Pet Shop Boys Community

It it quite expensive, especially as it includes an album most people have already. The footage DVD is a great idea though.

Like the Yazoo "In your room" boxset, I wont pay £35 for albums and extended mixes I already have regardless of whether they are remastered or what, and I have been waiting for the price to go down to under £20 for ages now but it doesn't seem to get cheaper, even on ebay it is expensive! It is quite nice though as it contains a DVD with the videos plus TOTP peformances which is great (It would be great if PSB did this wouldn't it!)

Oh dear. Whats all this about?! ;-

The Erasure frontman is currently somewhere off the coast of Miami, performing his group’s greatest hits karaoke-style on a gay cruise ship.

“It’s not something I’ve done before, but I was offered it and thought ‘why not?’ It definitely sounds like fun, and the weather will be good.”

Here's the link

http://www.citylife.co.uk/music/feature ... _to_future

Well, I'm not going to pay again for "Who Needs Love Like That?". I have paid for it when buying "Wonderland", "Pop!", the CD single version, the single boxes, and many people have bought the vinyl versions too.

That's the reason the record industry is going down.
Companies' CEOs want to make money at any cost and don't care or respect for the customer. Therefore, record companies are releasing already published compilations in other format, remastered versions and other non-interesting stuff and blame downloads for the sales fall.

Undertaker wrote:Oh dear. Whats all this about?! ;-

The Erasure frontman is currently somewhere off the coast of Miami, performing his group’s greatest hits karaoke-style on a gay cruise ship.

“It’s not something I’ve done before, but I was offered it and thought ‘why not?’ It definitely sounds like fun, and the weather will be good.”

Here's the link

http://www.citylife.co.uk/music/feature ... _to_future

Thats juts sad if you ask me i thought George Micheal singing for a private party was not right.. this is worse!


and form that link

"And he’s got all his big old synths in there. I really can’t wait to get my hands on Vince’s knobs.”

BTW, as much as i respect Erasure and Vince Clarke, i dont think they could've come up wtih anything like Love Etc.

I think thats a fair comment, Vince.

Vince Clarke will always be respected and has a decent back catalogue to keep the taxman at bay but it's pretty obvious that Andy Bell is sinking (no pun intended) Apart from that awful comment about contracting H.I.V on purpose, he had to name drop because he was too drunk and got told he couldn't enter some bar and now he is having to earn a wage by singing karaoke on a gay cruise ship. It's a shame i guess. A bit like Boy George and George Michael. Everyone will take the piss but there is a hint of sadness about it all.

Next up ;- A tour bus with Sonia and Shakin Stevens.

The HIV comment and the name dropping is all a bit tragic, yes, but singing on a cruise ship is just something he's doing to make money; Erasure aren't The Rolling Stones, or even Duran Duran for that matter, I doubt they have millions upon millions in the banks and they haven't had a Top 10 album (in the UK at least) for over a decade; in short it's entirely conceivable they need money. Doesn't Jimmy Sommerville take similar jobs? And remember other great, arguably better, 80s/synthpop bands like ABC and Heaven 17 have been reduced to doing package nostalgia tours with Bucks Fizz and Limhal and such (nothing against those two, but they weren't "greats" by any stretch of the imagination), so it's not as if Bell is the only one trying to crawl his way back into the public's heart on his hands and knees.

WHat? JS did that sh*t?? but i dont feel bad about him doing it.. inspite of doing great music, he never sold shitloads, so he might needthe money.

But Erasure/Bell?? what with loads of fans claiming 30-40 mil records sold, and they're NOT millionaires??

Ive heard stories of people who have written one pop hit and earn enough on royalties to never have to work again if they don't want to. Not necessarily millionaires but earn more in a year than the average salary.
I think it's fair to say that Erasure have had more than their fair share of hits so I would say that if this story is true then it is probably because Andy Bell wants to do it so fair play to him. I have a feeling that a gay cruise ship won't let him get bored!
As for these 80's groups doing nostalgic tours, well I suppose they have nothing better to do and probably earn fairly good money. They will never have major hit's again and when I say hit's I am talking about top 20 singles or albums which can be considered a success I suppose for 89's electro pop groups.
I absolutely adore the last Heaven 17 album which was released a few years back but I bet it hardly got into the top 100.

On a bit more of a serious note ;- Does anyone know if Erasure split 50/50? I've always thought it more as Vince Clarke who just needed a singer. Does Bell do more than just sing?

Everything for Erasure is 50/50. The melodies are written together on acoustic guitar or piano, then they go their separate ways and Vince begins making the music, and Andy works on the lyrics. They get together again every batch of four or five songs. Subsequently, they record together and further tweak the melodies, and write countermelodies, etc.

I know Vince is a millionaire a few times over. Andy wasn't getting 50/50 from the start, though, and Vince had his career with Depeche Mode and Yazoo beforehand which also still makes money. Even today I see commercials using "Just Can't Get Enough" on the television here in North America. It was used in a Gap ad two years ago in addition to other companies - $$$$$$$. As for Andy, I remember reading his monetary stats and they were more impressive than I thought, but not close to Vince's.

JSDOUVRES wrote: I absolutely adore the last Heaven 17 album which was released a few years back but I bet it hardly got into the top 100.

Yep, i liked that album too!!

BTW, since this IS the Central Erasure Thread, does any Erasure fan know the geographical spreadout of Erasure fans?
For the PSb its like all over the world (as can be easily seen by the forums and geowayne's site). I was in the middle east for 15 years, and though quite a bit of PSB was being played there (largely due to British RJs), i NEVER EVER heard Erasure, not even ONCE.

pulse wrote:Everything for Erasure is 50/50. The melodies are written together on acoustic guitar or piano, then they go their separate ways and Vince begins making the music, and Andy works on the lyrics. They get together again every batch of four or five songs. Subsequently, they record together and further tweak the melodies, and write countermelodies, etc.

I know Vince is a millionaire a few times over. Andy wasn't getting 50/50 from the start, though, and Vince had his career with Depeche Mode and Yazoo beforehand which also still makes money. Even today I see commercials using "Just Can't Get Enough" on the television here in North America. It was used in a Gap ad two years ago in addition to other companies - $$$$$$$. As for Andy, I remember reading his monetary stats and they were more impressive than I thought, but not close to Vince's.

I think that pretty much answered the question, Pulse. Another good read.

So will Vince be getting £25 of Andy's karaoke fee?

Undertaker wrote:So will Vince be getting £25 of Andy's karaoke fee?

Yes but he's allowed to keep his tips from working behind the bar.