Alison Moyet

Speaker 20:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. For rights reasons the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

Speaker 20:10

For more information about the programme, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.

Speaker 20:33

My castaway this week is the singer Alison Moyer. Hers is, by any estimation, a story of success. Three Brit Awards, tens of millions in record sales, and a career that has spanned 30 odd years. It all kicked off in 1981. Just three months after forming Yazoo, she was on top of the pops performing her first hit. Given that remarkably smooth start, it might be tempting to think her achievements have come easy. They haven't. She found growing up tough, had prolonged agoraphobia and depression, and significant weight problems also cast a shadow. Well, now in her early 50s, she says, I was always an odd girl. I had managed to alienate a lot of people. I felt like a square peg in a round hole in the music industry and created a lot of neurosis for myself. So, Alison Moyer, is it true that at one point you actually took a hammer to your gold discs and destroyed them along with all your diaries and your stage clothes?

Alison Moyet1:25

Oh, absolutely, but that was very recently and had nothing to do with sort of like you know a fit of madness, more to do with the fact that I became really tired of possessing things, you know. For me, you know, gold discs have no more, they're not significant, they're just something you put on the wall to tell everyone that it comes in how much money you've earned. Do you know what I mean? And I'm not the sort of person that would want that around my house anyway. And it does come to a point where I think there's something not very healthy in seeing yourself as a collectible. And I really need to live in the real world. So that was very recent. You were.

Speaker 21:35

Runs

Speaker 21:54

It's been a long time ago now, um, a a a band called The Screaming Abdabs. And I had wondered if, you know, you

Alison Moyet1:58

Yeah.

Alison Moyet2:00

If you are a fan of sort of letting it all out. It's not so much that I'm a fan of letting it all out, it's just I come from that kind of family. You know, I come from a a real peasant French family. It was very volatile, very heated, and uh consequently I have no sh I mean I have more shame now about being histrionic in public. But but when I was younger I I wasn't inhibited in that.

Speaker 22:19

You once said only sing if you're desperate to sing, because that's what should drive you. I I'm wondering these days what do you most enjoy singing?

Alison Moyet2:27

Well, I don't even know that desperate i is is the right thing to say, but but I mean like for example you know young people say to me, How do you become a singer? And it's like, Well, you sing, literally, you sing. And you know, music is the one art form that I think that really is universal, really should belong to everyone and you know shouldn't be factored into whether it's a career for you or not. If you want to sing, you should sing regardless of whether you have an audience. So consequently, music for me is about doing it rather than listening. Art is about painting rather than watching. Whenever I'm interested in something, I want to participate.

Speaker 22:56

course was the voice on so many hits, hits like Only You, Don't Go, All Cry Die on it. I could go on and on and on, but I won't. Um were you tempted in your eight to day to choose any one of your own songs to listen to on the island?

Alison Moyet3:08

Uh no, and that's not because I I am not infused with enough um arrogance. That's more to do with uh I think probably my my working class background where I'd feel a bit embarrassed about um putting myself forward like that.

Speaker 23:21

Let's go to the music then, Alison Wai. Tell me about your first one this morning. What is it and why have you chosen this?

Alison Moyet3:26

Well I've chosen Chan Chen by the Buena Vista Social Club. It's a song that just makes me feel incredibly happy, which is quite an unusual thing for me because that's not usually the purpose of music for me, you know. And what I love about this, for a start, it's not sung in the English, so I don't relate to the lyric. And as a lyricist, that tends to be what catches my ear all the time. So I'm actually allowed to just lose myself in the track. Also, I can make up whatever lyrics I want to, which is a game that my daughters and me play with this song.

Speaker 33:56

Yal pro serro voy para ma cane, Que vo a puesto vo y para ma yaría.

Speaker 34:08

Diando serro voy para ma cane, lle vo a pueto voy para mállí.

Speaker 34:20

Diablo Cerro voimpara marcane, Que vo a puerto vo y para marcan.

Speaker 24:25

That was Buenavista Social Club and Chen Chen. You were saying, Alison Moy, just introducing that piece of music, that you are a lyrics person. That's probably not surprising given all the the songs that you've written. What is it? Is it poetry in motion for you?

