Depeche Mode

. Frischmann herself was no stranger to television jingles; her uncle wrote the theme song to Benny Hill. As of January 2005, the album is currently being recorded. Their song "Connection" was used in May 2004 in Garnier television commercials. In November 2004, it was announced on http://www.depechemode.com that the band was planning on going into the studio to record an album in early 2005 with producer Ben Hillier. The band then released a final single and announced their break-up in September 2001. In August 2004, Mute announced a DVD release of "Devotional" and a new remix completion album Remixes 81-04 that covers some new & unreleased promo mixes of the singles from 1981 to 2004. After personnel problems delayed it, the follow-up LP, The Menace, was released in 2000 to moderate sales.

2003 saw the release of Dave Gahan's solo album, Paper Monsters, followed by a worldwide tour and a DVD taken from it, titled Live Monsters, Martin Gore continued his solo career with the release of Counterfeit 2, and Andrew Fletcher launched his own label, Toast Hawaii. Elastica was able to garner better American sales than other Britpop bands, replacing Sinéad O'Connor on Lollapalooza in 1995. Wilder himself has stated that he contributed a lion's share of work while receiving the least credit on past albums. In spite of a lawsuit from Wire claiming that many of the band's melodies were taken from Wire compositions, Elastica's first LP, Elastica, entered the charts at #1. It has been suggested that a failure of the band to recognize its own brand appeal in releasing previous records may have played some part in his departure, with other factors including the drug addiction issues of Dave Gahan; Martin Gore's admission of "battling his own demons" at this time; and growing tensions between Wilder and Andrew Fletcher. In spite of a period of relative quiet, Elastica's fame grew throughout 1994 as Frischmann's relationship with Blur's Damon Albarn made tabloid headlines. In June 1995 after the Devotional tour, Alan Wilder left the band citing "unsatisfactory internal working conditions", while continuing to work on his personal project Recoil. Their first single was 1993's "Stutter", which was a word-of-mouth hit.

After the much earlier departure of Vince Clarke, a gradual change away from their roots can hardly have been unexpected. Elastica were a Britpop band in the 1990s, formed by Justine Frischmann after leaving Suede in 1991. Frischmann recruited Justin Welch (formally of garage rock band Spitfire - drums), Annie Holland (bass) and Donna Matthews (guitar). indeed, in a CD booklet, Dave Gahan is instead pictured lovingly holding an acoustic guitar - a far cry from the synthpop ideal of 'keyboards with everything'. One marked change in the style of music throughout the history of this band has been a move away from keyboards and heavily synth pop-influenced sound.. Techno pioneers such as Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson and Juan Atkins regularly quoted Depeche Mode as an influence in their development of proto-techno during the Detroit Techno explosion in the late 80s.

Depeche Mode had a great influence on the emergence of the techno and electronica music scenes through the late 80s and 90s. Pennebaker, recently released on DVD, which is notable for an element of fan interaction. The tour was documented in a film by D.A. The 101 tour culminated in a final concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl with a sell-out attendance of 80,000 (the highest in 8 years for the venue).

In the intervening years between the mid-80s and 90s, the band's popularity in the US grew to massive proportions. In 1984 Depeche Mode made in-roads into America, which spawned the US-only release of Catching Up With Depeche Mode. In the early 1980s the band's popularity was largely confined to Europe (particularly Germany) and their style was Synth pop. He wrote The Landscape is Changing and Two Minute Warning for their 1983 album, Construction Time Again, as well as Fools, the B-side to the Love in Itself single, In Your Memory, the B-side to the People Are People single, and If You Want on the 1984 album Some Great Reward, but his main contribution to Depeche Mode was in the technical and musical production aspects.

After Vince's departure, Martin Gore, who had written Tora! Tora! Tora! and Big Muff on their debut album, took over as the band's primary song-writer and in 1982 the album A Broken Frame was released. After this, Alan Wilder joined the band as a permanent replacement for Clarke. Soon after, Vince Clarke left to form a new band, Yazoo (Yaz in the US) with Alison Moyet, The Assembly with Feargal Sharkey, Dave Clempson and Eric Radcliffe, and later Erasure with Andy Bell. The band became part of Daniel Miller's Mute label by verbal contract, and released their first album, Speak and Spell, in 1981. The new name was taken from a French fashion magazine, "Dépêche-mode", translates to "fashion telegram".

Andrew Fletcher then became part of the band and it was renamed "Composition of Sound." David Gahan joined the band in 1980 after Vince Clarke heard him perform at a local gig, and "Depeche Mode" was born. Depeche Mode's origins can be traced back to 1976, when Vince Clarke and Andrew Fletcher formed a band known as "No Romance in China." The band was unsuccessful and in 1979, Vince Clarke formed a new band named "French Look" with Martin Gore.
. Former members include:.

The three current members of Depeche Mode are:. As of 2005, Depeche Mode have sold over 50 million albums worldwide. Depeche Mode had many videos heavily rotated on MTV and MuchMusic. They are one of the longest-lived and most successful bands to have emerged during the New Wave/New Romantic era.

Depeche Mode was originally founded in 1980 as a synth pop band in the town of Basildon, England. Remixes 81 - 04 (2004). Exciter (2001). The Singles (81-85) Re-released/Repackaged (1998).

The Singles (86-98) (1998). Ultra (1997). Songs of Faith and Devotion Live (1993). Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993).

Violator (1990). 101 (live) (1989). Music for the Masses (1987). Black Celebration (1986).

Catching Up With Depeche Mode [North America only] (1985). The Singles (81-85) (1985). Some Great Reward (1984). People Are People (1984).

Construction Time Again (1983). A Broken Frame (1982). Speak & Spell (1981). Alan Wilder (keyboards, drums, songwriting), from 1983-95.

Vince Clarke (songwriting, keyboards), from 1980-82. Andrew Fletcher (keyboards, backing vocals). David Gahan (lead vocals). Martin Gore (songwriting, guitar, keyboards, backing and occasional lead vocals).