DEPECHE Mode’s frontman Dave Gahan has given a rare radio interview in which he described how he used to meet David Bowie at the school gates in New York while they waited for their respective children.

Gahan, 54, who attended Barstable School in Basildon, has carved out a stellar career with Depeche Mode since their debut in 1980.

In one of his first interviews on British radio for many years with DJ Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 2 on Tuesday, Gahan described how his children attended the same school as Bowie’s in the Big Apple, where both resided and how he would see him at the school gates.

He said: “We didn’t really talk about music or anything. We were just two dads picking up our children.”

He added the iconic singer had been a big influence on him growing up.

When Jo Whiley asked him if he ever got the chance to tell Bowie how much he meant to him, he described meeting him backstage after a performance.

He told the DJ: “I was told that David wanted to meet me. I went backstage and he was looking around. He straight away said ‘I know you’.

“It was wonderful meeting him.

“I never bothered him on the school run or when we were watching our children in the school play or anything.

“He was just magnificent.

“When I was really, really young, his music really spoke to me.”

He added that at the time of forming Depeche Mode, he and the other band members were just looking to have a good time, and didn’t realise how long that “good time” would last and become a “real job”.

Talking about returning from performing at Barrowlands, in Glasgow recently, he described how he took on a different persona on stage which he enjoyed while performing. David Bowie died in January last year.