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Depeche Mode ( də-PESH MOHD) are an English electronic band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. Originally formed with the line-up of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke, the band has consisted of Gahan and Gore since Fletcher's death in 2022.

With Clarke as their primary songwriter, Depeche Mode released their debut album Speak & Spell in 1981 amid the British new wave scene and were a part of the MTV-driven Second British Invasion. Clarke left the band at the end of 1981, going on to form the groups Yazoo and later Erasure. The remaining trio recorded their second album, A Broken Frame (1982), with Martin Gore as chief songwriter. The band then recruited Alan Wilder, establishing a line-up that continued until 1995, beginning with the albums Construction Time Again (1983) and Some Great Reward (1984). The albums Black Celebration (1986) and Music for the Masses (1987) cemented them as one of the most popular alternative bands of the 1980s, and their June 1988 concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl drew a crowd of more than 60,000 people.

In 1990, Depeche Mode released their seventh album, Violator, which reached number 7 on the Billboard 200 and was certified triple Platinum by the RIAA. The following album Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993) was also a success, though the band's internal struggles during recording and touring resulted in Wilder's departure in 1995. The band returned to the line-up of Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher, and released the album Ultra in 1997. The band continued touring and recorded five more albums as a trio—Exciter (2001), Playing the Angel (2005), Sounds of the Universe (2009), Delta Machine (2013) and Spirit (2017)—until Fletcher's death in 2022. Gahan and Gore have since continued as a duo. Their latest album, Memento Mori, was released in 2023.

Depeche Mode have had 54 songs in the UK singles chart, 17 Top 10 albums in the UK chart, and have sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Q included the band in its list of the "50 Bands That Changed the World!" Depeche Mode also rank No. 98 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". In 2016, Billboard named Depeche Mode the 10th Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020. In 2023, they were listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's most remixed music act.

History

Formation (1977–1980)

Depeche Mode's origins date to 1977, when schoolmates Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher formed a band called No Romance in China with Clarke on vocals and guitar and Fletcher on bass. Fletcher would later recall, "Why am I in the band? It was accidental right from the beginning. I was actually forced to be in the band. I played the guitar and I had a bass; it was a question of them roping me in." In 1979, Clarke played guitar in an Ultravox-influenced band, the Plan, with friends Robert Marlow and Paul Langwith. In 1978–1979, Martin Gore played guitar in an acoustic duo, Norman and the Worms, with school friend Phil Burdett on vocals. In 1980, Clarke and Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound, with Clarke on vocals/guitar and Fletcher on bass; the pair were soon joined by Gore as a third instrumentalist. Dave Gahan joined the ensemble later in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a local Scout hut jam session, singing a rendition of David Bowie's "'Heroes'".