Yaz Finally Getting to Know One Another on Reunion Tour

Posted on Jul 8th 2008 4:00PM by Steve Baltin
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The reunion of Yazoo -- Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet -- surprised no one more than the duo themselves. "We've probably seen each other three times in 26 years and two of those were accidents," Moyet tells Spinner. "We had no connection at all."

Both moved on from the project just fine. Clarke teamed with Andy Bell in Erasure and Moyet, whose new solo album, 'The Turn,' was just released Stateside, has become a huge star in Europe. Given their individual success, a reunion seemed unlikely. Moyet even refused to perform Yaz (as they're known in the U.S.) songs live. "Yaz was not just about songs or about the vocal or about the electronica, but it was all about of those things together," she says. "If you separate any of those, you've either got someone doing an impersonation of me or someone doing an impersonation of Vincent. It becomes similar to karaoke."

To that end, Moyet approached Clark about a possible reunion. "He responded to me really, really warmly," she says, "and said he was really flattered and really excited by the idea." But out of respect for his partnership with Bell, Clark declined. Only when Bell decided to take a two-year sabbatical did the idea become reality.

Moyet, who started working with Clarke while just a teenager, says the two are only now getting to know each other. "I knew Vincent because I was in school from the age of 11 with two of the other band mates of Depeche Mode," she recounts. "We were all known together, but he and I never became friends. When we started working together, we were in the studio 16 hours a day and we never even went for a drink together. Then we were massively famous, and then we split up. We had built no relationship. What was really interesting about coming back to him was to actually find out how much we have in common and make each other laugh. That was just a real brilliant revelation that we missed that the first time around."

The tour with Yaz also marks the first time Moyet has performed in the States in nearly 20 years (she estimates 1990, in support of 'Hoodoo,' as the last time she appeared here). But she hopes the next gap won't be nearly as long, with a possible solo tour in the fall for 'The Turn.' "I wanted to play America for a long time," she says. "It just hasn't fit in either with striking a chord with the record company or timings and visas. I just got a visa for three years, so if you get rid of me in three years you're gonna be lucky."