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Basildon · London · Berlin · Pasadena · 1980–1990

Depeche ModeBasildon · Essex — flip the latches, a place is packed inside

At the Rose Bowl in 1988 their flight cases still said Basildon, Essex. Every case on this page carries a real place.

  1. Four portraits of young men in white shirts and braces, arms held out
    1981 Antoine Giacomoni; distributed by Sire Records · Public domain
  2. Four young men standing in a row in a black and white press photograph
    1982 Distributed by Sire Records · Public domain
  3. Four men in a group press portrait from the early 1980s
    1983 Distributed by Sire Records · Public domain
  4. Four men in leather and dark jackets in a group portrait
    1984 Alan Ballard; distributed by Sire Records · Public domain

Flip both latches on the first case.

Twelve places · 1980 to 1990

Twelve cases. One home town.

Every lid carries the same stencil. Flip both latches and the place it carried is in the foam, in time order.

Twelve cases, all latched. Flip two latches on any of them.

Nothing unpacked yet. The first case is a school hall in Laindon, May 1980.

Essex · May 1980

A New Town on the gear

Basildon was built as a New Town under the 1946 New Towns Act, to ease London’s housing shortage after the Blitz.

A 1970s view across low housing to the tall blocks of a new town centre
Looking towards Basildon town centre in 1973: the New Town the band grew up in. Robin Webster · CC BY-SA 2.0

Basildon in 1973, when the band were boys.

The Gore is a street in Basildon. Fans have joked about changing its sign to Martin L. Gore. The band held annual parties at Basildon’s Q-Ball snooker hall through the 1980s.

Basildon
A framed plaque on a school wall above a framed old register page
The Depeche Mode plaque inside the James Hornsby School, Laindon, 2024, with Martin Gore’s school attendance register underneath. Garik 11 · CC0

James Hornsby School

In May 1980 Andy Fletcher and Martin Gore played a concert here with Dave Gahan and Vince Clarke. The school was called Nicholas Comprehensive then. It was the first gig of the four original members together.

Gore and Fletcher were pupils here. A plaque at the school still remembers the concert.

A working school, not open to visitors. See it from Leinster Road; Laindon is the nearest station.

Sources

Open to all, in the middle of the town centre. Basildon station is a few minutes’ walk.

Sources

Canning Town, Borough, The Hague, Shoreditch · 1980 to 1983

Synths under their arms

Daniel Miller first saw Depeche Mode at the Bridge House in Canning Town, supporting Fad Gadget, another Mute act, roughly in October 1980. He went backstage and offered a one-off single. It was Dreaming of Me.

Four portraits of young men in white shirts and braces, arms held out
Depeche Mode in 1981, in Antoine Giacomoni’s Sire press-kit photographs for Speak & Spell: Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher. Antoine Giacomoni; distributed by Sire Records · Public domain

1981: Gahan, Gore, Clarke and Fletcher.

The first line-up lasted until November 1981, about two months after Speak & Spell came out. New Life reached number 11 and Just Can’t Get Enough number 8; Speak & Spell spent 32 weeks in the chart.

Speak & Spell
A young man with short dark hair, cropped from a group photograph
Vince Clarke in 1981, from the Speak & Spell press kit. Antoine Giacomoni; distributed by Sire Records · Public domain
A tall young man with glasses, cropped from a group photograph
Andy Fletcher, about 1982. Distributed by Sire Records · Public domain

Deb Danahay, Vince Clarke’s girlfriend then, remembers them going to gigs with their synths under their arms.

Deb Danahay
  1. A busy main road with shops and flats under a grey sky
    Barking Road, Canning Town, 2014. The Bridge House stood on this road; nothing of it is left. Stephen Craven · CC BY-SA 2.0

    Roughly October 1980

    The Bridge House

    The Bridge House was a music pub from 1975 to 1982 and claimed to be the first pub in the world with its own record label.

