Vince Clarke:

         Vincent John Clarke borned on July 3, 1960. He's from Basildon, Essex (UK). He lived in Amsterdam for a few years and I read he's living in the woods of England in a buckyball . Other than the analogue electronic instruments, he is also devoted to Science-Fiction movies.

         Vince started out in a synth band called Composition Of Sound and later switched to the successful Depeche Mode.  He left Depeche Mode in 1981, after the release of the album Speak And Spell. Until them every song from the group had been written by him except for Tora Tora Tora and Big Muff, that Martin Gore wrote. Martin also wrote the other ones after Vince left. Vince and Martin went to the same school, and although Vince hasn't been in contact with Depeche Mode since them, he seems to keep a certain contact with Martin, having even gone to Martin's wedding in August 1994. When asked why he left the Depeche Mode he said:  " Basically we didn't like each other. There were too many egos floating around. See, it all happened very very quickly, suddenly we were really huge, and every one in the group was each saying it was because of them. It was really a battle of egos, we were always arguing and that was it".

         After leaving Depeche Mode, Vince got together with the singer and songwriter Alison Moyet. Alison named the group Yazoo, which is a American blues record label. On the USA Yazoo called themselves "Yaz" to avoid misunderstoodments. Yazoo released two albums and after that Alison went to her successful solo career and Vince formed the Assembly.

         The Assembly wasVince and Eric Radcliffe (Eric is responsible for some Erasure remixes). They wanted to call different vocalists to sing each of song their songs and they released only one single in 1983 "Never Never"  but with vocals only by Feargal Sharkey. In 1985 Vince and Paul Quinn released a  single called "One Day" and later that same year, Erasure was born.
 

Andy Bell:

         Andrew Ivan Bell borned on April 25, 1964. From Peterborough (UK), his the oldest of his 5 brothers. From what I remember, Andy started singing while still young, in a church choir.

         In beginning of the eighties, Andy first got in a group called The Void (for 2 weeks or so, only), and then he and the bass player  left the band, to form his own band, called Dinger (which was Andy's nickname). They didn't last long either, but they played in some pubs and other place and released a single called Air Of Mystery. In some interviews Andy said that his partner (in Dinger) was very homophobic, but that even so, they got on fine. Andy is also very open about his sexuality.

         In 1994 he played Judy Garland in a play called The Night We Buried Judy Garland, which was a musical about gay rights. The play ran for a  month at the Shaw Theater in London, but Andy was only in it for a week. He was one of many people who played the part of Judy during the  course of the performance. He sang seven Judy Garland songs but no recordings have been released.
 

ERASURE:

         Erasure began when  Andy answered Vince's advertisement for a singer. He was the 41st singer to be auditioned, and Andy has said that he only found out that the ad was from Vince when he got there. Before that, Andy had first seen Vince playing Space Invaders before a Depeche Mode gig!  He had to sing some songs, which included Who Needs Love  (Like That). "I was feeling really happy when I came out, pleased just to sing along with Vince Clarke's backing track, and also because of the 'falsetto episode.'" says Andy. While singing Andy's voice had risen for the first time into falsetto.  Lying in bed the next morning, he received a call asking if he wanted the job.  "I never did find out what the job was" he jokes.  "I'd wanted somebody with a strong voice" says Vince, "and Andy was just right.  There was also something fresh about him, he wasn't at all cynical in his approach." Vince is not sure why Erasure were not immediately successful, although in his usual self-deprecating way, neither is he sure why they are now.  "The early songs are as good as the hits, but there you go, we weren't starving, and we were amusing ourselves if nobody else." Probably it was because o some people's comments about their shows and the fact that since there's always some new group coming up, and they're all alike, it get's hard choosing all of them.

         Erasure says  that their name came from the movie Eraserhead. There's a story that they wrote a list of  names which was circulated amongst friends  for them to cross off the ones they didn't like,  and the name that was left was "Erasure", but this story hasn't been confirmed.

