One shouted word ruins the vibe at star’s otherwise-stunning Sydney concert

One shouted word, repeated from a heckler during a huge Sydney concert, revealed some Aussie audiences have a real attitude problem.

One shouted word from a heckler was all it took to momentarily kill the vibe during British singer Alison Moyet’s Sydney show over the weekend.

Moyet, 63, is touring to mark the 40th anniversary of her solo career – a career that started even before that, as one-half of the chart-topping electro duo Yazoo (of Only You fame) in the early 80s.

Moyet, though, has always bristled at any notion she’s a heritage act, only here to play 80s retro circuit – and her musical output has long backed that up.

Perhaps her finest work, 2002’s Hometime, arrived shortly after she’d turned 40; in recent years, a fruitful collaboration with producer Guy Sigsworth saw her return to her edgy electro roots across two stellar albums.

Songs from 1982 to 2024 got an airing during Saturday’s near-sold-out show at Sydney’s Darling Harbour Theatre. Moyet was in fine voice throughout, and was charming, frequently hilarious company, stopping to sip tea between songs and offer self-effacing stories from throughout her life.

After one cheer from the dark, she made a confession: In-ear monitors meant she could never really hear anything audience members yelled at her during gigs, and therefore interpreted all muffled noise only as praise.

Moyet performing in the UK circa 2019. Picture: Harry Herd/Redferns

It’s just as well, because about half a dozen songs into the show, a lone heckle began.

“EIGHTIES!” one man yelled, filling the brief silence between songs.

And again, echoing through the theatre a couple of songs later: “EIGHTIES!”

Not even a “play the hits,” or “sing Only You” (which she did, by the way). Just a barked, one-word order, reducing an artist’s 40-plus-year career to the brief period several decades ago when she was a twenty-something, radio-ready pop star: EIGHTIES.

Thank god she didn’t hear it – but the rest of us did, and it momentarily soured the atmosphere at an otherwise stunning show, as fans lapped up a precious two hours with an artist who visits our shores all too rarely.

And as the concert wore on, guess what happened? Moyet did sing the eighties hits, delivering Yazoo bangers Situation and Don’t Go, along with her classic debut solo single, Love Resurrection, during an encore set that had the audience out of their seats and rushing to the front of the stage to form an impromptu dance floor.

Sure, she was big in the 80s …

… but Moyet’s now 10 solo albums deep.

It’s almost like she … knows how to structure her set, sending the show out on a high with her best-known songs rather than burning through them early?

This entitled, “just play the hits” attitude is common here in Australia. In 2023, the Red Hot Chili Peppers copped a fierce audience backlash when they dared leave Under The Bridge off the setlist during one of their Aussie stadium shows. News.com.au’s resident RHCP superfan Jasmine Kazlauskasan leapt in to give an impassioned defence of the band amid a backlash that saw some concertgoers declare they’d never see them live again.

More recently, Kylie Minogue’s latest tour made its world debut here in Australia amid complaints from some fans that she was playing too much new material – and from others, that she wasn’t playing enough.

Moyet had even tried to tackle the issue head-on at the top of Saturday’s show, warning the audience that a setlist comprised solely of faithful renditions of her early material would feel like “bad karaoke” – something that holds no interest for her as an artist. Perhaps her heckler would’ve been better off staying home and doing some “bad karaoke” of the 80s hits he was only interested in hearing.

Originally published as One shouted word ruins the vibe at star’s otherwise-stunning Sydney concert