| Vince Clarke |
Vince
outside the Manchester Apollo, 2005
|
| Background
information |
| Birth name |
Vincent John Martin |
| Born |
July 03, 1960 (1960-07-03) (age 47) |
| Origin |
 Basildon, England |
| Genre(s) |
Synthpop, Dance
music |
| Occupation(s) |
Songwriter, Remixer, DJ, Musician |
| Instrument(s) |
Synthesiser |
| Years active |
1979 - present |
| Label(s) |
Mute Records |
Associated
acts |
Erasure, Yazoo,
Depeche Mode |
| Website |
Official
website |
| Notable instrument(s) |
| Roland
Synthesizers |
Vince Clarke (born Vincent John
Martin, South Woodford, London, England, July 3, 1960) is an English pop musician and
songwriter, who has been involved with a number of successful pop
groups, including Depeche Mode, Yazoo,
The
Assembly and Erasure.
Raised in Basildon, Clarke initially studied the violin and then
the piano.
In the late 1970s Clarke and schoolmate Andrew Fletcher
formed the short-lived band "No Romance in China". In 1979 he teamed up
with Fletcher to form "French Look", an early incarnation of Depeche
Mode which was later re-named "Composition of Sound",
following the addition of Martin Gore. Vince Clarke initially
handled vocals.
|
Contents
- 1 Depeche
Mode
- 2 Yazoo
- 3 The
Assembly
- 4 Erasure
- 5 Additional
work
- 6 External
links
|
Depeche Mode
In 1980 singer David Gahan was drafted in to
complete the line up and the band was re-named Depeche Mode. 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, but the
one that is most commonly said and that he's admitted to was because he
did not enjoy the direction that the band was going. In addition, in
later interviews (including the documentary on a remastered release of A
Broken Frame), it was 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. When asked about his departure from Depeche Mode in
the VH1 Behind the Music television series he said, “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.
Clarke has commented on Depeche Mode's post-Speak and
Spell material as being a little dark for his taste, but good
nonetheless. When asked about it, he said, "Martin was a strong writer.
He always had been. And I think when I left, it gave him 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".
Yazoo
Clarke then teamed up with singer Alison
Moyet (at the time known by the nickname of 'Alf') to form the synthpop band Yazoo
(known as Yaz in the U.S.), which produced two albums and a
string of hits including "Don't Go", "Situation" and "Only
You".
Yazoo split in 1983, and Moyet went on to have a solo career.
The Assembly
In the following few years Clarke teamed up with Eric
Radcliffe and their idea was to collaborate as one-off associations
with different artists on each new single, thus the name The
Assembly, notably with Feargal
Sharkey the hit "Never Never". Two years later, 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.
Erasure
In early-1985
Clarke put an ad in Melody Maker
for a singer, and the forty-first applicant was Andy Bell, who was a
fan of his earlier projects. He teamed with Bell to form the group Erasure,
and the duo became a big selling act in British pop music with
international hits like "Oh L'amour", "Sometimes", "Chains of Love" and "A
Little Respect".
The band has released fifteen albums to date and have enjoyed
a long string of hit singles spanning their twenty-one years together,
most recently topped off by the 2005 top five hit "Breathe" taken from their Nightbird
album. In 2006 Erasure produced a country-western style acoustic album
consisting of mostly non-single cuts from their previous albums. This
album, Union Street
was preceded by the single "Boy" originally included on their
1997 Cowboy
album.
On January
26, 2007, in
a video message on the official Erasure website [1] the band announced the release
of their sixteenth (thirteenth studio) album, entitled Light at the End of
the World. Scheduled to be released in the U.K.
on May
21, 2007, with a U.S. release the following day, it was preceded by the
single "I Could Fall in Love
with You", released on April 2, 2007.
The album was produced by Gareth Jones and is
expected to be a more 'dance oriented' effort than some of their more
recent work with Clarke making reference to the new material sounding
potentially a bit more like Andy Bell's 2005 solo effort Electric
Blue.
Additional work
Clarke teamed with synthpop producer Martyn
Ware (of Heaven 17) in 1999 as "The
Clarke & Ware Experiment" and released the album Pretentious.
The duo collaborated again in 2001 for the album Spectrum
Pursuit Vehicle, which was created with "3D music technology"
specifically designed for listening in headphones. 2001 also saw the
release of the Clarke-produced album Erasure's Vince Clarke
which featured The Peter Pan Effect,
an album that he and Eric Radcliffe produced for his long
time friend, Robert Marlow. Clarke wrote
"Let's Get Together" for the pop girl group Girl
Authority for their second album, Road
Trip. The song was meant to be for Depeche
Mode, but was canceled out.
