Erasure • Features • Private Ear

Andy Bell left the King's School, Peterborough, shortly before he was due to sit his A-Levels. Bored with living in a provincial town, he decided to move to London and make the most of his new-found independence. After a year living with a punkette friend, he eventually ended up living in a 'hard-to-let' house behind Holloway Prison, sharing the squat with some social workers (who were also militant gay rights activists) and sharing the bathroom with various slugs and insects.

Despite being unemployed, Andy still managed to enjoy himself, spending his dole money on records and partying. "I really enjoyed being bone idle, and it was the first time I had money of my own to spend. I used to love going to the ball and dancing all night and getting drunk and having a good time." Circus Tour Programme, 87

Andy occasionally worked as a barman, or making sandwiches, or selling shoes, but all of these jobs were short-lived. Andy was intent on somehow becoming a pop star. "I always knew I was going to end up doing this anyway, so that made me happy while I was working. I always used to say I'd be a pop singer - as famous as David Bowie, though I'm not so sure about that..." Radio 1 9/94, CTP 87

Andy auditioned for various bands, answering advertisements in Melody Maker, sometimes joining groups and leaving them within the space of one rehearsal. One such band was Void. "I answered this card in a shop window and joined this band, just four people, called Void. It was like The Beatles, only it was crap, so I asked the bass-player to leave with me to write songs." MM 12/85

Note: Andy may have also been in another band whilst at college with the same name: "There were these boys in school that were always playing guitars and stuff like that and I like, sort of encouraged them to get a band together." Alternative Press 9/88 "I always say he was from a band called Void, but he wasn't, he was actually with another band. But I always think it sounds better when you say he was with a band called Void. He was probably only with Void for a week." Vince, Hot Press 1/96

The band Andy formed with the bass-player from Void was called Dinger. "It's my nickname, comes from Bell 'ding dong bell'. We were like a hybrid of Soft Cell and Eurythmics, not too dissimilar from Erasure. My partner was a bloke called Pierre, a very good songwriter. We played a club in Southall, a pub in Cricklewood... [I think they] quite liked it, but they didn't take it too seriously. They turned up the TV 'cos they couldn't hear it properly." Select 6/94

"Pierre was the kind of bloke who used to go round beating gay people up, so working with him was a challenge. We got to really respect each other..." CTP 87

Dinger recorded one single at Berwick St Studios, AIR OF MYSTERY on Face Value Records, to sell at concerts and give away to friends. Both it and the b-side I LOVE TO LOVE were co-written with Pierre Cope, the songs sounding surprisingly similar to early Erasure, albeit with somewhat rawer vocals. They also made rough demos of a few other tracks, never to be released.

"We did this song that was seven minutes long. It seemed to keep on going and going forever." NME 6/86

However, after one particularly awful gig, Dinger called it a day. "We never really got anywhere. We played in a park, not busking, but just for people walking by. And these builders used to come and take the piss out of me, calling me queer and everything and chucking eggs at us. So me and Pierre chucked it in after that." The Hit 9/85, MM 12/85

By the beginning of 1985 Andy had been on the dole for three years and was effectively homeless. "I was lucky in that I didn't have to sleep rough, but there was always the feeling of never knowing where you were going to be sleeping that night. The low point was being on the tube with all your possessions in a black plastic bag and just hoping that when you called at someone's house that they'd put you up." HP 12/89

Andy was still searching for a band to join when he answered an advertisement for a 'versatile singer' placed in the Melody Maker early in March. The 'established songwriter' mentioned in the advert was Vince Clarke. "As soon as I heard he wasn't doing the Assembly any more I thought I ought to write to him and ask if he needed a singer. I never did, but I did answer an ad asking for a singer and it turned out to be Vince who was advertising." MM 4/94

WONDERLAND

"I'd had almost a full year off and I just wanted to get something started, that I'd better get up off my backside and do something. Time had just drifted by and I thought if I didn't do it now, I probably never would." Vince, MM 4/85

After the failure of The Assembly, Vince knew that the only way to continue his pop career would be to form a band again. This time it would be a proper band from the outset, a long- term commitment - and this time Vince would be completely in control. "Initially the idea was just for myself to write the songs and the singer to sing the songs. I thought 'we'll pay this guy some YTS every week, y'know?'. In fact, they're still paying me his, and he doesn't realise yet! But no, it was always meant to be a proper band. With Erasure it was always like 'this is it'. I decided to really get something together, do an album and lots of tours." Radio 1 12/92, HP 1/96, RM 6/85

To find a singer, Vince recruited former Blackwing studios teaboy Andrew Mansi to place an advertisement in the Melody Maker. He then hired Trident Studios in St. Anne's Street, Soho for the weekend and asked Flood to help engineer (and, effectively, produce) the recordings of the auditions. "We gave them each two songs to sing, a slow one and a fast one. We played the songs through to them and then got them into the studio, recorded their versions of the songs, and the idea was to listen back later to various people." Radio 1 12/92

Andrew Mansi spent two days answering the phone, taking each applicants name and allocating them each half on hour of audition time. "I'd never put an advert in a paper before. Masses of people phoned up and I sat by the phone at Mute and on that 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. And there was another forty people who phoned on the day after that whose names and numbers I took." Andrew Mansi, Radio 1 12/92 "The first day I phoned it was engaged the whole day. When I finally got through Mansi said, 'All the positions are filled up so far. If we don't find anybody we'll ring you back: so I didn't think I'd hear from them again." Andy, Radio 1 12/92

Vince, Mansi and Flood sat through the first twenty auditions, recording each one. "They would just come in and you would know almost before they opened their mouths if you were going to like them or not, what they were going to sound like. It was so depressing that first day. I was so depressed we just had to go out and get really pissed. It was awful. Some of the people were dismally unsuitable - I mean, how do you tell a 40-year old bald guy who can't sing that he just won't do?" International Musician 3189, MM4/85

