THIS week Basildon's Depeche Mode have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Basildon rockers - who consist of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher, Vince Clarke, Peter Gordeno and Alan Wilder - were inducted by Hollywood actress Charlize Theron.

It is one of the highest honours in pop music and Depeche Mode joined the world's most famous musicians by being inducted.

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But Depeche Mode aren't the only famous band to come from Essex.

Here are a few more:

Blur

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Britpop icons Blur are from Colchester, well at least songwriting duo, lead singer Damon Albarn and guitarist Graham Coxon, first met at Stanway School.

Although rumours have been put out there their smash hit Parklife is about Castle Park, apparently this is not the case.

Strangely, despite being eligible since 2015, they've not yet made the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - one to watch perhaps.

In 2009 Blur made their live comeback after a decade long hiatus in front of roughly 150 delighted fans at the Easy Anglian Railway Museum, in Wakes Colne, where they played their first ever gig.

This also means we can count Gorillaz as being from Essex too - sort of at least.

The Prodigy

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One of Essex's biggest success stories musically is definitely The Prodigy.

The band formed in 1990 in Braintree and is the brainchild of keyboardist and songwriter Liam Howlett.

He was joined by the legendary Keith Flint, who lived in the Braintree District up until his death in 2019, and the rest is history.

The band have sold more than 20 million albums worldwide and headlined the world's biggest festivals.

Dr Feelgood

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Formed in 1971 on Canvey Island, the band are legendary in the 1970s pub rock scene.

The group's original distinctively British R&B sound was centred on Wilko Johnson's choppy guitar style.

Hugely influential in the creation of punk rock, a film by Julien Temple about the early days of the band, Oil City Confidential, premiered at the London Film Festival in 2009.

Over the years they've been through a raft of line-up changes but they're still performing in various guises.

Eddie and the Hot Rods

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  • Picture: YouTube

Probably the second most famous band to come from Canvey, Eddie and Hot Rods also arrived on the scene in the 70s.

They are best known for their 1977 UK top ten hit "Do Anything You Wanna Do", released under the name The Rods.

The Horrors

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  • Picture: YouTube

Formed in Southend in 2005 the band consists of lead vocalist Faris Badwan, guitarist Joshua Hayward, keyboardist and synthesizer player Tom Furse, bassist Rhys Webb, and drummer and percussionist Joe Spurgeon.

The band have released five studio albums, their latest in 2017, all of which charted within the UK Top 40.

On the release of their last album they went head to head against Southend's Nothing But Thieves who were releasing their second album in the same month - to which guitarist, Josh Hayward said: "It is good to see bands from Southend still coming through".

Crass

Ok so they might not be a household name, but Crass were an extremely influential band in the punk rock world in the 70s and early 80s.

Formed in Epping in 1977, they promoted anarchism as a political ideology and were staunched advocates for animal rights, feminism and environmentalism.

The band was based around an anarchist commune in a 16th century cottage, Dial House, which was founded by band member Penny Rimbaud.

Humble Pie

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  • Picture: YouTube

They are known as one of the first supergroups of the late 1960s, and found success on both sides of the Atlantic in the early 1970s with such songs as "Black Coffee", "30 Days in the Hole", "I Don't Need No Doctor" and "Natural Born Bugie".

The original band line-up featured lead vocalist and guitarist Steve Marriott from Small Faces, vocalist and guitarist Peter Frampton from The Herd, former Spooky Tooth bassist Greg Ridley and a 17-year-old drummer, Jerry Shirley, from The Apostolic Intervention.

Nothing But Thieves

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Formed in 2012 in Southend, the rock band have gone from strength to strength in recent years, achieving huge success in 2020 with the release of their third studio album, Moral Panic.

Their style of music has been compared to the likes of Foals, Civil Twilight, and Royal Blood.

Yazoo

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Formed in Basildon in 1981 when Alison Moyet placed an advert in the newspaper looking to start a band.

The duo released two critically acclaimed albums, Upstairs at Eric's and You and Me Both.

Alison of course went on to have a hugely successful solo career.