Celebrating Erasure4rum’s 10 years of features
Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2023 8:06 pm
Long before Erasure4rum,we had its previous incarnation as the Yahoo Group ‘Privatear2’ which was a play on the old EIS mail out newsletter (yes mailed out,you had to wait until the postman delivered your newsletter which was a random thing,none of this as soon as it’s announced you find out instantly via the web)
Another bonus of the old Yahoo Group was you could have live chats via the chat option,so many fans on a Sunday night would come along to the privatear2 chat room and have wonderful evenings chatting or having a synchroplay of a chosen album so we could all have a shared group experience.
The idea for the E4M was born because of the demise of the old Erasure Forum,due to trolls coming along and taking over threads with provocative & troublemaking comments etc,it ended up being unmanageable so the EIS made the decision to close it down.
I then took over that job,by trying to recreate the old Erasure Forum,so Erasure4rum was born.
I started this project with help from Stephano (who managed to create some amazing graphics for the E4M,for use as promo items for banners etc for the site & for the features),and Cal NYC for extra input & help along the way.
2012-2022 & beyond
The history of Erasure4rum
2012-
The original E4M graphic and a couple of un-used versions
October 5th 2012 this was the launch day for Erasure4rum in its original form using the eBlah operating system. Artwork was by Stephano using the Tomorrow’s World theme,and an original font for the logo.
October 6th Andy tweeted good luck message.
2013
February 9th Erasure4rum FaceBook page launched.
June 6th Erasure4rum made the links page of the official Erasureinfo.
Which is still there to this day-(in fan communities)
https://www.erasureinfo.com/links/
December 20th 2013 Erasure4rum’s first ‘Ask’ feature,by the one and only Andy Bell was mentioned in the EIS Newsletter.
The original Ask feature as posted in 2013,on the right the fully updated edition.
2014
June 1st 2014-Ask Shelter
This feature focuses on the iPop album
2015
January 1st 2015-Ask Shelter:The Remix
This feature talks about the debut Shelter album ‘Emerge’
September 3rd 2015-E4M’s Erasure 30th Anthology
Probably my most proudest moment of Erasure4rum.
When the Erasure 30th Anniversary Anthology was announced it was said that it would be a career spanning set the fans got very excited,including me.
The next info we had the announcement was made that Always-the best of Erasure was being released the tracklisting was unusual to say the least,personally I was shocked as this was nothing like a career spanning anthology.
So my idea was the create what I thought would be the defining set fans would want,spanning their career …. A more fitting tribute.
Here is the original thread-
viewtopic.php?f=155&t=7
To illustrate this release I asked Stephano to create an album cover for me,his creative mind came up with a few designs but we both felt that the ‘heart’ design was more ‘Erasure’ than the others it seemed to have the Erasure DNA.
The original (He)Artwork was by Patricia Anders.
Which then became the E4M Anthology cover,after Andy Bell saw this cover he asked that Mute find the original to create the cover for the official Erasure release.
Mute also commissioned two more paintings for the deluxe version & the Sometimes 2005 single.
The final release featured Stephano & myself in the credits for ‘inspiring’ the cover art,but to be fair it was mainly down to Stephano for finding the art & creating that initial cover idea.
2016
March 11th 2016 Erasure4rum Asks Manhattan Clique
Talking about their time with Andy recording his debut solo album
August 31st 2016-Ask Shelter V3
Talking about the 2nd album Ascend
December 31st 2016-E4M feature-More Other People’s Songs
Here we had a campaign to find what songs you’d like to see on a second album of Other People’s Songs we curated four different versions of 'More Other People's Songs' versions 1 & 4 are by Erasure4rum members,version 2 is by Team Tortsen-Barney Ashton-Bullock & Christopher Frost,version 3 is by Team Shelter-Mark R Bebb & Rob Bradley.
From the final 4 albums we made a poll to find the top requested tracks from the list to make the ultimate fan version.
2017
January 28th 2017-Ask Manhattan Clique:Deluxe Edition
Here we have an expanded edition of the last MHC Ask feature to coincide with the 10th Anniversary Deluxe version of Andy Bell’s Electric Blue debut album.
E4M was lucky enough to be part of the making of this deluxe version hence the credit in the album sleevenotes.
2018
August 12th 2018-Ask Shelter V4:The Soar Edition
Talking about their 3rd album Soar
September 7th 2018-Ask Matthias
Talking about Matthias’s three EP’s Line In/Line Out & Line Thru,alongside all collaborators.
2019
January 1st 2019 the day the all new Erasure4rum went ‘live’ to the world.
The all new singing & dancing Erasure4rum,with all new graphics a new improved layout which now have alternate skins,the ‘normal’ basic version or the pimped up ‘Chorus’ version.
E4M member Tin Soldier now in tech ‘boffin’ mode doing all the behind the scenes mechanics & creating themed graphics for the main site,whilst myself still being the caretaker looking after the day to day goings on & features that appear every now & then.
April 12th 2019-Erasure4rum Asks Team Torsten
Talking about the Torsten Trilogy with Barney,Chris & Matthew Baldwin
May 9th 2019-Erasure4rum Asks Team Torsten:Post Coital
About the Queereteria TV live show & asking Team Torsten about the experience
May 16th 2019-Erasure4rum Reviews Breathe Of My Leaves Chimera Album
September 19th 2019-Erasure4rum Reviews & Asks Breathe Of My Leaves,Bridget Kyle Gray & Mark R Bebb about the Spacebird EP,also featuring interviews with all the remixers who contributed to this EP
October 10th 2019-Erasure4rum Asks Breathe Of My Leaves about Chimerical The Remixes,featuring Stephano Barberis & Jordan Gant
November 28th 2019-Erasure4rum Asks Team Torsten about Variance III Part One:the interview
Talking to Barney & Christopher
December 2nd 2019-Erasure4rum Asks Team Torsten about Variance III Part Two:the review
Erasure4rum reviews the remix album
2020
May 6th 2020 Erasure4rum Asks GRN
Talking about all his various remixes for Erasure,Andy Bell & Yazoo,includes a full comprehensive list
November 11th 2020-Andy Bell:The Singles Erasure4rum Edition
Erasure4rum’s idea for a solo singles release
December 14th 2020-Erasure4rum Asks SoftWave About Club:Torsten
Talking to SoftWave about their two exclusive to Club:Torsten releases
2021
April 14th 2021-Erasure4rum Reviews The Rude Awakening Under The Covers EP & A Little Ask
2022
April 5th 2022-Erasure4rum Reviews SoftWaves Supernova Single
October 15th 2022-Erasure4rum Reviews SoftWave’s Aspire EP
November 28th 2022-Erasure4rum Reviews SoftWaves single Will It Ever Be Christmas Again?,and an interview with SoftWave & Barney Ashton-Bullock
& beyond
2023
January 7th 2023-Erasure4rum Asks Isaac Junkie also celebrating 10 years of the Breathing Love single
Talking about the all new 10th Anniversary edition ft new versions
What does 2023 have in store for Erasure4rum?
Well I have a few ideas,a couple of features are well into ‘production’ & hopefully will appear in the very near future,but until then thank you for your continued support and for taking the time to read the features.
Here’s to the next 10 years.
All Ask features+ are located here-
viewforum.php?f=155
And now as a post script,we had highly exciting news from Vince Clarke himself informing us that the music for the all new Erasure album is complete,he’s now awaiting Andy to come over and do some lyrics. Exciting news.
