Chords for Synth Britannia. Depeche Mode. New Life. Just Can't Get Enough. BBC Interview.

[G] _ _ Basildon was a new town, built for the post-war [A] East End overspill.
It wasn't one of pop music's more [D] romantic places. _ _ _ _
[B] But a bunch of kids were going to ditch their guitars and reinvent [G] synth music [C] as pop.
_ _ _ When we were growing up, [F] Basildon was a very violent town.
[G] We had the highest crime rate for about five years on the trot.
But I can remember going back to Basildon [E] and going down to the pub with some [C] friends
[G] and I had black nail varnish _ going to the bar and ordering a drink.
I'd totally forgotten about it, wasn't even thinking about it.
And some guy just said to me, [D] what the fuck have you got on your fingernails? _ _ _ _ _
Depeche Mode formed in 1980.
They had a spot at their local disco.
_ [C] _ [D] Well, Crops was a really ordinary disco.
_ _ Well, there was a crocodile, yeah.
_ It was quite a sorry-looking animal.
But it was alive. _ _ _ _
They had this night once a week where they'd play things like the Human League and sell.
And also bands would appear there.
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [G] _
_ [D] _ Sweet [C] and a [G] bunch that made the [D] street
_ [C] If you [G] only know [D] you can teach the light
Now [C] the [G] room is lit with [D] _ [A] fame
Carpool gates [C] and the circulating
[G] New life, new life
[A] _ Operating [C]
in the church [G] _ New _ life
When I first started playing [D] synthesizers, it was in people like the Human League,
_ Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, their very first album.
I was a [Em] big fan of [D] Daniel [Dm] Miller's work as the [C] Silicon Teens [G] and as the Normal.
[D] And [G] also Thad Gadget, who was on New Records.
[D] _ _ [C] _
[G] _ _ [D] Vince was sort of the [Cm] boss of the [G] band.
[D] He was unbelievably [A] driven.
Carpool gates [C] and the circulating
[G] I used to earn £30 [A] a week in the yogurt factory and save [C] £29 [G].70 _ a week
to save up [D] to buy a synth.
He forced the pace.
_ This actually was the original Depeche Mode drum machine that we used for live.
Dave's job before he sung to set the tempo.
Number 7 would be fast, [G] number 2 would be slow, etc. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Dm] I owned Alto Barn.
[G] That was what really got us to go out and buy our first synthesizers.
The whole, you know, the things that were happening around that time with craft [Gbm] work,
and even early [Eb] Human [C] League stuff.
New _ [G] _ _ life, new [D] life
I was really happy that the first time I heard them was when I saw them play live.
It was a fantastic line.
_ They started and I [C] thought, wow, [G] this sounds [D] interesting.
It's like four [C] little mono _ [G]
synths [D] kind of teetering [C] on beer crates.
[G] _ _ [D] _
_ _ [C] _ _ [G] They [D] had a little fan [C] base with them.
[G] Their fans [D] weren't watching the band, they were just [C] dancing.
[G] _ _ [D] _ _ _ [A] _ _
[C] Miller first saw Depeche Mode [G] supporting Faggadget in East London.
He signed them [A] to MUSE.
_ _ [C] _ None of [G] us knew what we were doing.
By the time I met Depeche we'd just released our first [D] album.
Compared to them I was an experienced industry person.
But actually I knew nothing.
_ [Ab] You know, they needed a bit of help in the studio.
So I think, you know, first of all I introduced them to some ways of working,
using sequencers, [F] they'd never used a sequencer before.
Everything [Abm] was like played by hand.
_ This is [Ab] the legendary ARP _ [Abm] 2600.
I bought it second hand in 1979.
_ _ It was being sold, one of three being sold,
by Elton John's road crew after a world tour.
_ _ It was being used extensively on all [Gb] the Depeche Mode albums I was [Abm] involved with.
Especially on [G] the first album [B] where [G] it was really the one of only two synths that we [Abm] used. _
_ _ Here we go, I'll show you all that later.
Not very in tune at all, [G] _ _ [C] but_
[G] _ _
[C] _ [B] _ [C] _ _ [G] [C] Depeche Mode would prove to be the real Silicon [G] Teens.
The [C] combination [G] of sex appeal and [C] synthesizers
would make them one of the biggest pop acts of 1981.
I _ [G] love you baby, are you out [C] of my mind?
I just can't get [F] enough, [C] I just can't get enough
[G] Of the things you do to me and everything [C] you say
I just can't get [F] enough, [C] I just can't get enough
[D] We slip and slide [E] and we fall in [C] love
And I just can't seem [G] to get enough
_ When _ _ _ _
[B] _ [C] _ _ Depeche Mode, when we were gigging, we'd [G] all carry our synthesizers.
And I, for some reason, [C] _
had to buy the heaviest synthesizer out of all of them.
And we didn't have cars [G] or anything, so we'd be on the train. _ _
[C] And this really is quite heavy.
So I'd have this thing under my arm.
Fletcher would [G] have a Moog, Martin had a Yamaha I [C] think, on the train.
_ [F] _ [C] _ _ _
[Dm] When we did our first Top of the Pops, we were on [Em] the train with these.
With our [C] synthesizers.
You got the train to Top [G] of the Pops?
_ Yeah.
From Baselund to _ Penchantry. _
[C] In the Underground. _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ But like Newman before, it wouldn't all be [C] plain sailing for Depeche.
_ _ I [A] think, you know, you've got to remember that [Dm] during our pop [D] period, you know,
we had lots of fans [Fm] and a lot of people liked us, but a lot [Eb] of people hated us.
_ _ [N] _ _ But certainly the 80s was a real old battle royal [B] between us [Db] and _ _ [E] journalism in general. _
Music journalism.
It was just really, you know, _ pop.
_ It was, you know, I think_
I can understand why people hated what we did.
You know, looking back on it now, and it wasn't just the sound, it was
every TV that we were asked to do, we did.
[G] It didn't matter how stupid it was.
You know, there's something very un-British about electronic music, _ [A]
to start with.
They [G] want bands to be like they were in the 60s, really.
Four [Eb] guys, _ guitar, bass [Gm] and drums, pretty lead singer, skinny jeans.
[C] _ [G] You know, conventional kind of thing.
That's really what sells newspapers, I guess. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ I mean, they'd written Depeche Mode off anyway as a teeny-bot band, a one-hit wonder.
Especially once Vince left, they thought, well, that's over. _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ [Gm] In November 81, [D] Clark [C] unexpectedly quit.
[Gm] [A] I was, [B] and still am, a bit of a [Cm] control freak.
So, [G] you know_
And with the advent of computers and sequences, I realised that I could make music myself.
You know, I didn't need necessarily other people to play the parts. _
And I got a real satisfaction out of programming all the parts myself.
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
[Dm] _ Without their chief [D] songwriter, it seemed the game was up for Depeche Mode
before they really got going.
_ [Am] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ In the [Am] same year, a reversal of fortune had seen a new-luck Human League
finally get in on the pop action, partly thanks to [Em] a line-up [C] change
that [A] took them out of the pages of the NME