Depeche Mode announces support acts for their 2023 European tour
Depeche Mode announces support acts for their 2023 European tour
Depeche Mode has unveiled the lineup of support acts for their ‘Memento Mori’ European tour, set to begin next month. The duo, comprising Martin Gore and Dave Gahan, took to Instagram on April 12 to share the names of the five acts accompanying them during their 34-show run across Europe and the UK.
Cold Cave and Young Fathers are among the artists slated to join Depeche Mode on tour, along with Berlin-based band Hope, former Savages vocalist Jehnny Beth, and British trip-hop outfit Haelos (or Hælos).
The support acts for Depeche Mode
Here’s a short roundup of who these artists are. Cold Cave is a project by Wesley Eisold and blends darkwave, noise, and synthpop, drawing comparisons to Joy Division and New Order. Young Fathers is a Scottish group formed in 2008, who has won the Scottish Album of the Year Award twice and released a fourth album, “Heavy Heavy”, in 2023. Berlin-based band Hope, formerly Mamsell Zazou, creates dark, dystopian music influenced by their city’s art scene. Jehnny Beth, a French musician and former Savages frontwoman, has released solo albums and collaborated with numerous artists, including Trentemøller, Julian Casablancas, and Gorillaz. British trip-hop band Hælos, from London, released their second album, “Any Random Kindness”, in May 2019, showcasing their ‘dark euphoria’ sound.
The European leg of the tour will commence with two shows in the Netherlands on May 16 and 18. Following these performances, Depeche Mode will visit countries such as Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, the UK, and Austria before concluding the tour in Norway on August 11.
These tour dates promote the band’s 15th studio album, ‘Memento Mori’, which was released last month.
For more on Depeche Mode, see Long lost Depeche Mode documentary goes online in the BBC Storyville… on Side-Line.
About Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode formed in Basildon, Essex, England, in 1980, initially under the name Composition of Sound. The lineup that became Depeche Mode came together that year around Vince Clarke (keyboards, guitars), Andy Fletcher (keyboards, bass) and Martin Gore (guitars, keyboards), with Dave Gahan joining shortly after as lead vocalist. The band adopted the name Depeche Mode at a gig at the Bridge House in Canning Town on 24 September 1980, where Mute Records founder Daniel Miller saw them and signed the group.
Depeche Mode’s debut single, “Dreaming of Me,” was recorded in December 1980 and released on Mute in February 1981, followed that October by the debut album “Speak & Spell.” Vince Clarke left the band that November, going on to form Yazoo and later Erasure; Alan Wilder joined on keyboards in 1982 and became an official member from the 1983 single “Get the Balance Right!” The band’s catalog through the 1980s includes “A Broken Frame” (1982), “Construction Time Again” (1983), “Some Great Reward” (1984), “Black Celebration” (1986) and “Music for the Masses” (1987), the latter turning the band into arena headliners in the US off the back of their Rose Bowl concert, later documented in the film “101.”
“Violator” (1990) and “Songs of Faith and Devotion” (1993) marked the band’s commercial peak, but Wilder departed in June 1995, continuing his own project Recoil, leaving Gahan, Gore and Fletcher as a trio. The band released “Ultra” (1997), “Exciter” (2001), “Playing the Angel” (2005), “Sounds of the Universe” (2009), “Delta Machine” (2013) and “Spirit” (2017) as a three-piece, touring with long-serving live members Christian Eigner (drums, keyboards, since 1997) and Peter Gordeno (keyboards, bass, since 1998). Alongside the band, Gahan released solo albums “Paper Monsters” (2003) and “Hourglass” (2007), and Gore released “Counterfeit²” (2003).
Depeche Mode was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 7 November 2020. Andy Fletcher died on 26 May 2022, and Gahan and Gore continued as a duo, releasing “Memento Mori” in 2023 with Eigner and Gordeno again on the road. The band has sold more than 100 million records and placed 54 singles on the UK charts. The 2023 European tour supported “Memento Mori,” released that March as the band’s first album since Andy Fletcher’s death the previous year.
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