On 17 March 1985, Depeche Mode released its fifth studio album Black Celebration through Mute Records. The album further cemented the darkening sound created by Alan Wilder. The album reached the fourth place on the UK Albums Chart, making it the group's highest-peaking album of the 1980s decade in their native country. Three years after its release, Spin ranked it at number 15 on its list of "The 25 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Four singles were taken from this album, ‘Stripped’, ‘A Question Of Lust’, ‘A Question Of Time’ and ‘But Not Tonight’ and released throughout the following year.

Upon its release Black Celebration received mixed critics in the British press. Melody Maker's Steve Sutherland brought the album down and wrote that Depeche Mode came off as "pussycats desperate to appear perverted as an escape from the superficiality of teen stardom”, also Sounds published a similar unsparing review criticizing chief songwriter Martin Gore's "adolescent fragments of despair". NME on the other hand praised Black Celebration's "perfectly constructed jigsaw melodies" and concluded "When the songs address topics other than the composer's state of mind – as on the evocative exploration of loneliness that is 'World Full of Nothing' – Depeche Mode sound like a lot more than just a high tech, low-life melodrama”…

Nevertheless the album entered the charts all over the world with some of its highest peaks in Switzerland (1st position, Swiss Hitparade), Germany (2nd of the Top 100), UK (4th of UK album) and Sweden (5th Swedish Top list). It also received Platinum in Germany (500.000 copies sold) and Gold in the US (500.000 copies sold).

But since then Black Celebration has been regularly reappraised in retrospective reviews. In 2007, when the album was re-released Rolling Stone magazine referred to the album as an "instant classic for the band's fans" that at the time of its release had seemingly been "utterly ignored by everybody else".

Depeche Mode (1986)

• Alan Wilder
• Andrew Fletcher
• David Gahan
• Martin Gore

Black Celebration LP (1986)

01. Black Celebration 4:55
02. Fly on the Windscreen – Final 5:18
03. A Question of Lust 4:20
04. Sometimes 1:53
05. It Doesn't Matter Two 2:50
06. A Question of Time 4:10
07. Stripped 4:16
08. Here Is the House 4:15
09. World Full of Nothing 2:50
10. Dressed in Black 2:32
11. New Dress 3:42

DISCOGS

On 16 March 1987, Siouxsie and the Banshees released their cover version of Iggy Pop's 'The Passenger', it was recorded for their 1987 all-cover-versions album Through the Looking Glass. The band revamped the song by adding brass arrangements. Released as the second single from that album, it peaked at number 41 in the UK singles charts.

Iggy Pop later praised their version and stated: "She sings it well and she threw a little note in when she sings it, that I wish I had thought of, it's kind of improved it [...]. Also the horn thing is good."

It was released as 7" and 12" vinyl by Polydor.

The Passenger - 7" - Tracklist

A. The Passenger 4:06
B. She's Cuckoo 4:16

The Passenger - 12 " - Tracklist

A. The Passenger (Llllloco-motion Mix) 8:00
B1. She's Cuckoo 4:15
B2. Something Blue 3:54

DISCOGS

Today, 37 years ago, Siousxie And The Banshees released the single Swimming Horses (16.03.1984) which was taken from the band's sixth studio album Hyaena. The song was co-written by Steven Severin and Robert Smith (The Cure)

The 7" B-side featured Let’s Go while the 12" version also feartured a third song called The Humming Wires.

Upon release Siousxie explained to British music magazine Melody Maker what events inspired her to write this song:

“This song is based on a programme I saw about a female version of Amnesty, called 'Les Sentinelles'. They rescue women who are trapped in certain religious climates in the Middle East, religions that view any kind of pre-marital sexual aspersion as punishable by death – either by the hand of the eldest brother in the family, or by public stoning. And there was this instance of a woman whose daughter had developed a tumour, and, of course, gossip abounded that she was pregnant. The doctor who removed the tumour allowed her to take it back to the village to prove that, no, it wasn't a baby – but they wouldn't believe her. The woman knew her daughter would have to be stoned to death so she poisoned her, out of kindness, to save her from a worse fate. Now this organization has all these escape routes for women like her, mainly through the elder brother who pretends to have killed them. But once they've been saved, they can never go back. So the song starts, "Kinder than with poison..." I also used the imagery of "He gives birth to swimming horses", from the fact that male sea horses give birth to the children, so they're the only species that have a maternal feel for the young. It was, I suppose, an abstract way of linking it all together without being sensationalist. I remember just being really moved by that programme, and wanting to get the sorrow out of me.“

