Erasure • Features • Private Ear

My sister and I didn't have much in common musically; the only things that she liked that I approved of as an older sister were Tears for Fears and Depeche Mode. She also had an interest in Yazoo and Erasure and had played me Erasure's first TV performance which had really interested me. So I phoned her up and said "Youra-sure" were playing at The Marqee, (like everybody else I didn't know the bands name!) and like everyone there we absolutely loved it.

So every time they played in London I went to see them. I saw that they were playing the university tour in autumn '85 and decided to take some holiday from work and see them around the country. It was the first time that I had gone outside London to see a band, apart from seeing Mark Almond.

I set off not knowing anyone that liked Erasure, not knowing where I was going to stay that night, and I didn't even have a ticket! I just assumed it would be OK! I had just turned 19 and was possibly a little naïve! Lucky it turned out alright.

How did you become involved with the EIS?

Hmmm, now what's the short version?

I had sent Andy a few letters care of Mute, saying that I liked their music and I got a note from Andy in the first EIS pack saying come and say hello at one of the shows.

So I went to see them at Keel University and while I was trying to buy a ticket Andy and Vince came down the stairs for the sound check. So I said hello to Vince who kind of nodded, and I said "hello, I'm Janet" to Andy and he gave me a big hug and a kiss - he did know who I was and was lovely.

We went into the gig quite early and met five boys who were going round the country to see the band. They were all Depeche fans, and I hooked up with them and we stayed in people's houses, train stations, when they played in London everyone stayed at my house, my parents had about eight people on the floor on sleeping bags downstairs!

Erasure had a hit (to our surprise!) with Sometimes, and I went to every gig on the next tour which was the Circus Tour.

On the Innocents tour I went to all the shows, and at the second show I met Paul Hickey who asked me if I would be interested in helping out part time with the EIS newsletter, which was a free service back then. So I said yes, very calmly!

Paul said to me before I started "You know the job only lasts for as long as the band does" and that was in 1989! I ended up working for the EIS for seven years!

I really enjoyed doing it and I've stayed involved in the band even though I don't work for them now. When Jonny started, I carried on part time with the EIS as I didn't really want to leave, but Mute had asked me to work for them doing their website and I wanted to take that opportunity as at the time I didn't see the EIS job developing that much further.

It was really frustrating with the last tour that I couldn't go to see every gig, but I released I did have a child and couldn't just take off around the country and around the world!

That was a long answer! How did I get involved? I went to see them a lot! [laughs]

What was it like working for the fan club in the early days?

Well I went to help out in their basement flat in Hampstead and got paid by the hour, on a rate that was half what their cleaner was getting; £2.00 an hour to do data entry on the computer which I did part time for about an year.

The EIS was still a free service then, the band were paying for all the postage and admin costs, but there got to be a ridiculous number of people on the mailing list so Paul asked if I wanted to do it full time and the fan club became subscription based. I handed in my notice to my old job and went to work for Erasure, learning about merchandising, about DTP and using a Mac.

We moved into the tour office for the Phantasmagorical Entertainment which was near Mute, and it was very exciting being there.

So it went from being on my own and being quite isolated and distanced from the band, to being in the tour office and being involved almost as a production assistant to Andrew Mansi, and to be able to see Andy's original ideas for the show; how it was all going to look and to see it all come together. Around this time the Abba-esque EP had been released and had been number one, and the greatest hits was out and it was all very exciting.

Around this time the Abba-esque EP had been released and had been number one, and the greatest hits was out and it was all very exciting.

What was important to you when running the EIS?

When I was younger I was a really big fan of Soft Cell, and the girl who did their fan club used to send personal replies to letters and if I phoned she would answer my questions. I was 14, 15 at the time and this meant such a lot to me and I always tried to remember what that felt like as a 14 year old.

So when I was replying to people and tried to answer their questions, when I got a response from that where it had touched somebody that I had bothered to answer their question, then that is what continued to inspire me.

Were you aware of how popular the band was?

Until the Milton Keynes gig I had no idea how big the band were, I was doing this job on my own answering people's letters and feeling a little bit behind all the time, but going to something like that I was really taken aback.

I missed all of the support bands actually, as I was backstage sewing sequins for bits that had come off costumes and for things that weren't quite finished. Emma Whittle was expecting her first baby at that point and needed her money belt expanding!

I was never really star struck about Erasure, I love them and they're my favourite band apart from Soft Cell, and when I see them live it's like there is no other band for me.

When I first saw them, Vince was famous and Andy had been on TV one or two times, but the band wasn't successful and I saw them at that level when I chatted to them backstage and they were lovely, and they're exactly the same now.

I was excited about working for the band as I liked them, but they weren't my idols and therefore I never felt intimidated by them which made it easier to work for them.

How do you think the EIS has changed since then?

Well I think it was a very different job to what I was doing for seven years. I was dealing with people by letter, typing replies, doing a printed newsletter which had its own lead time. There just wasn't the speed of information to or from the EIS as there is now.

When I first started, fans would find out release dates because we sent out the newsletters and when adverts were printed in magazines. Plus Mute would send out promotional postcards to announce a new record. It was much slower and the bits of information I had were news to people.

Now with everything done via email everything is much faster and people are expecting a lot more I think and it's a harder job now.

A release date gets changed at Mute and people find out about it almost as soon as you do at the EIS and are able to tell people, and people get quite worked up about not knowing stuff. People know so much more about the processes of the music industry and the way things should work, so when something gets changed people can get upset and question it and want to know why, whereas in the past they would not have known a release date been put back to a certain point, as they would never have known what it was in the first place.

It's nice that people have so much more knowledge and can get so involved, but it's quite damaging sometimes because people get disappointed and have higher expectations.

Any particularly frustrating moments at the EIS?

Well there is one that I can't publish! [laughs]

Since the release of 'Other People's Songs', things have become very positive for the band again...

It's been very exciting hasn't it!

The band themselves seem very excited about what they are doing, which has been really nice to see. Andy is very excited about the new album and about performing live again.

It's great that after so long they can be enthusiastic about what they are doing and that the fans have stuck with them and continue to be excited.

Stuff such as the acoustic album, which is so beautiful as it shows off what the fans have known in that they are great song writers, and you can strip it down and it sounds gorgeous.

How would you sum up working for the band?

I loved working for Erasure and I still love them. Jonathan talks about 'Uncle Andy' and dances to Erasure, but we haven't brain washed him! [laughs]

They're great people to work for, and I've met some wonderful people all over the world whom I've still kept in touch with who are fans of Erasure, and I'm very happy to have done that and be part of it.

Thank you for your time!