1976–1980: Formation

Depeche Mode's origins can be traced back to 1976, when Vince Clarke and Andrew Fletcher formed a band known as "No Romance in China", with Vince on vocals/guitar and Andrew on bass. In 1978, Vince played guitar in an "Ultravox rip-off band", The Plan, with school friend Robert Marlow on vocals and Vince on guitar/keyboards. In 1978–79, Martin Gore played in an acoustic duo, Norman and The Worms, with school friend Philip Burdett (who now sings on the folk circuit) on vocals and Martin on guitar. In 1979, Robert, Martin, Vince and friend Paul Redmond formed a band called "The French Look", with Robert on vocals/keyboards, Martin on guitar, Vince and Paul on keyboards. In March 1980, Vince, Martin and Andrew formed a band called "Composition of Sound", with Vince on vocals/guitar, Martin on keyboards and Andrew on Bass. "The French Look" and "Composition of Sound" actually played live together in June 1980 at St. Nicholas School Youth Club in Southend on Sea, Essex. Soon after the formation of "Composition of Sound", Vince and Andrew switched to synthesizers, working odd jobs to buy them, or borrowing them from friends. David Gahan joined the band in 1980 after Vince heard him perform at a local scout-hut jam session, crooning to a rendition of David Bowie's 'Heroes'. "Depeche Mode" was born. The new name was taken from a French fashion magazine, "Dépêche mode", which translates to "Fashion Update" or "Fashion News Dispatch" (dépêche = dispatch) though it has commonly been mistranslated as "Fast Fashion", due to the confusion with the French verb "se dépêcher" ("to hurry up").

1981–1984: First releases

The band became part of Daniel Miller's Mute label by verbal contract, and released their first album, Speak and Spell, in 1981. While the band was promoting the album, Vince Clarke began to admit publicly his discomfort with the level of success that Depeche Mode was achieving; he felt they were becoming too popular after the success of their second major hit single "Just Can't Get Enough". Soon after, Vince Clarke left and went on to form several other bands including Yazoo (Yaz in the U.S.) with Alison Moyet, The Assembly with Eric Radcliffe, and later Erasure with Andy Bell. More than 20 years after, Depeche Mode still include the aforementioned "Just Can't Get Enough" in their live performances when touring, which has become kind of a humorous tip of the hat to their audience and a "flashback" break during their performances, given the much darker general tone that their compositions achieved in years to come compared to the rather bland, early naive synth-pop, this song stands for.

1985–1989: Growing success

This period is seen as the beginning of the band's long (and misinterpreted) association with Britain's Goth subculture that was gaining popularity in America. Interestingly, the music intelligentsia in Britain dismissed Depeche Mode throughout the 1980s as "fluffy synthesized teenybopper pop stars" because of the cheery and "cute" style of many of their early songs, such as "Just Can't Get Enough," despite the darker overtones that had begun to emerge in their music. At the same time, in Germany and other countries in continental Europe, Depeche Mode were considered major teen heartthrobs. But in America, where the band's music had first gained popularity on college radio and modern rock stations such as KROQ in Los Angeles, Depeche Mode's appeal was to a decidedly different, more cultish audience.

Middle history

1990–1994: Two hit albums

1995–2000: Continued success through turmoil

Depeche Mode in the 2000s

2001–2004: Exciter

2005–present: Playing the Angel and current events

On October 17, 2005, the band released their long awaited 11th studio album Playing the Angel and received very good reviews. Many fans felt this album was their true return to form after Wilder departed.

Live supporting musicians

• Peter Gordeno – keyboards, occasional electric bass and electric guitar (1998—)
• Christian Eigner – occasional songwriting, drums (1997—)
• Jordan Bailey – backing vocals (1998–2001)
• Hildia Campbell – backing vocals (1993–1994)
• Samantha Smith – backing vocals (1993–1994)
• Daryl Bamonte – keyboards (1994)
• Dave Clayton – keyboards (1997)
• Janet Ramus – backing vocals (1998)
• Georgia Lewis – backing vocals (2001)

Between 1998 and 2006, both Gordeno and Eigner were considered semi-official members of Depeche Mode by many fans as they were present on three consective tours, with Eigner ever-present on drums and contributing to some of the songwriting (albeit in a very minor capacity), and Gordeno almost ever-present on keyboard duties, filling Alan Wilder's role.