         Vince wrote the first Erasure songs himself (Who Needs Love Like That, Push Me Shove Me and My Heart...So Blue),  but gradually they settled on Andy writing lyrics and Vince doing the music and just improving what Andy wrote. Andy has own writing credits on only one song: Cry So Easy ( from the Wonderland album).  "At first we had both been really shy," remembers Vince, but Andy was now becoming half of a team rather than a hired singer.  Andy remembers how difficult it was to judge Vince"s mood: "Vince is a typical Cancer, he'd sit there expressionless, staring into space, not looking at me. I thought, I'm going to get you, you Cancer." Vince usually is like that, staying quiet on the shows, behind all those electronic stuff.

      Their first single was Who Needs Love (Like That), released oh September 1985, followed by Heavenly Action and
Oh L'amour (it was a Hit in Sweden). Wonderland was their first album, and although  the fans consider it a good album, it got on 71st on the UK charts.
           The success started with the release of the single Sometimes in 1986 (from the second album, The Circus) coming to 2nd place on the UK charts on August 1986 (and made it's way to USA). This was the first of 24 consecutive top 20 in England, with In My Arms being the latest (that I know of). It Doesn't Have To Be Like That also got among the first 12. The album The Circus came out on 1987, and got to 6th place on the charts. From this album we have also the single Victim Of Love (7th place) and the single The Circus (6th place).
            After The Circus, Erasure released the single Ship Of Fools (#6 on the charts), followed by the album The Innocents.  This album is unique for the fact that it's one of the few albums on England that got on 1st place on the UK charts, and it came back to the same position six months later (in the end of 1988). A Little Respect came in 4th place and Chains Of Love came on 11th. This two and Ship Of Fools are the singles from the album, and although Chains Of Love was the first song to get into the US radio,  A Little Respect was the first song to get among the first Top 14 in USA
            In the end of 1988 they released the EP Crackers International, which includes Stop!, and almost got on 1st place again, but stayed on 2nd place on the charts.
            On October 1989  the album Wild was released, and guess what?, yeah 1st place again. Blue Savannah Song, Drama, You Surround Me and Star are featured on this album, and the b-side Supernature, that was a huge success came on the Blue Savannah Song single. And with Wild, Erasure also did their biggest tour, til then, playing for 8 months and finishing it in the Milton Keynes Bowl, infront of 60.000 persons.
            After came the album Chorus (again in 1st place). This album is considered by most fans as the best album still made, with songs like Chorus, Breath Of Life, Am I Right? and the famous Love To Hate You, which actually was to be released on the Dick Tracy soundtrack, but they couldn't fit it so they putted Looking Glass Sea instead.
           In 1992 Erasure released another EP called Abba-Esque which was a tribute to the group Abba. This album was also a huge success, putting Erasure back on 1st position. Andy is a big Abba fan, and the Erasure fans already knew this 'cause the Oh Lamour single covered the song Gimme Gimme Gimme, also from Abba.
           Since the release of Chorus, Erasure had already change a bit their music, because Vince started using some different equipment and this came more clear on 1994 with the album I Say I Say I Say. Part of the lyrics where written in Spain, and Vince & Andy started exploring their potential even more, leaving them again to top first position on the charts. This album also left some fans unhappy cause it didn't get a tour. They wanted to hear the new songs like Always, Run To The Sun, Because You're So Sweet and other early songs. From 94 to 96 Erasure didn't go out on tours, and I guess they didn't do so because they where tired and got some critics about their show's settings and their weird clothes.
            On October 24, 1995, came out the album ERASURE, which includes Stay With Me, Finger & Thumbs and Rock Me Gently. This was Erasure's most different work (not to say the best), with 5 to 8 minutes songs and great lyrics. Vince's sounds are amazing and so is Andy's vocals, creating a different style from their usual work (Vince says they wanted to sound like Pink Floyd). Some fans don't like this album, but for sure they're surprised by it. Stay With Me was the first single to come out, and it was considered as the most beautiful song. Then came the single Finger & Thumbs (Cold Summer's Day), taken from the soundtrack Erasure had done for the film Cold Summer's Day. The single Rock Me Gently came out in 1996, and this song is Erasure's longest one, with 10 minutes and most of it with Vnce doing amazing sounds, and I read that he even used Whale's songs in the middle of the mixings.
            The latest album, Cowboy, released in 1997, brings back the shorter and quicker songs, like Rain, Worlds Of Fire and Don't Say Your Love Is Killing Me. The songs In My Arms, Don't Say Your... and Rain came as a singles. The US version of Cowboy has also the songsRapture and Magic Momments. Rapture is also on the In My Arms (Pt. 2) single and the song Heart Of Glass is on the Dont Say Your... single, and for those who don't know, this two songs are form the group Blondie. Cowboy also brings back the Erasure tours, with a world tour with western settings and cowboy costumes.
 

