1986 they released their second and last album on 4AD, Medusa, simultaneously, Pieter Nooten recorded and released his album Sleeps with the Fishes, in collaboration with Canadian session musician Michael Brook. Now abbreviated as Xymox, the third album, Twist of Shadows, was released in 1989. This album, and its successor Phoenix, were released by Wing Records, in the United States, these two albums created a cult following for the band. Twist of Shadows proved their most commercially successful album, selling more than 300,000 copies worldwide, Xymox, without Nooten and Wolbert, left PolyGram to release the UK acid house inspired LPs Metamorphosis and Headclouds independently. These albums marked a break from the wave sound of the 1980s and met with poor record sales in the United States. Ronny Moorings toured under the banner of Xymox until 1994 with an evolving cast of musicians, including girlfriend. Frank Weyzig parted ways with Moorings after the 1994 tour, after which Moorings moved back to the Netherlands, Moorings recruited new live members and signed with the independent US label Tess Records in 1997 then with Metropolis in 1998. The LPs Hidden Faces, Creatures and Notes from the Underground reflect an increasingly electro sound while maintaining the distinctive dance rhythms associated with the Clan of Xymox catalog. In 1998, 4AD re-released Clan of Xymox and Medusa in the USA, 2003s FareWell featured several charting tracks internationally. Most recently, the LP Matters of Mind, Body and Soul was released on Trisol, Metropolis and Gravitator record labels for European, American and Russian distribution, respectively, in February 2014. In addition to intermittent original releases, Clan of Xymox has contributed to a number of compilations, in 1987, the track Moscoviet Mosquito was re-recorded and released on the 4AD compilation album Lonely Is an Eyesore. In October 2000 the band released Live, a double CD with nineteen tracks, in September 2004, a Best Of Clan of Xymox album was released with re-recorded versions of early hits as well as later offerings. In 2011, the track In Your Arms Again from the LP Darkest Hour was included on the soundtrack to David Finchers The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Clan of Xymox
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Clan of Xymox live at Triton Music Festival New York City, 2010
Clan of Xymox
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Ronny Moorings, Anka Wolbert and Pieter Nooten, 1991
Clan of Xymox
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Ronny Moorings of Clan of Xymox in concert in 2008, in Orlando, Florida
23.
Allmusic
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AllMusic is an online music guide service website. It was launched in 1991 by All Media Guide which later became All Media Network, AllMusic was launched in 1991 by Michael Erlewine of All Media Guide. The aim was to discographic information on every artist whos made a record since Enrico Caruso gave the industry its first big boost and its first reference book was published the following year. When first released onto the Internet, AMG predated the World Wide Web and was first available as a Gopher site, the AMG consumer web properties AllMusic. com, AllMovie. com and AllGame. com were sold by Rovi in July 2013 to All Media Network, LLC. All Media Network, LLC. was formed by the founders of SideReel. com. The following are contributors to AllMusic, as of this date, All Media Network also produced the AllMusic guide series that includes the AllMusic Guide to Rock, the All Music Guide to Jazz and the All Music Guide to the Blues. Vladimir Bogdanov is the president of the series, in August 2007, PC Magazine included AllMusic in its Top 100 Classic Websites list. All Media Network AllGame AllMovie SideReel All Music Guide to the Blues All Music Guide to Jazz Stephen Thomas Erlewine Official website
Allmusic
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AllMusic's
logotype and logo (since July 2013)
24.
