Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode began in Basildon as a bright synth-pop group, with Vince Clarke writing early hits like 'Just Can't Get Enough'. When Clarke left, Martin Gore took over the songwriting and the band grew darker, more sensual and more ambitious, with Alan Wilder helping work industrial clanks and samples into the sound on Construction Time Again and Some Great Reward, before the darker Black Celebration.

Music for the Masses took them into stadiums, and Violator, widely seen as their masterpiece, was built around 'Personal Jesus', with its bluesy guitar riff, and the brooding 'Enjoy the Silence', both sung in Dave Gahan's deep, dramatic baritone. They have kept recording ever since, most recently as a duo of Gahan and Gore on Memento Mori.