Today we’ll look back on a band and a certain moment in their musical history, often recalling things which many have forgotten (you can’t remember everything). We start with the pre-Depeche Mode song “Television Set”, which was never released officially.

The reason it never ended up on an official release was because it was originally written by fellow Basildon resident Jason Knott and not by Vince Clarke. Knott, who was also a member of The Neatelllls together with drummer Peter Hobbs, would sometimes rehearse with Clarke. And that’s when Vince got to hear the song, like dis and included it in the live set of Depeche Mode and on several demos. Kinda weird since he later on would refuse to have it released on an official Depeche Mode release. Back then the song was a fan favourite though, which probably pushed Clarke to shop around to labels with a demo including a track he hadn’t written in the first place.

Here’s a snippet of the song on Composition Of Sounds’ first demo tape. You can hear Vince Clarke singing the lead vocals (Dave Gahan had not joined the band yet).

Although it never ended up on any of the Depeche Mode releases via Mute it did end up on a pre-Depeche Mode demo by No Romance In China (a pre-Yazoo set-up featuring Vince Clarke and Sue Paget) and Composition Of Sound. The track would still be played live though, from the 1980 Tour through the 1982 See You Tour (even as their opening number for a while in 1981).

Here’s a live version live at the Croc’s Glamour Club in Rayleigh back in 1981.

The track, together with other non-released songs would in the end be recorded for an official release by the band Coming Back To You in 1998. On that album (which is available here) they also recorded “Addiction”, “Reason Man” and “Tomorrows Dance” next to versions of “I Like It” (Gerry & The Pacemakers) and “The Price Of Love” (Everly Brothers), covers that Depeche Mode would occasionally perform live.

Here’s their version of the track.

To find out more on this track, check this site.

For more on Depeche Mode, see Depeche Mode says NO to single-use plastics in Los Angeles on Side-Line.

About Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode formed in Basildon, Essex, England, in 1980, initially under the name Composition of Sound. The lineup that became Depeche Mode came together that year around Vince Clarke (keyboards, guitars), Andy Fletcher (keyboards, bass) and Martin Gore (guitars, keyboards), with Dave Gahan joining shortly after as lead vocalist. The band adopted the name Depeche Mode at a gig at the Bridge House in Canning Town on 24 September 1980, where Mute Records founder Daniel Miller saw them and signed the group.

Depeche Mode’s debut single, “Dreaming of Me,” was recorded in December 1980 and released on Mute in February 1981, followed that October by the debut album “Speak & Spell.” Vince Clarke left the band that November, going on to form Yazoo and later Erasure; Alan Wilder joined on keyboards in 1982 and became an official member from the 1983 single “Get the Balance Right!” The band’s catalog through the 1980s includes “A Broken Frame” (1982), “Construction Time Again” (1983), “Some Great Reward” (1984), “Black Celebration” (1986) and “Music for the Masses” (1987), the latter turning the band into arena headliners in the US off the back of their Rose Bowl concert, later documented in the film “101.”

“Violator” (1990) and “Songs of Faith and Devotion” (1993) marked the band’s commercial peak, but Wilder departed in June 1995, continuing his own project Recoil, leaving Gahan, Gore and Fletcher as a trio. The band released “Ultra” (1997), “Exciter” (2001), “Playing the Angel” (2005), “Sounds of the Universe” (2009), “Delta Machine” (2013) and “Spirit” (2017) as a three-piece, touring with long-serving live members Christian Eigner (drums, keyboards, since 1997) and Peter Gordeno (keyboards, bass, since 1998). Alongside the band, Gahan released solo albums “Paper Monsters” (2003) and “Hourglass” (2007), and Gore released “Counterfeit²” (2003).

Depeche Mode was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 7 November 2020. Andy Fletcher died on 26 May 2022, and Gahan and Gore continued as a duo, releasing “Memento Mori” in 2023 with Eigner and Gordeno again on the road. The band has sold more than 100 million records and placed 54 singles on the UK charts. “Television Set” predates the band’s 1980 formation and the arrival of Dave Gahan as lead vocalist.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

We have had our fair share of bad news in the past few years, also this year started with bad news, but this news will cause a shockwave in the electro pop music scene as Andy Fletcher, founding member of Depeche Mode, died this Thursday, May 26, at the age of 60. Fletcher leaves a wife and two children behind. No further details regarding the cause of death were given.

The news was confirmed on the band’s official profile on social media as you can see below. Our sincere condolences to the family.

Andy Fletcher, full name Andrew John Leonard Fletcher, was born on the 8th of July 1961. Often referred to as as Fletch, he 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 and 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. From then on, the core trio of Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher remained active, up to the release of their 2017 album “Spirit” and ensuing world tour.

The role of Fletcher in Depeche Mode

Fletcher’s role within Depeche Mode was often a topic of speculation. In early incarnations of the band, he played (electric and later synth) bass but as the band evolved after Vince Clarke’s departure in 1981, Fletcher’s role changed as each of the band members took to the areas that suited them and benefited the band collectively. He was the only member of the band who did not receive a songwriting credit.

Fletcher handled many of the band’s business, legal, and other non-musical interests over the years. In later years, this included acting as the band’s “spokesperson”, with Fletcher often being the one to announce Depeche Mode news (such as record album and tour details).It apparently was also Fletcher who helped settling the dispute between Gahan and Gore following 2001’s “Exciter” album and tour over future songwriting duties within Depeche Mode.

His own label, Toast Hawaii

In 2002, Fletcher launched his own record label, a Mute Records imprint called Toast Hawaii (named after the dish) and signed the band CLIEИT. He coordinated the recording of their eponymous 2003 debut and 2004’s “City”, while also producing “extended remixes” for their subsequent singles “Price of Love”, “Rock and Roll Machine”, “Here and Now”, “In It for the Money”, “Radio” and “Pornography”. CLIEИT left the label in 2006 and no further activity with Toast Hawaii was held or announced.

Initially to support CLIEИT’s live shows, Fletcher began touring as a DJ. Whenever he was on hiatus from Depeche Mode, Fletcher played occasional festivals and club gigs in Europe, Asia, South America and so on. The sets included various exclusive Depeche remixes. In late 2015, Fletcher embarked on a small tour of European clubs.

For more on Depeche Mode, see First reactions on death Andy Fletcher (Depeche Mode) from former… on Side-Line.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Despite having sold millions of albums over the years, only a small fraction of Depeche Mode fans seem to be aware that YouTube is literally filled with rare material from the band. We say a small fraction because many of the videos we show below ‘only’ have twenty to thirty thousand plays.

“Lie to me”, “Here is the house”, “Shake the disease”, “I Love You Love Me Love”, “Down in the boondocks” (said to be a demo that should have been on the “Counterfeit” album but never made the final cut), “Ice Machine”, “Radio News”, “Photographic”, “Let’s get together”, “Television set”, these are only a few of the many Depeche Mode (and Composition Of Sound) demos that are available via the Google owned video site, see also the videos below.

Interesting though is that many bands who have been covering these tracks often are inspired by the demos they have collected from Depeche Mode. Listen for instance to this Depeche Mode tribute or to this one.

The picture below is taken from the excellent “Depeche Mode : Monument – The English Edition

” book by Dennis Burmeister and Sascha Lange.

And here is a small selection of the demos you can find on YouTube.

For more on Depeche Mode, see Dave Gahan announces end of Depeche Mode on French TV channel Canal+ on Side-Line.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com