Andy Fletcher (musician)
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Andrew John Leonard Fletcher, popularly known as Fletch, is an English keyboard player and founding member of the electronic band Depeche Mode. In the late 1970s, Fletcher and schoolmate Vince Clarke formed the short-lived band No Romance in China, in 1980, Fletcher met Martin Gore at the Van Gogh Pub on Paycocke Road in Basildon. With Clarke, the trio, now all on synthesizer, formed another group called Composition of Sound, Clarke left the group in late 1981, shortly after the release of their debut album Speak & Spell. Their 1982 follow-up, A Broken Frame, was recorded as a trio, musician & producer Alan Wilder joined the band in late 1982 and the group continued as a quartet until Wilders departure in 1995. Since then, the trio of Gahan, Gore and Fletcher have remained active, most recently with the release of their 2017 album Spirit. Fletchers role within Depeche Mode has often been a topic of speculation, in early incarnations of the band, he played bass. As the band evolved after Vince Clarkes departure in 1981, Fletchers role changed as each of the members took to the areas that suited them. In a key scene in D. A. Pennebakers 1989 documentary film about the band, Fletcher clarifies these roles, Martins the songwriter, Alans the good musician, Daves the vocalist and he is the only member of the band who has not received a songwriting credit. Fletcher, however, always has and continues to play a role within the band. With the band having not always employed a manager, Fletcher has handled many of the bands business, legal. In recent years, this has included acting as the bands spokesperson and he is also said to be the member who is the tiebreaker and the one that brings the band together. In the studio and during shows, Fletcher does contribute a variety of supporting synthesizer parts, including bass parts, pads, strings and drone sounds. However, he is notably the only member of Depeche Mode who does not sing, although he can be seen singing in videos of Depeches past live performances, usually Fletchers vocals were either mixed very low or heard only through his own stage monitors. On the bands 2013/14 Delta Machine Tour, vocal mics were no longer present on his keyboard station, on studio recordings, however, Fletchers supporting vocals can be heard in some form or another on the majority of all Depeche Mode albums released since 1981. According to anecdotes from various members of Depeche Mode, an Andy Fletcher solo album entitled Toast Hawaii was recorded in Berlin during the Some Great Reward sessions in 1984, according to these anecdotes, all the songs on the album are cover songs on which Fletcher sings lead vocals. The album allegedly features Alan Wilder and/or Martin Gore on piano, the story then goes that Gore & Wilder presented the album to Mute Records Daniel Miller and pleaded for him to release it. In reality, this album is almost certainly an in-joke, although it is not entirely unlikely that during studio downtime from serious work. In 2002, Fletcher launched his own label, a Mute Records imprint called Toast Hawaii
Andy Fletcher (musician)
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Andy Fletcher
25.
Dave Gahan
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David Dave Gahan is an English singer-songwriter, best known as the baritone lead singer of the electronic band Depeche Mode since their debut in 1980. He is also a solo artist, releasing albums in 2003 and 2007. Three of these songs were released as singles, including Suffer Well in 2005, Hole to Feed in 2009, in 2012 and 2015, he also contributed lyrics and sang lead vocals on the Soulsavers albums The Light the Dead See and Angels & Ghosts. Q magazine ranked Gahan no.73 on the list of the 100 Greatest Singers, Gahan was born as David Callcott into a working-class family, to parents Len Callcott of Malaysian descent and his wife Sylvia, Dave was only six months old when his father left the family. Sylvia and Len divorced two years later and his mother moved Dave and sister Sue to Basildon, Essex, after Sylvia met, the Gahan family continued to grow with the birth of two more half-brothers Peter and Phil. Dave and Sue were raised under the impression that their mothers second husband, in 1972, when Gahan was 10 years old, his stepfather died. Gahan recalled how he came one day and found this bloke at home. Of the incident, he has said, Ill never forget that day, when I came home from school, there was this stranger in my mums house. My mother introduced him to me as my real dad, I remember I said, that was impossible because my father was dead. How was I supposed to know who that man was, from that day on, Len often visited the house, until one year later he disappeared again. Since then he had no contact with us, by growing older, I thought about him more and more. The only thing my mother would say, was that he moved out to Jersey to open a hotel. Mum had kept it back from me til there was a need to tell me about my father, its a different generation. He enjoyed the thrill of stealing cars, driving them around, Gahan tells of the time, I was pretty wild. I loved the excitement of nicking a motor, screeching off, hiding behind the wall with your heart beating gives you a real kick – will they get you. In his final year at school, he applied for a job as an apprentice fitter with North Thames Gas. He was told by his officer to be honest with the interviewer. As a result, he did not get the job which and his punishment was weekend custody at a sub-Borstal attendance centre in Romford for one year
Dave Gahan
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Gahan performing at Royal Albert Hall in 2010.
Dave Gahan
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Dave Gahan with Depeche Mode 2009.
Dave Gahan
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Dave Gahan signing autographs in 2003.
26.