    The pub has gone. Barking Road runs east from Canning Town station; the pin marks the road, not the pub. Its address was 23 Barking Road. It closed and was demolished; by 2013 no trace of it was left.

    Sources
  2. A low brick church building behind railings on a quiet London street
    What is left of All Hallows church, Copperfield Street, Southwark, from Pepper Street, 2008. Blackwing was inside. Stephen Craven · CC BY-SA 2.0

    1981

    Blackwing, All Hallows

    Speak & Spell was made at Blackwing, a modest eight-track studio in the backstreets of Borough run by its owner and engineer Eric Radcliffe. Daniel Miller found the studio while finishing his own Silicon Teens album.

    The studio has gone. See the old church from Copperfield Street and Pepper Street; the community garden beside it is run by volunteers.

    Sources
  3. A singer on an outdoor stage under trees, seen from the audience
    The open-air theatre in the Zuiderpark, The Hague, in 2009, with Joan as Police Woman on stage. Fabio Bruna from The Hague(Den Haag), Netherlands · CC BY 2.0

    25 July 1981

    Zuiderpark open-air theatre

    Depeche Mode’s first gig outside the UK was a festival slot here on 25 July 1981, not in Hamburg as is often said. The stage was on an island, reached only by a small bridge over a moat.

    For the first gig abroad, Daniel Miller drove them in a minibus: Dover to Zeebrugge by ferry, then about twelve hours to The Hague.

    Still an open-air theatre on its island in the Zuiderpark, with summer concerts. Check the season before you go.

    Sources
  4. A large arched brick entrance to a disused railway yard on a city street
    The old Bishopsgate goods yard entrance on Shoreditch High Street, 2007. The source names no station, so this shows the district, not the spot. Oxyman · CC BY-SA 2.0

    1983

    The Garden, Shoreditch

    Construction Time Again was recorded in 1983 at The Garden, John Foxx’s newly built London studio, now part of the Miloco group. For Pipeline, on that album, metal percussion was recorded at a disused train station in Shoreditch.

    The source names no street for the studio or the station, so this is the district, not a place to stand. Shoreditch High Street station is in the middle of it.

    Sources
Zuiderparktheater

A concert on the island

The Hague

The open-air theatre in the Zuiderpark, where the band first played abroad in July 1981, still puts on summer concerts on its island stage.

See the season

Köthener Straße 38, Kreuzberg · 1983 to 1986

Studio 2 was a ballroom

The band worked on Construction Time Again, Some Great Reward, The Singles 81–85 and Black Celebration here between 1983 and 1986.

The mix room upstairs and the ballroom below are not joined yet.

They rented the mix room and Studio 2 downstairs and had tie-lines put in between them. Studio 2 was like a huge ballroom with very high ceilings. Gareth Jones hired a big PA and used the room as an echo chamber for the drums.

Some of those tapes later gave People Are People its jerky rhythm. A snippet Martin Gore recorded on a Walkman on an aeroplane, kept in the Emulator, became a large part of the People Are People chorus.

Daniel Miller’s Synclavier was the only instrument that stored samples on these sessions; a polyphonic sampler came with Black Celebration in 1986. Recording and mixing People Are People took about seven days. It spent six weeks at number one in Germany.

People Are People
A tall panelled hall with chandeliers and a wooden floor, empty of people
The Meistersaal, empty, 2008: the ballroom-sized room the band used as Studio 2. In3s · CC BY-SA 3.0
Four men in black posed close together in a publicity photograph
Depeche Mode in 1984, the year of Some Great Reward, made at Hansa: Dave Gahan, Alan Wilder, Andy Fletcher and Martin Gore. Sheila Rock; distributed by Sire Records · Public domain
A young man with bleached curly hair in a dark top
Martin Gore in Los Angeles, July 1986. Nancy J Price (Andwhatsnext) · CC BY-SA 3.0

The hall opened on 6 October 1913 for presenting master craftsmen’s certificates. Hansa made it Studio 2 in 1976; it has been an event hall again since 1994.

