Who was Andy Fletcher? Depeche Mode's keyboardist passes away at 60

Andrew Fletcher, a founding member of the British electronic band Depeche Mode, passed away at the age of 60, the band confirmed on social media.

The band broke the news on social media by posting a message to remember the man who had been their friend and member for many years.

“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, formed in Basildon in the late 1970s, has had 17 UK Top 10 albums and international chart success with songs such as Enjoy The Silence, Personal Jesus, and Just Can’t Get Enough.

The cause of his death is unknown, as neither the band nor the musician’s social media accounts have disclosed it.

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What is known about Andy Fletcher? Exploring his legacy

Andrew Fletcher was born in Nottingham in 1961 and relocated to Basildon in the late 1970s when he created the band Composition Of Sound with Martin Gore and Vince Clarke. They changed their name to Depeche Mode after hiring singer Dave Gahan, and the group went on to have a string of early 1980s chart smashes.

With the departure of Clarke, who went on to establish Yazoo and later Erasure, Gore took over as principal songwriter, and the band’s music took a darker, more gothic turn with the inclusion of Alan Wilder.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, they experienced tremendous international success.

Andrew Fletcher is survived by his wife, Grainne, and two children, Megan and Joe, to whom he was married for almost 30 years.

Andrew Fletcher appeared on every studio album by Depeche Mode, including Songs Of Faith And Devotion in 1993 and Ultra in 1997, both of which charted at No. 1 in the UK.

Fans widely viewed Fletcher as the band’s managing figure in later years, looking after the business side of a group credited with selling more than 100 million records worldwide despite not being the vocalist or significant songwriter.

Depeche Mode has been a staple on the UK charts throughout 1980s, with 14 studio albums and 55 singles, and breaking through in the United States by 1985.

Fletcher ran Gascogne, a restaurant on Blenheim Terrace in St. John’s Wood, London, in the 1990s.

In the mid-1990s, Andrew Fletcher made a series of bad investments, which resulted in several financial settlements involving Lloyd’s of London and Daniel Miller.

Fletcher, keyboardist, singer Vince Clarke, singer Dave Gahan, and guitarist-keyboardist Martin Gore created Depeche Mode in 1980 in Basildon, England, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020. Clarke quit the band shortly after its debut album, Speak & Spell, was released in 1981.

From 1984 to 2017, Depeche Mode had 14 gold and platinum albums, led by Violator (1990), which sold 3 million copies, and Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993), the band’s only US chart-topper.