HOWARD JONES will play a one-off London show on November 6th where he will play his first two albums - 'Human's Lib' and 'Dream into Action' - in their entirety using a combination of modern and classic synthesizers and featuring specially commissioned visuals to compliment the songs from each album. See NEWS for more details.

MARC ALMOND will release a new album, 'Varieté', on June 7th, his first studio album of his own songs for over ten years. The album will be released as a regular CD and in a limited edition digipack version including an exclusive bonus acoustic CD featuring additional unreleased tracks. See NEWS for the full album tracklisting.

KIM WILDE has signed a new record deal with Starwatch Music and is currently working on a new album for release in the summer.

MADNESS are to follow their recent 'One Step Beyond' album reissue with expanded editions of their 'Absolutely' and 'Seven' albums on April 12th. Both releases will feature a host of extra content including live tracks, b-side, videos and radio session versions. The series will continue in June with 'The Rise & Fall' and 'Keep Moving' and August with 'Wonderful' and 'The Madness'. See NEWS for the full tracklisting of both albums.

THE HUMAN LEAGUE's single 'Things That Dreams Are Made Of' has been covered by DaM-FunK for one of ten songs commissioned by Dr Martens to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the DM boot. Other tracks in the series include BUZZCOCKS' 'Ever Fallen in Love' covered by the Noisettes, Sham 69's 'If the Kids Are United' covered by The Duke Spirit and THE STONE ROSES' 'I Wanna Be Adored' covered by the Raveonettes.

TEARS FOR FEARS have announced the dates of their forthcoming US tour. The seventeen-city trek will start on August 12th and run through to September 5th. See GIGS for all the dates.

KATRINA AND THE WAVES will re-release their classic pop hit 'Walking On Sunshine' - on CD and via digital download - on May 25th to mark the song's 25th anniversary.

THE CURE will reissue their 1989 album 'Disintigration' on May 24th in a remastered, expanded deluxe edition. The 3-CD set will include previously-unreleased songs, demos and outtakes, plus a live version of the album alongside the remastered original album and was compiled by frontman ROBERT SMITH who will also provide sleevenotes. See NEWS for the full 3-CD tracklisting.

PAUL HARDCASTLE is to reissue his classic anti-war single '19' on April 19th after a friend of his son was killed during military duty in Afghanistan.

ELVIS COSTELLO has announced four UK dates in June in support of his current 'Secret, Profane & Sugarcane' album. See GIGS for all the dates.

MADONNA is the most-played artist on UK radio over the last ten years according to a poll compiled by the PPL for BBC Radio 2. She topped a list that saw The Beatles, Robbie Williams, Queen, Take That, Sugababes, Elton John, Elvis Presley, Abba and Coldplay make up the rest of the top ten.

NEW ORDER bassist PETER HOOK has announced that he will perform Joy Division's debut album live in its entirety to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of late singer Ian Curtis. The show will take place at his new Manchester venue FAC51 on May 18th and will also feature a number of special guests.

A-HA fans in the USA have arranged a series of fan parties to take place in conjunction with the band's forthcoming US dates in May, see NEWS for more details!

SAMANTHA FOX has been forced to postpone her forthcoming UK dates from May to November in order to have an operation on her knee. The new dates are expected to be announced shortly.

T'PAU singer CAROL DECKER is one of a host of celebrities featured on a charity cover of CYNDI LAUPER's 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' which will be released later this month to launch Cancer Research's 'Race for Life 2010'. Other contributors to the recording include Sonique, Liz McClarnon, Kym Marsh, Lisa Scott-Lee and the Cheeky Girls.

THE CULT have announced a trio of shows in Australia in May. The shows will see the band perform their 'Love' album in its entirety and are the first Cult shows in Australia for fifteen years. See GIGS for all the dates.

BANANARAMA will release their new single 'Love Don't Live Here' next week (April 12th) on 7" single, 12" single and CD. See NEWS for the full single tracklistings plus a special offer on all three formats!

JOHN FOXX's classic 'Underpass' has been remixed by Mark Reeder and will be released by Edel on May 3rd alongside a new 3CD compilation 'Metatronic', a thirtieth anniversary compilation which features a selection of key John Foxx tracks from the last three decades and includes, for the first time on DVD, the videos for 'Underpass', 'No One Driving' and 'He's a Liquid'.

Thanks to www.remembertheeighties.com for this week's news!

ANDY BELL NEW SOLO SINGLE 'CALL ON ME'
Andy Bell will precede the release of his forthcoming new album 'Non-Stop' with a brand new single, 'Call On Me', which will be released on May 10th in the UK and May 11th in the USA. 'Call On Me' will be released on CD and via digital download and both formats include a non-album b-side entitled 'Had It All' as well as a selection of remixes (including a rather marvellous Vince Clarke remix). There's an audio preview of 'Call On Me', plus the full tracklistings and the single artwork all online at Andy's website??? don't forget 'Non-Stop' will follow on May 24th!

THE LONDON SESSIONS - ERASURE ALBUM VIDEO UPDATES!
If you've been keeping an eye on the Erasure website then you will know that I added the final two video updates to the news section and to Erasure's YouTube channel last week which show Andy and Vince talking about Erasure's 25th anniversary and the new wave of electro-pop??? that's seven videos in all for your viewing pleasure! If you haven't visited the website for a while then you have some catching up to do!

ERASURE INSPIRES CHRISTINA AGUILERA?
Someone very wise once said that there's no such thing as a new idea, and if we put the sleeve of the new Christina Aguilera record, 'Bionic', next to the sleeve of Erasure's 'Chorus' it would seem that they might have been right... and it's not just us who think that, even the legendary blogger Perez Hilton has picked up on the similarities on his website and it's been spreading across the internet ever since! On the back of posting that story on the Erasure website last week I had an email from Daniel (thank you!) who also pointed out the similarities between the new Court Yard Hounds sleeve and Erasure's 'Nightbird'??? follow those links if you want to see for yourself!

ERASURE ARE OFFICIALLY PART OF THE ABBA STORY
I also got a message from Paula last week who had attended the Abbaworld exhibition at Earl's Court in London and was able to report back that Erasure do get a mention - which she also photographed to show me and which I posted in the news section of Erasure's website last week for you to see too.

ANDY BELL AT THE EAGLE IN LONDON
Andy played a DJ set at London club The Eagle on Saturday and Russell James, who attended the event, sent over some of his pictures from the night which are now in the news section over at Andy's website. Look out for news of more DJ dates soon, and not just in the UK!

ROBOT UNICORN ATTACK??? THE SAGA CONTINUES
I've mentioned this online video game several times in previous newsletters but it seems that Robot Unicorn Attack - which features Erasure's 'Always' as the soundtrack music - is just going from strength to strength and has now been played over thirteen million times??and has helped make 'Always' the most recently-downloaded Erasure track on iTunes! I've reported before how the game and the song have been been spreading across the internet through blogs and recommendations but it seems that the game, and especially 'Always', has also been inspiring people in other ways!