A 60 second clip of the 'Breathe' (Acoustic Version) track (taken from the Ltd Ed 'Breathe' single) can be found within the releases section.

Lyrics to the 'Nightbird' song 'I'll Be There' have also been added.

The US magazine 'Instinct' will be publishing an interview with Andy in their February 2005 edition.

John Marshall from Lincs FM recently interviewed Andy, and the interview is due to be broadcast on Sunday 2nd Jan 2005. However John has kindly provided the EIS with the full unedited interview which is available within the EIS interview section. Warning - contains tour spoilers!

A German interview conducted by Tom Gosses, Jens Höhner and Stefan Péntek is available online, and was conducted shortly before the Red, Hot & Dance charity performance in Hamburg.

Andy and Vince are due to appear on local radio station Essex FM on the morning of Sunday 2nd January 2005, within James Bassems show sometime between 10:00 & 12:00. Essex FM's frequency is 102.6 and 96.3 FM. Thanks to Vicki Hipwell for the information.

Andy will be featured on the German television programme 'Anders Trend', which will be shown on RTL on the 3rd Jan 2005 at 23:30.

RTL can be received outside of Germany for those with (generally non-Sky Digital) dishes pointed at the Astra 1F & 1H satellites at 19.2'E, in both digital and analogue formats.

A reminder that Erasure will be performing 'Breathe' on Des & Mel on ITV1, on 10th Jan at 17:00.

Beginning the week of it's release, 'Breathe' is to be added to the BBC Radio 2 A-List, with the result that 'Breathe' will be played at least 20 times that week on the UK most popular radio station.

The U.S tour dates for 'The Erasure Show' have been confirmed and kick off on April 14th 2005. It includes special multiple-show engagements such as five consecutive nights at Irving Plaza in New York, 3 nights at Avalon in Los Angeles, and 3 nights at San Francisco's The Independent.

Full details are listed within the tour section.

Nightbird Interview

Before the release of a new album, Erasure generally conduct a promo interview which is made available to the media. With the release of 'Nightbird' they have done such an interview. Recorded a few months ago, Andy and Vince discuss Nightbird, the tour, the acoustic album and their next projects.

A transcript of the interview and audio streams of Andy and Vince's answers can be found within the 'Interviews' section.

Madam Jojo's - Mini Review

Andy was in great spirits and had a blast at his debut DJ performance at Madame Jojo's.

Ably assisted by Manhattan Clique, Andy hit the decks at precisely 1am for about a hour, and managed to sneak in a few tracks from his forthcoming solo album!

Several exclusive pictures are available here.

Don't forget that both Andy and Vince will be guest DJ's at The Astoria (London) on Sat 22nd Jan.

The EIS store will be online as usual over the festive period, but any orders received after 17th December will not be processed until 4th January 2005. The same is true for Mute Bank (whose facilities the EIS uses).

BBC Radio 2 have added the 'Breathe' video to their website, and Century FM have made 'Breathe' their single of the week which means it will be played every night on the 'Evening Show'.

Throughout the last week or so, Andy has been conducting several interviews for printed publications, most of which are due to be published in January 2005, although one for a Finnish newspaper was published recently.

Andy has written a brief message that clarifies some points that have been reported on other websites / forums concerning his health, that arose due to the content of some of these interviews.

The ITV1 chat show 'Des & Mel' returns in the New Year with a new timeslot (5pm) and Erasure have once again been asked to appear.

They will be performing 'Breathe' on the Monday 10th Jan 2005 edition of the show.

For those outside the UK, several European countries may be able to receive ITV1 via the Astra 2D satellite (28.2 East)

Breathe has been added to the lineups on the music channels 'The Box' and 'Q'.

Look out for the Breathe video during "First Play" on The Box (Friday 16:00 - 20:00, Saturday 08:00 - 12:00).

'The Box' and 'Q' are available on: Sky Digital, Telewest Digital and NTL Digital.

Andy and Vince will be playing an exclusive DJ set at G-A-Y on Saturday 22nd January 2005 - should be a lot of fun!

This is the first time G-A-Y have invited any artist to play a DJ set at the club.

G-A-Y is located at:

Behind The Scenes

The video story board for 'Breathe' and the original concepts for the video are available within the 'Behind The Scenes' section.

Private Ear

The interview with Daniel Miller that was published in the final Private Ear magazine (issue 31) has also been published online.

Breathe - LMC Clip Online

Another 60 sec clip from the forthcoming Breathe single has been published online, this time it's the turn of the Breathe (LMC Extended Club Mix) track.

Nightbird Lyrics

Two more sets of lyrics from Nightbird have also been published online.

'Breathe' has been added to the BBC Radio 2 'B' playlist!!

