Dave Gahan

David "Dave" Gahan [ deɪv gɑ: n ] (born May 9, 1962 in Epping , Essex , England ) is an English singer and front man of the synth-pop band Depeche Mode, which has existed since 1980 . In 2012, Q magazine listed Gahan at number 73 on the list of “100 Greatest Singers” and at number 27 for “The 100 Greatest Frontmen”.

Dave Gahan with Depeche Mode at the Royal Albert Hall in London 2010

biography

Childhood and youth

David Gahan grew up in difficult circumstances. Shortly after his birth, his parents separated and he was no longer in contact with his biological father, Len. Mother Sylvia married her second husband Jack Gahan, David and his older sister Susan adopted . The brothers Peter and Philip shortly thereafter expanded the Gahan family. However, his adoptive father passed away when David was ten years old. At the age of 13, Gahan joined the punk scene. He became a criminal, sprayed house walls, and stole cars that he sold to support his family financially. This culminated briefly in a stay in a youth prison.

After finishing school , Gahan tried to keep himself afloat with various jobs until he was finally accepted at Southend Art College, an art college. There he completed his training as a designer . At that time he was still strongly influenced by punk rock , listened to groups like Generation X and The Damned and attended their concerts.

Promotion with Depeche Mode

Dave Gahan with Depeche Mode in London 2006

Dave Gahan live at Bilbao BBK 2013

→ Main article : Depeche Mode

In 1979 Gahan met Vince Clarke , who had just formed the band French Look with Martin Gore . Gahan took over mixing work for the band. A short time later, the band Composition of Sound emerged from French Look , in which Andrew Fletcher was also involved. First Gahan took over roadie activities, later the band hired him as a singer. The band then renamed itself Depeche Mode . Gahan suggested the name, inspired by the French fashion magazine Dépêche Mode .

After the band was discovered by Daniel Miller, the head of the record label Mute, at a concert, the first album Speak & Spell was released in 1981 . The third single Just Can't Get Enough reached eighth place in the UK chart. With the single People Are People , Depeche Mode achieved their international breakthrough in 1984 (including number one in Germany), and in 1988 the band reached their preliminary climax when they gave the final concert of a 101 world tour at the Pasadena Rosebowl Stadium in front of over 60,000 spectators.

Dave Gahan married Joanne Fox in 1985, from whom he divorced in 1991. They have a son together, Jack. In 1992 he married rock journalist Teresa Conroy in Las Vegas, from whom he was divorced in the mid-1990s. Gahan currently lives in New York with his third wife Jennifer, their son (Jimmy) from a previous relationship whom he has adopted, and their daughter Stella Rose, who was born in 1999.

Health problems

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As early as the early 1990s, Gahan was increasingly indulging in drugs, becoming addicted to heroin and cocaine . After the exhausting Devotional tour in 1993/94 (a total of 174 concerts in 14 months) tensions within the band grew. After a suicide attempt on August 17, 1995 (he cut his wrists), he was admitted to a rehab clinic. He was released after a few days. On May 28, 1996, he injected himself with a speedball , a heroin and cocaine cocktail , in a hotel room . He was clinically dead for two minutes , but the ambulance service was able to revive him. He was taken to rehab again, this time by a court order for nine months. This time he managed to get out and has been clean since then. The band then continued recording their next album, Ultra , which was released in 1997. Due to the problems at the time, there were only a few small appearances instead of a tour.

In mid-May 2009 the "Tour of the Universe" was interrupted because Gahan was suffering from a gastrointestinal infection, according to official information . Shortly afterwards he had to undergo the surgical removal of a malignant bladder tumor in New York .

solo

Dave Gahan writing autographs in 2003

Martin Gore writes the songs at Depeche Mode. But after his drug experience, Gahan also discovered the desire to write songs. However, none of his songs made it onto the albums Ultra and Exciter . So he decided to release a solo album. After the Exciter tour, he went to the studio with his friend Knox Chandler, and in 2003 Paper Monsters was finally released . On the following global tour, Gahan and his band, consisting of Knox Chandler ( guitar ), Martyn LeNoble ( bass ), Vincent Jones ( keyboard ) and Victor Indrizzo ( drums ), played Depeche Mode classics in addition to his new songs. In early 2004, the tour DVD Live Monsters was released.