Speaker 34:32

But

Alison Moyet4:37

Is that what you like? Yeah, I think it's that, you know, music for me was always a way to express myself. And I I feel a bit self conscious on it'cause it sounds a bit poncey, but certainly as a young person it was where I found my voice, you mean where I I I found my front, you know, my shield was was in singing. Um it seems rather shallow to concentrate.

Speaker 24:53

concentrate on how somebody looks. But in the music business, of course, that's a a big part of the package, is how somebody looks. In an industry that is so image centred, it's interesting to me that you're you're fifty two now, right? Yeah. I would say you look better than you have ever looked. Oh, thank you. Do you feel better than you've ever felt?

Alison Moyet5:03

Yeah.

Speaker 25:10

Yeah.

Alison Moyet5:11

I do, but possibly because I don't care about how I look now, you know, and I think that's the blessing of age, you know. I mean, I was somebody, I was always remarkable, and I don't use that word as a, you know, as a compliment. I was remarkable in the sense that people always had something to say about me. And that in itself kind of became a blessing for me later because I really became quite inured to it, or it really did just become words.

Speaker 25:32

Do you f do you feel annoyed that somebody like me might comment on the way you look? Is that a somewhat

Alison Moyet5:37

Anime.

Alison Moyet5:38

No, it's not that I feel annoyed about it. I I feel a sorrow for women now. You know, I did a tweet the other day which was about this. It's like you you only have to open a a a newspaper, a woman leaves the house and she is displaying her body, she is showing off her assets, she's you know, and it's like, no, mate, she needs a body to walk her head around.

Alison Moyet6:00

You know, I'm thinner now. I've been thinner for a few years, but I'm no cleverer, I'm no kinder. Do you know what I mean? I'm no wiser, and I don't feel any sexier, you know. I was looking through your albums yesterday.

Speaker 26:09

And there is your face on virtually every cover. So there you are, a woman holding the opinions you do, having to at the same time somehow exploit the way you look to sell records. How was that set with you over the years?

Alison Moyet6:12

So they

Alison Moyet6:16

Somehow

Alison Moyet6:20

Well, I never liked it. You know, I never liked doing that, and I did, you know, quite often say that I would like not to have a picture of me on the cover, but the argument to it is that people know who the album is by seeing it on the shelf that way, you know, and I'm not in the business of selling records. And if somebody else says that's the way to do it, I can't say that I'm overly precious about that, you know. Let's have your second piece tell us some way. What we're going to hear now. Okay, so the second song is a song called Vesul by Jacques Brel. And La Val si misette was a very big sound in my house. I grew up with a French father who came from Cognac, and my mother was an au pair. I met him in France, and so the French culture is very, very strong in our house. And when my dad moved to England after my brother was born and my mum was homesick, he didn't have a word of English at all, you know. So all we had on the radio was French talk radio or accordion music. You know, Jacques Breaux was a great love of mine, again, lyrically supreme. But this is such a tongue twister, and I am so in awe that he can sing this. I couldn't possibly. And Marcel Azula, who plays the accordion on this song in his 80s, ended up playing on one of my tracks called Home on the Turn Album, the same kind of thing, you know, this wonderful accordion music, which I love so well.

Speaker 47:29

Tabula Vierson and a viewer.

Speaker 47:35

Te voulvauron fleur, and a violent fleur, devourier and boulevon, bourges, vouliva, vieron revion, bourgeoisie voulouvre, taciturn, come to journey.

Speaker 37:44

Yeah.

Speaker 47:45

Tapleme fierzon, la kit fierzon. Ta pléme vazul, la kit vazul.

Speaker 47:51

The premium fleur, we kitty en fleur, the premium bourgeois, we quitting bourgeois, devourer, we foul bourgeois, the premier tavern, we quit the sail. Come to journey.

Speaker 28:01

That was Vesul and Jacques Brell. They were pining on a love affair that's gone very sour. As you describe it, your parents' meeting could have come straight out of one of those fabulous Jacques Brell songs, because your mother was a young au pair, she'd gone over to southwestern France, your father was a a peasant, a young guy who was in the local rugby team, and they met at a ball.

