All images for The Neon
© Phil Sharp
Andy Bell is having problems with his iPad camera. He’s only two minutes late for our Zoom call, but is full of apologies – before the screen suddenly rotates. “You obviously didn’t buy yourself that tripod, then,” notes Vince Clarke affectionately. Vince’s Zoom background is everything you’d hope from a synthesiser overlord who’s kept up with technology for 40 years: he’s sat at the perfect eyeline with three keyboards lined up on the wall behind him. While Andy continues to spin in and out of shot as he adjusts his iPad, Vince heckles him: “You need to do something here. You’re making this interview look like a Top Of The Pops performance.” The wisecrack seems to do the trick. Andy is suddenly in view and static, revealing a pristine kitchen work surface, and an Erasure singer smiling in a grey T-shirt and neat thin-framed glasses. “I’m not a technophobe,” he insists. “But these video calls do make me a bit scared as the only window to the outside world.”