Andy Fletchkeyboardist, composer and founder of Depeche Mode He has died at the age of 60. The oldest of four children, he moved to Nottingham when he was just two years old. It was there that he met Vince Clarke, a future member of the band and later founder of erasure.
They first founded the group No Romance in China, where Fletcher played bass. In 1980 they met Martin Gore and formed the band Composition of Sound. Clarke remained the main writer and vocalist until the arrival of Dave Gahan, who changed the name to Depeche Mode, becoming one of the most mythical and important electronic music groups in history.
Clarke left the band in 1981 after the release of the first album, Speak & Spell. They remained briefly as a trio, but in 1982 Alan Wilder joined the band and they remained a quartet until 1995. From then on, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher have continued with Depeche Mode.
Fletcher’s role in the band has always been a topic of conversation among fans of the band. He is the only one who has not received a single songwriting credit on any of the songs on Depeche Mode. But throughout the history of the group he has had important tasks during the interpretation of each of the songs, both in the studio and live.
Andy Fletcher is also the only member of the band who never sang. At the time of him, when he was seen singing, the sound of his microphones was heard very low or only on the sound monitors on stage. As of 2014, he stopped singing live.
Furthermore, in times when the band has not had a manager Full-time, Andy Fletcher handled legal, accounting, and monetary matters. He revealed several times, in different interviews, to be genuinely interested in the more administrative side of the music business. In recent years he became the spokesman for Depeche Mode.
The reasons for Andy Fletcher’s death are unknown. The announcement has been made through the official accounts of Depeche Mode in social networks.