The show was the 101st and final performance of the tour and coincidentally also the number of a famous highway in the area. The film was directed and produced by D. A. Pennebaker.
Depeche Mode had released their previous album, Music for the Masses in September 1987[8] and had followed up with the successful Music for the Masses tour, which ran through June 1988.[9] The tour had a US leg in December 1987, and when a second US leg was scheduled between April and June 1988, the band decided to document the leg[10] and cap off the tour with a special show.[11] Singer Dave Gahan told press in interviews that the band wanted a video that reflected the highs and lows of spending 10 months on the road for a tour.[12] Said Gahan, "We didn't want to make a run-of-the-mill 'band on stage' type of film that's been done [by others] so many times. ... We wanted to make an honest film about what it's really like," and show the backstage disagreements, discussions, and the fans.[13]
Venue
The band wanted to finish their successful tour with a large, final show.[11] Their initial idea was to do a free concert somewhere, but that idea was quickly abandoned.[11] When the Rose Bowl was suggested, it was met with skepticism by the band's US label Sire Records, who were concerned that, because the venue was so large, it wouldn't sell out, and if it didn't sell out, it would expose the band's growing success as fraudulent.[11] In addition, the label was concerned because they thought that the venue hadn't been used to host a concert since the 1970's,[11] although it had in fact been host to a musical event just six years earlier, when a concert was held there with performers including Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones and Luther Vandross.[14]
Documentary
The band's original concept for the film was going to be about how Depeche Mode fit into the 1980s.[15] They began discussions amongst themselves about the film in March 1988, before the second leg of the US tour began.[16] After discussions with an experienced but unnamed director, they came to the conclusion that their original choice was going to do something "too glossy" for their tastes,[15] as they were not looking for a "slick commercial" for the band.[11] At this point, Virgin Records, who were handling video releases for Mute Records, suggested that they reach out to renowned documentary filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker to see if he would be interested in the project.[15] He accepted, but discarded their initial concept, feeling that it was "impossible to examine in an entertainingly cinematic fashion".[15]
Ultimately, the film focused on what Depeche Mode considered to be their strongest selling point, their live performance, as well as capturing the spirit of their fan base.[17] Notably, the film prominently features a group of young fans travelling across America as winners of a "be-in-a-Depeche Mode-movie-contest", which culminates at the band's landmark concert at the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena.[17] Depeche Mode had noticed that in America, they often sold more concert tickets than albums.[11]
The film features performances at the Rose Bowl concert, interspersed with snippets of the band, the "bus kids" and live performances recorded throughout the tour.[10] The 2003 DVD reissue included more concert footage, but as Pennebaker was "shooting a documentary, not a concert film", a complete video record of the Rose Bowl concert does not exist.[18] Pennebaker noted there was a similarity between Depeche Mode and some of the other artists he'd filmed before, including Bob Dylan and David Bowie, saying "I found the audience very rapt; they were there for that band. Not any band would do. I got the feeling that maybe there was no other band they'd ever go out for again in that assemblage, and it made me take that audience fairly seriously."[15]
Style
Pennebaker used his direct cinema approach, which he described as "letting the camera run as unobtrusively as possible, thereby encouraging events to unfold on their own. [...] You edit more and the film changes every three days, but [the band] were very nice and patient about it."[15]
Live album
Although the entire Rose Bowl concert was not recorded on video, the complete concert was recorded for an audio release.[19] Mixed at Swanyard Studios in London by then-unknown producer Alan Moulder, 101 was Depeche Mode's first full live album.[20][a]
Name
The original name for the live album/documentary was going to be Mass, inspired by both the name of album it supported and the large crowds who were coming to the concerts.[23] Said singer Dave Gahan, the name 'Mass' felt appropriate because "there's something that is very religious about the whole thing [performing live to a large crowd], and it's not just from the fans to the band, it's the other way as well. You definitely feel a massive energy from all the people who are out there. ... There's an incredible energy that none of us understand."[24]
Another name they considered was A Brief Period of Rejoicing, named after the Winston Churchill quote that opened their album Black Celebration (1986).[25] However, they ultimately chose the name that Alan Wilder proposed, 101, named after both the fact that the final show was the 101st of the tour, and the nearby 101 highway.[23]
The final show
We'd like to announce that as a special final concert for our world tour, on Saturday June the 18th, we'll be playing a Concert for the Masses here at the Rose Bowl Pasadena.
