Season 388 - "Upstairs at Derek's - and Lynda's"

DelGriff

A very boring man!
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Season 388: Upstairs at Derek’s – and Lynda’s

Good morning, afternoon and evening everybody! There’ve been a couple of very successful co-hosted seasons of late, so here’s another. We are bird’s eye view of my ukulele (aka Lynda, BEV and a few other things we won’t admit to on a public forum!) and DelGriff (known as Del – never Derek, in spite of the theme title and what it says on the birth certificate!).

We’ve been collaborating musically since November last year and it’s been so much fun, we thought we’d collaborate in hosting a season – and this is it!

Most of you will still be a little puzzled by the title of this week’s theme – it’s actually derived from the title of an album released in 1982 called “Upstairs at Eric’s” by a (then) newly formed British synthpop duo called Yazoo (known as Yaz in USA and Canada – apparently they find two syllables a bit tricky to cope with over there!). Yazoo only stayed together for two albums, but it transpired that we both love their music and gave our musical collaboration the unofficial working title of Yaz-uke (see what we did there?) and it’s kinda stuck.

Yazoo was comprised of the amazing Alison Moyet (vocals and some songwriting) and the amazing ex-Depeche Mode founding member Vince Clarke (all instrumentation, occasional vocals and songwriting) – and they were fab! But they didn’t like each other very much and parted company within a couple of years, despite their huge success and popularity, especially here in the UK. Alison (aka Alf) went on to have some solo chart success and Vince eventually formed another hugely popular synthpop duo called Erasure, with singer Andy Bell.

So this Season is all about Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet.

Eligible songs for the Season:
Any song recorded by Depeche Mode while Vince was a member (he left in November 1981 after the release of their first album ‘Speak And Spell’);
Any song recorded by Yazoo;
Any song recorded by Erasure;
Any song by The Assembly (a one-off Vince Clarke project with singer Feargal Sharkey on vocals – ‘Never Never’ was their only release);
Any song recorded by Alison Moyet.
Also...
Any song by us, Yazuke – here’s our YT playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM55kG-HNNJG-0EGv9x21bONWOlsIWLZc (most of these were written by Lynda – words and chords available by PM).

Originals are welcome but they must share a title with a Yazoo song! Here you’ll find tracklists for both their albums:
Upstairs at Eric’s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstairs_at_Eric's
You and Me Both: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_and_Me_Both

Collaborations and multitracking are welcome, as are other instruments – ukulele must be in the mix somewhere!


THERE IS NO SONG LIMIT (unless your name is Trent, in which case the song limit is 42! ;) )

The season starts at 12.01am Hawaiian time Sunday 21st July and ends at 11.59pm Sunday 28th.

There will be prizes for each of our favourite entries. I will be giving a 3 CD set of both Yazoo albums and some remixes - Lynda will be along shortly to tell you about her fabulous prize! Winners will be announced in the wrap(s?) within a few days of the end of the Season.

Most of all……. HAVE FUN!

PLAYLIST

EDIT: - Oops - forgot to remind you all that the tail end of Rick's fabulous 'Shapes of Things' season is still in progress, so don't be square - post another song or two for Rick while there's still time!
 
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yes indeed, welcome to season 388! :rock:

our intro vid is an example of a homemade song, having the same title as a yazoo track - in this case, "bad connection"...



Del and i will both be giving a prize to our favourite vids of the week - my fave vid will win a yazoo week t-shirt...

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we're both really looking forward to hearing you bring music from so many of our favourite bands - have fun! :music:

don't forget - no posting of vids until the start of sunday hawaii time - if in doubt check here

https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/usa/honolulu

and if you take part in the seasons on a regular basis, but don't host, please consider signing up to host a season - you actually only need to have posted one vid on the seasons, to qualify as a seasonista, and any seasonista can host!
 
42? Isn't that the answer to the Universe? And you are Derek? No, I prevaricate ... I know nothing about any of these people; this is going to be a challenge, but a clever one! Good going Lynda and Del!
 
