Hypnotica's Gig Reviews 2008

Yazoo @ Wolverhampton Civic Hall, UK Thu 12/06/08

Reconnected Tour 2008

Support: Merz

Tickets £45

Summary:

ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT GIG!! Still can't believe I was lucky enough to see it - after all these years too The music, the vocals, the visuals - everything was spot on. I before E kicked Ass! Thank you Alison & Vince for doing this!! A dream come true

Setting the scene

As Yazoo are such an influential band for me they feature heavily in my own 'History of Electronica' which is still a work in progress on this site. For that reason I shall try not to re-write the whole section here but suffice to say I was astounded and overjoyed that this gig actually happened! Amazing...

Although I loved both Yazoo albums it was the seminal 'Upstairs at Erics' that totally blew me away and for some reason I had convinced myself that this gig would be that album live in it's entirety plus a few extra hits as encores. I guess this was due to seeing other bands showcasing classic albums recently - Human League 'DARE' and OMD - 'Architecture and Morality' for instance.

I must admit to finding the gig booking process for all these 'comeback' gigs a bit frustrating at times. Being a dedicated electronic music fan I do my best to be up to date on all my favourite groups activities but with 'so many of them' and only so many hours a day to do so, it can be easy to take your eye off the ball

As soon as Yazoo gig tickets were released I panic bought the best seats I could local to me. As there was only a few dates at first this meant travelling to Wolverhampton - not particularly local to Derby but I would have travelled anywhere to see them!

Sure enough a few weeks later a shed load more dates were announced to the general public (probably after the huge demand for the initial dates) and one of those dates was Nottingham - over the road for me - hmmm a tad annoying

I don't blame groups for 'dipping their toes in' to gauge interest in a comeback tour and only announcing a few initial dates for die hard fans but it is a bit frustrating that despite keen fans being 1st in the queue to buy tickets, if you wait a few weeks you can often get 'better' seats and a bigger choice of venues.

This was not just the case with Yazoo by the way, I have found it is becoming the norm with any 'reunion' style tour and no doubt the decision of managers and promoters anyway

Either way I managed to get what I thought were reasonable tickets and I was going to see Yazoo so that was great!

Venue

Although it was not my venue of choice, finding the Civic Hall was actually easier than I'd expected. It was also quite a nice venue I thought, holding about 3000 standing or as in this case 1500 seated it was a nice size - neither to big or too small. It didn't even feel too cramped despite being pretty much a full house

There was already a decent crowd at the venue by 5:45pm when I got there, but rumour has it that Vince and Alison had already turned up at 5pm so missed them on the way in!

Merchandise

Not a lot on sale really, just T-shirts, a mug and Tour Programmes at £10 a go. Apparently the record company had something to do with the fact there was no CD's on sale - still find it bizarre that bands don't bother to sell music at gigs??

Support: Merz 8pm

I'd not heard of Merz until this tour but had time to check him out before the gig and listen to his music on MySpace. It was really good! reminded me of Coldplay which is quite appropriate it seems as they are quoted as being fans of his.

I think 'multi-talented' and 'multi-instrumentalist' would cover his style well as he seemed to play about 3 guitars (acoustic and electric), a Nord lead Synth and sang all the vocals

The first part of the set was pretty acoustic but as it progressed the electronics crept in. Merz voice was good and the music interesting and complex.

Although I didn't recognise the music from his MySpace tracks I suspect it would sound even better on CD as the mix wasn't that clear from where we were sitting. There was a noticeable crackle coming through his 'PA for a good five minutes or so too but Merz remained un-fazed by it.

All in all an enjoyable set but I'm not sure if it was a bit melancholic for an audience of Synthpop fans. Due to the almost 'folky' sound of the initial tracks it made me think of an 'electronic' Bob Dylan

Hanging around outside after the gig, I noticed Merz packing up and loading his car - if I'd been a bit quicker I could have said hello -hmm!

Yazoo: 9pm

From info cribbed from the Alison Moyet forum, the set-list was apparently as follows:

Nobody's Diary
Bad Connection
Mr Blue
Good Times
Tuesday
Ode to Boy
Goodbye 70's
Too Pieces
In my Room
Anyone
Walk Away From Love
Instrumental
State Farm
Sweet Thing
Winter Kills
Midnight
Unmarked
Bring your love
Situation
Don't Go
Only You

Certainly sounds about right from what I can remember...except where it states 'instrumental' I guess that was when we heard 'I Before E Except After C'

As Yazoo came on stage about 9ish, the audience went wild! If Alison and Vince had any doubts about this tour this reaction should have put them to rest...

