Andy Fletcher, who played synthesizers in Depeche Mode, the British band with a lot of electronics that developed a large number of fans and sold millions of records in the 80’s and 90’s, is dead. He was 60 years old.
The band announced his death on Twitter on Thursday. The ad did not specify where he died or give a cause. An unidentified source close to the band told The Associated Press that he died at his home in Britain on Thursday.
Mr. Fletcher formed Depeche Mode in 1980 in Basildon, East London, with fellow synthesizers Vince Clarke and Martin Gore and vocalist Dave Gahan. Mr. Clarke left after the release of the band’s first album, “Speak & Spell”, in 1981, Alan Wilder took over and Mr. Gore took over from Mr. Clarke as the group’s lead songwriter. The band began to move away from pop and into the darker, more serious music that achieved world fame over the next two decades.
Critics at first often did not fully appreciate the appeal of the synth-dominated act.
“Consisting of four young men, three synthesizers and a recorder playing pre-recorded rhythm tracks, Depeche Mode makes gloomy music with a danceable rhythm,” Stephen Holden wrote in an unenthusiastic review in The New York Times of a 1982 performance. New York Ritz.
Fans, however, clung, and by the end of the 1990s the group had reached dozens of singles on the UK charts: “People Are People” (1984) and “Personal Jesus” (1989) were among the most successful. they were also classified. in the United States, and it was filling big stages.
On stage, Mr. Fletcher was the least striking member of the group. And he despised himself for his role.
“Martin is the songwriter, Alan is the good musician, Dave the vocalist and I love it,” he told Depeche Mode: 101, a 1989 documentary.
But Michael Pagnotta, a SiriusXM Volume host who for much of the 1990s was the band’s publicist, said that off-stage, Mr. Fletcher was the tail that kept the band together, eager to promote it, keeping track of economic and financial affairs and often serving. as the first point of contact when a journey took him to a new city.
“Andy Fletcher was the heart of Depeche Mode,” Pagnotta said in a statement. “A true believer in the band and its music. Their keen musical and business instincts helped Depeche become one of the most popular and influential bands of his generation and helped take them to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Not bad for a guy from Basildon.
This induction into the Hall of Fame came in 2020, the band was first nominated in 2017, a nomination that Mr. Fletcher never waited, as an electronic band did not fit the model of guitar and drums that traditionally defined rock ‘n’ roll. .
“To be honest, we were surprised,” he said of the initial nomination in a 2017 interview with The Associated Press. “It simply came to our notice then. We thought, ‘An electronic band in the rock’ n ‘roll room?’ ”
Andrew Fletcher was born on July 8, 1961 in Nottingham, England, and, like the other founders of the band, grew up in a working-class family in Basildon. He and Mr. Clarke met when they were both in the Boys’ Brigade, a Christian youth organization. They formed a band, Composition of Sound, in 1980 and soon invited another acquaintance, Mr. Gore, because, as Mr. Gore was later “one of the few people in Basildon who had a synthesizer.”
Later that year, Mr. Gahan joined as a prominent vocalist, bringing a sense of style and a new name, Depeche Mode. Daniel Miller of Mute Records signed the group, and its popularity began to grow, not only in England but also in East and West Germany and other countries.
“Violator”, one of the band’s most successful albums, was released in 1989 and, with its popularity, Depeche Mode played at Manhattan Radio City Music Hall the following year.
“The band’s music, made by synthesizers, is a loud wash of sound driven by a dance rhythm,” Peter Watrous wrote in The Times. “Jet engines are roaring. The cliffs are collapsing, the dams are breaking. An occasional guitar is pointed behind the wreckage. Everything is magnified, and the dance rhythm, occasionally influenced by music house and hip-hop, he continues.
“On Radio City, the audience stood up throughout the show and had to be constantly prevented from dancing in the hallways.”
In 2017 the band released their 14th studio album, “Spirit”.
The survivors of Mr. Fletcher includes his wife, Gráinne Mullan, and their children, Megan and Joe.