ERASURE TRAGEDY : few minutes ago , Eeasures legends ,,Andy Bell and Vince Clarke have just been officially announced dead in a plane crash …..
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Before forming Erasure, Vince Clarke was already an established synthpop legend, having founded Depeche Mode in 1980 before leaving that group to form Yazoo (known as Yaz in America) with Alison Moyet a year later. But while those projects were obviously highly influential, for Clarke they were short-lived. Conversely, his duo with Andy Bell, Erasure, is about to release its 18th album, The Neon, after 35 years together and an incredible 25 million records sold worldwide.
The Neon finds the band as energized as always, vibrant and in fine form, with a sound that’s reminiscent of Erasure’s clubby classic ‘80s catalog yet hypermodern at the same time. Floor-fillers like “Hey Now (Think I Got a Feeling)” and “Nerves of Steel” and the swoony, prom-worthy electroballad “Kid You’re Not Alone,” driven by Bell’s unmistakably brassy vocals and Clarke’s analog synths, are all strong last-minute contenders for 2020’s song of the summer. So, what exactly is the secret to Erasure’s longevity?
I think the fact that from the very beginning, we pretty much shared everything, especially in the songwriting,” says Clarke, speaking to Yahoo Entertainment via Zoom from New York, while Bell teleconferences in from London. “Andy is a natural melody person, so we pretty much from the beginning started writing songs together. And I think that that’s been one of the reasons why we’ve stayed together so long. But as we got to know each other and our lives have developed and the relationship has developed, I think it’s now it’s more about, for each other, respect for what we do. I think that’s really important. Andy is a best friend. That’s really unusual in a pop band.”
The story of Clarke and Bell’s egalitarian partnership and mutual admiration society is especially sweet considering that before auditioning for Erasure at age 21, the teenage Bell was basically a Clarke fanboy who used to practice singing to Yazoo’s Upstairs at Eric’s and Moyet’s solo album Alf. Clarke’s roommate at the time even once told him, “That’s going to be you in one year’s time!” But it was a chance encounter that made Bell believe that his flatmate’s bold prediction could actually come true.
It’s a bit mad, but it Vince was one of the first famous people that I’d seen in London,” Bell laughs. “I went for a previous audition for a Bow Wow Wow spinoff band, and it happened to be at Blackwing Studios [where Clarke was recording]. … I saw Vince on the Space Invaders machine with his fringe hanging down, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s Vince Clarke!’ It kind of cemented it in my mind.”
When Bell heard that Yazoo had broken up and that Clarke was working on a new project, the Assembly, he actually considered writing Clarke a letter, cheekily asking, “Would you be looking for a new singer, by chance, at all?” Bell never got around to doing that (“Maybe I should write it now,” he jokes), and ironically, when he later answered an ad in the Melody Maker that read, “Established songwriter looking for versatile singer,” he had no idea that the songwriter in question was his hero.
Bell remembers “screaming around” his house once he found out that he’d be meeting with the one and only Clarke, but he was determined to savor every moment of the audition experience, whether or not he eventually got the job. “I mean, I was singing with Vince Clarke, singing one of his songs, you know?” he chuckles. “I can’t believe my kind of audacity, really my self-belief, because when I hear the demos now of those audition tapes, they’re so naive.”