An event hall now. The Hansa Studio Tour, three to four hours on selected dates, meets in front of Köthener Straße 38; Potsdamer Platz is the nearest station.

Sources
Berlin Music Tours

Hansa Studio Tour

Kreuzberg, Berlin · Selected dates · book ahead

Three to four hours inside Köthener Straße 38, where the band rented the mix room and Studio 2. It meets in front of the building on selected dates; Potsdamer Platz is the nearest station.

See tour dates
A black and white view of a banked cycle track inside a large indoor hall
Inside the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle, East Berlin, December 1987, three months before the concert (Bundesarchiv). Bernd Settnik · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE
A low round building sunk into a grassy mound with a metal roof
The Velodrom on Paul-Heyse-Straße, Prenzlauer Berg, 2010. Velomax · CC BY-SA 4.0

Prenzlauer Berg, East Berlin

7 March 1988

On 7 March 1988 Depeche Mode played East Berlin, at the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle, a former cattle market and slaughterhouse.

It was an anniversary concert for the Free German Youth, the state youth movement. The 6,000 tickets were given to schoolchildren, outstanding members first.

On the black market tickets went for as much as six months’ salary. Thousands gathered outside who knew they would not get in.

The hall opened in 1950 and was demolished in 1993. The Velodrom replaced it. The Velodrom, designed by Dominique Perrault, opened in August 1997 at Paul-Heyse-Straße 26. It holds up to 12,000 people.

The hall has gone. The Velodrom at Paul-Heyse-Straße 26 stands in its place and holds concerts; Landsberger Allee station is close.

Sources
An aerial view of a large oval stadium in a green valley
The Rose Bowl from the air, Pasadena, June 2018. Ted Eytan · CC BY-SA 2.0

Pasadena · 18 June 1988

101

On 18 June 1988 Depeche Mode played the Rose Bowl: the 101st show of the Music for the Masses tour, an all-day concert for KROQ’s tenth anniversary.

A case on the stage edge, facing the crowd.

Wire, Thomas Dolby and OMD played first. The audio became the live album 101 and the show was filmed for D.A. Pennebaker’s documentary of the same name. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus directed the film; it follows contest winners crossing America to reach the concert.

Classic Pop puts the crowd at 60,000. The stadium opened in October 1922.

Music for the Masses began at Guillaume Tell, a converted Paris cinema, and recording went on at Konk, The Kinks’ London studio. In Paris, Bascombe remembers, Pimpf was played over the announcement speakers before the show; he compared it to a political rally.

Music for the Masses

A working stadium in the Arroyo Seco. The flea market fills it on the second Sunday of every month.

Sources
R.G. Canning Enterprises

Rose Bowl Flea Market

Pasadena · Second Sunday of every month

The stadium where show 101 was played opens to buyers on the second Sunday of every month, about 20,000 of them. Tickets are sold online only.

See the market

Jutland and Los Angeles · 1987 and 1989 to 20 March 1990

Violator, then La Cienega

A small Danish village with red-roofed houses among fields
The village of Gjerlev, north of Randers, Jutland, 2010. Puk was in the countryside here; this is the village, not the studio. Bococo · CC BY-SA 3.0

Puk Studios

Music for the Masses was finished and mixed at Puk in 1987. Violator was recorded in Milan and Denmark, and the band completed it at Puk.

Mark “Flood” Ellis produced it with Alan Wilder; François Kevorkian mixed every track in London except Enjoy the Silence.

The studio was gutted by fire in 2020. It is named here and not mapped; the village of Gjerlev is the nearest place to stand.

Sources

10,000+fans at one record shop, the day after the British release

A large windowless shopping centre on the corner of a wide boulevard
La Cienega Boulevard at the Beverly Center, 2008, a block north of 3rd Street, where the Wherehouse stood. ChildofMidnight at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

The Wherehouse, La Cienega

Violator came out in Britain on 19 March 1990. On 20 March 1990 Sire/Reprise and KROQ set up a signing at the Wherehouse at 3rd and La Cienega for the American release.

