Show 65: Depeche Mode - Rafters, Manchester - 5 August 1981

Its been a while since I did a Depeche Mode show and this is the last really early show I have from them. This appeared as a bootleg called A Second Now, I believe and is somewhat famous for being the gig where they were reviewed and slagged off by someone who went on to be in a band called The Smiths (!) as you can see below.

Anyway, a gig placed somewhere between New Life being released and Just Can't Get Enough, so still the original quartet of Andy, Vince, Dave and Martin...Vince left just a few months later. I've broken my "no audience recordings" rule for this season of Live and Loud! but some EQ, rebalancing of the sound and mastering has improved the recording a treat. Compare this with the other early shows I did from DM here. This is the last one I have, I think, from when Vince was with them, so I hope you enjoy it.

UPDATE 2019
While preparing this old show as separate files for a donator to the site, I found I could now improve the sound quality further, over what I’d originally done to the recording back in 2015. You can now download this new version (as of 2019) HERE as 1 new 320kbps MP3 file.

Or, if you would like to have separate tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

Setlist
Television Set
Boys Say Go!
New Life
Puppets
Ice Machine
Big Muff
Just Can't Get Enough
What's Your Name?
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Photographic
Encore 1: The Price Of Love
Encore 2: Dreaming Of Me