AP=Andi Peters

AB=Andy

VC=Vince

AP: Obviously you probably knew Vince, the work he'd done, so

when you got the audition were you quite excited?

AB: I was, I was over excited. But I always kind of had this idea that I

would work with Vince anyway.

VC: Well I think in the beginning we were probably over optimistic, y'know,

because we were excited about working together, and we felt we were getting

good results and then the whole thing just didn't work out at all you know.

The first album did quite badly and it forced us to er..get our feet back on

the ground if you like, and.. re-think our future and it forced us to work a

lot harder.

AP: What did you do before you were in Erasure?

VC: I used to work in a yoghurt factory, and I worked at the Post Office,

for British Rail, I used to work for the DHSS, all sorts of things.

AP: Which was your favourite?

VC: Um... I don't think, well, I never really stuck with the jobs for very

long, you know, shift working all the time, none of those jobs really

appealed. It was always work to make money, to buy equipment to do music.

AB: I sold ladies shoes and one of the reasons was because they have... in

Debenham's they have all nylon carpets and you see people come along looking

at the shoes and they get electric shocks.. ( everyone laughs) from

the stands!!. So I just used to wait around like, waiting, y'know!!.

AP: Slightly sinister!

AP: So how do you think Erasure fit into the charts today?

AB: I think, quite haphazardly really. I think we're a misnomer.

VC: Basically we write good songs and we're song writers and that's the music

that we make and people will always appreciate that, you know. I don't think

they'll be a time when rap music, for instance, takes over the whole of the

charts or dance music takes over the whole of the charts. I think they'll always

be room for songs.

Vince on Andy

I think he's as shy as I am.

Andy on Vince

Well Vince is very kind. He has a gentle soul and.. once he loves somebody,

that's it. It's unquestioned.

Vince on Andy

Apart from on stage, we're very similar characters, y'know, we've a lot in

common.

Andy on Vince

He gives very straight answers and he can make his mind up in an instant.

AP: What irritates you about each other?

VC: Well he used to irritate me when he was always late for everything

but I've learnt to live with that now, it's not a problem.

AB: There's not really anything that irritates me.. cause we just leave

each other to do their own thing. When Vince is in the studio doing the

sound y'know, I just leave him there for a week and he does it and then

I go in!.

VC: I think he's more likely to be surprisingly generous than I am.

AP: The Press. Do you take any interest in what they write about you?

VC: Well we try not to do too much press anymore because it does seem

a bit pointless, people have asked us the same questions already, over

10 years y'know, the same questions, so I don't believe what I read I don't

think, not particularly in the music press.

AP: Over the past ten years have you ever been asked what's in your

pockets?

VC: (Thinks for a while).. probably..maybe not no.

AP: What's in your pockets?

VC: Nothing. Actually that's not true, I've got my passport here, ( taps his

inside coat pocket). But I won't show you the photograph!!.

AB: Just some loose change.

AP: How much?

AB: I don't know.. ( stands up and starts rooting in his pockets!)..it's a good

job you didn't ask me this last night..

AP: Why's that then?

AB: Cos I wouldn't have been able to show you!!.

VC: I live in Amsterdam, so I flew over today.

AP: So what's your house like where you live in this country?, because I gather

you do live in this Country?

AB: Well it's modern. And it's kind of..it was built in three stages, in the 1930's

, 50's and 70's. So it has that odd feel. It looks like an Odean cinema!.

AP: So you mentioned playing live. Is that something you enjoy more than studio

work?

VC: It's a bit of both really. When you're in the studio for 3 months, the tale end

of that 3 months you're wishing you were on tour, and it's the same with touring

y'know.

AB: It's really nice this time having a long run-up to the tour, so things are quite

calm. But then I think by the time we get to May, we'll start getting a bit frazzled.

But usually in the studio you kind of have to cram everything in all the time and

you always run out of studio time. So.. I don't know,..it's the same as Vince really.

Once you've been doing something for a while, you start wishing you were doing

the other.

AP: What do you miss most when you're on tour?

VC: Erm.. mostly bacon sandwiches (!), especially in America because you can't

get the bacon.

AP: With the crispy edges?

VC: Well it's all crispy edges in America, that's the trouble, there's no meat on it!.

( Apologies to any Americans that might be reading this!- J )

AB: I think, my own bed.

AP: So you're a very visual band, is that something you take a very concerned

interest in?

VC: I don't take any interest in it, no!.

AP: Why not?

VC: Because Andy's the visual person.

AP: So do you have a designer who works just for you?

AB: Yeah.

AP: So what's your favourite one?, of your stage outfits?.

AB: Um,.. I don't know..I'm quite fond of .. we might pull it out and dust it down

this time, is a Marlene Deitrich blue angel dress with a little bit that goes up at

the back with all frilly knickers underneath!.

VC: He does it really well and he does it really naturally, I think, I haven't got

it in me to leap about on stage and er.. he makes me wear funny clothes, which

I'm into (!)...

AP: Do you ever feel that you're embarrassing Vince on stage?

AB: I think I used to, but I think he's used to it now. He see's the humour in it

and he knows that I don't really mean it.

AP: So you don't mind Andy having all the limelight, as it were?

VC: No, not at all on stage because he does it so naturally. I think I'd look

ridiculous doing it!

AP: So over the time that these 15 singles have taken, are you happy as an

artist?

AB: Yeah, I'm fairly happy, but I don't think our job is done yet though. I think

we still have lots more things.. to do.

VC: I think we're satisfied with the records we've made and er.. I don't know,

I mean after all this time y'know, having had two or three number two's and

y'know, being really close to the mark. But I don't think that we'll ever get to

number one actually, I think that.. that's fate.