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.