I get excited when I see the words "Andy Bell" in a news headline. My first thoughts are that Andy Bell has decided to leave Oasis and return to the world of making his own music. This, of course, is never the case and inevitably I click on a link to read some new tidbit about Andy Bell... of Erasure. Then I smack myself in the forehead for even thinking that the world knows the name of the bassist in Oasis despite his previous musical "celebrity" (alright, if you're not following me here, he made up one quarter of influential Oxford band Ride).

So... now the real news here is of course about Andy Bell (of Erasure and the domain andybell.com) and his new solo record. He's like, um, recording again and stuff. Ok, sorry... I just can't fake any enthusiasm here. The whole point of this was obviously that I'm tired of reading the words "Andy Bell" in any music press that has nothing to do with Andy Bell as I know him (ok, well not personally). Oh and there's like a tour, but um... go somewhere else for the dates.

ERASURE has announced North American tour dates in support of their new album, Other People's Songs which is available in the US on January 28. "The Other Tour" is Erasure's first North American tour since 1997.

The band will appear on Top of the Pops this week, as the first single, "Solsbury Hill" (originally by Peter Gabriel) debuted at Number 10 on the UK pop charts. The single was released January 14 in North America with 2 new tracks not available on the album plus new mixes of "Solsbury Hill." The CD is apparently enhanced with a special short film directed by Vince Clarke and staring Andy Bell.