Yazoo - Nobody's Diary (12" Extended Version)

Yazoo - Nobody's Diary (Extended Version) / 12 Inch Extended Remix (HQ Audio)

Alison Moyet and Vince Clarke first met aged 11 at a Saturday morning music school in Basildon, Essex. Vince played violin and Alison played oboe. They also attended the same school but weren't classmates or friends particularly. Alison, in fact, was in the same class as Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher who would later form Depeche Mode with Vince, and Dave Gahan. Depeche Mode released their first singles - Dreaming of Me, New Life and Just Can't Get Enough in 1981 with all three written by Vince before he left the band, achieving the first top 10 hit with the latter. Whilst Vince had been busy with Depeche Mode Alison sang in various bands the latest of which had just split up, so she placed an ad in the local paper for new bandmates. She was surprised that the only reply she received was from Vince. Vince was keen to keep his Mute Records contract so wanted to demo new tracks he'd written and needed a singer. Vince and Alison met and demoed "Only You" but Mute founder Daniel Miller wasn't initially too excited by the song as its icy synths and soulful vocal didn't quite fit the current zeitgeist. Of course, the formula of the quiet synth boffin alongside a more extroverted vocalist would become something of a template for 1980s pop but in early 1982 when Vince played the demo to Daniel that wasn't the case. When the publishers showed interest in the track however, Miller invited Vince and Alison to record the single properly. It was released by Mute and reached number 2 in the UK chart. The duo chose to call themselves Yazoo after the specialist blues record label but in the US their records were released as Yaz following a threatened lawsuit from an already existing American band called Yazoo. (The band are referred to as Yaz in the LCD Soundsystem track 'Losing My Edge' where James Murphy lists bands regarded as influential or cool - "I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your computer out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yaz record.") Yazoo's career was short with only four singles released - Only You, Don't Go, The Other Side Of Love and Nobody's Diary. Nobody's Diary was the only one of the four written exclusively by Moyet. She wrote it as a 16-year old and says the track is "about projection, not experience - the tortured loneliness of someone who had yet to connect with people. Rather than what my lyrics later became, which was the tortured loneliness of someone who had connected with people." Alison and Vince describe their 18-months in Yazoo as a solely working relationship, saying that despite their success they never really got to know each other. On occasions they would even visit the studio separately to complete recordings of their songs. In interviews they both speak of the speed at which Yazoo developed, and their not yet fully developed understanding of how to form a bond with one another. Vince says he was very at home in the studio but wasn't yet somebody who would really strike up a chat and build rapport with people. Alison says she was different having grown up in punk bands and used to externalising ideas and feelings, suggesting this might have been difficult for Vince. Nobody's Diary was released on 9 May 1983 as the lead single from the band's second album. It reached number 3 in the UK chart. The extended version clocks in at 6'07" and was produced by Daniel Miller, Eric Radcliffe and Yazoo. The b-side is an extended version of another Yazoo track, State Farm. In the week of the single's release Yazoo / Yaz announced they were breaking up. Alison went on to have a successful solo career, as did Vince as one half of Erasure. In 2008, 25 years after the split, Alison and Vince reconnected by email and agreed to tour their back catalogue. Nobody's Diary was re-released along with four new remixes, and the duo played 27 dates across Europe and North America. Yazoo's sound is to be cited as an influence decades later by acts including Shiny Toy Guns, La Roux and Hercules and the Love Affair, whilst Riton & Oliver Heldens went a step further in 2019 getting permission from Vince directly to build their track 'Turn Me On' around the main riff from Yazoo's second single, 'Don't Go'.

Year: 1983 Label: Mute Cat no: 12 YAZ 003