The British Invasion of the early ‘80s was meteoric in every sense. Artists blew up fast on a global stage, many burned away. From this explosive music scene emerged Yazoo, the duo of Alison Moyet and Vince Clark, which, in fewer than 12 months, pumped out two albums, both stuffed with electro-pop classics. Then Yazoo flamed out, without even touring the second LP. It was meteoric stuff.
Unlike so many of her contemporaries, Moyet moved on. And wasted no time. Her debut Alf was an instant hit. Released in 1984, the album logged a week at #1 on the Official UK Chart, one of her two career leaders. And 40 years on, it provides some of the gems on Key, Moyet’s 10th and latest studio album.
Moyet has a significant body of work, including six UK top 10 singles — versions of which appear on Key. It’s a collection of hits, fan favourites, deep cuts, she explains, all of them written or co-written by Moyet, and reconstructed with the help of producer Sean McGhee, her live musical director for the past decade.
“It’s also about giving a life to some songs,” she says of the project. Moyet reflects on her 2007 album The Turn, which, she recalls, “came out and puffed away,” but wasn’t a commercial success. On that album are “some of my favourite songs.” Key provides a platform to revive some of those forgotten treasures that “disappeared like a whisper.”
Key (via Cooking Vinyl) spans 18 tracks, including 16 reworked songs “Filigree,” “So Am I,” “Such Small Ale” and “All Cried Out” and two new tracks. The expanded collection is twice the fun, with 36 songs.
Performing “live is where it’s at,” Moyet tells Rolling Stone AU/NZ. “But the thing is, as a solo artist, where you work with lots of different kind of band lineups and different producers, you have a real problem,” she explains. “When you put your work together and to try and play it live is that it ends up like some nasty karaoke. It gets a bit schismatic.”
Key is the culmination of a process, with live performance in mind. “I’m always thinking about how I can reframe songs in such a way that I can pull the whole thing together, like one cohesive, body of work.”
Talk turns to fame, and that meteoric British movement. “I was a bit traumatised by the whole thing when I was younger. Because fame is, like, really shocking. Especially when you are a bit other and you have mildly antisocial tendencies, to have gone from being this kind of small town, a girl who hadn’t even kind of socialised with middle class people, to be put into this arena with the beautiful people that do small talk like an art.
“I just felt like a complete freak in that scenario, and it was really weird being recognised.” Fame “was never something that I aspired to.”
Now, aged 63, and boasting three BRIT Awards and a Grammy nomination, Moyet is comfortable in her skin (an ADHD diagnosis “explained a lot of things in my life,” she says). Plaudits have come from outside the charts and conventional music awards shows. She collected an MBE in 2021, recognition for her services to music, and in a particularly proud moment, graduated with a first in fine art printmaking BA (Hons) from Brighton University, England.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become much more proactive, much more active and more interested. And I consider everything.”
Those classic songs, fan faves and forgotten gems will get the live treatment next year. Moyet’s UK and Ireland dates on her 2025 trek sold out more than six months ahead of showtime, with runs booked across Continental Europe, North America and Australasia. TEG will produce the Australia leg of ‘Key Live 2025’ (see dates below).
“That’s my favourite arena, playing live,” she insists. “That’s how you get to the nuts and bolts of a song, where you engage with it.”
Alison Moyet ‘Key Live 2025’ Australia & New Zealand Tour
21 May – Auckland, Town Hall
24 May – Wellington, Michael Fowler Centre
26 May – Christchurch, Isaac Theatre Royal
27 May – Christchurch, Isaac Theatre Royal (NEW SHOW ADDED)
29 May – Brisbane, QPAC Concert Hall
31 May – Sydney, Darling Harbour Theatre
1 Jun – Melbourne, Plenary
4 Jun – Perth, Riverside Theatre
