They are perhaps Britain’s most European band of all, far bigger on the continent than in their homeland. Here, Dr Sophia L Deboick traces Depeche Mode’s creative awakening, back to its roots, behind the Iron Curtain
The Guardian, Comment is Free: Will a night in Kurt Cobain’s apartment offer fans religious rapture?
From Graceland and the Chelsea Hotel to Depeche Mode’s Basildon, places hallowed by rock stars are the pilgrimage sites of our times
Talk: ‘That is walking on hallowed ground’ – Place, Pilgrimage, Identity and Otherness in South Essex Fan Cults
Talk given at Club Critical Theory, Southend-on-Sea, on 4th December, as part of the Theorizing the Other: Migration and Cultural Tourism event, chaired by Andrew Branch
Lecture: ‘There’s no doubt – I’m one of the devout’: Fandom and Popular Cults, Sacred and Secular
Guest lecture given on COM 5218 Celebrity and Fan Culture module, Richmond American International University, London, on 16th October, at the invitation of Associate Professor of Communication, Dr Fred Vermorel
The Quietus: Western Pop In The Eastern Bloc – Depeche Mode: Monument
Sophia Deboick explores this aptly-named publication, a time capsule of sorts, by turns a personal history and listographic account of the unlikely importance of Basildon’s own Depeche Mode to the youth culture of the Eastern Bloc
Lecture: ‘There’s no doubt – I’m one of the devout’: Fandom and Popular Cults, Sacred and Secular
Guest lecture given on COM 5218 Celebrity and Fan Culture module, Richmond American International University, London, on 24th October, at the invitation of Associate Professor of Communication, Dr Fred Vermorel
Blog: ‘I’ll drink to that’ – Tallinn’s Black Celebration of Depeche Mode
The winding medieval streets of Estonia’s capital hold a bit of a surprise for the traveller who hasn’t done their top bars research in advance
Talk: ‘Reach out and touch faith’ – Pilgrimage and fandom, sacred and secular
Guest ‘sermon’ given at Hertford College Chapel, Oxford, at the Choral Evensong service on 21st October, at the invitation of the College Chaplain, Gareth Hughes
Blog: Seaside soul – Discovering Marvin Gaye’s Ostend
An audiovisual walking tour, the Midnight Love Digital Tour, launched earlier this year by Toerisme Oostende, explores Gaye’s time in the town, offering a new view of a music legend and a chance to reflect on the twin issues of pilgrimage and representation in music
Blog: Nowa Huta – New towns and old religion
Nowa Huta is the largest district of Poland’s former capital, Kraków, but has little in common with the picture postcard medieval city centre
Sophia Deboick 
You must be logged in to post a comment.