In the small town of Basildon, outside London, there lived two guys named Vince Clarke and Andrew Fletcher. In 1976 they formed a band called "No Romance In China." At that same time, a guy named Martin Gore was a guitarist in the band "Norman and the Worms." By 1979 Clarke and Gore were playing together in the guitar and synth band "French Look." Soon, Fletcher joined them and they changed their name to "Composition of Sound."
In 1980, a guy named David Gahan was drafted in to complete the line up and the band was re-named Depeche Mode.
The band became part of Daniel Miller's Mute label by verbal contract, and released their first album in 1981. For Speak and Spell, Clarke penned "Dreaming of Me," "New Life," and "Just Can't Get Enough." While the band was promoting the album, Clarke began to publicly admit his discomfort with the level of success that Depeche Mode was achieving, and departed shortly thereafter.
Clarke has commented on Depeche Mode's post Speak and Spell material as being a little dark for his taste, but good nonetheless.
Clarke then teamed up with singer Alison Moyet to form Yaz, who produced two albums. Upstairs at Eric's gave us the greats "Don't Go," "Situation," and "Only You," and You and Me Both delivered "Nobody's Diary."
In 1985 Clarke put an ad in Melody Maker for a singer, and the forty-first applicant was Andy Bell, a fan of his earlier projects. He teamed with Bell to form the group Erasure, and the duo has become one of the biggest selling acts in British pop music history. Songs include Waist High favorites "Oh L'amour," "Sometimes," "Chains of Love," and "A Little Respect."
The band have released fifteen albums in their twenty-one years together, most recently 2006's Union Street.
Photo: jencray.com
Material: wikipedia.org & synt.nu/depeche
