A HAIRDRESSER was shocked to discover a 35-year-old recording in his loft of one of Depeche Mode’s first live performances.

Robin Neale, formerly of Billericay but now the director of Russell Robin Hair Studio in Cornwall, was clearing out his loft when he found the original tape, which he had acquired in the early Eighties. In the intervening years Depeche Mode, originally from Basildon, have become one of the biggest rock bands in the world and have just announced a mammoth 2017 tour and a new album.

He said: “I didn’t realise the find would create such a stir. I knew the band were popular but I didn’t realise how much until I found this tape.

“I had a day off from work and my wife told me to get into the loft and sort it out – which hadn’t been done in about 30 years.

“It took all day and in the end I found an old Sony reel-to-reel tape with 17 tracks from Depeche Mode performing at Crocs nightclub in Rayleigh, which they did every Saturday night.

“I was intrigued so I fired it up and was amazed to see it still worked as it was from 1980,. It was quite incredible.”

The tape revealed tracks from when the band performed at Crocs, now the Pink Toothbrush, with tracks from their Speak and Spell album as well as their big hits - Just Can’t Get Enough and New Life.

The 54-year-old said: “The DJ had recorded them through a mix desk so the quality was pretty good and he ended up giving the tape to me because we were all friendly. Dave Gahan used to come to my salon and when they had gigs in Crocs I would be there spraying and gelling their hair – it was all very primitive.

“Back then, they were nice, down to earth Essex blokes. We were all friends and used to drink in all the local pubs. I saw them at Crocs for the first time and just thought they were amazing.

“I don’t think anyone expected them to get so big. I didn’t realise they had sold 100 million albums. They were in the right place at the right time because electronic music was the thing back then.”