Band > Vince Clarke

Vince is the original founder of ‘Depeche Mode’,
though the band had two other names during his time in the band.
He founded ‘French Look’ in 1979 together with the two other original band-members Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher.

Very soon, they decided on another name, ‘Composition of Sound’.
Vince performed as singer of the band and one year later, Dave Gahan joined the band to overtake this part.

It was he who changed the band´s name yet again, to the name that would be permanent: ‘Depeche Mode’.

Vince was responsible for the song-lyrics of Depeche Mode´s first album-release ‘Speak and Spell’ and his bright and cheerful synth-pop style dominates this debut, along with ‘Just can´t get enough’. (1981)

Very soon after their debut-album, Vince decided to leave the band and dedicate his talent to other projects like ‘Yazoo’ (-1983).
He also worked together with other artists like Paul Quinn and Eric Radcliffe.

1985, Vince placed an ad in a magazine, where he searched for a singer to join his newest music project.
This way, Andy Bell joined him and together they formed ‘Erasure’. Under this name, they had a lot of success until today with albums like ‘The Innocents’, ‘Wild!’ or ‘Chorus’.