Category: Anton Corbijn

By Posted on Posted in Anton Corbijn, Depeche Mode, Life in General, Memento Mori Tagged with , , , ,

Ok, I’ll start by admiting. I’ve been AWOL from this site for almost the entire year. And what a year it’s been! We got a new Depeche Mode album (and a helluva a fine album). We also got treated to another great tour, which is still on-going (and of course I have plans to catch up with it in 2024). I obviously saw the band a couple of times (yes, I met Martin and he was the sweetest guy in the world). So why was I so absent from this blog so much? Well, dizzy Mr Busy, too much rush to talk to Billy. All the silly frilly things have to first get done. In a minute sometime soon, maybe next time, make it June, until later doesn’t always come. One of the best side effects of a DM tour is meeting with friends from all over the world. Me and the other Spirits also amanged to arrange a mini-reunion (during a DM show, of course) of our own. We didn’t get physical singles from “Memento Mori” (apart from the odd German 7″s and the newly announced white label series). To be honest, with the 12″ Singles box sets being released at the current pace, we’re going to reach MM in 2024 anyway. Since we’re talking about re-releases, “Strange” and “Strange Too” finally got their long-awaited DVD/blu-ray release. I don’t know about you, but I’m very excited for what 2024 will bring.

And yes, the title of this post and the accompanying image would have made more sense if I had pressed “publish” before January 1st, 2024. But you get the spirit. Raise your glasses and let’s have a black celebration!

By Posted on Posted in Anton Corbijn, Books, Depeche Mode, Film Tagged with , , ,

autograph of Anton CorbijnYour favorite photographer dash director had a RSVP signing session at the local fancy Taschen shop here in the village of Buh Leen. It was supposed to be from 18h to 19h. However, arriving at 18h meant you had go to the end of a line that actually had no end in sight (literally). But it moved fast and just TWO hours later (that is a few minutes in Berlin waiting lines) it was my turn.

I should note that It was very nice of the guest author not to storm out of the store when the clock hit 19h and really stayed longer autographing for every one who arrived until 19h (the line wasn’t infinite, though).

So I finally got to meet Anton Corbijn for the first time in 3 years. He was surprised (because I just appeared unannounced like everyone in the line). In fact, his joy felt almost like nostalgia, as if the project had been ages ago, when, in fact, we last met in October of 2019 in London. (now I got nostalgic about life in 2019). I got to send greetings on behalf of the other SPiRiTS and we even had a chat about the superb work of co-directors Pasqual Gutierrez and John Merizalde in the film.

Meeting Anton CorbijnI didn’t prepare anything special for him to write in the autograph. I could have done it, though. They were taking notes on post-its, but I decided I’d just let the moment flow. I did have “Dear Daniel, f*ck off! Love, AC” as a back up and I did suggest it. It was incredible how he was in such a great mood after the repetitive work of autographing for two hours straight. But he was concise, since he had already made an autograph that had taken almost the entire page. The result is the picture above.

I have 4 of his books in my shelf (well, DMAC XXL edition is not technically on a shelf) and three of them are autographed. First, during in a brief moment while filming, he wrote “Daniel, enjoy the music as much as the pictures, AC” on my “1-2-3-4” (I think he was under the impression I adore him and DM only; not just every artist featured on that book). The Gutemberg Bible edition of DMAC already came autographed. And now the XL edition of the same book. Only my restored copy of the rare Strangers that I bought for 1/3 of what it’s worth remains in pristine condition. No scribbles or doodles on it so far.