Yazoo (band)

Yazoo
General information
origin	Basildon , England
Genre (s)	Synth pop
founding	1981
resolution	1983
Website	yazooinfo.com
Last occupation
singing	Alison Moyet
synthesizer	Vince Clarke

Yazoo was a British synth-pop duo consisting of Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet . The band name goes back to the US blues label Yazoo Records , which is why the band is known as Yaz in the US .

Band history

Clarke and Moyet knew each other since high school in Basildon in the county of Essex in southeast England . His bandmates at Depeche Mode criticized his ability as a songwriter, and Vince Clarke couldn't handle the band's early publicity. Dave Gahan particularly didn't like Clarke's composition Only You . Clarke started looking for other musicians and responded to an ad from blues and jazz singer Alison 'Alf' Moyet on the British music magazine Melody Maker .

After three released singles and the almost finished debut album Speak and Spell , Clarke left Depeche Mode at the end of the first European tour and founded the duo Yazoo with Moyet in November 1981, whose name Moyet suggested based on the American blues and jazz label. Initially, only Only You was planned as a joint single , but the collaboration of the 21-year-old composer with the 20-year-old singer worked artistically and Mute Records signed her.

Sire Records took over distribution in the United States . In Great Britain alone, Only You , published in March 1982, sold over 700,000 copies, reached number 2 in the single charts and was awarded a silver record by the BPI. The song was covered by The Flying Pickets at the end of 1983 and in this version reached number 1 in the British and German single charts.

The second single Don't Go , also penned by Vince Clarke, reached number 3 in the British charts after its release in July 1982 and drew the attention of audiences in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to Yazoo with single-digit placements in the German-language charts . The single also received a silver record in Great Britain. The debut album Upstairs at Eric’s , produced with the help of Daniel Miller and Eric Radcliffe and released in August 1982, also placed well in the charts and earned the band a platinum award half a year after its release. The single Situation , released only in North America, stayed at the top of the Billboard Hot Dance Club charts for four weeks.

Another successful single followed in April 1983 with the Nobody's Diary written by Moyet , before the second album, You and Me Both , was released in July , for which Moyet and Clarke each wrote about half of the songs. Shortly after the release of the second album, Yazoo broke up due to artistic differences. Vince Clarke first founded The Assembly with the singer of the Undertones, Feargal Sharkey and sound engineer Eric Radcliffe, and in 1985 together 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 reunification tour through Europe. They also gave two concerts in Hamburg and Berlin. At the same time, In Your Room was released, a 4-disc box with both remastered albums and unreleased material (such as remixed versions and interviews).

In September 2010, the album Reconnected: Live was put together with two CDs from the live material from the tour .

In 2011 Yazoo performed at the Short Circuit Festival of the label Mute Records in the Roundhouse , London. They played the songs Nobody's Diary , Ode to Boy and Don't Go .

Discography

Studio albums

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	R&B
1982	Upstairs at Eric’s Mute Stumm 7	DE14 (23 weeks) DE	-	-	UK2 platinum (63 weeks)UK	US92 platinum (32 weeks)US	R&B37 (10 weeks) R&B	First published: August 23, 1982 Producers: Eric Radcliffe , Yazoo
1983	You and Me Both Mute Mute 12	DE15 (18 weeks) DE	-	-	UK1 gold (20 weeks)UK	US69 (14 weeks) US	-	First published: July 4th 1983 Band name in US: Yaz Producers: Eric Radcliffe, Yazoo

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Live albums

• 1983: In Concert - 296 (UK) / BBC College Concert # 23 (US) (Recording: Dominion Theater, London on November 22, 1982; BBC Transcription Services / London Wavelength )
• 2010: Reconnected Live (2 CDs; Mute Stumm 322; release: September 24th)

Compilations

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	R&B
1999	Only Yazoo: The Best Of Mute 6	-	-	-	UK22nd silver (3 weeks)UK	-	-	First published: September 6, 1999 Band name in US: Yaz Producers: Eric Radcliffe, Yazoo

More compilations

• 2008: In Your Room (box with 3 CDs + 1 DVD; Mute Yazbox1; release: May 26th)
• 2008: In Your Room: Club Remixes (Mute Plyazbox1)
• 2012: Essential ( EMI Gold )
• 2012: The Collection (2 CDs; Music Club Deluxe 173; release: September 10th)

