Andy Fletcher, Depeche Mode co-founder and keyboardist, dies at 60

Andy Fletcher, a founding member of multi-platinum new wave band Depeche Mode, has died. The keyboard player helped define the sound of 1980s and ’90s synth-pop and alternative rock through hits including “Just Can’t Get Enough,” “Personal Jesus,” “Enjoy the Silence” and “People Are People.” Fletcher’s death was announced by Depeche Mode in a Twitter post, which read, in part, “We are shocked and filled with overwhelming sadness with the untimely passing of our dear friend, family member, and bandmate Andy ‘Fletch’ Fletcher. Of his role in the group, which was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020, Fletcher humbly said, “Martin’s the songwriter, Alan’s the good musician, Dave’s the vocalist, and I bum around.” During a 2013 interview with online magazine Electronic Beats, Fletcher described himself as “the tall guy in the background, without whom this international corporation called Depeche Mode would never work.” More than a mere keyboardist in the band, Fletcher was an essential part of the studio team. Clarke left the band shortly after the release of its 1981 debut album “Speak & Spell” to form Yazoo with Alison Moyet, and Depeche Mode hired Wilder as a replacement. Along with Gahan and Gore, Fletcher remained with Depeche Mode across the decades as the band went platinum with albums including “Music for the Masses,” “Violator” and “Songs of Faith and Devotion,” no small feat considering band members’ very public battles with addiction and depression in the 1990s.