"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. I remember Vince never used to drink very much, but after the first lot of auditions he said, 'Let's go and get drunk.' And we went and just got completely bladdered." Mansi, PE, Radio 1 12/92

The second day of auditions was no better. "Terrible - 40 auditions, half an hour each. We had two women leave in tears, and loads of people who thought they were God's gift." Vince, IM & RW 4/86 "So for the next forty, Vince said, 'Phone them 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 only two of them turned up, one of which was Andy. He was the second from last person we saw." Mansi, PE, Radio 1 12/92

"They phoned back and a voice at the other end said, 'Do you know who Vince Clarke is?' It was like, of course I do! I always really loved Yazoo, I was totally into them. They said 'Can you come in tomorrow?', I said yes and turned up." Andy, Q 1/90, Radio 1 12/92

Andy was the second singer Vince, Mansi and Flood saw on the Tuesday morning. It was raining heavily outside, and Andy came in carrying a bright orange umbrella and wearing heavy brown boots. Mansi sat him down and made him a cup of tea while Vince played him the tape of Who Needs Love Like That. "Andy adapted to the songs really quickly, he learnt them really, really quickly and understood the rhythm of the songs and the metering of the songs." Vince, Radio 1 12/92

"Yeah, I'm a quick learner, but I think it was through being a Vince Clarke fan as well and hearing the Yazoo stuff and everything and how he writes." Andy, Radio 1 12/92

Andy was considerably nervous, intimidated by being in his hero Vince's presence. "Vince was very quiet. He had seen loads of people, so he was bit fed up, really. But he was very sweet, he would put his arms around me and tell jokes and things like that, because I didn't know anyone. I was very willing to please, 'cos I admired Vince's work, but on the day of the audition I was a bit nervous. I just wanted to do my best, I was so looking forward to it... it was more excitement really. It was exciting just to be in a professional studio, and I was pleased just to sing along with a Vince Clarke backing track." Andy, Radio 1 12/92, Fresh 8/87, Select 6/94, Press Release 1992

The first song Andy sang was WHO NEEDS LOVE LIKE THAT, his voice famously breaking into falsetto during the chorus. "It just came out, just went up there. And then I got stuck with it. Bronski Beat were very popular then, and Jimmy Somerville's voice was really high, and so I got into that as well, that was the sort of gay thing to do. That was the sound that you did." Andy Q 1/90

The second song recorded was MY HEART...SO BLUE, with Andy singing along to Vince's live accompaniment on acoustic guitar. Although they had one more singer to see, Vince was immediately convinced that Andy was the one they he been looking for. "I'd just wanted somebody with a strong voice, and Andy was just right. There was also something fresh about him, he wasn't at all cynical in his approach... It wasn't the person, because we didn't know him at all, we had no idea what he'd be like, he just looked like a general good-looking bloke. It was only when he opened his mouth that there was some special. There was just a little spark." E & MM 8/86, SH 12/86, IM3/89 "What I was looking for was someone young and enthusiastic, with the kind of attitude I like, and Andy was pretty confident in his own ability. His voice was strong and in tune, and I suppose I was looking for a man." RM 3/90, PR 1992

Flood recorded Andy Bell performing both songs, and then, after only half an hour in the studio, Mansi told Andy that they'd 'be in touch' and he left. "I think we had pretty much decided there and then, although we heard one more person afterwards because we felt we ought to." Vince, Radio 1 12/92 "We were all looking at each other as soon as he opened his mouth and said, 'This is the one'. We knew straight away. And the best thing of all, when he went, everyone looked at each other and went, 'Do you think he's gay?'" Mansi, Radio 1 12/92, PE

Note: Someone (falsely) claiming to be the final applicant later sold their non-story to the Sun in 1993, the newspaper giving it the headline 'I nearly had Erasure's Money Money Money'.

Vince was extremely keen about his new discovery, and wanted to begin work on an album with his protege straight away. However, as he had already agreed to work on a one-off single with Paul Ouinn, the new band would have to wait until May. Andy was phoned up the morning after his audition and accepted the offer of becoming Vince's singer. He was put on a retainer of £150 a week, to prevent him joining other bands in the meantime. With this new-found wealth, Andy immediately took a holiday in Ibiza. "I was all for going in there straight away and doing an album, but the record company said, 'Well, from previous experience, you know, let's take it a bit slower.'" Radio 1 12/92

Vince couldn't contain his enthusiasm for his new project, even when he was supposed to be promoting the Paul Ouinn single: "Well, Paul's doing his own album (which should be out later this year) and I'm doing mine (which features a new vocalist by the name of Andy Bell who Vince reckons to be 'brilliant') once this single's out of the way." SH 4/85

"I took out an ad in Melody Maker - there, that should keep your advertising staff happy - and chose a guy called Andy Bell who I think is quite brilliant." The two have only spoken together for half-an-hour, according to Vince. Next month they'll meet in the studio to record an album. The new partnership has no collective name yet - just Vince Clarke and Andy Bell. "Ding-A-Ling we call him," Vince grins. MM 4/85

Vince has a new LP on the go. "...with a new singer called Andy Hill [sic]. We were looking for a singer and put an ad in a music paper. We got 80 replies, and auditioned about half of them, but most of them were really old and awful. We decided to vet the next half. We asked them their age and if they'd ever been in a pub-rock band. That left us with three people, and Andy was one of them. We're co-writing, and it's working out really well." And it's not The Assembly? "No. It's Andy Hill and Vince Clarke." No 1 7/85