At the beginning the band came from 2 different other bands that gathered people like Vince Clarke, Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher, all around 17 or 18 years old. The first name of the band was Composition of Sound. In that time groups like Kraftwerk were really popular for using electronic music. What was missing to that band was a real singer. It was during a meeting at their school that Vince noticed a guy with a very special voice : David Gahan. He asked him to perform to the band to see if he could fit to the role. That was the time when he performed a cover song of David Bowie : "Heroes".

Once the group had all its members, they started to look for another name, and it was Dave Gahan who found it : Depeche Mode, inspired by the French fashion magazine that had the same name.

Though they decided to write a few songs and started looking for a record company. They were the first part in a concert of an artist called Fad Gadget and that was there that they were noticed by Daniel Miller, head of Mute Records.

So the first single came out quite quickly : "Dreaming of Me", that entered the charts and had success, quickly followed by "New Life" and finally what is still DM 's major hit : "Just can't get enough"
The album will gather all those singles and will be called "Speak and Spell" released also in 1981, followed by a successful tour

The band lost a member at that time: Vince Clarke who didn't wish to work anymore with Depeche Mode.

In 1982 Depeche Mode went on without Vince, who was the main writer at that time, but instead gave the work to Martin Gore. At that time was released the album: "A Broken Frame" and a new member: Alan Wilder.

In 1983 the band continued on working with new styles, started using samples in their songs, and developed a new style on their own that would lead to the album: "Construction Time Again".

In 1984 the band still went on with successful songs like "Master and Servant" and "People are People" all from the album: "Some Great reward"

In 1985, the group took a break with their first "best of" album gathering all their singles from 1981 to 1985 with the title:"Singles 81>85" or "Catching Up with Depeche Mode" in the US. You find an additional song in this album called: "Shake the disease".

In 1986 the band release what's for me their first great album that will show the Depeche sound : "Black Celebration" that gathers the following tracks : "Stripped", "A Question of time" and "A question of Lust". It's one of the darker and more personal and emblematic album of DM. It will also be the first time Anton Corbijn and DM work for a video together.

In 1987 is released the famous album: "Music for the Masses" that has the following songs: "Strangelove"(with "Pimpf" as a b-side), "Never let me down again" and "Behind the wheel".
This album will be followed by a massive tour around the world, that will be recorded on video for the famous:"101" that was also released as a live album with the same name.

In 1990 is released what is considered as the masterwork of the band : "Violator" that gathers the singles : "Personal Jesus" , "Policy of truth", the wonderful and magnificent "Enjoy the silence" and "World in my eyes" , that will be also followed by a gigantic tour around the world.

The group will be reunited only in 1993 for the release of "Songs of Faith and Devotion", adopting a more "rock electro" style and also a "grunge" look for Dave Gahan. With this album, you can find those singles: "I feel You", "Walking in my shoes", "Condemnation" and "In Your Room". This album was followed by what still is the biggest tour of the band that will tire them a lot. This tour will be also released on video titled "Devotional" and will have an audio live release of the tracks from SOFAD, in the same order as the studio album but with the live versions of songs called: SOFAD live

The following years will be very difficult for the band because: they will lose a member with the departure of Alan Wilder in 1995, and the suicide attempts by Gahan, who was a drug addict at that time.
Nobody really thought the band could come back (including me!) and though…

In 1997 the band releases the new Depeche Mode opus : ULTRA, a wonderful comeback with powerful songs like "Barrel of a gun", "It's no good", "Home", and "Useless". The band had the help of Tim Simenon as a producer for the recording of the album and the result was really amazing, even though Alan Wilder wasn't there anymore. The band also decided to not tour for promotion, in order to leave some time for Gahan to recover.

It doesn't mean the band is inactive as they are about to release what may be the following to "The Singles 81>85", surely called "Singles 86>97".

Dave Gahan                                                                                 

Martin Gore

Andy Fletcher

Alan Wilder

Vince Clarke