“A space where you can lay your soul bare”

Der Autor und Erasure – die erste Begegnung

Forty Years, Twenty Albums and a Very Personal Story

There was a time when discovering new music meant listening to the radio.
You could hear a song without knowing what the people behind it looked like, and still feel that something had happened. A few minutes of music could stay with you for years. It is no coincidence that the 1980s are still regarded by many as a golden era of pop music: radio, television and, later, MTV opened doors to entire musical worlds.

That is how Erasure first entered my life.

I heard them on the radio before I had any real idea what Andy Bell and Vince Clarke looked like. Later, Sky and Super Channel – and eventually MTV – gave me the visual context. But the real turning point came in 1992, when I received a ticket for Erasure’s Budapest concert as my 18th birthday present.

At the time, I had no idea that this ticket would become the beginning of a story lasting more than three decades.

From the first concert to a journalistic encounter

A few years later, I came across a small Erasure fan club and attended one of its events in Budapest. There I met two of the organisers. One of them worked at HMK Music, Mute’s Hungarian distributor at the time, and also taught English. I am still in touch with both of them through social media. Although Erasure is no longer such a central part of their lives as it was back then, the personal connection has remained.
Together with some familiar faces, I waited for Erasure to return to Hungary. They finally came back to Budapest in 1997, during the Cowboy era. The show was considerably less elaborate than some of the band’s larger productions of the time, with a much smaller and notably stripped-back stage. For me, it was still another important moment in a story that had long since become about more than simply listening to records.
By then, Erasure were no longer simply a band whose records I collected. They had become part of my life.

In 2005, I travelled to Munich to see them again. That was when I met Andy and Vince face to face for the first time, initially in connection with an interview opportunity. More meetings followed, as did live and online interviews.
Over the years, the journalistic connection gradually developed into something much more personal. It did not happen overnight, and it was never forced.
First Vince, through VeryRecords, and later Andy began to open up to me. They got to know my family, too. Over time, interviews, encounters and emails became memories that mean a great deal to me.

My email correspondence with Andy and Vince is something I would never trade for even the rarest record.
That personal connection has shaped the way I see Erasure. But it does not take away the journalistic question of what has changed over the years – and what this music still has to say today. After such a long time, I am interested not only in what has remained, but also in where Andy Bell and Vince Clarke are heading, musically and personally.
Several planned meetings and concert experiences in 2022 and 2025 unfortunately fell through for reasons beyond our control. In late 2023, however, I managed to make a one-day escape to London for the launch event of Vince Clarke’s solo album Songs of Silence, and I was able to exchange a few words with him before the event.
And now, once again, there is that familiar feeling of waiting.

Radio!! Radio!! – a title full of memories

Perhaps that is why Radio!! Radio!!, Erasure’s 20th album, feels particularly appropriate to me.
For Andy Bell and Vince Clarke, the title is not simply a nostalgic journey into the past. In a recent BBC Radio 2 interview, Andy explained that the idea was also connected to old walkie-talkies and their slightly tense, urgent way of communicating. At the same time, the title evokes a pre-digital era – fittingly for an album made by Vince, who still favours analogue, valve-based monophonic synthesizers.
In a recent Guardian interview, Andy explained why the title has four exclamation marks. For him, they convey a sense of urgency, reflecting a world in which technology is developing at an ever-faster pace. At the same time, he sees Radio!! Radio!! as a kind of call for calmer, more relaxed times.

For me, the word radio has another meaning, too. Before Erasure became part of my life, they were simply a voice and the sound of a synthesizer coming through a radio speaker. Four decades later, the circle has closed in a remarkable way.
“Wings Of Love” and the question of what keeps Erasure together
The album’s first musical calling card was “Wings Of Love”, released in September as the first preview of the album, due on 12 March 2027. Interestingly, the song was not originally intended to be a single. In the recent Radio 2 interview, Andy explained that Erasure had already written around twelve songs for the album when “Wings Of Love” was added as the final track. This relatively simple song ultimately became the opening statement of the new era because, for Andy, it connects the classic Erasure sound with the album’s newer approach.

The song’s subject is typically Erasure, yet strikingly down-to-earth. Andy describes it as a response to the pressure people can feel to find a partner. People ask why you are still single, why there is no ring on your finger – and at some point, he suggests, you simply have to let go of that pressure. Then perhaps someone will knock on the door.
That is also a good description of what “Wings Of Love” does musically: it does not try to force itself on the listener. It is one of those tracks that grows with each listen.

