SUPERSTAR singer Alison Moyet was booed off stage in her first live performance, she told DJ Janice Long in a special programme on BBC Radio 2 on Wednesday night.

Now regarded as one of the best-loved female artists of the past 30 years, Basildon’s Alison started her singing career with two friends at a community centre in Roundacre.

She said: “There were a lot of discos and we went to play a lot of gigs. It was where I had my first performance. I got up on stage with two of my girl friends and played My Friend the Sun by Family to get a free drink and we got booed off!”

Roundacre was the centre of music for Alison and her generation of musicians during that time, and it was also one of the first venues where she saw fellow Basildon stars, Depeche Mode, perform.

During the programme, A Long Walk With Alison Moyet, she took host Janice on a guided tour of her home town to show off all of her old stomping grounds and the places that encouraged her love for music and sculpture.

She described the Woman and Child statue in Basildon town centre as the “Crowning Jewel” in the town.

Alison would spend time there as a punk when she was young. She said: “There were lots of factions, you had your mates who would either be Teds, Skinheads or Punks.”

Later on Alison created Yazoo with Depeche Mode founder member Vince Clarke and the duo went on to have many hit singles including Don’t Go and the classic Only You.

However, while the pair were successful, Alison told Janice they were not close.

She said: “The fact is we never really became friends at the time.

“So it meant the really brilliant things you did not celebrate with the person you are supposed to and when things are tough, you cannot work through them with that person.”

Throughout the walk, Alison also looked back on her life living on the council estates of the time which provided good memories for her.

Her pride to be from the town with such a rich musical heritage shone through in the show.