Covers Of Erasure Tracks - Jono's Response

The following is a copy of an email Chekmate singer Jono sent me
 regarding my review of their version of A Little Respect: 

Hi Mate.. just read your review about our single " a little respect" by Chekmate.... I must admit i quite made me smirk :-) I am Jono the vocalist on that track, whilst im the first to admit like you, im a massive Erasure fan and have been since 1986 when " Wonderland" was first released, however, I feel I must put you right on a couple of things... firstly, I in no way shape or form tried to sound like Andy, its not something I'd do or even want to do.. As for the record company thing, our record company did have conversations with the people at Mute regarding the vocal... I can't understand this myself as I don't think we sound too similar for a record company to think it was an unofficial bootleg... We were approached by our record company to do the cover of "respect" and to be honest I felt quite privileged to do it.. When "wheatus" did their cover, alot of dj's wouldn't play that version and wanted a more up-to-date version to play of the same song.. that's where we came in!  Both versions were released at the same time and obviously wheatus sold alot more copies than we did!!!! Although, it was not really a competition!!  We ended up selling 19,000 copies in the UK.. 36,000 in Europe and over 40,000 copies in the states... not bad I thought!! I'm sure Andy and Vince like me enjoyed the royalty cheques!  We have no more plans to release anymore Erasure covers because personally, I think they should be left alone.. I don't think anyone could really capture the same vibe as Andy and Vince do.. so there you have it.  I must say I think you're site is great and must take alot of effort and dedication.. any band would be so grateful of a fan like yourself.. Best of luck with it in the future... Regards, Jono.