Andy Bell: Showcasing new album Ten Crowns at York Barbican tonight. Picture: Sean Black
ERASURE singer Andy Bell opens his tour at York Barbican tonight on the eve of Friday’s release of his third solo album.
Comprising ten tracks of dazzling, joyous pop, produced and polished in Nashville, inspired by the dancefloor and gospel, Ten Crowns will be available on vinyl (white, oxblood, and picture disc), CD (standard and 2CD versions), gold cassette and digitally via Crown Recordings.
The track listing is: Breaking Thru The Interstellar; Lies So Deep featuring Sarah Potenza; Heart’s A Liar featuring Debbie Harry; For Today; Dance For Mercy; Don’t Cha Know; Dawn Of Heavens Gate; Godspell; Put Your Empathy On Ice and Thank You.
Bell unites with his ultimate pop heroine, Debbie Harry, for the wistful Heart’s A Liar, having first sang about the Blondie icon in DHDQ – short for “Debbie Harry Drag Queen” on his June 2010 album Non-Stop. “To have Debbie Harry singing with me – you know, I still can’t quite believe it,” he says.
The song is Bell’s re-write of a track by English-Italian singer-songwriter and regular Dave Audé collaborator Luciana that Bell imagines being about two lovers who are no good for each other.
“Debbie gives it this gravitas and this coquettishness, but she’s still very in command. And she recorded her vocals in the studio on Gay Pride, which I thought when I heard it, ‘oh, trust her’!”
The latest single, Lies So Deep, brings together Bell and The Voice finalist Sarah Potenza for an ode to Whitney Houston. “It’s a futuristic love song about a time where everybody is allowed the freedom to love whoever they want without interference,” he says. “Sarah adds the stunning diva counterpart which tips the song into soul overdrive!”
Bell will be on the road from tonight to May 19, performing a set that will combine new compositions with favourites from his solo catalogue and Erasure hits aplenty. His band features his principal Ten Crowns collaborator and co-writer, Grammy-winning American producer, re-mixer and DJ Dave Audé, who opens tonight’s show with a DJ set.
The album cover artwork for Andy Bell’s Ten Crowns
Bell and close friend Audé collaborated previously on two American dance chart number ones, 2014’s Aftermath (Here We Go) and 2016’s True Original. “We just kind of carried on writing as an exercise, and after that, Dave moved his family to Nashville because LA [Los Angeles] was so expensive, and so our writing took this kind of gospel-tinged Nashville twist,” says Andy.
Nashville struck him for having a church on every corner. “It reminded me of singing in choirs and cathedral school as a child, where the spirit of the church is imbued in the music,” he says.
Not that Ten Crowns is a sombre, spiritual set, instead being propulsive, electronic, passionate and driven by the need to encounter new emotions and experiences as life races on.
“I mean, I’ve got everything I could possibly wish for, you know, I really have, but that’s not to say I’m always fulfilled,” says Andy. “This album’s about picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, embracing life – and about taking that feeling on even when you’re fighting demons in the world, like homophobia, and fighting demons in yourself. It’s about being celebratory and uplifting.”
Travelling into new dimensions and possibilities with gospel in the heart and dancing in the soul, Ten Crowns’ release excites Bell. “It’s my third (sort of) solo record [following 2005’s Electric Blue and 2010’s Non-Stop] and in Erasure, our third album [1988’s The Innocents] was our most successful out of all that we’ve done, so I’m taking that spirit with me!”
Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of Bell teaming up with Vince Clarke in Erasure. Good news, the duo has begun work on a new album.
Tickets are still available for tonight’s gig at yorkbarbican.co.uk. Look out for Paul Rhodes’s review for charleshutchpress.co.uk.