Yazoo as they were known in England consisted of former Depeche Mode songwriter Vince Clarke and singer Alison Moyet. Hailing from Basildon, Essex they joined forces in 1981 and released their first single “Only You” in 1982 which was very successful in the UK. Moyet had previously been a member of an R&B cover band The Screaming Abdabs and it is her soulful vocals that made the follow-up single “Situation” a hit on urban dance floors in America where they were signed to Sire as Yaz. “Don’t Go” was the next song and it became well-known in the US because of MTV’s rotation of the video and it was another song favored by club crowds. Upstairs At Eric’s was their initial album released on Mute in the UK and Sire in the United States. The US version had “Situation” but the song was absent from the UK release. The album went platinum in Britain and it was very influential in leading the synth pop movement from the UK that had a relationship with American R&B and European electronic music that could be heard in Detroit techno and Chicago house music. You And Me Both was their second and last album that generated the hit single “Nobody’s Diary.” The project also did well on the UK charts but Clarke and Moyet had already decided to break-up. Clarke went on to have more accomplishments with another short-lived unit The Assembly, his label Reset Records and Erasure which is one of Britain’s most profitable bands. Alison Moyet’s solo career that started in 1984 continues to climb and she ventured into theatre with a critically acclaimed debut in the musical Chicago in 2001. Clarke and Moyet reunited in 2008 and did a short tour in the United States and Europe to promote a 4 disc box set of their music and videos that Mute released that year.
