Goodbye '70's!

Yazoo @ The Chicago Theatre, 14 July 2008

It's only fitting I guess that the first post on this new-fangled Blog is music-related (well, totally music-based). Hailing from Basildon, UK, and existing for only 18 months and only 1 tour, Alison Moyet and Vince Clarke's 2 albums as Yazoo - "Upstairs At Eric's" and "You And Me Both" - stand for me amongst the pinnacles of 1980s electronic pop, up there with The Human League's "Dare", Simple Mind's "New Gold Dream" and Depeche Mode, whom Vince Clarke departed after their 1st album, and which "Upstairs At Eric's" shares a similar sound.

Fast-forward 25 years: both Alf and Vince have successful solo careers and as founder of Erasure respectively, yet the never-played-live songs kept calling, and Alison emailed Vince to ask "what if?!", and the 2nd-ever Yazoo tour was born mid-2008, including just a handful of US dates. I caught them at a sold-out Chicago show this past week with my good friend Sandee, and people-watching was almost as much fun as the music - you name it, we saw it!

So, what about the show? Minimalist stage-set - mic stand for Alf, Apple and keyboard stand for Vince - and a simple lighting backdrop displaying visuals or just colours. From the opening notes of YAMB's "Nobody's Diary", the crowd was ebullient - unusually so for a US audience! - and both the vocals and music rang clear throughout the Chicago Theatre. Even with only 2 albums worth of material to pull from, the setlist was solid and omitted little, melding effortlessly from the dancier to darker songs with applause for a segue, including "Goodbye Seventies", "In My Room" (from which the new box-set draws it's name), a haunting "Winter Kills", a rousing "Only You" as an encore, and of course "Don't Go" and "Situation", all from UAE. A similar mix from YAMB was scattered through the set, including stunning renditions of "Ode To Boy" and "Sweet Thing". The live performances were personal and rousing enough to add to the originals without detracting from their sometimes clinical but always stimulating electronic nature therein. A humourous note came when Vince pulled out a classic Revox reel-to-reel tape deck to play an instrumental. And after a mere 80 minutes it was all over - and i'm looking forward to the Dallas gig...