Whippet At The Wheel

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T06:31:00.001-08:00

Up here in Scotland we've finally thawed out from four weeks of deep freeze. We succumbed to 2 burst pipes, 1 exploded radiator, a car battery freeze out, 10 days when the temperature didn't rise above -15 C and eight days of school closures. I'm just off to pop the steak pie in the oven, so today it's just a wee scan from The Face from way back in 1982. A reminder to us that summer did exist at one time. Here Billy MacKenzie models a thrilling kind of black and white checked shirt and sports some knee length short trouser type things. As for Martha... why wasn't she the global superstar sex-goddess she so deserved to be?

All the best for 2011

Sid Law

And Finally... rebooted with extra material!

2010-11-30T03:53:00.000-08:00

Been a case of Life getting in the way a bit recently, hence the lack of posts.

First up is the version of “Heart of Glass” which I overlooked in my Valentine’s Day post earlier this year. It is of course the "Orchestral Accapella" Mix from the promo only version of The Temperament Mix 12” and the very fine vinyl burn comes courtesy of Dom T. Many thanks.

Another Associates/ MacKenzie enthusiast, Jim D, passed on some superb vinyl rips he has done of the Jih tracks “Take Me To The Girl” and “Come Summer Come Winter”. Mr MacKenzie co-produced these for Grant McNally’s Dundee group back in 1988 and he provides backing vocals too. Thanks again Jim. My vinyl has warped!
Also in this bundle is some Peach (or Peach Union if you are in the US). Pascal Gabriel formed Peach after his success with S’Express and Bomb The Bass, recruiting Paul Stratham and Lisa Lamb (she’d just had a hit with a version of The Isley Brother’s “Summer Breeze”). Pascal had worked as a producer, remixer and general knob twiddler with Billy on “Outernational” and its resulting singles. The CD “Audiopeach” was released in late 1997 and featured Billy's backing vocals on two tracks - “Deep Down Together” and “Give Me Tomorrow” (which was released as a single in Japan). The whole “Audiopeach” CD is a fine blast of techno-pop with a kind of St Etienne/ Dubstar shiny grooviness. Worth tracking a copy down.
I’ve tossed in another wee vinyl burn. In 1998 Paul Haig released “Listen To Me” as a limited edition 7” single (100 copies). Although the track turned up on the “Memory Palace” CD the following year, this 7” version is different and clocks in at 4.04 rather than the Memory Palace’s shorter 3.42 version.
I've included two demos Billy worked on shortly before his death - “Deamanda” and “Put It Right” (also known as “Let’s Rise”). I had originally posted a version of "Return To Love" which is different to that on the "Eurocentric" CD and has been circulated for fifteen years amongst MacKenzie fans. Someone has kindly pointed out that Destination Pop has now released this alternate version of "Return To Love" as a "single" over in Germany so I've taken the track out of the bundle and reposted. The B-side track of the German single is "The Soul That Sighs" and is the version from "Eurocentric". So if you want to spend nine quid getting the different version of "Return To Love" posted out on vinyl from Berlin you can contact the Destination Pop label. Or contact me here if (for comparison purposes) you want a copy of the 320mb mp3 I ripped from the audio CDR I recieved thirteen years ago... (I actually think my CDR version is sharper sounding than the German single version, but it suffers from a tiny sound dropout 50 seconds in which I must get in and fix).
I have replaced the "Return To Love" track with a couple of choice cuts! The Billy MacKenzie of "Perhaps" was a little undecided as to which lucky lady should spar with him on "The Best Of You". Although we all know that the fairground attraction that is Eddie Reader finally got the gig, Billy had a few others in the queue... none other than Annie Lennox (whose contribution is a bit tentative IMHO) and the very strict Gina X. The Gina X version gets my vote every time!
I have also included a couple of much older vinyl burns. The unbelievably 28 year old (5.33) extended "Party Fears Two" 12” remains uncollected as does the 30 year old original (4.30) 12” of “Tell Me Easter’s On Friday” (the version on Fourth Drawer Down is a different version to the original 12"). Makes you feel your age!
Billy’s wondrous collaboration with Barry Adamson on “Achieved In The Valley Of Dolls” (4.27) was one of the last collaborations released during Billy's lifetime. The track was universally praised as was the album it came from. The version of the track which was released posthumously on Auchtermatic (4.23) has had some of the white noise on the intro edited out - hence the different running time, but is exactly the same mix. Adamson’s album “Oedipus Schmoedipus” is a musical tour-de-force and everyone who doesn't have a copy should get themselves one. Right now! Fourteen years on from its release it still sparkles and sounds very hip. It features cameo vocal appearances from Nick Cave, Billy MacKenzie, Jarvis Cocker, Miranda Sex Garden and other guests, who are all guided through a maze of great tunes, hip musical references, samples and the usual cinematic jokes by Barry Adamson and his utterly groovy wit, stunning musicianship and classy production. Jarvis Cocker’s “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Pelvis" features many layered voices on its Bowie-ish “Lets Dance” style intro. It sounds very much like Billy’s voice is one of those singing "save me from my own hand" on the song. Ironically it remains an uncredited vocal appearance but that does appear to be Mr MacKenzie in there. I have included the “Radio Friendly Mix” of Jarvis-the-Onanist's plea from the ultra-rare Eodipus Scheodipus Promo 3 12”. Anyone else figure that is Mr MacKenzie's voice taking the third harmony in on the intro?

Enjoy!

Happy St Andrew's Day!

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/435211330/And_Finally_reboot.rar

Outernational Extras

2010-08-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

Between 1997 and its re-issue in 2006 my CD copy of Outernational was copied many times for other fans. I usually stuck on all the twelve inch and cd single extras from the Outernational related single releases on the CDRs I'd post out. The CD re-issue of Outernational had a couple of extras but missed ten or so.
First single off Outernational was "Baby" in June 1992. There were a few non album extras on the 7", 12" and CD single (and there was also a notable reduction in the number of formats which labels were willing to pay for!). We had
CD single
Baby 4.04
Sacrifice and Be Sacrificed (CH 8032 mix) 5.03
Grooveature (D 1000 mix) 5.00
Colours Will Come (US 60659 mix) 4.12 [remixed by Larry Heard]
7" single
Baby 4.04

Sacrifice and Be Sacrificed (CH 8032 mix) 5.03
12" single
Baby 4.04

Colours Will Come (Larry Heard Remix) 5.16

Opal Crush 4.31

Colours Will Come (Raw Stylus Remix) 5.02

All the tracks except "Baby" were different versions/ mixes than the ones eventually released on Outernational. I remember seeing the "Baby" video on TV a few times and I really did think that it was going to be a massive hit... but no... despite a rather cool video shot at the Scotland Street School Museum in Glasgow (you can see the M8 traffic rolling past in the background) the single stiffed just outside the top 40.

Next up for release was "Colours will Come" which was released as a single on the same day in September 1992 as Outernational was launched. Despite having already given us two versions of the track on the Baby 12", Circa decided we needed another version so that is just what we got. Three out of the four tracks on the release had been remixed by Pascal Gabriel. Trance-meister Mike Koglin tweaked and twiddled at the other, giving Feels Like The Richtergroove a lighter snappier feel than the album version.
CD single
Colours Will Come 4.25
Opal Krush 4.28
Look What You've Done 5.28
Feels Like The Richtergroove 4.01 [remixed by Mike Koglin]
7" single
Colours Will Come 4.25/Opal Krush 4.28
12" single
Colours Will Come 4.56
Opal Krush 4.26
Look What You've Done 5.28
Feels Like The Richtergroove 4.01 [remixed by Mike Koglin]

The single disappeared without a trace. I heard it played once on Radio Forth. It was poorly pressed and I had to return two copies to the record shop because they were warped. Slow initial sales for the Outernational album (released on cassette and CD only) meant that when Circa finally popped its clogs a few months after its release and their catalogue was deleted, Outernational had only shifted a few thousand copies - making it a real rare beast for many years. In interviews at the time Billy referred to Outernational as having "a glacial beauty" perhaps an accurate summation of the rate at which it was shifting units. There were promo copies of a Pastime Paradise single which were squeezed out just as Circa went down the plug. The extra track from that (Outernational II) can be found in my June post under Unique Promo Tracks.

