Thanks to Aideen
Read the latest!
"The Billy Mac book is on course for publication in the first couple of weeks of July. If any fans around the world are finding it difficult (or too expensive) to get the book on import, the publishers Bloomsbury actually have an on-line book store and delivery service."
"The English compiler of the discography for the book, Craig Burton, has begun a new Billy Mac/Associates information network and newsletter. Enclose SAE to:- Obsession Magnificient, PO Box 4394, Chelmsford CM1 7PQ, UK."
Tom Doyle - 5 May 1998
"Just to let you (and the network of Associates devotees) know that I'm currently writing a book about Billy with the co-operation of his estate and featuring over fifty new interviews with his family, friends and musical colleagues. Entitled "The Glamour Chase - The Maverick Life Of Billy MacKenzie", it's due in July 1998 - published by Bloomsbury - with a foreword written by Bono."
Thanks to Tom Doyle for letting us know!
26 Feb 1998
Two recent Associates/Mackenzie releases. The posthumous solo album was first, about a month ago.
Billy Mackenzie
Beyond The Sun
Nude 8CD
There's another eleven tracks which may appear on a second disc at an as yet undetermined time. I got mail from a friend of Billy which seemed to hint that there's stuff being unsaid, and that a lot of his friends are not very happy with the amount of speculation in all of the press coverage - in short, take everything you read about Billy of late with a large pinch of salt. She also hinted that there might be some surprises on the album - she has a recording Billy didn't even know existed of him singing along to his own songs while in the bath.
Second disc to appear, the rumoured _The Affectionate Punch_ CD on Fiction came out a few weeks back. Don't have both versions of the original album to compare, but I've been told it's a mix of the original and the remixed stuff. Cover is same as my tape, which was of the second version - Alan on the front, Billy on the back. It's a mid-price release in the UK.
Thanks to Al Crawford
Alan Rankine (26/9/97)
The body of Billy MacKenzie, singer with the legendary Associates, was found in a shed near his home at Auchterhouse, Dundee 22/1/97. The police say there were no suspicious circumstances. It was reported on BBC Radio One the following night, and on television.
Sadly, his death comes as he has just signed a long term deal with Nude Records, home of Suede and Geneva, and as his work with Barry Adamson on the album Oedipus Schmoedipus and with techno outfit Loom has won him renewed critical acclaim. He would have been 40 in March 1997.
Thank you to Aideen for this and the page.
Nude have announced Sept 15 as the date of release for the Billy MacKenzie compilation "Beyond the Sun". It will be a 2CD album comprising material recorded for Nude last year and older Associates solo material from several of Billy and the Associates old labels.
Thanks Aideen.
80 Billy MacKenzie: Vocals, Alan Rankine: Instruments, Nigel Glockler: Drums (2 sessions)
81 John Murphy: Drums, Mike Dempsey: Bass, Billy MacKenzie: Vocals, Alan Rankine: Instruments
82 MacKenzie, Rankine, Steve Golding on Drums, Mike Dempsey on bass
83 MacKenzie, Howard Hughes on keyboards, Steve Reid on guitar & bass, 'The Whippets' (percussion)
84 MacKenzie, Hughes, Martin Lowe guitar, Robert Soave bass, Ian McIntosh guitar
85 MacKenzie, Hughes, Robert Soave, Ian McIntosh, Moritz Von Oswald (percussion) These defected to Peter Murphy circa
86 until 1990 when most returned for Wild & Lonely.
The Associates' songwriting core comprised Edinburgh and Dundee Scots Alan Rankine, usually credited with simply 'instruments' and Billy MacKenzie, vocals. They co-scored the tracks and Billy wrote the lyrics. Their greatest success as a single in the UK was Party Fears Two which reached no 9 in around March 1982. This was followed by two more top 25 singles, a hit album and a swift fracturing. They are equally well known for their earlier work with Fiction and Situation Two which was a shade too alternative and unimmediate to transfer to the UK singles chart. U2, Morrissey and Eurythmics among others name checked them, in fact I once heard Billy referred to as 'The name that launched a thousand careers'. Picture the scene: It's a 1982 TV appearance. There are two young men seated in raised chairs. One of them looks very passive, has a guitar, is wearing a bright yellow jumper of which he has the sleeves rolled up,a red silk scarf [tied round his neck], grey trousers and what look like football boots. The other is grinning wildly and in an extremely flirtatious manner at members of the audience, jiggling his shoulders about and sporting a jauntily perched dark blue airline pilot's cap, white shirt, black tie and dark blue suit, all while trying to remember to mime the lyrics to an extremely wierd song: Party Fears Two. They seem to have been very careful to play the eccentricity card at every available opportunity, especially Billy, whether it was his unusual upbringing, his dress sense, his offbeat approach to writing lyrics - or his whippets.
