DEPECHE MODE: 101 WAS THE BEHIND-THE-SCENES TOUR FILM THAT BROKE THE MOULD FOR MUSIC DOCUMENTARIES. CLASSIC POP MEETS THE TWO STILL-PROUD FILM-MAKERS, DA PENNEBAKER AND CHRIS HEGEDUS…

MARK ELLIOTT

In 1989, Depeche Mode released a film that captured their leap into the stadium league. While support for the band had been building across the decade – and they’d been reliable chart regulars in Europe since 1981 – the Music For The Masses Tour represented a defined step forward and, significantly, the crowning of the group as the biggest cult band in the USA, the world’s largest music market.

Documentary film-makers Chris Hegedus and DA Pennebaker were approached to capture the moment on camera and join the four-piece for the final leg of the tour, culminating in the 101st show at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on 18 June 1988. Depeche Mode: 101, released on video the following March, proved a critical smash – and more. For while the pair, working with their son Frazer as producer and co-director David Dawkins on additional camera, were reliable choices – DA had created Bob Dylan’s legendary Don’t Look Back, after all – no one was expecting them to come up with a new TV format in the process… How did the commission to work with Depeche Mode come about?

CH Bruce Kirkland [who represented DM in the USA] called us up and asked us if we were interested in making the film. I think all of us said “Depeche who?” I had just had a baby, but DA flew out without me to Portland, Oregon [May 1988] to see them in concert and we decided to do it… while we were still trying to decide on a concept for the film!

DA I thought they were an interesting band. When I went to the concert, most of the crowd didn’t look like they went to other shows. It was like they had their own special audience.

Did the band have a strong awareness of how unique their fans were?

DA I’m not sure. Depeche Mode were so different then – even the fact they didn’t have a drummer and did so much on tape set them apart. I think that sense of difference developed into something almost religious-like for fans over time.