Erasure – From Moscow to Mars fan party

04.11.2016 The Asylum, Birmingham

Sometimes the stars align and magic happens. After failing to secure one of only 300 tickets for a very special event, I had given up on attending a special Erasure celebration with ‘Fans only’, with the band in attendance, a meet & greet in person, a q&a with my heroes, an acoustic set that included a brand-new track from the new Erasure album that’s due to be released in May 2017.
Just mere hours before the event I had logged on to one of the many Erasure related facebook pages and saw a fan posting that he had arrived in Birmingham and was let down by a fellow Erasure fan and that he still had a spare ticket that he would sell for face value.


I couldn’t believe my luck as I met him the next morning, bought the ticket and was now one of only 300 very happy and privileged fans.

This was an amazing day with the best people anyone could ever hope to meet. Kind, open hearted, amazing fellow fans who were just as excited to be at the ‘From Moscow to Mars’ party that commemorated 31 years of Erasure and a new boxset out later this month, consisting of 13 discs in total and called ‘From Moscow to Mars’, named after a line in the Erasure track ‘Star’.

I was in the first group to go and meet Vince & Andy in person and to have a professional picture taken for a mere £2 extra. Unlike the year before when I cried as I met Andy Bell in person, I was a bit more composed this time around but meeting Vince Clarke was the biggest thing that ever happened to me for I hold him solely responsible for my becoming a musician.

In fact, I presented my last two albums to Vince & Andy as a ‘thank you’ (or maybe as punishment, lol), had a card signed and my picture taken with my absolute heroes.

When Vince then said: ‘Enjoy the party’ and shook my hand again I was in 7th heaven where I remained for the day and perhaps the foreseeable future.

(Usually) never-smiling Vince was smiling with his fans and even told a joke on stage and we were all treated like family. The other awesome guy that I owe my thanks to is Richard who runs the Erasure website, newsletter, organised stuff pertaining to this event etc. – he is just as loved by the fans as Erasure themselves – and rightly so.

Of course Neil Francis was there, too and Shelter as well as Destination who all performed at last year’s ’30 years of Erasure’ party. This time they showed up as ‘regular’ fans, which is what they are of course. Was just awesome to be among all those mega-talented people.

This evening will stay with me for a long, long time. 

see a short video HERE 























Comments

Mitz44-RNY said…
Sounds like you had an amazing night Thomas! I know your a super fan and your blog really does show that x x 😃
November 5, 2016 at 7:27 PM
TJ said…
thank you, that was such a magical day xx
November 9, 2016 at 4:01 PM
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