Get to Know Andy Bell of Erasure!
February 3, 2025

By Lori Majewski
The first time I saw Andy Bell, he was a peacock strutting on to the stage at Philadelphia’s Spectrum Arena. Actually, a better metaphor may be P.T. Barnum, because the Erasure frontman was leading a parade of performers dressed for the big top —himself included! — as a nod to Erasure’s latest album, The Circus.
It was June 1987, and the British duo were the support act for Duran Duran’s sold-out Strange Behavior Tour. I saw Erasure three nights in a row — the Spectrum was followed by the next two nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden — and with each gig my fondness for them grew. Opening bands can be blah, but not Erasure! Sixteen-year-old me was mesmerized by the costumes, the camp, and the songs —oh, the songs! They played “Oh L’amour” (I already owned the 12”), “Who Needs Love Like That?” “Victim of Love,” “Sometimes” — all pop-tastic tracks that in the intervening years have become bonafide synth-era classics.
However, looking back on it now, what impresses me most was Bell’s audacity. Unlike most of his peers, he was an out gay pop star from the jump. Though the eighties were a flamboyant, gender-bending decade, many of Bell’s contemporaries never officially declared their sexuality. Boy George, George Michael, Limahl from Kajagoogoo, and others officially stayed in the closet, mostly because there hadn’t been out-and-proud artists to set a precedent. Besides, from a record-sales standpoint, why risk turning off the clue-less female fans who fancied them? Years later, Bell said he stands by his decision.“That’s one thing I feel really good about,” Bell told The Guardian in 2022. “I think it made it harder for us in lots of ways, especially getting deals in America, being on the radio there. But it felt correct.”
Read on for 5 other facts about Andy Bell before he takes the stage on The 80s Cruise:
EARLY YEARS Andy was born in Peterborough, England, the eldest of six, with four younger sisters and a brother. He always wanted to be a singer, so, when he was old enough, he moved to London to “make it.” These days, Bell and his husband, Stephen Moss, split their time between the English capitol and Atlanta.
ERASURE AUDITION In 1985, Bell saw an ad for a singer in the British music paper The Melody Maker. When he turned up for the audition, he realized it was for his musical hero, Vince Clarke, co-founder of Depeche Mode and Yaz, who was putting together a new act “We had already seen 39 or 40 singers,” Clarke told me when I interviewed him for my book, Mad World: An Oral History of the Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s. “They were really good, but the moment he opened his mouth and started singing, we knew.”
TOP TWO Erasure’s had several hits on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks and Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts, but they had a pair of back-to-back top-20 Hot 100 hits: “Chains of Love” and “A Little Respect.” The latter was voted the Ultimate Pride Anthem in the UK in 2021.
ABBA-ESQUE That’s the name of Erasure’s EP of ABBA covers, which, released three short months before ABBA Gold, is seen in the UK as a stage-setter for the Swedish superstars’ comeback. Bell is a lifelong ABBA aficionado.
FROM POP STAR TO OPERA SINGER? Yep! In 2011, Bell was a runner-up on a British-TV talent show that had him singing arias like “O Solo Mio,” a song famously sung by Pavarotti!
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