I was born at about 3.30AM on April 25th 1964 at The Gables in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, the first of four sisters and one baby brother. I was the first grandson of the first son of my Nan Bell therefore a little spoilt. We lived with my Nan and Granddad for the first half year then to our first council house in Dogsthorpe.
We were a very young family, my Ma was seventeen when she gave birth to me and my Dad was 19, they met on a bus. Went to Dogsthorpe Infants and Junior School and found my way into the school choir. My best friends were Denis Gloucester (one of the only black boys in school) and Helen Adams (one of the prettiest white girls). We went on to star in a movie together called 'The Magic Hat'. We came last in a regional choir competition with a slow version of 'Little Donkey".
I was an upstart at that early age and thought that my voice was better than Aled Jones. I did impersonations of Donny Osmond to keep my neighbours happy and was always caught with my pants down, promiscuity begins at such an early age.
I decided that Methodist Sunday School was a load of nonsense and spent the money on sweets with my sisters despite being begged by one of the helpers to go back. I also left Cub-scouts on the day we got our uniforms which pissed my Mum off 'cause we didn't have much money!
I passed my 11-Plus exam and went to King's Grammar School 'cause I liked the uniform and used to get bullied every day on the way there and waiting for my Nan to come out of the Post Office Exchange afterwards. I tried everything I could to get seduced by either teachers or pupils, it never happened despite having a good old look in the PE showers. I made friends with the bigger boys if you get my drift. I got 5 O-levels and stayed on to do A-levels but got so bored and behind with my work that I had no choice but to leave.
I wanted desperately to leave for London with a friend of mine called Jill who was a punk and had a gay older brother. I started going out with a lovely lady called Marion who lo and behold got a Social Services job in Alperton, London and we all moved together as one happy family with another guy and a girl called Lynda from Liverpool. They were all very supportive and looked after us for the six months it took our Dole money to come through! We looked after the house and listened to all their problems when they got home from work.
Eventually we all moved to West Ealing and although I was still with Marion I couldn't deny my feelings for men any longer. It was a tough time but Marion was very understanding and took me to my first gay club called The Embassy Club, I couldn't believe the men were so good looking and the music was so fantastic... 'I Feel Love' by Donna Summer. Up until this time whilst at school I was a mod and a new romantic I loved Japan, The Tourists, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Yazoo and of course Blondie.
The VoidAt this time I started going to the Ealing Gay Group and had it off properly with an Indian man for the first time, it was fantastic! I also joined my first band called The Void with whom we did no gigs, after Jill saw an ad in the music shop window. Eventually the bass player (a very talented song-writer called Pierre Cope) left the others to form a duo with me called Baume then later Dinger. I had my first full-time Greek boyfriend called Danny who I adored and we moved to a bed-sit in Hanwell. Pierre and I continued to make some really good demo-tapes and he got over his homophobia (he came from a rough sailors home in Dover), and lived with a bunch of friendly drug-addicts.
One day Pierre met a great producer on the train called Pete Gage who used to be married to Elkie Brooks and was in a band called Vinegar Joe with Robert Palmer. We got a studio lock-in and made some great demos of which a thousand singles were pressed. We never managed to get a record deal but I still stand by them to this day, there were some great tunes.
You can listen to an edited version of Dinger's 'Air Of Mystery' demo
below.
'Air Of Mystery' written by Andy Bell & Pierre Cope, produced
by Pete Gage
Meanwhile I'd split up with Danny and was homeless for a while but then met a lovely intelligent man called Jonathan. I moved into a room of his hard-to-let house and this is where my gay education really started. Jonathan worked for Gay Switchboard and our flat-mate Andy Picos worked for Shelter, these were very happy times for me apart from nearly setting fire to the house!
Vince Clarke & ErasureI followed Vince's career avidly and was a great fan of Alison Moyet and Jimmy Somerville. I carried on making music with Pierre and had a bar job and a part-time job at Debenhams and a sandwich shop. One day when we were listening to Alf (Alison's first album), my flat-mate Andy said next year this is going to be you. He was always a bit psychic.
I was getting a bit bored with the music 'cause we weren't doing any gigs so I decided to look in the music press and look to join another band, lo and behold it was my hero Vince Clarke looking for a singer. It was Kismet as far as I was concerned, I got the job and was put on a £150 per week retainer.
Whilst the second of his Assembly project singles was released I went on holiday for the first time to Ibiza and took Marion with me, I prayed that everything would go OK and broke the happy news to Pierre - he was a gentleman and wished me all the best.
Upon my return Vince and Flood and I were ensconced in the studio for six months recording Wonderland, I wouldn't dare utter a word in front of this genius and it took me ages to acclimatise. I think they realised I was gay 'cause so many boys were coming to visit me in the studio.
None of the singles from our debut were played on the radio so we embarked on our first UK tour of colleges and Universities we also did some hideous night-club PA's dressed as cowboys to promote 'Who Needs Love Like That'.
The same time I hooked up with Vince I also met Paul who is a great musician too, I moved in with him. On our Erasure travels we met the lovely Janet who was eventually to run the Erasure Information Service, the ball had started to roll...
To be continued...