Dave Gahan’s New Policy of Truth

Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan’s itinerary for the band’s upcoming tour doesn’t just list hotel and venue details. For each city, there’s an entry giving the locations and times of 12-step meetings.

This is the veteran English group’s first full tour since Gahan suffered a near-fatal overdose at the Sunset Marquis Hotel in West Hollywood in May 1996, resulting in his arrest and placement in a drug rehabilitation program.

Gahan is keenly aware that the road can be the most treacherous place for a musician with an addiction. He notes that it was on the road that Scott Weiland had problems, both with Stone Temple Pilots and on his recent solo tour, aborted when he was arrested in New York for heroin possession. It’s the reason that Aerosmith and the Red Hot Chili Peppers both have toured with 12-step support groups and counselors in tow.

With Depeche Mode, though, Gahan is on his own.

“I can’t be responsible for what Fletch or Martin [bandmates Alan Fletcher and Martin Gore] get up to on the tour,” he says. “They’re not where I am in my life. I’ll be going to meetings, but it’s something I’m doing by myself as part of my day. When I can do that, take care of myself, it enables me to do these other things. I can do interviews all day, go and do a show. But I need to take care of myself, and that gives me the choice to go on.”

That also means none of the social scene that usually accompanies tours.

“I know that on tour, people will say, ‘Dave’s a party pooper,’ ” he says. “But that’s their problem. I’m in really great shape.”

Betty Wyman, director of the Exodus recovery center at Daniel Freeman Hospital in Marina del Rey, says that Gahan seems to understand the serious measures he needs to take. “It sounds like he’s doing the right things to preserve his sobriety,” she says. “He needs, in that high-pressure environment, to take time for himself and separate himself from the road insanity.”

Gahan, who has been living in New York, is grateful that his health is allowing him to enjoy the resurgence of interest in Depeche Mode, stimulated in part by a wave of ‘80s nostalgia and fueling demand for the band’s upcoming collection “The Singles 86-97,” due Oct. 6. The group will be at the Great Western Forum on Dec. 18.

“Not a day goes by here without someone coming up to me, a construction worker or businessman, and goes, ‘When are you touring again?’ ” he says. “It’s been great over the last few months to be able to say, ‘Later in the year.’ ”

Most important, though, it’s allowed him to put his personal life, which had been in disarray due largely to his drug use, back in order.

“I picked up my son, who’s 10, and brought him to New York, the first time he’s been here with me,” Gahan says. “His mother allowed him to go, which shows how far we’ve come.”

GIRL TALK: One musician who was less fortunate with drugs was Jonathan Melvoin, who died two years ago in New York from an overdose while on tour as a keyboard sideman with the Smashing Pumpkins.

His loss is central to a new album by Wendy & Lisa, the duo consisting of his sister, Wendy Melvoin, and her longtime partner and childhood friend, Lisa Coleman.

“We’ll see how the general public takes to it,” Melvoin says of the introspective nature of the songs. “I don’t expect much at this point. These songs are kind of like my blood. I just hope people will listen with a clear mind.”

So far so good. Wendy & Lisa have been showcasing songs for the album, titled “Girl Bros.,” to great response in intimate concerts around town, with an appearance scheduled for Friday at McCabe’s. Where it’s failed to make an impact so far is with record companies. But the material is so important to Melvoin and Coleman that they’ve decided to release it on their own. It will be available next month exclusively through the Music Boulevard Internet service, and then in stores in October via independent distribution.

Meanwhile, the team--which came to fame working with Prince in the ‘80s--is looking for some kind of financial backing that would allow them to tour with their band.

“One good thing about a record company is, even if it’s chump change, they can give you money to go out and play,” Melvoin says. “And the way we’re going to touch as many people as we’d like with this music is by playing live.”

HELLO, NEWMAN: Randy Newman is moving on from his career-long home at Warner Bros. Records to rejoin ex-Warner heads Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker at DreamWorks Records, with plans for a new album to be produced by Mitchell Froom.

But first Warner Bros. is releasing a four-CD box culled from Newman’s 30-year stay with the company, including material from his regular studio albums, highlights from his film scores and rarities and unreleased material. Among the selections are a pre-Warner single, “Golden Gridiron Boy,” co-produced for Dot Records by Pat Boone, and several 1968 demos.

“Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman,” due Nov. 3, is the first item from a new deal in which Rhino Records, which has earned high praise for its archival work with such labels as Atlantic and Elektra, will oversee Warner Bros. reissues and boxed sets. That’s an exciting development for the many fans who feel that Warner Bros. has done the least with its valuable vaults in the CD age of all the major, historic labels.

“For two decades this was perceived as the coolest label in the record business, and baby boomers haven’t forgotten this,” says Pete Howard, editor and publisher of the monthly CD-oriented publication ICE. “There’s tons of stuff there they could package. Warner Bros. was the soundtrack of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.”

Howard cites such Warner artists as the Grateful Dead, Bonnie Raitt, Little Feat, Ry Cooder and James Taylor as acts that would generate tremendous interest. Rhino officials, though, say it would be premature to discuss future plans for boxed sets or other archive projects.