LET'S GET TO THE POINT

It's not easy to explain why someone becames a Devout. Maybe first of all I should explain what a Devout is.
The name comes from the album Songs of Faith and Devotion (usually called SoFaD) dating back to 1993, the eighth studio's album. You can find in it real hits like Walking in my Shoes,
One Caress, which is simply wonderful and In your Room, all followed by admirable videos. Walking in my Shoes is signed by Anton Corbjin, who worked a lot for and with them. Videos like Enjoy the Silence, It's no Good, Policy of Truth, Personal Jesus were made by him as many others as well.
I said... oh yes... the Devotion! Therefore, Devout comes from SoFaD. In some articles it seems clear that the Depeche's fans love them with all their heart and soul. Martin Lee Gore (composer, keyboardist, guitarist and a part from being the beating heart of the band) expressed his astonishment that the European fans gave him. The only ones that present themselves at their concert with a total black look, differently from American ones, similar in all to the fans of other groups.
If you really listen to Depeche Mode they cannot help touching your heart with Martin's words, extraordinarily interpreted and lived by the singer, Dave Gahan. His presence on stage makes him unique, along with his terrific body, notwithstanding his almost 45 years of age, and in spite of all the excesses to which he abandoned himself in the past! The more introverted and reserved Martin is (and he hasn't been a hell of Saint, either!), the more explosive and projected toward the outside Dave is. The sweat that drips from all over his body at the concert, means that he doesn't obviously save his strenght, and you feel that he is giving you all of himself, his art and his inside. That man on stage gives his soul. In fact at the end of the tour he is half of what he was at the beginnig. If you don't believe me, this is the prove!
They give to us an album that they make every four years. The album comes out if they have something to say. They don't need money, so they give to us only goodies. Never repetitive but always consistent, they are one of the very few bands capable to stay alive after more than 20 years.
When in 2005 Playing the Angel cames out, I was a little bit skeptical. Things had changed since their last work, did they maintain their line, or did they give up? Surprise! They were always the fabulous Depeche Mode, only renewed and with the same desire to sing and the same understanding.
From Playing the Angel came out some wonderful videos, like Precious, or Suffer Well, signed by... guess who? Anton Corbjin, obviously! And this time there was a novelty... Three songs written by the singer: Suffer Well, I want it All and Nothing's Impossible. Great work, even if, according to me, is not confirmed in his successive solo album, Hourglass, written in cooperation with Andrew Phillpott and Christian Eigner, the drummer who has been accompanying the Depeche Mode on tour for a very long time.
The Hourglass' songs are almost all very beautiful, some of them are overwhelming, but I didn't find the same complexity and depht of the ones written for the album Playing the Angel. Did the good Martin correct them just a little bit? Nobody knows!
One of their characteristic is the privacy, when the tours end, they disappear, rarely some news leak out. Some time Martin offers his work as a DJ in some amusing places, and that's all.
The third element of the band, Andrew Fletcher (Fletch), is more expansive. Last Summer he went around some italian discos as DJ in Riccione, Rome and other places. He is more sociable and he has a longer tongue than Martin and Dave, the other hand more anonimous inside the band and with a marginal musical part. But, on my own opinion, especially for the survival of Depeche Mode as a negotiator between the opposite personalities of the other two components. Therefore... long life Fletch!
Most of the female Devouts, are without any doubt attracted by Dave and by a specific anatomical part of his body, that he keeps showing without falling in to vulgar situations. In case your attention had been recalled by something else, he himself brings it back in that specific part with his famous way of holding it with full hand! In more than an interview, he confessed that he enjoys behaving like this in front of millions of people for the reason that his mother shouted at him when he was a kid and what he obtains is the strong attention of the crowd. As a good theatrical animal, he invests everyone with his energy.
Martin is more contemplative, a beauty just hardly touched by the age, blue dreaming eyes, he lives in his own world of poetry which is not excessively sweet and even less mawkish. He has always written the musics and lyrics of the band and very few are the spaces left to the other. I have the impression that he has always felt the Depeche Mode as his own creature.
Dave is the only that can give voice to his words, this is clear. Depeche Mode are Dave as Martin and the other way around. If one of them wasn't there, the group would have no reason to exist.
Martin works behind the scenes. His presence on stage is not so relevant, if it wasn't for the eccentric clothes that he wears, the wonderful guitars that he shows and his warm and calm voice.
During the calm moments the lights are pointed at him and you start to feel the shivers and your eyes go bright. Alone on stage with his guitar in front of the silent crowd, he hypnotizes you with his acoustic version of Home and It Doesn't Matter and the only thing that you can do is love him with the Higher Love. Dave will care bringing you down to earth in between sweat and flesh.
I got Devoted very late, only three years ago, but it didn't take long for me to get updated. These are Depeche Mode: if they come in to your life, they become everything for you, maybe because their songs talk about the things that happen in our life without beating about the bush or making them sweet. They call things with their own name and that's all.
They dig in the dirt of the human's miseries and weaknesses, in to the failures as in the victories. But the final message isn't: the world is a drain, lets kill ourselves, it's much better!
Pain and suffering are the concepts at the base of their artistic philosophy, if you can accept this definition, but these are not things to which you would give up, and the Depeche have shown this with facts.
Basically, I think that the Devout suffers from a kind of mental disease, in a positive sense obviously! Maybe a kind of split personality...
Most of them adopt the total black look in every day's life, personally I try to avoid it in the Summer, however black is the non-color that dominates their life. But inside they are full of colors, they love life, feel good and enjoy themselves. This creates a contrast with their exterior image. You can consider the opposite concept for me, nobody can imagine the dark that lives inside of me, and when this showes up, it creates perplexity and surprise.
Never stop at the appearances...Think about it, people... Think about it...

