50 Fun Facts About Depeche Mode

Which TV series adapted from a video game played Depeche Mode's "Never Let Me Down Again" in its premiere episode?

The Last of Us used the song twice, first in its series premiere, and streams of the 1987 track tripled overnight.

Which country legend covered Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" on his 2002 album American IV: The Man Comes Around?

Johnny Cash called it probably the most evangelical song he had ever recorded. Martin Gore wavered over giving permission until Dave Gahan told him he would be crazy to refuse.

Depeche Mode took their name from a French magazine devoted to which subject?

Fashion was the subject of the magazine Dépêche Mode. Martin Gore took the name to mean "hurried fashion", though "fashion news" is the closer translation.

In the "Enjoy the Silence" video, Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan wanders dressed as a king carrying what?

A deckchair goes everywhere with the king, a man who has everything and only wants a quiet spot to sit. Gahan spent a week in costume in the Alps, Portugal and Scotland.

Depeche Mode named their debut album after which electronic children's toy, then new in British shops?

Speak & Spell was suggested by label boss Daniel Miller, who felt a toy aimed at young children suited a band taking its first steps.

Depeche Mode's concert film 101 was shot at which California stadium before more than 60,000 fans?

Rose Bowl, Pasadena, hosted the 101st and final show of the tour in June 1988. The band's American label had feared the stadium was too big to sell out.

Which Oscar-winning actress, a longtime fan, presented Depeche Mode's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2020?

Charlize Theron, the first South African to win an acting Oscar, has followed the band for years and gave the speech welcoming them in.

West German television used Depeche Mode's "People Are People" as its theme for coverage of which 1984 event?

The Olympic Games theme was also a West German number one, the first time a Depeche Mode single had topped any country's chart.

Depeche Mode carried their synthesisers to London by train in 1981 to appear on which British TV show?

Top of the Pops booked the band when "New Life" climbed to number 11, and they hauled their keyboards all the way to the BBC studios themselves.

Vince Clarke quit Depeche Mode in 1981 and formed which hit-making duo with singer Alison Moyet?

Yazoo, known as Yaz in North America, took "Only You" to number two in Britain within months of his exit.

Depeche Mode formed in 1980 in which Essex town, where a school plaque marks an early gig?

Basildon's James Hornsby School, where Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher were pupils, carries the plaque for the band's first show as a four-piece in June 1980.

Which duo did Depeche Mode co-founder Vince Clarke form in 1985 with singer Andy Bell?

Erasure began when Bell answered an advert for a singer, and the pair went on to sell more than 28 million albums.

Which 1990 Depeche Mode album got its heavy-metal-style title as a joke the band doubted anyone would get?

Violator was meant to be the most extreme, ridiculously heavy metal title they could think of. It became their first US top ten album and went triple platinum.

Depeche Mode finished their 1983 album at Hansa Studios, where David Bowie had recorded, in which city?

Berlin's Hansa had a cult reputation among bands, and the group found it cheaper to live and work there than in London.

A 1990 Depeche Mode record-store signing drew about 20,000 fans and a near riot in which American city?

Los Angeles fans were pressed against the shop's glass, and the band later apologised with a limited-edition cassette given out through radio station KROQ.

Martin Gore wrote Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" after reading a memoir about life with which singer?

Elvis Presley is shown in his ex-wife Priscilla's book Elvis and Me as her man and her mentor, which set Gore thinking about how a lover can become a kind of god.

Fans of which Scottish football club turned Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough" into a terrace chant in 2009?

Celtic supporters started it, and Liverpool fans later sang their own version for striker Luis Suárez. Andy Fletcher said the band felt honoured.

Depeche Mode's Martin Gore dreamed of the emotion of Neil Young carried by which German group's synthesisers?

Kraftwerk's machines playing soul music was how he summed it up, with John Lennon named beside Young as the feeling he was after.

Which American rock act covered Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" as the one new track on a 2004 greatest hits album?

Marilyn Manson put the cover on Lest We Forget: The Best Of, and the band's frontman co-directed its video.

Which German metal band released a cover of Depeche Mode's "Stripped" as a single from a 1998 tribute album?

Rammstein's version drew controversy for a video built from excerpts of a 1930s Leni Riefenstahl documentary.

Alan Wilder joined Depeche Mode after answering an advert, asking for someone under 21, in which music paper?

Melody Maker ran the anonymous ad in late 1981. Wilder was already 22, but he was hired anyway after two auditions.

Which label, founded by Daniel Miller in 1978, released Depeche Mode's first single on a verbal deal?

Mute Records' founder approached the band after a gig in Canning Town, and they went with him despite big-money offers from the major labels.

Vince Clarke recruited Dave Gahan for Depeche Mode after hearing him sing which David Bowie song at a jam session?

Heroes was the song Gahan sang at a local Scout hut jam in 1980. Until then Clarke had handled the vocals himself.

Which photographer, who shot U2's The Joshua Tree sleeve, has directed Depeche Mode videos since 1986?

Anton Corbijn started with "A Question of Time" and went on to design the band's stage sets and most of their record sleeves.

A character in which Valve video game wears a Depeche Mode T-shirt, used with the band's blessing?

