Yazoo
Yazoo performing in Germany in 2008
Background information
Also known as	Yaz
Origin	Basildon, Essex, England, UK
Genres	New Wave Synthpop Electropop Dance
Years active	1981–1983, 2008, 2011
Labels	Mute/EMI Records Sire/Reprise/Warner Bros. Records
Associated acts	Alison Moyet Depeche Mode The Assembly Erasure Recoil VCMG
Past members
Vince Clarke Alison Moyet

Yazoo (also known as Yaz in the United States) is a British synthpop duo from Basildon, Essex. It had a number of Top 10 hits in the UK charts in the early 1980s. Formed in late 1981 by former Depeche Mode songwriter Vince Clarke (synthesizer) and Alison Moyet (vocals), Yazoo was signed to Mute Records in the United Kingdom and (as "Yaz") to Sire Records in the United States.

Yazoo's debut single "Only You" backed with "Situation", was released on 15 March 1982 and rose to number two in the UK charts. Yazoo released two successful studio albums, Upstairs at Eric's in 1982 and You and Me Both in 1983. Shortly after, Moyet and Clarke decided to break up. Moyet pursued a solo career while Clarke went on to form Erasure, another synth pop duo. Yazoo reunited in 2008 with a tour in Europe and the United States and the release of a four-disc box set.

Though the band's initial run was short-lived, Yazoo continues to influence and inspire many of today's bands, including LCD Soundsystem, Shiny Toy Guns, Blaqk Audio,^[1] Hercules and Love Affair,^[2] La Roux and Gil Mantera's Party Dream.^{[citation needed]}

History[link]

Yazoo was formed in late 1981 by Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet in Basildon, Essex, England.^[3] Clarke was previously the main songwriter and keyboard player for Depeche Mode, who also came from Basildon and who at that point had recorded one album and three singles for Mute Records, including the hits "New Life" and "Just Can't Get Enough".^[4] The name 'Yazoo', according to Moyet, came from the labels of old blues albums: Yazoo Records.^[5] Yazoo was signed to Mute Records in the United Kingdom and to Sire Records in the United States. Yazoo's initial foray into the US was disastrous when they received a £3.5 million lawsuit threat over the band's name.^[5] Yazoo renamed to Yaz for the US market because the name was already in use by a small American rock band.^[3]

Yazoo's debut single "Only You" backed with "Situation", was released on 15 March 1982 and rose to number two in the UK.^[6] Yazoo's next single, "Don't Go", was released on 3 July 1982^[6] and hit number three,^[3] and became popular on MTV in the United States.^[7] They continued their successful streak with their first album, Upstairs at Eric's, which went platinum in Britain.^[3] The band received favourable reviews for their pioneering sound. Clarke and Moyet toured briefly, while releasing a stopgap single, "The Other Side of Love".

The duo's second (and final) album, You and Me Both, yielded more success, hitting the top of the UK charts, and featuring the hit single "Nobody's Diary".^[8] Commercial success in the US was initially not as strong. Both "Situation" and "Only You" were released as singles and airplay and peaked at No. 73 and No. 67 respectively. Despite the modest chart success of those singles and of Upstairs at Eric's (which reached No. 92 on the album chart) word of mouth helped to eventually push the album to platinum status for sales of over one million copies by 1989, seven years after its release.

Shortly before the release of You and Me Both, Clarke and Moyet announced they were to go their separate ways.

Break up and legacy[link]

Moyet signed with Columbia Records and began her successful solo career after leaving Yazoo.^[9] Clarke recorded a single with producer Eric Radcliffe and Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey as The Assembly, and another with vocalist Paul Quinn.^[9] Around this time, Clarke also produced "The Face of Dorian Gray" for his friend and singer Robert Marlow. Clarke then started the synth pop group Erasure with vocalist Andy Bell.^[9]

