Erasure's Andy Bell on 'The Neon,' Beg Love, & the '80s Gay Scene

Contents:

• ERASURE ONTMAN ANDY BELL OPENS UP ABOUT BEG AN 80S GAY IN AHEAD OF THEIR 2022 WORLD TOUR
• THE SURPRISG STORY OF HOW ABBA BEME BELOVED GAY INS
• ERASURE'S ANDY BELL ON THE NEON, BEG LOVE, & THE '80S GAY SCENE

ERASURE ONTMAN ANDY BELL OPENS UP ABOUT BEG AN 80S GAY IN AHEAD OF THEIR 2022 WORLD TOUR

The fierce queer polics of Bronski Beat and the barely-d sex-posivy of Frankie Go To Hollywood ma some noise on the US charts the early 1980s while Elton John still prented as bisexual, but really wasn’t until Erasure explod onto the scene a uple years later that an open and fiant gay voice uld be heard at your high school dance. While the gay dience is more sought-after than ever, openly-gay pop stars are still srce.

Lady Gaga intifi as bi, Sam Smh as gay and non-bary, but beyond them, the last or so, only Lil Nas X has managed to crack the top ten. We talked about the queer idols of their youths, the evolutn of the gay pop star, the importance of reprentatn and llaboratn, and creativy the year of Covid. Along the way, some dish, some dance, and a solid primer on 20th century gay culture.

THE SURPRISG STORY OF HOW ABBA BEME BELOVED GAY INS

When I was a teenager, still was not okay Wal to be an out gay ntent is imported om youTube. He always nied he was gay. That’s all a b far as mic go, we had the Amerin artists, we had Sylvter and of urse Dive, and gay-intified people like Grace Jon.

But the UK, we had Frankie Go To Hollywood, which was more hype than was a gay thg. I hadn't really heard of him, but I knew “Glad To Be Gay, ” and my uncle had one of his rerds, “2, 4, 6, 8 Motorway.

I remember readg a poster London probably about '83 or '84 that he was dog a Gays Rock semar London.

ERASURE'S ANDY BELL ON THE NEON, BEG LOVE, & THE '80S GAY SCENE

So he said he wore a pk triangle on his lapel, and when anybody asked him about , he said, "Oh, you know, that's the emblem of gay liberatn.

[Lghs] When I was formulatg gay inty, was stuff like Bjork, Grace Jon, Erasure, Elton John. You may be able to fd the same ntent another format, or you may be able to fd more rmatn, at their web I love Queer ins were a really weird thg the UK bee like Andy was sayg, a lot of the TV personali that were gay were such stereotyp. We ed to have gay film nights London.

It was all the different homo-erotic films, which of urse, they're all onle now. The reason I mentned Carrere and Casablan was, even though wasn't explicly homo artists or anythg, jt seemed like the dis beat was the heartbeat to our liv or somethg. It's jt a mic genre that I don't know a sgle gay person that don't love .