Yazoo (Band)
Yazoo is a successful British synthpop duo consisting of Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet. The band name comes from the U.S. blues label Yazoo Records, which is why the band in the U.S. is known as Yaz.
Band History
Clarke and Moyet had known each other since high school in Basildon in Essex in southeast England. His bandmates in Depeche Mode criticized his ability as a songwriter and Vince Clarke could not cope with the early publicity of the band. Dave Gahan especially liked not Clarke's composition Only You. Clarke began to look for other musicians and answered an ad of blues and jazz singer Alison Alf ' Moyet in the British music magazine Melody Maker.
After three singles released and the nearly finished debut album Speak and Spell Clarke rose at the end of the first European tour of Depeche Mode and founded in November 1981 with Moyet the duo Yazoo, suggested the name Moyet based on the American blues and jazz label. Initially only Only You was planned as a single together, but the cooperation of the 21- year-old composer with the 20 -year-old singer worked artistically and Mute Records took them under contract. The distribution in the United States took over Sire Records. In the UK alone that sold in March 1982 published Only You over 700,000 copies, reached # 2 on the UK Top 40 and was awarded a Silver record of BPI. The song was covered by The Flying Pickets end of 1983 and reached in this version # 1 in the UK and German single charts.
The second, also from the pen of Vince Clarke single Do not Go reached after the publication in July 1982, # 3 on the UK charts and made with single-digit rankings in the German charts and the audience in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on Yazoo attention. The single received in the UK also a silver record. The produced with the help of Daniel Miller and Eric Radcliffe and published in August 1982 debut album, Upstairs at Eric's also placed well in the charts and earned the band a half years after the publication of a platinum award a. The only published in North America single situation stayed four weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot Dance Club charts.
In May, followed in 1983 with the book written by Moyet Nobody's Diary another successful single before the second album, You And Me Both were released in July, for Moyet and Clarke wrote each about half of the songs. Shortly after the release of the second album to Yazoo disbanded due to artistic differences. Vince Clarke initially established with the singer of the Undertones, Feargal Sharkey and sound engineer Eric Radcliffe The Assembly and 1985 along with Andy Bell, the duo Erasure. Alison Moyet began a solo career in 1984.
In spring 2008, Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet went on a reunion tour of Europe. She also gave two concerts in Hamburg and Berlin. At the same time appeared with In Your Room a 4-disc box with two remastered albums and previously unreleased material (such as remixes and interviews ).
In September 2010, the album was Reconnected from the live footage of the tour: Live together with two CDs.
Discography
Studio albums
Compilations
Other Publications:
- 2008: In Your Room
- 2012: Essential
- 2012: The Collection
Live albums
- 2010: Reconnected Live
Singles
Reception
The trade press found in the diversity of Clarke and Moyet as a duo their hangers: the Record Mirror called it " the least same pair in showbiz since Stan and Ollie " and NME called it " Ike and Tina Turner of the new pop". The special features of Clarke and Moyet came in other reviews expressed. The NME called Clarke " the most brilliant songwriters of modern times " and the Daily Mirror attested Moyet " Britain's Best Voice 1982 ". The cast of sound wizard and a female voice was the blueprint for successful duos such as the Eurythmics (Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox ) in the mid 1980s and Roxette ( Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson ) in the early 1990s.