After two years, he gained the British Display Society Award, which allowed him to get jobs doing displays in shop windows and shopping centres. Eventually, he earned a place at Southend Technical College, which he enjoyed immensely. Within six months of leaving Barstable School in July 1978, Gahan found and lost something on the order of twenty jobs, from selling soft drinks, working in a greengrocers in Basildon Bus Station, working as a cashier in Sainsbury's petrol station in Savacentre, to working on a construction site. I was told very clearly that my next thing was detention centre. It was every weekend, so you were deprived of your weekend and it seemed like forever.
I remember doing boxing, stuff like that. His punishment was weekend custody at a sub-Borstal attendance centre in Romford for one year. He was told by his probation officer to be honest with the interviewer, and as a result, he admitted his criminal record but claimed he was a "reformed character." As a result, he did not get the job which, he claimed, led to him trashing his probation officer's office. In his final year at school, he applied for a job as an apprentice fitter with North Thames Gas. Hiding behind the wall with your heart beating gives you a real kick – 'will they get you?'". I loved the excitement of nicking a motor, screeching off and being chased by the police. Gahan tells of the time: "I was pretty wild. He enjoyed the thrill of stealing cars, driving them around, and setting them alight. While attending Barstable School on Timberlog Close in Basildon, Gahan started bunking off school, got into trouble with the police, was suspended from school and ended up in juvenile court three times for offences ranging from joyriding and graffiti to criminal damage and theft. The only thing my mother would say, was that he moved out to Jersey to open a hotel." "Mum had kept it back from me 'til there was a need to tell me about my birth father, it's a different generation and you can understand I guess she thought she was doing the right thing." By growing older, I thought about him more and more. 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. I remember I said, that was impossible because my father was dead. My mother introduced him to me as my real dad. When I came home from school, there was this stranger in my mum's house. Of the incident, he has said: "I'll never forget that day. Gahan recalled how he "came home one day and found this bloke at home".
In 1972, when Gahan was 10 years old, his stepfather died. Dave and Sue were raised under the impression that their mother's second husband, Jack, was their natural father. The Gahan family continued to grow with the birth of two more half-brothers Peter (born 1966) and Phil (born 1968). Sylvia and Len divorced two years later and his mother moved Dave and sister Sue (born 1960) to Basildon, Essex, after Sylvia met and married her second husband Jack Gahan (an administrator with Shell Oil). Gahan was born as David Callcott into a working-class family, to parents Len Callcott (a bus driver) of Malaysian descent and his wife Sylvia (a conductress or "clippy" on London buses), Dave was only six months old when his father left the family. 73 on the list of the "100 Greatest Singers" and no. In 20, he also contributed lyrics and sang lead vocals on the Soulsavers albums The Light the Dead See and Angels & Ghosts. Three of these songs were released as singles, including "Suffer Well" in 2005, "Hole to Feed" in 2009, and "Should Be Higher" in 2013. Though his bandmate Martin Gore continues to be the main Depeche Mode songwriter, Gahan has also contributed a number of songs to the band's most recent albums Playing the Angel (2005), Sounds of the Universe (2009), Delta Machine (2013), and Spirit (2017). He is also an accomplished solo artist, releasing albums in 2003 (Paper Monsters) and 2007 (Hourglass). David Gahan (born David Callcott, Epping, Epping Forest, Essex, Essex, United Kingdom) is an English singer-songwriter, best known as the baritone lead singer of the electronic band Depeche Mode since their debut in 1980.