SPOTLIGHT
ANDY
STOPPING HIM
THERE’S NO
NOW
by tim parks Ricky Martin may want to watch his back, so to speak, if
he were ever to meet Bell in a dark alley, as it wouldn’t be a close encounter of that kind. Musically speaking, the falsetto-voiced phenomenon
is already taken, as Bell has been betrothed to his partner- in-rhyme, Vince Clarke, since he answered a want ad for a singer in 1985. “I think when you’re working with someone else, it’s as
if you are in a kind of marriage, and it’s a collaboration,” he said. “You have a certain kind of respectfulness for them. I think when you’ve been with somebody for some time; you tend to bring more baggage along with you.” Bell, who had previously packed light for his 2005 solo
CD, Electric Blue, relayed that the creative process for joint ventures and personal ones alike aren’t too terribly different. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t write with Vince, really, that I wouldn’t write on my own,” Bell stated. “After I asked Vince if I could have a break from doing Erasure for a couple of years; it’s nothing against him or anything, I just wanted to be out of the scene. I think I felt a bit like a little puppy being let off the leash. So maybe it’s (the songwriting process) is a little more exuberant
38
RAGE monthly | JUNE 2010
or just more playful.” Playful is the perfect word to describe one of the most
infectious tracks on the CD, “DHDQ,” which is the acro- nym for Debbie Harry Drag Queen. Erasure previously covered Blondie’s “Rapture” on 1997’s Cowboy, and were on the road with Harry during the 2007 version of the True Colors Tour—so what is the chance that these two musical pioneers might get together and record a song together? “Well, I would love to,” he proclaimed. “That would be one of my ultimate orgasmic moments!” Non-Stop is chocked full of such moments, even on
the autobiographical slow jam “Slow Release,” as Bell definitely practiced the rhythm method during its incep- tion. He described his new baby as “full-on club glamour” during our chat, and the project was a case of if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again, as early songwriting efforts with Stephen Hague (who worked on Erasure’s The Innocents) left him feeling as “though my heart’s not really in it.” As luck would have it, someone suggested that he
work with Pascal Gabriel, who has written and produced songs for the likes of Kylie Minogue and Little Boots,
BELL
There is a very good reason that Andy Bell has titled his newest solo effort Non-Stop, as the 46-year-old Era-
sure frontman is showing no signs of slowing down. His latest offering is just as the title refers to, a non-stop ode to dance music, which is sure to get your body moving and your blood pumping upon its release on June 8. During our conversation, Bell’s blood got to boiling (and rightfully so) as he lambasted everything from being seen (or rather heard, as the case may be) by radio stations as merely an artist from the 1980s,and the media frenzy surrounding much-speculated about music stars who come out to fanfare. While he has been open about his sexuality from the get-go in his 25 years as a musician.
among others. The two created the double whammy dance tracks, “Will You Be There?” and “Running Out” for his sophomore solo endeavor. “We just really hit it off,” Bell recanted. “He’s Cancerian—
same as Vince, so I was really used to his character. And he’s very similar to Vince; he’s very camp for a straight man.” Unfortunately, not all straight men are as gay friendly, as Bell informed me that a form of homophobia and labeling dictates the types of music and artists that DJs play on-air in his native England. This almost led to him releasing the project under the pseudonym of Mimó. “That was because, mainly, the radio is so predjudiced here in the U.K.,” he explained. “It’s very narrow; they’ll play lots of guitar bands and lots of dance/pop, but it’s all very young. They play all of the reality Pop Idol stars, but otherwise it’s very hard to get a way in there.” “Because Erasure is seen as being like an ’80s band,
even though we didn’t really break (in England) until 1989, right at the end. So the radio has seemed to have gotten narrower and narrower, where they’ll play only the hits you had in the ’80s and nothing else. But, when we released “Will You Be There?” on Radio 1, it was kind of
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92