34. Yazoo - Nobody's Diary (Mute)

One week at number one on w/e 11th June 1983

Imagine being the person who had to manage Vince Clarke’s career in the early eighties – that flibbertigibbet with the haircut of a sulphur crested bird who also seemed as unpredictable and (obvious pun intended) flighty as a cockatoo himself. Consider how it must have felt to have had a meeting with him, relaxed and confident about his current level of success and ready to talk about “cracking the USA”, only for him to tell you that he feels something’s wrong again and he's ready to move on.

Having quit Depeche Mode after only one album, Clarke then promptly formed Yazoo with Alison Moyet, only to discover that, primarily for personal rather than musical differences, they didn’t enjoy working with each other. Moyet’s extraversion appeared to jar with Clarke’s quiet, considered and non-communicative working practices, and neither could seem to find a way of making the duo feel like a satisfactory working partnership. The second album “You And Me Both” – appropriately housed in a sleeve showing two dogs baring their teeth at each other – was therefore recorded with Clarke and Moyet largely handling their parts in the studio at separate times, choosing to have as little to do with each other as possible.

It’s worth speculating whether a more experienced individual than Daniel Miller at Mute Records would have seen the signs or been able to intervene earlier. While there are exceptions to the general rule (Haircut One Hundred?) major labels are usually quick to smell groups whose working relationships are on flimsy or moribund territory. Yazoo were formed very quickly, not long after Clarke left Depeche Mode, and seemingly without a chance to get to understand each other – combine that pressure with the sudden rush of hit singles and touring, and the end result feels almost inevitable. In fact, it seems astonishing we even got two albums out of them in such short order.

“Nobody’s Diary” was the only single to be plucked from “You And Me Both”, and unusually was solely penned by Moyet without any of Clarke’s involvement. Whether the intention was that the record would act as a calling card to anyone wanting to sign Moyet as a solo artist or not, her subsequent view of the record has become unfavourable. Noting that she wrote the song at the age of sixteen, she appears embarrassed by the lyrical contents, feeling that her emotional experience was inadequate to handle the romantic subject matter.

There’s an interesting parallel with Depeche Mode’s “See You” here, the first Martin Gore written track to be released as a single following Clarke’s departure. That too was regarded grimly by Gore as he became older due to its schoolboy lyricisms, but unlike “See You” this single does at least feel more specific in places – “My head was so full of things to say/ But as I open my lips all my words slip away” summons a frustration we’ve all felt as a relationship collapses (ironically enough) into poor communication, and is followed then by a piece of bad, scattershot communication itself – “And anyway!” she snaps, changing the subject. It’s a world apart from walks in the park and sitting on benches, and shows that whatever her doubts were, Moyet’s sixteen year old self could handle this stuff as well as anyone else in the charts that week.

Melodically, the song is beautiful, opening with twitchy, metallic synth sounds before gradually blooming into something considerably more detailed and not as desperate and immediate as much of Clarke’s work. This is no pop banger, instead progressing gradually and unveiling itself, confident that while what it has to offer may be subtle, the song is strong enough to hold the listener’s attention without resorting to repetitive slogans or persuasive drum machine loops. Just when you’re finally admiring it and enjoying its company, it slides back to the icy, minimal synth riff it opened with before slowly fading away.

Moyet’s vocals ensure the song’s impact is fully realised. More so than on previous Yazoo releases, she gives the impression of fully throwing herself into this one, to the degree that when I read about her misgivings I was shocked – I had assumed she was singing about a deeply personal situation, so invested does she sound in the lyrics.

Of course, there’s a temptation to assume that whatever her intentions were when she wrote the song, in her head she was actually singing about her frustrations with Yazoo. “I can’t believe you want to turn the page/ and move your life on to another stage” would give her plenty to get her teeth into in that respect. Sadly though, at this point she was just desperate to move on and it feels incredibly unlikely she would have felt much regret.

