Yazoo, Wolverhampton Civic Hall, Thursday 12th June 2008
The support was Merz (aka Conrad Lambert) who played various guitars accompanied by backing tracks of varying degrees of listenability. The result sounded to me something similar to what my fifteen year old son produces from his loft conversion bedroom. I don’t think the moderately lukewarm reception he was given from the crowd (the bloke in front of me had several riveting games of “Snake” on his mobile phone during the set) bothered him in the slightest as he was too far up his own arse to notice. I was staggered to discover afterwards that Merz has been around a fair while and has a considerable back catalogue. I think I’ll save my money.
Yazoo appeared on stage at 9pm to a tremendous standing ovation. They were unable to begin for a minute or two – Alison Moyet seeming genuinely moved by the fantastic greeting. Vince Clark (dressed in trademark black suit and shirt) didn’t manage to crack his face at this point. He didn’t look a lot different to 26 years previously or is that because I saw him in 2000 with Erasure? Anyway, Alison Moyet was considerably slimmer than 1982 with long sleek hair contained in two loosely curled bunches. Dressed in black wideleg trousers and zip up tunic she looked great and extremely happy throughout the whole set.
The stage was pretty spartan with what looked like two huge venetian blinds at the back and tracking lights suspended above and stretching out over the crowd. During the set various video images appeared on the blinds and the tracking lights were used very innovatively (yes okay I know I’m not technical!)
The set began with Nobody’s Diary. Moyet’s voice was as impressive as ever and the crowd were extremely appreciative. In an interview, Moyet explained that this was not Yazoo ‘reforming’ but rather performing the tour that never happened following the release of the second (and final) Yazoo album, You and Me Both. Hence the evening was a performance consisting of most of the tracks from both Yazoo albums. It was noticeable that the majority of the audience were familiar,nay, word perfect on all songs – not just the ‘hits’ which obviously provoked even more of a hysterical response! Moyet admitted to the audience that it was brilliant to be performing the old songs again after so many years and at this point Clark actually grinned
Yazoo were on stage for just over an hour and a half during which the audience remained on its feet and dancing.(okay, swaying during the less dancey numbers) They went offstage to return a couple of minutes later to perform an encore of “Only You”.
I didn’t see Yazoo back in the 80’s although I did see Clark with both Depeche Mode and Erasure a couple of times. In my opinion it was a great synthpop performance – so good to hear those songs again -with a fab atmosphere. The evening was pronounced worth the £45 a ticket (eek!) by my party, a response that appeared to be shared by the rest of the audience.
Cleo (who is not planning to give up her day job and become a music critic any time soon.
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