Features
Alison Moyet Re-Turns To North America
The trek launches October 5 at Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Toronto and will drop in on theatres and clubs across the U.S. through the end of the month.
Highlights include stops at Blender Theatre at Gramercy in New York City (October 7), Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, N.J. (October 11), 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. (October 14), Lakewood Theatre in Dallas (October 17), Grove of Anaheim in California (October 21), El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles (October 25) and Moore Theatre in Seattle (October 29).
Presale tickets will be available to members of Moyet’s fan club at AlisonMoyet.com.
The Turn, which was released in the U.K. last October and the U.S. in July, is Moyet’s first disc in three years and is the follow-up to the singer’s 2004 collection of cover tunes, Voice.
Here’s a clip of Moyet performing the haunting, elegant track “One More Time” from the album.
On this tour, fans can look forward to selections from the new album as well as material from the singer’s vast catalog.
Moyet first caught the ear of the public in 1982 as one-half of synth-pop duo Yazoo (or Yaz as they were known in the States). The other half of the group was former Depeche Mode member Vince Clarke.
The band scored a number of hits including “Only You,” “Don’t Go,” “Situation,” and “Nobody’s Diary.” After two albums, the pair decided to part ways, with Clarke going on to form first The Assembly and then Erasure, while Moyet began her solo career.
Alf, Moyet’s solo debut, was released in 1984 and spawned three hit singles, “Love Resurrection,” “Invisible,” and “All Cried Out.”
The singer’s recorded output suffered a decline in the mid-’90s when she began a battle with her label, Sony, that would last nearly a decade.
The label insisted on a number of changes to Moyet’s 1994 release Essex, including re-recording and re-production on certain tracks and additional remixing of others to create a more “commercial” album.
In 2002, after eight years of refusing to release a record unless it was on her own terms, the label let Moyet go.
The singer signed to Sanctuary Records and released Hometime, which Sony had refused to do. The album subsequently became one of the top-selling releases by a female artist in the U.K. that year and scored numerous award nominations.
Moyet has also had a successful stage career. She made her West End debut as Matron “Mama” Morton in “Chicago” in 2001.
In 2006 she co-starred in the play “Smaller” with comedian Dawn French, also composing three songs for the production, all of which are included on The Turn.