Swimming Horses - Lyrics

Falling in your, falling in your arms
Fish on a line, learns to live on dry land
Thrown back again to drown
Kinder with poison

Than pushed down a well - or a face burnt to hell
Feel the cruel stones breaking her bones
Dead before born
Words fall in ruins - but no sound

She's dying of your shame - she maimed by your paw
He gives birth to swimming horses

Fish on a line, walking on dry land
But, back in the water to drown we drown
Floating in sky

He gives birth to swimming horses
Take a ride on the tide with the assassin at your side
The weightlessness under water -- forgets in slow motion
And washes pointless tortures

He gives birth to swimming horses
Floating in sky like fishes can fly through your arms

Songwriters: Robert Smith / Siouxsie Sioux / Steven Severin

DISCOGS

Lisa Gerrard and Jules Maxwell, best known for their work as part of the legendary band Dead Can Dance, present 'Noyalain (Burn', the first single from their forthcoming studio album 'Burn'. Produced by James Chapman (MAPS), the long-play will be released on May 7th via Atlantic Curve, a London-based label that is part of the Schubert Music Europe.

"Noyalain is a song of welcome. An invitation to walk in peace, unlock the passive passion within, engage in the diversity of life and celebrate," says Lisa Gerrard.
"It is with great pleasure that I share this collaboration with Jules Maxwell. Jules and I began our creative journey with Dead Can Dance. We realised that we could connect through improvisation and that musical exploration continues to evolve with this present work."

Under this new guise, Gerrard and Maxwell have created an album that presents a wonderfully diverse mix of electronica, alternative, cinematic soundscape and world music with hints of early Vangelis.
The record began its journey more than seven years ago, when Lisa met Irish theatre composer Jules Maxwell before working together for the first time. Things really took root when Gerrard and Maxwell began writing songs for their earlier collaboration 'The Mystery Of The Bulgarian Voices (Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares)'. They were later introduced to Chapman and asked him to produce this album, which represents a stunning departure for all three of them.

With Chapman joining the duo as producer, ideas began to be generated freely and over time a distinct sound for their work began to emerge. Their focus was to create a sound that was both euphoric and compelling, more inventive than what they had worked on separately in the past. From gentle beginnings, each track builds and intensifies, creating a hypnotic experience to listen to from start to finish.

"Noyalain is the first song we created which began to play images in my mind's eye. Widescreen images of far horizons and great landscapes. Of the living world at it's most devastatingly beautiful," says Jules Maxwell.
With Lisa remaining in Australia, Jules adding his keys and percussion from France, and James bringing new light to the sound from England, the three were literally worlds apart, but those worlds fused in this music.
7 specially commissioned films have been completed to coincide with the release of the album. Polish director Jacob Chelkowski's video, which accompanies this title track 'Noyalain (Burn)' proves more than a little provocative in these days of Covid, as it portrays the simple, traumatic act of touching.

As of March 12th, 'Noyalain' is available digitally across online platforms, the full 'Burn' album is set for release on May 7th.

On this day, 41 years ago, Fad Gadget released the non-album 7” single ‘Ricky's Hand’ (14 March 1980). It was recorded at the Blackwing Studios, London, on 19 January 1980 and became the second Fad Gadget single, following the debut Back to Nature 7” the previous year.

The track was originally not included on any studio album and predating a debut LP ‘Fireside Favorites’ by several months, but does appear on several later released compilations. Mute Records founder Daniel Miller collaborated on the writing, playing and production.

The song was a sardonic cautionary tale on the perils of drink driving: "From the pocket it pulled five pound / Ricky bought another round… Ricky contravened the highway code / The hand lies severed at the side of the road".

The music was in a predominantly industrial style with an insistent electronic beat. An electric drill was also listed among the instruments; it can be heard on the recording punctuating each mention of the song's title.

The B-side, ‘Handshake’, was an instrumental that essentially mixed up the sounds used on the A-side.

Ricky's Hand 7"
A Ricky's Hand 4:06
B Handshake 4:47

Below you can watch some unique footage of Fad Gadget performing Ricky’s Hand at the renowned Hacienda FACT51 club, Manchester, England, 1984 and a live version performed on his 2001 come-back tour.

Sadly an unique video document on which Fad Gadget can be seen singing Ricky's Hand, with his two live musicians at the time, Phil Wauquaire and Jean-Marc Lederman (The Weathermen), on the Belgian RTBF show Cargo De Nuit in 1980 has recently been removed from YouTube.

Instead we discovered another nice document of Ministry covering Ricky’s Hand back in 1984!

Enjoy!