In my box of goodies I keep under my bed I found this little treat. A great wee interview with Billy from 1985 from Studio One (a short lived Borders TV series hosted by Muriel Gray which featured The Armoury Show and Big Country in subsequent weeks). It features a rather strange astrology reading for Billy. Eerie. Most eerie.

Anyhoo... here's the clutch of Outernational Extras ripped and zipped at 320.

Enjoy

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/414400624/Outernational_12_Inchers.rar.html

39 Lyon Street Kites 12"

2010-08-11T03:50:00.000-07:00

Got a message recently asking if I had the 39 Lyon Street Kites 12". I thought I'd posted it a while back with some Orbidoig stuff. But I hadn't.

Released in 1981, it features Christine Beveridge on a whispery lead vocal with Billy taking the back seat until the choruses. The Associates were allowed to release singles on other labels as long as Billy didn't sing lead vocals on the A-side. Recorded in the midst of the Situation 2 stream of singles, Kites is an atmospheric musical delight. The twelve inch version has a rolling piano intro which slides effortlessly into an utterly groovy version of Simon Dupree And The Big Sound's biggest hit.

It was released on RSO Records in a one single deal. The B-side A Girl Named Property is credited to The Associates and is the same version released on Fourth Drawer Down.

39 Lyon Street is behind the blue car (centre picture).

Billy explained some of the background to this record in a Smash Hits interview in May 1981 "Around 1976 a lot of us (including Alan Rankine, the other founder member of The Associates) were living in a flat at 39 Lyon Street in Dundee. We used to hold parties almost every night and the kind of music we used to play was sophisticated club-style music. Some of us even used to sell 1920's clothing. Christine was one of the people who lived there. When me and Rankine played the cabaret circuit we used to play the 'Kites' number. The next thing to be released by 39 Lyon Street will be a quasi-Neil Sedaka song called '18 Carat Love Affair'."

Of course things changed and we never got another 39 Lyon Street song nor did we get the projected Orbidoig album John Peel informed us that MacKenzie was producing back in October 1982.

Enjoy what we have

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/412306554/39_Lyon_Street_Kites_12_Inch.rar.html

Fire In Da House!

2010-08-11T00:40:00.000-07:00

August 1990 and Circa were keen to recoup. April's single Fever had not delivered and pressure to prise a hit out of the Wild and Lonely album was mounting. Fire to Ice was next up for release as a single. Again a multiple slew of formats gushed out of the corporate machine in the form of cassingle, 7”, 10”, 12”and a CD single.

The UK 12” claims to be an "extended remix version" but at 4.34 it clocks in at the same length as the original album version. Maybe there is a wee bit of tweaking the knobs or re-EQ-ing in the 12" production but not much of a difference. The many formats yielded a few non-album songs which were collected for the CD re-issue and you can find them all there.

Across the pond in the USA, where Wild And Lonely was released by Charisma, the Fire To Ice single was remixed by house and nu-groove supremo Bobby Konders and released on a 12” single. Featuring no less than six clubby Konders mixes, the 12” takes the listener on a pleasant ramble through some tinkling, jazz-infused piano house.
In addition, the US release of Wild And Lonely has a different version of Ever Since That Day which features a trumpet/ sax solo (at 3.11 – 3.34) which didn’t appear on the UK Circa release.

Enjoy

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/412275480/Fire_To_Ice.rar.html

Just Cant Say Goodbye

2010-08-08T03:53:00.000-07:00

It was Summer 1990. Glasgow was European City of Culture. In May Luciano Pavarotti had performed his hit single “Nessun Dorma” to 12,000 ticket holders at the SECC. A month later on the 3rd of June, somewhere between a quarter and half a million music fans ground Scotland to a halt, attempted to drink Glasgow dry and later that evening bottled Sheena Easton off the stage at Glasgow Green. Yup I’m talking about The Big Day - Glasgow’s Year of Culture nod to the masses. A free concert featuring everyone from Maria McKee, Texas, Aswad and The Associates to Big Country, Deacon Blue and – briefly - Sheena Easton
The Big Day was massive. There were stages dotted all around the city. The Associates played the George Square stage in the afternoon. It was packed and Billy and his 1990 band of Associates performed a great wee four-song set featuring Fever, Give, Club Country and Just Cant Say Goodbye. The sound was great. A Scottish television channel was broadcasting it and I had my very first video recorder running back at my flat taping it. I had taken out a rental package for this very purpose from Glen’s, Robertson’s, Hutchison and Stepek.

Later that night, after Big Country and Deacon Blue had blown the stage away on Glasgow Green, myself and my cronies staggered back to the flat only to find that my footage of the Associates set had been cruelly cut short by an advertising break. One of the adverts was for Glen’s, Robertson’s Hutchison and Stepek. The irony was not lost on me.
When the station had gone to an advertising break the stage cameras were just put down and left running. Luckily the live audio feed was saved so twenty years on we can see most of and hear all it. The Associates play what later (in Jan 1991) would be their last ever single at their last ever gig. As far as I am aware this was Billy MacKenzie's last public stage performance too.

The song had been a live favourite since 1985 and is on a few mid eighties bootlegs. When the single appeared it arrived on cassette single, 7", CD and two 12" ers. Aside from the regular 7" mix and b-sides like 1,2,3 and I'm Gonna Run Away From You (which were collected on the Wild And Lonely CD re-issue) we had exclusive mixes. And yes, once more it was those Teutonic techno knob-twiddlers Thomas Fehlman and those Marathon chaps AKA Time Unlimited AKA Moritz Von Oswald and Ralf Hertwig. All three (Fehlman, Von Oswald and Hertwig) were members of Palais Schaumburg alongside Holger Hiller (who recorded the "Whippets" single with Billy) . Those Krautrock connections and Germanic leanings just keep turning up.

On the first 12"

1. Time Unlimited Mix (7.23) Remixed by Marathon/Thomas Fehlman

2. Time Unlimited Piano Mix (6.57) Remixed by Marathon/Thomas Fehlman

3. US Mix (4.59) Remixed by Julian Meddlesome

On the second 12"

1. Time Unlimited Instrumental Mix (7.09) Remixed by Marathon/Thomas Fehlman

2. Karma Mix (6.04) Remixed by Marathon/Thomas Fehlman

On the CD single

1. Time Unlimited Piano Mix (6.42) Remixed by Marathon/Thomas Fehlman

2. US Mix Remixed by Julian Meddlesome

Despite being a very respectable sounding single and having the slew of dance remixes and formats, the single stiffed. It was played in the background during an argument in the Queen Vic on Eastenders one dark night in January 1991.

It was an ironic yet fitting title for the Associates to bow out on. Then that was it. Goodbye. No more Associates. Here's the bundle. Thanks to Jim D for his help with the cleaning on the second 12"! Enjoy.

