How has being Erasure's tour manager changed your life?
Changed my life? It's almost defined my life, not really changed it, because I've done it for ten years. Well, 1996 was the eleventh year and I'm 33 years old, which means I started doing it when I was 22. Not that I've worked for them all the time, but on and off... They're the whole reason I became a tour manager in the first place, because the story was that I used to make tea in Vince's studio and I left, walked out, because I'd got the hump about something, and he phoned me up a few weeks later and said, "Will you come and work for me?" and so I did. I arranged the original auditions when we found Andy. I put the ad in the Melody Maker and spoke to the people and all that stuff.
Does anyone have a copy of the original advert?
Someone must have it. I don't know, I've got a load of stuff in the office which makes really mad reading, like little diaries of the first gigs. I've got contracts for like 300 at Leicester Polytechnic. It does look very cool.
What do you remember about the other people who turned up for the audition?
Well, I'd never put an advert in a paper before, so the wording of the ad said, "Singers wanted for established songwriter" and what Vince was looking for was just a singer. He had songs, all he wanted was someone to sing them. So masses of people phoned up and I sat by a phone at Mute and the first day we got forty people.
The first forty people who phoned up I gave appointments to, so we had twenty a day, Saturday and Sunday, at Trident. And there was another forty people who phoned after that whose names and numbers I took.
So there was me, Flood and Vince and they had to sing "Who Needs Love Like That" and "My Heart So Blue" and the problem was that we hadn't really defined the parameters of what the person should be like. So, for instance, if someone came in who was fifty years old, fat and with a beard, obviously it doesn't matter how good their voice was, they still weren't going to get the gig, because they didn't look right. So of course we got a whole procession of people who were all different shapes, sizes, colours and everything, of which 90% would walk in and as soon as you saw them you knew they weren't right, but you still had to go through the torture of listening to them sing.
And at the end of it, for the first time ever since I'd known him, Vince said, "Let's go and get drunk" and we went and just got completely blatted. And the next day we had to do another twenty auditions and at the end of it we'd found no-one. So for the next forty, Vince said, "Phone them all back, ask them how old they are and are they in a band already or do they write their own songs." The idea was that he didn't want anyone who had their own material and he didn't want anyone over 25. We had three left after that and then the next Tuesday or Wednesday only two of them turned, one of them was Andy and that was it, really. They knew straight away. And the best thing of all, when we went, everyone looked at each other and went, "Do you think he's gay?"!
Around that time you were in a Vince-produced band called Twilight?
The Twilight thing fell to pieces just before the touring. I was the non-vocalist, I was the Vince of the partnership.
Is there any chance of the single coming out on CD?
No. There's a sleeve with me & Steve [Toth] on the back which is very embarrassing. The thing I remember most about that record, though, is that there was a journalist called Max Bell, who used to work for the NME, and it got reviewed in the NME Singles column.
We were really excited because we were in the NME Singles column and it said something like, "This record by two hideous plonkers is..." like shite, basically! I'll always remember being described as a hideous plonker. It's pretty embarrassing.
What bands have you worked for apart from Erasure?
Closest to home is the Inspiral Carpets.
So you knew Noel Gallager?
Noel Gallagher was their guitar tech when I was the tour manager. He acted like a pop star then and he still acts like a pop star now. [Anecdote about Noel Gallagher omitted] Anyway, Inspiral Carpets, The Heart Throbs, Frank Tovey, and last year was the best because I did M People, Massive Attack and Erasure, which I think were the three best bands I've ever done. That's a good CV to sign off on. I've even done Depeche Mode for a week!
As a tour manager, how do you go about organising a world tour?
It's simple, really. You get a list of provisional dates from the Agent. You argue with the Agent about whether or not those things are logistically possible, because quite often you'll get, you know, Berlin back to back with Edinburgh. You agree on a set of dates that are possible to do. You find out how much money those dates are going to pay you and then you start doing a budget. Once you've got the budget sorted out then everything else is pretty plain sailing, really. You get some sort of idea from the band about stage set and lights, the creative bit. The Tiny Tour was quite straightforward, really. The one that was mad was the one before that.
Your job was easier with the Tiny Tour?
Yeah. To be honest, that last tour was easy, really easy. On most tours you're running around like a headless chicken and it kind of wears you down after a while, but it's quite nice sometimes just to be able to relax and talk to the band and find out what they want.
