Comp' Index

No.1: FANNING THE KIPPER

Players: any number.

Equipment: a 'kipper' cut out of newspaper, and a magazine or newspaper for each player, plus two long tapes or pieces of string.

The tapes or lengths of string are spread across opposite ends of the room, one being the starting line and the other is the finishing line. Players line up behind the starting line and place their 'kippers' with their tails just touching it. On the word 'Go!' each wafts the 'kipper' with the newspaper or magazine to propel it towards the finishing line. The one whose 'kipper' crosses it first being the winner. Touching the kipper with the newspaper or magazine with any part of the player's body, or with anything else, disqualifies a player, as does deliberately obstructing another player's progress.

Vince Clarke has the Midas Touch. One caress of his charmed index finger and the average syncopated - drum - modulated - harmonically - delineated - keyboard suddenly bursts into life, and brings forth bountiful arrays of splendid elemental pop.

The tape machine was switched on, and out trotted hits, more hits and even more prospective hits "Heavenly Action", "Union" and "Senseless" all belted and buckled over the expectant throng, all peerless precisely measured, exactly timed and surprisingly effective.

The mechanics of melancholy with more polish than spit, more grind than bump.

Powerful choruses, deliriously boppy beats - what more could any discerning disco reveller ask for? The evening's only hiccup occurred when the tapes suddenly went into auto-rewind, the band and Vince were left momentarily stranded onstage. Vince repaired the damage, the beat sailed on, and the band were acquitted through diminished responsibility . . .

Erasure are certainly not the synthetic face of the future, but this their first outing, proved they can capture the sound of a body in motion - forward motion.

TED MICO - MELODY MAKER, 14 December 1985