Yaz in the USA and Yazoo in U.K were one and the same New Wave musical duo...you can buy Import CD's with the 'Yazoo' name, but it's the exact same band and tracks.

yeah us brits all know you yanks can't spell properly, Lol.

HA! Let me tell you that since I have been reading synth and device user manuals from German Waldorf, spanning to Sweden's Elektron MonoMachine Mk1, the translation to English has in-fact affected my brain when various spellings of say realization can also be realiSation--yes, my brain is a bit warped and thank goodness for internet explorer 10 now having built-in spell check for most common of words, with Yaz completely out of parameters!:p
In my undergrad, as a non-traditional, older student, found myself actually tutoring those in Masters in writing thesis and English as a second language. I think the military's latter half as an Officer coupled with the plethora of meds I take for chronic health issues admittedly affect me, not least the fact I have peripheral neuropathy in hands/fingers from spent uranium shells, which is the very reason decided more mellow ambient approach to music was pragmatic rather than giving-up just because really cannot do fast scale exercises as used to previously.:shock:
I heard it mentioned on Letterman last night that the full streaming Depeche Mode LONG performance is free to watch but I was not recording on DVR the source address and wondered if you obtained that?

http://www.cbs.com/shows/liveonlette.../depeche-mode/

You'll see the Virus get a little more love in that one :)

..enjoy..

Thank you so very much!:D

Nice Virus Porn displayed here! Thanks again SO much for sharing the link!!! Playing along here and there as my ear still can pick-up things amazingly...just like a bicycle, you may get rusty but never forget!!!:D
(I am a huge CURE fan as well)

Nice one man, that was soooooo much better than the short DL performance. They are sounding more like a rock band than the synth pop outfit they started out as but in a good way, double kick rock drummer & all. Total class throughout & showing what a great front man Dave Gahan really is.
Thanks again :)

Something I only learned after some recent research: When Alan Wilder left Depeche Mode, he was offered a gig with The Cure and turned it down! Damn... I mean for respect in the synth world, DM was the place to be but if you have to leave it would be hard to find a better offer.

Yeah their music really started to change toward the later 80s/early 90s. I could be mistaken think Martin actually learned to play guitar after they were already very successful as a synth-only band. In the early days they were 100% synths with no drummer on stage, which I guess got a bit awkward :)

But overall I think their music has evolved in a direction that makes a lot of sense for them. With them it has always been more about their melodies than necessarily what was used to create them. Dave's signature voice is critical to the band, so if he ever left it would be tragic, but I think losing Alan Wilder was tragic in a less obvious sort of way. I always think of that instrumental song "Nothing to Fear" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GztQLHanQc), which if listened to on a proper sound system is a mind bogglingly good synth tune, I think he wrote that one. They were still good after he left but it left a noticable scar, IMO. They even used to refer to him as the wizard behind the band in a lot of interviews, and I think he's one reason their sound post-Vince Clark was so different.

On the other hand they've done some good stuff after he left.. I liked a lot of songs on Playing the Angel (2005 I think).

This thread got my mind going down memory lane tonight. I remember once watching some MTV video about Depeche Mode. DM was already legendary before MTV went all stupid and forgot what the M in MTV stood for and started playing non-music related reality shows about dopey roomates and shit.

In the video, one of the Depeche guys, it may have been Wilder or Gore, was screwing around on the keyboard and started playing a riff from one of their songs, I don't remember which, but he was tapping out 16th notes at moderate tempo (with perfect timing) and singing at the same time, and it sounded good enough that someone should have captured to master (I think it was on an Oberheim something or other but not sure about that). He was showing how he could hit a delay to compensate if he needed to drop back to 8ths! My point is, HOW MANY PEOPLE EVEN TAP OUT 8THS LIVE THESE DAYS? Nobody... Most modern artists don't even have the hand-eye coordination and timing skills to keep tempo with that even when they are 15 yrs old. I'm not going to call myself a modern artist, but I promise you I will be using an arpeggiator for that if I needed it today :) The joys of modern technology (to be fair, they had the technology back then and probably employed it in the studio... but it is impressive to see someone do it well live).

I remember being in a popular resort area around 1988, and a buddy and myself walked by a T-Shirt airbrush artist on the strip that was selling existing painted shirts and offered to do custom work. He had apparently airbrushed his hair, too, he was kind of a Bon Jovi lookalike. I thought his painting was impressive, so trying to be friendly (in my own misaligned way), as I looked at all his shirts, which were mostly depicting bands like Metallica, Megadeath, etc....I said "love the work but where's the Depeche Mode shirts" (being that I was somewhat fucked up after a night of underage boozing, I guess I knew I would get a reaction)....

....I really wasn't being an ass with the comment, if he had stepped up, I would have gladly paid him to paint a truly unique-on-the-planet Depeche Mode shirt, but was mostly gauging his interest...

...He clearly took immediate offense, and said "Depeche Mode? Wonder what happens at their concert, a bunch of guys with synthesizers come out and stand around pushing buttons?"

And I said "you know what you never see at a Metallica concert? Someone hitting 16th notes in realtime".... he looked at me like a deer in headlights, no clue what I was even talking about.

I did not buy a shirt. Shame, by the looks of what he had on display, he did some fine things with an airbrush. Bet he does tats now. Probably limited to the hairband market. lol