Why did Vince Clarke leave Depeche Mode?

18 March 2025, 12:36 | Updated: 18 March 2025, 12:56

At the end of 1981, lead songwriter Vince Clarke quit the Basildon synth-pop band as they were poised for international success. Radio X digs into the story behind one of the biggest alternative groups of the 80s.

On 3rd December 1981, Depeche Mode, then enjoying chart success with their classic synth pop tune Just Can't Get Enough, played a special gig for TVS, the commercial TV station in the south of England.

Part of the station's series of live gigs Off The Record, the band appeared onstage at the Chichester Festival Theatre alongside "punk poet" John Cooper Clarke. The show, as broadcast, was short but sweet, showcasing the band's debut album Speak And Spell, and including their chart hits New Life and the aforementioned Just Can't Get Enough.

Depeche Mode - 1981 Tour: The Last Concert with Vince Clarke

However, at the time of the show, nobody realised this would be chief songwriter Vince Clarke's final show as a member of Depeche Mode. Over the weekend of 12th December, the music press announced that Clarke had left the band. "His shock decision comes at the end of the group's most successful year," reported the Record Mirror, "with a sell-out tour under their belts."

The paper gave Clarke's reasons for leaving as "he wants to concentrate on being simply a songwriter, rather than go on the road or take part in Depeche Mode's other activities. However, the band will still use his songs and he will not be replaced."

In the event, things didn't quite work out that way...

Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough (Remastered)

Vince Clarke was only 20 when he formed Composition Of Sound with his schoolmate Andrew "Fletch" Fletcher. When they were joined by singer Dave Gahan and keyboard player Martin Gore, they renamed themselves Depeche Mode after a French fashion magazine. Adopting an all-synthesiser and vocals line-up, Clarke became the main songwriter, penning Depeche's debut single Dreaming Of Me, which was released on 20th February 1981.

Vince was behind nine of the eleven tracks on Depeche Mode's debut album Speak And Spell, which broke the UK Top 10 and spawned the hits New Life (Number 11 in August 1981) and Just Can't Get Enough (Number 8 that October).

In the immediate aftermath of the split, it was revealed in the music press that Clarke was "wanting more control" and found that the runaway success of Depeche Mode was all getting too much.

"I never expected the band to be this successful," he told Smash Hits in January 1982, as Depeche were set to release their first post-Clarke single, See You. "I didn't feel happy. Or contented. Or fulfilled. And that's why I left."

He went onto explain that the trappings of pop stardom has become too much of a distraction, adding: "All the things that come with success had suddenly become more important than the music. We used to get letters from fans saying, 'I really like your songs'. Then we got letters saying: 'Where do you buy your trousers from?' Where do you go from there? There was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions."

Despite the rest of the band saying "There's a bit of a block between us... It's a him and us situation", in the same feature Martin Gore said of Clarke: "He's a genius but he doesn't know it".

However, in retrospect, both sides claimed in later years that the real reasons behind Clarke's departure were a little more vague.

In 1990, as Depeche Mode released their huge hit album Violator, Dave Gahan told Melody Maker he doubted Clarke's stated reason for leaving the band was a desire to stop touring. "That’s what he said, but I think that’s a lot of bullshit, to be quite honest.

The singer went on: "I think he’d just taken it as far as he could. We were very successful. We were in every pop magazine. We were on the TV shows. Everything was going right for Depeche Mode. Everybody wanted to know about Depeche Mode. I think Vince suddenly lost interest in it."

In 2023, over four decades since the event, Clarke himself couldn't shed any further light on his reasons for jumping ship.

In an interview with Electronic Sound magazine, Clarke admitted: “The truth is, I really don’t remember. I honestly think it all happened so quickly for us, and there were lots of egos flying around – mostly mine. I was a control freak, for sure. When I decided to leave, it wasn’t like I was thinking, ‘I’m going to go on and do something else’. I just didn’t want to do this anymore. I assumed I’d go back to working for British Rail again, forever.”

He added, however, that he made the right decision for the time. “You’ve got to move on,” he said. “I’m sure I’ve said some horrible things to people before and made terrible decisions, but I’m not really dwelling on those. No regrets.”

Yazoo - Only You (Official Music Video)

In 2023, over four decades since the event, Clarke himself couldn't shed any further light on his reasons for jumping ship.

“The truth is, I really don’t remember. I honestly think it all happened so quickly for us, and there were lots of egos flying around – mostly mine. I was a control freak, for sure. When I decided to leave, it wasn’t like I was thinking, ‘I’m going to go on and do something else’. I just didn’t want to do this anymore. I assumed I’d go back to working for British Rail again, forever.”

He added, however, that he made the right decision for the time. “You’ve got to move on,” he said. “I’m sure I’ve said some horrible things to people before and made terrible decisions, but I’m not really dwelling on those. No regrets.”

Indeed, Vince Clarke didn't look back. He immediately set about working on new material - which some accounts say had been originally penned with Depeche Mode in mind. Instead he began working with a fellow resident of his hometown Basildon, one Alison Moyet, also known as "Alf".

"I had no expectations whatsoever,” he recalled. “I wanted to make music, for sure, and I started writing new songs. I had this one song, Only You. I’d heard Alison sing in a punk band called The Vandals, which my best friend was a member of, so I just approached her. We met in person and she sang the demo, which I’d written on a little 4-track Portastudio."

Daniel Miller, who ran Depeche Mode's label Mute, was impressed by the song and agreed to release the single, which duly climbed to Number 2 in the UK charts in May 1982. However, Clarke's ambition for Yazoo - as the duo named themselves - was for that single alone. Miller persuaded the pair to record an album, Upstairs At Eric's, but by the time of its follow-up, You And Me Both, Clarke and Moyet's relationship had become too fractious and split shortly afterwards.

After a one-off single with Undertones frontman Feargal Sharkey under the name The Assembly in 1983, Vince Clarke found his ideal vehicle with Erasure. A synth-pop duo with vocalist Andy Bell, the band went on to achieve four UK Number 1 albums between 1988 and 1994.

As for Depeche Mode, they bounced back immediately. As Dave Gahan recalled" ""Martin [Gore] had written a couple of songs and we went into the studio and recorded See You, which was our biggest hit so far. So that was it. Bye, Vince."

See You peaked at Number 6, the first of twelve Top 10 hits for Depeche Mode, who went on to sell an estimated 100 million albums worldwide.

Depeche Mode - See You (Official Video)