We told you when Erasure's Andy Bell revealed that he was HIV positive last December. Now he's spilling a whole lot more about blow, blow jobs, barebacking and living with HIV in an interview with Gus Cairns in the April issue of Poz Magazine.

Cairns asks, "You've been very open about being gay. Why did you wait six years to come out as positive?" Bell: "I was kind of persuaded to come out about it a couple of years ago, but I wasn't ready or strong enough - and I didn't want it to become the main thing about me. I love singing and performing. And there's an incident that's always been hanging over me. Before I was diagnosed, somebody stole my jacket at a club, and they were caught because they were using my credit cards. The police said, "Do you want to press charges against this guy? He's got AIDS. So I said, "No, just drop it." And the next thing I knew, this guy had gone to the newspapers and said that I was his boyfriend and had given him AIDS, and they were going to run the story. Paul had to take a note from my doctor to the newspaper to say that I was negative - don't print the story. But it was enough to scare me."

The reason for Bell's announcement has to do with the timing of Paul's memoir, one that reveals Bell's HIV status, as well as the fact that Bell had hip surgery last year. "And I did rebirthing therapy and Reiki healing - I got a lot of shit out of my brain. So I just felt, clean slate." Was the hip operation HIV related? Bell explains, "Well, people with HIV can get avascular necrosis. It could be related to cocaine use." Cairns notes, "You had quite a rock 'n' roll lifestyle for a while," and Bell responds, "Most of the '90s! It was a self-destructive time." At the helm of the self destruction was cocaine and it only made health matters worse. "I had lots of health problems - shingles, hemorrhoids, thrush - before I ended up in the hospital in Majorca where I was diagnosed. ... Paul and me were too stoned then to think of HIV."

With the release of Erasure's new album Nightbird, Cairns inquires, "How have your fans reacted to the announcement. On one site, a fan accused you of using HIV to get publicity for Nightbird." Bell says, "Well, that could be partly true, who knows? Currently taking avacavir, nevirapine and lamivudine, Bell was on stavudine until he started getting "the face" due to lipodystrophy and stopped.

Later in the interview Cairns asks, "What do you think about the barebacking phenomenon?" Bell: "It's quite sexy in a way, isn't it, the whole risk factor? I've been up-front with guys about my status. They're still like, 'It's fine.' But I don't advocate barebacking. It's fine with a consenting partner, but not if you're going out and screwing willy nilly." With that, Cairns wants to know when the last time was that Bell came across someone like that. It seems it wasn't very long along ago at the LA3, a club the two have known for years. Cairns says, "Oh, God, you still go to that club? I might have gotten HIV at that place." And the interview with Bell closes with him saying, "Who knows where we got it? The number of blow jobs I've given in club toilets!"

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