Andy Bell – best known as one half of Erasure, one of the UK’s most beloved award-winning musical partnerships – has a successful and varied parallel solo career with releases that include two solo albums under his own name, and a further two as offshoots of his one-man theatre project, Torsten The Bareback Saint. Throughout his incredible career, he has collaborated with artists as diverse as KD Lang, Melissa Etheridge, Boy George, Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters), Claudia Brücken (Propaganda), Perry Farrell (Jane’s Addiction) and Dave Audé.
Bell’s ascendancy began when he answered an advert that Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, The Assembly) had placed in the Melody Maker and, after a successful audition, the duo formed the phenomenon known as Erasure. Over the course of their forty-year songwriting partnership Erasure have been crowned Best British Group at The Brit Awards, have received an Ivor Novello Award for the track ‘Blue Savannah’, have been awarded Best Live Act at the Independent Music Awards, and are recipients of the Attitude Magazine Icon Award amongst many other accolades.
Since the release of their debut album, Wonderland, Erasure have gone on to sell over 25 million albums – five of which topped the UK album charts – and are still recording and releasing new music, with their most recent release, 2020’s The Neon, entering the UK album chart at number four. Erasure’s music has also featured in multiple Hollywood movies, television shows and games soundtracks, including Dick Tracy, Coneheads and Robot Unicorn Attack, and the band even recorded a Simlish version of one of their singles for the bestselling video game series The Sims.
As one of the most celebrated live acts of their generation, Erasure have also toured extensively across the world, and the duo’s live highlights include playing to 65,000 people at the Milton Keynes Bowl, eight successive nights at New York’s Beacon Theater, and fifteen successive nights at London’s Hammersmith Odeon.
As a solo artist Bell has has enjoyed success with two solo albums – Electric Blue and Non-Stop – and will be releasing a third solo project in collaboration with US producer Dave Audé – with whom Andy has previously enjoyed a US Billboard Dance Chart number one with the dance track ‘Aftermath (Here We Go)’ – which is scheduled for release in early 2025.
An inspiration throughout the LGBTQ+ community, Bell is an ambassador for New York’s Hetrick-Martin Institute and is an active supporter of multiple charities, including contributing to the Red Hot + Blue album (for AIDS and HIV research) and collaborating with Lene Lovich for PETA. Andy has also performed for King Charles’ The Prince’s Trust, and with Erasure on Cyndi Lauper’s charitable True Colors Tour (alongside Wanda Sykes, Rosie O’Donnell and Margaret Cho).
In between writing and recording, Andy Bell has found time to compete in the ITV series Popstar to Operastar; remix a host of artists including Yazoo, Goldfrapp, Amanda Lear and Sandra Bernhardt; and take the title role in the critically acclaimed one-man theatre shows Torsten The Bareback Saint at London’s St James Theatre and the Edinburgh Festival, and Torsten The Beautiful Libertine at London’s Above the Stag Theatre. Additionally Andy has released an album of songs from each show as well as a companion remix album, Variance.
Andy Bell is currently preparing to launch a new solo project and will shortly be reuniting with Vince Clarke to start work on their next Erasure album project.
Share With Friends