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Alison Moyet to showcase new album Key at York Barbican next February on first tour since 2017. When do tickets go on sale?

Alison Moyet: Returning to York Barbican next February for the first time snce November 2017. Picture: Naomi Davison

MARKING 40 years since she left Yazoo to launch her solo career, Essex soul singer Alison Moyet will play York Barbican on February 20 on her 25-date 2025 itinerary, her first headline tour since 2017.  

Tickets go on sale on June 21 at 10am at https://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/alison-moyet-2025/

After graduating from Brighton University in 2023 with a first-class degree in fine art printmaking, Moyet will combine art and music on her 18-track October 4 album, Key, creating the artwork as well as reworking singles, fan favourites and deep cuts, complemented by two new songs.

Moyet, who will turn 63 tomorrow, has announced the album’s release on Cooking Vinyl by sharing one of the new compositions, Such Smale Ale, and her re-working of All Cried Out, her second single from 1984 en route to two number one albums, six Top Ten singles, two BRIT Awards and a Grammy nomination.

The lavish Such Small Ale, at once contemporary but with a hint of 1960s’ nostalgia, was co-written with producer, arranger and musical director Sean McGhee and Suede guitarist Richard Oakes, who performs on several tracks on the new album.

The track listing will be: Where Hides Sleep; All Cried Out; Such Small Ale; All Signs Of Life; Can’t Say It Like I Mean It; Fire; Filigree; The Impervious Me; More; Is This Love?; Tongue Tied; My Right Arm; So Am I; My Best Day; World Without End; This House; Love Resurrection and You Don’t Have To Go.

“I wanted to take the opportunity to look at the trajectory of the past four decades and explore songs that, in their original form, were never fully realised or have had their relevance to me altered by time,” says Moyet. “I hope this collection will be the key to those unopened doors. Let yourself in.”

Alison Moyet’s artwork for October 4 album, Key, designed by Moyet herself after her fine art printmaking studies at Brighton University

The songs were all reimagined alongside McGhee. Some remain closer to the originals; All Cried Out and Love Resurrection are refreshed rather than reinvented, their 1980’s motifs switched for a more timeless production. Others are cast in a new light, typified by McGhee’s arrangements of Filigree (co-written by Guy Sigsworth) and Is This Love?, now translated into a shimmering, epic ballad.

Key is available to pre-order at https://alisonmoyet.lnk.to/Key in a range of physical formats, with exclusives for Amazon, HMV and select indie stories. The official store has assorted bundles, including marble colour vinyl, CD and cassette, each one accompanied by a print signed by Moyet.

Fans who pre-order Key from the official store will receive the chance to access a UK and Ireland pre-sale for tour tickets from 10am on June 19.

Moyet’s York Barbican show will be her first English date of the 2025 tour after Irish performances in Dublin and Belfast. A further Yorkshire gig will follow at Sheffield City Hall on March 3 (box office: sheffieldcityhall.co.uk).

“Live work really matters to me,” says Moyet, who last played York Barbican on November 19 2017 in a night of soulful electronica with keyboard players John Garden and Shaun McGhee.

“I can’t dial in a performance. I love the physical feeling that singing gives me. It’s totally primal and euphoric. On stage I remember how to connect with myself.”

In addition, last week she launched 40 Moyet Moments, a 40-part podcast series featuring Moyet in conversation with her long-time digital manager, Steve Coats-Dennis, discussing the key moments of her career: the highs, the lows and everything in between. Listen at https://alisonmoyet.lnk.to/Podcast.

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REVIEW: Paul Rhodes’s verdict on Suede, York Barbican Centre, March 15 ****

“Turn off your brains and yell,” advised a Suede T-shirt at their first York Barbican gig in more than 25 years. Picture: Dean Chalkley

TO last in the music business, you need more than talent and looks. What differentiates those still touring into their third, fourth or even sixth decade is hunger. Based on Wednesday’s as-near-as-damn-it sold-out show at the Barbican, Suede still look lean and hungry, 34 years in.

After an excellent short opening spot from Aircooled, the stage was set for a great night. From the moment Brett Anderson strode on stage, the intent was obvious.

Posting on Twitter today (March 16), bassist Mat Osman sheds light on Suede’s state of mind before the final show of their late-winter tour; “on a wet Wednesday. All-seated venue. I had the lowest of expectations but the crowd at the Barbican made it a stormer.”

The crowd had little choice! From the off, Anderson was onto them, terrier-like to “get up, get up!” It felt like he grabbed everyone by the neck and gave us a good shake. Anderson was relentless in creating the atmosphere the band needed and he succeeded, as the lower tiers left their warm seats and entered the hot house at the front.

They couldn’t have had a better view – from the start to the end of the 20th song 85 minutes later, Anderson never stopped. At 55, his skills as a frontman were second to none, and while the voice isn’t what it once was (and it was never all that!), all eyes were on him.

“That man on the stage” was in the crowd, on his back, all over and most often up on the monitors at the front, a talisman whipping up the atmosphere in another huge chorus.

One of the London band’s T-shirt slogans summed it up: “Turn off your brains and yell,” it read. Sing or yell we did, pretty much throughout. Anderson made his point emphatically: rock gigs are about coming together and getting into it.

Suede are enjoying a lengthy second spell of success. Their latest album, 2022’s Autofiction, is a direct and no-nonsense punk rock record; perfect for playing live. That album got a nod or two, but this was essentially a greatest hits set, played as if it were the first or last time they would get the chance.

What of the music? With the original rhythm section of Osman and Brett Gilbert firmly in control, guitarist Richard Oakes has matured from the stripling 17-year-old asked to fill Bernard Butler’s big shoes into this riff powerhouse, his low-slung guitar providing the crunch to most of the songs.

Suede’s music is all about riffs, rhythm and playing as a unit. There’s barely a solo and nothing that isn’t absolutely vital for the song (except perhaps for Neil Codling on guitar and keyboards, who mostly alternated between looking glamorous and bored).

It was ten songs in before the intensity abated, and then only slightly and not for long. Of the two acoustic numbers, The Wild Ones was by far the best – a reminder that even louche rock bands have feelings.

The encore of Beautiful Ones, still their finest 3 minutes 50 seconds, put the cap on the night, almost tearing the roof off. Newcomers take note, if you want to own the stage, you have to mean it – so watch and learn from these masters.

Review by Paul Rhodes