Depeche Mode take their baby steps

February 1981: Number 24 in our series of the 50 key events in the history of indie musicGawky synth-lovers not long out of school, Essex's Depeche Mode didn't seem much like potential megastars when they agreed to record their first single, Dreaming of Me, for Mute. Even their initial chart success seemed lightweight. But after Vince Clarke left to form Yazoo and, later, Erasure, his old bandmates gradually proceeded to blow synthpop's horizons wide open. By the close of the decade, they were f...

Read full article Share article