Well over 10,000 fans came; some had queued for days. It began at 9pm and the police stopped it after a little more than an hour.

The record shop has gone. Stand at 3rd and La Cienega, by the Beverly Center; the pin marks the street.

Sources

Visit

Where it is now

10 places you can visit. Two more are named and not mapped: the Shoreditch studio and station have no street in their source, and Puk burned down in 2020.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

  • General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working school, not open to visitors. See it from Leinster Road; Laindon is the nearest station.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Open to all, in the middle of the town centre. Basildon station is a few minutes’ walk.

  1. A framed plaque on a school wall above a framed old register page
    The Depeche Mode plaque inside the James Hornsby School, Laindon, 2024, with Martin Gore’s school attendance register underneath. Garik 11 · CC0

    Leinster Road, Laindon, Basildon

    James Hornsby School

    In May 1980 Andy Fletcher and Martin Gore played a concert here with Dave Gahan and Vince Clarke. The school was called Nicholas Comprehensive then.

    A working school, not open to visitors. See it from Leinster Road; Laindon is the nearest station.

    Sources
  2. A tall concrete tower block standing on stilts over a town square
    Brooke House, the tower block on Basildon’s Town Square, 2019. Stephen Richards · CC BY-SA 2.0

    Town Square, Basildon, Essex

    Basildon Town Square

    Basildon was built as a New Town under the 1946 New Towns Act, to ease London’s housing shortage after the Blitz.

    Open to all, in the middle of the town centre. Basildon station is a few minutes’ walk.

    Sources
A large arched brick entrance to a disused railway yard on a city street
The old Bishopsgate goods yard entrance on Shoreditch High Street, 2007. The source names no station, so this shows the district, not the spot. Oxyman · CC BY-SA 2.0

Not on the map · 1983

The Garden, Shoreditch

Construction Time Again was recorded in 1983 at The Garden, John Foxx’s newly built London studio, now part of the Miloco group.

The source names no street for the studio or the station, so this is the district, not a place to stand. Shoreditch High Street station is in the middle of it.

Sources
A small Danish village with red-roofed houses among fields
The village of Gjerlev, north of Randers, Jutland, 2010. Puk was in the countryside here; this is the village, not the studio. Bococo · CC BY-SA 3.0

Not on the map · 1987 and 1989

Puk Studios

Music for the Masses was finished and mixed at Puk in 1987.

The studio was gutted by fire in 2020. It is named here and not mapped; the village of Gjerlev is the nearest place to stand.

Sources

Stay

A bed by the Rose Bowl.

A Pasadena hotel a short drive from the stadium.

The Langham Huntington

The Langham Huntington, Pasadena

Pasadena · Rates on booking

Not a band place: a Pasadena hotel open since 1914, on 17 acres at 1401 South Oak Knoll Avenue, with a covered Picture Bridge, a spa and two pools. A short drive from the Rose Bowl.

See the hotel

Go there

Inside Hansa, a Sunday at the Rose Bowl.

The Hansa Studio Tour goes into Studio 2; the Rose Bowl fills with a flea market once a month; the Zuiderpark island still has concerts; music walks in Berlin, London and Los Angeles on the marketplace.

Berlin Music Tours

Hansa Studio Tour

Kreuzberg, Berlin · Selected dates · book ahead

Three to four hours inside Köthener Straße 38, where the band rented the mix room and Studio 2. It meets in front of the building on selected dates; Potsdamer Platz is the nearest station.

See tour dates
R.G. Canning Enterprises

Rose Bowl Flea Market

Pasadena · Second Sunday of every month

The stadium where show 101 was played opens to buyers on the second Sunday of every month, about 20,000 of them. Tickets are sold online only.

See the market
Zuiderparktheater

A concert on the island

The Hague

The open-air theatre in the Zuiderpark, where the band first played abroad in July 1981, still puts on summer concerts on its island stage.

