The Associates
 

Are there any other Billy McKenzie / Associates fans on here. Personally, I used to love them. Still do, in fact.

Here's a little bit about them for those who might be unfamiliar.


Billy McKenzie was born in Dundee in 1958 of humble beginnings. McKenzie once desribed it by saying "I was born Scots-Irish fucking gypsy family. That's some fucking cross pollination."

He was however gifted with a voice that was often described as super natural or other wordly. He could effortlessly shift from bass blues to a soaring falsetto. Bono of U2 said of Billy "The Associates were a great band. We ripped them off. But Billy was a fantastic singer - I couldn't rip him off."

Billy formed the duo The Associates with Alan Rankine in 1979 and they became one of the most exciting and experimental musicians of the early eighties. Their first three albums respectively The Affectionate Punch, Fourth Drawer Down and Sulk were in stark contrast to the emerging New Romantic scene of the time and although no one seemed to know what to make of the band the singles released in 1982 Sulk, Party Fears Two and Club Country were all big hits.

But Billy had garnered a reputation for himself and he was seen as a difficult figure to do business with. Regarded as a maverick within the music industry, his refusal to co-operate with music industy bosses did him more harm than good and his "unhinged" methods saw him branded as "music's great underachiever" and when the band split in 1984 his solo career and extra-ordinary vocal gift went largely wasted. Billy hated the music industry and the red tape that accompanied stardom and argued the point that "it should be all about the glory of the music - nothing else matters."

Billy McKenzie committed suicide on the 22nd January 1997.

I used to like The Associates when I was a teenager and they were in their prime, but I started to get into louder music and forgot about them. I've been tempted occasionally to re-visit them, but so much stuff from that era has turned out to be better in my memory than when I've actually heard it again, and so I haven't.