Left 4 Dead 2 puts the shirt on the survivor Rochelle. The band responded eagerly when the developers asked, and let the game use their music too.

Depeche Mode backed their single "Behind the Wheel" with a cover of which classic driving song?

Route 66, the Bobby Troup standard, was chosen because Martin Gore thought a driving song belonged on the B-side.

Which 1987 Depeche Mode album was titled as a joke about how uncommercial the band's songs were?

Music for the Masses took its name from an old record called Music for the Millions that Martin Gore had come across.

Which 2023 album was the first Depeche Mode recorded as a duo, after the death of Andy Fletcher?

Memento Mori already had its title before Fletcher died, and Martin Gore said the loss only cemented the decision to keep it.

Which one-named producer made Depeche Mode's 1990 and 1993 albums and later shared a Grammy for a U2 record?

Flood, born Mark Ellis, got his nickname as a studio runner who kept the tea coming, while a less helpful colleague was dubbed Drought.

Which industrial rock band's founder says Depeche Mode's Black Celebration inspired his debut album?

Nine Inch Nails leader Trent Reznor said the 1986 record took his love for the band to a new level before he made Pretty Hate Machine.

A member of which American band remixed Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence" into a guitar-driven 2004 single?

Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda played most of the instruments himself, and his version reached number seven in Britain.

Alan Wilder left Depeche Mode in 1995 to concentrate on which experimental music project, begun in 1986?

Recoil began as an outlet for his less pop-minded ideas, and its first release was pieced together from sampled Depeche Mode sounds.

The sleeve of Depeche Mode's debut album shows which bird wrapped in plastic?

A swan in plastic made a puzzling cover, yet photographer Brian Griffin went on to shoot the band's album covers until the mid-1980s.

Which Alpine peak rises behind the worker on the cover of Depeche Mode's Construction Time Again?

The Matterhorn was shot from Zermatt with an ex-Royal Marine as the model, and the photographer still gets asked whether the picture was faked.

Before Depeche Mode took off, songwriter Martin Gore worked as a cashier in which kind of business?

A bank job followed his A-levels in 1979, while bandmate Andy Fletcher's day job was as an insurance clerk.

The concert film Depeche Mode: M was shot at 2023 shows in which Latin American capital?

Mexico City was picked partly because the country's cultural relationship with death mirrors the themes of the album the band was touring.

Alan Wilder rejoined Depeche Mode for one song at a 2010 Teenage Cancer Trust concert in which London venue?

Royal Albert Hall heard him play piano during the encore, fifteen years after he had quit the band.

Which Depeche Mode ballad, the first single with Martin Gore on lead vocals, did he record in the nude?

Somebody came out in 1984 as a double A-side with "Blasphemous Rumours" and started a tradition of a Gore-sung ballad on every album.

Which 1982 Depeche Mode single, the first written by Martin Gore, charted higher than any of Vince Clarke's three?

See You reached number six in Britain and was one of the first songs Gore had ever written.

Which documentary maker, who had earlier filmed Bob Dylan, directed Depeche Mode's tour film 101?

D. A. Pennebaker treated it as a documentary rather than a concert film, so no complete video record of the closing stadium show exists.

Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode suffered a heart attack on stage in 1993 just before the encore in which US city?

New Orleans saw the rest of the band improvise an encore without him, on a tour Q magazine called the most debauched ever.

Depeche Mode's 2023 single "Ghosts Again" was co-written by Richard Butler, the singer of which band?

The Psychedelic Furs frontman shares the writing credit with Martin Gore, and the video restages the chess game with Death from The Seventh Seal.

Which American band released a cover of Depeche Mode's "Never Let Me Down Again" as the B-side of "Rocket"?

The Smashing Pumpkins' cover later resurfaced on a tribute album, and Billy Corgan sang the song on stage with the band in 1998.

Which song did Depeche Mode release in 1981 as their debut single, reaching only number 57 in Britain?

Dreaming of Me was recorded on a verbal deal with their label boss and, oddly, was left off British pressings of the debut album.

The whip crack on Depeche Mode's "Master and Servant" is really a sample of producer Daniel Miller doing what?

Hissing and spitting stood in after attempts to sample a real whip proved hopeless. A recording of one bandmate spanking another went into the track too.

Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode named his 2002 record label after which snack, his favourite from a studio canteen?

Toast Hawaii, a German open sandwich of ham, pineapple and cheese, had also been the title of an unreleased covers album the band taped in 1984.

Depeche Mode played their first concerts in 1980 under which earlier band name?

Composition of Sound came to embarrass its members, who dropped it later in 1980 for a name Dave Gahan suggested.

Tim Simenon, who produced Depeche Mode's 1997 album Ultra, is better known under which stage name?

Bomb the Bass had already remixed "Strangelove" for the band in 1988, and he joined them on keyboards for a 1997 television performance.

Which Depeche Mode single is their only one to chart higher in the United States than in Britain?

Policy of Truth reached number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 against number 16 at home, and it also topped the US modern rock chart.

Which Depeche Mode single from Playing the Angel was the first written by frontman Dave Gahan?

Suffer Well took its title from advice a friend once gave Gahan, and his wife Jennifer appears in the video as an angel.