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 9st 3lbs
Sign: Taurus
Birth date: 17/5/58
Birthplace: Bridge of Allan, Scotland
Ambition: To write better songs
Turn-ons: Groovy chords, women with a bit of shape
Turn-offs: Moaners and people with opinions on things they know
nothing about
Favourite food: Mince tarts, cheese 'n' toast
Preferred performers: Jacksons, Diana Ross, B. Streisand
All time favourite song: Spacer - Sheila B. Devotion
Favourite pastime: Summer afternoon, sweat, bed and these sounds that
you make when you loose oncentration at the wrong moment
Best films: Heaven Can Wait, Deerhunter, Producers
Favourite reading matter: Ring of Steel
Favourite outfit: Silk and cashmere
Perfect evening: Ursula Andress and no tomorrow
Desert island companion: Ursula Andress
Best and worst characteristics: Best filled in by somebody else - coz
I don't much care
Like to be reincarnated as: Mel Brooks or Orson Wells
Secret: Not enough space here for those
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 9st 3lbs
Sign: Airies
Birth date: 27/3/57
Birthplace: Dundee, Scotland
Ambition: To stay healthy mind and body
Turn-ons: Shoes
Turn-offs: Would be unique individuals
Favourite food: Porridge
Preferred performers: Children
All time favourite song: You've changed - Billy Holiday
Favourite pastime: Appreciating enthusiasm
Best films: Heaven Can Wait
Favourite reading matter: Hare & Hounds
Favourite outfit: Medical profession
Perfect evening: Getting to sleep two minutes after wakening from the
perfect evening
Desert island companion: Goo weather
Best and worst characteristics: Ask Alison - Dundee 611524
Like to be reincarnated as: Brother Alex
Secret: Not a great lover
Their style is difficult to describe, they went through many changes while together. All their albums show a 'Take no prisoners' individuality. They initially combined a Bowie influence [Some say Low some say Station to Station] with abrasive postpunk and relatively little synth work. Their first John Peel Session from 1981 for BBC Radio One is an extremely rowdy affair indeed suggesting a very punky early live sound or an extremely irreverent attitude to being on the show, probably a bit of both, although bands usually try to do something a bit unusual for a Peel Session. Their use of synths in a major way, from Fourth Drawer Down onwards, was subtle yet powerful. That Alan was both guitarist and keyboardist gave the whole thing more cohesion and balance than you usually get where the two meet, this combined with MacKenzie's vocal acrobatics, unusual voice and large range, an orchestral scale approach, a shared musical eccentricity and a very large set of influences.
'THEM THEMSELVES AND THE TRAGIC STORY'
In 1976 Rankine & MacKenzie had been in a Dundee group 'The Absorbic Ones'. They started playing Bowie covers in workingmen's clubs. They floated to the surface in 1979 with a warped version of 'Boys Keep Swinging' on their own 'Double Hip' label, right on the heels of Bowies own, with Robert Smith guesting on bass [I think]. By 1980 they were touring with The Cure and The Passions and signed to Fiction. In the middle of 1980 came an album, The Affectionate Punch, which featured Robert Smith doing some fruity backing vocals. The critics drooled helplessly over this [They do drool a lot in the British Isles - mostly out of trying to keep the weekly music press afloat - but for the same reason they're really good at venomous abuse too.] as they apparently did with all three.
At the turn of the year they relocated to Situation Two, the Beggars Banquet subsidiary. John Murphy, a drummer - I read in The Great Rock Discography - of Australian origin, joined as did Mike Dempsey, ex of The Cure, playing bass. They released a series of singles in 1981 and also several collaborations [released as Orbidoig and 39 Lyon Street]. Some of these and some B-sides were collected on Fourth Drawer Down which was released in October 1981. This shows the Associates at their most musically dense. Some regard it as their best: I find it hard to decide. It seems to have sold reasonably well on reissue in 1982 as did 'Punch. It is basically a series of genres surfed through with seas of wierd unplaceable noise, unexpected things happening, chiming guitars from Rankine and stream of consciousness, or teasing, lyrics and freefall cries from MacKenzie. Flood, who later worked with Cabaret Voltaire, Depeche Mode and U2, and Hedges, Cure, produced along with the band themselves.
They finally signed their own label to Beggars Banquet distributed by WEA in late '81 / early '82 and commercial success began. Party Fears Two [UK No 9] , Club Country, [UK No 13] , and the [UK No. 21] Double A-Side 18 Carat Love Affair / Love Hangover all became hits in the middle of 1982. Just as they were poised to release these it appears that Dempsey and Murphy left. Martha Ladley of Martha and The Muffins is credited with backing vocals on that years album, Sulk, and Mike Hedges was co - producer. Released in October, it became Melody Maker Album of the Year. It is rare that such a strong and innovative album has such a quiet reputation, however, I've noticed strong trends among writers in recent years drawing attention to it. Sulk got to No.10 one of the recorded UK charts and No.14 on the other. It was unfortunate that the version of Sulk released in the US and now on CD reissue was not identical to the original which is much better. Hey WEA! Sort it out!
