The Original TOWIE Depeche Mode

The band emerged in 1980 and they hailed from the Basildon area in Essex. The original band consisted of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke. The band suffered a very early blow when chief songwriter Vince Clarke left in 1981 to form Yazoo. Alan Wilder then replaced Vince and was present in the band until 1995.

Depeche Mode have had huge success with over 40 UK singles and 10 UK albums and were quite rightly hailed as the best electronic band in the world. They stepped onto the scene when electronic music via the New Romantic scene was taking over the more traditional drum, bass and guitar. The band were heavily influenced by movers like Kraftwerk and Ultravox and it took them a while to get a record contract with a new label Mute records.

They released Dreaming of me which limped inside the top 60, however undeterred they released New Life and this fell short of the top 10 but it got an appearance on Top of the Pops and national exposure. This was followed up by one of the best known songs Just cant get enough, the album speak and spell was released and did very well reaching the top 10. however, whilst touring and promoting the album, Clarke departed and songwriting shifting responsibility to Gahan, they released a trio of singles See you, Meaning of Love and Leave in silence all done very well and this followed by the album A broken Frame which featured another famous song Get the balance right.

They began work on the third album Construction Time Again and there sound changed to a more radical Industrial sound with lots of samples of everyday objects and this spawned the hit Everything Counts. This was followed up by People are People and the success was starting to go overseas in Europe and America. The next album release was different tone to last album, Some Great Reward was released where as the last album was more social and environmental themes, the new album concentrated on more personal issues with single release personifying that such as Master and Servant and Blasphemous Rumours and the album hit the top 10 in America which was a breakthrough for the band.

Another album was released called Black Celebration and this saw the release of Stripped as the new single and this album was perceived to be a more darker goth style tone which was a complete change from the previous albums. 1987 saw the release of Music for the Masses and this saw the release of Strangelove and Never let me down again and this album did really well particularly in America where a tour culminated in a 60,000 plus attendance at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. they had truly arrived.

As the 1980s drew to a close, the release of Vialator with the production skills of Flood, saw the release of Personal Jesus and Enjoy the silence. the later winning a Brit Award for the best single. There popularity was growing and a world tour saw an estimated 1.2 million people see the band. What started out as a electronic band in the early 1980s has saw this evolve into one of the biggest bands in the world. They have had there ups and downs but the band has survived and one of the biggest influential bands around with there stadium anthems they truly are Essex finest export.