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Supporting video 2 of 2 for this post on Les Child!

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Supporting video 1 of 2 for this post on Les Child!

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In honour of both Black History Month and the UK’s LGBT+ History Month, let’s shine a spotlight on a key figure in Erasure’s brilliant stage shows - Les Child!

Child has had a prolific and storied career, working as a dancer, choreographer, and innovator in the arts. He danced with several groundbreaking troupes throughout the ‘70s and 80s, and also founded some of his own–including House of Child, the UK’s first voguing group. In the ‘80s, he branched out into choreography for music videos, which brought him into pop star circles, and at the dawn of the ‘90s, he set his sights on live tours.

According to his CV on HeadNod Agency, the first tour Child ever choreographed was Erasure’s Wild! Tour (1989-1990). Child was fond of Erasure’s music, and told Private Ear in 1992 that “it makes life a lot easier when it comes to choreographing a show if you enjoy the music”. He would go on to do the choreography for The Tank, the Swan, and the Balloon (1992), Cowboy (1996-1997), and The Erasure Show (2005). Indeed, Child seems to have choreographed more tours for Erasure than for any other band or artist. He also starred in Erasure’s short film “Dr. Jekyll and Mistress Hyde” (2003), and forged an enduring friendship with Andy Bell.

Child’s work with Erasure is really special to me. His choreography is undeniably dazzling on its own, and the dancers deliver it with athleticism and aplomb. But I’d also argue that it adds to the music, making it even better. My favourite example is “Love to Hate You” from The Tank. In this performance--which Bell introduces as “the gayest of gay tangos”--two pairs grace the stage: one male-male, one female-female. By the end of the song, they’ve swapped partners multiple times. (Check out video 1 and video 2 to see this in action.) When I first saw this, I was charmed. It was unexpected, yet it seemed natural: a nod to the sexual fluidity that runs through Erasure’s music and art. I feel that Child truly got Erasure, knew what made them “them”, and made it sparkle.

SOURCES: Cover image and CV from Les Child’s page on HeadNod Agency (headnodagency.com). “Ear to the Ground”. Private Ear, Issue 11 (1992). Retrieved via a capture of the official Erasure website (Internet Archive). December 4, 2004. “Erasure - Dr Jekyll and Mistress Hyde (Directed By Vince Clarke)”. Original video from Erasure (Mute Records), 2003. Uploaded by Erasure Música y Amigos, retrieved via YouTube. “Life Drawing with Sue Tilley featuring Les Child as model and muse.” Uploaded by Sue Tilley, retrieved via YouTube, November 27, 2021. Staples, L. “From leather daddies to ‘Drag race’, dissecting the revolutionary history of the queer aesthetic.” British Vogue. July 24, 2021.

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You may have thought the PSB vs. Erasure series was over - but there’s more! I collected some tidbits that either couldn’t fit in the original series, or that I’d found after the last post. So here’s part 5!

After Erasure released their debut album, Clarke was asked in an interview if he thought the radio wouldn't play Erasure because their genre (synthpop) wasn't in fashion anymore. He disagreed, citing PSB as an example of a synthpop band who were doing well. Source: Melody Maker, May 31, 1986.

In August 1991, PSB did a stint as radio DJs on BBC Radio One, playing a surprisingly wide variety of artists. There were only two artists they wouldn’t play: Deacon Blue…and Erasure. (However, one of the songs they played–a 20-minute megamix by 808 State–sampled “Just Can’t Get Enough”, a song written by Vince Clarke!) Source: Literally, Nov. 1991.

Speaking to Outrage in 1992, Bell called PSB “snooty” and said they censored their interviews in the UK. Source: Outrage [Australia], Jan. 1992.

In 1994, Neil Tennant claimed that PSB weren't a 'perv' pop duo– “that’s more like Erasure.” (A decade earlier, in his career at Smash Hits, Tennant had coined the term ‘pervy synth duo’ to refer to Eurythmics.) Source: Vox, Jan. 1, 1994.

Bell described PSB as "swishy and camp" in a 1995 interview. Source: ICON, Dec. 1995.

In 2000, the unofficial Erasure site erasure.org reported that the “official” Erasure website, erasure.co.uk, was redirecting to the PSB website. However, it wasn’t the official site. The domain owner for erasure.co.uk had failed to sell the domain to the Erasure Information Service (EIS) for £10,000. After being rejected, he stole the designs and content from the EIS and reproduced them on his own site. When the EIS asked him to properly source his content, he decided to redirect his page to PSB’s site instead.

Ian “H” Watkins from the band Steps once told Neil Tennant that his brother had seen one of their gigs in Wales. Eventually, he realized it was Erasure. Tennant was “not impressed”. Source: NME, Nov. 2020.

In 2019, Bell went back on his word–he told journalist Steve Pafford that Erasure and PSB WERE rivals! Source: Stevepafford.com, Jun. 5, 2020.

