Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.latimes.misc From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Clarke Reveals a Lighter View of Erasure's Show Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 06:38:52 EST Message-ID: HEADLINE: Clarke Reveals a Lighter View of Erasure's Show Publication Date: Tuesday November 17, 1992 BYLINE: RICHARD CROMELIN "Phantasmagorical Entertainment," the elaborate, campy stage production the English duo Erasure brings to Los Angeles for 10 performances at the Wiltern Theatre starting tonight, has been described in reviews as "the most overtly gay show ever enjoyed by a crossover audience" and "a celebration of the gay lifestyle." Said another report, "Gayness has rarely been as loud or proud in the arena of commercial pop." But Vince Clarke, the techno-pop pioneer who formed Erasure after terms with Depeche Mode and Yaz, doesn't seem very interested in that side of things. "I don't know what the gay lifestyle is," he said curtly during a recent phone interview. "I'm not sure what that really means. . . . I think a lot of the campness of the show, it's more out of a vaudeville tradition really. It's not exclusive to gay men and women." Still, the issue is inevitable, since Erasure's singer and lyricist Andy Bell is one of mainstream pop's most visible gay performers. Like another declared gay pop star, k.d. lang, Bell commands an audience far beyond the expected gay following, drawing a loyal audience from the same intense young fans who embrace the exaggerated emotionalism of Morrissey, the synth-pop melancholy of the Pet Shop Boys, the pulsating adolescent Angst of Depeche Mode. And where Bell has suggested in interviews that "Phantasmagorical Entertainment," with its glitz, dancers and bawdy costumes, has a serious undercurrent of affirmation of individuality, Clarke takes a lighter This article is copyright 1992 The Los Angeles Times Home Edition. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM