Yazoo Artistfacts

1981-1983, 2008
Alison MoyetVocals
Vince ClarkeSynthesizer
Yazoo was a short-lived but very influential synthpop duo comprised of synthesizer wizard Vince Clarke and singer Alison Moyet. They teamed up after Clarke left Depeche Mode - he was a founding member and the main songwriter in that group, but left after just one album because he felt pressured and overwhelmed as they became successful. Somewhat ironically, Yazoo also became quite popular, but this time Clarke had creative freedom and just one bandmate to deal with.
Yazoo brought synthpop to a new level of artistry with songs that have lots of lyrical depth delivered in Alison Moyet's very expressive voice. Vince Clarke had this to say about their sound in an interview with Sounds from 1982 (he refers to Moyet by her nickname, "Alf"): "It's an unusual combination. There's a lot of synth bands with vocalists that sing with expression, but Alf, she's got soul."
When Yazoo formed, it was just to record a one-off single, a song called "Only You" that Vince Clarke wrote for Depeche Mode when he left the group. Depeche Mode turned it down, so Clarke answered an ad Moyet placed in the magazine Melody Maker looking for a "ritzy blues band" to back her up, and he enlisted her to sing on "Only You." It went so well, their record label asked them to make a full album, so they obliged.
Yazoo made two albums - Upstairs at Eric's in 1982 and You And Me Both in 1983 - before splitting up. Clarke and Moyet both did very well post-Yazoo. She became a very popular solo artist in the UK, where her 1984 debut album, Alf, went to #1 and sold over a million copies. Clarke formed another synthpop act, Erasure, which had hits with "Chains of Love" and "A Little Respect."
Unlike Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox of Eurythmics, Clarke and Moyet didn't have much of a relationship outside of work, and their creative process was mostly separate.
In America they couldn't use the name Yazoo because there was already a group with that name, so in that country they were known as Yaz (interestingly, that was the nickname of Boston Red Sox star Carl Yastrzemski, who played during this time). The UK group The Beat faced a similar challenge - in America they had to be The English Beat.
Moyet came up with the name. Yazoo Records was an American record label; she had one of their releases in her collection and liked the name.
Yazoo's influence can be heard on the Pet Shop Boys, who made the same kind of lyrically intriguing dance music. Before forming Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant was a journalist, and in 1982 he wrote a feature on Yazoo for the British magazine Smash Hits where he interviewed Clarke and Moyet.
Yazoo reunited in 2008 for a summer tour they called "Reconnected." They didn't tour after releasing their second album, You And Me Both, so this reunion marked the first time they played songs from it. Along with the tour, Yazoo also released remastered versions of their two albums and released a boxed set.
Yazoo didn't play a lot of live shows and didn't perform in America until their 2008 reunion. When they played live in 1982 and 1983, they used a computer hooked up to a synthesizer to play the tracks, so Clarke didn't have to really play anything, just call up the tracks he had programmed. Visually, it wasn't very exciting, but that wasn't a concern for Clarke.

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