All Cried Out

ONE of the top solo stars of the 80s, big haired, big-voiced Alison Moyet seemed to have it all.

Finding fame at 21 with electro-pop duo Yazoo and releasing a triple-platinum solo debut at just 23, success came thick and fast.

Yet all was not as it seemed.

The Billericay punk – who left school at 16 to conquer the charts with self-penned hits Love Resurrection and All Cried Out, and such classic covers as Ole Devil Called Love and Love Letters – had it all, but was deeply unhappy.

Despite her brassy appearance, Alison was painfully shy, and her insecurities took hold in the form of debilitating depression, anxiety and agoraphobia.

Now enjoying success second time round, she admits to having slain her demons, and is enjoying herself as never before. “I prefer doing this so much more now,” says the singer – real name Genevieve Alison Jane – while getting ready for a show in Bristol.

“I’ve got 25 years to look back on, and I’m not as uptight as first time. Back then I felt my career was something I had to do – not something I wanted to do. I felt displaced. Fame wasn’t something I aspired to or planned for. And it appeared far more glamourous than it was. I thought getting fame would mean being loved by people – but it just meant living under a spotlight.”

It’s a problem today’s celebrities don’t have to cope with, she claims. Or, at least, not as much.

“Stars were bigger than they are now; they had more mystique. They are so much more accessible today – now anyone can get on TV. And while people are intrigued by celebs, they’re not so thrilled by them.

“I was never involved in that celebrity lifestyle,” she says with some pride. “Dawn French is the sum of my celeb friends – and I’ve known her since I was 21. But having been one of the fattest pop stars, it’s not like my body wasn’t commented upon.

“Though it wasn’t a new phenomenon; I had to put up with it since the age of eight. When I was a kid it hurt, but when I was a celebrity it was more humiliating.”

But time out of the burning glare of the spotlight has done Alison good. Now a slim, confident 48-year-old mother-of-three in her second marriage, she is endearingly honest about the flipside of fame – and about the fun she is having now the pressure’s off.

“For a while in the mid-80s, it was amusing to be a pop bitch, but that changed, and it stopped being enough.

“Now I’m able to put my early work into context and find pleasure in the innocence of it.”

The singer is half way through her 25 Years Revisited tour, which reaches Oxford’s New Theatre on Tuesday.

The tour follows the release earlier this year of her career spanning retrospective Best Of album. That, and last year’s tour with former Yazoo partner Vince Clarke have reminded fans and new listeners why she was such a phenomenon.

But while she is happy to talk about her ‘issues’, she fears the lurid accounts of her struggles risk obscuring her rebirth as a talented performer. “The miserable stories follow you for a long time,” she says. “For two years I was hanging on a thread – but those two years are always brought up.

“Having kids changed everything for me. When you’re a young single pop star you are indulged, but when you have kids you stop being the centre of your own world.”

Alison may have been quiet on the pop scene in recent years, but that’s not to say she hasn’t been busy.

She played Mama Morton in the West End hit musical Chicago; acted with Dawn French in the play Smaller; narrated jazz documentaries for Jazz FM; and, of course, reformed Yazoo.

So will we see a reprise of the Basildon synth two-piece?

“I don’t think so,” she confesses. "Not because I don't want to, but because we are both so busy doing other things — Vince is very much part of Erasure now.”

And how’s the greatest hits going?

“A retrospective is strange,” she says. “It pinpoints you at certain stages in your life that you don’t have to revisit if you’re not a recorded and photographed musician.

“Although I recognise myself more now in my later songs, I also look at my younger selves and see the battles I had to fight. And I’m proud of what I achieved, and the lessons that I learnt.”

Alison Moyet plays the New Theatre on Tuesday. For details, call 0844 847 1585 The Best Of Alison Moyet is out now on Sony Music.