Depeche Mode: Some Great Reward

Rating:
Summary: depeche mode is definately the best band!
Review: depeche mode has had to go through so much torment and has struggled so much to get where they are today. this book tells you so much about them and gives you a closer view into their lives and you get a better understanding of why they have touched so many people with their music. you get the stories from the band members themselves and you can laugh along at how cute they are! they are truely a hugh inspiration to me.

Rating:
Summary: Inaccurate, shallow and quite boring
Review: I am, since 1984, a big fan of Depeche Mode, and have through the years gained a certain level of knowledge on the subject. After just finishing the book, I cannot see any other reason to buy this book other than the sheer lack of other publications covering their carreer.

This book is full of factual errors, but that could be overlooked if Mr Thompson was'nt so extremely shallow in dealing with the drama that always is omnipresent in a bands career. The author, who has done well on other occasions, often swerves out in the forests of fiction to make things more interesting than they really are, or at least according to information he's granted access to... .

This, and the sometimes hillarious defending of the bands crown as a World-leading act, is too much. I actually was cringing from time to time; I mean: Dave Gahan (singer of the band, former drug addict now gone clean) is in the book to "never had a drug problem". No, I guess he just had some kind of metbolistic disorder.

Rating:
Summary: Thin Investigative Journalism - Fair Abstract
Review: I've seen Thompson's name on several rock bios (RHCP, Perry Ferrel of Janes Addiction) so perhaps this is the man's calling. He writes in servicable prose but he has no aspiration to be anything like a Griel Marcus or Johnny Rogan (author of the great Morrissey and Marr Smith's bio). The details are often thin and surface-skiming. The lack of insight bespeaks an overall ambivalence towards the band. Is there any real passion here? The author seems content to regurgitate print interviews and excerpts from the '80s era DM bio put out by his namesake (a must have for those looking to complete their collection of bad hair style archives - Flock of Seagulls had nothing on Martin and company back in the day).

To this extent the book is a fairly good abstract of already published materials. There have been questions raised about accuracy on some fan websites but overall I think Thompson does a good job of digesting the limited material that's out there. It is clear that DM has always attempted to fly below the radar and while there is no dearth of embarssing photos out there of the lads it seems clear that they have wanted to remain textually anonymous. Fine. And its the challenge that befalls any journalist, especially when setting off to write a comprehensive band bio, to uncover information in unconventional means. A few more phone calls, a airplane trip or two, would have filled in this text and provided for a more interesting read.

There is also an utter lack of muscial and lyrical exploration. The band makes music. Martin Gore writes lyrics for a reason. There is a surface to be breached.