This means that it will be played at least 20 times each week on the UK's "favourite radio station" (so it claims on the Radio 2 website!)

Further details on the BBC Radio 2 website.

As previously announced, Andy will be DJing at Electrogogo at Madame JoJos on 16th December.

He'll be playing alongside Manhattan Clique, also DJing on the night will be Mark Moore (S-Express).

Printed press coverage of Erasure continues with the following reviews and news stories being recently published:

Playlouder.com has a feature about the Breathe digital single.

The January 2005 edition of Rip & Burn magazine features a review of the DVD (giving it a rating of 3/5).

Total DVD (December edition) also features a review of the The Tank, The Swan And The Balloon DVD (also giving it a rating of 3/5).

Q Sheet magazine reviews the The Tank, The Swan And The Balloon DVD with a 4/5 rating.

Reviewed4u.com reviews the The Tank, The Swan And The Balloon DVD (giving it a rating of 4/5.

The Christmas edition of Record Collector has a news story about Nightbird and Breathe.

An interview with Andy Bell was broadcast this evening on Century FM

Andy discussed the forthcoming tour and the writing of the forthcoming 'Breathe' and 'Nightbird' releases.

If you wish to hear the interview then you may listen to it via either of these streams: ([Real Media], [Windows Media]).

In addition the EIS website recieved a mention ([Real Media], [Window Media])

The following interview appears on the IrelandClick.com website.

Give a little respect

Almost 20 years after they burst onto the pop scene, Andy Bell and Vince Clarke, aka, Erasure are back. They play the Waterfront Hall in February and Áine McEntee caught up with Andy to see what we can expect...

Legendary pop heroes Erasure are kicking off their Irish and English 2005 tour in Belfast’s Waterfront Hall.

At the end of last month the band confirmed they would be playing for one night only, and such was the demand that concert tickets sold out in three hours!

Erasure have lived the pop dream for almost two decades, and with a new DVD and album coming out, the band show no signs of slowing down.

The down-to-earth musical duo of Vince Clarke and Andy Bell have sold more than 14 million albums across the globe since they formed the band in 1985.

Over the past 18 years they have garnered worldwide success on the back of instantly memorable pop hooks, shimmering disco anthems, and fantastically outlandish costumes.

Ever since his early Eighties career as chief songwriter with groundbreaking electro titans Depeche Mode, Vince has been an influential figure across two decades of cool clubland scenes, from early techno to electroclash. With Andy, the pair belted out classic hits such as A Little Respect, Sometimes and Oh L’Amour.

"After 18 years we have a great relationship, and that became a friendship as well," said Andy Bell.

"Vince just recently married his girlfriend and they live in Maine now and she’s a wonderful girl. I’m still with my boyfriend and we’ve been going out now for 20 years.

"In the band, things are constantly on the go. You can’t rest on your laurels and in the past year and a half we have recorded three albums - one acoustic, one album of brand new material for Erasure, and a solo album with just my work."

Erasure’s new DVD released on October 25 is called The Tank, The Swan and The Balloon Live and Nightbird, the new album comes out in January 2005. Then it’s the tour of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England in February.

"I can’t wait to play Belfast. When the tour dates came and I saw that Belfast wasn’t on it, I made sure it was changed.

"I promised people the last time we were here on the Cowboy Tour that we would play soon and now we are. It’s a pity we’re only there for one night."

Erasure play the Waterfront on February 24, however the concert is sold out, as are the band’s two dates in Dublin on February 25 and 26.

Thanks to Jackie for the link

The complete Breathe video can now be viewed online (in Real & Windows Media formats) within the Releases section.

The video is based on the Hans Christian Andersen story of The Little Matchstick Girl:

"One Christmas Eve there was a little girl who was trying to sell her matches, but everyone was too busy getting ready for Christmas, and so did not want her matches.

As the day got colder and turned into night she had not sold a single match, so she had no money to buy any food. She found a corner to shelter from the wind and snow, but she was getting colder. She struck all her matches one by one to get what warmth she could, but they soon ran out, so she tried to get to sleep.

The next morning a little boy went out to play on his new sledge and found her frozen to death."

A 60 sec clip of the forthcoming b-side 'Gone Crazy' - again available in Real and Windows Media formats can be heard within the Releases section.

A selection of rather fine desktop wallpaper based on the Breathe & Nightbird artwork is now available for download. See the Treasure for more details.

The new slipcase for 'Breathe' can be seen within the Gallery section, as well as the promotional flyer for Nightbird / The Erasure Show.

The track listing for 'Nightbird' has now been published, along with the lyrics for two of the songs (No Doubt and Here I Go Impossible Again).

EIS Forum member 'Skaro' is organising an Erasure fan gathering / party in Manchester on Friday 10th December - more details on the EIS Forum.