Depeche Mode have been thrilling stadiums for 35 years now. Immortalised in their classic tour movie 101, their first ever megashow, at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, established rules of engagement which pertain to this day. You shall sing the Thatcher-baiting chorus of Everything Counts over and over while frontman Dave Gahan holds out his microphone. You shall follow Gahan’s cue to sway your arms from side to side during Never Let Me Down Again. Still, much has changed. The four young men from Essex who appeared on the cover of 101 like a synth-pop Beatles became first a trio and then, with the premature death of keyboardist Andrew Fletcher last year, a duo. While drummer Christian Eigner and multi-instrumentalist Peter Gordeno, both in the touring fold since 1998, carry the sonic weight, it is hard not seeing Fletcher waving amiably from behind his synthesiser.
Death has been a driving concern for songwriter Martin Gore since the mid-80s – alongside sex, sin and guilt – but its presence is more deeply felt in material from their sombre new album Memento Mori. The video for Ghosts Again, their best single in many years, shows the duo playing chess in homage to The Seventh Seal, while the show’s key visual motif is a skull. Fletcher’s subtly animated face fills the screens during World in My Eyes, providing a necessary moment of phone-waving communal remembrance in a stadium where diehards in old tour T-shirts mingle with a refreshing number of younger converts.
