I love Depeche Mode! Funny thing is... up until December 2002, about five months ago, I could've cared less about the band. My knowledge of DM consisted of three facts... 1. They were from the 80's 2. KROQ played them all the time (Southern Calif. radio station. “flashback lunch” was much avoided) and 3. I really didn't care for them.

Anyways, in December I flew from England back to the States and...you know the in-flight entertainment?, well...one channel was showing videos of live concerts and while trying to find something to watch between movies....XXX sucked, by the way...I became entranced with this AMAZING PERFORMANCE of...

well...I had to get the program guide out of the seat back....

DEPECHE MODE!!

It was a part of "One Night In Paris" the encore mostly. I swear, I have been obsessed ever since I saw that. See, I have a problem with being a bit slow...:) they have been around for how long?! 20 yrs? Well... the last band (my favorite besides Led Zeppelin) I got this obsessed w/ was Sublime...and guess what? After hearing their song "Date Rape" on KROQ a thousand times I finally found out who sang it, went and bought the CD, fell in love...and Bradley Nowell (lead singer) died a few weeks later. How's that for luck?

Anyways... the in-flight entertainment was played continuously throughout the seven hour flight, showing "One Night" three times, I watched each cycle! I got picked up from the airport by my boyfriend (now ex-boyfriend) and I immediately started looking through his CD's...he likes Yaz (I had no idea that a member of Depeche Mode formed Yaz at the time, and I had been listening to Upstairs at Eric’s for months!) and all kinds of stuff from the 80's, so I hoped he had a DM CD in there. He did, Music for the Masses...I made him listen to "Taking a Ride" over and over on the way home. After confiscating the CD for my vacation, it found it’s way back here to Ireland. I didn’t get the cover though…I’ll need to get that from him somehow…J

The next day I went to my favorite used-CD store… how’s this for luck? the guy working there turned out to be a huge help… I walked in and asked where I could find Depeche Mode and he asked what CD I wanted. I said I had no idea but that I was looking for a particular song. He asked what song (I was looking at him funny at this point wondering if he was going to look it up in the computer or something). I told him "Home" and he went straight to Ultra, picked it up and put it in my hands within a matter of seconds. I was a bit amazed, I totally was not expecting him to know what I was talking about… Anyways, he turned out to be a huge fan of DM and we ended up talking for a bit. It's funny how things happen for certain reasons. Had i not seen that video, I never would have given a shit if that guy at the CD store liked Depeche Mode or not.