*The information above was putted together /complemented by me, taken from other pages on the Net, interviews and other stuff. They're here for information purpose only, and I do not claim to be the owner of the copywrites.

        The story began over a decade ago, when a former founder member of Yazoo, The Assembly and "New Romantic supremos" Depeche Mode placed an advert in the music press. 21-year-old Andy Bell, a former professional mincer [honestly!] in a meat factory, was the 41st person to audition as a prospective singer for Vince Clarke's new project. Having hit it off straight away [the pair have, to this day, never had an argument] Clarke and Bell became Erasure.

        Despite a distinct lack of initial high-flying chart action [earliest singles "Who Needs Love Like That" and "Heavenly Action" reached the not-so-dizzy heights of Numbers 55 and 100 respectively], Erasure battled on, playing their first gigs at London's Heaven and Marquee clubs. At the latter, the audience comprised of just two people, and a support act in the shape of Primal Scream. The critics described Erasure at this point as "Vince Clarke's latest vehicle for instating the synth as a viable torture weapon." Little were these doubters to know how long their torture was to last......

        Third single "Oh L'Amour" was a huge hit in France and Australia, though less huge in Britain - reaching Number 85 in the
charts. Erasure went on to play their first UK tour - at clubs and colleges up and down the country, with Andy dressed as a
circus ringmaster, in rubber. Attendance was minimal but the response was encouraging - after one gig the entire audience went
backstage to tell Vince and Andy how much they enjoyed it [all 18 of them!] The press were now becoming more encouraging,
with Sounds commenting that "The combination of a grumpy ex-futurist and an outrageously camp singer may not sound like a
recipe for success but, oddly enough, it's so ill-conceived, it's a masterstroke."

        From 1987, Erasure started to infiltrate the Top Ten, chalking up a series of hits - including "Sometimes," "Victim Of Love," "Ship Of Fools," "Chains of Love" and "A Little Respect" - over the next couple of years. Their albums were reaching
consistently higher placings and Erasure found themselves as [erk!] mainstays at the top of the charts. "The Innocents" was
their first album to reach Number One, a spot to which they returned after a full nine months in the charts following release.
Their 1989 single "Drama" prompted one reviewer to comment that "Andy sounds like a warbling prarie dog, although that
doesn't detract from a triumphant recording." Possibly the most triumphant part of this recording was that doom rockers Jim and William of The Jesus and Mary Chain were persuaded to camp it up and provide backing vocals for the shouty bits in the
chorus.

        By now Erasure were performing at venues of gargantuan proportions. Vince and Andy donned silver space suits, while the stage set consisted of a jungle with giant steaming plants. The duo's reputation for live shows of preposterous dimensions was only to grow over the next few years. The size of their stage set was to become a problem in Tokyo in 1990, however, when, whilst the duo were enjoying an innocent pre-gig meal in a restaurant down the road, an earthquake caused the whole set to collapse. True to form, of course, Vince remained motionless and apparently unconcerned throughout the whole disruption. At the end of this, highly eventful, world tour, Erasure played to an audience of 60,000 at Milton Keynes Bowl, with Andy
appearing as a devil with an extra, dubiously located, horn [years ahead of Take That and their supposedly risqu? outfits.] The
stage set was now becoming ever more ridiculous with the new addition of a giant inflatable snail, Ernie.