Alison Moyet8:09

She will

Alison Moyet8:14

Yeah.

Alison Moyet8:20

That's right, yeah.

Speaker 28:20

Tell me more.

Alison Moyet8:21

So she was an au pair looking after some children in a kind of a grand, you know, a bit of a chateau that was there in Cognac. And as you say, my father was a local lad and they met at this ball. And it was a funny coupling, an odd coupling. There's my dad who, you know, he looked like Eric Cantenar, a bit of a street fighter, left school at 13, incredibly clever, intellectual man, even, but a manual worker and always wanted to be a manual worker. You know, so it was, you know, this bizarre mixture of a North London grammar school girl married to this man who swore like Bejesus, like you can't imagine. Bonkers. Your mother then was.

Speaker 28:57

was homesick and therefore the family transplanted to Britain. Um was it really a sort of French uh family and a French lifestyle transplanted to Britain?

Alison Moyet8:59

Finally

Alison Moyet9:06

Basildom. Yes, it was. I I really did speak Franglaise when I first went to school there were some words that I didn't know in English, you know, but it was with this funny little baszard accent, so it it would have been, you know, whose turn is it to fell averse? Has anyone seen my Rob Deschamp? You know, it's it's like yeah, it really was it really was like that. How did your dad get on in Britain?

Speaker 29:19

You know, it's that idea.

Alison Moyet9:24

Badly. I mean, he got on really badly. I mean, this was a man that, you know, he came from Cognac, so, you know, he would be fishing and hunting and all that kind of stuff and living off the land. He did grow up in occupied France. He did have to shoot his dog because it was starving. Do you know what I mean? He never had any niceties around him, you know. So, yes, we felt protected. Yes, we felt loved, but just don't say the wrong thing at the wrong time, you know.

Speaker 29:47

And what about physically in the household? It w would it wouldn't have looked like a typical nineteen sixties British household, would it?

Alison Moyet9:53

Um n no, I I I suppose not. I mean, you know, um you know, my dad has has this kind of O C D thing about him, so it was like everything that we had was really, really old, you know, that there was nothing we do, but it was meticulously clean, you know, that all the surfaces would be bleached down, right down to our injury is funny enough, because, you know, it's like my dad would perform operations.

Alison Moyet10:13

And so when you had something little with you, there's sort of like a kit would come out which would cons you know, be gaffer tape, bleach, a scalpel, you know. And it's quite a sort of post-war

Speaker 210:21

Or make do and mend kind of attitude.

Alison Moyet10:23

Yes, it was. Absolutely. In fact, I remember the first time my dad really told me that he was proud of me was when I was in my 30s and rewired the Hoover. You know, that kind of thing is... But then you... After you'd sold how many records. Exactly. He'd have thought that was lovely for me. But in terms of his pride, would be the fact that I hadn't just bought, but that I would have recycled. Let's have some more music, Alison. Your third of the morning. Tell me about this. Anyone who had a heart, Scylla Black. I remember this song so, so well. It was the very first record that we ever owned. And it came with the very first record player that my parents bought. And I remember being two years old and being completely overwhelmed even then.

Speaker 210:32

Up to

Speaker 210:33

Yeah.

Alison Moyet11:01

By The Passion in the Voice, and it remains one of my favourite songs.

Speaker 311:07

Anyone who ever loved

Speaker 311:10

Good luck, Eppie.

Speaker 311:12

And know that I love you

Speaker 311:17

Anyone who ever dreamed?

Speaker 311:20

Good luck at me.

Speaker 311:23

And now I dream of you.

Speaker 311:27

Knowing I love you so much.

Speaker 311:34

Oh how hard would they be in his arms and love me too?

Speaker 211:42

Zilla Black singing Anyone Who Had a Heart, and you said going into that, Alison Woy, that even as a very, very young child, you really connected with the emotion in that song. A lot of the songs you've written yourself have been very heavy with emotion and sentiment.

Alison Moyet11:54

Yeah.

Speaker 211:54

Um, how are you expressing those things in what I would call real life, not in a song? Oh, uh, I find it too easy.

