ALISON MOYET is best remembered as one half of the hugely successful electro-pop duo Yazoo, who shot to fame in the early eighties with hits such as Only You and Don’t Go. After finding fame as a powerful vocalist backed by keyboard player Vince Clarke’s haunting melodies, she went on to forge a successful solo career with hits such as Invisible, Love Resurrection and All Cried Out. In 2001 she made her critically acclaimed stage debut in the West End production of the musical Chicago. She played the part of Matron “Mama” Morton and, although initially planned to be a short run, Moyet enjoyed the experience so much that the run was extended to six months. In 2006, Moyet appeared in the play Smaller, which undertook a regional tour before a West End stint at London’s Lyric Theatre. As well as co-starring with Dawn French, Moyet also composed three new songs for the production, which feature on her album The Turn. She is married to second husband, David, a social worker, has three children, aged 22, 19 and 11, and is an avid supporter of Southend United Football Club. She plays at York’s Grand Opera House on January 29. DO you have any plans to celebrate 25 years of Yazoo? We have no plans in place. The 25 year bit means little to me. It would be great to work with Vince again and we have talked about it before. It always felt like unfinished business, regardless of the time that has passed. WHAT’S the most memorable part of your career? My memory is not my greatest asset. It is shocking what I have left behind. I remember the stories better than the events. Nothing, however, can beat the joy of releasing your first ever record and hearing it on radio. Only You entered the charts at 198 or something like that and I remember being totally made-up that we had got a place in the top 200. It went up 20 or 30 places a week, and that was in the days when you had to listen to Radio One to find out where you had gone. Numbers became a bit mickey- mouse. I remember getting the call to be told we had sold 250,000 copies of it in the UK in one week . . . and we never had a number one single! Anyone who sold what it takes to make the top 10 today, back then, got dropped by their label pretty sharpish. YOU had a critically acclaimed run in Chicago. Any plans to do more musicals? Musicals were never a “must-do” for me. As an old punk they were always deemed a bit naff. I liked doing Chicago because it seemed like a perverse little thing for me to do. It was a new challenge and a challenge I was in need of. If something truly brilliant came up I would probably consider it, but I would prefer a non-singing role if truth be told. IS it true your first job was as a piano tuner? No. My first job was as a hairdressing apprentice but I was sacked after three weeks for bunking off to a Tom Robinson gig that got cancelled anyway. I was studying piano tuning when Only You was released. I HEARD you have a new album coming out. It is called The Turn and it was released in October. Fantastic it is too, thanks for noticing. WHAT’S the best and worst parts of being famous? The best is that you are able to indulge your artistic aspirations, you get paid more than you’re worth and you get to choose your days off. The worst is in having to continually sell yourself. IF you hadn’t been a musician what would you have done? I would have been a piano tuner and restorer . . . unless I dropped out of that too. DO you ever suffer from stage fright? Not so much these days. A mahoosive dose of Cognac helps! WHO are your own musical heroes? I don’t have heroes. When I was young I was a fan of some. Becoming well-known enabled me to meet the objects of my admiration and I discovered it to be a bad move. Not that they disappointed me, but because it was miserable to discover how socially inept I am. I talked rubbish and then got my coat and withdrew mumbling. I prefer to love from a distance. HOW do you spend your spare time? Watching rubbish TV. Doing number puzzles. Going to the pictures. Hanging out with my kids and playing cards. | 
