Addicted To Noise staff writer Gil Kaufman reports: Will they or won't they? That's the question on every Depeche Mode fans' pouty lips these days. The answer is yes...and no. The group, whose lead singer, Dave Gahan, fought a very public battle with drugs last year, had killed all tour plans to promote their new record, Ultra (April 15) for fear the road to temptation was too well paved for Gahan to handle. But ATN got exclusive word yesterday that DM will in fact be playing a select trio of shows in the UK and U.S.

The first show will be an invitation-only private launch party on April 10 in London whose guest list will be padded with friends, some fans and radio contest winners. Two similar shows will take place in the U.S. in mid-May in New York and Los Angeles, their first shows on Yankee soil in over four years.

The three core members of the band (Gahan, Andy Fletcher and Martin Gore) will likely play five or six songs at each event, including several from the new album, with a session drummer filling in for departed member Alan Wilder. A few members of Ultra producer Tim Simenon's production team may also lend some keyboard support for the events. The source swore that these would be the only live performances in support of this album.

It has not yet been determined if the shows will be simulcast or web cast. For those hard-core Mode-o-philes out there, our mole also said to be on the lookout for a hidden instrumental sequel to the "Barrel of a Gun" single b-side "Painkiller," called "Jr. Painkiller," buried somewhere on the new CD.
Addicted to noise, April, 3rd 1997