´óÏó´«Ã½

Which song are you happiest with?
Andy: 'True Love Ways' and 'That Loving Feeling'.

Ìý You've got a tour coming up in February. Will it include the album as well as other stuff?
Andy: : We'll have about five new songs and about eighteen hit songs and five other tracks.

Vince: But we're not being specific about it!

You're very much a fan band - is it important to you to do concerts for fans and fan-based releases?
Vince: They're the only ones who are always there for you. Whatever happens, whether your album's a hit or not, they're always behind you. They really care about the music so much. When you go to the websites you can see how much they discuss in the forums and how much they take it to heart, so you feel like you owe them something.

Do you use the internet a lot?
Andy: Not a lot. It gets a boring. Use it for Christmas shopping though!

Have you been to the forums?
Andy: No. I haven't worked it out yet. There's one Erasure site that a fan in Germany's done and it's fantastic. It's got discographies, reviews, new albums and stuff. It's got more on it than ours.

In 1995 you composed the TOTP theme music. How did that come about?
Andy: It was probably the TOTP people saying to us "Do this thing for us for nothing…"

I sense bitterness here.
Vince: No! It's the truth. We met the producer and they asked us to do it. Everyone used to be so scared of TOTP and I'm sure you've heard stories about it. There were some people who were mad about timing; people were refused to go on the show because they were five minutes late, people in tears and A&R men begging.

What can you remember of your first TOTP performances?
Andy:I can't remember it.

Vince, do you remember yours?
Vince: We did 'New Life'. Me and the lads came up on the train with our synthesisers and I really thought people watched you playing keyboards, so we rehearsed miming the night before. We turned up there at some ridiculous time in the morning like 8am. It was very exciting. I'm always really scared when I go on there because of all the other artists. I never know what to say to them.

Did you ever meet Madonna?
Andy: No.

Are you a big fan of Madonna?
Andy:Yeah.

What do you think of her direction at the moment?
Andy: I think it's alright. I haven't heard 'Die Another Day' yet but I know I'll be hooked. I think it's a shame about her film work although I do think she's been good in some things. But she needs to be ugly not beautiful and play some psychotic killer.

Vince: She's in James Bond and she's ugly in that.

She's gone back to her roots with her stuff and Electroclash is now the in thing. Do you feel vindicated that this is what you've been doing non-stop for 17 years?
Andy:I love it. I love the whole thing. I think it's very naïve that people are thinking it's only just been discovered. When you play it, it just sounds really old and even cruder than the original stuff. But I feel, especially the Fischerspooner thing coming out of New York, because we've always had a really big live following out there, I just hope they've seen us and taken some inspiration from it.