Depeche Mode

Basildon's synth-pop imperialists, and the only band from that scene to end up filling stadiums in California. Vince Clarke wrote the early hits and left after one album, which should have finished them. Martin Gore took over and made the band stranger and more successful at the same time, which almost never happens. Violator is the peak, and the only Depeche Mode album where nothing sounds like a compromise.