Ned Eliot played with Erasure (8)
I believe the answer is:
deletion
'erasure' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'ned eliot played' is the wordplay.
'played' indicates an anagram.
'ned'+'eliot'='nedeliot'
'nedeliot' is an anagram of 'DELETION'.
'with' is the link.
(Other definitions for deletion that I've seen before include "Idle note (anag) - erasure" , "shelving" , "Process of erasure" , "Removal called for" , "Removal, erasure" .)