Andy Bell


 * Not to be confused with the guitarist of the same name.

Andy Bell (Andrew Ivan Bell, born 1964) is the lead singer of the pop duo Erasure.

Andy Bell comes from Peterborough. In 1985, while working on the meat counter at Sainsburys supermarket, he responded to a newspaper advert that was looking for a singer. He was picked by Vince Clarke and together they formed the group Erasure, which has sold over 20 million albums worldwide.

Personal life
Andy Bellis openly gay and was a longtime partner of Paul M Hickey. Bell told Melody Maker in 1986, "I don't want to go out of my way to talk about it but I'm not going to pretend I'm not [gay]. I won't portray a heterosexual in videos and we're consciously doing lyrics that could apply to either sex". He told Barry Walters of Seventeen, "I want to be known as a good performer but it's important to me to take a stance. If you're doing music, you should use it for something and have substance. Being gay and open about it is my substance".

In December 2004 he publicly announced that he is HIV positive and has been aware of this since 1998. In a 2007 interview, Bell remarked that a complacency exists among gay men about HIV, specifying that:
 * "There are definitely HIV-positive people who meet other HIV-positive men, and like still having unprotected sex. I think it must be quite hard for young gay men because there is so much for them now to do – there are so many saunas and stuff like that for them to go to, and it's so easy to get it."

He has suffered from avascular necrosis (unrelated to his HIV diagnosis) and has had both hips replaced. Bell has stated that this keeps him from "pogoing around" compared to previous performances.

Hickey died on 11 April 2012 at the age of 62.