Each time I visit a Hard Rock Cafe, I’m on the lookout for Depeche Mode memorabilia.  If you saw my earlier post, you know I went to the Hard Rock Cafe in London - the heart of the country where all my favorite music originated - and found only Seattle band memorabilia. *yawn*

I’ve traveled to Las Vegas three times and hadn’t made my way to the Hard Rock Cafe (HRC) until this past June.  I exchanged tweets with friends from Twitter and learned that I might find a suit Dave wore during the Singles tour or Ultra promo photos and a leather jacket signed by the band!  I have never seen any Depeche Mode memorabilia other than what I own, so I was looking forward to finding these items.

There were no DM items at the HRC in Las Vegas, so I checked the Hard Rock Hotel and asked employees if there were any DM items, just as I did at the HRC.  Nobody there could give me a good answer - they explained that the inventory rotates and changes all the time.  My friend Rebecca and I walked all over the hotel, looking ourselves and did not find anything DM-related. 

I was very disappointed but would not be defeated, so on our last day in town we went back to the Hard Rock Hotel and I noticed unmarked leather jackets placed above some of the casino games.  They were way up on the wall and it irritated me that they didn’t label them, so I slowly walked by and studied each jacket.

THERE IT WAS!  I would know those signatures anywhere!  I found the jacket that all four band members had signed!  It was a proud moment to have located exactly what I was looking for, and Rebecca and I snapped as many pictures as we could sneak.  We took this picture so that other fans could locate the jacket more easily than I did.  This was the only DM item I found.  The pictures probably look a little distorted, but you’ll get the idea:

This is a close up picture I took of the autographed Depeche Mode jacket:

While you’re there, you may as well ask to purchase a few of these babies for keepsake:

:)

It’s my day off and I was looking through an old photo album when I came across pictures from my old bedroom.  I think I was 18 when I had this room.  Sorry for the picture quality, but for time’s sake, I just took digital pictures of the old photos in my album.  Did your room look like this, too, as a teen?  I still have all of these Depeche Mode posters in a safe place and have added several more to my collection.

Where do you like to listen to new music?  Do you find you get to know an album best by listening to it on your computer, your iPod with headphones, iPod with speakers, car stereo, or home stereo? 

I have a Dell laptop and anyone who owns one would likely agree that the speakers are a joke.  NOTHING sounds good on them – not even my favorite band, Depeche Mode.  I am passionate about music, so when I was a teenager in the 1990s, I bought a pair of gi-normous Bose speakers from Incredible Universe at the Auburn, WA Supermall.  They are still in excellent condition, and if I am in my craft room, where my laptop lives, I often connect it to an amp that is hooked up to my speakers.  Music sounds really good in this room, but the best place for me to get to know a new album is in my car.  I have a really good stereo system in it, and I find that an album totally comes to life when I hear songs from the multiple speakers surrounding me.  I seem to catch different sounds in my car (because of the multiple speakers, I guess?) than I do anywhere else.

I love how music sounds in my car while driving.  Maybe I should make a list of my top favorite “driving fast on the freeway in the dark” songs.  Long ago, every time my good friend Lisa and I would go on a road-trip, I’d make us a mix tape of good “driving songs.”  There are so many special songs that are great for cranking up loudly as you zoom down the freeway.  Maybe that’s part of why I love listening to a new album in my car. 

Before every Depeche Mode show, I make a collection of DM songs to listen to on the way to the concert.  I love listening to the artist I’m about to see!  When I went to Scotland and England for 15 days, I loaded my iPod stirctly with U.K. artists.  I listened only to bands from Scotland while I was there, and only bands from England when I was in London and Bath.  :)

This is the front of the card I made my friend Marina to cheer her up after a car accident.  I made 3-D neckbraces for all the guys from our favorite band, Depeche Mode.  Notice they’re with a car, like Marina was.  ;)  I hand wrote “we feel you” in my psuedo Violator font.

My friend MarinaIvory from Twitter was involved in a terrible car accident last month.  She had to wear a neckbrace and suffered a lot of pain.  Here is the inside of the card I made for her - she’s a “Dave Girl,” like me.  It’s a pop-up card and I wrote what Dave said and I signed his name in silver.  Er wait, no - he signed it… yeah.  ;)

If it’s difficult to read, the card says:

“Sweet Marina…
Stephanie told me that you were dressed in black again and involved in a terrible car accident! On behalf of Depeche Mode, we feel you! Getting crashed into is so WRONG, but people are people! It’s no good, but by now, it’s probably a pain that youre used to. I’m only here to bring you freelove and remind you that you will always be my angel with silver wings. Don’t stay in your room, where time stands still - I encourage you to get behind the wheel again because the way you move is mesmerizing.”

Tonight Depeche Mode performed a benefit show at the Royal Albert Hall in London to raise money for teens with terminal cancer.  As far as I know, this was the first time they had done such a thing, and I am so proud of Depeche Mode for doing this!  As I followed the #dmrah Twitter hashtag in TweetDeck on my computer, I felt like I was at the show with all my DM fan friends!  So many fans were tweeting about which song was being performed; sharing pictures; and someone even shared a nearly live video snippet of “Somebody”!  We all were so excited with euphoric joy as it was announced that Alan Wilder was introduced and accompanied Martin’s vocals with the piano.  Alan departed the Depeche Mode foursome on his 30th birthday: June 1st, 1995.  This was an historic event to have Alan on the same stage as Martin for a few minutes, and we were all commenting about it!!

