Andy Bell - Torsten in Queereteria (2019)

"Torsten In Queereteria" is the third solo album by Andy Bell (Erasure) performing as alter-ego Torsten, a gender-fluid, semi-immortal who, having loved and lost many during an unnaturally elongated life, is left haunted by his lifetime of bittersweet memories. Torsten is a role Andy Bell first took up at the Edinburgh Fringe Theatre Festival in 2014 in "Torsten The Bareback Saint", and a role reprised by him in the critically acclaimed, 2016 follow up, "Torsten The Beautiful Libertine" which enjoyed a sell-out run at London's Above The Stag Theatre. The CD comes with a richly illustrated 32 page lyric booklet. "Torsten In Queereteria" is a unique pop / musical theatre collaboration between Erasure singer Andy Bell, poet/playwright Barney Ashton-Bullock and musician Christopher Frost. This new album, three years in the making, is structured around four separate themed 'Acts' which deal with different aspects of both Torsten's life story and his self-realisation; each song designed as if a postcard insight into a particular hot-spot of memory. Album opener 'A Hundred Years Plus Today' is Torsten in reflective mood as to the longevity of his life. It precedes three recollections, in song, of intense events from long ago times spent with lost friends and lovers and speaks of the hope, uniquely embodied in coming from a coastal town, that the sea might deliver temptations in the guise of sailor lovers. .Act Two narrates a headlong bounding into hedonism; interacting with strange, seaside town, cottaging cruisers in 'Cabaret Awayday', to the respite and debauchery afforded by trips to the Queereteria cruising club and a stout defence of partying and drunkenness in 'If We Want To Drink A Little', a duet with Hazel O'Connor of 'Breaking Glass' fame. .In Act Three, Torsten hits rock bottom and becomes a tad unpleasant and bitter. 'Thou Shalt Be My Vibe' portrays a manipulative, drugged-up, drunk Torsten driving a potentially exploitative relationship.