Depeche Mode Violator Album Cover

If you had to pinpoint an exact date and location for the moment that Depeche Mode morphed from cult British band to million-selling mainstream success, it would be March 20, 1990 at Los Angeles music emporium Wherehouse Records. It was here that the then-quartet turned up for an in-store performance to celebrate the release of their seventh record Violator. The shop could hold 150 people. An estimated 17,000 fans turned up. With the numbers swelling, police evacuated the band from the store and shut the place down, prompting disgruntled members of the waiting crowd to start rioting. The furor made evening news reports across the country. Depeche Mode had become the big story. From the outside, 1990's Violator felt very much like the record that everything had been leading up to for the electro pioneers from Basildon. Their triumphant live album, 101, released the previous year, captured an exhilarating performance at California's Rose Bowl and seemed very much the image of a band wh