Erasure Biography

Erasure is a British synthpop duo, formed by Andy Bell (vocals, songwriting) and Vince Clarke (keyboards, songwriting). They rose to stardom with their second album, The Circus (1987) and became one of the most popular European acts of the late 80s to mid-90s. Furthermore, they became influential in the LGBT community. Overall, the sold over 25 million records to date. Their eleventh album Would Be Gone, is due for May 2017.

Musical Background 

Before Erasure, Clarke was one of the founding members of Depeche Mode. Notably, he wrote their breakthrough epic hit Just Can’t Get Enough. He left the band in 1981 and spent the following years as part of the duo Yazoo. After two successful albums, he pursued another project, The Assembly, which failed to match the expectations. Therefore, in 1985 he connected with Andy Bell and created Erasure.

Best Years

After a rough, slow, start, the duo gained some recognition with their debut album, Wonderland (1986). However, their breakthrough occurred one year later, due to the release of The Circus, their first platinum-certified record. It reached top 10 in the UK but only ranked at number 150 in the US. Erasure’s next album, The Innocents (1988),  marked the start of their number 1 albums spree. Additionally, it spawned three high-charted singles, notably the top 10 Ship of Fools. The following albums, Wild! (1989) and Chorus (1991) received similar acclaim. In 1994, the duo released I Say I Say I Say, which also topped the albums chart but only went gold.

Photo source: Discogs