—Alan Wilder on behalf of Depeche Mode, announcing the show to the press and fans in June 1988.[11]
For the final show, the band had to use a completely different sound system and stage setup than had been used on the rest of the tour.[11] The roof of the stage was too heavy for the existing rigging system, a fact that was not discovered until they tried to raise the roof after attaching all of the lights and speakers.[11] This resulted in the band and management racing to rent a crane on the day of the show, to help lift and hold the roof in place.[11] The band remembered that everything about the soundcheck for the show "felt disjointed and weird", everyone was nervous, and Gahan started to lose his voice at the soundcheck, but fortunately was able to perform that night.[11]
Depeche Mode's set went on without any major issues, other than the weather.[11] Said songwriter Martin Gore, "we've joked about the cloud of doom that followed us around ... Every time we played anywhere, it rained" and this was no exception, with a rainstorm starting coincidentally during the religiously-themed "Blasphemous Rumours".[11]
One of the highlights of the show was the crowd waving in unison with Gahan during their performance of "Never Let Me Down Again", which the band thought looked like a field of wheat waving in the wind.[11] This final show of the tour was the last time the band played their 1984 hit "People Are People" live.[26] Although the song was popular and a catalyst for the band's success in the years leading up to the show, the band felt that the song was too commercial and their dislike for the song had grown to the point where they didn't want to perform it in concert anymore.[27]
Gahan said that near the end of the show, he started getting so emotional that he had trouble singing.[13] After the show, Gahan visibly broke down backstage.[11] He later said "I had a strange feeling at that concert, I remember at the end of it, I felt like it was all over. There was nowhere to go now. ... What were we going to do now? It was almost like we had reached our destination."[11] In 2006, nearly 20 years after the concert, Gahan said that, despite all the band's success in the years since, "There hasn't really been another concert like it, for us."[11]
Attendance and ticket and merchandise sales
Reports of the total attendance at the show vary, but all agree it was at least 60,000: In the 101 video itself, paid attendance was listed as 60,453,[28] Gahan and label manager Daniel Miller quoted 70,000 or 80,000 in interviews in later years,[13][29] contemporary reviews in Q and Rolling Stone magazines cite figures of 72,000[30] and 75,000,[17] respectively, and the liner notes for the 2006 special edition re-release of Music for the Masses cites the attendance as "almost 80,000".[31] The paid attendance gross for the show, as reported in the 101 video, was about USD $1,360,000,[28] or roughly $3.62million in today's dollars.[32] The Q review also notes the band sold at least $1,000,000 in t-shirt sales alone at the show.[30] Said Gahan, "things like merchandising are far more important than ticket sales. Merchandise finances tours. ... To tour in America you need to sell T-shirts."[30]
Release
Video
The 101 video was released on 13 March 1989 by Mute Records in the UK and Sire Records in the US.[20] In the UK, the release was given catalogue number VVD469.[20] The video was released on DVD for the first time in 2003,[33] and again on blu-ray with additional content and upgraded 4k video in 2021.[34]
Live album
101 was released on 13 March 1989 by Mute Records in the UK and Sire Records in the US.[20]. It was assigned catalogue number STUMM101 in the UK.[20] The booklet included pictures taken by Anton Corbijn of the band, fans, and merchandise.[20] The album was supported with the single release of "Everything Counts (Live)" on vinyl, released on 13 February 1989.[35] A promotional-only 7" of the live version of "Pleasure, Little Treasure" was released by Virgin Records in Spain with catalogue number SA1246.[20]
Legacy
Due to the prominence of the "bus kids" in the film, it is widely considered to be the impetus for the "reality" craze that swept MTV in the following years, including The Real World and Road Rules.[15][36][37][38]
In various interviews, DVD commentaries and on their own website, both Pennebaker and collaborator Chris Hegedus have cited 101 as "their favourite" and "the one that was the most fun to make" out of all their films to date.[18][39]
Audio available in three formats: two-channel CD, two-channel SACD, multi-channel SACD
VHS
"101– The Movie"– 117:00
DVD
Disc one
101– The Movie (includes optional audio commentary with filmmakers D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, and bandmembers Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, and Andy Fletcher)
Disc two All songs are isolated live video footage, uninterrupted by documentary footage. Songs with a * are exclusive to the DVD and were not in the VHS film. Footage of "Sacred", "Something To Do", and "A Question of Lust" were lost and not able to be recovered for the DVD, though they were eventually found and restored in 4K for the Blu-ray release in 2021.
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
Notes
↑ Their first concert video was The World We Live In and Live in Hamburg (1985), although no corresponding live album was ever released,[21] and fragments of their 1982 tour were released as B-sides to several of their 1983 singles.[22]
↑ "Classifiche". Musica e dischi (in Italian). Retrieved 2 June 2022.Select "Album" in the "Tipo" field, type "Depeche Mode" in the "Artista" field, type "101" in the "Titolo" field and press "cerca".
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