Festa: Erasure

Festa: Erasure

Kilimanjaro Live Presents

ERASURE

Plus Special Guests

The Nick Rayns LCR, UEA

Thursday 22nd February 2018

Doors 7.30pm

14s+

£37.50 Advance



It’s hard to think of another songwriting partnership as golden as that of Erasure. For 32 years, without a break or break-up, Andy Bell and Vince Clarke have mined a rich seam of creativity that has led to chart-conquering singles, a string of immaculate albums, a BRIT, an Ivor Novello Award and now World Be Gone, their seventeenth studio album.

Erasure’s buoyant grooves have often contained allusions to serious subject matter, but on World Be Gone they explicitly confront dark forces, while continuing to celebrate love’s light. ‘Lousy Sum of Nothing’ is a heartbreaking ballad for our post-truth age, with a sublime, sky-scraping chorus. The title track aches with gorgeous melancholy for “the loss of our souls”. ‘Oh What A World’ is dramatic and dystopian, “our version of an angry rap song,” says Andy.

With the largest catalogue of high-gloss singles in British pop, Erasure are not a band that many associate with protest politics. But the spirit of resistance has always fuelled their gloriously uplifting music, and World Be Gone is no different. Opener ‘Love You To The Sky’ is a swooning love song that floods the album with light. ‘Still It’s Not Over’ is a reminder of their place in the gay rights movement.

Since releasing their first single in 1985, Erasure have sold more than 25 million albums worldwide. Their 30th anniversary celebrations saw them deliver a Top 10 collection of singles, a 13-disc career-spanning box set and vinyl editions of their entire back catalogue. Since then, they’ve been busier than ever. In addition to recording World Be Gone, in 2016 Vince Clarke set up his own label, Very Records, releasing 2Square, his collaboration with Paul Hartnoll, and the Reed & Caroline debut, Buchla & Singing. Andy Bell continued to explore the character of Torsten through the critically acclaimed theatrical production Torsten The Beautiful Libertine and an album of the same name. A remix album, further detailing this “polysexual semi-immortal” character was released in 2016. Bell’s solo debut album, Electric Blue, has been remastered and repackaged for release in 2017.