Speaker 212:03

I've got to stop spilling. As a family, as a young family then, when you were a kid, you would spend your your father would work sort of double shifts in order that he could save up, that you would spend summers, extended summers, in Cognac where he was from. Now, people listening to that right now might sort of imagining some honeystone jeet with a pool at the side and everybody relaxing. It wasn't like that. Paint me a picture of your childhood holidays.

Alison Moyet12:14

Yeah, he

Alison Moyet12:21

Side, everybody.

Alison Moyet12:23

It wasn't like that at all. I mean, we had no money for hotels or anything like that, but the alternative was so much more of an adventure. You know, we would drive and we'd wait till it was dusk, and my dad would find a field that had been, you know, harvested. And we would all go out in the dark and walk till we fell over, and we knew that was a big lump of hay. And we'd make a massive, great, big, like, 12-foot-square mattress of straw, and then we'd all get in our sleeping bags. My mum and dad would be on the outside, put us in the middle, and cover us with sheet plastic, you know, in case it rained. And so we'd sleep like that until dawn and have to get out before the combine harvester came. And we'd, you know, swim in the rivers, and we'd call our food in the river and clean our teeth there and wash.

Speaker 213:04

It sounds extraordinary in so many ways, and it sounds I'm imagining as a child you must have loved all of that.

Alison Moyet13:06

Yeah, so

Alison Moyet13:09

I did love it. I absolutely loved it. At the same time, you know, it further added to my feeling of being disconnected to my peer group at school because, you know, the summer holidays is so important for kids meeting together and, you know, like cementing their relationships. And then also for us, we didn't really have any toys. So, you know, we lived a lot of the time in our imagination. I'd spent a lot of time in the river. You know, I was a real water baby.

Speaker 213:33

And, you know, in 60s and 70s Britain, it would have been if you were lucky, angel delight and tinned peaches. I can't imagine yours was a childhood of. No, we didn't have it.

Alison Moyet13:40

No, we didn't have no the only things we ever had in a tin were baked beans and tomatoes, you know. We didn't have white bread, we didn't have white sugar, you know. My mum was always a health freak, believe it, or not to the point that I actually thought that processed food was what rich people had, you know, that those kids that had white bread and spam pickle sandwiches, I mean, you know, when I had to look at this kind of like rough-hewn bread and, you know, grilled chicken, I thought I was really getting a bad deal, you know. So consequently, when I left home, I just ate rubbish, rubbish for years.

Speaker 214:08

Alison, let's have some more music. Um tell me about your fourth one this morning.

Alison Moyet14:13

So, identity, this is by X-Ray Specs. This was really timely for me. It had come to that point in my life, you know, I was about 16 or so, where I really did understand that there's nothing I was going to do to really fit in. It just was not going to happen. And I became so tired of trying that, you know, when I saw someone like Polly Stone, when the whole kind of punk movement happened, I suddenly felt.

Alison Moyet14:34

I can see myself here. I can see myself here where my lack of femininity wasn't an issue, you know, where my strength was a positive, where my aggression was actually acceptable. And when I saw her on the television and there she was, this sort of like kind of little dumpy girl with her braces and doing nothing to deliberately beautify herself, it was like, yeah, you know, it's like, it's a woman I recognise.

Speaker 215:31

X-ray specs and identity. Alison Moya, 16 then, you had a go at singing in a pub, is that right? You got up on stage.

Alison Moyet15:38

Even before then, I did the very first time was when I was 15, and it was like a bit of a club that was on a roundabout in Baslan. And we did it, I did it with a couple of my girlfriends, and we got up and sung. It was a family song, actually, my friend, The Sun, it was called. And yeah, we got booed off. We got booed off pretty quickly. Now, we just come here, we just want to have a drink.

Alison Moyet15:58

When did you realize you had that voice? Um I i it was never about having a voice really for me. It was it really was about having a front, that's what counted. I mean, I never thought about th singing as something as uh as intending to do as something beautiful or or as attractive. It was it was about a visceral yell, you know, so I became the front person because I had the most front.

Alison Moyet16:20

That's what I did, you know, and because I wrote the words, and so I that that preceded me ever thinking I could sing.

