Depeche Mode Interviews

1985-05-10 Unknown, Switzerland

Japanese People Only Go Wild At The End

Interviewer: Welcome to Switzerland. For the first time here?

Andy: Thank you.

Interviewer: Is it your first time here, are you playing your first gig in Switzerland? Do you count your gigs, do you know, is it the first?

Andy: Well we've done , one in Switzerland.

Interviewer: And all together, the gigs in total?

Andy: In Switzerland?

Interviewer: No, not in Switzerland.

Andy: I don't, a good few hundreds.

Interviewer: You don't have counted. [sic]

Martin: Hundreds and hundreds.

Interviewer: Hundreds.

Dave: Yeah, literally hundreds.

Interviewer: Yeah you've toured in Germany, Italy...

Andy: Yeah, we've been everywhere, yeah.

Interviewer: Yeah, and Japan, and that's what I wanted to know. About the audience, Japanese or Chinese, or the audience in Germany and everything. Are there any difference? Which one do you prefer, or...?

Andy: They're all good. They're all good audiences. The Japanese react differently, for instance, at the end of a song they clap like this [claps], you know. They don't make any noise during the song, and they just go wild at the end.

Interviewer: Because I heard on-

Andy: -The Italians like to shout a lot.

Interviewer: Yeah, that's pretty normal.

Andy: You know, just general chanting.

Alan: Actually, they're the best singers, aren't they?

Andy: Yeah, the Italians are the best singers. The English is the worst. The worst thing is Ber-

Martin: The Germans tend to put their lighters in the air, more than anybody else.

Andy: Oh, yeah.

Martin: During the slow songs. If a song is sort of slow for 10 seconds, they'll get their lighters out.

Andy: Yeah, it's marvellous. And they throw them at us.

Interviewer: And Germany is more younger people, more kids, than in England, or...?

Andy: Oh, no.

Alan: Not really.

...

Interviewer: When you started with the band, you played guitar? Bass?

Andy: Yeah.

Interviewer: And now you don't find them anymore useful, or...?

Andy: We haven't played them for three or four years now. It was only very early on when we played them, we're not very good.

Interviewer: And for yourself?

Andy: Martin, for instance, he could play a couple of bits of guitar and-

Alan: -He still writes the songs with guitars, often.

Martin: When I first start writing a song I sort of work the chords and the beat with the guitar-

Interviewer: -with a guitar, and then-

Martin: -yeah, I transfer it to keyboards.