Mute Records released a remixed version of "Situation" as a single in 1990, which was moderately successful, reaching No. 14 on the charts. A compilation entitled Only Yazoo — The Best of was released in 1999, and was preceded by a re-release of Yazoo's debut single, "Only You", featuring a new remix of the title track and several more of "Don't Go". The band's output was bookended with yet another release of "Situation", accompanied by many remixes. Clarke was tapped to remix Moyet's 1994 single, "Whispering Your Name" and with Erasure, Clarke and Moyet tried to record her single "This House" as a duet. This project never came to surface, because Sony Music Entertainment would not permit it.^{[citation needed]}

The band's songs have appeared in a number of films and television shows. In 1988, "In My Room", "Ode to Boy", and "Only You" were used in the film The Chocolate War (the adaption of the book of the same title). "Only You" was used in the film Napoleon Dynamite, the BBC television series The Office, and the film Can't Hardly Wait; a cover version of "Only You" by Joshua Radin was used in 2007 in a J. C. Penney commercial; "Don't Go" appeared in the BBC series I'm Alan Partridge and was used in the film Tango and Cash. The song "Situation" was used in the 1990 TV movie Exile and was also used in a Nintendo commercial highlighting the classic edition of the Game Boy Advance SP and the classic NES games ported to it. In 2007, "Bring Your Love Down (Didn't I)" was used in The Sarah Silverman Program episode "Not Without My Daughter".^{[citation needed]}

Antony Hegarty, lead vocalist in Antony & The Johnsons, talked with Terry Gross in February 2009 about recording the debut self-titled Hercules & Love Affair album. He said he'd been asked by New York based DJ Andy Butler to join the project and that the objective was or became "Let's sound as much like Yazoo as we can .... We loved Yazoo."^[2]

Reunion 2008[link]

In December 2007 Side-line announced that Mute plans to reissue both albums as remastered versions. The band would also plan a live gig to promote the re-releases.^[10] The promotional tour received moderate television coverage including a performance on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross broadcast on 16 May 2008, a prime time BBC chat show.^[11]

The news was confirmed later on including extra details.^[12] 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 was released in 2008. Add to this a DVD featuring an exclusive short film with new interviews from Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet and the videos for "Don't Go", "The Other Side Of Love", "Nobody's Diary", "Situation (1990)" and "Only You (1999) as well as several original appearances on BBC".

The release has been followed by the 'Yazoo Reconnected: Live' tour. Currently, 18 dates have been announced, starting in Copenhagen on 26 May.^[13] The first three dates of the US tour saw Yazoo performing in Oakland, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Yazoo wrapped up the final two dates of the US tour by returning to New York City for the first time since October 1982. A limited edition vinyl 12" with new dance mixes was also to be released to promote the boxset.^[14][15] A video was released in late April 2008 in which Clarke and Moyet discuss Yazoo's first single "Only You".^[16] In an interview with Side-Line Magazine, Clarke announced that a live CD was also planned. The recordings were planned to take place during the band's two upcoming performances in London.^[17] No live DVD is planned though.^[18]

The 10 July concert Yazoo played at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles, California has been recorded to be re-aired on Richard Blade's Sirius Radio Show.^[19]

A live album, Reconnected Live, of their successful European and North American 'Reconnected Tour' was released 27 September 2010.^[20]

Vince Clarke with Yazoo in 2008

Alison Moyet with Yazoo in 2008

Discography[link]

The discography of Yazoo includes two studio albums, one live album, two compilations, two extended plays and ten singles.

Studio albums[link]

Compilation albums[link]

Live albums[link]

Singles and EPs[link]

• ¹ Netherlands and US-only single
• ² Japan-only single/promo single
• ³ Ineligible for UK Singles Chart
• ⁴ 12" vinyl and digital download EP

Singles with BPI Sliver Certification: Only You, Don't Go, Nobody's Diary

Awards[link]

• 1983 BRIT Awards – Best British breakthrough act^[23]

See also[link]

• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Yazoo (band)

• Official Yazoo page

Yazoo may mean:

• Yazoo tribe, a Native American people who lived in Mississippi
• Yazoo (language)
• Yazoo River, in the state of Mississippi
• Yazoo stream, a type of floodplain tributary
• Yazoo lands, historic area in Mississippi and Alabama, formerly occupied by Yazoo tribe
• Yazoo land scandal
• Yazoo County, Mississippi
• Yazoo City, Mississippi
• Yazoo Delta Railroad
• Yazoo Brewing Company, a brewery in Nashville, Tennessee
• Yazoo/Kees (originally Yazoo Manufacturing Company), a maker of lawn mowers owned by Husqvarna
• Yazoo (band), a 1980s English pop band, known as Yaz in the United States
• Yazoo (drink), a flavoured milk drink made by Campina
• Yazoo Records
• Yazoo, a character from Final Fantasy VII Advent Children

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Look up band in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Band may refer to:

Clothing, jewelry, and accessories[link]

• Bands (neckwear), two pieces of cloth fitted around the neck as part of formal clothing for clergy, academics, and lawyers
• Bandolier or bandoleer, an ammunition belt
• Belt (clothing)
• Wedding ring or wedding band
• Strap, an elongated flap or ribbon, usually of fabric or leather

Science and technology[link]

• Band (radio), a range of frequencies or wavelengths used in radio transmission and radar
• Rubber band, a short length of rubber and latex formed in the shape of a loop
• Möbius strip or Möbius band, an artifact with interesting topological features
• Band (mathematics), an idempotent semigroup
• Spectral bands, part of the optical spectra of polyatomic systems
• Metals and semiconductors
  • Valence band
  • Conduction band
  • Band gap

Medicine and biology[link]

• Bird ringing, or bird banding, placing a numbered bands of metal on birds' legs for identification
• A group of animals, such as gorillas or coyotes
  • Herd
  • Flocking (behavior)
• Band cell, a type of white blood cell
• Protein band, see Coomassie
• Gastric band, a weight-control measure

Organizations[link]

• Bands (Italian Army irregulars), military units once in the service of the Italian Regio Esercito
• Brazilian broadcast television network Rede Bandeirantes, nicknamed Band or Band Network
• The Band (wrestling), the Total Nonstop Wrestling name for the professional wrestling stable New World Order

Society and government[link]

• Band society, a small group of humans in a simple form of society
• The primary unit of Native Americans in the United States
• Band (First Nations Canada), the primary unit of First Nations Government in Canada

People[link]

• Band (surname)

Places[link]

• Band, Mureş in Romania
• Bánd, a village in Hungary

Music[link]

• Band, a company of musicians—see Musical ensemble
  • Rock band
  • Concert band
  • School band, a group of student musicians who rehearse and perform instrumental music together
  • Marching band, a group of performers that consist of instrumental musicians who generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching (and possibly other movements) with their musical performance
• The Band, a Canadian-American rock and roll group
  • The Band (album), its eponymous album released in 1969

See also[link]

• All pages beginning with "Band"
• All pages with titles containing "Band"
• Banding (disambiguation)
• Drum and bugle corps (disambiguation)
• Stripe (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Jason Carl is a game designer who has worked on a number of roleplaying games, including the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game.

Biography[link]

Jason Carl recalls his introduction to role-playing games: "Some junior high buddies back in my home state of Maine first introduced me to roleplaying in 1980... we played Keep on the Borderlands. From that moment on, I was totally and irreversibly hooked."^[1] Years later, be began doing freelance design for White Wolf and Dungeon magazine.^[1] After working as the Policy Director for Organized Play for the Magic: The Gathering game, Carl became a member of the Wizards of the Coast R&D team, designing adventures and modules for the Dungeons & Dragons game: "Both careers have their rewards... but I've wanted to be involved in RPG design since I was fourteen - after all, I still remember rolling my first d20. So I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make the switch."^[1] When the D&D third edition was released, Carl was the designer chosen to begin the process of adding detail to the character classes in the supplement Sword and Fist; he felt that this book "is important because it establishes the model for those that will follow it".^[1]

Works[link]

Jason Carl has worked for White Wolf, TSR and Wizards of the Coast, Kenzer & Company, and Exile Game Studio. Among his D&D credits are design work for the 3rd edition's core books: the Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide (2000).

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jason Carl at Pen & Paper.

This Dungeons & Dragons article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e