Intro: Vince Clarke discovered Andy after inventing Depeche Mode, Yazoo and

The Assembly and annoys him by swishing Tunes around his mouth.

Andy Bell sometimes cooks Vince "slightly greasy" breakfasts and is "in love

with him". And they're both in a group called..Erasure.

"I'm just very,very cautious," says Vince Clarke thoughtfully. Andy Bell,

his partner and Erasure's singer, is gallivanting around at the other end of

a London photo studio, plainly very chuffed at being in the charts for the

first time with "Sometimes", but then again he's only 22 and Erasure is his

first group. Vince, on the other hand, is 26 and has had enough ups and

downs over the years to make him rather more sober about the whole business.

First he was in Depeche Mode. He wrote all their songs and he admits that

even then it seemed "pathetically easy".

"I just thought 'this is great'," he remembers. "Everything I do will be

alright."

And it was. Their first single "Dreaming of Me", took them from being four

teenage nobodies to "cult" stars and the next two, "New Life" and "Just

Can't Get Enough", were huge hits. So what did Vince do?.Well, he decided he

didn't want to be a pop star after all and chucked the whole thing in.

Except that then he decided he would quite like to be a pop star again,

discovered a completely unknown singer called Alison Moyet, formed Yazoo,

grew a stupid forelock of hair on the front of his head, and had four more

huge hits and two very successful albums. And then?. Then they fell out

rather badly. Alison Moyet left to begin her successful solo career and

Vince cut off that silly bit of hair. ("I've still got it in an envelope at

home - I think it's gone all mouldy"). Then Vince decided to have a group

called The Assembly where he wrote the music and guest singers performed the

songs. The first one, 'Never Never' with Feargal Sharkey, was a huge hit.

But then things started to go wrong...

Firstly, "it was impossible to find singers who were interested".

Secondly, after seven huge hits in a row, his next single, "One Day", with

Paul Quinn, reached the massive height of number 99 in the charts.

Before that, he admits, he thought that he had the magic hit-writing touch.

"After that single," he says sadly, "I realised I hadn't got the touch

because there's no such thing. I was devastated."

And he started getting more and more fed-up as each Erasure single flopped

even though he thought "each new song was the best we'd ever done." Until

"Sometimes" that is. And now he's a pop star again, getting mobbed

everywhere he goes.

"Er, no," he corrects. "That only happens to Andy. He likes it - people

coming up to him in clubs who've never talked to him before. I don't get

it." What? Never?

"Well," he admits, "the only time we both got mobbed was when we were doing

a TV programme in this really obscure town in Italy."

Well, that's OK then, isn't it?

"Er...they thought we were Bronski Beat. They were going 'Bronski Beat!,

Bronski Beat!'. We didn't bother to tell them..."

Vince

"How much do I know about Andy's past? I know all of it. He was born in

Peterborough, and he's got one brother and four sisters - or it might be

five. He used to sing in the choir and he got chucked out of school. There

was a bit of an outrage at school because he turned his attention towards

one boy and the school thought that was terrible.

"After that he went to grammer school and he was going to university but he

decided to move to London instead because there was nothing going on in

Peterborough - no clubs or any sort of gay community. I've heard that he

used to dress really flamboyantly when he first came down.

" He lived with this girl for a year and then moved into this squat with a

couple of blokes and now he lives with this American bloke Paul, in an ultra

cosy little flat in Hampstead. It's very nice - they've got a wood fire and

things like that - but it's invariably fairly messy. Still, I would say

that, being a fastidious person.

" I'd auditioned about forty singers when he came along and he just looked

like a general looking bloke - it was only when he opened his mouth that

there was something special. In the beginning I think he was a bit upset by

all the reviews saying he sounded like Alison Moyet - one or two would have

been OK but when you get it 200 times wherever you go in the world, then you

do get a bit angry.

" He's really easy going. Not laid-back, but he doesn't get upset about

things. Being in a group before, I used to get paranoid - I used to be a

little kid really, but I can relate to people better now. My relationship

with Andy is really good. We just talk about a lot of things. I've learnt a

lot from him about the gay scene and politics, and he takes me along to gay

clubs which is good, a real education. That sounds dead patronising, but

usually clubs make me uneasy and when I go to his places I don't get that

feeling at all. I just have a good laugh.