        In 1991 Erasure released what was possibly their most overtly pop gem yet, "Love To Hate You," followed by the more
brooding, "Am I Right," after which the duo made preparations for their most ambitious tour to date - 1992's The Phantasmogorical Entertainment. For this tour Andy entered riding on a swan and appeared variously as a rhinestone cowboy
[with bottom exposed to the elements] and as a map of the world. Set changes were multiple and included The Wild West, a
voyage by hot air balloon and a night-club, amongst others. The show even included an Abba sequence [to compliment the
duo's highly successful "Abba-esque" EP.] In this Vince took the uncharacteristic step of emerging from behind his shield of
synthesisers to join Andy in a dance routine in which the duo dressed up as Frida and Agnetha. This is something Clarke has
vowed never to do again. Even the usually unshakeable Andy commented that it "all went a bit haywire." 1993 was a quite time
for Erasure, the duo taking a much needed rest after the shenanigans of the two previous years.

        The next year, however, the dynamic duo found themselves at the top of the charts once more, with the album "I Say I Say I Say," part of which was written in the tranquil surrounds of springtime Spain. The single "Run To The Sun," prompted Smash
Hits to describe Erasures music as "sometimes a little too much like the theme music to Sonic The Hedgehog." Vince's synth
technique had finally been rumbled. The twosome then took a rather different approach, going back into the studio to record
their 1995, 70-minute art-rock concept album, imaginatively entitle "Erasure." This darker, some might say more daring, side to
Erasure was to suprise more than just the duo's ever-increasing fan-base, showing an aspect of Vince and Andy that many may
not have thought existed. The Guardian described the single "Stay With Me" as "more beautiful than this world deserves." Fine
praise indeed, although they went on to say, "Now watch Andy Bell go and ruin it by wearing a tin-foil tutu in the video. On his
head." Touch?!

        In the last year, Clarke and Bell have been working on a new album, which is due for release at the end of March, 1997. The album was preceded by a single, "In My Arms," on January 6. They have also made their first tentative steps back onto the live circuit, with the [by their standards] "Tiny Tour," a chance for fans to enjoy the Erasure's greatest hits before they are able to hear the duo's new work. Erasure will be setting out on a tour of larger proportions after the album's release.

*Taken from the Mute Biography

        Vince Clarke's technical alchemy and Andy Bell's flamboyant gravity-defying voice. Elegant dance pop mixed with a brilliantly flashy live show. Erasure's study in opposites has produced a luminescent collection of work that's sold millions of records in America and around the world. Their broad-based musical appeal has consistently crossed over all radio formats and musical genres for more than a decade, attracting fans of alternative, dance and pop music on both sides of the Atlantic.
Uncompromising in their synth-based approach to pop music through the 90's -- despite the grunge dominated U.S. charts --
Erasure return to the now electro-friendly pop scene re-energized by a recent signing to Madonna's Maverick Records, with a
brilliant new album, Cowboy, and plans to tour America for the first time in five years.

        At just 36, Vince Clarke is undeniably one of the most influential figures in the short history of electronic music. Developing a reputation for hit songwriting first as one of the founding members of Depeche Mode in 1980 and then as one half of the synth duo Yaz in 1982 (formed with a school friend Alison Moyet), Clarke is responsible for many of the definitive electro-pop
classics of the era, including "Just Can't Get Enough," "Dreaming of Me," "Situation," "Only You," and "Don't Go" -- to name
just a few.

        Following the demise of Yaz and the short-lived Assembly (a one-off project with Feargal Sharkey), Vince found himself
searching for a partner. Through an ad he placed in the UK music press, Clarke auditioned former professional meat mincer
Andy Bell and settled on him as the new frontman for a new pop group -- Erasure.

        Their collaboration was wildly successful from the very first, when singles like "Who Needs Love Like That," "Heavenly Action" and the joyful, rough-edged "Oh L'Amour" placed the pair in regular rotation on American alternative radio in early days of the format and paved the way for Erasure's 1986 debut, Wonderland. Defining an enchanted work of high drama dance pop, the disc -- and Erasure's kaleidoscope live show -- spawned the group's first major hit, "Sometimes," which reached #2 on the U.K. charts.