Encouraged by the success of his solo album, Gahan managed to get the next Depeche Mode album Playing the Angel to include three of his songs: Suffer Well , I Want It All and Nothing's Impossible . Suffer Well was even released as a single and was nominated for a 2007 Grammy for "Best Dance Recording".

In May 2007 Gahan appeared again for the first time together with the old bandmates of his solo tour, LeNoble, Indrizzo and Jones. In addition, Gahan was accompanied by John Frusciante ( Red Hot Chili Peppers ) on the two songs as part of the MusiCares charity event . On the sidelines of this short concert, Gahan announced that he was working on his second solo album Hourglass . The first single Kingdom was released on August 27, 2007 - initially only as a download. Since downloads have also been included in the German single charts since July 2007 , Kingdom is the first song in the history of the hit parade that was able to place in the top 100 solely due to download sales. The CD version of Kingdom was released on October 5th, the Hourglass album followed on October 19th. The regular CD includes ten songs that Gahan wrote together with Christian Eigner and Andrew Phillpott, and the Deluxe Edition of the album includes a DVD with studio recordings. On March 11th, Hourglass Remixes was also released - only in the USA on vinyl with a bonus CD .

In 2012 Dave Gahan is the singer and songwriter of the new Soulsavers album The Light The Dead See . The album was released in May 2012. The complete album could be heard in advance on the stream on May 15th. The sequel to it appeared in October 2015 with the title Angels & Ghosts . The single All of This And Nothing was released exclusively as a download beforehand.

Discography

Solo albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK
2003	Paper monsters	DE5 (14 weeks) DE	AT43 (3 weeks) AT	CH10 (5 weeks) CH	UK36 (2 weeks) UK
2007	Hourglass	DE2 (8 weeks) DE	AT15 (3 weeks) AT	CH5 (5 weeks) CH	UK50 (1 week) UK
2012	The Light the Dead See (with the Soulsavers )	DE12 (4 weeks) DE	AT49 (1 week) AT	CH30 (1 week) CH	UK69 (1 week) UK
2015	Angels & Ghosts (with Soulsavers )	DE5 (5 weeks) DE	AT18 (2 weeks) AT	CH5 (4 weeks) CH	UK27 (1 week) UK

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK
2003	Dirty Sticky Floors Paper Monsters	DE6 (6 weeks) DE	-	CH81 (3 weeks) CH	UK18 (2 weeks) UK
	I need you paper monsters	DE23 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	UK27 (4 weeks) UK
	Bottle Living / Hold On Paper Monsters	DE19 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	UK36 (2 weeks) UK
2007	Kingdom Hourglass	DE10 (10 weeks) DE	AT41 (5 weeks) AT	-	UK44 (2 weeks) UK
2008	Saw Something / Deeper and Deeper Hourglass	DE23 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	-

• 2004: A Little Piece (Live)

Video albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK
2004	Live monsters	DE46 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	-

literature

• Trevor Baker: Dave Gahan - His Life with Depeche Mode . Hannibal Verlag, Höfen 2010, ISBN 978-3-85445-319-2 .

Web links

Commons : Dave Gahan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official Homepage (English)
• Dave Gahan in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Dave Gahan at laut.de
• Dave Gahan at Discogs (English)
• Meet Dave Gahan - "I would probably be a murderer" at one day

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rocklist.net ... Q Magazine Lists
2. ↑ Q286 Exclusive preview - News - QTheMusic.com ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Jürgen Seibold: Depeche Mode. Verlagsunion Erich Pabel / Arthur Moewig KG, Rastatt, 1990, ISBN 3-8118-3066-X , p. 21.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Jürgen Seibold: Depeche Mode. Verlagsunion Erich Pabel / Arthur Moewig KG, Rastatt, 1990, ISBN 3-8118-3066-X , p. 22.
5. ^ Band manager Jonathan Kessler says in film 101 : "Paid attendance was 60.453" - see also Depeche Mode - Stripped , Jonathan Miller, p. 265.
6. ↑ Depeche Mode Making A New Record . In: MTV News . ( mtv.com [accessed August 1, 2017]).
7. ↑ Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan Undergoes Cancer Surgery at www.mtv.com
8. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ↑ Dave Gahan with the first "Download-Only" title. media-control.de, September 4, 2007, accessed on August 31, 2012 . 
10. ↑ Musikexpress.de : Dave Gahan in the ME interview: "I was an asshole!"
11. ↑ Soundcloud .com: Stream the new album 'The Light The Dead See' from Soulsavers here
12. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK