All About Alison
Q What is the best and the worst thing anyone has ever said or written about you?
A I like every nice thing that is written about me…like the vain-glorious git that I am. I can honestly say that the negative stuff doesn’t rankle too badly if it is fairly observed. I hate it if I am mis-quoted but even more if they give me a voice that is not my own.
In the main part, I have done some quality press that has been pretty balanced but sometimes you let your guard down…being used to getting quoted in context and then you are horribly surprised when the journalist’s prior agenda is revealed….and then you moan when you don’t get press at all. It’s an exchange and you have to take all-comers.
I bloody hate it though when I am referred to as a belting “Soul Singer”.
Ax
Lyrical Inspiration
Q Just wondering where you get the inspiration for your songs/lyrics and how you come to decide what you are going to write about. Also, who was Rebecca Jamieson Berry?
A Lyric ideas are usually sourced from my unquiet mind. Observing people and having an elephantine memory for grief and not much else. Otherwise, as mentioned in another answer on this section… I sing gobbledygook and look for a pattern inside it afterwards.
Rebecca was my hairdresser and friend around Hoodoo. One day she was diagnosed with cancer and was dead a few weeks later. She was a lovely bright young woman whose life was just starting and she left much love behind.
Ax
Notes from the Past
Q Here is the ultimate trivial “do you remember” question.
The place : The Town & Country Club, London (I think). The time : about 1992. You were doing the Hoodoo Tour, and having one or two problems with the band. I was about three rows from the front.
Half way through the show, you were going to sing Only You, and you started to introduce the song : “Here is a little song written by a good friend of mine……”. However, the band weren’t in synch, and they started playing the introduction to Our House, so with a giggle you sang that instead.
A few minutes later, a guy in the front row passed you a piece of paper. You read what was on the paper, laughed, and stuck the paper inside your jacket with a big smile.
That piece of paper has been haunting me ever since!!! What was written on it? Why did you keep it? Ever since then, I always have my piece of paper with me when I go to your concerts, in the hope that I can pass it to you, make you smile, and have my missive tucked away about your person afterwards. So the question is : can you reveal more about what the message was, and why it made you laugh?
A Oh Lord… I’m afraid I remember very little other than the stuff that makes you feel bad.
I don’t remember…. Notes are usually loving or requests for dedication and sometimes, oddly, an autograph request…which in the middle of a song, usually makes me frown. I’m Alison Moyet… nothing too saucy comes my way LOL.
As for the band not being in sync…. if the wrong song is started, you can bet your bottom dollar it was my fault. Has to do with spinning contact lenses or wishful thinking.
I do remember loving that show though. It was packed sold out but they still said in the paper the next day that no one came. Ho Hum
Ax
After Hometime…
Q With the amount of success you’ve had with Hometime (album & tour) hopefully you’re thinking of the next album, and I was wondering if you have plans to continue in the same vein or maybe take a different path? (there were rumours of a covers album at one stage).
Or are you gonna shock us all and go disco – pop on us?
A I am due to start recording in October. Yes, the reception I have had for Hometime has been a dream. I do want to get some continuity going and I am happy with the general direction I am taking – although nothing is set in stone….but I would like to take a thread and run with it for a while at least. I have wanted to do a covers album for some time – but its a hackneyed route and the material has to be suitably dark and I have done no research so far. The appeal is because I would love to sing when that is my only focus and not have the performance compromised because the song does not require it… if you know what I mean.
Ax
Come Dine With….
Q If you were having a dream dinner party who would you invite and why? And would you be able to tell those guests who/where you found that lovely blue More shirt?
A Dinner guests?….. anyone can come… but they have to bring their own trays and I’m in charge of the remote control.
Blue shirt…get this… Evans. Ha! “Style queen” me but ultimately affordable Thank you for my Cristal…it’s in my pocket as we speak! Ax
Sponsorship and Alternative Versions
Q Have you ever been asked to sponsor a product and if so which one or what type? (Air Nike Sandals perhaps lol?) I know that remixes sometimes take away and sometimes add to the original track recorded.
Which if any of your own “alternative versions” of your songs do you think added something to the track and which ones if any have you disliked?
A No, I have never been asked to sponsor anything other than the odd swim. I don’t know why that is… do you think it’s ‘cos they suppose that no one would aspire to my likeness…odd that! I did get asked once to do The Independent ad on telly but broad sheets make my arms ache.
In terms of remixes…to be honest I have forgotten most of them and never play them. I find the concept interesting but the reality is not always so…anyway, to my mind, to get a good remix requires the song shape to be suitably linear… and the majority of my songs…certainly the latter ones have more intricate chord structures and it it harder to play with the bass on them. Ax
Dream Duets
Q We have been coming up with a few dream duets for you over the last week or so, although many wouldn’t like to see you sing with anyone else. Who (if anyone) would you like to sing with or did you dream of singing with as a kid? With a voice like yours it would have to be someone pretty special.
A I am really in the right frame of mind to sing with other people right now. I fancy some choral singing…or quartet stuff…something like that. I would like to do some classical singing…not opera… but I know doodleshit about it.
I think that my tone would suit David Bowie’s…but that won’t happen. It’s all about the song. I don’t write…or haven’t yet written a duet and no decent ones have come my way. I have had some lovely offers but wasn’t in the right head space for it at the time. Ax
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