Who would take a day off and spend an unseasonably sunny Seattle birthday indoors on their computer to watch a Twitter stream on their computer?  I did.  There’s just something about Depeche Mode’s music that brings people together for something bigger than we all are individually (to loosely quote @orchidhunter’s earlier tweet).  We are a community of people that have a passionate love for an incredible band that created the soundtrack to our lives.  Many of us were glued to our laptop during the DM show.

I first heard Depeche Mode’s 1984 Gold single “People Are People” on the radio in the mid 1980’s long before KUBE 93.3 FM became a rap/hip-hop radio station.  My brother and I loved the song so much that he asked for it for Christmas.  My parents bought him the full “People Are People” cassette tape and we played that one song over and over again.  I remember thinking “that song with the pipes and hammers” was really weird (“Pipeline”), and didn’t really get in to the other songs.  I also didn’t have any idea that this was DEPECHE MODE who performed this song that we loved.

Fast forward to a few years later.  It was the summer of 1990 and “Violator” had just been released without my knowledge.  You see, I was a new wave and R&B fan from Seattle and didn’t follow Depeche Mode or know them by name.  I was 14 and was dating someone I met on the computer bulletin board (BBS - this was before the internet as we know it today).  He lived a few miles north of me in Bellevue and he was half Finnish.  His name was Mike and he was leaving for the summer to go to Finland.  I was heartbroken, but he begged me to take his FAVORITE cassette tape of his FAVORITE band while he was gone.  I didn’t want him to be without it for all those months, but he insisted.  So, Mike loaned me “Violator” by Depeche Mode, and I listened to it over and over again.  That summer was filled with Depeche Mode music and thoughts of that guy.  When he returned months later at the end of summer, I did not want to return his tape!  I ended up buying it on tape and then on CD a year later.

I was hungry for more DM music and was thrilled when I discovered my little brother had “101” and “People Are People.” I was in love with DM and was shocked we had 2 DM albums in the house without me realizing it!  I commandeered those tapes and listened to them all the time – craving more and more DM music.  I was a changed woman and dropped R&B music like a hot potato! 

So, one year later in 1991, I was 15 1/2 and I got a job as a cashier at Burger King so I could purchase Depeche Mode CDs.  Yep, I got a job to fund my music habit.  That was back in the days when CDs came in collectable long cardboard boxes and I still have all the DM cardboard boxes from the CDs I bought, as well as CD boxes from other favorite musicians.  Having a job is what allowed me to rapidly build my CD collection to over 1,100 albums and allowed me to see more than 300 bands live in concert.

Well, that’s a little “Insight” for you into my world.  Thanks for letting me “show you the world in my eyes.”  ;)

IMHO, this is the best Depeche Mode poster of all time. This picture doesn’t do it justice but I’m a grown woman and can’t have Depeche Mode posters plastered ALL over the house like I did before. :)

In March 2005, I finally spent some time in London (and some outlying areas like Wiltshire, The Cottswolds,Bath, etc.) and was excited to see some Depeche Mode landmarks.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go to any historic DM locations - or if I was, I didn’t know it was significant.  I figured I’d go to my first Hard Rock Cafe because they should surely have some Depeche Mode memorabilia.  Ater all, we are in England, and that’s where DM is from!

My husband and I went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and when I asked if there was any Depeche Mode memorabilia, I was directed to visit “The Vault” across the street under the Hard Rock gift shop.  Fine, whatever - just show me the DM stuff!  So, we made our way to the gift shop and I asked to see The Vault.  We were told to wait at the top of a roped-off stairwell and then were brought downstairs where someone was waiting for us.  I don’t remember his name, but a large man was sitting on a stool in this room surrounded by lots guitars, basses, drums, and leather jackets.

I said hello and told him I was there to see if he had any Depeche Mode memorabilia.  He gave me a funny look and said NO.  I guess Depeche Mode isn’t “hard rock.”  He then proceeded to show me guitars formerly owned by Jimi Henrix, and members of Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Alice in Chains.  He offered to let me touch the guitars and look around - and to take as much time as I wanted.  Umm, I was ready to leave without touching anything.

THE IRONY!  Just about all the memorabilia in The Vault were from SEATTLE musicians!  I have lived in Seattle and the surrounding area my entire life.  Sure, I like the Seattle bands but I didn’t want to travel all the way to the U.K. to see guitars belonging to bands I’d already seen live back at home!  I thanked him for his time and shocked him by leaving immediately.

What a bummer!  I was obviously wrong to think I’d find U.K. band items in a U.K. Hard Rock Cafe.  So when I got home, I wondered if there was a database online with the locations of all the famous memorabilia.  I checked online and NOPE.  If you visit the Hard Rock’s website, there’s a real clunky, user UN-friendly way to navigate clumsily through some of their items.  It’s not sorted by band name, Hard Rock location, and when I search by artist name, there is NO Depeche Mode memorabilia. What!?  Really?  That cannot be true.  Depeche Mode has been around for thirty years and they’ve been ignored by Hard Rock?  Naaah.

I think it would be great to have a database with every Hard Rock location and all the band memorabilia inside.  No, not so Depeche Mode fans can case the joint - so we can go visit the appropriate Hard Rock Cafe for the bands we most love!

I don’t know how to make it so you can reply, but if you’ve ever seen any DM stuff at a Hard Rock Cafe, please tell me where you were!  Thank you.  Keep ‘moding.

I love to dress up my car whenever I’m going to drive to a Depeche Mode concert.  Here’s a side shot of my window from 11/16/05.

This is the other photo of our group - LOOK! I AM TOUCHING DAVE’S SHOULDER!