Andy Fletcher, keyboardist and soul of Depeche Mode, has died this Thursday at the age of 60, as announced by the British band in a statement expressing its regret for "the premature death of our dear friend, family member and member of the band".
"Fletch had a true heart of gold and was always there when you needed support, a lively conversation, a good laugh or a cold pint," said the band, known for 1980s hits like Just Can't Get Enough and Personal Jesus. which led them to sell more than 100 million records during a career in which they released 14 records, the last one in 2017.
Born in Nottingham in 1961, he soon moved to Essex, where at the age of 15 he met Vince Clark, a keyboard player like himself and a future member of the band, with whom he founded the group No Romance in China. The experience was short-lived, but the contact was maintained and, four years later, they formed Depeche Mode together with fellow keyboardist Martin Gore and vocalist David Graham.
A year later, and after gaining experience with performances in venues in their city, the quartet released their first single, Dreaming on me. A small big step that would be overcome very soon with the publication, the same year, of the catchy Just can't get enough. This anthem of the eighties elevated the band on the sales charts, making it a benchmark for electronic music ever since.
“The beauty of using electronics is that you can now make music in your bedroom,” Fletcher told Rolling Stone magazine in 1990. “You don't need to get four people together in a warehouse to practice. You don't have to have four great musicians fighting each other. You can do it in your bedroom, and it all depends on the ideas.”
In 1981 the band released their first album, Sepak
By not singing or writing songs, Fletcher became the most discreet member of the band, being considered by his fans as the "manager" responsible for the commercial aspects. In 2013 he told an interviewer that he was "the tall guy in the background, without whom this international corporation called Depeche Mode would never work", according to The Guardian.
Ironies aside, Fletcher, who participated in all 14 of the band's albums, considered that he brought "the pop element" to the band, as a counterweight to the bluesy and jazz influences of Gore and Graham, as he explained in an interview in 2009: " I, however, will probably remain eternally loyal to simple pop melodies and the lightness they represent."
