ANDY JONES
Depeche Mode Mk2 at the top of their game: Martin Gore, Andrew Fletcher, Dave Gahan and Alan Wilder
Where to start with Depeche Mode in the 1990s? Well, perhaps obviously with the song that closed the previous decade, Personal Jesus, and the one that opened this one, World In My Eyes. Both were magnificent calling cards for the forthcoming (and some would argue best) Depeche Mode album, Violator. Both had prominent guitars, and this ongoing blend of synths and live instruments would continue through the next album Songs Of Faith And Devotion to open up the doors of world domination to the band from Basildon. Depeche Mode had already conquered the States by the end of the 1980s – just watch that Rose Bowl Performance from 1988 in Pasadena, California once again. Yet this double-whammy of recordings would take them onto another level entirely, even finally earning the band the recognition they had so long deserved on their home soil.