When Bowie lost his way in the 1980s, Billy Mackenzie was
the one who kept the home fires burning. More than any other act of the period,
Billy (and the Associates) enshrined the inventive charismatic vigour seemingly
abandoned by the thin white duke for airbrushed mainstream mediocrity. They
exploded into my psyche with the song Party Fears Two, reigniting my love for
the sharp edge rather than the soft centre of things. Like Bowie a decade
before, it was love at first hearing and I greedily consumed every crumb of Associates output. To my delight I also later discovered that their first
release had been a cover of Boys Keep Swinging, confirming Billy as guardian to
the Bowie throne.
22 January 1997 was a dark day for music. Overcome by
depression after his mother Lily’s death, Billy took his own life with paracetamol
and prescription drugs in his father’s garden shed; a favourite place and home
to his beloved whippets. He was just 39 years old.
Everyone was shocked at the news and I remember crying when
I heard. Billy had only recently signed a record deal with Nude (home to Suede)
and we all thought that he had found a home after years in the wilderness and
several fall outs with record labels intent on packaging him. The record ‘Beyond
the Sun’ was released posthumously and lauded by everyone as his best work to
date. I can only speculate on the wonders which may have followed. Garry
Mulholland made the observation in a review that the only thing wrong with the record was Billy not being here.
My favourite Billy story relates to recording sessions with
WEA. They wanted to see a return on their investment and had hired a minder to
watch him 24/7 to ensure he worked and didn’t blow the budget. After a particularly
long hard day of recording Billy pleaded with the WEA representative to let him
take a taxi home and eventually his wish was reluctantly granted. Only later
was it discovered that Billy had indeed used the taxi to go home, but to the
one 470 miles north near Dundee. The result of these recordings, The Glamour
Chase was finally released after years of protest 16 years after his death, once
more to great acclaim.
The music and legacy – 10 songs
Boys Keep Swinging
Party Fears Two
Breakfast
Those First Impressions
Strasbourg Square
18 Carat Love Affair
Baby
Wild is the Wind
Pain in any Language
Give Me Time
There's something that
I've got to say
It can't wait until tomorrow
A whisper stays beneath my breath
You know it's hard to swallow
I follow you inside my mind
A neighbourhood's no stranger
Loving you could be sublime
But it's all wrapped up in danger
Give me time
I've been around the world trying to find myself
And I'm not going to go with someone else
Come on and be mine
Come on be mine
It can't wait until tomorrow
A whisper stays beneath my breath
You know it's hard to swallow
I follow you inside my mind
A neighbourhood's no stranger
Loving you could be sublime
But it's all wrapped up in danger
Give me time
I've been around the world trying to find myself
And I'm not going to go with someone else
Come on and be mine
Come on be mine
William MacArthur
Mackenzie
Born - March. 27,
1957 -Scotland
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Died - January. 22,
1997 - Scotland
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A tender portrait, Harry.
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