Andrew Fletcher, a founding member of the British electronic band Depeche Mode, died at the age of 60, according to the band’s social media accounts. The band announced the news on social media with a message to commemorate the guy who had been a friend and member for many years.
“We are horrified and saddened by the sudden death of our beloved friend, family member, and bandmate Andy ‘Fletch’ Fletcher.”
Depeche Mode’s Andrew Fletcher dies aged 60 | Music | The Guardian. —-They wrote the songs of my lifetime. The first single I ever bought and 45 concerts later. I so hope this is not the end of the road. Such a sad day 😢 #DepecheMode https://t.co/uAqD2GNzqG
— Jason Fage (@jfagej) May 26, 2022
The band, which was established in Basildon in the late 1970s, has 17 UK Top 10 albums and worldwide chart success with songs including Enjoy The Silence, Personal Jesus, and Just Can’t Get Enough. The reason for his death is unclear since neither the band nor the musician’s social media profiles have made it public.
All about Andy Fletcher
Andrew Fletcher was born in Nottingham in 1961 and moved to Basildon in the late 1970s alongside Martin Gore and Vince Clarke to form the band Composition Of Sound. After adding vocalist Dave Gahan, they changed their name to Depeche Mode and went on to score a series of early 1980s chart blockbusters. After Clarke left to form Yazoo and eventually Erasure, Gore took over as primary songwriter, and the band’s music took a darker, more gothic tone with the addition of Alan Wilder.
They had significant worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Andrew Fletcher leaves behind his wife, Grainne, and two children, Megan and Joe, to whom he was married for over 30 years. Andrew Fletcher featured on every Depeche Mode studio album, including Songs Of Faith And Devotion in 1993 and Ultra in 1997, both of which debuted at No. 1 in the United Kingdom.
In subsequent years, fans largely regarded Fletcher as the band’s management figure, overseeing the financial aspect of a group credited with selling more than 100 million albums worldwide despite not being the singer or key composer. Depeche Mode was a UK chart regular throughout the 1980s, with 14 studio albums and 55 singles, and broke through in the US by 1985. In the 1990s, Fletcher operated Gascogne, a restaurant on Blenheim Terrace in St. John’s Wood, London.
Andrew Fletcher’s Disastrous Investments
Andrew Fletcher made a series of disastrous investments in the mid-1990s, which resulted in multiple financial settlements involving Lloyd’s of London and Daniel Miller. Depeche Mode was formed in 1980 in Basildon, England, by Fletcher, keyboardist and vocalist Vince Clarke, singer Dave Gahan, and guitarist-keyboardist Martin Gore, and they will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020. Clarke left the band soon after the release of its first album, Speak & Spell, in 1981. Depeche Mode had 14 gold and platinum albums between 1984 and 2017, headlined by Violator (1990), which sold 3 million copies, and Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993), the band’s lone US chart-topper.