" We eat together quite a lot. He's got really good manners and he's a good

cook too. He does anything that's a bit unusual - he did some sort of mint

soup the other day that was really nice. And the last thing he did for me

was a breakfast and I don't trust anybody else for breakfasts but he passed

the mark. The old fry-up, you know, eggs - they were good, crispy bacon,

crispy fried bread, toast...no tomatoes, nothing squashy or squidgy. But his

boyfriend Paul does those American potato things - hash browns - which I'm

not so keen on and I was disappointed that he cooked the stuff in fat

instead of grilling it. It was slightly on the greasy side.

" The worst thing about him? His lateness for everything...and he's colour

blind. Or at least it seems to me that he is. We've got, er, different

colour co-ordination. On stage once he had this turquoise sequinned top and

these trousers that were scarlet!. Well, not trousers, tights. The best

thing about him is that he seems to get on with everybody and take them as

they are, and that he's scared of nothing. I'm scared of silly situations

that you get involved in with day-to day living - paying the bill and

working out how much to tip, things like that. Andy can deal with that, no

problem at all.

" What does he think of me?. Well, he'll describe me as meticulous -

fastidious to the point of madness. Would he be right?. Yeah, but I like

things to be organised and to be right.

" He also, er, told me that he used to fancy me. I was, um...embarrassingly

flattered. I went a dark shade of purple. He doesn't fancy me any more

though!. He's moved on..."

Andy

"I just know little splutterings about Vince, nothing substantial. There's a

hell of a lot that he keeps to himself that you wouldn't possibly know and

you can't get from him. Really personal things. Like I know he's really

sensitive and I've an idea sometimes of what's going on inside him but he

won't show it at all. I don't even know what he'd say if you said that to

him. I think it would freak him out a bit.

"Anyway, I know that he comes from Basildon. I don't know anything about him

at school but I know a few jobs he had - cleaning planes at the airport, and

lorry driving. I also know he was well into Christianity at one time but I

don't know if he'd like anyone to know that. He says he's rid of it now but

I'm sure there's still an underlying Christian thing there.

"I also know he played the violin at school and started playing the guitar

and writing songs, then he formed a band and got Dave Gahan to be the singer

because he had loads of mates. I don't quite know how he looks back on

Depeche Mode now - with nostalgia in some ways. He always says he's got no

regrets though, so I think he must believe in fate.

"I felt like I had this job, that I'd passed the audition, before I even got

there, because I'd always thought 'who works with really good singers?' and

I thought of Vince and wondered whether he needed a singer because I knew

I'd fit the bill. Yeah, I was very self-confident.

"To begin with, he was still doing the single with Paul Quinn and I was

thinking 'Oh no, what if it takes off?'. So I went down to the studio where

they were recording because Vince had said to pop in any time. I think Vince

was really freaked. It was my birthday as well and I was feeling really

insecure and I said 'Oh, it's my birthday' and he didn't know what to do.

Did he give me a present? No. Did he sing 'Happy Birthday'? No. We had some

pizza.

"To begin with, I was just hired as the singer and I kept wanting to put my

two penny worth of ideas in but I just thought 'now now dear, don't go

rushing in and spoil it before it's started'. Then when I finally did, Vince

was very encouraging and now we write the songs together. There isn't really

a boss.

"What's Vince like? Well, I'd say he's genuine and honest and wouldn't hurt

anybody knowingly. He likes hearing all the club gossip when I've been out

and he does like a bit of a bitch.

"Did I really used to fancy him? Oh yeah. I still do! I'm still in love with

him! I've been meaning to speak to him about that. His best feature? His

bum. I think he's got a cute little body. I don't know if this embarrasses

him or not. It's very difficult working with someone you're in love with. Am

I being slightly sarcastic? No! It's true!.

"One thing that really annoyed me about him though was when he was driving

to Maidstone the other day and he had a Tune, one of those cough sweets, and

he was going tcccttssschtttssshhh tcccttssschtttssshhhhhhh for three

minutes! And then, to top it all, he crunched it really noisily and then

swished all the bits about in his mouth! Then, about five minutes later, he

had another one! I didn't say anything, I just gritted my teeth. I thought

it was a really silly thing to get annoyed about

"The best thing about him? Well, the thing I like the most is when he's

affectionate and doesn't mind showing it. He can be really soft. He just

puts his arms around me..."