Speaker 216:26

Right, but when when did you realize, well, actually I really can see

Alison Moyet16:29

Well, I kind of knew when I was young that I had an interesting tone, but I was kind of quite remarkable. And people have always assumed, because I'm very ready to what they think has put myself down, I like to just say it's speaking it as it is, you know, the assumption is that I have no self-confidence. I always thought I was destined for greatness. Even as this young kid that couldn't get in school play and wasn't allowed to audition for the choir. Why did you think you were? I mean, I know you're being funny saying you were destined for greatness. No, no, no, no. I'm not being funny. I'm being.

Speaker 216:55

No, no, no, I'm not being funny, I'm being honest with you.

Alison Moyet16:58

I'm laughing because it's such a ridiculously arrogant thing to say, and how many kids say it, you know what I mean? But no, I always thought I was very special.

Alison Moyet17:06

I always did. A and I know I know it's bonkers because like no one else did, no one else did. I I always thought that I would do something creative. Did you have an idea of what it might be? Uh no, once I started singing I I

Speaker 217:18

I decided I was going to be a singer.

Alison Moyet17:20

Yeah.

Speaker 217:20

And your emotions at the time, then, of being this sort of young, bright girl who absolutely believed she was bound for greatness, but at the same time was sort of.

Speaker 217:28

Yeah.

Alison Moyet17:28

Yeah.

Alison Moyet17:30

Well, it's not even that I was belligerent. I just was in a funny kind of thing. There was something odd about me. There was something odd about me. You know, I'll give you an example. I had a big shoe fetish as a child, and I begged my mum for years to buy me a pair of high heels. Begged her, begged her, begged her, begged her, begged her. Finally, at school, she bought me a hill. I mean, it wasn't a high hill, but it was like a two or a three-inch hill. And I was absolutely delighted, thrilled. Took these shoes to school, got into the playground. There's a girl there, and I said, Do you like my new shoes? And she said, Yeah, so I can break the heels off. And I just snapped the heels off like that.

Speaker 217:30

Yeah.

Speaker 217:30

No, it's different tweets.

Alison Moyet18:01

And then just spend the rest of the day walking around, you know what it's

Alison Moyet18:04

Because I had no heels in my high-heel shoes. But that is, you know, it's like, I've no idea. As an adult, I can't tell you what was going on there. Time for some more music. Right, we're on your fifth. Tell me about this. My fifth song, Cry Baby Janice Joplin. I identified so well with punk. And then when I realised that the next fashion was coming along and all my mates were starting to become new romantics, like the Depeche Mode lot, I felt a bit let down, you know. I then moved towards Canvy and Southend, where I started listening to the blues. And then following that blues trajectory, it took me along to Janice Joplin and her wonderful male voice. But it was really funny how I wanted to identify with her. I mean, the very fact that she was an alcoholic, I remember trying to become an alcoholic myself at 17, buying chic bottles of rum, which I put next to my bed, and my mum just walking in and laughing at me, which was the best response. And consequently, I've never had an issue with alcohol. I don't like the taste.

Speaker 319:17

She turned.

Speaker 319:22

I know what you're talking about, she likes it, but you mine.

Speaker 219:31

That was Janice Joplin and Cry Baby. Let's talk for a moment about you and Vince Clark then. It was nineteen eighty one, and as I understand it, you put an advert in Melody Maker saying that you were what did it read, this advert?

Alison Moyet19:38

Saying that you walked in the middle of the morning.

Alison Moyet19:40

I can't remember the exact words, but I was looking for a blues band. I was looking for blues musicians to start a blues band. Now, what was interesting about it is I actually knew Vince when I was 11. We both went to the same community Saturday morning music school. So I knew of him, although out of the whole of the Depeche Mode group, he was the one that I was least friendly with. Fletcher and Martin Gore, they were both in my class at school, as was Perry Bemonte, who ended up being in the queue, you know. So there was quite a lot of stuff that was going on with that. But anyway, he knew of me because I'd been playing in bands before him and he'd seen me play out live. And when he'd left Depeche Mode, he had this song Only You. He was looking for a voice, and it was just serendipity. He was looking for me the week my number was in the paper. And there you were within months on top of the pop.

