Depeche Mode: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2020 Inductees

This keyboard was likely played by Alan Wilder in the early 1980s, for the See You Tour and the A Broken Frame Tour. Wilder left the group in 1995, but reunited with them in 2010 for a Teenage Cancer Trust performance. 

"Being there on stage [for the charity reunion show] felt strangely familiar -- which may not be surprising considering how much touring we used to do -- but it was like I'd never been away," Wilder said.

This tape reel contains live backing tracks used on tour by Depeche Mode, including one for 1984 single “People Are People.” "This was the first song of ours that made a dent, really, into popular radio," Dave Gahan recalled.

“We were using all these tape loops to create rhythms and the technology was quite advanced, but it wasn’t anything like it is today, the things that you can do."

"We used to go into studios, and the first thing we’d do, we’d ask where the kitchen was — literally for pots and pans and things that we could throw down the stairs, and record the rhythms they would make crashing around, and then make it into loops."

Gore became the main songwriter after co-founder Vince Clarke’s departure, and took lead vocalist duty on songs including “Somebody,” “The Things You Said” and “Sweetest Perfection.” He steered the band in a darker musical direction than their debut album’s upbeat synth-pop.

“If I write a song, most of the chords — but of course not all of them — are minor chords,” Gore said. “Then again, I don’t start writing a song with the intention to be a sad one. It just happens, you know?”

This synthesizer is a key component of Andy Fletcher’s live performance rig; among other roles, Fletcher uses it to create the bassline for crowd favorite “Just Can’t Get Enough.” To what does Fletcher attribute the band’s longevity?

“I don’t know … all I can say is that we’re persistent. Good songs, and we’ve made ourselves into a good live band. I suppose that we’ve been outside the mainstream, almost doing our own thing. We think our music is quite melodic – it’s not just a noise."

"We’ve never really gone for the tabloid press. … The big cult of celebrity – we’re musicians in one of the top bands in the world, but we’re not celebrities – that’s the important thing.”

Gahan has long been inspired by the work of David Bowie; in fact, he was asked to join Depeche Mode after Vince Clarke heard him perform Bowie’s “Heroes” at a jam session performance.

Gahan stated, “…Diamond Dogs and Ziggy Stardust were to me, those albums where you sit in your bedroom wondering why you don’t fit in with the rest of the world."

“That’s what I was doing with David Bowie at that age. I had found somebody in him that I could understand, where I felt I was part of his world, when I felt alienated. And I think that’s why Depeche Mode appeals to a lot of people."

"Somehow it’s comforting, like, ‘You’re not alone.’ You’re not, of course. None of us are. But music is the thing that crosses all boundaries and brings odd people together.”