Erasure

May 1992   Black Island Studios, London W3

The music video for Erasure's cover of ABBA’s ‘Take A Chance On Me’ was filmed at Black Island Studios in London W3 and I was there to record it in stills.

The Philippe Gautier, shot-for-shot parody of the original 1978 video featured Andy Bell as Frida and Vince Clark as Agnetha, ‘The Girls’ from ABBA.

Here’s Andy Bell being interviewed some years later about it.

What was it like doing the ABBA-esque videos?

Bell: I loved doing them.

The one for Take A Chance On Me, where you dress up as the ABBA girls was great.

Bell: Yup, very nice. Very camp. I think even to this day, for some people, it made us a bit too camp!

How much coaxing did Vince need to ‘go female’ and wear the glam outfit?

Bell: None at all! He totally wanted to be a blond. We’d done DJ tours in the US already in drag, in these clubs, so it wasn’t anything new.

Did you argue about who would be Agnetha and who would be Frida?

Bell: A little bit, but in the end, I think Vince looked much better as the blond. I think he made a much better Agnetha. So we made the right choice.