"Sulk is arguably the least influenced album of all time, it has few if any precedents - and also the least influential - nobody save maybe Prince on 'If I was your Girlfriend' or Bjork on 'Venus As A Boy' has been able to rival its emotionally overwrought (compliment!), 'out of this world' music." Paul Lester, Features Editor, Melody Maker writing in 1994
With Fiction later in 1982 they radically remixed and rerecorded The Affectionate Punch. The remixed version is easier listening and has more synth work. Rankine too then departed at the end of the year, apparently from some sort of ego clash [Did he lose in a pouting competition? we may never know], going on to work with Paul Haig. They may yet work together in future, according to rumours of recent years, but have only tangentially done so since 1982 - on the Paul Haig album 'Chain' on Circa 1989. In 1983 Billy released a song written entirely by Steve Reid called 'Ice Cream Factory'. It's unusual, fluid and frothy and usually quite expensive to buy.
1985's Perhaps is much less frenzied. Billy's voice tones in to suit the mood but it actually works best on the album tracks scored by Steve Reid such as 13 Feelings or The Stranger In Your Voice. This said, Perhaps and Breakfast are splendid. Martin Rushent [The Human League's 'Dare!'] and also Martyn Ware of Heaven 17/BEF produced. Alan released an album in 1987 and it was acceptable late 80's disco stuff however the vocal arrangements left a lot to be desired. Billy collaborated with Holger Hiller on a 12" Whippets/Waltz in 1987. Record dealer Roger Linney describes it as "Industrial dance, with swirly orchestral bits and what sound like Japanese vocals by MacKenzie."
In the late 80s WEA refused to release an Associates album for MacKenzie - The Glamour Chase. It remains unreleased. It seems to have to do with either the fairly low charting of Heart of Glass or his paucity of output. From listening to the other singles on Popera it seems a shame that this had to happen as they're just fine although several shades glossier than the old stuff. None of the singles from Perhaps quite hit the UK top 40 yet it just skimmed the top 20 of the album charts, thats the reason why I'm not really satisfied with WEA's presumed reasoning.
Billy left WEA for the Virgin subsidiary Circa. Wild and Lonely in 1990 is extremely disappointing, to be honest. It would possibly have been better with different production. He then ditched the name and released Outernational as a solo LP in 1992, produced and partially co-written by Boris Blank of Yello. Billy sounds very wet on the musak-like singles taken therefrom.
It's August 1996, I open up my Melody Maker and receive something of a shock, namely a picture of no other than Billy who is appearing on Barry Adamson's Album Oedipus Schmoedipus to some acclaim. Then I turn to the singles reviews and there he is again, collaborating on a techno project with Millenium Records' Loom which is again getting praise from the reviewers, particularly on the grounds that he has reprised his early vocal style: 'Time was, when otherwise sentient beings would pore over Billy MacKenzie's nocturnal emissions with Associates as if they were tablets from Heaven.........Preserved as if in aspic from 1982's Sulk; still the scariest and most exhilarating voice in pop.' Dave Simpson writing in Melody Maker 1996. All that and still there is very little of the back catalogue available on CD.
Since March 1997 when the news came that the Glamour Chase was going to be released, I've read in another magazine that Alan Rankine is putting together a compilation with the help of WEA, Circa and Nude. Nude were Billy's last record company. Its supposed to have 12 old tracks and 8 new Billy MacKenzie recordings and is scheduled for release this summer, so I dont know whats going to happen about the Glamour Chase now. Ive also been told that The Affectionate Punch may be rereleased by Fiction on CD this year.
I would like to point out that this has been extraordinarily difficult to put together and I can't guarantee complete factual accuracy - most of the so called reference books are wildly inaccurate even compared to reading sleevenotes - but I've done my best. If you want help of some sort, to correct this, hurl endless abuse, add some information or simply sue, contact me, Aideen O'Doherty at:
u9452672@queens_belfast.ac.uk - no longer active
"Their songs show a natural almost arrogant willingness to be the new things." - Sounds
"A far more impressive and eloquent journey into the future than most of today's metal mickey...one of the most worthwhile records to come out this year." - Melody Maker
"As high a standard as you'll find anywhere in pop today." - Record Mirror
"Associates are originals. This is currently rare." - Sounds
"They make an electric music that might be on a point between John Barry and Erik Satie." - NME
"Chasing after the shadow of David Bowie, singers of a post new romantic persuasion roar to the heavens of arriving for a forced grandeur that invariably reeks of overblown tack." - Melody Maker
A resource for New Wave music and genres it encompasses.