In 1982, we got MTV in my house. That Christmas, Santa Claus got me the 12" vinyl for Yaz's (or Yazoo for the rest of the world) "Don't Go" and Musical Youth's "Pass The Dutchie"—two heavy-rotation clips on the music video channel at the time that had completely captured my imagination. I was eight years old.
The following year, my mom was taping songs off the radio, and "Only You," probably Yaz's most well-known song here except for maybe "Situation," made it onto one of her compilations.But other than "Don't Go" and "Only You," I didn't know much else about Yaz or any of their other music until one Friday while hanging out at the mall in early 1990, I bought Upstairs At Eric's on cassette.
I played and played my cassette until it had pops and cracks between the songs, as well as during a few songs themselves. 1990 later proved to be a year of resurgence for Yaz, as that's when that "Situation" remix started popping up seemingly out of nowhere on Top 40 radio in the U.S.
There was a pretty decent interview with Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet—both now in their mid-40s—in the Los Angeles Times this week, to tie in with Yaz's three L.A. shows and the release of the In Your Room four-disc box set.
I didn't get to see them at any of their concerts here, but I did get the box set. The short film documentary, 2 Albums, 4 Singles and that was it.... was worth the $65 alone.Plus, perhaps shamefully, I must admit that despite "Nobody's Diary" being one of my all-time fave Yaz songs, this is the first time I've heard the entire You And Me Both album.
Side note: U.S. iTunes misreads the track "Tuesday"—which was left off the American release of Upstairs At Eric's—as "Situation" on the remastered, box set version of the CD. In turn, "Situation," originally a b-side, wasn't initially included on the U.K. version of the album.