CityLife

Despite retrospective, Erasure look to future

Erasure's Andy Bell and Vince Clarke at the Apollo in 2007

AS you read these words in the gloom of a Manchester January, spare a thought for Andy Bell.

The Erasure frontman is currently somewhere off the coast of Miami, performing his group’s greatest hits karaoke-style on a gay cruise ship.

“It’s not something I’ve done before, but I was offered it and thought ‘why not?’ It definitely sounds like fun, and the weather will be good.”

Nice work if you can get it.
 
But it’s an appropriate moment for this sort of gig – after all, what better way to promote a new greatest hits album than with a spot of karaoke? Pop 2, released on February 9, is a retrospective of one of the longest serving acts in British pop.

It’s a musical biography of a career spanning 23 years; if you were born between 1960 and 1995, chances are you’ve got down to Erasure on the dancefloor.

“This feels like the right moment to release another retrospective,” says Bell.

1992

“The last one we did was in 1992, and we’ve released another 20 singles since then.”
 
The record is bound to appeal to existing Erasure fans, but with the current crop of new electronica acts gracing the charts there’s a whole young new audience waiting to be introduced to the band.

Not that Bell has much time for the new kids on the block. “I’ve heard some of La Roux’s stuff, and to be honest I wasn’t too impressed,” he sighs.

“It just sounded a bit naïve, you know? People were doing this stuff back in 1987 so to me it doesn’t sound that new.

"The last really innovative electronica I heard was (Liverpool outfit) Ladytron and the stuff they were doing a couple of years ago.”
 
Erasure, for the time being, will not be doing anything new either, so it’s kind of hard to see how Bell can justify his criticisms.

After all, he’s about to cash in on stuff that he was doing back in 1987.

But fans hankering for something new can look forward to a new album coming out next year.

“Vince and I will be going back into the studio in the autumn – he’s got a set up in a log cabin in the States - so hopefully we’ll get a new album out by 2010
 
"And he’s got all his big old synths in there. I really can’t wait to get my hands on Vince’s knobs.”
 
Until then we'll just have to make do with a bit of musical self gratification.