LOS ANGELES – Andy “Fletch” Fletcher, the modest keyboardist with glasses and red hair who for more than 40 years added his synthesizer sounds to Depeche Mode hits like “Just Can’t Get Enough” and ” Personal Jesus, “he died. at 60 years old.
Depeche Mode announced the death of founding member Fletcher on its official social media pages.
A person close to the gang said Fletcher died of natural causes on Thursday at his home in the UK. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not allowed to speak publicly.
“We are shocked and overwhelmed by the overwhelming sadness of the untimely death of our dear friend, family member and bandmate Andy‘ Fletch ’Fletcher,” the band’s publications said. “Fletch had a real heart of gold and was always there when you needed support, a lively conversation, a good laugh or a cold look.”
Fletcher formed the band that would become British electro-pop giants along with other synthesizers Vince Clarke and Martin Gore, and singer Dave Gahan, in Basildon, England in 1980.
The band would explode a year later with their debut album “Speak and Spell”, which opened with the modest hit “New Life” and closed with one of the band’s enduring hits, “Just Can’t Get Enough”.
Clarke would leave the group and be replaced by Alan Wilder after the album.
The group would be internationally successful with “Some Great Reward” from 1984 and the single “People are People”, and their prominence would only grow throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.
Fletcher would lend his keyboards to classic albums such as “Music for the Masses”, “Black Celebration” and “Violator”.
The first of them resulted in a world tour that brought a live album, a documentary and a legendary concert to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, which represented the pinnacle of the band’s prominence.
A fan of the Chelsea FC football team with a penchant for chess, Fletcher took a low profile to the group. He did not sing or write songs, and his face was never as familiar as that of his bandmates.
“Martin is the songwriter, Alan is the good musician, Dave is the vocalist and I love it,” he told the tour documentary, “101.”
But Fletch was a union figure and often the tiebreaker in the fights of his most famous bandmates.
He also occasionally played bass on the band.
Depeche Mode was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2020. Gahan, Fletcher and Gore had to accept the honor remotely along with everyone else incorporated during the pandemic year. As usual, Fletcher let his bandmates talk about almost everything.
His death leaves Gahan and Gore as the only permanent members.
Fletcher’s music companions paid tribute to him when news of his death spread.
“Their keyboard sounds created not only the Depeche Mode soundtrack, but they changed the direction of Techno, EDM, Downtempo, Triphop and Electronica. Crucial loss,” tweeted Living Color guitarist Vernon Reid.
The Pet Shop Boys said on Twitter that he was “a warm, kind and funny person who liked electronic music.”
Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark tweeted that he was a “beautiful person in an amazing band.”
Fletcher, the eldest of four siblings, was born in Basildon and raised in Nottingham, England.
He befriended Clarke and singer Alison Moyet, who would form Yazoo (known as Yaz in the United States) with Clarke after leaving Depeche Mode.
“Since we were 10,” Moyet tweeted Thursday. “The same farm. Classmates to label classmates. He who kept the faith with the whole old gang and they with him. He doesn’t count. Fletch. I have no words.”
As teenagers, Fletcher and Clarke would form the short-lived group “No Romance.”
With Gore, whom Fletcher met at a pub in Basildon in 1980, they formed the Composition of Sound trio, with the three of them playing the synthesizer. Gahan was recruited to the group later that year, and the name was changed to Depeche Mode.
Fletcher remained with the group until his death, although struggles with depression reported in 1994 encouraged him to drop out of a tour.
He founded his own record label, Toast Hawaii, in 2002, releasing an album by the band CLIENT.
Fletcher would perform DJ sets at the band’s live shows, which he continued to do at festivals and clubs after he and CLIENT parted ways.
Fletcher is survived by his nearly 30-year-old wife, Gráinne Mullan, and children Megan and Joe.
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