By Carron Stacey, A Humdrum Mum

WHEN? Saturday 21 June 2025

What a way to celebrate the Summer Solstice: a day bookended by a 4.55am dip in the sea and a Devout gig!

• Read on for reasons including how The Devout aim to recreate as far as possible the magic of a true DM concert

What sort of Depeche Mode fan am I? I’m expecting you to ask.

Well I’ve grown up with them from their 1981 chart debut New Life, and probably got a bit fed up with them after I Feel You, in 1993. I had 1983’s Construction Time Again on vinyl which contains my utter favourite DM song, Everything Counts. 

I’m more fed up with them, however, after seeing them at the London stadium in 2017. Whilst they were awesome obviously, they didn’t play Just Can’t Get Enough on that night. How can you just ignore your roots? Your fans from the early days? Rant over. I’ll see a tribute band, I thought, they’ll play it.

FFWD to last night. YES they did play it. Along with nearly 30 other tracks, nearly three hours! If I’m honest, quite a lot of their songs were deep cuts and probably best reserved for their ultra-fans, loads of which were there last night. 

On the periphery stood I, what could I call myself, an early fan? We wondered which era Dave he would be: Basildon’s best sharp-suited youngster Dave? Mid-career Dave, not sober/then sober Dave? Or latest rock-star Dave? When he appeared, he was almost-suited, so the youngster one, but then transformed into the rock-star Dave. 

The band themselves are phenomenal. Their website claims their duty is to deliver DM songs to us (and last night they told us we were the owners of DM) and to recreate as far as possible the magic of a true DM concert. Their visuals were amazing and managed to make the Wedgewood Rooms look like a huge arena. 

The sound is HUGE and perfect. But the voice? Close your eyes and it is Dave. It really is. Think later-Dave voice, notes held deep and long, he is Dave.

My favourites included: Stripped, Leave in Silence, Somebody (sweet sweet vocals from their “Martin”), See You, New Life, People are People, Everything Counts and obviously Just Can’t Get Enough! 

When you think they’ve finished after a banging Enjoy the Silence, they hit us with Never Let Me Down Again. I left feeling like I had actually seen DM. The ultra-fans in the middle definitely adored The Devout.

I did miss Master and Servant now, come to think of it, but I hadn’t realised last night. The band absolutely love DM and the joy on their faces whilst playing and basking in the applause just makes it for me. A real shared DM experience, for all types of fans. And I just couldn’t get enough.

• Main picture by A Humdrum Mum courtesy The Devout Tickets
• Have you seen a show by The Devout before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
• Read more from Carron at her blog A Humdrum Mum
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