These two biographies can be found at www.wikipedia.com . The four videos can be found at www.youtube.comWilliam MacArthur MacKenzie, known as Billy MacKenzie (27 March 1957 – January 22, 1997) was a Scottish singer, notable for his powerful voice and vast vocal range.
Born in Dundee, he led a peripatetic lifestyle, which included decamping to New Zealand at the age of 16, and travelling across America aged 17. Here, to avoid deportation, he married Chloe Dummar. Her brother, Melvin Dummar, claimed to be the "one sixteenth" beneficiary of the estate of Howard Hughes, until the case was thrown out in 1978.
He returned to Scotland where he met Alan Rankine and in 1976 formed the Ascorbic Ones. They changed the name to The Associates in 1979. The Associates continued until 1990, after which MacKenzie embarked on a solo career. MacKenzie collaborated with more than a few artists during his career, including contributions to seminal Swiss outfit Yello's "One Second" album in 1987. MacKenzie provided vocals and wrote lyrics for two tracks on that release, and one "The Rhythm Divine" became a hit European single when legendary diva Shirley Bassey was recruited for vocals (Billy's original vocal track was no less powerful and saw release on the CD version of The Associates "Popera" compilation). On January 22, 1997, depression and the death of his mother are believed to have contributed to MacKenzie's suicide. He overdosed on prescription drugs in his father's garden shed. He was 39 years old.
Now a significant cult figure, much of his musical legacy has been released in the past few years. He was the subject of a biography by Tom Doyle, The Glamour Chase in 1998.
The Smiths' song "William, It Was Really Nothing" is said to have been written about Billy. Morrissey, lyricist and lead vocalist of the band, allegedly had a bit of a crush on him, and they were friends for a while. The Cure song "Cut Here" written by Robert Smith, a friend of Mackenzie, is about his suicide. Siouxsie Sioux wrote the song "Say" about his suicide, revealing in the lyrics that they were going to meet just before his suicide. The song was released as a single in 1999 and charted in the UK Top 75. In 2006, Norwegian singer/songwriter no:Rockettothesky had a massive radio hit with the song "Barrie For Billy Mackenzie"
MacKenzie's range was most often described as "startling", and his high-register singing is easily mistaken for a female's voice, though his lower register tones leave little doubt as to his gender.
The Associates:
MacKenzie and Rankine met in Dundee in 1976 and formed the cabaret duo The Ascorbic Ones, in 1979 they changed their name to The Associates and recorded their debut single a cover of David Bowie's Boys Keep Swinging. Their version attracted a good deal of attention, not least from David Bowie, as it was released before Bowie's version. A string of highly regarded singles were released and two albums The Affectionate Punch and Fourth Drawer Down.
The band's breakthrough came in 1982 with the release of the single Party Fears Two, buoyed along by the popularity of synthpop at the time, the song made 9 on the UK singles chart. Two other hits soon followed, 18 Carat Love Affair, and Club Country. That year the band released what is widely regarded as their masterpiece Sulk, an album which exacted comparisons with Brian Wilson's production style.
Alan Rankine left the band in 1982 just before the Sulk Tour. This proved disastrous in terms of the bands career, in particular as the band were being actively courted by Seymour Stein who thought they could become massive stars in the USA. Billy MacKenzie continued to write and record music under the Associates banner until 1990 and then under his own name (see Outernational in 1992). However without the guiding hand of Rankine, recordings were sporadic and arguably failed to reach the majesty or inventiveness of his earlier work. True to the original band's name, he never stopped working and writing music with other "associates", either for himself or guest-starring in other artists' albums with always stunning lead or backing vocals.
The band also recorded some material under the name 39 Lyon Street.
Lead singer Billy MacKenzie, became renowned for his dramatic vocal style, and he achieved a cult following, eventually becoming involved with Swiss avant garde outfit Yello. During his tenure with Yello he wrote the lyrics of the song "The Rhythm Divine" performed by Shirley Bassey on the album One Second, with MacKenzie also doing backing vocals.[1]
MacKenzie was also a close friend of Morrissey for several years, and is reported to be the subject of The Smiths' song "William, It Was Really Nothing". (Furthering the rumours, the Associates subsequently recorded a song entitled "Stephen, You Were Really Something".)
Billy MacKenzie committed suicide in 1997 aged 39, after suffering from clinical depression. He was contemplating a comeback at the time with material co-written mostly with Scottish musician Steve Aungle. The albums Beyond the Sun (1997) and Eurocentric (2000) were released posthumously and re-constructed (and expanded with new unreleased songs) in 2004 into two albums: Auchtermatic and Transmission Impossible.
Almost every Associates album has been re-issued so far, including a 25-Anniversary edition of The Affectionate Punch in 2005.
In addition to the original albums, two compilations have been released: Double Hipness (2000), a collection of early tracks with the 1993' reunion demos and Singles (2004), an extended version of Popera - The singles collection which catches up with post-1990 material and includes the cover of Bowie's Boys Keep Swinging. In 2002, The Glamour Chase recorded in the years 1985-88 was eventually released. Finally, the 90s albums Wild & Lonely and Outernational have been released in 2006, repackaged with bonus tracks.
Alan Rankine is now a lecturer in music at Stow College in Glasgow, and worked with Belle & Sebastian on their debut album, Tigermilk in 1996. A book "The Glamour Chase" by Tom Doyle, documents the band's career and MacKenzie's subsequent life.
Albums (in Alphabetical Order, including The Associates)
-The Affectionate Punch (Fiction, 1980)
-The Affectionate Punch (Remixed) (Fiction, 1982)
-Auchtermatic (2005 One Little Indian)
-Beyond The Sun (1997 Nude Records)
-Double Hipness (V2, 2000)
-Eurocentric (credited with Steve Aungle) (2001 Rhythm Of Life)
- Fourth Drawer Down(Situation Two, 1981)
-The Glamour Chase (WEA, 1988) - but unreleased until 2003
-Memory Palace (credited with Paul Haig) (1999 Rhythm Of Life) reissued in 2005 by One Little Indian with 4 extra tracks
-Outernational (1992 Circa Records) reissued in 2006 with 3 extra tracks
-Perhaps (WEA, 1985)
-Popera (WEA East West, 1990)
-The Radio 1 Sessions (Nighttracks, 1994)
-Radio 1 Sessions Volume 1;1981-83 (Strange Fruit, 2003)
-Radio 1 Sessions Volume 2;1984-85 (Strange Fruit, 2003)
-Singles (Warners, 2004)
-Sulk (WEA, 1982)
-Transmission Impossible (2005 One Little Indian)
-Wild And Lonely (circa 1990)
Videos
