Today it was officialy announced by the members of Depeche Mode that Andy Fletcher passed away, aged 60.
Andrew John Leonard Fletcher (8 July 1961 – 26 May 2022), sometimes known as Fletch, was an English keyboard player, DJ and a founding member of the electronic band Depeche Mode.
In 2020, Fletcher was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Depeche Mode.
In the late 1970s, Fletcher and schoolmate Vince Clarke formed the short-lived band No Romance in China, in which Fletcher played bass guitar.
In 1980, Fletcher met Martin Gore at the Van Gogh pub on Paycocke Road in Basildon.
With Clarke, the trio, now all on synthesizer, formed another group called Composition of Sound. Clarke served as chief songwriter and also provided lead vocals until singer Dave Gahan was recruited into the band later that year, after which they adopted the name Depeche Mode at Gahan’s suggestion.
Clarke left the group in late 1981, shortly after the release of their debut album Speak & Spell.
Their 1982 follow-up album, A Broken Frame, was recorded as a trio, with Gore taking over primary songwriting duties.
Musician and producer Alan Wilder joined the band in late 1982 and the group continued as a quartet until Wilder’s departure in 1995.
Since then, the core trio of Gahan, Gore and Fletcher have remained active, most recently with the release of their 2017 album Spirit and ensuing world tour.
During the 1990s, Fletcher owned a restaurant called Gascogne located on Blenheim Terrace in St. John’s Wood, London.
He made a series of bad investments in the mid-1990s that led to a number of financial settlements involving Lloyd’s of London and Daniel Miller.
According to The Independent, “Fletcher’s deepening depression resulted, in the summer of 1994, in a full nervous breakdown.”
In April 2022, Fletcher fractured his wrist while on holiday to Barcelona.