Formation Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode's origins can be traced back to 1977, when Vince Clarke and Andrew Fletcher formed a band called "No Romance In China", with Clarke on vocals/guitar and Fletcher on bass. In 1978, Clarke played guitar in an "Ultravox rip-off band", The Plan, with school friend Robert Marlow on vocals and Vince on guitar/keyboards.

In 1978–79, Gore played in an acoustic duo, Norman and The Worms, with school friend Philip Burdett (who now sings on the folk circuit) on vocals and Gore on guitar. In 1979, Marlow, Gore, Clarke and friend Paul Redmond formed a band called "The French Look", Marlow on vocals/keyboards, Gore on guitar, Clarke and Redmond on keyboards. In March 1980, Clarke, Gore and Fletcher formed a band called "Composition of Sound", with Clarke on vocals/guitar, Gore on keyboards and Fletcher on bass. "The French Look" and "Composition of Sound" once played live together in June 1980 at St. Nicholas School Youth Club in Southend on sea, Essex.

Soon after the formation of "Composition of Sound", Clarke and Fletcher switched to synthesizers, working odd jobs to buy them, or borrowing them from friends. Gahan joined the band in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a local scout-hut jam session, crooning to a rendition of David Bowie's 'Heroes', and "Depeche Mode" was born. The new name was taken from a French fashion magazine, "Dépêche mode", which translates to "Fashion Update" or "Fashion News Dispatch" (dépêche = dispatch) though it has commonly been mistranslated as "Fast Fashion", due to the confusion with the French verb "se dépêcher" ("to hurry up").


1981–1984: First releases

The band became part of Daniel Miller's Mute label by verbal contract, and released their first album, Speak & Spell, in 1981. While the band was promoting the album, Clarke began to publicly discuss his discomfort with the level of success that Depeche Mode was achieving; he felt they were becoming too popular after the success of their second major hit single "Just Can't Get Enough".

He soon left the group and went on to form several other bands including Yazoo (Yaz in the U.S.) with Alison Moyet, The Assembly with Eric Radcliffe, and later Erasure with Andy Bell. More than 20 years after, Depeche Mode still include the aforementioned "Just Can't Get Enough" in their live performances when touring, which has become kind of a humorous tip of the hat to their audience and a "flashback" break during their performances, given the much darker general tone that their compositions achieved in years to come compared to the naive synth-pop style of this song.

After Clarke's departure, Martin Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and "Big Muff" on their debut album, took over as the band's primary songwriter. In 1982 the album A Broken Frame was released by the remaining trio. Prior to this, Alan Wilder replaced Vince Clarke on tour, but he did not contribute to A Broken Frame. Shortly afterwards, he became a full-fledged member of Depeche Mode, in time for their 1983 non-album single "Get the Balance Right". He wrote "The Landscape is Changing" and "Two Minute Warning" for their 1983 album, Construction Time Again, "In Your Memory," the B-side to the "People Are People" single, and "If You Want" on the 1984 album Some Great Reward, and co-wrote with Martin Gore "Fools", the B-side to the "Love In Itself" single but his main contribution to Depeche Mode was in technical and musical production.

In the early 1980s, the band's popularity was largely confined to Europe, coupled with some recognition in Australia. However, in 1984 Depeche Mode made inroads into the United States, spawning the North American-only releases of the compilations People Are People featuring their first transatlantic hit of the same name, "People Are People", and the subsequent CD, Catching Up with Depeche Mode.

1985–1989: Growing success

This period is seen as the beginning of the band's long association with Britain's goth subculture that was gaining popularity in the United States. Meanwhile, the music intelligentsia in Britain dismissed Depeche Mode throughout the 1980s as "fluffy synthesized teenybopper pop stars" because of the cheery and "cute" style of many of their early songs, such as "Just Can't Get Enough" and "The Meaning of Love", in spite of the darker, more complex sound they had developed. In Germany and other countries in continental Europe, Depeche Mode were considered teen idols, despite the darker and more serious songs in their repertoire, and were regularly featured in teen magazines, which provided their detractors with more ammunition to use against them. But in America, where the band's music had first gained popularity on college radio and modern rock stations such as KROQ in Los Angeles, and WLIR on Long Island, New York, Depeche Mode's appeal was to a decidedly different, more cultish audience.

The gothic tag the band was given in the United States may have owed more to its sound than to its image, due to the band's late exposure to the American market and its unfortunate string of inconsistent, budget-driven music videos prior to this time. As heard with 1984's "Blasphemous Rumours", a bitter commentary on the unfairness of life, and the B-side to 1985's poor "It's Called a Heart", called "Fly on the Windscreen" (thereafter remixed and released as "Fly on the Windscreen — Final" on the 1986 album Black Celebration), the dark, brooding Depeche Mode was born.

After the video of their 1986 single "A Question of Time" garnered attention, its director Anton Corbijn began a long-lasting friendship and working relationship with the band, eventually directing 20 of their videos (the latest being 2006's "Suffer Well").

On the heels of their 1987 album Music for the Masses, Depeche Mode played a follow-up world tour in 1987—88 to sold-out venues. The tour culminated in a final concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl with a sell-out attendance of 80,000+ (the highest in eight years for the venue). The tour was documented in a film by D.A. Pennebaker, notable for its portrayal of fan interaction. An album release of the concert, titled 101 (the show was the 101st and final stop on the tour) became a bestseller in 1989 and is considered an excellent live document of their 1981—1987 recording years.

Later that year, after Martin Gore had made a brief detour to record his Counterfeit EP, with six cover versions of some of his favorite songs, the band recorded the bluesy country-western-influenced "Personal Jesus", in Milan. Prior to its release, advertisements were placed in the personal columns of UK regional newspapers with the words "Your own personal Jesus." Later, the ads included a phone number one could dial to hear the song. The ensuing controversy helped propel the single to number 13 on the UK charts, becoming one of their biggest sellers; in the US, it was their first gold single and their first top 40 hit since "People Are People." It was also the biggest-selling 12-inch single in Warner Brothers Records history. The song was later covered by Johnny Cash, Placebo, Gravity Kills and by Marilyn Manson. In September 2006, it was voted by readers of music monthly Q as one of the 100 greatest songs of all time.