Sid Law

Files have been re-upped!

http://rapidshare.com/files/411991425/Just_Cant_Say_Goodbye.rar.html

A Few That Slipped Through The Net

2010-08-05T12:26:00.000-07:00

Okay maybe if I’d planned this blog properly it would run effortlessly from A to Z via all points in between, creating a spiders web of posts and links chronologically snaring and cataloguing everything the re-issue schedules missed. But I’m afraid I don’t work like that. So here are a few things which none of us should really be without.
I was listening to the V2 CD re-issue of “Fourth Drawer Down” last night and I realised that The “Original Version” of Q Quarters remains forever shipwrecked on the B-side of the Q Quarters 12”. With a weird beat driven intro it is a sparse, haunting version which has somehow managed to add even more paranoia and at the same time prove that less is more. This is a gem from a time when Billy and Alan were pumping out the Situation Two series at a rate of knots while sustaining levels of quality, experimentation and sheer sonic brilliance which no other band has (in my ever so humble opinion) approached.

On a more mundane note… and just before we all get over-excited… the version of “A Girl Named Property” on the original vinyl of “Fourth Drawer Down” (which claims to be 5.25 on the Sit 2 record label) is exactly the same length as the version which appears on the V2 re-issue (which comes in at 4.56). It is a 1981 labelling error so we can all calm down.

Leap ahead to the “Perhaps” era. Lurking on the B-side of “Those First Impressions” 12 incher is a great instrumental version of “13 Feelings”. Totally different to the instrumental version which came on the cassette version of “Perhaps”, this one has the feel of the original “Perhaps” recordings. It has a BIG sound – edgy, shiny and shimmering with something which got lost in the endless re-recording and remixing which eventually produced the “Perhaps” we all know and… errr... are familiar with. Production credits are to Billy MacKenzie and Mark Arthurworry. Steve Reid gets the sole writing credit. I wish “Perhaps” could be rammed back through the mixing desk and come back out sounding like this.
Then there is the “Breakfast” 12” package. The title track has a slightly different mix to the album version. We also get “Breakfast Alone” - an instrumental version. Then the blistering version of “Kites”- I wonder why Warners didn’t slap this on the “Perhaps” re-issue as an extra. But they didn’t.

Enjoy

Sid Law

Files re-upped!

http://rapidshare.com/files/412008613/Slipped_The_Net.rar

Unique Promo Tracks

2010-06-27T06:26:00.000-07:00

By summer 1988 "The Glamour Chase" recording was completed, the pressure was on, the multi-formatted "Heart of Glass" single had stiffed badly and Warners were looking for some way to recoup around a million quid which had been poured into MacKenzie's lavish recording schedules. Billy delivered the record company "Country Boy" as the next single.

Perhaps the most off-the-wall recording in all of MacKenzie's lush career. Powered by an elastic band bassline, an echoey beatbox and featuring some exotic Tyrolean close harmony barbershop backing vocals by Die Zwei (who also wrote and produced the track) the song has a heart wrenching vocal performance form Billy.
Die Zwei consisted of Gerd and Udo Scheuerpflug who had released "Countryboy" as a single back in 1985.

Hear Die Zwei in full action here, performing "Western Union" a track on their "Countryboy " 12".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO3BnEdlHts

I dont think for one minute Billy thought of "Country Boy" as a contender for a top ten single for the Christmas of 1988 (though it would have been a thing of wonder to see Billy and Die Zwei performing on the same bill as Angry Anderson knocking out "Suddenly" and Cliff Richard doing "Mistletoe and Wine" ). The charts had been bouncing all year with SAW's Hit Factory and the emerging UK house scene was throwing the likes of Inner City, Yazz and S'Express some credible chart action. My suspicion is that Billy could see the way the wind was blowing at Warners and was throwing an elaborately wrought and beautiful spanner in the works on his way out of the swing doors. Five thousand promo 12"ers and CDs were pressed up for a December 1988 release.

Nestling on the promo "Country Boy" CD was a unique version of "Just Cant Say Goodbye". Classified as the "12" Mix" the song had not been featured on any Associates records up till then - although it had been a regular live favourite from 1985 onwards. The song eventually turned up on "Wild and Lonely" and became the last ever Associates single in January 1991. This early version of the song has only seen the light of day on the 1988 "Country Boy" promo 12" and promo CD. It has a real charm, its basic production at odds with the later Julian Mendelson uber production and the Marathon/Fehlman housey techno remixes.
In the end Warners never released the single, shelved "The Glamour Chase" and dropped Billy from the label, leaving him to take the infamous taxi ride back to Dundee. The "Country Boy" track did eventually appear on the "Popera" compilation a few years later and "The Glamour Chase" was slipped out fourteen years later as a freebie in the "Perhaps" CD re-issue.

In late 1992 "Outernational" was busy not selling and a third single from it was planned - a cover of Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise". Promo CDs were issued but then Circa folded and the single was never officially released. The promo featured a mostly instrumental mix of "Outernational" called "Outernational II". It has never appeared anywhere else since.

Enjoy

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/403254479/Unique_promo_tracks.rar

Some Remixes and a unique Promo-only vocal

2010-03-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

Having said goodbye to Warners, Billy MacKenzie had quickly secured a deal with Circa (a Virgin offshoot) with "Wild and Lonely" being the first of two albums MacKenzie would record and release for his new label. Warners had licensed the old Associates material to East/West in order to release "Popera" - a collection of Associates singles from 1981 up to 1988.

Billy had never really liked the results of attempts to remix old Associates material before (both the remixed Affectionate Punch and the US Sulk remixes being cases in point). However, when Billy heard the four remixes which had been commisioned for an EP to accompany the Popera collection he was thrilled. Those responsible for the work were none other than Thomas Fehlmann and Marathon, some very up-to-the-minute remixers and producers who were riding the 1990 techno wave and twiddling the knobs! With two remixes each of "Club Country" and "Waiting For The Loveboat", the Popperetta EP was released to help promote the Popera compilation.

Of course Billy knew all these teutonic remixer and producer dudes from waaaay back, they had been founder members of Palais Schaumburg along with Holger Hiller (see "Whippets" post). Marathon (also known as "Time Unlimited") were Moritz von Oswald and Ralf Hertwig. Moritz von Oswald had performed drumming duties for the Associates since 1985 and played on Wild and Lonely. Fehlmann went on to become an integral part of The Orb and continues to share duties at the starship Orb controls with Dr Alex Paterson to this day. During a Radio Tay interview in 1992 Mackenzie referred to his Krautrock leanings, namechecking Kraftwerk and confessed to "even listening to Neu!". "Popperetta" was released in December 1990 on 7" and 12" (there are as yet unconfirmed reports of a CD issue as well but no-one has seen one!). Here is the 12" ripped and zipped at 320.

http://rapidshare.com/files/368173488/Poperetta_12_Incher.rar

Oh yeah... and also... the unique vocal on this promo only 12"

Back in the day, in 1987, when Yello were just slipping out "One Second" they gave away a free 12" with the first 2,000 copies of the album. The version of "Call It Love" on the 12" is unique and has an utterly beautiful mix. From Billy's multi-harmonied hums on the intro... to the amazing lead vocal he contributes... from Boris Blank's immaculate production... to the seagull noises... I love it. It is a really, really groovy track. The verse Billy sings turned up later on Outernational's "Feels Like The Richtergroove" but this stonking version of "Call It Love" gives a tantalising hint as to what might lie in that mysterious box of goodies Boris Blank has hidden under his bed. Ripped and zipped and 320.

http://rapidshare.com/files/368168638/Trego_Snare_Version_2.rar

Enjoy!

I will be sipping a glass of champagne or two over the weekend. Billy would have been 53 tomorrow. It is my birthday too!

Cheers

Sid Law

Take Me To The Girl

2010-03-09T12:45:00.000-08:00

Aaah late 1985... autumn came. I was studying in another country. My best pal sent me over a couple of cassettes of various stuff. Paul Haig, Armoury Show, Skids, Aztecs, Orange Juice and the contents of the latest Associates 12 incher. I wasn't sure what to make of it. My best pal didn't either. We'd kept waiting for Billy and whoever his Associates were now, to produce a blinder, off the wall, Ice Cream Factory meets Skipping album. Instead we got a glossy, very slickly produced single which kinda hinted at the european tinge which made "Breakfast" so great. . It was given a twelve inch mix in the only way 1985 knew how. The B-sides were interesting, a different take on the song called "The Girl That Took Me" a very jazzy, laid back arrangement of the single track. "Perhaps Perhaps" was next, a clubbier mix of the "Perhaps" track. I was then treated to an instrumental version of the single edit of "Take Me To The Girl" and that was it. It was great to get more stuff but it wasn't exactly what I thought I was waiting on...

1985 was my first time living away from home. Of course, I loved it and greatly enjoyed going out drinking late in strange bars and partay-ing. Though granted it was in Northern Ireland and it was the mid 1980's. More peaceful times for Ulster were still a bit further down the road, and the wearing (in downtown Ballymena) of the black Mackenzie-style beret (my best pal had thoughtfully given it to me on my departure) was an ill advised one-off.
Christmas found me arriving back in Glasgow for some partay-ing, fearlessly wearing my beret and "Breakfast" T-Shirt on Byres Road.

I found myself grabbing a groovy looking ten inch version of "Take Me To The Girl" from the first record shop we entered. It had the regular "Take Me To The Girl" single version and "Perhaps Perhaps" (the remixed version from the 12") but I was gobsmacked to find three of the Ronnie Scott's gig tracks from 9 December 1984 on the B-side. They were "God Bless The Child" "Even Dogs In The Wild" and "The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot"! The quality was superb! Played unplugged with brushed snare drum, piano, bass and sax it was a legendary set. A wee seven inch single then plopped out of my pal's issue of Sounds. It was the "Christmas Cracker" featuring - yup- "Breakfast" live at Ronnie Scotts 9 December 1984. All we needed now was "The Crying Game" and "No" and we had the whole set! Those particular missing tracks never materialised (but they were recorded by Warners) a pity the whole batch didn't make their way out. I saw the whole film of the gig and still have a copy, but the sound fidelity is not as good as the vinyl record releases.

So anyway now having plunged myself back to the strange places my life took me in late 1985 I can tell you that the soundtrack to that autumn and winter was taken up a great deal by these songs. None have been collected on the re-issues. I've ripped and zipped the TMTTG 12" tracks at 320. The TMTTG 10" Ronnie Scotts/ Christmas Cracker are posted at 128 and I will repost them at 320 as soon as I can get round to properly cleaning vinyl, remastering, extracting soundtrack from video and zipping up the whole gig in the proper high quality it deserves.

Enjoy

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/361236202/Take_Me_To_The_Girl.rar

Heart of Glass

2010-02-13T13:03:00.000-08:00

Aaaah.... Valentine's Day is nearly upon us! True Love Always? Shattered Dreams? Broken Hearts? What better day to do a wee post about the second most multi-formatted Associates record of all time. Back in 1988 I astonished myself by purchasing five versions of "Heart Of Glass" when it came out. Normally a bit of a tightwad, I simply couldn't resist splurging out time and again for the various versions of what was the first Associates record in nearly three years. Perhaps I thought that my Uber purchasing would catapult the single to the top of the charts? Nope. Truth be told, I wasn't very keen on the track. I'd heard it performed live a few years before and had a version they did for a Radio One session (which is still the version I prefer to this day). I mean there was nothing wrong with the track... it just seemed a bit... well... pedestrian. However, the slew of different formats meant a treasure trove of remixes, otherwise unavailable B-sides, demos and alternate versions of other songs.

The seven inch had the regular single edit of "Heart of Glass" and a very dark piece of work on the B-side called "Her Only Wish" which never made it onto the Perhaps/ Glamour Chase re-issue set. A pity because it is a rather bitter, snarling bite of a wee song produced by Billy MacKenzie.

The 3" CD Single had a clutch of goodies. The regular single edit of "Heart Of Glass", "Her Only Wish", the original demo of "Breakfast" (produced by Martin Rushent) and a new version of "Those First Impressions" with a Linndrum intro and some quite sparkling production from Martyn Ware. Associates on CD for the first time too!

Three 12" versions of "Heart Of Glass" appear in my collection.

The Auchterhouse Mix (5.11) 12" (remixed by Robert Gordon from Sheffield's Fon Force) also had an "Auchterhouse Instrumental" version (4.46) of "Heart Of Glass" plus "Her Only Wish".

The Temperament Mix 12" was extended (6.46), remixed by Francois Kevorkian and Goh Hotoda, had lots of extra drummy bits and a weirded out ending (the track stops abruptly with a crash of breaking glass). Kevorkian had previously remixed tracks such as PSB's "Rent", U2's "Two Hearts Beat As One", The Smiths "This Charming Man" and Yazoo's "Situation" and was resident deejay at the likes of Studio 54 in NYC. He remains to this day a house and electronic music legend. This 12" version had its sleeve remixed into a 3D sleeve and came with a pair of Associates 3D glasses to look at it through while you listened to the record. On the B-side lurked "Her Only Wish" and another track "Heaven's Blue" - a fragile minute long piano piece which did make it onto the Perhaps/Glamour Chase reissue (so you wont find it in my batch of goodies here).
I also got my hands on a white label promo of The Auchterhouse Mix 12". It doesn't say what the song is on the label. My copy is mis-labelled with the actual tracks being the opposite of what the labels say.

I've also tossed in the "Heart Of Glass" (Dub Mix) which appeared on the "Country Boy" promo only 12" and CDEP.

Enjoy eight tracks ripped and zipped at 320.

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/350248637/Heart_Of_Glass.rar

bloggers and writers

2010-02-03T14:42:00.000-08:00

Steve Aungle has been writing a Billy Mackenzie blog for a few weeks now. Very interesting, well-written and entertaining. Well what else would you expect from the musician behind the exquisite "Eurocentric" CD release? His blog is here.

http://steveaungle.wordpress.com/billy-mackenzie/

Another writer, fellow Dundonian, wordsmith, poet and visionary W N Herbert has his own unique vision of Billy at his all encompassing site here.

http://www.xen19.dial.pipex.com/index.htm

"Billy MacKenzie
Dundonian angel, therefore intensely eccentric and depressive. Whippet boy possessed of the most gorgeous voice of the Leighties. Flinger of nude spoons deep into the silvery Tay. Nearly forgotten fallen icon: Billy was everything that grotesque Laughtonesque Herbert wanted to be but could never even dream of becoming. He was certainly everything that Herbert thought iconic: localised yet international, transgenderic (and therefore worthy of a neologism), Catholic, large-familied, stand-up-and-entertain-us-with-a-songabilly. His early work had a deranged synthetic loveliness; his later material failed commercially; his last, posthumous releases redeemed utterly."

WN Herbert has (in my own ever so 'umble opinion) a superb piece of poetry on his site here called "A Lament For Billy MacKenzie".

http://www.xen19.dial.pipex.com/billy.htm

Enjoy

All the best

Sid Law

Anacostia Bay

2010-01-30T02:51:00.000-08:00

In 1996 I was walking down Cockburn Street in Edinburgh when I saw a 12" in the window of a record shop. It was a kind of specialist shop for DJs and techno freaks. I usually frequented Fopp!, Lizard or Avalanche, but the name slapped across the 12" meant I simply had to go in and buy it. The 12" was credited to "Loom featuring Billy MacKenzie" and a CDEP featuring four versions of the track was also on sale. I went back home clutching both items (I just saw a copy of the CDEP for sale at $120 today!). Loom's members Bent Recknagel and Ralph P. Ruppert (AKA Headman) were London based and ran the Millenium label. Billy MacKenzie heard their instrumental track on a cassette and sang "At The Edge Of The World" over it, his melody and lyrics locked in perfectly. MacKenzie contacted them, visited their studio on the Portobello Road in London and the track was finished in half an hour. The result was quickly released.

The song "At The Edge Of The World" had been recorded with Alan Rankine back in 1993 at the Auchterhouse reunion demo sessions. In 1996 the song was still unreleased in any official form. Over the years Billy had also worked on the song with Steve Aungle which later led to some confusion over authorship. The title of the song for the Loom release had become Anacostia Bay "At The Edge Of The World" or "Anacostia Bay" (At The Edge Of The World) probably to differentiate authorship from the Rankine/ Aungle versions of the song for publishing reasons. To add to the confusion "Steve Neugal" is credited with Additional Keyboards and Programming on the Berlioz Mix of the Loom track! The track also features a little snippet of a whispered (female?) vocal sample which I cannot discern (it glides in at 3.27, 3.33 and 3.37). Answers on a postcard please. The Anacostia River is in Washington DC (where it flows into Chesapeake Bay), the title might be a reference to Billy's visit to Washington during his 1990 Wild And Lonely promotional tour of the US.

An 8.32 edited version of the Loom track was released on the posthumous Auchtermatic CD in 2004. The original track is an exquisite 12.44 piece of electronica with Billy giving a performance which can stand next to any of his career highs. I was bowled over when I first heard this fourteen years ago. It still bowls me over! As ever... ripped and zipped at 320.

All the best

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/343358590/Loom_featuring_Billy_MacKenzie.rar

Orbidoig

2010-01-19T13:13:00.000-08:00

Steve Reid, guitarist on the Strange News tracks (see post "Some Early Associated Tracks") was a long time friend of Billy's. "Orbidoig" had been a name used by Mr Reid and Christine Beveridge for their musical project formed some time after Christine had taken on vocal duties with Strange News in 1980. Billy had managed to help get Orbidoig a deal with Situation Two back in 1981, which had resulted in a single "Nocturnal Operations"/ "Up Periscopes". Billy MacKenzie is credited with playing tubular bells on "Nocturnal Operations". It was recorded around the time Christine Beveridge briefly joined Billy and Alan to form 39 Lyon Street and record one track "Kites". The Orbidoig single sleeve photo is actually a publicity photo of 39 Lyon Street which has been severely cropped - leaving only Christine.

In the wake of the Rankine split, 1982 saw Billy team up with old pal and fellow Dundonian Mr Reid once more for a one-off single "Ice Cream Factory" released neither as a Billy MacKenzie solo single nor as an Orbidoig release... but as "MacKenzie Sings Orbidoig"! A rich musical creation spawned under the watchful eye of producer Mark Arthurworrey and written by Stevie Reid, the outcome made for a spot of uneasy, easy-listening. Released in 12" and 7" versions, the single received scant airplay and bombed. The B-sides were a dub version of the A side called "Cream Of Ice Cream Factory" and another track "Excursion Ecosse En Route Koblenz Via Hawkhill" a melodic but rather twisted, gnashing bit of guitar wrangling from Mr Reid. Hawkhill, for those who have no experience of Dundee is a pleasant cosmopolitan road which stretches from the big roundabout at The Marketgait, past the end of Blackness Road and down onto the Perth Road.

Of course Billy MacKenzie and Steve Reid continued to work together on Perhaps.

So here are that bunch of Orbidoig tracks. Ripped and zipped at 320.

All the best

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/337944137/Orbidoig.rar

I've Just Got To Be Free

2010-01-18T11:19:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week I posted a couple of tracks Billy MacKenzie recorded with Dundee band Strange News. I suppose those two tracks were the first of his many collaborations outwith his Associates. I mean The Affectionate Punch had only just been completed and there he was... looking for something different, seeing new horizons and running off with other musicians to record. It was a pattern which continued for the rest of his career and made for a fabulously varied musical legacy. We can hear Billy's voice working alongside a whole host of musicians, collaborators and influences far beyond his various Associates line ups. Billy just didn't seem to want to toe any record company's line or limit his vision of what he could achieve. He just had to be free...

Billy first recorded with British Electric Foundation on 1982's Music Of Quality And Distinction Volume One. It was released on cassette, lp and as a 5x7" single boxset (it crept out on CD in 1991). MacKenzie contributed lead vocals to two tracks (they appear together on one 7" in the boxset). The first is an aching version of Roy Orbison's "It's Over" featuring John Foxx on acoustic guitar.
The second is an 80's funky, Linndrummed-up version of Bowie's "The Secret Life Of Arabia". BEF's top Linndrum programmer, Martyn Ware then went on to produce some of Billy's shiniest moments on the Perhaps album (including the gorgeous 12" version of "Those First Impressions"). In October 1991, ten years after Music Of Quality And Distinction Volume One, BEF slipped out Volume Two. Just one track from Billy this time... a stunning version of "Free". Billy had recorded the track in London in March of 1990 and it was to be released as a single in mid 1991, but was pulled at the last minute. I managed to grab one of the few copies that did slip out though!

Oh yeah and I almost forgot... In 1982 a Virgin compilation album of dance remixes plopped out called "Methods Of Dance Volume II". Unavailable anywhere else, then or since, and lurking at the end of side two, is a monumental 7.06 dubmix of The Secret Life Of Arabia with plenty of Billy all over it!

Enjoy

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/337882234/BillyMacKenzie_DistinctQuality.rar

"The Audience That Fell To Earth"

2010-01-17T12:29:00.001-08:00

Tasty treat here. A wise cracking Billy singing at the top of his game with Paul Haig and a very tight band. Billy and Paul take lead vocal duties on alternate songs. This isn't an audience recording but is taken from the mixing desk. I picked up this wee bootleg at a record fair in the Station Hotel in Ayr a couple of weeks after attending the gig. Highlights for me were "Walking On Thin Ice", a cover of the Yoko Ono song where Billy really gives it laldy. He takes no prisoners on "Empires Of The Heart" either.

The gig had a great atmosphere. Billy and Paul were massively popular in Scotland at the time, despite the lull in Associates activity and Paul's post-Joseph K solo career kinda stalling on the brink of him getting really big. Billy looked around the hall at the crowd, smiled and uttered the immortal words "The audience that fell to Earth" before singing "It's Better This Way". A night of wonder.

Enjoy!

All the best!

