MusicBox - Depeche Mode - Funky Fashion for Faster Fusion

Sep, 7 2026

It was 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.

They soon recruited Martin Gore a year later and in 1980 Clarke heard Dave Gahan perform a version of David Bowie’s classic ‘Heroes’ and reeled him to join the band.

With the introduction of synthesisers it was inevitable their sound would influence this wave of music. At this point they were known as Composition of Sound and for many in the band this just wasn’t cool enough. Dave clocked a French fashion magazine entitled ‘Depeche Mode’ meaning ‘hurried fashion’ or fashion dispatch’. It was a great transition for the band and the name remained till the present day.

20 years after that first connection and Vince Clarke was no longer a member, they had created some incredible synth-pop music and made fantastic albums but in 1996 Gahan suffered a severe drug overdose and nearly died.

However, near fatality often brings about creativity and on 14th April 1997 one of their finest albums was released the dark deep sound of ‘Ultra’.

Here are the main people talking about the recording process of the album –

The album was preceded by the singles "Barrel of a Gun", released on 3 February and "It's No Good" which was released on 31 March. It was followed by the singles "Home", released on 16 June and "Useless", released on 20 October.

On 2 October 2007 (3 October in North America), Ultra was re-released as a two-disc set, featuring a remastered version of the original album and on the second disc, a DVD which features the album in DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM Stereo.

Next year is the 30th anniversary of the album and as mentioned earlier ‘It’s no Good’ was the follow-up to ‘Barrel of a Gun’ from a record that many thought would never get made, yet three decades later its very good in contrast to the second single from the album. Experience the music video here –

As featured in the video was keyboardist Andy Fletcher who sadly died on 26th May 2022 at just 60 after suffering an aortic dissection while at home. Their first record without Fletch was the 24th March 2023 album ‘Memonto Mori’ featuring compositions recorded before Fletch passed away.

The website is active and available to view here - https://www.depechemode.com/

For the past four years Depeche Mode has been Dave Gahan and Martin Gore and they remain synth pop pioneers from an early movement to a now heavier pop rock sound. They continue to create and absorb themselves in new electronic music to confirm their legacy now and for years to come.

^Alex Ashworth Director of Creativity