Yazoo (band)
Yazoo (known as Yaz in North America) were an English synth-pop duo from Basildon, Essex, consisting of former Depeche Mode member Vince Clarke (keyboards) and Alison Moyet (vocals).[9] The duo formed in late 1981 after Clarke responded to an advertisement Moyet placed in a British music magazine, although the pair had known each other since their school days.
For the American actor and rapper, see Bryshere Y. Gray. For the British solo artist, see Yazz. For other uses, see Yaz (disambiguation) and Yazoo (disambiguation).
Yazoo
Yaz
- 1981–1983
- 2008
- 2011
Over the next 18 months the duo released two albums, Upstairs at Eric's and You and Me Both, which received critical acclaim for their production, particularly the blending of Clarke's synthesizer melodies with Moyet's blues- and soul-influenced vocals.
Yazoo enjoyed worldwide success, but were particularly popular in their home country, where three of their four singles reached the top three of the UK Singles Chart and both their albums made the top two of the UK Albums Chart.[10] In North America, they are known for the song "Situation", which, though originally only a B-side in the United Kingdom, was a club and airplay success in the United States and Canada before being released as the band's debut single in North America.
Despite their success, the duo split acrimoniously in May 1983 as a result of a combination of Clarke's reluctance to make more records under the Yazoo name, a clash of personalities, and a lack of communication between the pair.[11][12][13]
Clarke went on to form Erasure, another successful and longer-lasting synth-pop duo, while Moyet embarked on a highly successful solo career. Although their musical career was short, Yazoo's combination of electronic instrumentation and soulful female vocals has been cited as an influence on the house music scene that emerged in the mid-1980s,[11] as well as on bands such as LCD Soundsystem (who name-checked the duo on their debut single "Losing My Edge"), Hercules and Love Affair (whose leader Andy Butler has said that "Situation" was his biggest musical inspiration as a child),[11][14] La Roux, Shiny Toy Guns and Blaqk Audio.[15]
In 2008, 25 years after splitting, Clarke and Moyet reconciled and reformed Yazoo to play a successful tour of the UK, Europe and North America in support of the reissue of Yazoo's two studio albums and a box set of their material titled In Your Room. The pair briefly reunited in May 2011 to play three Yazoo songs at a music festival organised by their record label.
History[edit]
Formation and Upstairs at Eric's (1982)[edit]
Clarke and Moyet grew up in Basildon and attended the same Saturday music school when they were eleven years old.[13] Clarke was inspired to make electronic music after hearing Wirral synth band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) – who later informed the "duo" configuration of Yazoo[16] – and went on to become co-founder and original bandleader of Depeche Mode.[17][18] Moyet spent her teens singing in various punk and blues bands in her home town. She placed an advert in the UK weekly music magazine Melody Maker in late 1981 asking for musicians to form a "rootsy" blues band after her most recent group, the Screamin' Ab Dabs, had broken up.[12][19][20]
Moyet was surprised when the only reply she received was from Clarke, who had recently stunned the music press by quitting Depeche Mode after their debut album and three hit singles, all of which he had written. Despite growing up nearby, Moyet and Clarke did not know each other. Moyet had been in the same class at school as Clarke's future Depeche Mode bandmates Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher[21] but had no contact with Clarke himself, remembering him as an outsider who, with his brothers, would wear t-shirts proclaiming their Christianity.
Clarke had seen Moyet sing live a few times, as his best friend had been in her punk band.[12] Aware of her vocal abilities, he was looking for someone to sing on a demo of a song he had written called "Only You". Clarke was worried that by walking out of Depeche Mode he would lose his record deal with Mute Records and wanted to show the label that he still had something to offer them, saying in a 2008 interview, "When I left Depeche I wasn't sure I'd still have a record deal and was keen to play the label something of my own, so I wrote the song 'Only You' but needed someone to demo it with. Alison happened to be advertising in a local paper so I called her."[13]
The pair came to the project with different tastes in music. In an early interview, Moyet stated that "I'm a traditionalist, I can't accept the fact of blues with synthesizers at all," while Clarke admitted to tolerating modern R&B outfits like Dr. Feelgood but disliked traditional blues artists such as Muddy Waters.[22] Clarke took the demo to Mute label boss Daniel Miller but recalled that at first Miller appeared to be uninterested:
