DEPECHE MODE ON THE GLOBAL SPIRIT TOUR
YOU
DON’T
MESS
WITH
CLASSIC SOUNDS
Bringing Depeche Mode’s Iconic Music to North American Arenas
By Michael Raine
Y
ou can hear an awful lot
of Depeche Mode on the
radio these days, both
literally and metaphori-
cally. Of course, the iconic
British band’s songs, from
the Goth classic “Personal
Jesus” to the straight-up pop of “Just Can’t
Get Enough,” are still radio staples, but you
can also hear their influence in every synth-
heavy artist on the dial, from The Killers and
Chvrches to Lady Gaga and Coldplay. That
may be why, while many of their contem-
poraries from the 1980s are playing the
casino circuit, Depeche Mode are still put-
ting new music on the charts and selling
out stadiums and arenas all over the world
more than 35 years after their debut album.
And they can boast that all 14 of their al-
bums (14!) have reached the top 10 in the
U.K. and have collectively sold more than
100 million copies worldwide.
Depeche Mode, suffice to say, are
legends, and they show no signs of slowing
down; if anything, they’re upping the ante.
34 • PROFESSIONAL SOUND
Their latest trek, the Global Spirit Tour, in
support of 2017’s Spirit LP, was the band’s
longest tour of their career, spanning
around 130 stadium and arena shows in
Europe and North and South America from
May 2017 through July 2018. By the end,
the band – original members Dave Gahan
(lead singer), Martin Gore (keyboards/gui-
tar/vocals), and Andy Fletcher (keyboards/
backing vocals/bass), along with touring
drummer Christian Eigner and keyboardist
Peter Gordeno – played to around 2.5 mil-
lion fans around the world.
“All the synth purists are into Depeche
Mode, so that’s the sound and I am not
going to mess with it. Some of those synth
riffs are obviously very famous,” says Ant-
ony King, the band’s FOH engineer since
2009/10’s Tour of the Universe. “[The signa-
ture sound] is coming from the keyboard
patches. Myself and Kerry Hopwood, who’s
the longtime musical director of Depeche
Mode, we work together in the studio and
he replicates a lot of them to be exactly like
the album. We spend months in rehearsals
making sure those are done properly.”
In concert, according to King, the
most significant difference between the
show and the album is the addition of a live
drummer, as there are a lot of programmed
drums on the records. “Live, Christian adds
a whole other dimension and it makes for
a really exciting part of the show. You’re
still trying to keep the legacy, because you
don’t want to mess with a 35-year history,
but also want to keep it exciting. They’re
essentially a modern band because they
keep evolving sonically. [Spirit] is a new
album, not a throwback; it’s very much of
its time and that helps to keep the show
modern and exciting,” adds King of his gen-
eral approach.
Bringing that sound to die-hard De-
peche Mode fans and synth-heads was an
L-Acoustics rig supplied by Britannia Row
Productions. The entire North American
leg of the tour was staged in arenas with a
270-degree seating configuration.