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A gifset of Vince Clarke being incredibly happy while performing in Karlsson, Sweden, May 1, 1986. This was the first time in Clarke's career that he enjoyed performing live. In a 1985 interview in Melody Maker, he told journalist Kris Kirk, "I've never experienced pleasure in playing live before. … But there's nothing like playing non-stop dance music loud for feeling good. … And the other reason it's working for me is that I get on so well with Andy."

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From the start, Erasure have been influenced by children’s media, and they’ve brought those influences into their art. However, in 1991-1992, this fascination would reach its peak, with the band creating several works influenced by various books, TV shows, and films they’d seen as children. Here are five such works from what I call Erasure’s “fairy era”. Click through to see them all.

1. The East German fantasy film “The Singing Ringing Tree” (1957) inspired Erasure’s “Siren Song”, and Andy Bell has also talked about its influence on his work.

2. In 2010, Bell was the guest editor of the online Magnet Magazine, where he shared some of his life experiences and influences. One of his features was on the children’s TV programmes that had come from the UK in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Bell mentioned the show Clangers, about “a family that live on the moon”, and suggested that Vince Clarke was inspired by the sound effects on that show. The B-side to “Am I Right” (1992) was titled “Carry on Clangers”.

3. The video for “Breath of Life” (1992) was inspired by the Alice in Wonderland book series, and featured several nods to the story, including “an Alice character ushering Andy through the Looking Glass, the hookah-smoking caterpillar, singing oysters, and dubious-looking mushrooms, with lush painted sets and backdrops evoking the most beloved scenes of Lewis Carroll’s trippy tales” (Mat Smith, Chorus reissue).

4. According to Mat Smith, who interviewed Erasure for the Chorus reissue, the story of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe inspired the lyrics for the song “Home”.

5. The film The Wizard of Oz inspired both the song “Over the Rainbow” (the B-side to the single “Chorus”), and the band’s Phantasmagorical Tour (1992), which featured several references to the film. Before “Blue Savannah”, Bell gives a bawdy retelling of one of the film’s pivotal scenes. He also sings the film’s iconic song “Over the Rainbow” in ruby slippers.

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We’ve arrived at the final post in the Pet Shop Boys/Erasure “rivalry” series. I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride!

So, was there a “rivalry” at all? The two groups disagreed on a lot of things and made their fair share of snippy comments about each other, goaded on by journalists and fans’ comparisons. But they also talked about enjoying each other’s music and didn’t go out of their way to avoid one another. For instance, they appeared at the same London Pride festival in 1997, performing within an hour of each other.

By the 2000s, they’d stopped the trash-talking. In interviews around this time, both groups said they didn’t consider themselves rivals, and acknowledged the role of the public in creating this mistaken impression. However, when asked about each other, they were hesitant to approach the topic–which suggests that, while they weren’t enemies, they weren’t friends either.

For the most part, both groups have continued to reiterate that they weren’t and aren’t rivals. They hardly ever met in person–both have said that their paths rarely crossed–and when they did meet, they were able to be civil. And that’s still true to this day. In a 2019 interview, Andy Bell said that he’d met Chris Lowe a couple years ago at a Marc Almond show, and Chris had cracked a gentle joke, even calling Andy “love” as he did. It seems there are no hard feelings between the two bands.

My thoughts? The rivalry was mostly created and sustained by journalists and fans, and the bands themselves played a fairly small role in it. While they weren’t friends, there wasn’t any real hate between them. They may have even found it fun to make all those petty comments.

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This post examines Erasure's involvement in the Red, Hot & Blue project.

In 1989, Leigh Blake and John Carlin, two figures in the New York creative scene, were finding themselves affected by the AIDS crisis, which was having a devastating impact on so many talented artists, intellectuals and friends. Frustrated by the government’s persistent inaction, they looked to their community to enact change. They had an idea. What if they could put out an album of songs by Cole Porter, covered by some of the hottest musical acts, with the proceeds going to AIDS organizations? And what if they paired those songs with music videos directed by great filmmakers?

Early on, the organizers asked Erasure to take part, and the band agreed–they’d always done AIDS benefits and felt that it was more important than ever to raise awareness about the disease. They contributed a steamy, electrified cover of “Too Darn Hot”, along with a powerful music video, directed by Adelle Lutz and Sandy McLeod. Bell and Clarke play weather forecasters reporting on the crisis, with the “heat” of the song used as a metaphor for the effects of the epidemic. It’s the project’s most political video, blending the “weather” concept with footage of AIDS protests and facts about HIV. The film clip was so incisive that when the Red, Hot + Blue TV special was aired on ABC, some of its more pointed messages were altered or removed by the network. Thankfully, a year later, the uncensored version was played on Bravo, and it was seen in 30 countries around the world.