That Phantasmagorical Entertainment, I was just like run off my feet, but that was my own fault because I decided I wanted to everything myself!
What is it like touring non-English speaking countries?
Well, language is not usually a problem. The thing that's different is attitude. If you go to Spain or Italy, it's easy to speak to them, but getting them to do stuff is really difficult because they're just so much more laid back and they're not all uptight and English like us. So if you go to Italy to do a TV show, you're guaranteed to be kept waiting around three times as long as you are with 'Top Of The Pops' because that's just the way they are.
Vince has said he really enjoyed the last tour...
Well, I think that they really enjoyed it because it was manageable. I'm glad he enjoyed it. On the previous tour, it was boring because it was choreographed down to the last step, so there's no spontaneity at all. Nothing different happened any night apart from that there were different arguments backstage! [Laughs] And because you're in the same place, you don't bother to do sound checks, which means you're in the hotel more, so you just get bored.
What do Erasure do during the day when they're on tour?
Well, Andy sleeps. What does Vince do? On the last tour, he went walking a lot. He went out walking in Newcastle for about three hours along the river front. We went out to a pub a few nights. He eats more than Dinger as well. We went out for lunch a few times. It's all just general things, nothing specific. He did bring his push-bike on tour and he didn't use it. He played with his Sega Megadrive and watched telly instead.
What are they like five minutes before the concert starts?
That's a good question, actually. Well, Dinger's always putting his make up on and Vince is normally sitting there with a cigarette, going, "Come on Dinger! Fucking 'ell!" That's pretty accurate, actually.
What do Erasure request backstage?
Well, it depends how they're feeling. The last tour we had cocktails, backstage cocktails. We just had this idea to get a cocktail blender to make Margaritas, but I made them one night and they were terrible. Generally, they just like a good dinner, a nice roast dinner.
Nothing very rock'n'roll?
Vince always has a Beck's beer, something pure, and drinks-wise Andy doesn't really have anything very specific. Not so much now, but for the great bulk of their touring, the one thing they loved when they came off stage was a cup of tea. Immediately after the show, sit down and have a cup of tea. It's weird because I always used to say to people that of all the things I ever did for that band, the one thing they appreciated the most was that cup of tea when they came off stage. I'd just have two cups of tea sitting there, waiting. It doesn't matter that I saved them ten million quid or something on the budget, but the cup of the tea was the thing. They're very un-rock'n'roll and very undemanding.
What are they like on tour, generally?
Easy. Dead easy to deal with. They don't care about the trappings of fame or whatever. For instance, if you go to the airport with M People, right, as soon as you check in, the first thing you do is you take them to the VIP Lounge or Executive Lounge to get them out of the public areas, so they can sit there and have a beer before they get on the plane. So with Erasure when we went to Germany this time, I made arrangements to take them to the lounge and all this, and they both said, "Oh no, we want to have a cigarette," 'cause you can't smoke inside Heathrow, so they both went and sat outside on a luggage trolley. This is in December, right, freezing cold, and they both sat outside smoking cigarettes until the flight was called. That's typical of them, totally undemanding. Never complain about anything.
What did you think of the Tiny Tour?
It was fine, you know. It was like a job. Once Dinger had remembered the words to all the songs, it was really, really good. The shows were brilliant. I personally think, regardless of the fact that they're my mates or whatever, I think they are brilliant live, really good. I think it's the best manifestation of themselves when they play live.
I've never particularly thought that they make great videos but live they really are spectacular. Andy especially is fantastic. The thing is, I get more enjoyment out of everything going well and I felt everything did, so I enjoyed that bit of It. It was really good.
When you're on the tour do you watch each concert or are you too busy?
It depends. At the start of the tour I usually watch as much of the show as I possibly can, so I can go to the band and say, "This works, this doesn't work". And then after a while, you watch less and less of the show and tend to get busy doing financial stuff backstage.
Sometimes if you finish early you might treat yourself and go and watch the encore. You get favourite bits. This tour I really liked watching "Who Needs Love Like That". I thought that was a really good moment In the show, and on the tour before that I always used to want to go and see "Home", the last song, because it's such a great song, and I used to go and watch other songs because there was a dancer In those songs who was particularly attractive. You do get favourite bits that you want to go and watch [to] see what the audience reaction is.
Do you have any favourite gigs from the last tour?