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/336905161/Billy_MacKenzie_and_Paul_Haig_-_Live_At_Wilkie_House_14_September_1986.rar

Some Early Associated Tracks

2010-01-16T10:38:00.000-08:00

Remember cassette fanzines, flexidiscs and NME send off in the post for 'em tapes? Those were the days eh? Well Associates did their share of contributing oddly unique tracks for them. Works in progress all of them. "Even Dogs In The Wild" popped out twice in two such unique versions. The first of these versions slipped out on the compilation cassette "Irrationale" which was released in 1979. I got my copy (£1.99) through the post from a list in the back of the NME in 1980. It is one of my favourite Associates tracks ever. Reverb dripping off the guitar, Billy intoning, phrasing and having a laugh. It fades out over the whistling solo and its 2 minutes 20 seconds are over just far too quickly. I'd really love to hear an unfaded out version of this performance/mix. Another version was supplied on a clear flexidisc with the Flexipop Magazine Issue 20 in 1982. Flexipop mis-spelled Alan Rankine's name, dropping the "e" in Rankine in the writing credit on the disc. Here the track is much more in line with The Affectionate Punch version, but with a grubbier mix, a slightly different vocal and backing vocals and a wild, distorted whistling solo from Billy. Great track.
"Aggressive And Ninety Pounds" appeared on the New Musical Express's "Mad Mix II" cassette (1984). It's an early version of "13 Feelings" with Billy "do-doo"-ing all the way through while Stevie Reid plays guitar over strings and a tinny beatbox. On the NME cassette insert playlist (click the photo below) the band name "Associates" had become "The Associates featuring Billy MacKenzie"! In 1988 I bought a cassette (for £3 inc P&P!) from a classified ad in the NME. It has a very similar sounding version of "13 Feelings" on it but with a slightly beefier drumsound. The cassette was of some of the original "Perhaps" Sessions - which is, of course, where the "Aggressive And Ninety Pounds" NME track originates.

I've tossed in another couple of tracks ("Sinking Deeper" and "Hungry Look") from a Dundee band called Strange News which featured Billy MacKenzie on vocals, Steve Reid on guitar, Andy on Bass and Gavin on Drums. Billy wrote the lyrics on both tracks [listen out for "Every breath you breathe belongs to someone there" on "Hungry Look"]. Recorded just after Billy MacKenzie and Alan Rankine's MkI Associates had recorded The Affectionate Punch, Stevie Reid took Andy round to visit Billy, they picked up their drummer, motored down to Edinburgh and recorded both tracks in an afternoon. Billy and Andy split the studio costs between them apparently. I was given the two tracks on a CDR in Dundee at a Billy MacKenzie tribute night in Fat Sam's a few years back.

Enjoy!

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/336322972/early_Associated_tracks.rar

Wild and Lonely Outernational

2010-01-03T11:18:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd post up a bundle of demos. A delightful bag of goodies here. First up four demos for "Wild and Lonely" (Fever, Fire To Ice, Where There's Love and The Glamour Chase) recorded at REL studios in 1989. The musicians are Blair Booth and Philip Erb who Billy had worked with before on Cinemas Of The World. I was listening to the whole "Wild and Lonely" CD again a few weeks back and I must confess to being rather disappointed in it. Some of it really claws at me. But these demos really sound fresh and immediate.
The Outernational demos were recorded in London in 1991. Three demos from those sessions Outernational, Sacrifice And Be Sacrificed and Grooveature. Not sure who the musicians are on them.
While I was digging these out of my Associates Demo Box under my bed I found another demo which just doesn't seem to belong anywhere. I felt I simply had to include it. It is a demo version of "Take Me To The Girl" which I really like.

Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/329846505/The_Associates_Wild_Lonely_OuternationalDemos.rar

That First Collaboration

2009-12-11T11:10:00.000-08:00

Back in July 1981, in the midst of their Situation Two series MacKenzie and Rankine dropped in on Richard Jobson and Russell Webb at Brittania Row Studios in London. Jobson and Webb were beginning work on "Joy" - the final Skids album. MacKenzie added multi-layered vocal effects and harmonies and Rankine contributed some very Sulky guitars to the song "Fields".

The track also featured the stick work of soon-to-be Simple Minds drummer, Kenny Hyslop and the flute of Virginia Astley. The single "Fields" was released a few weeks later in August 1981 in 7" and 12" mixes. When the "Joy" album finally emerged in November 1981 it featured yet another version of "Fields".

The "Joy" album was a huge departure from the traditional Skids sound and the album bombed as the 1981 Stuart Adamson-less train wreck Skids couldn't tour it and Virgin barely promoted it. Adamson did return for one last time to contribute to the beautiful "Iona" track on "Joy" which was recorded at Highland Studios in Inverness and released as a single in October 1981. "Joy" is probably one of the most unusual albums to have come out in 1981, possibly a very rich cake to swallow at one sitting for the first time... but the album settles down very nicely indeed given time. I recommend it highly and I have a cassette of it in my carcassette rack at all times. So seek out a copy today, dust down your turntables and prepare to be amazed. Twenty eight years after I first heard it "Joy" still cuts the mustard big style.

"Sow...carry on!"

All the best

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/319518190/MacKenzieRankine_onFields.zip

The End Of An Old Song

2009-12-05T06:15:00.000-08:00

My other (and better) half comes from a wee village just outside Dundee. We first met and fell for each other in Edinburgh eighteen years ago. I was intrigued when she told me her parents (Jean and Jimmy) lived just down the hill from Billy MacKenzie. I met them and we got on great. Later on when we were out for walks up Craigowl past Scotston, we'd occasionally see Billy out with his dogs. I often thought of bringing up some of my record collection and asking him to sign them but I was too shy to say anything but an occasional "Hello" in the passing. A bit silly of me really.
Widowed in 1997, Jean's life was transformed by the (very) unexpected arrival of a grandson in 2001. Jean doted on my boy and got the chance to spend a lot of time with him as he grew.

Jean died peacefully at home on Tuesday morning after a year's struggle with oral cancer. 2009 has been a mountain for all of us. A mountain for a happy wee 8 year old boy who watched as his lovely granny became barely recogniseable. A mountain for my other half who had to watch on as her mum lost the ability to eat, speak or hear. A mountain for Jean whose strength of character, determination and iron will meant she was able to stay on in her own home till the end came. A mountain for myself to see three people I loved in such a terrible situation. There was only ever going to be one way that the suffering could possibly end, mercifully her daughter was present when it did. With Jean's death the last family ties with Dundee are severed. The council will get their house back and next week Jean will join her beloved Jimmy in the churchyard.

Not much more to add really. The end of an old song.

Billy's song "The Mountains That You Climb" seems an apt post at the end of a sad week. It never saw the light of day on any posthumous releases and although this version is a demo, it is a beautiful performance.

I also really like this Youtube Video filmed around Auchterhouse and Dronley. The music isn't actually by The Associates but it is a rather brilliant six minute extended twist on the atmospheric one minute long "Heaven's Blue" instrumental which lurks on the Temperament Mix Heart Of Glass 12".

All the best

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/316734450/Billy_MacKenzie_-_Mountains.rar

"Whippets"

2009-11-27T09:25:00.000-08:00

In 1986 Billy popped along to R.E.L. Studios in Edinburgh to drop onto tape what is perhaps his most bizzarre vocal performance. A collaboration (albeit in seperate studios) with Palais Schaumburg founder member Holger Hiller. With the music in Billy's headphones already recorded in a Hamburg studio and working pretty much on his own, he tackled Hiller's lyrics (eg. "OH SOOO TOYO TO TO FEBAYQAYO OCH") with some gusto. Just what the track adds up to.... well I'm just pretty banjaxed really. Make your own mind up!

"Whippets" was released by Mute on a 12" single. It was backed by "Waltz" (no input from Billy on this track). I had long thought that the 12" would be prohibitively rare and expensive to track down but I picked up a VGC copy off the Outerweb for £2.50 last year. It is worth the purchase for the sleeve alone, where Hiller had thoughtfully printed the lyrics in case any of us wanted to sing along.

Both tracks were included on the album "Oben Im Eck" (1986) released by Mute. Billy contributed backing vocals to two more tracks on the album - "Oben Im Eck" and "We Dont Write Anything On Paper Or So". A slightly different version of the "Oben Im Eck" track was added as an extra to the CD re-issue. I particularly like Billy's contribution to the "We Don't Write Anything..." track- a precursor of the haunting, wordless soundscapes and vocal washes he created for Yello in the years following this strange collaboration.

