Last night Stu, Paul, Mark, Darren, David, Andy, Kev, Tom and I (along with about 2000 other people) went to see Yazoo at the Hammersmith Apollo. And what a great night it was.
Alison and Vince have reformed for a tour and to promote In Your Room, a four-disc box set featuring the stereo remasters and 5.1 mixes of the albums Upstairs at Eric's and You and Me Both next to a disc with B-sides and remixes. Some of those remixes were in evidence last night with reworkings of classic hits such as Nobody's Diary, Situation, the you-could-hear-a-pin-drop Winter Kills, Don't Go and of course the sublime Only You. The remixes have given a fresh feel to these sounds (well, fresh for a band that split up 26 years ago). So there were quite a few audio pleasure on offer - especially satisfying for me when it strayed into Erasure territory.
Alf's voice was magnificent throughout. She sang. We sang. She danced (no, really). We danced. And the much reported stage frostiness between her and Vince was in little evidence.
The only song missing (thanks for pointing this out Mike) was The Other Side Of Love.
Hang about, hang about, they played The Other Side Of Love? You lucky, lucky people. Last week in Nottingham & Manchester, it was one of only four songs from their back catalogue that wasn't performed, and it hadn't featured in any of their previous shows either. Grr!
ReplyDeleteI thought that the re-worked instrumental coda for "Too Pieces" (after Alison left the stage) was particularly fine. It THROBBED!
Did Alison politely ask everyone to shut up before singing "Winter Kills"? She had to on both occasions last week. Bloody ADD pissheads!
And no frostiness in evidence when we saw them, either. Quite the opposite...
Yes, she made us all shut up during Winter Kills. Which took some effort from the Danish uber-fans behind us. There was nigh-on mass hysteria throughout the whole gig.
ReplyDeleteAnd now you've got me thinking whether The Other Side Of Love was just a trace memory of me listening to the album earlier in the day. I'm pretty sure they played it. But being the old doddery fool that I am I may have mis-recollected. Perhaps David can confirm?
OK, just been checking the Alison Moyet fan forum, and can confirm that your memory *was* playing tricks on you; TOSOL wasn't performed. Although you did get a new mix of State Farm that hadn't been performed before (we got a more traditional version).
ReplyDeleteAh OK. Apologies for that. I'll be able to confirm my dodgy memory tonight as another spare (free) ticket has just come my way... :) And we'll get Hercules and Love Affair too! Yippie!
ReplyDeleteDid you hear us sing "Happy Birthday To You", though? She did look rather embarrassed by all the cheering, but I'm not sure if she really heard us.
ReplyDeleteI think she heard but chose to ignore it :) She's even older than me!
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