40 years ago, on November 30 in 1984, Depeche Mode played for the first time in Switzerland in front of about 6000 fans at the Sporthalle St. Jakob in Basel.
The band was on tour promoting the album Some Great Reward, which had been very well received by international critics. So the fans in Switzerland had been able to hear and read a lot about Depeche Mode, but until that date they didn’t have the opportunity to see the Essex quartet live, until the big day arrived, as the following newspaper article tells it…
And if you don’t understand German, no problem, you can go (below) directly to the concert audio and listen to it yourself.
Swiss Press – Benny Rüttimann
François Mürner (DRS3 Radio DJ) used to play Depeche Mode and a lot of music from Mute Records (Depeche Mode Label) on his radio program “Sounds”, and it was he who insisted Daniel Miller (Mute) to record live the concert in Basel. Something they wouldn’t regret, since the recordings from this concert were later released as official live versions of the Depeche Mode hits
Listen below to the memorable audio from that night, which would become the first recordings of a Depeche Mode concert in a large hall.
The audio also includes interviews with Alan Wilder, Andrew Fletcher and Martin Gore.