Enjoy

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/313022980/Hillerand_Mackenzie_Whippets_and_Oben_Im_Eck.zip

The European Son Ventures Forth

2009-11-23T12:41:00.000-08:00

Billy's first european collaboration was alongside Associates sidekick, exiled Canadian and the yummiest of Muffins, Martha Ladly on Stephen Emmer's Vogue Estate mini LP. Released on a WEA offshoot label IDIOT, the release was of mainly instrumental and cinematic themed music. Billy contributed lead vocals to one track "Wish On" while the delightful Martha tinkled some 1982-ish sounding keys. The "Wish On" track has a rather manic Orbidoig-ish frenzy to it, though there is no info on whether that is Stevie Reid prematurely gallavanting his guitar all over it, or the multi-talented Martha (whose first instrument was the guitar). It was produced by Flood who sat at the controls for "Tell Me Easter's On Friday" for The Associates back in early 1981. The track dates from late 82 and would appear to be post-Sulk and post-the Rankine/ MacKenzie Associates split. After the split Michael Dempsey went on to play with the Lotus Eaters and was joined there by Stephen Emmer in 1985. Much to recommend this "Wish On" track.

In 1987 Billy MacKenzie, Philip Erb and Blair Booth (amongst others) appeared on the "Cinemas Of The World" LP which was released under the name UNO. I'd always thought UNO might be some kind of pseudo-euro-moniker for some unknown french bloke. It was released in France on the french Barclay label (stable for for Jaques Brel and Maurice Chevalier's releases). I've never found any other UNO records and there aint much info out there. Anyhow... Billy sings lead vocals on the title track and it was released as a 7" and 12" single. I picked up my vinyl copies up at the long-gone wee 2nd hand record stall in the market off Argyll Street, Glasgow in the summer of 1990. I eventually snaffled a CD copy of the album for 50p at the New Street car boot in Edinburgh six years ago. Great to have and a reminder that while Billy couldn't get any Associates records released in 1987, he was still able to get his voice heard - whether that suited Warners or not.

Both Cinemas ripped from CD at 320kbps

Wish On from vinyl

all zipped up for you to enjoy!

enjoy!

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/311248741/Uno_Cinemas_7_and_12_Stephen_Martha_and_Billy_Wish_On.zip

The Sulk US Remixes

2009-11-22T08:23:00.000-08:00

Back in August when I started this blog, I vented no little amount of spleen over the various attempts to issue "Sulk" in CD form. I add this little post to fill a horrid gaping void for any completeists out there. The 1988 US CD version of "Sulk" gave us, in a crisp digital format, the full horror of the US Sulk which, up until then, had only been available on vinyl and a cassette (the cassette had both the UK and US versions of "Sulk" on it).

The US Sulk CD version had removed Bapdelabap, Nude Spoons, the intro and outro instrumentals (Arrogance Gave Him Up & nothinginsomethingparticular), replaced the original 5.32 Club Country with a 4.02 edit, added the non-album single 18 Carat Love Affair/ Love Hangover, stuck on two tracks from the Fourth Drawer Down album and then completely changed the running order.

Bad enough we all say. But worse was yet to come... Warners had got Mark Arthurworrey to remix the first two tracks on the album!

It's Better This Way US remix kicks off with a really laboured attempt at funking up the catatonic rumble of the bassline which had propelled the original version. The choruses are particularly disturbing and upsetting for the listener with much exuberant popping, plucking, slapping and the kind of Level 42 Mark King bass guitar "enthusiasm" which we all know and rightly fear.

Party Fears Two US remix finds the original snappy drums relegated to the back and an irritating little snare/ high-hat taps weakly along instead. The jangle of the acoustic guitar is gone and the keyboard line is given an extra tinny setting, then pushed up to the front of the mix to ride over Billy's vocal at points. On top of this shabby watered-down pish we find that Mr Arthurworrey has taken it upon himself to sample a bit of Billy's vocal coda and drop it onto the instrumental hook from about 2.50 onwards. "Ho-ho, ho-ho, hey-ho" indeed! Let's be thankful he didn't stick a "hey nonny-nonny" on as well.

Here are the US remixes of those two tracks in all their thankless form.

oh dear

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/310688323/Sulk_US_remixes.zip

After

2009-11-22T06:54:00.001-08:00

It was 1996. I'd always prided myself on my extensive collection of Associates and Billy MacKenzie stuff. I'd bought everything as it came out, in all formats. I had live bootlegs, studio out-takes, all the collaborations from the earliest with the Skids "Fields" (3 versions 7", 12" and album) to the latest CDEPs and 12"ers with Loom and Barry Adamson. New stuff in the pipeline from Billy too.

Brilliant.

Then there was a phone call from a pal one miserable night in January 1997 telling me the news.

In the months after Billy's death I sent a lot of CDs and tapes to people. I recieved quite a few too, some of which I have zipped up for today's second offering. These tracks never made it onto the One Little Indian, Nude or Rhythm Of Life posthumous albums.

Posted by request and ripped at 320kb.

enjoy

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/310631335/After.zip

Some Associated Perhaps Tracks

2009-11-22T04:25:00.000-08:00

Perhaps was a bit of a long wait after Sulk. Rankine's departure, tales of MacKenzie's excesses and the paucity of any new material only seemed to suggest that it was all falling to bits. A few frantic Radio One sessions for Peel and Jensen only seemed to bear this out with fairly chaotic tracks like

"Helicopter Helicopter",

"Don't Give Me That I Told You So Look" and a twisted piece of proto-electro-disco called "Perhaps". One session was simply Billy and Howard Hughes doing "God Bless The Child" and "This Flame". I taped all those sessions and wondered what on earth was going to emerge as an album in the end. It was "Those First Impressions" first. A shimmering eight minute twelve-inch beauty which mysteriously did nothing chartwise. Then "Waiting For The Loveboat" a less commercial, twisted thing did even less chartwise.

Billy did some truly extraordinary publicity appearances to promote these singles. A "Number 73" kids TV appearance with Sandi Toksvig and Professor Stanley Unwin. Then a bewildering interview on The Tube with Lesley Ash on board the HMS Unicorn in a dry dock in Dundee only reinforced Billy's aloofness and cynicism. When the last Perhaps single "Breakfast" slid out in January 1985 it was heralded by a live performance on The Oxford Roadshow introduced by a possibly intoxicated Richard Jobson shouting "Awww fuck off" just before the string quartet started the song. In mitigation... it was Burns Night...

(A pal made a great tape from the headphone socket on his telly directly into the line-in on his cassette deck. I transferred this to CD years back. The travelogue is first, then there follows a simply stunning live version of Breakfast with the string quartet (plus Jobson's shout of encouragement). In my own ever so 'umble opinion, this version of Breakfast totally eclipses any other. Period.)

A rather good quality MP3 of the whole shebang is here.

http://rapidshare.com/files/310732186/Oxford_Roadshow_appearance.zip

In the wee travelogue about his hometown of Dundee, Billy laughingly describes his gaunt and anorexic bandmates being fattened up with deep fried oatmeal puddings from the chipshop. He speaks affectionately of his hometown and walking his dogs up in the Sidlaws. He makes a real defining statement about staying in Dundee (as opposed to London) "Home's home... and that's it." This performance and interview is about as far as you can get from the whole popstar/Spandau/Duran chart nonsense which prevailed at the time. It was no surprise that "Breakfast" stiffed badly. Aside from two more poorly recieved singles, one more in 85 (Take Me To The Girl) and one in 88 (Heart Of Glass), by January 1985 that was really it for the 1980's for The Associates...