COOPERATORS

Depeche Mode have some very good cooperators on tour as Peter Gordeno at the keyboard, Andrew Phillpott as sound engineer and Christian Eigner at the drums. Eigner has cooperated with Depeche Mode since 1997 and he often works with them outside the tours as well. He has worked on the Dave's last solo album Hourglass, of which he has also been the producer together with Andrew Phillpott. As well as been a session man, Christian writes songs and in 2005 he shows up with his album Recovery. He cooperated with Dave composing the sound system of the three songs included in Playing the Angel and also the ones of Hourglass. Andrew Phillpott is also an old cooperator as a programmer, sound engineer and co-songwriter. In this clip you can see him in the background, behind his computers for Hourglass. He's also there during the creation of Counterfeit and Counterfeit2, the solo albums of Mr Martin Lee Gore.
I couldn't get to know anything else of him and this makes me sad. I find Mr Phillpott really interesting not only as an artist and if you will check out this clip, you will understand my reasons.
I wouldn't mind to know something more, but apparently he is a reserved man and correctly he prefers to let his work speak rather than his person. I totally agree with who wrotes this sign that Martin shows with pleasure!
Peter Gordeno has cooperated with Depeche Mode since 1998. About him there is not much to say, beside the fact that he was born in Rangoon and accompanied Martin during the tour following Counterfeit2. I limit myself to a photo found with toil, maybe Peter doesn't also like to be in the spotlight.
But the first and bigger cooperator was and is, without any doubt, Anton Corbjin, a Dutch photographer and director. But I'm going to talk about him later. You will understand that I couldn't really do otherwise, because he is unquestionably a great artist.

