Martin turns 49 today! Born at Dagenham, Essex, England on July 23, 1961. Many happy returns Martin from all of us here at modefan dot com! Depeche Mode fans feel free to leave a comment with your birthday wish…

Depeche Mode’s recent tour was committed to the digital equivalent of celluloid back in November of last year, when the band visited Barcelona’s Palau Sant Jordi for two shows. The filming was directed by Russell Thomas, who has helmed shoots for a wide range of big names in music – from U2, Coldplay, Muse to Kylie Minogue, Beyonce and the likes. Russell is well known for making whatever is in front of his lenses look gorgeous, so we’re in for a visual treat.

Additionally, we can reveal that the director of photography was Simon Hawken, and the production company behind the film was JA Digital.

Source: Home

The unmixed recordings Side-Line received in the past few months are not ready for commercial use and probably were just made as a reference, something confirmed by former Depeche Mode member Alan Wilder to Side-Line: “If we had wanted to record and release a live disc from that tour, we could have recorded any of the shows and then would have replaced any errors or vocals that weren’t up to scratch. If this recording [that you have] is just off the desk, or a rough mix for reference, there was no intention to release it.”

The shows that are on the street now were recorded in San Francisco and Los Angeles in 1990 and thus most probably originate from tapes that were recorded by the band to see “how the show was sounding generally, or how well or badly it was being mixed out front.”

The 1990 ‘World Violation Tour’ has been on of the most sought after live recordings especially because the band and its label, Mute Records, never released a single live recording from it. We asked Wilder why no release from this tour ever saw the light of day: “Remember we had not long released ‘101’ so no-one in the band camp would have been keen on doing another live album at that time. They are much more commonplace these days with the obligatory ‘live’ DVD post every tour etc. In those days, people didn’t do them so nearly so readily.”

The ‘World Violation Tour’ kicked off with a North American leg in late May, starting in Pensacola, Florida and finishing up in early August in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium. Later in the month, the group played a sole date in Australia, in Sydney, prior to a six-date tour of Japan in September. Following the Japanese dates, the band commenced an extensive European tour, beginning in Brussels, Belgium in late September. The jaunt lasted two months and concluded with the final show of the tour in Birmingham, U.K. in late November.

The following songs were included in an acoustic set performed by Martin Gore during the said tour:
“I Want You Now”
“Here Is the House’
“Little 15”
“World Full of Nothing”
“Blue Dress”
“Sweetest Perfection”

Source: Side-Line

Writer and producer Adrian Buckle, of the Unifaun Theatre Co. on the Mediterranean island of Malta, this afternoon updated his Facebook page to say he had “canceled the musical PLAYING THE ANGEL. NO AUDITIONS WILL BE HELD.” He also commented on Slicing Up Eyeballs’ original post about “Playing the Angel,” writing “following some crossed wired communication I find I have to shelve the plans for this musical.”

In a follow-up e-mail to Slicing Up Eyeballs, Buckle elaborated on the issues with the musical, which appear to stem from an article about “Playing the Angel” in the Times of Malta last week that reported Buckle had “acquired the rights to use songs from the Essex band’s back catalogue” — a statement, it turns out, that isn’t quite true.

Buckle writes: “I was told that no rights are required to perform faithful cover versions of songs in a live setting and that the onus is on the venue to have a valid (Performing Rights Society) license to cover the performance of copyrighted material. This is what I intended to do. I made arrangements for a valid PRS license but it seems that this fact was interpreted by the paper that interviewed me as having obtained a green light from the band or someone representing it. This creates an uncomfortable situation which makes me prefer not to pursue this project.”

Buckle was scheduled to hold auditions for “Playing the Angel” — named after Depeche Mode’s 2005 album — on June 27, and the musical was set to open on Malta next March. The producer last week told the that “Playing the Angel,” which also was to have included songs such as “Just Can’t Get Enough, “It’s No Good,” “Everything Counts” and “People are People,” was to be “a new kind of musical.”

In his e-mail, Buckle writes, “It was a case of miscommunication and misunderstanding. It was a genuine mistake and is much regretted. I wanted to honour the band whose music I grew up listening to, but now, since I am not sure that all permissions are in order, I feel that I would be doing the band a disservice.”

As for Depeche Mode, the band has not made any statements regarding the musical.

Source: slicing up eyeballs