When Perhaps finally saw a re-issue on CD in 2002 there were no extras from the 12" versions, b-sides or anything. Warners instead gave us Billy's career stalling, previously unreleased 1988 Glamour Chase album as part of a 2CD set with Perhaps. Maybe it was too much, too little, too late to have gone all out on a really cool package of goodies... but there was consolation in having "Empires Of The Heart" on CD at last. There was still plenty of space left on the Perhaps CD to have crammed on a shedload of extras but Warners chose not to.

So here is a bunch of nine.

Enjoy

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/310574493/Some_Associated_Perhaps_Tracks.zip

The A Twelve Incher

2009-08-18T13:05:00.000-07:00

Fiction never got round to popping the second single from The Affectionate Punch out until September 1981 ( more than a year after the first). The twelve inch version of A/ Would I Bounce Back is a wonderful step up in production values and leaves behind the sparseness of the original album tracks for a much fuller sound.

When The Affectionate Punch was remixed and re-released on the back of Sulk a couple of years later, for many including Billy and Alan it was a disappointment. Billy had given up on it, re-recording a couple of half hearted vocals and leaving Mr Rankine to complete the synthy overdubs and finish the thankless mess. What came out was certainly a new take on the original album but it was not what it could have been.

This twelve inch version of A/ Would I Bounce Back shows us what a re-recorded and remixed version of The Affectionate Punch might have sounded like. It is a pity they never mixed the entire Affectionate Punch in this mould. It's still as fresh as a daisy. Great.

Enjoy!

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/268872603/A_Would_I_Bounce_Back_Twelve_Inch.zip

Obsession Magnificent - Studio Version

2009-08-14T12:12:00.000-07:00

Back in early September 1985 Billy's new Associates line up recorded a session for the Janice Long Show. We were treated to Heart of Glass, Take Me To The Girl and Obsession Magnificent.
Take Me To The Girl appeared as the next Associates single a few months later in 12", 10" and 7" formats.
Heart Of Glass appeared a few years later as a single (three 12" formats, a 7" and the first Associates CD single - a tiny wee 3" one).
Obsession Magnificent was for me the stand out track from that 1985 Janice Long Session. A full tilt drum driven, bass plucking, guitar furiously twangin', jittery sequencing synths filling in all the gaps... simply a blaster of a tune. Billy's vocals are really astonishing ... Billy lends his heart wrenching lyrics to some unheard-of melodies he plucked from out of the ether and weaves a course through the locked-on playing of his Associates. It is my favourite Associates song from the Perhaps era.
Sadly, Obsession Magnificent was never given a proper release. The Janice Long Session version remains the only officially released version which has ever been available. It appeared on Radio One Sessions CD (Nighttracks 1994) and turned up again on Volume 2 of the Radio One Sessions 2 CD set (BBC Music/ Strange Fruit 2003).
However... just because Warners or Billy never saw fit to release a studio version of Obsession Magnificent doesn't mean we cant jump back to an unknown studio session (probably Sept/ October 1985) and listen to Billy and Co deliver Obsession Magnificent in truly blistering form. This is the real McCoy - a great performance.

Enjoy

Sid Law

Ripped at 320 kbp/s to retain the very reasonable quality of the track.

http://rapidshare.com/files/267426897/Associates_-_Obsession_Magnificent.zip

Associated Sulk Tracks

2009-08-08T11:55:00.000-07:00

There were a number of single releases from Sulk which featured non LP (or V2 reissue) tracks. On the flipside of the Party Fears Two single lurked an awesome version of It's Better This Way. I'm going to make no attempt to describe it other than to say that when Billy announces "That was a groovy, groovy speed" as the run out groove approaches, you realise just how on top of their game Rankine and MacKenzie were at this point. Likewise the Club Country B-side instrumental AG It's You Again (a proto version of Arrogance Gave Him Up) is a busy little piece worthy of inclusion as an extra in anybody's book. The Party Fears Two 12" remains uncollected as does the Love Hangover 12" extra track Voluntary Wishes/ Swapit Productions.

Here they are

All the best

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/265363379/Associated_Sulk_Tracks.zip

Sulk - The V2 reissue mess up

2009-08-06T10:16:00.000-07:00

When Sulk first slipped onto my Marantz turntable some 27 years ago it flowed through my Realistic amp and out of my Wharfdale speakers in an unholy torrent like the bastard offspring of Abba, John Barry, Motown and David Bowie. Plus there was other stuff in there. Hard to hear, see or put your finger on. It didn't matter whether you were listening to the "green" side or the "blue" side, you were taken somewhere else. The sleeve showed draped park benches (one lit green, one lit blue) beneath tropical plants. Two guys looked up as if you were imposing, interrupting their conversation and kinda challenging you to pull up a park bench and shoot the breeze.

And the music? Well to me it was one of those records you just dont interrupt. You had to hear the complete side, the whole lot before you could possibly lift the needle and take it back to hear something again or turn it over. The tunes, the arrangements, the lyrics, the vocals were simply gobsmacking. Plus with all the weird noises, swooshes, murmurs and end-of-track echoey, gushing weirdness... you simply didn't want to miss anything. The whole thing had a feel. One song flowed into the next. A masterpiece.

In 1988 a really shabby CD version of Sulk slipped down onto the Armitage Shanks. It was the US version with tracks missing, awful remixes, machete-cut edited versions, everything in the wrong order and some songs dragged in from the Fourth Drawer Down album. The whole thing was a bit of a huff... but a proper Sulk it was not. Though it did mean you could have a CD version of "Skipping"...

When Sulk was finally given a UK CD release in the V2 re-issue schedule back in 2001 I rushed out and snapped it up. Of course the CD didn't have a green side or a blue side anymore but you didn't have to get out of your chair and turn a slab of vinyl over either. Plus it did have lots of extra tracks. Seven to be exact (including the non album single "Love Hangover/ 18 Carat Love Affair" and the previously unreleased songs "Australia" and "Grecian 2000"). Billy MacKenzie's biographer Tom Doyle wrote the liner notes and confidently informed us "the original ten tracks are presented in their UK released form, with none of the lumpen overdubs, tracklist shuffles or remixes that marred the US version".

This was, of course, utter pish. Tom either didn't listen to the V2 re-issue or wasn't acquainted with the original to which he was referring. Because on the 2001 reissue V2 had dumped us with a crapola 4.50 edit of "Club Country" in place of the original 1982 5.32 UK-released version. On the original UK Sulk, the 5.32 "Club Country" snaked the listener between the hysterical paranoid drive of "Party Fears Two" and the euphoric coda that was "nothinginsomethingparticular". The very idea that Michael Dempsey (Associates bassist who supervised the V2 reissue programme) would have dumped the original UK 5.32 version (with its whole minute long wriggly, sliding bass groove and teasing synthy breakdown/ buildup mid-section) and substituted a shabby, inferior edit seems bizarre. His work ("compiling, co-ordinating and digitally remastering") on the Associates reissues has been exhaustive and he has given us some scintillating extras. I mean you would think of all the albums he would have got Sulk right... yeah?

Well he didn't. So we never got the original UK Sulk on the otherwise jam-packed-with-extras V2 reissue. We got an edited version of Sulk. I recieved no response to any of my communications with V2. So if they wont put things right I will. This version has never appeared on anything but the original UK vinyl and cassette versions of Sulk back in 1982. Here is the original "Club Country" from the original UK version of "Sulk" in its original 5.32 state. I've tossed in the 6.59 otherwise unavailable, fully weirded-out, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink 12" mix too. Enjoy!

Cheers for now

Sid Law

http://rapidshare.com/files/264436288/Club_Country.zip