Erasure became famous overnight in 1987 with the release of the single Sometimes, which also became their biggest hit in our country. But three songs had been released and barely made anything.

Andrew Bell was born on April 25, 1964 in Dogstorphe, England. While he was working as a shoe salesman, he played in the band The Voice. At Melody Maker he saw an advert looking for singers and eventually he met Vince Clarke who he knew from Depeche Mode, Yazoo and The Assembly. Together they formed the duo Erasure in 1985. Success did not come easily for the two as the first three singles did not do much in their home country. Their debut album, Wonderland, was also a failure. That changed when the single Sometimes was released in late 1986. The single reached second place in the UK charts and was at number 3 for two weeks on the Dutch Top 40 in early 1987.

In March 1987, Erasure released their second album with The Circus, which reached number 6 on the UK albums chart. Her album, It Doesn’t Have To Be, did not achieve further Top 40 success, peaking at number 38. After that, four singles between 1988 and 1991 stuck on Tipparade.

In 1992 they returned to the Top 40 once again with the release of their EP Abba-esque, a tribute to the Swedish group. The EP contains four ABBA songs with Lay All Your Love On me as the opening song. Abba-esque reached number 7 in the Top 40 but was a number 1 hit in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Sweden and the UK.

World Be Gone, the duo’s 17th studio album, was released in 2017. Both remained successful in the UK album charts with sixth place being the highest achieved.

Andy Bell celebrates his birthday on the same day as Björn Ulvaeus (ABBA), John Lee (S Club 7) and Tim Immers.

First and biggest hit:
SOMETIMES deletion (1987)

Smallest blow:
DOESN’T HAVE to be a write-off (1987)

Final blow:
ABBA ESQUE [EP]- deletion (1992)

(Photo: BSR Agency)

(25/04/2018)