Andy Fletcher, a keyboardist and DJ who was a founding member for the band Depeche Mode, has passed away at the age of 60. The news of Fletcher’s death was broken on Thursday by a statement through the band’s official Twitter account, with the band revealing that they are “shocked and filled with overwhelming sadness with the untimely death.” A cause of death for Fletcher, whose nickname in the band was “Fletch’, has not been revealed at this time. Born on July 8, 1961 in Nottingham, England, Fletcher met future Depeche Mode co-founder Vince Clarke while attending the local Boys’ Brigade.
Fletcher first got into the musical world by co-founding the band No Romance in China, in which he played bass guitar. In 1980, he helped form Depeche Mode with Clarke, Dave Gahan, and Martin Gore. While Clarke parted ways with the band shortly after the release of their debut album, Speak & Spell, Fletcher, Gore, and Gahan remained a key part of the band for decades.
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Fletcher remained somewhat of an enigma across the history of Depeche Mode, with him being the only member of the band to not receive a songwriting credit, and Fletcher even joking in the 1989 documentary 101 that he “[bums] around” while his fellow bandmates create the music. In addition to playing the keyboard in the studio and on live shows, Fletcher did often serve as the band’s de facto spokesperson and business manager, and contributed vocals to a small number of the band’s tracks.
“[I’m] the tall guy in the background, without whom this international corporation called Depeche Mode would never work,” Fletcher said in a 2009 interview with Electronic Beats. “There is this big misunderstanding that in guitar bands real men are working real instruments – evening after evening – while in a synthesizer band like Depeche Mode nobody works, because it’s all machines. But that’s bullshit. … Apart from the singer, the audience doesn’t really know which role which musician has within the group. But bands like Kraftwerk or Depeche Mode actually work as divisions of labor collectives. The contribution of each individual remains invisible. And because I don’t push myself to the fore, many mistake me for the fifth wheel.”
Outside of Depeche Mode, Fletcher launched his own record label, Toast Hawaii, and also operated as a DJ, playing festivals throughout the world. As part of Depeche Mode, Fletcher was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in late 2020.
Our thoughts are with Fletcher’s family, friends, and fans at this time.
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