Erasure • Features • Private Ear

Paul: So I thought OK - what do you want me to do? So he brought out a computer and said to start working with that. I had never used a computer before, but he said it was really easy that I would be able to pick it up. He gave me some disks which contained details of his old Yazoo fan base and I started with that, typing them all in. That's where it all started.

I stole the "Private Ear" idea from the "Private Eye" magazine, complete with the magnifying glass! I really enjoyed doing the newsletter, it was fantastic and it was a link to the fans.

We started out with having a PO Box address and we used to receive so many letters after we did the mail outs - so many people responded - that we used to have bags and bags of mail. It was so heart warming. The fans were amazing people and they were so interested in the magazine and everything, and some of the letters just made me cry after reading them. When they [the fans] really started to get into Andy, some of the gay letters that came in for Andy just made me so emotional I knew that they had to be answered and not just left in a corner somewhere. So I made sure that I did that and opened them all.

Andy: It wasn't possible to answer them all though was it?

Paul: No, I made sure that I sorted them out and the people that really needed a response got one. I remember a girl being in a coma, and the requests that they would ask like getting Andy to sing into a tape.

Andy: Yes we've done that a couple of times.

How quickly did the membership of the EIS grow?

Paul: It went up fairly quickly. I think it started out with 200, and then about 400 people. When the first single came out, it took off then, as a lot of people were interested in this new project that Vince was doing. I think when I turned it over to Janet there were about 2,000 people on the list.

Andy: How long was it, about a year before it got too big?

Paul: Yeah, I had it for about a year and a half, at least. We did some really great things with the fans.

There was one thing that I was so upset about that we lost when we were in Spain. We had done a gold EIS flexi disc with the two faces on it for the fans, and I had the remaining ones all packed up with other items when I was robbed! All the stuff, all the Xerox's, all the hand written lyrics...

Andy: Original lyrics and everything - they just robbed his bag.

Paul: So there are no more of those discs.

Andy: They probably threw them away, they're probably on the side of a Majorca motorway somewhere!

Paul: I was meeting the guy from the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" in Spain and I had to give him the news that half the stuff I had was stolen! It was very upsetting.

Andy: It was his first trip since his stroke...

Paul: And I thought "I can do this, I can brave this".

Andy: Oh honey - I should have come!!

Paul: And I was mugged at the airport.

At what point did your realise how popular Erasure had become?

Paul: I think I had always anticipated that they would make it big. I always hoped that they would. I wasn't too sure after the first single to be honest, the one that they did in drag, and it wasn't such a hit.

Andy: I think it was mainly with the gigs that it started going for us. I suppose it was when people started knocking on the door that we began to think we had made it.

Paul: Yes I guess that was it. When fans started coming over from Germany and found out where we live and start knocking on the door! [laughs]

Andy: People have picnicked and camped on the garden when we haven't been here.

Paul: At our old place in Hampstead people used to start knocking on the door...

Andy: "Andy can we see you?!!" [laughs]

Paul: And there was a couple that would sit there all day.

Andy: I talked to some of them.

Paul: Oh yeah you did, didn't you? That's probably what encouraged them!

Andy: I used to say to them "Would you please go away if I come and say hello!"

Paul: Then we moved and they would do the same thing.

How did they get the address?

Andy: They would go to the local electoral register and find it.

Paul: You can't get anything past the fans: they know what they're doing!! [laughs]

Andy: The internet is nicer in a way as it creates a little more distance.

What were the highlights of being involved with the EIS and Erasure?

Paul: I think a highlight for me was when Julien was working with me and we did all the designs for the gold flexi disc and Janet did the interview. Putting that whole package together was a big plus for me.

And I think we did an issue [the newsletter] every month, and I enjoyed it from the beginning, just sitting down and writing. I had never thought of myself as a writer but at the time I was thinking I was doing a great job! I'm sure a lot of the fans thought I was a nutcase!

Andy: Paul was always interested in the music business anyway; he was promoting gigs when he was in college. And he's got a great voice himself!

Paul: Yeah I did, I had a wonderful voice: better than Andy's! [laughs] But the stroke ruined it.

How's the book coming along?

Paul: The book is going fantastic, it should be published next year; September we hope. There's about a chapter's worth of material on Erasure; how it all started, how the fan club started and how Vince encouraged me to get going with it.

Andy: It's not an Erasure book really.

Paul: No it's more of a memoir; it was written for me mainly to reflect back and remind myself never to let this happen again. It was an accident but it was fuelled by drugs and that's not a good thing. I'm just lucky that I am alive and that I can write a book about it. I hope people will read it and think "if he can survive that then I can survive whatever problems I'm going through".

Andy: It's also a history of 1950's America, coming out, the 60's and the whole sort of hippy culture.

Paul: As I'm quite old!

Andy: Been around the block a few times!! [laughs]

Paul: I've been around the block and back a few times!! Anyway I'm not old I'm mature!!

Any thoughts on next year being Erasure's 20th anniversary?

Paul: Well I hope they do a really great box set!

Andy: There's been too many already!

Paul: Alright, no more box sets! [laughs] Erasure's 20th anniversary is also me and Andy's 20th anniversary.

Andy: We all met at the same time...

Paul: I met him just when he started working with Vince, although he didn't tell me! So we met in early 1985.

Andy: I think I met Vince in about March? Something like that, and met Paul in the spring, maybe April / May time?

Paul: And it wasn't long until Vince cracked the whip and said to get on and do the fan club! I'm so pleased that he did it for me, as it meant that I stayed out of their business and had my own area to work with. It was fantastic.

What do you think of the EIS now?

Paul: I think it's great. I don't think people realise how important it is to have that relationship that connects the band and the fans. If it wasn't for the fan base and the EIS to keep that connection then it would fall apart. I think the reason why we sold so many of the last single was because of the fan base and that they're willing to support and buy the records.

Andy: Plus I think that Mute especially gives really good value for money; I don't think that we have ripped the fans off that often. There have been a few times where there have been multiple releases of 12" and that kind of thing, like "The Circus Live 12"".

Paul: One thing that I really liked in the early days, was that Vince always gave the fans an extra track, like extra tracks on the single and the b-sides which I always thought was good.

Andy: Vince is always so diplomatic, especially when we're doing live shows. He puts the ticket prices to the minimum that we can have it. Honestly! People can rip people off rotten on tours.

Paul: We were always that way with merchandise as well, to keep the prices down, as the fans are so important. If it wasn't for them then they wouldn't be doing music!

Andy: And nobody would know that we still existed!