Speaker 220:24

Stop singing only you. It didn't get to number one, it got to number two. Yes, that's right. And can you remember?

Alison Moyet20:24

Singing

Alison Moyet20:25

It didn't

Alison Moyet20:27

Yes, that's right.

Alison Moyet20:29

What you were wearing when you performed? I can remember what I was wearing, exactly what I remember what I was wearing because a girlfriend of mine had made it for me because I didn't have a job then. I hadn't been given an advance and it hadn't occurred to me to ask for any money. So I borrowed a few quid off my mum and we'd gone down to Basnel Market and bought some material and my mate sort of like you know held it up against me and knocked it up on the sewing machine. And can you imagine in those days? I mean now you get you get midweeks, you get told where your record's going. In those days I see myself sitting on the floor of my mum and dad's house listening to the chart countdown and having no idea if you dropped out if you were going up and it was only by listening with everybody else that you'd find out where your record was. So that was thrilling, thrilling, thrilling.

Speaker 221:05

Somebody once said that if you don't know who you are when fame hits you, then fame will define you. You were only, I think, twenty were you twenty when you hit that?

Alison Moyet21:12

Uh I was twenty, yeah.

Speaker 221:16

Two.

Alison Moyet21:16

Um it affected me in the sense that I I hadn't realized quite how much I had enjoyed my black sheep status. You know, I had my head shaved and was wearing DMs and and army green, so I can understand why anyone would think that I was

Alison Moyet21:28

You know, a threatening individual, and there was like this kind of a space around me that people would leave me to my own devices. But no, I found it really difficult, you know, to suddenly be amongst the beautiful people. You know, where I had, you know, never been particularly good at socializing. Suddenly I'm amongst these urbane types that are well read and are well travelled and are cultured. And I'm still this rather dark, you know, this kind of grunting creature in the back. And, you know, I

Alison Moyet22:00

I ran away from it as quick as I could, and in many ways, that absolutely saved me. It saved me because I never became a part of the industry. I did my job and I went home. Got you. Tell me about your sixth choice. Elvis Costello. In terms of being a fan and a completionist, he was mine. This song, I'm Your Toy, comes from his album, Blue. And what I love about him with this is that country music in those days was not a milieu that people would admit to, particularly. And here was Elvis Costello, who's having a very, very successful career. Not only did a covers album, but a covers album of country hits. And I just loved his iconoclastic spirit, you know. And I've tried to follow it.

Speaker 322:42

Once upon a time you let me feel you deep inside

Speaker 322:51

Nobody knew, nobody saw Do you remember the way you cried?

Speaker 323:03

I'm your talk, I'm your Obama.

Speaker 323:09

But I don't want no one but you to love me.

Speaker 223:15

That was I'm your toy. And Alison Moya, I don't want to blame Elvis Costello for your agoraphobia, but there what you did meet him at a party and it did sort of instill in you this idea that maybe you didn't like to go out so much. C can you explain to me what happened?

Alison Moyet23:26

Yeah, I mean like I say he was my idol. You know he was the guy for me and I'd gone to see him play in Southend and he'd been brilliant. He'd sung this two-hour set and he was formidable. You know, I absolutely loved it and there was a party back at Dr. Fieldgood's house that he went to and I'd been invited to. And there he was and he was lovely. He was charming and I wanted to say to him, you are wonderful and all these wonderful descriptions of him and what came out of my mouth was

Alison Moyet23:55

You dragged that out a bit, didn't you? Yeah, I know. See, ooh, see, like, suck you in. Exactly, and it was just like, oh, get my coat. I can only see through like, you know, like the other end of a telescope. And this was to the person who I admired above all others. I don't know, I just, I suppose I wanted to look like, look, I belong in this world and I can be wry, all that kind of stuff. But no, I can just be an arsehole. That's what I can be.

Alison Moyet24:18

Consequently, after that, for years, I bought all of his records and just couldn't listen to them. I bought them.

Alison Moyet24:22

At Fidelity, but I couldn't listen to him because the pain that I felt, and he probably didn't even notice, you know what I mean? So, you know what I mean? Once I did that, I thought I just don't trust myself in polite society. Have you met him since? I would have done that and walked by quickly. I mean, like I say, I'm sure he didn't even register with him. What is it like to have agoraphobia? Can you describe it to me?

