The preeminent synth-pop outfit for four decades, Depeche Mode have endured an ever-shifting musical landscape, rising above fads and battles with personal demons, somehow managing to retain a hold on the charts and the audience, the latter which continues to grow as new generations discover them and become “devotees.” Depeche Mode FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the World's Finest Synth-Pop Band shows how a group of schoolmates influenced by the likes of Kraftwerk, Joy Division, and mid-period David Bowie carved out their own musical niche until they became one of the most influential bands to come out of England. Depeche Mode were Europe’s best-kept secret in the early '80s with the albums Construction Time Again and the—perhaps—tongue-in-cheek-titled Music for the Masses. They became a worldwide phenomenon as the '90s dawned, with the landmark LP Violator, containing the smash hits "Personal Jesus," "Enjoy the Silence," and "Policy of Truth." But success came at a price as depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, and personnel departures threatened to derail the band. It wasn’t a question of whether the music of Depeche Mode would be able to withstand fickle industry changes, but rather if the members of the group themselves could make it out alive. Depeche Mode FAQ shows how they did, becoming legends in the process.

Depeche Mode's 101 is, at first glance, a curious thing: a live double-album by a synth band. A recording of its “Concert for the Masses,” 101 marks the moment when doomy, cultish, electronic Depeche Mode, despite low American album sales and a lack of critical acclaim, declared they had arrived and ascended to the rare air of stadium rock. On June 18, 1988, 65,000 screaming, singing Southern Californians flocked to Pasadena's Rose Bowl to celebrate DM's coronation. The concert also revealed the power of Southern California radio station and event host KROQ, which had turned Los Angeles into DM's American stronghold through years of fervent airplay. KROQ's innovative format, which brought “new music” to its avid listeners, soon spread across the country, leading to the explosion of alternative rock in the 1990s. Eight years after its founding in Basildon, Essex, Depeche Mode, rooted in 1970s Krautrock, combined old-fashioned touring, well-crafted songs, and the steadfast support of KROQ to dominate Southern California, the United States, and then the world, kicking open the doors for the likes of Nirvana in the process. 101 is the hidden-in-plain-sight hinge of modern music history.

An electrifying new biography about the four Essex lads who became award-winning stadium superstars and champions of synth pop! Jonathan Miller's groundbreaking book features in-depth interviews with founder member Vince Clarke and producers Gareth Jones and Mark Bell, and contains never-before seen interviews with the band members themselves. With additional input from Gary Human, Howard Jones and Thomas Dolby this is a unique portrait of a band that almost lost control when their lives went off the rails and lead singer Dave Gahan's heroin addiction nearly killed him. In the end Depeche Mode not only survived, they triumphed, racking up a staggering 40 million-plus album sales on the way. This is their amazing story, told in full for the first time. Born out of the post-punk backlash in the early 80's, Depeche Mode took their name from a phrase in a French style magazine and became the definitive international synth-pop group. Vince Clarke, Andy Fletcher and Martin Gore had started out as an Essex guitar band but it was their bright and upbeat synthesizer-driven brand of pop fronted by Dave Gahan that was to find global acceptance and enjoy unlikely success in the US. Despite a handful of early plaudits in the music press, the group won only intermittent critical acceptance over the years, its often light musical approach contrasting with lyrics that sometimes plunge into darker topics like S&M, religious fetishism and the scourge of capitalism. But whatever the music press said, the fans finally bought into Depeche Mode in a big way. Their Violator tour at the start of the 90s sold millions of records and turned them into major US concert stars. In true rock style, Depeche Mode's members have suffered their share of internal strife over a long career. Dave Gahan reinvented himself as a lead singer with both a harder musical edge and a near-fatal drug habit, while internal acrimony often marred the later stages of their career. Jonathan Miller has made an exemplary job of telling the Depeche Mode saga in its entirety and goes a long way towards explaining how the group have managed to thrive when almost all their post-punk contemporaries fell by the wayside long ago.

