DEPECHE MODE
GOING BACKWARDS
DEPECHE MODE /dᵻˌpɛʃˈmoʊd/
are an English electronic band that formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex.
The group consists of founders Dave Gahan (lead vocals, occasional songwriter since 2005),
Martin Gore (guitar, keyboards, vocals, main songwriter since 1982),
and Andy Fletcher (keyboards, bass guitar).
Depeche Mode released their debut album Speak & Spell in 1981,
bringing the band onto the British new wave scene.
Original band member Vince Clarke (keyboards, guitar, main songwriter from 1980 to 1981),
left the band after the release of the album, leaving the band as a trio
to record A Broken Frame, released the following year.
Gore took over the lead songwriting duties and, later in 1982, Alan Wilder (keyboards, drums, bass guitar, occasional songwriter) officially joined the band to fill Clarke's spot,
establishing a line up that would continue for the next 13 years.
Depeche Mode have been a trio again since 1995, when Wilder left.
The band's last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music for the Masses,
established them as a dominant force on the mainstream electronic music scene.
A highlight of this era was the band's concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl,
where they drew a crowd in excess of 70,000 people.
In the new decade, Depeche Mode released Violator, a mainstream success.
The subsequent album, Songs of Faith and Devotion, and the supporting Devotional Tour
exacerbated tensions within the band to the point where Alan Wilder quit in 1995,
leading to intense media and fan speculation that the band would split.
Now a trio once again, the band released Ultra in 1997,
recorded at the height of Gahan's near-fatal drug abuse, Gore's alcoholism and seizures,
and Fletcher's depression.
The release of Exciter confirmed Depeche Mode's willingness to remain together,
the subsequent, and very successful, Exciter Tour being their first tour
in support of an original album in eight years since the Devotional Tour,
although the band had toured in 1998 to support The Singles 86–98 compilation album.
Latest albums
Playing the Angel (2005–2007)
Sounds of the Universe (2008–2011)
Delta Machine (2012–2014)
Spirit (2017)
Depeche Mode have had 50 songs in the UK Singles Chart
and seventeen top 10 albums in the UK chart;
they have sold over 100 million records worldwide.
“Q” included the band in the list of the "50 Bands That Changed the World!".
Depeche Mode also rank number 98 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".
Latest ALBUM
"SPIRIT" (2017) ANALYSIS
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