Depeche Mode, Wembley Arena, London <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->

Synth you've been gone

Twenty-eight years ago, Mute records' supremo Daniel Miller was hiding behind the pseudonym The Normal and launching his independent label with the avant-electronica of "T.V.O.D." and "Warm Leatherette", later covered to great effect by the icy diva Grace Jones.

He subsequently created Silicon Teens, a fictitious synthesiser group who specialised in rinky-dink covers of rock'n'roll classics - take your pick from "Memphis, Tennessee", "Let's Dance" and "Sweet Little Sixteen" - in a style not dissimilar to the Flying Lizards' reworking of Barrett Strong's "Money".

So, Miller must have thought his dream had been made flesh in 1980 when he happened on the original Depeche Mode, four teenagers from Basildon with a serious synth-fixation. His gut feeling proved right, since they've gone on to sell 50 million albums and are the first headliners at the new Wembley Arena, which has just been refurbished to the tune of £35m and looks all the better for it.

As Martin Gore, the songwriter who stepped up to the plate when Vince Clarke left the group after its initial run of pop hits in 1981, twangs away on a Gretsch guitar over yet another big beat played live by the touring drummer Christian Eigner, I wonder if the Mode have travelled that far away from early rock'n'roll and the verse-chorus-middle-eight song template.

Mind you, even if the vocalist, Dave Gahan, swivels and shakes à la Elvis Presley while crooning like a more tuneful Marc Almond, you couldn't accuse Gore of modelling himself on anyone else. He's wearing a strange black feathery costume - complete with what looks like a Phrygian cap, wings and a leather skirt - which makes him look like a cuddly gladiator and, I soon realise, is a re-enactment of the cover imge of the group's current album as they perform the two opening tracks of Playing the Angel. The stage set has Andy Fletcher and the second keyboard-player, Peter Gordeno, on top of two silvery consoles straight out of Star Trek: The Next Generation, while the odd lyric and song title flashes on a grey metallic globe stage left (the wandering apostrophe in "Known for It's Anger" proves that, despite using Anton Corbijn, the Mode don't have the attention to detail of U2).

Having released a solo album - Paper Monsters - in 2003, Gahan has become the group's second writer, and the driving "Suffer Well" and the confessional "I Want It All" work well alongside the early-Nineties favourites "Policy of Truth" and "Walking in My Shoes", as well as the brooding "Precious", their recent Top 10 hit. Despite his well-documented drug problem, the tattoos and a six-pack torso that draws gasps from adoring fans, the front man will never acquire the mystique of a Jim Morrison or Ian Curtis. He sidesteps and twirls around like a bullfighter without delivering a truly killer move or vocal performance.

Moving centre stage to play a star-shaped guitar that matches his glittery make-up, and singing "Damaged People" and "Home", Gore finally takes his black cap off to reveal his trademark dyed-blond hair and brings the house down. His face is beaming as he kicks the headgear sidestage to his roadie. Gahan returns for "The Sinner in Me", and the crowd-pleasers "Behind the Wheel", "World in My Eyes", "Personal Jesus" and "Enjoy the Silence" close the set. The dark angel Gore whispers a fragile "Leave in Silence"; then "Just Can't Get Enough" and "Everything Counts", their critique of capitalism that pre-dated the Pet Shop Boys' "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" by a good three years, take us all back to the early Eighties, when the Mode's synth-pop was at its most engaging. Music for the masses, indeed.