What particularly interested me in Andy’s recent Radio 2 interview was his answer to the question of what has kept Erasure going after 41 years.
The answer was remarkably simple: they love writing songs. Andy also said that he and Vince are closer than ever.

When they get together, they bring their ideas, work in different sessions and then put everything together again. Sometimes an instrumental takes shape first; sometimes a complete song emerges – occasionally with the lyrics already in place – almost in a single moment.
Andy also offered a wonderful glimpse into Erasure’s working process. Sometimes a song begins with sounds or apparent nonsense. He shapes the words around the vowels and the melody, until a text that initially meant nothing gradually acquires meaning.
Perhaps that helps explain why the partnership has lasted so long: not everything needs to be settled from the start. Sometimes an idea simply needs time.
A deep connection: Radio!! Radio!!

A deep connection: „Radio!! Radio!!“

Radio!! Radio!! is not simply a return to Erasure’s familiar sound. Synth-pop remains the foundation, but Vince Clarke has worked unusually extensively with piano and acoustic guitar this time. He cites Erik Satie among his inspirations. The Guardian feature also tells the story of a Spanish guitar that Andy and his husband, Stephen Moss, went out of their way to find for Vince before the recording sessions in Spain.

The personal dimension is stronger, too.
The album took shape during a difficult period for both musicians. Vince has said that some of the songs reflect things that have happened in his own life. Andy, meanwhile, has described their decades-long collaboration as a profound connection – a space where you can lay your soul bare.
In the recent Radio 2 interview, Andy expressed this in another way. At 60, after all their shared experiences and four decades as Erasure, life has, in a sense, settled into place. What remains is the desire to say thank you – for the people around him and for the fact that there is love in the world.
Perhaps that is one of the most revealing keys to the new album. Not nostalgia, not looking back for the sake of it, but gratitude. And the recognition that a long shared history does not mean standing still musically.

Vince Clarke will still be there – just differently

One of the biggest changes for the 2027 tour is also a very personal one: Vince Clarke will not be on stage alongside Andy. Instead, he will serve as the tour’s musical director, working from San Diego while Andy performs with the band.
There is more to the decision than the strain of long journeys between California and Europe. In the recent Guardian interview, Clarke spoke openly about how the death of his wife, Tracy, in January 2024 played a role. Asked whether her death was the main reason for his decision to step back from touring, he answered simply: “Yes.” Andy, who lost his own partner, Paul Hickey, in 2012, also described how important it has been for the two of them to be there for each other.
Perhaps this helps explain why their bond, after four decades, goes far beyond a conventional musical partnership. Clarke describes it as something “much deeper than mates”, while Bell speaks of a family connection and a “deep soul connection”.
There is another personal connection for me here: Howard Rider will operate Vince’s synthesizers on stage in 2027. Howard is no stranger to me. In 2019, I interviewed him in connection with BROOK, the duo whose debut album Built You For Thought was released on Vince Clarke’s VeryRecords. Even then, Howard told me that he had worked as Vince’s keyboard technician for many years and had accompanied almost all of his tours.

The fact that Howard will now help preserve Vince’s musical presence on stage in 2027 is a particularly lovely link between different chapters of my own history with this music.
Exactly how this new live setup will work remains to be seen. Andy has already revealed that, alongside the major hits, the set will include some songs the audience might not necessarily expect. There will even be a Christmas song.

The “Radio!! Radio!!” Tour begins on 25 April 2027 in Cardiff – on Andy Bell’s birthday. Demand is already evident in two sold-out shows: the opening night at Cardiff’s Utilita Arena and the concert at Leipzig’s Haus Auensee on 18 May are both sold out. An additional Leipzig date has therefore been added for 19 May at the same venue. The tour will then travel through the UK, Ireland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden.

Erasure (Photo: Travis Shinn)

Forty years, twenty albums – and still moving forward

Looking back on this story, it is a strange thought that a song I heard on the radio as a teenager would lead to more than three decades of Erasure becoming part of my life.
I still have the ticket from 1992. I still have the photograph from 2005. Between those two moments lie concerts, interviews, journeys, records, emails and encounters that have become part of my own history.

A new chapter begins with Radio!! Radio!!. I do not yet know whether I will manage to make it to one of the concerts in 2027. But I am curious to see what Andy Bell and Vince Clarke still have to say after four decades of making music together – and what this album may reveal about them that we did not know before.
That is what interests me as a journalist, too: not only the story I already know, but also what still lies ahead.
Forty years into their story, Radio!! Radio!! feels to me less like a look back than a new frequency.

“Radio!! Radio!!” will be released on 12 March 2027 via Mute.