Alison Moyet24:46

Well, it's it feels very normal. It's like outside that feels odd. And there was, you know, years that I didn't go out beyond working. When I did have to go out, I felt literally around about seven feet tall and and everybody else did seem like pygmies. I felt like you know, Gulliver. And by this time, you would also be a mother? So what

Speaker 225:08

What did you do about taking your kid out to the park?

Alison Moyet25:10

Well, it was it was it was very difficult. I mean, I'd go to places sometimes, but rarely, to be truthful. And you know, I was lucky we had a big garden. And then I had one nanny and she worked for me for ten years, most brilliant and love her to death. But you know, Monday to Friday is you know, nine till five, so I'd get most things bought for me during those times.

Speaker 225:29

I I'm curious about how much it was related to your fame then. You think it was entirely tied up with it?

Alison Moyet25:34

Yeah, it was just tied up with fame. I found it really, really difficult. And there was one time I'd gone out, for example, I hadn't been out for about six years. I mean, you know, socially, you know, I could get to places, but never out of choice and never on my own. I remember that somebody persuaded me to go out for dinner after I hadn't left the house for God knows how many years, and because nobody will be there, no one will know you. And I sat down, and it just so happened there was like a whole table of about 30 people that were all completely smashed out of their faces, you know, who had spotted me. I mean, suddenly then it was like, Strawberry, Oi, Asimoye, it's his birthday, sing for him. And, you know, I was like, oh my god, you know, it's like I'm mortified. You have no idea how much I'm shaking. So it was that, and so then I didn't go out for another few years after that again.

Speaker 226:12

Is that

Alison Moyet26:15

Um how

Speaker 226:15

How does An Agrophobic end up starring in London's glittering West End in Chicago, I wonder?

Alison Moyet26:21

Well, I, you know, by then I was getting over it. I mean, my

Speaker 226:22

How were you getting low?

Alison Moyet26:23

I d Check it. Go for the

Speaker 226:24

Uh

Alison Moyet26:24

In meeting my second husband, you know, David, who I've been with for 25 years or something now. And he again came from Baslan, he came from again from another big left-wing family, not at all impressed by anything I'd done or what I'd earned. And football was pivotal to your recovery, isn't it? Well, in lots of ways it was, because what I loved about football is the fact that, you know, who gives a toss who I am? They're there to watch the match. And then I loved being able to talk to other people about something other than my job. And it's the same with my husband. It's become it's it's difficult for him because you get someone that will meet him and say, oh, how's your wife? The first thing you say, it's like, well, how's your wife? And they're completely thrown. Why are you asking me about my wife?

Alison Moyet27:05

Let's have your seventh. Tell me about this, Alison Moy. So this song is from Spirit of Edom from Talk Talk, and the song's called I Believe in You. And this very much is our album, mine and David's album.

Speaker 327:19

Tell me of fear.

Speaker 327:26

I love the kids for my day

Speaker 327:39

Is it worth so much money to your stuff?

Speaker 327:47

I'm not there, even though I

Speaker 227:52

That was talk, talk and I believe in you. You've mentioned quite a few times, Alison, your husband, Dave. When you met him, you already had two kids from previous relationships and you've had a third child together. What sort of mother are you? How do you parent your kids? Because it's difficult. They not only is he husband of, but they are children.

Speaker 328:00

Yeah.

Alison Moyet28:03

Yeah.

Alison Moyet28:12

Yes, absolutely. Well, it's it's uh it's been an interesting one. For for him, he gave up work when Caitlin was born and became a house husband and like looked after all of the children when I wasn't there. So at that point when I was with him I was able to work away much more than I had been able to in my kind of what people think of as your glory years, because at that point I was a single mother and you know and I did feel too much guilt to just abandon them. I didn't want to do it either, you know. But I'm flawed. You know, I'm a flawed mother. You know, it's like I am too emotional and I offer myself up too much, I think, you know, as what I'm thinking when sometimes I should just not share.

Alison Moyet28:51

At the same time, you know, my girls would say that they can say anything to me, they can speak to me about anything, and I'm a very affectionate type. I'm I'm loving and affectionate and a bit unhinged.