        The Circus following in 1987, was propelled by an American tour with Duran Duran and instant dance classics like "It Doesn't Have to Be," "Victim of Love," and the title track, which was subsequently re-released as a remix of The Two Ring Circus featuring six remixes and three re-recordings of the original LP.

        In 1988, The Innocents, replete with some of Erasure's most assured and finely crafted work, went platinum in the States and sold over a million copies in Britain alone, launching a soulful, fervent hit, "Chains of Love," the group's first American Top 40 hit. The band finished the year with their four track EP Crackers International.

        Erasure's 1989 album, Wild, and its singles "Blue Savannah" and "Star," illustrated the growing strength and diversity of Andy and Vince's songwriting, pairing chilling ballads with Latin rhythms and bruised electro/psychodrama. Wild also marked the debut of a spectacular new stage show and a record-breaking tour that included the Far East, Japan, Australia, North and
South America. 50,000 Argentineans gathered in a Buenos Aires park to watch a video of The Innocents; in New York,
Erasure's Madison Square Garden show sold out in two hours flat.

        Chorus, in 1990, opened still new sonic avenues for Erasure, with Andy's stratospheric vocal range playing counterpoint to Vince's deliberately synthetic, meticulously structured soundscapes. Abba-Esque, their playful paean to ABBA, was released in
1992 and yielded the hit, "Take a Chance on Me," which was a #1 U.K. single and one of the first efforts to tap into the
growing interest in 70's nostalgia that was soon to overwhelm pop culture in the U.S.

        Erasure's 1992 Phantasmagorical Entertainment tour kicked off with an unprecedented 15 nights in England's Manchester
Apollo, and with another 15 at Hammersmith Odeon before launching a sold-out U.S. tour, including 13 sold-out shows in
New York City and 10 in Los Angeles. Their foray into theatrical extravaganza featured dancers, extra-musical activities such
as bingo and ballooning, and a flurry of costume and scenery changes. The combination of Clarke's near-robotic reserve and
the openly gay Bell's flamboyance on stage proved irresistible, wowing critics and fans alike.

        The same year, the band released Pop -- the First 20 Hits, the end of an era, so to speak with I Say, I Say, I Say, Clarke and Bell began a new cycle of their stunning partnership, weaving a lavish sonic fantasy that couldn't have come from any other
source. "Always," the first song released from I Say, I Say, I Say, became Erasure's most successful U.S. single to date and one of the biggest hits of 1994, according to Billboard's year-end chart.

        For their ninth studio album, Erasure, released in 1995, Vince and Andy were in a more experimental mode, musically and vocally. Featuring guest performances by Diamanda Galas and the London Community Gospel Choir, Clarke and Bell
surrounded such lovely ballads as "Stay with Me" with some of the lengthiest instrumental passages they've ever recorded,
enlisting the expertise of producers Thomas Fehlmann (Orb) and Gareth Jones to realize their musical vision.

        Despite its arrival at the very peak of the grunge movement in America, Erasure garnered some the best reviews of the band's career. A first-ever acoustic performance at the opening of the New York City's Spy Bar to celebrate the release of the disc was standing room only and proved what fans had known all along -- Erasure's success owed as much to their songs as their beats.

        Having weathered the guitar-driven storm of the 90's Erasure ironically find themselves elder statesman in the "new" musical movement dubbed 'electronica' by some US critics. Recently signed to Maverick Records, Clarke and Bell are preparing to release a new single "In My Arms" on March 17 and their eleventh studio album Cowboy on April 22.

        Cowboy marks a return to the kind of up-tempo, three-minute dance-pop that has earned Erasure legions of fans worldwide. In addition to the original Clarke/Bell compositions on the disc, the eleven-track Cowboy will also include a cover of the Blondie classic "Rapture" and "Magic Moments," an Erasure cut originally included on the Lords of Illusion soundtrack. "In My Arms" will be supported by a few special US club performances in March followed by an all-out western-themed theater tour extravaganza in May.

*Taken from the Maverick Biography