Vince + Alison Demos (partially found Yazoo demo tape; 1981-1982)
One of two pictures of the cassette demo tape.
Status: Partially Found
Yazoo were a British synth-pop duo from Basildon, Essex founded by singer Alison Moyet and former Depeche Mode songwriter Vince Clarke in early 1982, known by notable hits like "Don't Go", "Nobody's Diary", "Situation" and "Only You" their most famous track and single which has been covered by numerous artists. Releasing two albums (Upstairs At Eric's and You And Me Both) and 4 singles before their break-up in mid 1983.
Background
Songwriter Vince Clarke had left his former band Depeche Mode on December 3rd, 1981 a year later after its formation, the release of their first album "Speak & Spell" on late October 1981 and an extensive tour around the UK and Europe. Clarke was fed up by the increasing success of the band and how commercial it became
Clarke was considering leaving the music business after that decision, afraid he had lost interest and his contract with his label: Mute Records, however after a few weeks Clarke started working on new tracks at his home in Basildon.
Parallel to that singer Alison Moyet who had just left "The Screamin' Ab Dabs" a blues band which that had just broke up a few months earlier, had place and advert on the UK weekly magazine "Melody Maker" looking for musicians. Clarke who had knew Alison since they were kids and attended to rival schools contacted and recruited her to his newly formed project to sing on two demo tracks he had composed earlier: Don't Go and Only You. The demo tape was recorded between late December 1981 and early January 1982.
On early January 1982 once the tracks were finished he presented the demo tape to Daniel Miller, producer and founder of Mute Records.
It was said Clarke had offered Only You to his former Depeche Mode bandmates Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher as a farwell present but rejected it because it was different from what they had and were working on, this stated by Andy Fletcher. However during an interview made by a German television network Vince Clarke denied this statement remarking he offered them a different track.
Miller was indifferent after he heard the tracks, however both were persuaded by Rod Buckle and another two executives of Sonet Publishing which at the time was taking care of all the publishing rights of early Depeche Mode and Clarke written and produced tracks. The executives convinced Daniel Miller to give the tracks a chance and after a second listen he decided to produce Only You as a single.
Both Alison and Vince decided to name their project "Yazoo" after the Yazoo record label since the project was a mix of Alison's bluesy vocals and influence and Vince's synth music.
Availability
The demo tape was mentioned throughout the duo's entire existence, nonetheless it wasn't known if the tape actually existed nor what contained.
On 2009 a tape recording of "Let's Get Together" was posted on YouTube. The track was attributed to be a Depeche Mode demo due to the song was composed and demoed on June 1981 when Vince Clarke was still part of the band and could be heard being rehearsed as the band was featured on ITV's 20th Century Box program, being interviewed and performing "Shout" and "New Life" at the Croc's on June 27th, 1981.
The track had been reposted, claiming it was a Depeche Mode track, others would claim it was a Composition Of Sound (Depeche Mode's first name) track since Vince was singing and he was on lead vocals during that period, and others claimed Dave Gahan, Depeche Mode's frontman was on the backing vocals, but those claims turned out to be fake.
Finally on April 23rd, 2013 the Facebook page "Basildon: New Town - New Life" made a post attaching an image of a cassette tape, the post contained information about the tape, reveailing for the first time ever the Yazoo demo tape. The same post also stated the track "Let's Get Together was part of the tape, which led to many people of the Depeche Mode and Yazoo community to question if the track posted on YouTube was the same on on the tape.
Months later on July 10th, 2013 in a post the admin clarified the recording circulating online was the same on the tape, stating it came from a 2nd or 3rd generation copy of the tape.
It was also stated the tape was in possession of Tim Williams, who has the tape in his collection since January 1982 and has been exhibited and played a few times during the BAS festival in 2012 and 2013.
Content
The cassette tape contains a few pieces of music. These tracks are:
| Song Title | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Let's Get Together | Found | Vince wrote the song long before Depeche Mode and is essentially an ovation of Christianity. The ITV '20th Century Box' documentary on Depeche Mode filmed in late June 1981 features a clip of the band rehearsing 'Lets get together' although they never played it live and there are no recordings of the track. There are a number of 2nd/3rd generation audio copies of Vince's demo on Utube with various homemade still picture videos. One claims it to be by 'Composition of Sound' while another claims it as a Depeche Mode demo. One even asserts that Dave Gahan is singing backing vocals!
The song actually came to wider public prominence when US manufactured band 'Girl Authority' released a cover version a couple of years ago. Rather than Vince's very methodical electronic 1981 treatment, Girl Authority's version is quite sickly sweet with an equally nauseating video. At the time it was told the purpose of this recording of 'Lets get together' was that Vince's music publishers 'Sonet' would basically hawk the song around for other artists to record and the possibility of offering it as a possible eurovision contender was specifically mentioned at the time. |
| Only You Demo 1 | Lost | This is the first track recorded by Yazoo. Its very different from Vince's recordings with Depeche Mode, this track using the brand new Roland MC-4 Sequencer.This automatically gives the track a different feel from what had come before. It's perhaps a paradox that at the momment whan synthesizer music became truely 'machine like' that this track should be accompanied by the soulful voice of Alison Moyet with her Blues / Punk music background.
This version was recorded in Vince's flat on a portastudio with Alison singing the vocals in the kitchen.The demo version has a sparse and spacious feel. Vince's synth programing has a light feel and combined with Alisons Voice delivers the most emotional version of this song. |
| Only You Demo 2 | Lost | This is the second demo version of Yazoo's 'Only You'. This version was recorded in 'Blackwing Studio's and is far heavier & weighty in production. It may be cleaner and more perfected in recording terms but had lost something of the simple purity of the first version. A final version was to follow. All the versions are a differrent length. |
| Don't Go Demo | Lost | This is the first recorded version of 'Don't Go'. As with the first version of 'Only You', it differs to some extent from the final version released as a single later in 1982 and another top 5 hit.
Both synthesiser sounds and vocals are less compressed than the eventual single. It has a far more buzzy (saw-tooth like) metallic sound than the single. Alison's vocals are very pure, direct and ear splitingly powerful. This track is a triumph of early multi-layered complex sequencing. This demo is a short version of the song and dosen't gradually fade out but builds to a cacophony of echo overload on Alison's prominent vocals and then just cuts dead. |
| Chinese Detectives | Lost | Chinese Detective was an instrumental written by Vince Clarke in 1981. It was certainly named after the UK BBC drama series called 'The Chinese Detective' broadcast in the Spring of that year. However it was not the theme tune to that series as many YouTube and Mode forums suggest.
Yazoo subsequently used the song as an instrumental break in the middle of their set during the 'Guided Tour' in the Autumn of 1982 while Alison took a break from the stage. The later live tour version of this track can be found on YouTube. That version is shorter at (2.45) while the stage version also differs considerably to this comparatively less effected sparse portastudio version made by Vince in late 1981. |