'Nobody's Diary' kick started the concert which is a great track and really got the audience going. I had expected 'Upstairs at Eric's' in it's original order plus extra tracks at the end but the playlist was quite different

We 'did' get to hear the whole album, but it was spread over the set. Given the choice I probably would have preferred original plus, but I was impressed at how well it worked. It was obviously a very well thought out set with the faster upbeat tracks balanced by the more experimental and melancholic ones

Highlights of the other tracks were 'Ode to Boy', 'Walk Away From Love ' and of course 'Situation' which brought the house down! (cool visuals to it too)

Alisons voice was perfect, really powerful and ever so often she changed or enhanced the original vocals to add an extra twist

As for the 'keep identical or 'change the music radically' argument - I think Vince, like the SPARKS recently, got the balance perfect - not something many bands pull off in my opinion

Vince left the vocal tracks largely original, save some subtle sonic enhancements which added power and dynamics to the music only. There wasn't really much noticeable improvisation but I think it was the right thing to do. As this was such an important collection of songs and such an important group with a fanatical following I think that most people would probably prefer to hear them untouched

There are so many good tracks on 'Upstairs at Erics' it's no surprise it was so popular when it was released but I really enjoyed hearing some of my personal favourites live. 'Goodbye 70's' was predictably amazing and is one I have had a stab at remixing myself - hoped to get it played on the Alison Moyet forum but not had time to re-master it yet. Failing that it will either appear on my MySpace page or the downloads section here soon

It couldn't be further away from that track but 'Winter Kills' has always been another favourite, it's just so 'haunting', so melancholic - so different. Alison did it proud, after telling the heckling audience to 'shut up' several times (jokingly!)and keep quiet whilst they played the next track, the audience finally complied and they weren't disappointed

The jewel in the crown was 'I Before E Except After C' however. Being an instrumental and 'samples' only track, I guess Vince thought it was ripe for a reworking without offending anyone's nostalgic sensibilities. Quite true, it kept close to the original but when we least expected it we were hit round the back of the head with thunderous bass and superb Teutonic 'Orbital' esque drum beats - totally epic - I hope it gets released because I seriously need to give that track a blast in the car!

To add to the impact, the track started with Vince wheeling on stage a working 'Reel to Reel' tape desk mounted on a wheeled trolley and topped with a scrolling red LED sign quoting the phrase 'Comedy Moment'. Appropriate visuals accompanied the track and strobe lighting intensified as the beats kicked in - a brilliant overall effect and if new Yazoo material surfaces it would be a cool direction to go in...

Techno Talk

From our position up on the left balcony I couldn't see Vince's gear in any detail. We did have a peek at the stage before the gig but Yazoo's gear wasn't set up then I don't think

Essentially I would guess it was the same set up as the Erasure gigs, a Macbook and control surface(s) I believe. It certainly looked like Vince was playing the leads though, as his hands were certainly moving in time to the sounds

I'd read that Vince had spent a lot of time trying to get the sounds right and it had certainly paid off - they sounded spot on, crisp and solid beats and very authentic sounding. I had no doubt that Vince would come up with the goods - he's a grandmaster with Synths!

Sound Quality

Good. Probably even better if you were dead centre

Visuals

Superb! 'Hi-Tech' and probably on par with OMD's recent Architecture & Morality tour. Despite the futuristic effect I still felt there were times when the coloured lighting reminded me of an 80's disco!

Either way it fitted the gig perfectly

The Audience

Up for it! As it was one of the first dates announced I would imagine it was mainly packed with hardcore fans (me included).

Encores

'Don't Go' & 'Only You'. What else could it have been! Yazoo didn't disappoint by playing two more classic tracks - this was a proper comeback / reunion / nostalgia tour giving hordes of screaming fans exactly what they wanted - a damn good night out reliving their youth and dancing as though they were back at a school disco!

Bloopers

No technical hitches I noticed - a perfect show

Irritations

Despite having what appeared to be 'good seats', front row on the balcony fairly near the front - ok halfway... there was a dirty great hand rail straight in front of us which did mar the view somewhat. It's these little things that don't show on the seating plans and which you don't even think about when panic buying tickets...hmm

Verdict!

Little to add to my initial summary - ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT GIG!! As well as being great on a nostalgic level, it serves well as a reminder just how good their music was both musically and in terms of pure electronic music. They are a beacon of excellence when it comes to Synthpop and few groups have come close

I did my dutiful fan routine and joined the excitable groupies hanging around the stage door after the gig. It was a good atmosphere and we all stood around in eager anticipation of Alison and Vince bursting through the door at any moment.

We stood around discussing 80's Synthpop bands we had seen live (hello to Jane & friend from Walsall!) and I think we were all pretty like minded. Every time the doors opened or a roadie put something into the tour bus there was an excited reaction from those nearest but nothing to report!

A roadie told us that they had left straight after the gig as they were staying in Birmingham that night but no one wanted to believe it so hung around a but longer on the off chance

Suddenly I noticed the time, 10:59pm Ahhhh - the car park gets locked at 11pm! I made a swift exit and just got there before I was stuck in Wolverhampton for the night...

Making steady progress home I happily reflected over the fact that again I could tick off another of my 80's heroes finally seen live

For plenty more reviews and everything you need to know about Alison Moyet and Yazoo head over to the forum