Bell also did a front-page feature for Record Mirror in 1990 on the initiative. In the article, he explains why he was determined to contribute, shares more facts about AIDS, and poses in Red, Hot + Blue merchandise. His frankness, conviction and optimism make it a bracing, worthwhile read.

In spite of funding struggles and censorship, Red, Hot + Blue was a success, selling over a million copies worldwide and raising millions of dollars for AIDS charities like ACT UP and AmFAR. Its success helped establish the Red Hot nonprofit, which would go on to release over 15 collaboration albums, numerous TV specials and media events. And it’s still going on today: follow the Red Hot Organization on social media to learn more.

Sources:

General information: the official website of Red Hot Organization; newspaper clippings; books from Internet Archive Magazine cover: Lansure's Music Paraphernalia and Michael Kane (Record Mirror, Oct. 20, 1990) Screen captures of music video: Internet Archive

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Ever wonder how Andy Bell came up with the words “Oh l’Amour”? It’s from the 1939 film The Women!

In an interview with Gay Life (1986), Bell explained, “‘Oh, l’Amour’ is gay humour; it's what screaming queens would say if they split up…It came from the film 'The Women', which is an old black and white film with just women in it and it was directed by a woman in the 1930's or 1940's. It's about very camp, bitchy, high society games and anytime they wanted a divorce they'd get on the train to Reno. There's one woman who's on the train every single journey, and her quote is 'Oh, l'amour, l'amour, toujours l'amour!’"

The film was directed not by a woman, but by a gay man, George Cukor. In the Stanford Daily, Amir Abou-Jaoude wrote, “He was known as a ‘woman’s director.’ The term was halfway between a compliment and a slur. Many of Hollywood’s leading ladies genuinely enjoyed working with him, but the label also pointed to his gay identity.” His direction, along with the witty, catty dialogue and the actresses’ campy performances, made the film a cult classic among gay men. Abou-Jaoude went on to say, “As the critic Christopher Harrity writes, for gay men of a certain generation, ‘if you heard a man quoting the film, you knew you were among friends.’”

“Oh L’Amour” marks one of the first times that Bell included a nod to gay culture in his songwriting. At this point in his career, he was hesitant to write love songs that were obviously gay (as was Vince Clarke), fearing that he’d be “a bore” and not wanting to be too political. By titling a song “Oh L’Amour”, he was giving a hint to those “in the know”. Over the next five years, the duo would grow more comfortable with the prospect of writing gay songs. (Let me know if you’d like to see that post 😉)

Sources:

Image of “Oh L’Amour” single (1986) from Discogs. “Rubber band”. Nick Delves. Gay Life newspaper, 1986. The Women. Directed by George Cukor Film distributed by Loew’s Inc., 1939. Poster retrieved from The Movie Database (TMDB). “‘The Women’ is about far more than femininity”. Amir Abou-Jaoude. The Stanford Daily, March 15, 2019.

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Can we appreciate how good Vince looks here? His accessorizing is top notch and his confidence really sells it. WORK 👏 IT 👏 SOURCE: Performance of "Fingers and Thumbs (Cold Summer's Day)", 1995, on Top of the Pops. (link)

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This is a promotional photo from 1986, taken by Paul Cox. If you look closely, you can see that both Andy and Vince are wearing badges. Vince's badge is hard to read, but if you zoom in, you can see a triangle pattern and some (blurry) text. What does it say? Where is it from? If you want to know more, read on.

Looking at it more closely, I remembered a line I’d read from an article in Gay Pied Hebdo, a French gay magazine. Journalist Didier Lestrade wrote that Vince was wearing "un incroyable badge de Gay Pride'86" ("an incredible Gay Pride '86 badge"). Could it be that one?

I did some digging and came upon the website for Bishopsgate Institute, an independent cultural institute and archive in London. This site has lots of digitized resources on London's Gay Pride events from the 70s to the 90s, including images of the official badges for each year’s Pride–which is where I found the badge for Pride ‘86. When I rotated the pic of Vince’s badge, it was a match. (There’s a bit of extra text on the one Vince is wearing–his reads “Lesbian & Gay Pride ‘86”.) I’ve also found other photographs from that photoshoot that show the badge in full colour.

Now, how did Vince get hold of that badge? Once again, Bishopsgate revealed the answer: on July 3, Erasure performed at Pride ‘86 as part of the "Carnival Countdown".

By playing at Pride events, and by wearing this badge publicly, Vince was showing his support for the gay movement in a visible way–and he was doing so from the beginning. It was a commendable move for a straight musician, especially in the face of an increasingly homophobic political climate. He was also facing pressures from agents not to involve his new band too heavily in gay politics. But he felt that it was important to stand in solidarity with his bandmate, who’d educated him on the gay scene. And he continued to do so throughout his career.

