Vince Clarke (born Vincent John Martin, 3 July 1960, South Woodford, London) is an English pop musician and songwriter, who has been involved with a number of successful groups, including Depeche Mode, Yazoo, The Assembly and Erasure.
Raised in Basildon, Essex, Clarke initially studied the violin and then the piano.
In the late 1970s, Clarke and schoolmate Andrew Fletcher formed the short-lived band No Romance in China. In 1979, he teamed up with...
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Vince Clarke (born Vincent John Martin, 3 July 1960, South Woodford, London) is an English pop musician and songwriter, who has been involved with a number of successful groups, including Depeche Mode, Yazoo, The Assembly and Erasure.
Raised in Basildon, Essex, Clarke initially studied the violin and then the piano.
In the late 1970s, Clarke and schoolmate Andrew Fletcher formed the short-lived band No Romance in China. In 1979, he teamed up with Fletcher to form French Look, an early incarnation of Depeche Mode that was later re-named Composition of Sound, following the addition of Martin Gore. Clarke initially handled vocals.
In 1980, singer David Gahan was drafted in to complete the line up and the band was re-named Depeche Mode. The band initially adopted a slick synthesised electropop sound, which produced the album Speak and Spell and the Clarke-penned singles "Dreaming of Me", "New Life" and "Just Can't Get Enough" in 1981. Clarke left Depeche Mode shortly thereafter. There...
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