Yeah. The best gigs were in Ireland and Scotland. The two reasons for that are: number one, the Irish and Scottish audiences are always brilliant and number two, the first couple of gigs were a bit shaky and it was only when we got to Scotland and Ireland that it all came together and clicked.
And the other really brilliant gig was the Shepherds Bush Empire gig, which for a London gig was great 'cause it was so full of fans. Normally London shows are not like that because the record company have bought half the tickets and you're playing to loads of licensees from wherever.
Do you have a favourite venue or place to play?
My favourite place is New York.
Favourite venue... I don't really know, I've never thought of that. I think I got quite fond of Manchester Apollo after spending three weeks there. It's quite nice because you get to know all the people on the door.
When did you become involved with the Tiny Tour?
The beginning of September, probably, though I was involved in a few meetings before that. The thing about that tour was that it was really straightforward because the venues are so small. There's only so many things you can do in a venue that size with that amount of money. It was pretty basic. The Phantasmagorical tour took nine months altogether and every day of that nine months was hard work.
Did you attend the rehearsals?
Not so much attending them, more organising them.
What they do in rehearsals is down to them. You just organise it all, get the cars sorted out, get all the equipment and people they need - it's pretty much an office job. You don't have any creative input.
Why did the set list change during the tour?
They moved it around because it worked better. I mean, they started off with "Fingers & Thumbs", which was not a hit single, which meant that when they came on stage, everyone didn't go mad. Of course, when they did "Stop!" instead, everyone did go mad. It's a better opener.
The good thing for Vince is because he does it all live - the sequencing's all live - he can actually play the songs in any order he likes. He can also do things like lengthen songs, slow songs down, speed songs up or if Andy needs to do a quick change, he can do a long ending, like in the middle of "Fingers & Thumbs" when Andy goes off to put the dress on. At first he just left it like it was on the record, but then it slows right down and it actually stops for a while and he programmed in eight blank bars so that people had a bit of silence before it started off again. That's the beauty of doing it live properly rather than on tape. With certain other electronic bands it's all on tape, which means once they do it they can't change it unless they go back to the studio to swap all the songs around.
Did you have much involvement with the support bands?
To be honest, you just let them get on with it and sort themselves out. You've got too much to do to worry about them. I mean, we've done support tours. We supported Duran Duran in America for seven weeks and it was like sink or swim, basically.
On that Duran Duran tour we used to get thirty minutes to play. There was a clock at the side of the stage and when we went on stage they'd start it and when it got to thirty minutes they'd just switch the power off, whether we were finished or not. I remember they gave me these laminates and their guy said to me, 'These are your laminates they're all personally numbered. If I find anyone except you with these laminates I'll cut your head off and shit down your neck.' That was a bit extreme and I was never like that, but they've got to get on with it, you know. You can't afford to wet nurse people.
Who chooses the support bands?
The band choose them. Very much so. People have a lot of ideas of what's hip, what's trendy, but at the end of the day it's just what the band like.
It used to be very difficult to get support bands for Erasure, I think because they were perceived as being so unhip. On the "Wild!" tour we ended up with a Czechoslovakian band. Even at Milton Keynes, the bill ended up being Adamski, Electribe 101, Was Not Was and Erasure. It was an OK bill, but it would have sold out if it was just Erasure and no-one else. You would have thought more people would have been keen to play to 60,000 than that.
They've got Heaven 17 now, haven't they? That's Vince, isn't it? That's a classic example of the band choosing the support band, because no-one else would have chosen them! At the end of the day I think it's important to have someone good but I don't think it sells any more tickets.
Do you have a favourite tour or show?
The best show they ever did was the Phantasmagorical thing and that's probably the best thing I've ever worked on ever, for any band. I think it was also the most satisfying for me because although it was the hardest work it looked fantastic.
I remember sitting watching on the first night and afterwards I went backstage and I was going, 'It's BRILLIANT! It looks FANTASTIC!' and they were going 'Oh, shut up!' I was really proud. We wasted tons of money and there was loads of aggravation, but at the end of the day I just think it was one of best. I know it sounds a bit slushy, but I was quite proud, because you sit there and you think, 'Fucking hell, I was part of that'. That was the best time. It probably wasn't the best time for them, though!
Who chooses the music played before the concert?