This image may not seem remarkable at first glance, but it’s actually a testament to Erasure’s activism and Vince’s allyship. Dig a little deeper, and you might find something neat behind the image.

Sources:

Bishopsgate Institute website (images of Pride ‘86 buttons and programme clippings). “Erasure”. No. 1 Magazine, Nov. 29, 1986. Retrieved from the Flickr page of Michael Kane. “Erasure Come of Age”. Record Mirror, Nov. 29, 1986. Retrieved from the Flickr page of Michael Kane. “Erasure: La Messe Gay”. Didier Lestrade, Gay Pied Hebdo, Nov. 29, 1986. Erasure press photos, 1986, taken by Paul Cox. Retrieved from the website Lansure's Music Paraphernalia. Erasure Gig fansite. “The Boy Can’t Help It: Erasure Cleans the Slate.” Adam Block, The Advocate, July 22, 1986.

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Some snuggles to bring us into the weekend 🤗 Swipe to see the full pics, some of which are in colour.

Ever since I got into Erasure, I've been struck by how physically affectionate they are. It's adorable and heartening. Maybe I'll do a post on it one of these days 💛

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So far, we’ve taken a look at how the “rivalry” started, and examined it from both sides. But what did the fans of Pet Shop Boys and Erasure think of all this? Did they perpetuate the rivalry in their own fanbases? Was it even possible to be a PSB fan AND an Erasure fan?

Let’s start by answering that last question first: yes, it was totally possible. From the beginning, the two bands’ fanbases have crossed over, with plenty of fans of both. In the newsletters for both bands, fans of one duo often mentioned liking the other–for instance, in the “penpals” sections. This makes sense, as the duos offered many of the same things, which attracted fans who were into these aspects: synth-based pop music, fire-and-ice duos, cute English men, a camp aesthetic, the gay elements of their art, and theatrical stage shows. 

From what I’ve been able to find out, their fanbases were mostly friendly to each other in the ‘80s. In fact, in many parts of the world, fans weren’t aware of the “rivalry” between the two bands. They didn’t have access to the magazines, newsletters, and videos that tracked the bands’ comments on each other. In some areas, it wasn’t even easy to find electronic music, which was an underground genre. If you were into that kind of music, you tended to like all the big groups from that genre, Erasure and PSB included.

So how did fans become aware of the “rivalry”? Often, it was through talking with other fans. This was made much easier in the ‘90s, with the new forms of telecommunication that were emerging. In this decade, mailing lists, fansites, and newsgroups were all created for the two bands, allowing fans to chat with each other–and to argue, too. The “rivalry” was indeed perpetuated by fans, and some thought it was also started by them. More on that later.

On media dedicated to Erasure, PSB came up frequently in discussions, as did the reverse. Depending on the platform, the tone of these discussions varied. For instance, on mailing lists, most mentions of the other band tended to be positive or neutral. There was the rare serious argument in favour of one band, but much of the sniping was done in good fun. 

The same was true of fansites. One Erasure fansite, Onge’s Erasure Page, put out polls in 2000 and 2003 asking fans what their other favourite bands were; PSB were the second-most popular choice (the first was Depeche Mode). A PSB fansite, Commentary, put out its own survey in 2003 asking about a collaboration between the two bands. While nearly half voted that they shouldn’t collaborate, half voted that they should. The idea of a collaboration between the two groups had long been talked about in their fandoms. It also came up in Erasure’s Private Ear newsletter in 1997. In a joke article titled “The Future of Erasure”, fans gave their ideas as to what the future of the band could look like - including TWO Pet Shop Boys collaborations, one in 2005 and another in 2025.

However, on newsgroups, it was a different story. Mentions of the other band were more likely to be negative, and there were lots more inflammatory comments. Why was this the case? Newsgroups were much more public than mailing lists or websites, making it easier to start arguments. With mailing lists, they were moderated, and people had to sign up with their emails. But they didn’t need to do that with the band-specific newsgroups. Because these were under the “alt” hierarchy, which had no rules and no moderation, all people needed to do was to connect to Usenet and start posting. This made it incredibly easy for people who weren’t fans to post mean comments to a newsgroup based on a particular band.

By the end of the 2000s, the first social media platforms, like Twitter and Facebook, had started to gain traction with the public. People on these platforms have kept the “rivalry” alive by joking, jibing, and posting memes–and still do to this day. There was an interesting discussion about the fans’ side of the rivalry on Facebook, where some people suggested that it started with fans. Most said they liked both bands and they didn’t feel the need to debate who was better.

In the final segment, we’ll examine the denouement in the late 90s and 2000s, looking at the bands’ comments on the “rivalry” and each other after the animosity had died down.

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The second of two Erasure-related jibes at PSB, from comedian David Walliams on Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

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The first of two Erasure-related jibes at PSB, from comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams.

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