Life in The Balance

EARLY FM BROADCAST FROM BASILDON S FINEST Formed in 1980 in deepest Essex - one of London s home counties - Depeche Mode was originally made up of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher and - for a short while - Vince Clarke. The group released their first album Speak & Spell in 1981, which took them onto the British charts and the upcoming New Romantic scene. Clarke left after the release of their debut, so they recorded its follow up, A Broken Frame, as a trio. Gore took over as main songwriter and, later in 1982, Alan Wilder replaced Clarke, establishing a line-up that continued for 13 years. For their third album, Construction Time Again, Depeche worked with producer Gareth Jones at John Foxx s Garden Studios, and at Hansa Studios in West Berlin (where David Bowie s trilogy of seminal electronic albums featuring Brian Eno had been produced).