For four decades, Depeche Mode dominated electronic music, from the naïve melodies of 1981’s Speak & Spell through to 2023’s Memento Mori. Through changing line-ups featuring Vince Clarke, Alan Wilder, and Andy Fletcher, singer Dave Gahan and main songwriter Martin Gore have been the band’s core. Starting as teenagers and now in their 60s, they have survived worldwide fame, addictions to drink and drugs, and near-death experiences, while continuing to innovate as technology and the music business evolved. An acclaimed live band, it is through their fifteen studio albums that Depeche Mode have best expressed themselves, from the industrial darkness of Black Celebration (1986) to their popular breakthroughs with Music For the Masses (1987) and Violator (1990) and the emotional upheaval of 1993’s Songs of Faith and Devotion. The band survived the chaotic fallout from that album and tour in the mid-1990s, with Gahan experiencing a near-fatal drug overdose, to regroup with Ultra (1997). They continued their explorations of love, death, sex, and politics on acclaimed albums Playing the Angel (2005), Delta Machine (2013), and Spirit (2016). Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020, proven survivors Depeche Mode have their story told here in song-by-song detail. Brian J. Robb is the New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling biographer of Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, and Brad Pitt. He has also written books on silent cinema, the films of Philip K. Dick, Wes Craven, Laurel and Hardy, the Star Wars movies, Superheroes, Gangsters, and Walt Disney, as well as science fiction television series Doctor Who and Star Trek. His illustrated books include an Illustrated History of Steampunk and Middle-earth Envisioned, a guide to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (Winner, Best Book, Tolkien Society Awards). He is a Founding Editor of the Sci-Fi Bulletin website and lives near Edinburgh, UK.

Depeche Mode are one of the UK's most popular global bands, a multi-million selling phenomenon their last album Sounds Of The Universe went top three in 25 countries worldwide. But it is their astonishing series of early albums that made them such a legend among their hardcore army of fans. Mostly ignored by the UK press at the time, LPs such as Some Great Reward, Black Celebration and Music For The Masses have grown in stature with every passing year as a new generation of artists have proclaimed their influence. Now, for the first time, with Depeche Mode: The Early Years, those early classics, from their 1981 debut Speak And Spell to 1993 s Songs Of Faith And Devotion are examined in-depth, with interviews from session musicians and studio engineers who saw their creation first hand. In 2013, with a new album about to drop, Depeche Mode seem more relevant and important than they ever did and a new generation of fans are waiting to discover them. The first and only book to focus specifically on the early years of this globally massive band, a slant which will strongly appeal to their massive devoted fanbase. Depeche Mode have sold over 73 million records worldwide

THE FIRST AND ONLY BIOGRAPHY OF ONE OF MUSIC’S MOST INFLUENTIAL AND ENIGMATIC CHARACTERS.Dave Gahan’s extraordinary life as the frontman of one of modern music’s most successful bands is a tale unrivalled in rock and roll folklore. From a colourful childhood and youth in Essex, Gahan went on to become a huge star all over the world. For years each Depeche Mode album was more successful than the one before but in 1995 the increasing pressures on the band and within Gahan’s personal life almost killed him.From this harrowing abyss, Gahan has bounced back and forged a new acclaimed career as a solo artist. Gahan’s stunning rehabilitation as a songwriter and rejuvenated frontman means he deserves his own chapter in music history - this unauthorised biography includes new and exclusive interviews with numerous people who’ve worked with and around Gahan.Aside from recounting his turbulent private battles, this first ever book on Gahan examines his musical legacy and suggests he is arguably Britain’s most under-rated and interesting rock vocalist. Recounted for the very first time, Gahan’s tale away from his band-mates overshadows even the remarkable story of Depeche Mode - the combination of his difficult yet triumphant story plus the thrilling music he has recorded, make this a story like no other in rock and roll history.

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