If you'd like to hear an mp3 of this interview, you can visit Chris' Erasure page.
Steve Wright was interviewing Andy about 'The nineties'. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a blur to Andy...!
(btw, this wasn't meant to be a promotional interview for Loveboat...they will be doing a tour of local radio stations to do just that very soon).
SW: I suppose you're most famous in the 90s for the Abba thing.. (he said something like that..sorry, I cut the first question off the tape)
AB: Unfortunately, that's the thing that people most remember us for. I think..
SW: Why unfortunately?
AB: Well, because it started this whole ABBA sort of treadmill thing. I must admit I'm a huge fan, but even I got fed up with it.
SW: (Laughing) did you?
AB: Yeah, fed up with the whole thing.
SW: What were your memories of the early 90s then?. because you were out there competing with all the other bands.
AB: Yeah..people always think that we're an 80s band but we didn't actually have our first single out until 1986. Probably, not our first hit until '88 or something like that (Andy, - you had your first hit in '86, Sometimes reached number 2!- J :-). And then I think we carried on until about '94 or something. So it was a bit of a blur, all that time, cos I wasn't really paying attention to what the date of the year was or anything like that!.
SW: Now, where's that Vince Clarke?. He was the quiet one as I recall..
AB: Yeah, he still is, he's very quiet. He's directing me in a video now. He's gone behind the camera (this would be for Freedom - J)
SW: Yeah... (doesn't enquire about that at all -J)
AB: I can't tell you how old he is but he says he's too old to be infront of the camera.
SW: He is actually too old to come into radio 2, I beleive
(laughter)
AB: Yeah, in actual fact, he's more vain than I am...
SW: (laughing) Is that possible Andy?..
AB: yeah, more vain than I am..
SW: I remember you.. I mean obviously we've made a few disparaging remarks about you on Top Of The Pops 2..
AB: Yeah, but I'm more sensible now..I love your remarks on TOTP2!
SW: Because you're such a mickey taker..
AB: Who me?!!
SW: Yes, you Sir!!
Other DJ (don't know his name): And let's face it though, you did wear some interesting clothes in the 90s though, didn't you Andy?
AB: Yeah, and you (Steve Wright) always introduced us as 'Vince and Andy', and I really liked that...
SW: (laughing) Where did you get the clothes, by the way?
AB: Well, we got them from all over the place.
Other DJ: You found most of them, didn't you?
AB: Yeah, usually it was an emergency (laughs).. so I just like whipped round Kensington Market or have a whip round..
SW: I don't know if you know, but some of those clothes were for women...
AB: Are they?! oh, I hadn't noticed.
SW: (cracking up)...
AB: I borrowed some stuff from Eddie Izzard!
(laughter)
SW: Stay there..we're going to come back and talk more 90s in a moment..
(Plays Blue Savannah.)
SW: So we're here with Andy Bell from Erasure! (applause). Andy was brought up in Peterborough and you used to be a choirboy?
AB: I was a choirboy
SW: And still are..
AB: Yeah
SW: Claims to be allergic to Barn Owls. I have no idea why I mentioned that. Are you allergic to barn owls?
AB: I'm not allergic to Barn Owls, no. I've always tried to do that thing where they turn their head right round..I get a crick there.
SW: You're not allergic to Barn Owls because I've had this studio completely cleared of all Barn Owls.
Other DJ: Why would they tell us he was allergic to Barn Owls?! (I think I read that once in a Smash Hits mag - obviously it wasn't true! -J)
SW: I have no idea. What bands do you remember from the 90s?
AB: Well, apart from the 90s being a bit of a blur to me. I liked the Ray Of Light album.
SW: Madonna?
AB: Madonna. She's always there. You can always rely on her. I mean, we were kind of like moving around a lot as well. I moved over to Spain. So I was listening to the music over there and they have lots of Rock-a-billy punk kind of stuff.
SW: Yeah..
AB: Because they missed out on all that
Other DJ: Is that because they're about 25 years behind us?.
AB: Yeah.
Other DJ: So did you miss out on the whole Britpop battle then because we had the Blur and Oasis and all those bands coming through?
AB: Yeah, I didn't really get involved in all that. I wasn't really bothered. I do remember though, saying to Jarvis (Cocker from Pulp)...someone asked me who I prefered out of Blur and Oasis and I said 'Pulp'!.
(laughter)
SW: I always thought of you two and the Pet Shop Boys as competing bands. Do you remember actually competing with them in the '90s and thinking in competetive terms?
AB: I don't think we were actually competing. But people always like to pitch you against somebody else. And the Pet Shop Boys is kind of a natural band for us...
SW: Your new album is 'Loveboat'. It comes out in October. Presumably you've been working on that recently?
AB: Yeah, we took six months to record it. Wrote the songs, probably nearly 3 years ago. We were really pleased with how the songs came together because we'd got a bit rusty...writing the songs.
Other DJ: You haven't done very much...(?)
SW: What exactly are you doing Andy?. Are you living the life of riley and recovering from the 90s?
AB: Yeah, I'm living the life of riley, recovering from the late 80s and early 90s. I mean, it took me the whole rest of the 90s to do that and I've only just realised that it's already the year 2000 that we're in - no
Other DJ: (laughing) so you missed out on the 90s then?!
SW: Listen, thanks for coming in and talking to us about the 90s. Pick me out your favourite song from the 90s and we'll play it now.
AB: It would have to be from the Ray Of Light album. That Madonna song that goes..(sings) "all the ants crawled across my back"
SW: Here it is then...
(If you didn't recognise that song from Andy's description, it's 'Mer Girl', the final track from the Ray Of Light album.)
Well, that was a little disappointing that the new material wasn't mentioned more, but I'm sure that will happen in interviews nearer the release.