Vince Clarke

Vince Clarke biography

Vince Clarke (born 3 July 1960) is an English synthpop musician and songwriter. Clarke has been a member of a number of groups, including Depeche Mode, Yazoo, The Assembly and Erasure.

Born Vincent John Martin, in South Woodford, London (then in Essex) and raised in Basildon, Essex, he initially studied the violin and then the piano.

Depeche Mode

In the late-1970s, Clarke and schoolmate Andy Fletcher formed the short-lived band No Romance in China. In 1979, he teamed up with Marlow & Gore to form French Look, an early incarnation of Depeche Mode. Another band, named Composition of Sound, followed with another addition of Martin Gore and also, Fletcher. Clarke provided vocals until 1980, when singer Dave Gahan joined the band, which was now renamed Depeche Mode. At that time, Clarke adopted his stage-name. The band initially adopted a slick synthesised electropop sound, which produced the album Speak and Spell and the Clarke-penned singles "Dreaming of Me", "New Life" and "Just Can't Get Enough" in 1981.

Clarke left Depeche Mode shortly thereafter. There were many rumoured reasons pertaining to his departure. Clarke himself has stated that he did not enjoy the direction in which the band was going. He commented on Depeche Mode's later material as being a little dark for his taste, but good nonetheless. He also commented: "Martin was a strong writer. He always had been. And I think when I left, it gave him the chance just to sort of emerge as the songwriter. I mean, he could always write songs. It's not like he just started because I left". Clarke also stated that he didn't enjoy the public aspects of success, such as touring and interviews, and found himself frequently at odds with his bandmates, particularly on the tour bus. He also stated: "I think everybody in the band, especially myself, imagined that the reason we were doing so well was because of themselves"¦ We were pretty young and very lucky, and things had happened very quickly for us and I don't think we were really mature to handle the situation." Depeche Mode went on to achieve international stardom.

Yazoo

Clarke then teamed up with singer Alison Moyet (at the time known by the nickname of 'Alf') to form the popular synthpop band Yazoo (known as Yaz in the U.S.), which produced two albums and a string of hits including "Only You", "Don't Go", "Situation", "The Other Side of Love", "Nobody's Diary" and "Walk Away from Love".

Yazoo split in 1983, and Moyet went on to have a successful solo career. Yazoo reformed in 2008 for a series of live dates to celebrate 25 years since the duo's split.

In 1983 Clarke teamed up with Eric Radcliffe and it was their idea to collaborate as one-off associations with different artists on each new single, under the name The Assembly, notably with singer Feargal Sharkey they scored the TopĀ 5 hit "Never Never". In the meanwhile he founded the label Reset Records with Eric Radcliffe. During 1983 and further on in 1984, he produced four singles "The Face of Dorian Gray" "I Just Want to Dance", "Claudette" and "Calling All Destroyers" for his friend Robert Marlow, which were released on this label. They also produced an album, which was shelved but was released much later in 1999 under the name The Peter Pan Effect. In 1985, another collaboration took place with Paul Quinn of Bourgie Bourgie, the result was the single "One Day" by Vince Clarke & Paul Quinn. However, the project never took off, and Clarke moved on to other projects.

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