Yazoo - The Reconnected Tour 2008

It seems to be all the rage over the last few years for famous bands from the 80s to all get together and do reunion tours and nostalgia concerts. Thankfully one of my favourite bands from that era are being just a little more classy than that, and are back on tour on their own after a "break" of around 25 years.

Yazoo are the dream team of synthesizer wizard Vince Clarke and powerhouse vocalist Alison Moyet. Famously only together for about 18 months between 1982-3, they took a very very long break after the release of their second album "You And Me Both" when communication problems arose between the two members.

In 2008 they are back for a reunion tour to promote the release of the Mute box set "In Your Room", which contains remastered version of both albums, plus a third CD of B-sides and rarities, plus a DVD of 5.1 mixes of the albums and a short film about the history of the band. It's a bumper package and well worth checking out!

I was lucky enough to get a ticket for one of the London gigs on the tour, Hammersmith Apollo, and although I was secretly apprehensive about it I was absolutely blown away by how good they were. Not only was the sound amazing, and the great lighting and visuals, but there just seemed to be a great atmosphere in the room which seemed to come directly from the band. They genuinely seemed happy to be out again performing these songs, some of which they never got the chance to play live.

Highlights of the gig for me were "Sweet Thing", "Situation", and "The Other Side Of Love", which I strongly recommend checking out. I have it on good authority that the London gigs were recorded for a forthcoming live album.

Everyone knows the big singles, "Don't Go", "Nobody's Diary", and of course "Only You", so here's a couple of lesser known, but still fantastic Yazoo tracks:

Sweet Thing


Walk Away From Love


More info:

Website: www.yazooinfo.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/yazooofficial
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazoo_(band)

Buy "In Your Room" box set: The Erasure Shop
Buy Digital Downloads: Play.com

Modest Mouse

Saw Modest Mouse at the Royal Albert Hall last Wednesday. Excellent gig! I love the Royal Albert Hall, although I think one of their sound crew must have been fired afterwards cos there was way too much feedback for a professional concert like that.

Loved the band, they're amazing musicians, and had two drummers which was quite impressive. Was great to see Mr Marr on stage too! Isaac fell over his monitor speaker towards the end of the gig whilst going a bit crazy. I was somewhere between annoyed and impressed that they managed to get the crowd to applaud for at least 10 minutes before they came back on for the encore.

One of my favourite songs on the album is the new single "Dashboard".



I'm also loving "Missed The Boat".



More info on Modest Mouse:

Website: www.modestmousemusic.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/modestmouse

Buy the album "We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank" from Amazon here, or from the iTunes download store here.

Tori Amos New Album & Tour Dates!

More great news on the female singer/songwriter front, although I'd definitely put this lady in a level above most of what's going on at the moment.

Tori Amos' new album "American Doll Posse" is released on 1st May 2007 (whether this is worldwide or not I don't know yet).

As per the recent albums, this has been once again written and recorded at Martian Engineering in Cornwall, England. Tori's also going to be touring Europe in June and July, including dates in London and Manchester.

All the information is on her website www.toriamos.com, and her myspace site.

No new material to show yet, but here's a little something (one of my favourite moments) from her last studio album "The Beekeeper".

Sleeps With Butterflies