ERASURE’S ANDY BELL SHARES NEW SINGLE + VIDEO “DON’T CHA KNOW” AHEAD OF NEW SOLO ALBUM ON CROWN RECORDINGS
UK TOUR DATES | NORTH AMERICAN TOUR TO BE ANNOUNCED
Andy Bell has detailed a new solo album, Ten Crowns – set for release on May 2nd on vinyl (white, oxblood and picture disc available), CD (standard and 2CD versions), gold cassette and digitally via Crown Recordings – and today shares a new single, ‘Don’t Cha Know’. The new album will coincide with a UK tour, with North American dates to be announced.
‘Don’t Cha Know’ was one of the first tracks to be written for the album, and, according to Andy, it marks “the beginning of the expedition” that would become Ten Crowns. Hinting at the emotional journey Andy has been on – “It’s so very hard to say hello / When your whole world comes crashing down,” – the moving track is accompanied by a stunning video by Stephano Barberis.
The new album is the result of Andy embracing a milestone in his life: Ten Crowns – 10 tracks of dazzling, joyous pop, produced and polished in Nashville, inspired by the dancefloor and gospel – was completed in the year he turned 60 and marks a majestic moment in his career.
No stranger to collaboration – his four decades of writing and recording with Vince Clarke as Erasure are still going strong – Bell threw himself into writing with close friend Dave Audé, the Grammy award-winning producer, remixer and DJ. Their work together is euphoric, and to top the celebrations, they invited Andy’s ultimate pop heroine, Debbie Harry, to join Andy on vocals for ‘Hearts A Liar’.
The new single follows the cosmic flash of ‘Breaking Thru The Interstellar’, where Andy dances us “towards another paradise… ready for a new dimension / On our galactic journey”. Inspired by his love of reading BBC science magazines and the possible existence of wormholes that allow travel through space, he explains, “It’s on first because I wanted to let people know we’re going to go for a ride now!”
Andy and Dave had previously collaborated on two US dance chart number ones together: 2014’s ‘Aftermath (Here We Go)’ and 2016’s ‘True Original’, and after those dance tracks, the pair “just kind of carried on writing as an exercise”, Andy explains, “and after that, Dave moved his family to Nashville because LA was so expensive, and so our writing took this kind of gospel-tinged Nashville twist.”
He describes how in Nashville there’s a church on every corner (“it reminded me of singing in choirs and cathedral school as a child, where the spirit of the church is imbued in the music”). Not that Ten Crowns is a sombre, spiritual set. It’s propulsive, electronic, passionate, driven by the need to encounter new emotions and experiences as life races on. “I mean, I’ve got everything I could possibly wish for, you know, I really have, but that’s not to say I’m always fulfilled,” Andy adds. “This album’s about picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, embracing life – and about taking that feeling on even when you’re fighting demons in the world, like homophobia, and fighting demons in yourself. It’s about being celebratory and uplifting.”
Ten Crowns marks a magisterial moment in Andy Bell’s forty-year career. His joy about what that holds, and where it can go, clearly excites him. “It’s my third (sort of) solo record [following 2005’s Electric Blue and 2010’s Non-Stop] and in Erasure, our third album was our most successful out of all that we’ve done, so I’m taking that spirit with me!”
Travelling into new dimensions and possibilities with gospel in the heart and dancing in the soul clearly suits him. Ten Crowns is Andy Bell imperial, gleaming, ready for his coronation.
Tour Dates
1 May – York, Barbican
2 May – Birmingham, Symphony Hall
3 May – Manchester, Bridgewater Hall
6 May – Glasgow, Royal Concert Hall
7 May – Aberdeen, Music Hall
8 May – Gateshead, Glasshouse
11 May – Bournemouth, Pavilion
12 May – Guildford, G-Live
13 May – Bath, Forum
16 May – London, Shepherd’s Bush Empire
18 May – Liverpool, Philharmonic
19 May – Cambridge, Corn Exchange
Tickets are on sale NOW
North American Dates To Be Announced
Artist Links
Photo Credit: Sean Black
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