Clarke currently lives in Maine with his wife Tracy, whom he married in
May 2004. They have one child, a son named Oscar, born on September
8, 2005.
External links
| v • d • e Erasure |
| Vince Clarke
| Andy Bell |
| Erasure
discography | B-sides
and non-album songs |
Albums/EPs: Wonderland
| The Circus
| The Innocents
| Crackers International
Wild!
| Chorus
| Abba-esque
| I Say I Say I Say
| Erasure | Cowboy
| Loveboat
| Other People's Songs
| Nightbird
| Union Street
| Light at the End of
the World
Compilations: The
Two Ring Circus | Pop! - the First 20 Hits
| Hits!
The Very Best of Erasure
Live album: Acoustic
Live
Box Sets: EBX 1
| EBX 2 | EBX 3
| EBX 4
Singles: Who Needs Love Like That | Heavenly
Action | Oh
L'amour | Sometimes | It
Doesn't Have To Be | Victim of Love | The
Circus | Ship of Fools | Chains of Love | A
Little Respect | Stop! | Drama! | You
Surround Me | Blue Savannah | Star
| Chorus | Love
to Hate You | Am I Right? | Breath
of Life | Take
a Chance on Me | Who Needs Love Like That
(remix) | Always | Run
to the Sun | I Love Saturday | Stay
With Me | Fingers
& Thumbs (Cold Summer's Day) | Rock
Me Gently | In My Arms | Don't Say Your
Love Is Killing Me | Rain | Freedom | Moon
& the Sky | Solsbury Hill | Make Me Smile
(Come Up and See Me) | Oh L'amour (remix) | Breathe | Don't
Say You Love Me | Here I Go Impossible
Again | All This
Time Still Falling Out of Love | Boy
| I Could Fall in Love
with You | Sunday Girl | When a Lover Leaves You
Video/DVD: Sanctuary
- the EIS Christmas Concert 2002 | Hits!
the Videos | The
Tank, the Swan and the Balloon | Great
Hits Live - Live at Great Woods | The Erasure Show
- Live in Cologne | On the
Road to Nashville
|
| v • d • e Depeche Mode |
David Gahan | Martin
Gore | Andrew Fletcher
Vince Clarke
| Alan
Wilder |
| Discography |
|
Studio albums: Speak
& Spell | A
Broken Frame | Construction Time Again
| Some Great Reward
| Black Celebration
| Music for the Masses
| Violator | Songs of Faith and
Devotion | Ultra
| Exciter | Playing
the Angel
Compilations: People Are People
| The Singles 81>85
| Catching Up with
Depeche Mode | The
Singles 86>98 | Remixes
81 - 04 | The
Best Of, Volume 1 | The Complete Depeche Mode
Live albums: 101
| Songs of Faith and
Devotion Live | Recording
the Angel
Tribute albums: For
the Masses | A Techno Tribute to
Depeche Mode | Color Theory
presents Depeche Mode
Singles: "Dreaming
of Me" | "New
Life" | "Just Can't Get Enough" | "See You" | "The
Meaning of Love" | "Leave in Silence" | "Get
the Balance Right" | "Everything Counts" | "Love,
in Itself" | "People Are People" | "Master
and Servant" | "Blasphemous Rumours"
/ "Somebody" | "Shake
the Disease" | "It's Called a Heart" | "Stripped"
/ "But Not Tonight" | "A Question of Lust" | "A
Question of Time" | "Strangelove" | "Never Let Me Down Again" | "Behind
the Wheel" | "Little
15" | "Everything Counts (Live)"
| "Personal
Jesus" | "Enjoy the Silence" | "Policy
of Truth" | "World in My Eyes" | "I Feel
You" | "Walking in My Shoes" | "Condemnation"
| "In
Your Room" | "Barrel
of a Gun" | "It's No Good" | "Home" | "Useless"
| "Only When I Lose Myself" | "Dream On" | "I Feel
Loved" | "Freelove"
| "Goodnight Lovers" | "Enjoy
the Silence 04" | "Precious" | "A Pain That I'm Used To" | "Suffer
Well" | "John the Revelator" / "Lilian" | "Martyr"
|
| Videography |
|
The World
We Live In and Live in Hamburg | Some
Great Videos | Strange
| 101 | Strange
Too | Devotional
| The Videos 86>98
| One Night in Paris
| Touring the Angel:
Live in Milan
|
| Related
articles |
| Synthpop
| Depeche Mode Tours | Mute
Records | Paper Monsters
| Counterfeit e.p.
| Counterfeit² | Toast Hawaii | Recoil
| Mute Records discography |
