Some time after Vince Clarke left Depeche Mode, in 1982 while working with Yazoo, his friend Robert Marlow approached him.
Marlow tried to convince Clarke to give him some time in the studio, which he first refused due to high costs it required.
However, after the insistence of Marlow, he offered him one day to work at Blackwing Studios, along with Eric Radcliffe, which eventually turned into weeks.
This led to work on several tracks Marlow had written on his own and during his time in Film Noir, and in those sessions "The Face of Dorian Gray" was demoed.
Sometime in late 1984, Absolute—a young group from London formed by Colin "Taf" Taaffe on vocals, Paul Johnson and John Thomas on synth—contacted Radcliffe.