Alison Moyet29:05

Um have you sent it to the

Speaker 229:06

Sold, I think is it twenty five million, twenty million, something like that, yeah. Who's counting? You are obviously still a creative person. You go on tour, people buy the tickets, you'd be at the Albert Hall and so on, massively popular still.

Alison Moyet29:08

Yeah.

Alison Moyet29:09

Yeah.

Alison Moyet29:10

Yeah.

Speaker 229:20

Given that you have to feel connected to your creativity and to the songs that you're singing, is it difficult when people shout out Only you or whatever it is they want to hear when they come and see you?

Alison Moyet29:25

Uh

Alison Moyet29:31

Well, sometimes it annoys me only in the sense that, you know, and I'll show them, look, I've got a set list. You know, I'm not taking requests. In terms of hits, I'm not insensible to the fact that when people go to a concert, they want to hear songs that resonate with certain times in their life. I know that as a punter myself, but it has to be a creative expression. I'm not a tribute act. I don't do karaoke. I'm an artist. If people insist on calling me an AT singer, then there's nothing I can do about it other than say, Well, I can't change your preconceptions, but you're going to have to if you come to my show.

Speaker 230:05

You're going to be all alone on this island, cast away, of course, and what will you enjoy getting away from?

Alison Moyet30:11

Uh I will enjoy getting away from responsibility. I I can't organize and it causes me great upset. I'll be really glad to get away from any kind of mail, any kind of inbox, any kind of correspondence. You know, a year ago I just uh I took my computer to be mended and just told him to wipe everything without saving anything. What a joy.

Alison Moyet30:29

Well, it was, except for that's everything that's my whole life. Everything, everything, my contacts, everything, my diary, everything gone. My songs, my my demos, the lot.

Speaker 230:39

So why did you tell them to rule?

Alison Moyet30:39

So why did you

Alison Moyet30:40

Because I was really excited about having an empty inbox.

Alison Moyet30:43

They could have just emptied it. I'll tell you, but if they did that, they could have just emptied that. But then, if I just get them to do it all, then I couldn't stop them, and then it's okay because it was done.

Speaker 230:44

But if they did that

Speaker 230:51

It's time for your final disc, Alison Moy. Tell me about this.

Alison Moyet30:55

Well, it occurred to me that in choosing this stuff, all of the choices that I've made are historical. These songs have forced themselves onto my psyche. This song is one of the most beautiful. It's one of my favourite songs. The band is Elbow. The album is Leaders of the Free World. The song is Great Expectations. This band for me, this album, has it in spades. It's intelligent, it's beautiful, and his voice is wonderful, and I just love this song.

Speaker 331:19

And if it rains.

Speaker 331:29

Cool.

Speaker 331:37

Like I used to.

Speaker 331:42

Slide down this side

Speaker 331:47

Raphael Story

Speaker 231:51

That was Elbow and Great Expectations. I'm going to give you a little stack of books, Alison Moy. You get the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare, and you get to take another book along. What will your book be?

Alison Moyet32:02

I think my book would be His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman. Yes. I love fantasy and sci-fi. The reason why I'd enjoy that so much is I'd be able to in my own head then develop the story and so that would continue the you know the its interest for me. It's yours, a luxury too. A luxury too, well I'm very practical. So I would say my luxury item would be a bath and the reason why I choose a bath is I think I could sleep in it, I could collect rainwater, I could wash and I could also play tortoise.

Speaker 232:05

Yes.

Speaker 232:30

Yeah. Oh.

Alison Moyet32:30

Good, I like your thinking. It's yours, a bath. Cheers. And um, what single

Speaker 232:31

Yeah.

Speaker 232:34

What disk would you save?

Alison Moyet32:36

I think I will save Chan Chan because again, I will be able to hours of fun because I can just make up new songs over it all the time. It's yours.

Speaker 232:44

Alison Moy, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island.

Alison Moyet32:46

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 233:28

You've been listening to a download from the BBC.

Speaker 233:30

You'll find more information on the Radio 4 website bbc.co.uk/slash radiofour

Speaker 333:43

Uh