Yazoo were a powerful experiment in what happens if you take two individuals of different genders and differing personalities and musical preferences and throw them in the same band together. The chemical volatility should have been obvious to everyone involved from day one, but the music itself stretched the idea of what synthpop and Vince Clarke’s ideas could be. While both may have been miserable in the short term, they also benefited. Moyet quickly gained a solo deal with CBS after Yazoo collapsed, and a deeply mixed bag of wonderful pop music which exposed her talents and more middle-of-the-road fare resulted. Depeche Mode have since speculated that without Yazoo having happened, it’s unlikely Alison Moyet would have become successful under her own steam, claiming that she lacked the determination of Clarke. 

Vince Clarke, on the other hand, would become even more listless for awhile, beavering away at other short-term projects and ideas before gradually finding himself with a suitable long-term home. He could afford to take his time, though. He had proven with two different groups that he could deliver. 

New Entries In The Chart

8. Crass – Sheep Farming In The Falklands (Crass)

Peak position: 2

Crass weren’t going to let the Falklands conflict go. Beginning with an audio montage of Thatcher speeches in the Commons and radio static, this slowly moves towards another anguished, aggravated track which constantly sounds on the verge of snapping apart.

“The royals donated Prince Andrew as a show of their support/ Was it just luck the only ship that wasn't struck was the one on which he fought?” Crass ask, also delving into conspiracy theories around the conflict. “The Falklands was really a coverup job to obscure the mistakes I've made.”

“Sheep Farming In The Falklands” sounds like a Spitting Image master tape which has been hastily dubbed over and slashed with razors by a punk band, and the outcome is a hell of a lot better than “Santa Claus Is On The Dole”.




11. X-Mal Deutschland - Qual (4AD)

Peak position: 10

German goths enter the indie charts confidently with a track which feels more straight-ahead and less melodramatic than most of their British peers. “Qual” enters with a rumble and gradually unveils a strange combination of tribalism and futurism by the time the instrumental break rolls around.




16. Prefab Sprout - Lions In My Own Garden (Exit Someone) (Kitchenware)

Peak position: 16

At the time, a significant number of people must have thought that the emergance of a group with a ridiculous name like Prefab Sprout touting a tune with a garbled title meant they were some avant-garde outfit. Instead, “Lions” sets the band’s stall out realistically, offering confident and sophisticated but slightly fragile pop. Just when you think you’ve got a grip on it, it slides off on another path, winking and muttering something cryptic as it goes.





21. Icon A.D. - Let The Vultures Fly EP (Radical Choice)

Peak position: 21


22. Jah Wobble - Invaders of the heart (Lago)

Peak position: 22

Wobble’s post-PiL career was fraught with both professional and personal difficulties – in 1986 while working for the London Underground, he apparently made an eccentric tannoy announcement at Tower Hill station stating “I used to be somebody. I repeat, I used to be somebody.” (There are conflicting reports about what he actually said and whether indeed it actually happened, but let's not those spoil an interesting story). 

“Invaders of the Heart” is proof of what he was prior to that role, using basic lo-fi Eastern music to a dub effect. It was never going to sell millions of records, but time would prove that his mix-and-match approach to musical cultures was actually astonishingly far-sighted.




23. Clint Eastwood & General Saint - Stop That Train (Greensleeves)

Peak position: 14

25. Pallas - Paris Is Burning (Coolking)

Peak position: 25

Scottish proggers who would, the following year, find themselves on EMI’s Harvest label. Whatever would Johnny Rotten say?

“Paris Is Burning” has more in common with fellow progger Trevor Horn’s adventures in New Pop, though, and with the synths turned up a notch or two and the vocals adopting a slightly more fey approach, it’s not difficult to imagine this on a Smash Hits approved album. The line in 1983 was beginning to get very fine indeed.




30. Chris & Cosey - October (Love Song) (Rough Trade)

Peak position: 30

Ex-Throbbing Gristle members enter the fray with naive and unexpectedly sweet synth-pop. The video shows that the sweetness is undercut with some kink and deviance, but from the sugary trills on offer here, you’d never know.

For the full charts, please go the UKMix Forums.

Number One In The Official Charts

The Police - Every Breath You Take (A&M)