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Erasure
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This is an article about a musical group. For the mathematical concept, see Erasure (logic).
| Erasure | ||
|---|---|---|
 Andy Bell and Vince Clarke - San Francisco, May 1986 = Photo by Nancy J Price
|
||
| Background information | ||
| Origin | England | |
| Genre(s) | Synthpop, Pop rock, Alternative rock | |
| Years active | 1985–present | |
| Label(s) | Mute Records | |
| Website | http://erasureinfo.com | |
| Members | ||
| Vince Clarke Andy Bell |
||
Erasure is an English synth pop duo band consisting of keyboardist Vince Clarke and singer Andy Bell.
Erasure entered the music scene in 1985 with their debut single "Who Needs Love (Like That)" (see 1985 in music). Beginning in late 1986 with the release of their single "Sometimes", Erasure established themselves on the British charts and became one of the most successful artists of the late 1980s and early '90s. Albums such as The Circus, The Innocents, Wild!, Chorus, I Say I Say I Say, Erasure, Loveboat and Nightbird demonstrated a further diversity of sound. As pop craftsmen, the pair's work bears comparison with that of Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, Eurythmics, OMD, a-ha, Roxette, Tears For Fears, The Lightning Seeds, and other pop songwriters.
Contents |
Vince Clarke was a founding member of Depeche Mode, and after leaving the band in 1981, had a successful career with the duo Yazoo (known as Yaz in the U.S.). After two hit albums in as many years, he split with Yazoo partner Alison Moyet and briefly formed The Assembly with producer Eric Radcliffe. The project spawned a UK number four hit single, "Never Never," featuring Feargal Sharkey on vocals. Clarke then released another single with vocalist Paul Quinn, "One Day." It flopped, leading Clarke to place an advertisement in Melody Maker looking for a vocalist for a new musical project. He selected Andy Bell, who was the 41st to audition (and whose voice would often be compared to Moyet's).
From the start, Erasure's success was founded upon their songwriting skills: Clarke's talent for writing melodic, catchy pop songs was evident from his years with Depeche Mode and Yazoo, and Bell's gifts as a lyricist and melodist added depth and character to Clarke's style. Bell was openly gay, and he reflected this in his outfits on stage, at a time when Western society as a whole was less accepting of homosexuality than it is today — making Erasure's success all the more notable.
Although their initial singles were commerical failures, from 1986's "Sometimes" onwards, every one of Erasure's singles has charted in the UK Top 30. From 1986 to 1997, they achieved twenty-four consecutive Top 20 hits. By 2007, 29 of their 35 singles have made the UK Top 20, with 17 climbing into the Top 10. The duo has recorded worldwide album sales of over 25 million.
1987's The Circus was a platinum album in the UK, but Erasure's real breakthrough came with The Innocents, released in 1988. Featuring three hit singles, "Ship of Fools", "Chains of Love" and "A Little Respect", the album hit number one in the UK and remains the only album to return to the summit a year after its initial release. It would eventually go triple platinum in the UK, and also went platinum in the U.S., generating two Top 20 hits. The Innocents was the first of five consecutive number-one albums for Erasure in the UK (followed by Wild! in 1989 and Chorus in 1991).
Erasure's Abba-esque EP became the band's first number-one in the UK Singles Chart and a 1992 compilation, Pop! - the First 20 Hits, hit number one and went triple platinum.
In 1994 Erasure released I Say I Say I Say, their fifth consecutive number-one in the UK Albums Chart. Its first single "Always" became the band's third Top 20 hit in the United States.
Following this success, Erasure went through a difficult period of re-evaluation and re-invention. The 1995 release of Erasure marked a determined shift away from their signature three minute synth-pop to a more introspective and less accessible sound, with many of the album's tracks clocking in at over five minutes. Although this new direction would be critically well received, it did not translate into sales, and Erasure's days of mass commercial appeal and guaranteed number one albums appeared over.
In spite of a return to three-minute pop songs, the 1997 album Cowboy did not restore the success of their 1986-1994 era. Cowboy enjoyed a short-lived success, peaking at number ten in the UK but vanished from the UK top 40 after only two weeks.
In 2000, peaking at number 45, the album Loveboat passed unnoticed from the general public and is often regarded as the lowest point of Erasure's career.
However, Erasure's commercial fortunes reversed in 2003 with an album of cover versions, Other People's Songs. Showing a return to the pop sound that had catapulted them to stardom, the first single from the album, "Solsbury Hill", was a cover of Peter Gabriel's song and reached number ten in the UK Singles Chart. Erasure were invited to perform on Top of the Pops for the first time since 1995.
Erasure's comeback continued in 2005 with the album Nightbird whose first single, "Breathe", reached number four in the UK charts (their first Top 5 hit in more than a decade) and achieved the number one position on the U.S. Dance Chart, eighteen years after their first chart-topper. Erasure followed up this success with "Don't Say You Love Me," and enabled fans to configure and buy their own remixes of the single through the band's website. Each variant of the song was limited to a single download.
2006 saw the release of the album Union Street, which featured a collection of previously released album tracks that the band reinterpreted in an acoustic/country & western style. The album was named after the recording studio in Brooklyn where it was recorded.
The duo have completed an album of new material that is a more 'dance oriented' effort than some of their more recent work. Titled Light at the End of the World, the album was produced by Gareth Jones and is slated for release on May 21, 2007 in the UK, and in North America the following day. On January 26, 2007 Clarke and Bell confirmed the release date of the new album, as well as its first single "I Could Fall in Love with You" in a video message on the offical Erasure website [1].
In addition, Erasure will be a part of the multi-artist "True Colors" Tour [2], which will travel through 15 cities in the United States and Canada. The tour, sponsored by the Logo channel, begins on June 8, 2007. Hosted by comedian Margaret Cho and headlined by Cyndi Lauper, the tour will also include Debbie Harry, The Gossip, Rufus Wainwright, The Dresden Dolls, The MisShapes, and other special guests. Profits from the tour will help to benefit the Human Rights Campaign.
- a-ha
- ABBA
- Alphaville
- Bodies Without Organs
- Björn Again
- Depeche Mode
- Eurythmics
- Kraftwerk
- Level 42
- Norman Iceberg
- Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
- Pet Shop Boys
- New Order
- Sara Noxx
- Simple Minds
- Soft Cell
- Suicide (band)
- Tears for Fears
- Yazoo
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
- Erasureinfo.com - The Official Erasure website.
- Gareth Jones' Erasure Diary