Vince Clarke
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Vince Clarke is an English synthpop musician and songwriter. Clarke has been the composer and musician of the band Erasure since 1985. Vincent John Martin was born in South Woodford, London and then he moved to Basildon and he initially studied the violin and then the piano, but he was inspired to make electronic music upon hearing Wirral synth band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Along with OMD, other influences included The Human League, Daniel Miller. In the late-1970s, Clarke and schoolmate Andy Fletcher formed a band called No Romance in China. In 1980, he teamed up with Robert Marlow and Martin Gore to form French Look, another band, named Composition of Sound, followed in 1980 with another addition of Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher. Clarke provided vocals until singer Dave Gahan joined the band, which was renamed Depeche Mode, at that time, he adopted the stage-name Vince Clarke, by which he is currently known. The band initially adopted a slick synthesized electropop sound, which produced the album Speak and Spell, Clarke left Depeche Mode shortly thereafter. There were many rumoured reasons pertaining to his departure and he commented on Depeche Modes later material as being a little dark for his taste, but good nonetheless. Clarke also stated that he did not enjoy the public aspects of success, such as touring and interviews, Clarke was replaced by musician Alan Wilder and Depeche Mode went on to achieve international stardom. Yazoo split in 1983, and Moyet went on to have a solo career. Yazoo reformed in 2008 for a series of dates to celebrate 25 years since the duos split. Meanwhile, he founded the label Reset Records with Eric Radcliffe and they also produced an album, which was shelved but was released much later in 1999 under the name The Peter Pan Effect. In 1985, another took place with Paul Quinn of Bourgie Bourgie. However, the project never took off, and Clarke moved on to other projects, in early 1985, Clarke put an ad in Melody Maker for a singer, and one applicant was Andy Bell, who was a fan of his earlier projects. Blue Savannah, Chorus, Love to Hate You, Take a Chance on Me, in 2006, Erasure produced a country-western style acoustic album consisting of mostly non-single cuts from their previous albums. This album, Union Street was preceded by the single Boy originally included on their 1997 Cowboy album. On 26 January 2007, in a message on the official Erasure website
Vince Clarke
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Vince Clarke performing with
Erasure on 1 July 2011
Vince Clarke
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Clarke with Erasure in a performance at Delamere Forest (near Chester), England, UK on 1 July 2011
Vince Clarke
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Clarke with Erasure in a performance at Oulton Park Race Circuit (near Chester) for Carfest North, England, UK on 1 August 2014
27.
Alan Wilder
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Alan Charles Wilder is an English musician, composer, arranger and record producer, known as a former member of the electronic band Depeche Mode from 1982 to 1995. Since his departure from the band, the project called Recoil became his primary musical enterprise. Wilder has also provided production and remixing services to the bands Nitzer Ebb and he is a classically trained musician and renowned contemporary music producer. Alan Charles Wilder was born into middle class family and was raised in Acton and he began piano at the age of eight, through the encouragement of his parents. Later on, he learned the flute at St Clement Danes Grammar school, after school, Alan worked as a studio assistant at DJM Studios. This led to him ending up working for such as The Dragons, Dafne and the Tenderspots, Real to Real, The Hitmen. Following the departure of Vince Clarke, Depeche Mode placed an advertisement in the music magazine Melody Maker, even though the ad was looking for someone under 21 he lied about his age to get the job, and got away with it. He joined Depeche Mode in January 1982, initially as a tour keyboardist, Wilder wrote a handful of songs for Depeche Mode, including Two Minute Warning and The Landscape Is Changing from the album Construction Time Again, and If You Want from the album Some Great Reward. However, Wilders more notable contributions to Depeche Mode were as a musician, arranger, in addition to playing synthesizer throughout his time with Depeche Mode, Wilder also played piano on the bands signature ballad Somebody, and oboe on the bands hit anthem, Everything Counts. For the recording of the album Songs of Faith and Devotion, for Enjoy the Silence from the album Violator, Wilder is credited with taking Martin Gores melancholy ballad-esque demo and re-envisioning the song as a percolating, melodic dance track. The resulting single went on to one of the most commercially successful songs in Depeche Modes history. My decision to leave the group was not an easy one particularly as our last few albums were an indication of the potential that Depeche Mode was realizing. Unfortunately, within the group, this level of input never received the respect, whilst I believe that the calibre of our musical output has improved, the quality of our association has deteriorated to the point where I no longer feel that the end justifies the means. I have no wish to cast aspersions on any individual, suffice to say that relations have become strained, increasingly frustrating and, ultimately, in certain situations. Given these circumstances, I have no option but to leave the group and it seems preferable therefore, to leave on a relative high, and as I still retain a great enthusiasm and passion for music, I am excited by the prospect of pursuing new projects. The remaining band members have my support and best wishes for anything they may pursue in the future, after his split from Depeche Mode, Wilder was approached by Robert Smith with an offer to join The Cure. According to Wilder himself, the possibility was offered on behalf of The Cure by Daryl Bamonte and he briefly reunited with Depeche Mode during the Teenage Cancer Trust concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 17 February 2010, and enjoyed a rapturous reception. During the encore, Wilder accompanied Martin Gore on piano for Somebody, Gore returned the favour and played a DJ set on one of Recoils Selected Events
Alan Wilder
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Alan Wilder in 1986
28.
Christian Eigner
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Christian Eigner is a drummer, composer, live and session musician. He began drumming at the age of 4, and started his career aged 16 playing sessions and doing tours with various artists. He has been performing with Depeche Mode since 1997, as their drummer and he has also co-written Depeche Mode tracks with lead singer Dave Gahan since 2005, most notably the Grammy-nominated Depeche Mode single Suffer Well from the album Playing the Angel. Most Recent tour, Delta Machine Tour 2013/14 and he also co-produced and co-wrote Dave Gahans solo album Hourglass
Christian Eigner
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Christian Eigner