See the season
Viator · Ad / affiliate

Berlin music tours

Berlin

Live marketplace results for Berlin music history walking tours. Check each itinerary for Hansa and Kreuzberg.

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Compare tours
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London music tours

London

Live marketplace results for London music walking tours.

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Los Angeles music tours

Los Angeles

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What’s on

A church in Kreuzberg in December.

A Depeche Mode fan night and Dave Gahan birthday special in the Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, a short ride from Hansa.

Checking current event dates…

Take it home

Three books, six records.

Three books on the band, and six records made or played in the places on this page.

Bookshop.org UK · Ad / affiliate

Stripped: The True Story of Depeche Mode

Jonathan Miller

A full-length biography of the band. Omnibus Press, 2004.

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Depeche Mode: The Early Years

Trevor Baker

The band’s early years. Independent Music Press, 2013.

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Depeche Mode

Steve Malins

A biography of the band. André Deutsch, 2000.

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Speak & Spell

Depeche Mode · Vinyl LP, Mute STUMM 5, 1981

Made at Blackwing, the church studio in Southwark.

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Construction Time Again

Depeche Mode · Vinyl LP, Mute STUMM 13, 1983

Recorded at The Garden in Shoreditch and mixed at Hansa.

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Some Great Reward

Depeche Mode · Vinyl LP, Mute STUMM 19, 1984

Made in the Meistersaal, Hansa’s Studio 2.

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Music for the Masses

Depeche Mode · Vinyl LP, Mute STUMM 47, 1987

Paris, then Konk, then Puk.

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101

Depeche Mode · Double CD, Mute CDSTUMM 101, 1989

Recorded at the Rose Bowl on 18 June 1988, show 101.

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Violator

Depeche Mode · Vinyl LP, Mute STUMM 64, 1990

Completed at Puk; the La Cienega signing was for its American release.

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Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.

The sources

Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.

12 of 12 places · 12 of 12 Moments

  • James Hornsby School

    Leinster Road, Laindon, Basildon

    • A school hall

      The four original members play their first concert together at Nicholas Comprehensive.

  • The Bridge House

    23 Barking Road, Canning Town, London E16

    • Fad Gadget’s support

      Daniel Miller sees the band supporting Fad Gadget and offers a single.

  • Blackwing, All Hallows

    Copperfield Street, Southwark, London SE1

    • Eight tracks

      Speak & Spell recorded at Blackwing with Daniel Miller.

  • Zuiderpark open-air theatre

    Henriette Roland Holstweg 100, Zuiderpark, The Hague

    • Over the moat

      The first gig outside the UK, on the island stage in the Zuiderpark.

  • The Garden, Shoreditch

    Shoreditch, east London

    • Metal in Shoreditch

      Construction Time Again at The Garden; metal recorded at a disused Shoreditch station.

  • Hansa, the Meistersaal

    Köthener Straße 38, Kreuzberg, Berlin

    • Studio 2

      Four records made in the Meistersaal, with tie-lines down to the ballroom.

  • Konk

    84 Tottenham Lane, Hornsey, London N8

    • Tottenham Lane

      Music for the Masses recorded at Konk after Paris.

  • Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle

    Paul-Heyse-Straße, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin

    • East Berlin

      An anniversary concert for the Free German Youth.

  • The Rose Bowl

    1001 Rose Bowl Drive, Pasadena

    • Show 101

      The 101st show of the tour, filmed by Pennebaker and Hegedus.

  • Puk Studios

    Near Gjerlev, north of Randers, Jutland, Denmark

    • Jutland

      Music for the Masses mixed and Violator completed at Puk.

  • The Wherehouse, La Cienega

    West 3rd Street at La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles

    • 3rd and La Cienega

      A Violator signing for well over 10,000 people, stopped after an hour.

  • Basildon Town Square

    Town Square, Basildon, Essex

    • Basildon, Essex

      The flight cases at the Rose Bowl are stencilled with the band’s home town.

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