My Halloween with Depeche Mode...#089
Second hand AWE
On Friday afternoon, Halloween, I took myself off to the BFI IMAX to see a film which had caught my eye –Depeche Mode M. The Waterloo IMAX the UK’s largest screen.
It was the 2.30pm showing. The audience? More than a fair share of late 50/60 somethings, topped off with a sprinkling of younger fans.
Momento Mori
The film told the story of Depeche Mode’s sell out gigs in Mexico City touring their aptly named album Momento Mori – literally translated as ‘remember (that you have) to die’. I didn’t quite know the treat I was in for.
But before I go there, lets go back, way back, to November 25th, 1982, the Cornwall Coliseum in St Austell.
South West to North East
I’d travelled there by minibus with the North Devon Concert Club to see the fresh faced up and coming New Wave synth band, Depeche Mode. The singles Dreaming of Me, New Life and Just Can’t Get Enough the lures. Light, pop synth, drum machines, catchy tunes. The line up included Vince Clark before he left to form Yazoo with Alison Moyet.
But it was Dave Gahan who caught my eye.
Lanky, youthful, besuited, almost geeky looking. His restrained dance style showing glimmers of the showman he was to become. The show was fun and energetic making the two hour minibus journey more than worth it.
I became a Depeche Mode fan.
My next impactful memory of Depeche Mode was the 1990 Violator album.
By then I was living in Newcastle Upon Tyne. The North East, a far cry from the South West, and with it, my first experience of financial services.
I loved living in Newcastle. The Violator album spawning two of my favourite DM songs - Personal Jesus and Enjoy The Silence…each cementing memories of my time in the Toon.
But back to Mexico.
What a film, what a show.
Exquisitely shot and cleverly intertwined with Mexican folklore and poems narrating the Day of the Dead celebrations – the thin veneer between life and death. And the intricate death ceremonies Mexican’s adhere to to celebrate the Radical Singularity of life.
Pulsating, meticulously produced yet still raw. The incredible drummer setting a pounding, mesmerising, beat. Eye liner, jewellery, tattoos, skulls. Dave Gahan, fit, vibrant, flexible, energetic, sexy, pirouetting around the stage. Martin Gore, skinny, his blonde curls shaved at the sides, his face a story of a lifetime of rock and roll.
Dave’s unique baritone voice, contrasting with Martin’s tenor as they sung about life, death, sex, religion, loneliness, loss.
Gahan and Gore; the two original band members to remain following the death of Andy Fletcher three years ago. A dangerous far cry from the fresh faced boys at the Cornwall Coliseum who just couldn’t get enough.
Awe
The film is momentous. Uplifting. Hypnotic. The cinema audience were mesmerised. A look of wonder on the faces of those surrounding me. I almost applauded after the 70,000 plus concert crowd, conducted by Gahan, sung:
“All I ever wanted, all I ever needed, is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm”
such beautiful lyrics1.
I left the cathedral like IMAX, incongruously set in the middle of the roundabout at the end of Waterloo Bridge, uplifted, nostalgic and alive. Radiating a sense of awe.
The Friday 5pm views from Waterloo Bridge a perfect backdrop to a moody, brooding Halloween evening. The Friday evening drinker’s garish, novelty shop outfits marking London’s spooky Halloween celebrations felt like the poor relations to the Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations which followed on the 1st and 2nd of November…
You
As ever, I’m interested in you.
Music lifts me, moves me, changes my mood. What does it do for you?
Pour yourself a smoky mescal and drop me a line, I’d love to hear your musical, Halloween or Day of the Dead experiences.
And don’t forget, you’re never going to be any younger than you are today. As Depeche Mode sing in their first single off Momento Mori:
“Time is fleeting…we know we’ll be ghosts again”
What are you waiting for? The line between life and death can be thin. Just do the thing.
Until next week my friends
Ruth x
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The song, Enjoy the Silence.