*!!!!!Erasure Bio Erasure Bio Erasure
Bio!!!!!*
Way back in late 1980 there was this little known
keyboardist by the name of Vincent Clarke
who was the
founding member of a little known band by the name of
Depeche Mode. This band started out as a guitar/synth
driven band but by 1981 they had dropped the guitars and
opted to be an all electronic band, paving the way for
modern synthpop bands as we know them now. Thier first
album "Speak and Spell" was written and composed by Vince
Clarke with the exception of the songs "Tora, Tora, Tora"
and "Big Muff" which were penned by Martin Gore. Much of
the bands early success came from the musical mind of Vince
as he contributed such classic Depeche Mode hits as "New
Life", "Dreaming of Me" and the dance sensation "Just Can't
Get Enough" After the release of thier first album Clarke
decided that he wasn't where he wanted to be so he left the
band in search of greener pastures and found them in 1982
when he respnded to a music advert thus joining forces with
singer Alison Moyet to form the band Yazoo, know as Yaz in
the US. Alison sang and Vince played the music. And did
he ever! The duo released two albums "Upstairs At Erics"
in
1982 and "You and Me Both" in 1983. Before leaving the band
to form the Assembly Clarke left the world with a slew of
hits and great Vince Clarke originals such as "Only You",
"Mr. Blue", "Situation" and "Don't Go" among others. In
1984 he formed the Assembly with Eric Radcliffe and issued
forth yet another hit single "Never, Never". In late 1984
Vince placed an ad for a singer. Many hopefuls responded
including am unknown hopeful by the name of
Andrew Bell. Bell was
the 43rd applicant. Vince recalled that he was the second
to last applicant. In fact up to that point, Vince had not
been the type to drink or to get drunk. But the frustration
of listening to singer after singer who just didn't cut it
drove him to drinking and he was quoted as saying "Let's go
get drunk";) Imediately Vince knew that Andy fit the bill
when he heard him sing "Who Need's Love
Like that". Andy had never been in any successful bands,
his only bands being The Void which never released anything
and the slightly more successful band, Dinger who released
one single featuring the A and B sides "Air Of Mystery" and
I Love To Love". When Andy joined forces with Clarke, his
career truely began. In 1985 they released thier debut
album, Wonderland and later settled on Andy writing the
bands lyrics whereas Vince is responsible for composing
the music. They decided to call themselves Erasure
and went on to conquer the world with thier unique sound
and attitude. Vince and Andy to this day
have never had arguements and have said that they love
working together and are good friends. Finally a perfect
match for a perfect band!:)
More about Vince
More about Andy
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