THE SONGS

Their main feature is the sensuality. You can almost touch it in the lyrics of Dirt (the original version is by Iggy Pop. The Depeche Mode did a cover which was used for the Resident Evil's soundtrack), Sea of Sin, my second skin my home from home, when I'm in doubt my hands reach out and I'm never alone, Dangerous, I Feel Loved, from the dephts of my emptiness comes a feeling of innerbliss, I feel wanted I feel desired, I can feel my soul on fire and Zenstation, only instrumental.
I think that I Want You Now is the best in that sense, there's a yearning inside and it's showing through, reach out your hands and accept my love, we've waiting for too long, enough it's enough, I want you now.
Regardind I feel Loved, the video is more than sensual as well as the song.
In many others it rolls all over you from Dave's voice that some times becomes rough, or from some chords. So if you manage to perceive these nuances, they will make you shiver.
Many songs are marvelously consuming, like Walking in my Shoes, now I'm not looking for absolution, forgiveness for the things I do, but before you come to any conclusion, try walking in my shoes. This is another unforgettable video! Or like Condemnation, World Full of Nothing, Dressed in Black, In Your Room, Precious (especially for the lyric), One Caress, which is sung in a superb way by Martin, Waiting for the Night and so on!
There are some songs written by Martin that only him can sing. As I said before, One Caress is one of these, It doesn't Matter and It Doesn't Matter 2, Home, Somebody, World Full of Nothing, Macro, Blue Dress, Sometimes.
His voice isn't as sensual as Dave's voice, but it's warm, familiar, affectionate, full of facetings. It guides you exactly where Martin wants you to go, in this case high up. It obliges you to listen and consider the song word by word. And in this way, the Depeche Mode are inside you, there's no turning back. Now you're a Devout.
Other songs are totally easygoing and now I'm talking about their first albums. Unforgettable songs like What's Your Name (signed by Vince Clark, which left the band very early to founded the Yazoo with Alison Moyet and then the Erasure with Andy Bell), Boys, say “Go” (Vince Clarke), Flexible (Martin Gore), the wonferful Get the Balance Right (Martin Gore), its video is very beautiful, The Meaning of Love (Martin Gore), Now This is Fun (Martin Gore), More Than a Party (Martin Gore), Set me Free (Martin Gore), Nodisco (Vince Clarke), New Life (Vince Clarke) and Leave in Silence (Martin Gore), another considerable video.
If you love the dark and gloomy atmospheres, you will be satisfied by Death's Door, Black Celebration, Damaged People, Darkest Star, Blasphemous Rumors, The Bottom Line, Sister of Night.
And finally, I have to mention the glorious Fly On the Windscreen, Photographic, Shake the Disease, Dream On, Strangelove, World in my Eyes, Policy of Truth, now you're standing there tongue tied, you'd better learn your lesson well, hide what you have to hide, and tell what you have to tell.
At this point I need to do more than a personal chart of the songs that I really love, despite I know that it will make a lot of people's nose twist but... I don't care! I will start with Here is the House, and Lie to Me, World Full of Nothing, Leave in Silence, Satellite, Shouldn't Have Done That, Ice Machine, Pipeline, the charming Shame, hope alone won't remove the stains (for shame), And Then..., The Things You Said, Nothing, Get The Balance Right, absolutely Macro, I Feel Loved , Dirt, Puppets, Big Muff, the mythical It's No Good, I'm going to take my time, I have all the time in the world to make you mine, it is written in the stars above, Barrel of a Gun, do you mean this horny creep set upon weary feet who looks in need to sleep that doesn't come?, Surrender, I'm a man of flash and bone, rapture rushing through my veins, passion flaming in my heart, heavenly surrender once again, Freestate, John the Revelator, A pain that I'm use to and I stop myself here. Otherwise, I could go on for ever!
The only instrumental songs are various, like Junior Painkiller, FPMIP, Obekorn, the delicate Lovetheme, Easy Tiger, PIMPF, Introspectre, the frenetic Kaleid, Sibeling, Slowblow, Zenstation, Big Muff, Uselink, the hypnotic Jazz Thieves, all by Mr Martin Lee Gore.
His DJ sets are very agreeable, like Being Boiled, the songs Hip Young Things, White Noise e Octagon Man from the Exciter's tour DJ set.
In Italy Depeche Mode parties take place regularly in cities like Milan, Reggio Emilia and Rome. Those are very good occasions for us to know each other and spend a night together dancing and listening to the music that we love.
Personally, I can say that getting in the Devotion's tunnel has brought me only positive things, like many Italian friends with whom I share the adoration of the Major Gods, Martin & Dave, and a friend known on an Londoner Depeche Mode's forum. My English is poor but the Devotion opens the road and brings down the walls and finally we understand each other and whenever I'm in London we always meet and spend some hours wondering around the city.
Being in London, the place where they were born and grown artistically, is always a thrilling experience and the only thought of walking on the same footpath where they once may had walked on makes me really excited. I also feel sorry because almost none of the clubs that once welcomed their debuts are still there. All erased, all finished. Give a way to the new that doesn't exists! And it is such a pain to listen to their songs used for commercials. I think it's almost blasphemous!
The last rumors say that the Depeche Mode are in the studio at Santa Barbara. Finally! They've done it last March! Therefore, we have to wait still (nobody exactly knows how long...) before we can hold their new album in our hands, and who knows when we will be able to see them in tour. Believe me... it's hard to be a Devout!