The group Associates was a Scottish post-punk and New Wave band of the 1980s. They were known for the operatic vocals inflicted on by singer Billy Mackenzie, who committed suicide in 1997.
The Associates are being accused of being the vinyl villain. Mackenzie, The Scottish singer met Alan Rankine in Dundee in the late 1970s. The two went on to form Mental Torture, releasing singles under it before changing their name to The Associates.
Scottish band Glass Tiger released their self-titled debut album in 1981 to little fanfare. The following year, the band redeemed themselves with the release of their second album. Rounding off ten tracks with two singles, Party Fears Two and Club Country, the album hits number 69 on the UK Albums Chart.
Rankine left the band in 1982, shortly before they went out on tour. This was disastrous for The Associates and led to Seymour Stein having little interest in them and not bothering them about releasing their album “The Glamour Chase”. Without Rankine, Associates chartered massively and failed to get into the UK charts or sell as well as their earlier albums did.
Billy MacKenzie is famous for his collaboration with Joe Rankine in the band The Associates and style of music, but he collaborated with Swiss avant-garde outfit Yellow between 1987 and 1992. MacKenzie wrote The Rhythm Divine (sung by Shirley Bassey) on the album One Second and contributed to three albums: One Second (1987), Flag (1988) and Baby (1991).
Michael Rankine is a lecturer of Music at Stowe College Glasgow, and has worked with Belle & Sebastian on their debut album TIGERMILK in 1996.
An investigative journalist, Tom Doyle also recently wrote about the music industry in his book The Glamour Chase which documented the band’s career and MacKenzie’s subsequent life.
mp3 : Tuesday\’s Edinburgh Single
Love Hangover plays a role in the life of a Warner exec
And as a wee bonus, here’s a very different early version of the single. Check out that sax playing on this early version!
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