01 NOVEMBER 2013 After 27 years, Belfast's Depeche Mode fans had probably given up hope of seeing their heroes perform live in the city again. But, nearly three decades since they played Maysfield Leisure Centre on their 1986 tour, the kings of electronic music return for a show at the Odyssey Arena next week.And co-founding keyboardist Andrew Fletcher – known to all as 'Fletch' – is upfront about the reason for their protracted absence. "We've become a worldwide band," he shrugs. "We have lots of other countries to play. Our British tour isn't as extensive as it used to be, when we were only pretty much known in Britain. Now, we're popular everywhere, and our tours have to encompass every country in the world. "We've been plodding over to Dublin occasionally, but have never made it up to Belfast like we used to in the old days." It's a reasonable enough response for an act of the stature of Depeche Mode, but what makes the situation a little surprising is that Fletch's wife of 22 years, Gráinne Mullan, with whom he has two children, hails from Northern Ireland, and the man himself is a regular visitor. "I've been many times," he reveals. "Thirty, forty times. My wife's family still live there, so I've been going to visit for 33 years." Still, one suspects Fletch doesn't dictate where and when Depeche Mode tour. The 52-year-old's role within the band's line-up has long been a subject of speculation. Although he handled bass in the first incarnation of the group, and continues to be credited for synthesisers and backing vocals, he is widely regarded as acting primarily as a mediator between the more volatile characters of frontman Dave Gahan and multi-instrumentalist and chief songwriter, Martin Gore. However, the idea that Depeche Mode are a dysfunctional family has been consistently shot down over the years. "That's never really come from us," Fletch bristles. "We've been going for a long time, we're still very successful, and we're very lucky we come from the same town (Basildon, in Essex) and the same working-class background. We still love each other; we just have different circumstances now. Dave and Martin married Americans and moved to America. But I don't really think that's dysfunctional in the modern-day world." As well as the Maysfield gig, Depeche Mode played Belfast in 1983 and '84, both times at the Ulster Hall. Founding member and primary creative force Vince Clarke had not long left, and their sound was considerably less edgy. But in the ensuing years, Depeche Mode became an intense, industrial-influenced outfit, as challenging musically as they are huge-selling. The 1990 album Violator – containing the iconic hits Personal Jesus and Enjoy the Silence – remains their landmark opus, while the current Delta Machine album has been greeted as a return to form. Overall, the group has released 13 studio albums and 55 singles, but the formula, Fletch says, remains essentially the same: "The songs start with a basic demo from Martin, and they go from there," he explains. #флетч #Интервью2013