WORTH A LOOK?: ****

31 years ago Erasure topped the UK charts with their ABBA-esque EP and now lead singer Andy Bell is duetting with Steps frontwoman Claire Richards on the pair’s new single.

• Read on for reasons including how to see Richards performing solo later this year

Richards’ ebullient vocal is more than a match for Bell’s rather faded contribution and this version of 1 of ABBA‘s most brilliant songs is as big as you might expect from the pure pop pair.

Bananarama may well be kicking themselves because we saw the duo premiere their own version of the classic live in London in 2019.

Summer Night City, perhaps surprisingly, didn’t feature on the chart-topping Erasure covers EP which instead included Lay All Your Love On Me, SOS, Voulez Vous and Take A Chance On Me.

Instead it is the 2nd cover from Richards’ 2nd LP Euphoria out on Friday (25 August 2023), featuring a version of the Eurovision winner by Loreen, following her cover of fellow Eurovision winner Celine Dion’s I Surrender.

We last saw Richards live at London’s atmospheric Union Chapel in 2018 around the time of her debut solo album release and said: ‘The highpoint of the set is the moment she explains the choice of her penultimate song (River Deep Mountain High) as not the sad ballads that most associate her with but the song that saw her successfully audition for Steps in Ewell, Surrey, on 7 May 1997.’

The contents of Richards’ 2nd album look an absolute riot with a Delta Goodrem duet of No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) rubbing shoulders with her versions of Donna Summer’s SAW classic This Time I Know It’s For Real as well as her take on Laura Brannigan’s Gloria.

Richards performed in the Eurovision village in Liverpool ahead of this year’s final and appears to have little problem piggybacking on the brand without having the confidence to participate and we now feel her opportunity to do well in that arena has passed.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Claire Richards Tickets
• Have you seen a Claire Richards show or heard 1 of her songs? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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