It’s been a desperately sad few months in the world of music and culture, with the untimely passing of Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins now being followed by the deaths – announced on the same day – of two legends in their fields, Goodfellas star Ray Liotta and Depeche Mode keyboardist Andy ‘Fletch’ Fletcher (on the left in pic).

Depeche Mode revealed the passing of the 60-year-old Fletcher in a short, dignified tweet, which didn’t state the cause of death. “Fletch had a true heart of gold,” they wrote, “and was always there when you needed support, a lively conversation, a good laugh or a cold pint.”

With Fletcher’s death, we have lost one of the charter members of an electronic groups that ranks among the most successful of all time, and whose revered status was reflected in their induction into the Rock & Roll of Fame in 2020. It is estimated that Depeche Mode have sold in excess of 100 million albums.

The unlikely setting for the original meeting of the electronica Lennon & McCartney was Fletch’s local youth group in Basildon – a town in the county of Essex, in the South-East of England – where he first encountered his future Depeche Mode bandmate Vince Clarke.

Just a year ago, as we were driving through the Essex countryside en route to a rock ’n’ roll festival, I found myself giving a potted history of the area’s rich contribution to music history to a friend. Blur, The Prodigy, Depeche Mode – they certainly like their futurist take on pop in that part of the world.

Depeche announced their arrival in 1981 with their debut LP Speak & Spell – incidentally an all-time favourite of Blur’s Graham Coxon – and they would spend the next few years surfing the then-fashionable New Romantic wave, with their sharp cheekbones and stylish look making them instant teen pin-ups. All of the tracks on Speak & Spell were written by Vince Clarke, and in particular, he showed himself to be a conspicuously great songwriter with the enduring synth-pop classic ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’, these days an unofficial anthem of Celtic FC in Scotland.

Losing a songwriter of Clarke’s calibre – owing to the classic creative differences – was a blow many bands wouldn’t have survived, but remarkably, Depeche continued without missing a beat, with guitarist Martin Gore effortlessly slipping into the songwriting hot-seat. If early Depeche Mode fitted neatly alongside pop idols Duran Duran, by the late ’80s, they were mining territory that was both far darker, and much closer to The Cure and Joy Division.

Gore’s beautifully bleak vision was fully realised in the US breakthrough albums, Black Celebration and Music For The Masses. As with The Cure, Depeche Mode had, by this point, become unlikely, stadium-filling heroes Stateside, with their all-conquering success memorably captured in DA Pennebaker’s tour film 101.

By the time 1990’s Violator and ’93’s Songs Of Faith And Devotion – the latter a US number one – rolled around, frontman Dave Gahan was starting to take his Byronic, dark prince stage persona decidedly too seriously; his chronic heroin addiction infamously resulted in an LA overdose that left him clinically dead for a couple of minutes.

It was a time of drastic upheaval for the band, with another hugely gifted founding member, Alan Wilder, departing in 1995. Throughout it all, Andrew Fletcher was credited as being an unflappable steady hand, resolving band disputes and even stepping in to take care of business arrangements.

Having bounced back with a menacing, new, Nine Inch Inch Nails-influenced sound on 1997’s Ultra, Depeche Mode would go on to become beloved elder statesmen of electronica, their impact and influence being felt everywhere from arena-rock bands, to synth-pop, to uber-hip techno producers. A fearsome live prospect, they did many live dates in Ireland over the years, including a couple of memorable shows I caught in 3Arena (then still The Point) in 2006; and again at what, for a period, was called The O2, in 2013.

Upon interviewing Dave Gahan last year, I had occasion to revisit the legendary video for their 1990 classic ‘Enjoy The Silence’. Based around Anton Corbijn’s unforgettable imagery of Gahan traipsing through a variety of grand landscapes in king’s regalia, I was struck again by what an immortal pop culture moment it was: a stunning paean to the joys and solace of solitude.

It was once again made me understand what DJ Shadow meant when he said Depeche taught him to appreciate the “spiritual” quality of the best electronic music. It’s one of Depeche Mode’s incredible achievements, of which bass player and founding member – and chess maestro – Andy Fletcher was a fundamental part.

Lol Tolhurst, founding member of The Cure, paid tribute to the Depeche Mode bass man. “I knew Andy,” he said, "and considered him a friend. We crossed many of the same pathways as younger men. My heart goes out to his family, bandmates, and DM fans.”

Andy is an immense loss to us all. RIP.