Dinger, usually. The Country & Western was his idea, I think. On the Phantasmagorical we had TV Theme Tunes or something. Before that we had a 15 or 30 minute tape that went from the end of the support band, right up to the beginning of the show, that built up and up. There was a jungle on stage and they had all these bird sounds and everything in between. They never allow the sound engineer to put his own tape in.
Did Vince's caption thing ever work?
The thing is, when you do a tour, there's always something that's a total nightmare. Invariably bands come up with mad ideas that haven't been done before, so you're always working with a prototype, so sometimes it's going to fail and I think Vince's thing was just one of them.
Do you think it helps when things go wrong?
Well, I think it suits them because it sort of shows their humanity, which I think is why people like them. They're quite self-depreciating. They don't take themselves very seriously and they also think it's funny when things go wrong. I mean, of all the gigs I've ever done with them, which is hundreds and hundreds, there's been less than three times when I can think of something going wrong where they've been upset. I think Vince cares more about what it sounds like than anything else, so if curtains get stuck and things fall over and his sign doesn't work, at the end of the day, if it sounds good, he's happy.
Andy's normally absolutely fine and if things go wrong, I think it's quite cute. I mean, that night when he went off to get changed into that dress and Vince had to tell a joke; Production-wise it wasn't a great moment, but I'm sure for the people who where there it was great fun. The thing about Andy is 99 times out of 100 he is one of the best live performers you'll ever see, but then every now and then he'll forget the words, and it's quite endearing. At least it means that everybody knows that he's singing live.
So what do they get annoyed about?
They get annoyed if they see people in the crowd being mistreated by security people. If you go to avenue where there's places which are obviously not covered by the PA [Public Address system i.e. loudspeakers], like if you go to a place with a balcony and there's no PA boxes pointing to the balcony, then Vince gets upset.
It's the same as if you go to a venue that's huge and you haven't got enough PA to fill it and it sounds shit, he gets pissed off about that, which is right, really. They like people to be able to see and not be mistreated. They don't like looking down the front and seeing people crushed against the barrier. That really gets them.
Have there been any Erasure gigs where people have been crowd surfing?
I remember a particularly fantastic achievement of mine, which was really stupid, was when we played in the Glasgow Apollo or somewhere like that, years ago. This kid ran down the aisle and jumped on the stage and started dancing. The security guards were all ready to run on him and take him off, but I was very idealistic at that time and I decided that he should be left on, because it was cool. Of course, he was dancing away and I was expecting him to jump off - but he never did.
And so as everybody else realised that he wasn't getting chucked off they all ran onto the stage too! There were just loads of people jumping around and then the security guards came on, trying to get rid of them and it was just chaos. That was me being idealistic. Since then I've been a bit more sensible.
So what do you think of Erasure fans? Have they changed much over the last eleven years?
They haven't changed, have they? They've just got older! It was quite obvious on this last tour that it was pretty much the same people coming, they were a bit more mature, but they were still as into it. I mean, I wouldn't have a job without them, so they're brilliant. I don't think they differ that much. I think they're probably very dedicated, more dedicated than fans of, say, M-People.
It's hard to say, really. The thing is, the fans are the lifeblood of the band, but invariably if you're involved in any kind of organisation, then nine times out of ten, they're going to be in the way. For instance, if you've got to get Vince & Andy out of the gig, and it's freezing cold, like in Germany it was fucking freezing cold, and you think to yourself, 'He's just come off stage, he's all sweaty and if he goes out he'll get a cold and it's going to knacker the tour.'
I think that at the end of the day, I used to be a fan myself, so I can understand their vibe a bit. If someone's a real fan they don't normally get on your nerves that much. You do get the occasional person who gets on your nerves but you usually find that they're not real fans, there's some other agenda.
Have you come across any particularly problematical or strange people?
Only the ones that work at Mute! Yeah, you come across the odd loony, but they never really mean any harm.
I've never, ever been in a position where we were ever threatened or anyone was abusive or anything at all like that. They always have the utmost respect. It's nice, really. I cannot think of a single time when I ever felt that they were in danger in any way or being inconvenienced. They've always got time to do autographs and stand and chat and stuff.
Why aren't you the tour manager for the Cowboy Concerts?
It's about time someone else had a go!
The EIS would like to thank Andrew Mansi for this interview and for all the other assistance he has given the EIS in the past, and also to wish him every success for the future.
Additional questions: Mike Depaz, Susan O'Brien and Sabrina Surovec.