Appearing in the musical Chicago gave Alison Moyet just the career boost she needed, as the singer tells Charles Hutchinson

ALISON Moyet may have called her comeback album Hometime but she is spending time away from home on the road. Last autumn the Essex torch singer played her first concert dates in six years and she so enjoyed the experience, she is touring again, playing York Barbican Centre tonight.

"It was just a little tour last year, nine dates, and it was so much nicer being able to play more intimately, which I felt confident doing after I did the Chicago musical in the West End," she says.

That musical appearance, in the Matron 'Mama' Morton role filled by Queen Latifah in this year's film version, brought Alison to attention once more, but she had not initially planned a sabbatical from the pop coal face.

"What happened was I'd made this album that Sony said they didn't want and I was having difficulty getting it back from them... but I wanted to work, as you do as an artist," she says.

"Anyway, this friend of mine said there was a role in Chicago that would really suit me. I was ambivalent about it but then, by chance, it was just something that happened to come my way."

She sang two numbers, When You're Good To Mama and Class, a 'Mama' Morton duet with Velma Kelly that did not make the film.

"I'm not featuring either of them on the tour because it's mainly based around the new album, which is quite dark and ambient," Alison says.

"There'll be a couple of old ones as well, though you have to get a framework where it doesn't become karaoke."

Alison, or Genevieve Alison Jane Moyet in full, was once the 'Alf' half of Yazoo, a little-and-large electronic duo with Depeche Mode escapee Vince Clarke. Alf, big woman, even bigger voice, and the compact Clarke were one of pop's odd couples, burning brightly but briefly on the Top Three singles Only You, Don't Go and Nobody's Diary and two albums, 1982's Upstairs At Eric's and the 1983 chart topper You And Me Both.

Yazoo's Don't Go and the 12-inch dancefloor filler Situation both made Alison's autumn tour set list and are likely to do so again, and her solo hits, such as Love Resurrection and All Cried Out, could be on the list too.

"The most interesting way I did All Cried Out was a cappella - that was the best I ever did it - but then it may not even be in the show this time. In rehearsal, I'll look at changing how I do songs," Alison says.

Putting a show together from 20 years of Moyet material and 20 million record sales is a delicate balancing act for the three-time BRIT award winner. "I have some fans who absolutely aren't into Yazoo or Alf and didn't get into my music until the Hoodoo record in 1991," she says.

Above all, there is the Hometime album to showcase, although it is hardly in need of a push. Released last year by Sanctuary, Alison's first studio album since Essex in 1994 struck gold, selling more than 100,000 copies.

Such sales send a message to major labels obsessed with marketing the next undernourished girl group. "I think those big companies know only one way to sell a record, and that's through a big hit single" says Alison, whose last Top 20 single was Whispering Your Name ten years ago. "I'm not into singles, and nor are my kids. I don't buy them, and they don't buy them."

Hometime has sold well, despite neither hit singles nor the oxygen of publicity from the national media. "I've had no support from the national papers or national radio, just the regionals, but the record still went gold, and I had no reason to expect that as we had no cause for encouragement.

"The last meeting I had with Sony I was sent off with my tail between my legs as if I was doing a very stupid thing with the material on this album. They said I needed therapy, that I hadn't written a decent song for ten years, and beggars couldn't be choosers. That was charming!

"It does make me laugh, because I don't expect everything to last for ever. That's the nature of the business. When you've been around for 20 years they think you're past your sell-by-date and should move over for new young talent," says Alison, who will be 42 in June. "What you are is a cash cow to them."

So much so, the company made the ultimate insulting suggestion to Alison, as she recalls: "It was not as if I didn't come from a creative background, so when they suggested I should get someone to write songs for me... well...". That was that. A parting of the ways was inevitable, and Hometime and its more experimental songs found a home at the appropriately named Sanctuary.

Her mature songwriting rightly reflects her age and experience and changing times. "We grow up with eclectic and sophisticated tastes: I mean, we now have some depth and neuroses and all those things that our parents can't have," Alison says.

Her concert performance style will be more straightforward. "I have come to the great realisation that I cannot make myself tidy. So we're not talking costume changes. There's a band and no costume change and no showmanship; just me singing as powerfully as I can," says the Basildon blues belter. "Me preparing for the shows is about going out and finding a shirt I like and buying eight of those shirts. So if you see me at more than one show, yes, it is the same shirt design every night."

Alison Moyet, York Barbican Centre, April 11, doors open 7pm. Ticket update: only ten left at time of going to press at £11.50; ring 01904 656688 to check availability.

Updated: 09:48 Friday, April 11, 2003