Halo: The Story Behind Depeche Mode's Classic Album Violator

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Depeche Mode’s audience had grown up with the band and could be considered to be more mature than the armies of teenagers who were best known for following around various bands in a state of frenzy. The type of audience Depeche Mode had made the events that unfolded at The Wherehouse all the more remarkable. RoD: Mat Smith, a press person and book editor of ‘Halo’ has already put down his personal words of recommendation on Facebook. And who do you definitely recommend to read your book?

These types of books are written for at least two reasons – to discover the undiscovered… yet and to describe unknown facts for the first time. The book itself is secondary to the discoveries. The second reason, equally important, is to collect all the diffused pieces of information, sometimes trifles, so that they are finally in one place. Such books are very necessary because allow the gathering of known knowledge in a specific moment. Then subsequent authors, who come after, can deepen their knowledge and move studies further. The book is an oral history of the career-defining album and era for electronic pioneers Depeche Mode, stretching from August 1989 upon the release of the first single Personal Jesus to November 1990 and the end of the World Violation Tour. The book features detailed interviews with central figures involved with the band as they transitioned their sound and image to a stadium-friendly aesthetic, as well as those whose trusted contributions were essential for the creation of 'Violator'. It is worth noting that by this time in their career, Depeche Mode were an established band, all aged in their late twenties or early thirties. They were not a British invasion era Beatles causing a teen frenzy, nor were they at the stage in their career Duran Duran found themselves when they first went to America and were besieged by the teen hordes. Kevin: For the reasons noted in my last answer, I just felt that there was a really interesting story based on the narrative of an era for a band covering the creativity required to produce such a masterpiece, recording, marketing, design, visual output, and lots more.RoD: Were you able to see the band live on the “World Violation Tour”? If so, where and what was your experience about the concert? (There was even a kind of fan petition in Hungary at that time to bring DEPECHE MODE to Budapest for a concert, but unfortunately without success. So, I had to wait until 1993 to finally see them live.) David: Kevin explains the circumstances surrounding the book and Andy’s passing below. We wanted to be very careful about how we dealt with events as the last thing we wanted to do was intrude in any way on the grief being felt by his family and those close to DEPECHE MODE. We have dedicated the book to Andy. We all miss him and I think all DEPECHE MODE fans are still coming to terms with what happened. We felt dedicating the book to him was the least we could do.

Depeche Mode performing at Wembley Arena on the World Violation Tour, November 1990 (photo credit: Michael Rose) Wilder confirmed in a 27 July 2011 interview with electricityclub.co.uk that "Halo" employs orchestral string elements sampled from an as yet unidentified piece of music composed by celebrated English composer Edward Elgar: The book features detailed interviews with central figures involved with the band as they transitioned their sound and image to a stadium-friendly aesthetic, as well as those whose trusted contributions, while occasionally understated, were essential for the creation of ‘Violator’, its enduring mystique, sound and success. It’s] as if he’s praying for Dave’ … Daniel Miller (right), and Dave Gahan. Photograph: 2020 Anton Corbijn I was never a Christian but I did go to church regularly for about two years and it’s certainly rubbed off on me. I’m almost obsessed with the idea of good and evil. I suppose my songs do seem to advocate immorality but if you listen there’s always a sense of guilt. On “Halo”, I’m saying ‘let’s give in to this’ but there’s also a real feeling of wrongfulness.Despite their general apathy towards parts of the media, especially in the UK where the music press had often been far from kind in its coverage of the band, Depeche had a system that was exhausting, yet successful. The band would rarely conduct interviews as a four-piece, primarily to save time rather than (at this stage) because they'd fallen out with one another. Dave Gahan and Alan Wilder or Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher, for example, would do the rounds of the radio and TV stations, magazines and newspapers to espouse the virtues of their latest public output. And then they would move on to the next city and the process would start again. Prior to the signing, Martin was interviewed by telephone on the show Request Video. The host Jim ‘The Poorman’ Trenton asked Gore if he was aware that it had been predicted that a crowd of ten thousand people would attend the event. Written and published by Kevin May and David McElroy in association with UK-based Grosvenor House Publishing, Halo features interviews with those who had key roles during the making of Violator and the subsequent tour. The book by David and Kevin is, after all, an attempt to capture the moment and time when everything merged into a perfect formula, as the authors saw it and wanted it then, not as we thought. Because often a contemporary view of work even disturbs the original understanding of the record. The guys perfectly reflect the spirit of the times and the intensive production process of Alan, Flood, and François as well as other great professionals who appeared from the demos to the final sounds of the tour in November 1990 with the band. David & Kevin: We all know the impact the album had on the band’s fans, but it clearly had an impact on everyone involved in the project. When we read the interviews that each of us had carried out, we certainly learned a lot. There is a lot of new insight and information that we think fans will love.

The triumph of the Rose Bowl gig and the fever surrounding the release of the subsequent 101 movie and live record had shown that not only was there an enormous fan base in the US but it was one that could help propel Depeche even further into the consciousness of the country's mainstream record-buying public. But in many respects, Depeche were in uncharted territory, as was its UK label Mute Records. I realised how good their music and my visuals went together’ … Martin Gore on route to LA, 1988. Photograph: 2020 Anton Corbijn More than an album biography, ‘Halo’ goes deep behind the scenes of the band’s ‘Violator’ period. The book takes the form of a detailed oral history from those who were there in the studio with the band, working behind the cameras, designing sleeves and appearing in the videos; support acts, tour managers, publicists and Depeche Mode fans.More than an album biography, 'Halo' goes deep behind the scenes of the band's 'Violator' period. The book takes the form of a detailed oral history from those who were there in the studio with the band, working behind the cameras, designing sleeves and appearing in the videos; support acts, tour managers, publicists and fans.