Depeche gets in the mood
Marilyn Beck and Stacey Jenel Smith

With Depeche Mode's 11th studio album, "Playing the Angel," soon to be
released, it's obvious that reports of the 50-million-plus album-selling
British group's demise a few years ago were wrong. "I always expected to
continue," says Depeche's Andy Fletcher. "It's just complicated a bit
because Dave, when he was doing his solo projects, was saying a few
things that perhaps he shouldn't have said," he adds, referring to
groupmate Dave Gahan.

"He was getting fed up with having to sing someone else's lyrics, and
there was a bit of frustration there. He has three of his own songs on
this album. They're quite good, really."

"Playing the Angel," their first disc since the 2-million-selling
"Exciter" in 2001, "was the easiest album we've made in a long time,"
adds Fletcher. "With everyone doing their individual projects, we each
learned a few things and brought them to the table."

He reveals, "The American tour is going to be in November. The dates
will be announced in a couple of weeks. Then we'll do Europe after
Christmas." How does he feel about getting back on the road with Gahan
and Martin Gore? "We're getting on very well at the moment. On tour,
it's tiring. There are a lot of decisions to be made. We still have
loads of fans around, fortunately. I'm not 21 again - that's the
problem," he laughs.

In fact, they celebrated their 25th anniversary while recording "Playing
the Angel" - a very low-key celebration for the three, who've survived a
lot in the past quarter-century, including Gahan's past, highly
publicized drug problems.

"We had one drink together," says Fletcher.