Depeche Mode - New Life In The Netherlands (2023)

EARLY FM BROADCAST FROM BASILDON S FINEST Formed in 1980 in deepest Essex - one of London s home counties - Depeche Mode was originally made up of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher and - for a short while - Vince Clarke. The group released their first album Speak & Spell in 1981, which took them onto the British charts and the upcoming New Romantic scene. Clarke left after the release of their debut, so they recorded its follow up, A Broken Frame, as a trio. Gore took over as main songwriter and, later in 1982, Alan Wilder replaced Clarke, establishing a line-up that continued for 13 years. For their third album, Construction Time Again, Depeche worked with producer Gareth Jones at John Foxx s Garden Studios, and at Hansa Studios in West Berlin (where David Bowie s trilogy of seminal electronic albums featuring Brian Eno had been produced). The album saw a dramatic shift in the group s sound, due in part to Wilder s introduction of the Synclavier and E-mu Emulator samplers. The single Everything Counts rose to number six in the UK, and hit big too across Europe. In September 1983, to promote the new record, the bank launched a full-scale European concert tour. ON 6th December, Depeche Mode performed at Amsterdam s famous Paradiso venue, where they put on an extraordinary show playing cuts from each of their albums to date. Recorded for live FM broadcast but previously unreleased, the entire show the group played in the heart of the Netherlands on this fateful night some 37 years ago, is now available for fans to own and cherish on this new CD.