In 1985, Andy Bell was working in a meat-packing plant in Peterborough when he answered an ad for a singer. Within a matter of months he was on the way to fame and fortune as one half of synth-pop duo Erasure.

Andy Bell and Vince Clarke in 1986. Photo sourced from Gay Life magazine.

Openly gay from the outset, Bell made a point of neither over- nor under-playing his sexuality. In an interview with Melody Maker he said:

“I won’t go out of my way to talk about it but I’m not going to pretend I’m not. I won’t play a heterosexual in videos and we’re consciously doing lyrics that could apply to either sex.”

Somewhat ironically then, in an interview in Gay Life magazine, he described Oh L’amour as “gay humour; it’s what screaming queens would say if they split up.”

It was inspired by the film ‘The Women’ – “an old black and white film with just women in it and it was directed by a woman…It’s about very camp, bitchy, high society games and anytime they wanted a divorce they’d get on a train to Reno. There’s one woman who’s on the train every single journey and her quote is “Oh, l’amour, l’amour, toujours l’amour!”

In 2004, Andy publicly announced that he was HIV-positive.