Vince Clarke
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Vincent Clarke (b. [[3 July], born as Vincent Martin 1960 - South Woodford, Essex, England) is an English pop musician and songwriter, who has been involved with a number of successful pop groups, including Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and Erasure.
Clarke was born on July 3, 1960, in South Woodford, Essex and raised in nearby Basildon. He initially studied the violin and then the piano.
In the late 1970s Clarke and a schoolmate formed the short-lived band No Romance in China. In 1979 he teamed up with Martin Gore to form "French Look" which was later re-named "Composition of Sound". Vince Clarke initially handled vocals. In 1980 singer David Gahan was drafted in to complete the line up and the band was re-named Depeche Mode.
Depeche Mode initially adopted a slick synthesised electropop sound, which produced the hit album Speak and Spell and the hit single "Just Can't Get Enough" in 1981. Depeche Mode went on to achieve international stardom.
Clarke left Depeche Mode soon after the release of the first album. He then teamed up with singer Alison Moyet to form the electropop band Yazoo, which had a number of hits.
Yazoo split in 1983, and Alison Moyet went on to have a successful solo career. In the following few years Clarke had one-off associations with several artists, notably with Paul Quinn and the single One Day, and Feargal Sharkey as The Assembly and the minor hit Never Never.
In 1985 he put an ad in the Melody Maker for a singer, and the 41st of applicant was Andy Bell, with whom he teamed to form the group Erasure, among the biggest selling acts in British history.da:Vince Clarke fr:Vince Clarke pl:Vince Clarke sv:Vince Clarke