Erasure’s Andy Bell On Parallels Between The Aids Crisis And Covid-19
The coronavirus pandemic is disastrous for everyone, but it affects minority groups such as queer people uniquely badly.
Statistically, LGBTQ+ people are more likely to experience feelings of loneliness and isolation instigated by the sustained period of lockdown. And queer businesses face a battle to stay solvent, which could rob the community of vital safe spaces.
For Andy Bell, one half of synth-pop outfit Erasure, coronavirus is the second healthcare crisis to have dramatically shifted his worldview.
One of the first proudly gay pop stars in an era before stars such as George Michael came out, Bell and his bandmate Vince Clarke scored five number one albums in the Eighties and Nineties during the height of the Aids crisis.
Now 55, Bell sees parallels between the challenges posed by Covid-19 and the trauma caused by HIV/Aids at its peak.
“I’m drinking probably about two bottles of whisky a week,” Bell says down the phone. He isn’t alone – many of us have increased our drinking due to the pressures of lockdown.
“We come from that culture anyway – I know that’s not an excuse. I think if you’re left long enough in a room by yourself you’re going to have some sort of mental crisis…”
Bell says the stresses of lockdown pale by comparison to the Aids crisis, which the singer doesn’t believe younger people can fathom. He struggles to find a realistic way of explaining the shock of what it was like to live through the horrors of the epidemic, and believes Aids is still stigmatised and heavily misunderstood.
Covid was acted upon pretty quickly, whereas the Aids thing wasn’t at allAndy Bell
“Covid was acted upon pretty quickly, whereas the Aids thing wasn’t at all,” he reflects. “Aids was denied. It was purposefully denied because it was about gay men, and drug takers, and Africa. It’s still the same. Anybody can get HIV, I know that, but it’s still perceived in the same way. Because it’s to do with sex, in some way it’s...
