Andy Fletcher, Depeche Mode Co-Founder, Dies at 60

Andy Fletcher, one of the founding members of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Depeche Mode, has died. The “untimely passing” was announced over the band’s social accounts, with the group stating that they are “shocked and filled with overwhelming sadness” at their bandmate’s death. He was 60 years old.

Fletcher’s bandmates announced his death Thursday on social media; Rolling Stone has confirmed that the cause of death was natural causes. “We are shocked and filled with overwhelming sadness with the untimely passing of our dear friend, family member and bandmate Andy ‘Fletch’ Fletcher,” the band said in a statement.

Embed

Copy and paste this HTML code into your webpage to embed.

03:40

Fletcher was a member of Depeche Mode for over 40 years, from their official formation in 1980 and their 1981 debut album Speak and Spell up through their most recent LP, 2017’s Spirit. 

In 2020, Fletcher and his Depeche Mode bandmates — longtime members Dave Gahan and Martin Gore and former members Vince Clarke and Alan Wilder — were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for their pioneering role in the synth-pop, new wave and electronic music movements; the band has also played an influential role in heavy metal.

Fletcher, Gore, Gahan and original songwriter and keyboardist Vince Clarke formed Depeche Mode in Basildon, England in 1980, with Clarke leaving after the first album and being replaced by Wilder. The group quickly became one of the defining acts of the synth-pop era, with effervescent U.K. hits “Just Can’t Get Enough,” “See You” and “Dreaming of Me,” before taking a darker turn following Clarke’s departure and eventually conquering the American underground with harder-edged and more provocatively themed singles like “People Are People,” “Blasphemous Rumors” and “Strangelove.”

The group’s 1990 blockbuster Violator, and accompanying worldwide crossover smashes “Personal Jesus” and “Enjoy the Silence” (the latter the group’s lone Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit, peaking at No. 8), confirmed Depeche Mode as one of the biggest global acts of the pre-grunge alt-rock era.