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)							Remarks	[↑]: treated together with the previous entry; [←]: placed in both charts
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	R&B	Dance
1982	Only You Upstairs at Eric’s	DE72 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	UK2 silver (19 weeks)UK	US67 (8 weeks) US	-	-	First published: March 15, 1982 Author: Vince Clarke
	Don't go upstairs at Eric’s	DE4 (29 weeks) DE	AT6 (10 weeks) AT	CH2 (8 weeks) CH	UK3 silver (11 weeks)UK	-	-	Dance1 (21 weeks) Dance	First published: July 5, 1982 Author: Vince Clarke
	Situation Upstairs at Eric's (US version)	-	-	-	-	US73 (8 weeks) US	R&B31 (12 weeks) R&B	Dance1 (22 weeks) Dance	First publication (US): July 1982 in EU as B-side of Only You . Authors: Vince Clarke, Alison Moyet
	The Other Side of Love Upstairs at Eric's ( Reissue )	DE35 (13 weeks) DE	-	-	UK13 (11 weeks) UK	-	-	-	First published: November 8, 1982 Authors: Vince Clarke, Alison Moyet
1983	Nobody's Diary You and Me Both	DE18 (17 weeks) DE	-	-	UK3 silver (12 weeks)UK	-	-	Dance1 (20 weeks) Dance	First published: April 1983 Author: Alison Moyet
	State Farm You and Me Both (US Version)	-	-	-	-	-	-[Dance: ↑]		B-side of Nobody's Diary Authors: Vince Clarke, Alison Moyet
1990	Situation (Deadline Mix) Only Yazoo: The Best Of	DE36 (8 weeks) DE	-	-	UK14 (8 weeks) UK	-	-	Dance46 (3 weeks) Dance	First published: November 26, 1990 Remix: François Kevorkian
1999	Situation (1999 Mixes)	-	-	-	-	-	-	Dance1 (13 weeks) Dance	First published: July 28, 1999 Remixes: Peter Rauhofer , Tea Freaks, Richard "Humpty" Vission
	Don't Go (1999 Mixes)	-	-	-	-	-	-	Dance16 (11 weeks) Dance	Splitmaxi with Situation (1999 Mixes) Remixes: Todd Terry

More singles

• 1983: Walk Away from Love
• 1999: Only You (1999 Mix)
• 2008: Reconnected EP

reception

The trade press found their hook in the difference between Clarke and Moyet as a duo: the Record Mirror called them "the least identical couple in showbiz since Stan and Ollie" and the NME called them "Ike and Tina Turner of the new pop". The specifics of Clarke and Moyet were expressed in further reviews. The NME called Clarke "the most brilliant songwriter of recent times" and the Daily Mirror certified Moyet "England's best voice 1982". The line-up of sound tinkerer and female voice, as with the Eurythmics ( Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox ) founded a year earlier , became the blueprint for successful duos in the mid-1980s and early 1990s. B. also Roxette ( Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson ).

swell

1. ↑ ^{a b c} BPI: Certified Awards Search. In: BPI.co.uk. Retrieved May 30, 2011 (English, keyword: Yazoo). 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK Billboard Hot 100 Billboard 200
3. ^ The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .
4. ↑ ^{a b c} UK gold / platinum database
5. ^ Joel Whitburn : Top R&B Albums 1965–1998, ISBN 0-89820-134-9 .
6. ^ Joel Whitburn : Hot R&B Songs 1942–2010: 6th Edition, ISBN 978-0-89820-186-4 .
7. ^ Joel Whitburn : Hot Dance / Disco 1974-2003, ISBN 978-0-89820-156-7 .
8. ^ ^{A b c d} Christian Graf and Burghard Rausch: Rockmusiklexikon . Europe / Vol. 2, Lake Zombies. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-596-12388-7 (pp. 751-1515). , P. 1450

Web links

• Official website
• Yazoo at Allmusic (English)
• Yazoo at Discogs (English)
• Yazoo at 45cat.com
• Further links on the topic of Yazoo in the Open Music Project - MusicMoz (English)