Dave Gahan Parents: Len Callcott, Sylvia Gahan

Dave Gahan is an English singer-songwriter, who was born on May 9, 1962, in Epping, United Kingdom.

He is best known as the lead singer of the electronic band Depeche Mode since their debut in 1980.

Q magazine ranked Gahan No. 73 on its list of the “100 Greatest Singers” and No. 27 on its list of “The 100 Greatest Frontmen”.

Gahan is known for his “commanding presence on stage” and his “huge, deep baritone voice”. In 2020, Gahan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Depeche Mode.

Although his bandmate Martin Gore continues to be the main songwriter for Depeche Mode, Gahan has contributed a number of songs to the albums Playing the Angel, Sounds of the Universe, Delta Machine, and Spirit.

Four of these songs were released as singles, including “Suffer Well” in the year 2005, “Hole to Feed” in the year 2009, “Should Be Higher” in the year 2013, and “Cover Me” in the year 2017.

Gahan’s albums as a solo artist are Paper Monsters (released in the year 2003) and Hourglass (in the year 2007).

He also contributed lyrics and sang lead vocals on the Soulsavers albums The Light the Dead See (in the year 2012), Angels & Ghosts (in the year 2015), and Imposter (in the year 2021).

Dave Gahan Parents: Len Callcott, Sylvia Gahan

Gahan was born as David Callcott into a working-class family, to parents Len Callcott (a bus driver of Malaysian British ancestry) and his wife Sylvia (a conductress or “clippy” on London buses).

Dave was only six months old when his father left the family.

His mother Sylvia and father Len divorced two years later and his mother moved Dave and sister Sue, who was born in 1960, to Basildon, Essex, after Sylvia met and married her second husband Jack Gahan (an administrator with Shell Oil).

The Gahan family continued to grow with the birth of two more half-brothers, Peter (born in the year 1966) and Phil (born in the year 1968).

Dave and Sue were raised under the impression that their mother’s second husband, Jack, was their natural father.

When Gahan was 9 years old, his stepfather died. His father showed up again when he was 10. “I’ll never forget that day. When I came home from school, there was this stranger in my mum’s house. My mother introduced him to me as my real dad. I remember I said, that was impossible because my father was dead. How was I supposed to know who that man was? From that day on, Len often visited the house, until one year later he disappeared again, forever this time.”

Source: Kingaziz.com