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Graham Clark
Music Features Writer
@Maxximum23Clark
11:56 AM 2nd December 2014
arts

Gig Review: Erasure - Manchester Apollo

 
Having been out of the public eye for a while Erasure returned a few months ago with the album A Violent Flame: it is one of their best albums and it was always going to be a fine balancing act as to mix tracks off the new album with the older hits but they managed it.

Lead singer Andy Bell, never the one to be subtle, arrives on stage looking like a circus ring master with his gold hat and sparkly coat; if the audience were his animals he certainly knew how to make everyone come out of their cage. The jacket was soon stripped off to reveal a tight black glittery T shirt and even tighter gold glittery hot pants!

Starting off with Oh L'Amour the energy never drops throughout the gig. Vince Clarke stands behind his keyboard or playing a guitar during the gig, keeping a low profile.

You forget how many hits the duo have had such as Stop!, Victim of Love and Blue Savannah. Their first single off the new album Elevation shows a deeper side to them, it sits alongside their earlier work and shows progression in their writing,

It was the closing tracks of Chains of Love, Always and Sometimes (which is 28 years old would you believe?) that closed this superb show. With the two backing singers, (who have been touring with the duo for 25 years) the pop genius of the songs of Vince Clarke and the showmanship of Andy Bell it was a night to remember