In the small town Basildon outside London there lived two guys called Vince Clarke and Andrew Fletcher. In 1976 they formed the band "No Romance In China". At that time Martin Gore was a guitarist in the band "Norman and the Worms". In 1979 Clarke and Gore were playing together in the guitar and synth band "French Look". Fletcher joined them and the band changed its name to "Composition of Sound". They were playing with a synthesizer, a guitar and a bass guitar.
Clarke was the singer but he didn't like it, so they were looking for a another singer. In 1980 they asked Dave Gahan who they had heard singing David Bowie's song "Heroes". When he joined they changed their instruments to synthesizers only and the band's name to Depeche Mode. The name was taken from a French magazine and it means "fashion news".
Their first release was the song "Photographic" on the independent record company Some Bizzare's compilation "Some Bizzare Album" in January 1981. But it was Daniel Miller who really discovered them and they signed on with his Mute Records. They released their first single "Dreaming Of Me" in February 1981. It became only No. 57 at the selling chart in UK and the next single "New Life" didn't become a hit either, but their third single "Just Can't Get Enough" was a Top 10 hit. Then they released their debut album "Speak & Spell", an album with happy and quite naive synthpop.
Vince Clarke wrote all of their songs, except for two songs written by Martin Gore. So it came as a shock to the fans when he decided to leave Depeche Mode soon after the album. He didn't like to tour and he didn't feel comfortable in the band anymore. The shock wasn't that big for the three remaining members though. Martin Gore took charge of the song-writing and they advertised for a new member. The three released the single "See You" in January 1982.
Vince Clarke soon formed the duo Yazoo with the singer Alison Moyet. Since 1985 he has been playing in the duo Erasure with the singer Andy Bell.Depeche Mode's advertisement for a new member read something like: "Synthesizer player wanted, maximum age 21 years". Alan Wilder was 22 years when he read that, but he answered anyway, because he really wanted a job, even if he would have to lie to get it. He was playing with the band on their "See You"-tour, for example in USA, but he still wasn't a real member of the band. He wasn't allowed to be in the studio when they recorded their second album "A Broken Frame". The music was now not so happy as when Vince Clarke was the song-writer, it was more melancholic and dark.
When the single "Get The Balance Right" was released in 1983 Alan Wilder was playing with the band in the studio and he was now regarded as a member of the band. He wrote two songs on their third album "Construction Time Again" and one song on their fourth album "Some Great Reward".
They had international hits with "Everything Counts", "People Are People" and "Master And Servant". In 1985 they released a collection album with all of their singles. In 1986 they released "Black Celebration", which was very dark and melancholic. They went on with that style on "Music For The Masses" in 1987. Soon after that album they began using guitars again. They were now very big also in USA, where they had huge concerts. One of the concerts were recorded and released as the live-album "101" in 1989. Later the same year they released the single "Personal Jesus", where the guitars dominated. In 1990 they released the album "Violator", which also included one of their biggest hits ever called "Enjoy The Silence".
