It’s safe to say that Cardiff barber Peter Philippou just can’t get enough of Depeche Mode.
In fact, the hair expert loves the band so much he’s unveiled what appears to be the world’s very first Depeche Mode-themed barbers.
Peter’s salon, Mode For Men, has been a fixture on Clifton Street in Roath, Cardiff, for 27 years, however it has recently undergone a startling transformation to mirror the owner’s love of the electro giants, who first emerged in the 1980s.
“It’s been called Mode For Men for all those years, but unless you knew about my love of Depeche Mode you wouldn’t have realised what the name means,” he said.
“But now we’ve had the refurb everybody now knows what it’s about.
“It feels like our coming out party,” he joked.
The revamp of the shop took two months and it’s a hit with the regulars.
“It’s done really well. The customers love it and it’s a major talking point,” said the 48-year-old married dad of two.
“I don’t know if the band know about it. I’d hope they’d love it if they saw the pictures.”
The barber said his love affair with the band started in the early ’80s.
“It was 1981, I was 11 years old watching Top of The Pops and they played Just Can’t Enough,” recalled Peter, a former Whitchurch High School pupil.
“That was it I was hooked.
“The music was fresh. It was like nothing I had ever heard.
"Everybody else in school was into Duran Duran and A-ha, but there was only one band for me. It was the electro synths. It was the way the keyboards sounded. I liked Kraftwerk and I thought this was the next step up from them. That was it.
“The rest is history. Nearly 40 years on and I’m still listening to Depeche Mode and going to their concerts.”
He said he narrowly missed out on seeing his first Depeche Mode gig at Newport Centre in 1988.
“I was just too young to go. You’ve got to remember as well I was the only person in my year who loved them. All my schoolmates called me a goth, because I was always dressed in black,” he laughed.
However, Peter did finally catch his heroes play for the first time at Birmingham NIA in the early ’90s – a memorable occasion for many reasons.
The barber recalled how he and his brother Steve went backstage to meet the band at the gig, thanks to two girls they had met while on holiday.
“We hooked up with two girls when we were in Greece backpacking,” he remembered.
“One of the girls said she had contacts with Depeche Mode, we all said, ‘yeah, right’, but next thing we know we’ve got VIP tickets to the backstage party. We were like, ‘oh my god, this is happening’.”
Sadly, their nerves weren’t helped any when Peter and his brother met the band.
“To be honest with you we completely messed it up,” he said.
“I was so nervous I didn’t know what to say so I offered them the opportunity to come down to Cardiff and I’d give them a free trim.
“They’d just done two hours on stage and they’ve got this cocky little t*** babbling on at them backstage.”
Peter has subsequently seen Depeche Mode play live on a further 15 occasions and is part of a huge worldwide fanbase.
Now he hopes Mode For Men might attract fans from around the world to have their haircut in the Depeche Mode barbers.
“I’d be more than happy to talk Depeche Mode with them for hours, days, months, or years,” said Peter.
“You ask my customers, it’s all I talk about anyway.”