Looks like my week 382 entry was a bit premature - Oh well, I was just thinking of what I wanted to do next by Vince yesterday so let's call it kismet. Now, do I have the time to obsess? I guess we'll see.

Also, I have always though Birdsy's voice was very reminiscent of Allison's.
 
Great theme Yazuker's! It looks like another chance for me to learn a lot about music/artists I am not very familiar with. Looking forward to it ~
 
Other than Depeche Mode, these other bands are much less well-known in the U.S. than the U.K. Erasure had about 20 songs make the Top 20 in the U.K., just 2 in the U.S. And the highest any Yazoo song reached on the U.S. charts was #67.
 
Are you guys ready for about 20 uke covers of Only You ?
 
Other than Depeche Mode, these other bands are much less well-known in the U.S. than the U.K. Erasure had about 20 songs make the Top 20 in the U.K., just 2 in the U.S. And the highest any Yazoo song reached on the U.S. charts was #67.
The only songs I recognized on a quick skim on Spotify were from Erasure's Abba-esque and other people's songs albums. Not sure if those are in the spirit, but they do follow the letter of the rules!
 
Interesting theme, and thanks for hosting!

Looked over the “Upstairs at Eric’s” track list and found a new original song already.

Hope to share it later in the week. Thanks again!
 
Looks like my week 382 entry was a bit premature - Oh well, I was just thinking of what I wanted to do next by Vince yesterday so let's call it kismet. Now, do I have the time to obsess? I guess we'll see.

Also, I have always though Birdsy's voice was very reminiscent of Allison's.
oh my goodness what a lovely thing to say! bless you for that!

and oh gosh how did i miss that 382 vid of yours! just had a listen and it's brill!

if anyone fancies a sing-along to get them in the mood for this season, here's that fab vid by 29moons





Are you guys ready for about 20 uke covers of Only You ?
can't wait! :cheers: lol!



The only songs I recognized on a quick skim on Spotify were from Erasure's Abba-esque and other people's songs albums. Not sure if those are in the spirit, but they do follow the letter of the rules!
that's a very good question! so good indeed that i wasn't sure of the answer! but i just double checked with del and yes indeed any song recorded by the band counts!
 
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:confused: has youtube just changed its layout??? my videos page looks the same but when i click on any vid to watch something, the whole layout is a. different and b. ghastly. NB i had kept the old classic youtube setup, has it now mebbe updated me to the new look, whether i like it or not??? anyone else suddenly got different stuff going on on youtube?

it's defo the video playback pages that are looking different for me
 
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:confused: has youtube just changed its layout??? my videos page looks the same but when i click on any vid to watch something, the whole layout is a. different and b. ghastly. NB i had kept the old classic youtube setup, has it now mebbe updated me to the new look, whether i like it or not??? anyone else suddenly got different stuff going on on youtube?

it's defo the video playback pages that are looking different for me
Mine looks the same old same old on playback.

Anyway, great theme guys. I doubt I’ll be able to partake, especially as there’s that AWESOME tee shirt as a prize! Enjoy anyway :cool:
 
Mine looks the same old same old on playback.

Anyway, great theme guys. I doubt I’ll be able to partake, especially as there’s that AWESOME tee shirt as a prize! Enjoy anyway :cool:
thanks for letting me know how it looks for you. i gather they try stuff out on some people, for a while, then put it back to normal, mebbe it's that, mebbe i am one of the lucky :mad: ones this time!

really sorry to hear you won't be able to bring a song this week - if things change i hope you'll swing by!
 
Hello, Lynda and Del ... a very good afternoon to you! And here is MY version of "Only You", which isn't even remotely "synthesised". I know that there is at least one more version floating around in the ether, because I've seen it!

 
Yep, all changed again, I had a bit of a problem with it, trying to find where they'd put stuff when I hosted.
fanks keef, that confirms to me that some lucky :mad: folk are affected, i appreciate the world must move on etc etc etc but HELLO i am a middle aged woman, who never wears her reading glasses, with a brain stuck in somewhere the seventies and eighties, i need them to be more gentle with me!
 
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