Here’s a piece I’m still proud of:-

BILLY MacKENZIE : 27 March 1957 – 22 January 1997

I’m anticipating that many a blog will be commemorating the fact that today is the 10th Anniversary of the sad death of Billy Mackenzie. I don’t know that what I’ve got to say will be all that different, but I’ll offer some facts, and then I’ll offer some thoughts.

Billy was born in Dundee, Scotland and it was just outside that city that he took his own life with an overdose of prescribed sleeping pills. As a musician, commercial success and recognition didn’t happen overnight, and when it eventually did come, it was for an all-too brief period. By 1997, he was largely irrelevant except to a loyal fanbase. As is often the case, it took death for a reappraisal, and Billy is now regarded by many critics as one of the greatest musical talents of the late 20th Century.

His life-story is told with affection in The Glamour Chase by Tom Doyle (since updated and re-issued in September 2011)

it’s a thoroughly honest, entertaining, engaging and balanced biography. The author is very obviously a fan, and yet the book is never sycophantic for the sake of it. It recognises that Billy was often his own worst enemy and far from perfect.

I mentioned above that Billy wasn’t an overnight success. It wasn’t until the release of their 10th single and 3rd LP that Associates finally had a hit. But Party Fears Two and Sulk became instant classics.

But in what was the first of many strange career moves, Associates at their most successful split-up almost immediately but while Billy maintained the name but he was more or less a solo artist with backing musicians (in the same way that Aztec Camera was simply a vehicle for Roddy Frame).

Some more singles and albums followed, but no hits. Some of his post-Sulk songs were great, some were average, and some were disappointing. There were fall-outs with record companies and unreleased LPs. In frustration, Billy dropped the moniker of Associates and started to record and perform under his own name as well as work in collaboration with other artistes. The world still didn’t pick-up on his talent.

To those of us who were long-time fans, the end was a huge shock. Billy had been completely out of the limelight for a few years, and it was almost impossible to find any Associates records as they had been long-deleted by record companies. But we had been reading that he was on his way back having just signed a contract with a new label and was busy in the studio.

It’s since become clear that a series of very sad events, not least the death of his mother, triggered-off a bout of very serious depression for Billy, but it was an illness that he hid from those who were closest to him.

Billy’s death was sad and tragic. But I think, having read The Glamour Chase, that it was an ending that was in some ways inevitable.

His legacy is a volume of work that has highs and lows, and one that is dominated by that 1982/83 era of Sulk. Even if that had been the only LP he had ever made, Billy would still be a legend in pop music.

I’m trying to give a truly honest appraisal when I say that while Billy MacKenzie was a reasonably talented writer, his best songs came when he wrote with others.

But what he did posses, without any doubt, was a singing voice that was unique. He also had attitude and a fierce streak of independence. Sadly, he lived in a period when all that mattered were record sales and a willingness to bow-down before the powerful record industry moguls and do what you’re told.

It’s impossible to guess what the past 10 years would have been like if Billy was still alive. He might have found the magic touch for another hit out of the blue (a la Edwyn Collins and A Girl Like You). Most likely however, is that he would still be recording albums to be bought by just the hard-core fans, for it took his death to rekindle interest in his work and the re-release of most of his material. But as I say, we just don’t know.

I haven’t found this the easiest set of words to put together since starting up TVV. Nor did I find it easy choosing some songs to post in memory.

In the end, I’ve gone for a pre-Sulk recording, a track from Sulk, and a post-Sulk recording, together with a cover version Billy recorded in 1982 at the height of his commercial success. I apologise for the poor quality of the cover version. But I think it captures Billy’s voice at its grandest.

mp3 : Associates – White Car In Germany
mp3 : Associates – Skipping
mp3 : Associates – Breakfast
*mp3 : Billy MacKenzie – It’s Over
(from the 1982 LP Music of Songs & Distinction by British Electric Foundation)

(* far better quality copy of his incredible take on the Roy Orbison classic than I’ve previously posted on the old blog!)

If you haven’t read Tom Doyle’s book, I urge you to do so. It’s one of the best music biographies ever put to paper.

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2013 Update

I have it on very good authority that work is at an advanced stage of producing and issuing an Associates boxset….