Biography
Formed in the United Kingdom during 1981, the synth-pop pair Yazoo—billed as Yaz across North America—packed an impressive run of activity into a mere sixteen months between March 1982 and July 1983. Keyboard virtuoso Vince Clarke and commanding vocalist Alison Moyet issued the LPs Upstairs at Eric's and You and Me Both, together with four charting singles anchored by the moving ballad “Only You” and the enduring club favorite “Don't Go.” Divergent temperaments soon steered each member toward separate ventures, Clarke achieving particular prominence with Erasure while Moyet embarked on a solo trajectory; the two later rejoined for a 2008 tour and one additional stage appearance three years afterward.
Clarke had already exited Depeche Mode when Yazoo took shape, having composed nearly every track on that group’s debut release Speak & Spell and its Top Ten U.K. single “I Just Can't Get Enough.” Moyet, whose vocal style drew from blues and soul traditions, had just left the Screamin' Ab Dabs and posted an advertisement in Melody Maker seeking collaborators; Clarke answered the notice. Their partnership produced an immediate success when “Only You” climbed to number two on the U.K. singles chart in April 1982. Follow-up releases “Don't Go” and “Situation” soon followed, both eventually reaching the top of Billboard’s U.S. club tally. The momentum carried into their first album, Upstairs at Eric's, which peaked at number two on the U.K. album chart and earned platinum certification in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Although prospects remained bright, the duo disbanded after issuing one further collection, 1983’s You and Me Both, which yielded the additional hit “Nobody's Diary.”
Moyet subsequently developed a solo catalog that began with the multi-platinum U.K. albums Alf (1984) and Raindancing (1987) and continued at intervals across the following three decades. Clarke, for his part, participated in several projects starting with the Assembly before forming Erasure, whose output included fifteen U.K. Top Ten singles between 1986 and 2005. The exhaustive Yazoo anthology In Your Room surfaced in 2008 and prompted a reunion trek through the United Kingdom, Europe, and North America; selections from those concerts appeared in 2010 as Reconnected: Live. Clarke and Moyet shared one more brief performance the next year. Seven years later the catalog received fresh treatment, expanded slightly and issued on vinyl as Four Pieces and on compact disc as Three Pieces.
Clarke had already exited Depeche Mode when Yazoo took shape, having composed nearly every track on that group’s debut release Speak & Spell and its Top Ten U.K. single “I Just Can't Get Enough.” Moyet, whose vocal style drew from blues and soul traditions, had just left the Screamin' Ab Dabs and posted an advertisement in Melody Maker seeking collaborators; Clarke answered the notice. Their partnership produced an immediate success when “Only You” climbed to number two on the U.K. singles chart in April 1982. Follow-up releases “Don't Go” and “Situation” soon followed, both eventually reaching the top of Billboard’s U.S. club tally. The momentum carried into their first album, Upstairs at Eric's, which peaked at number two on the U.K. album chart and earned platinum certification in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Although prospects remained bright, the duo disbanded after issuing one further collection, 1983’s You and Me Both, which yielded the additional hit “Nobody's Diary.”
Moyet subsequently developed a solo catalog that began with the multi-platinum U.K. albums Alf (1984) and Raindancing (1987) and continued at intervals across the following three decades. Clarke, for his part, participated in several projects starting with the Assembly before forming Erasure, whose output included fifteen U.K. Top Ten singles between 1986 and 2005. The exhaustive Yazoo anthology In Your Room surfaced in 2008 and prompted a reunion trek through the United Kingdom, Europe, and North America; selections from those concerts appeared in 2010 as Reconnected: Live. Clarke and Moyet shared one more brief performance the next year. Seven years later the catalog received fresh treatment, expanded slightly and issued on vinyl as Four Pieces and on compact disc as Three Pieces.
Albums
