i-want-more

Record Box #5

5. The Associates

'Club Country'
'Party Fears Two'

The Associates (vocals: Billy Mackenzie, instrumentation: Alan Rankine) are a band that should be remembered, loved and feted by all, but sadly, they aren't. Personally? I cannot understand this. To my mind they embody the spirit of the early 80s - a little bit pop, a little bit art and camp as you like. An early 90s compliation of their work was called 'Popera', which describes their appeal better than I could ever hope to.

My first exposure to the band was seeing a 12" record of '18 Carat Love Affair' that Sister Number 4 owned, which showed Billy lying face-down on the floor, butt-naked, having jewels poured over him by a woman in a raincoat and headscarf. I was about 10 at the time. That was it. Anyone who could do that to themselves on a record sleeve was worthy of my time, I figured.

It's just possible that they weren't everyone's cuppa char because of Mackenzie's voice. His were one of most outstanding set of pipes ever to grace vinyl. He makes Prince's forays into falsetto sound like the squeakings of a pre-pubescent boy. It's expressive and over-the-top and possibly just a little bit too queer for most tastes. For instance: a somewhat dull lyric from Party Fears Two takes on a hilarious life of its own:

'I'll have a shower, and then phone my brother up' becomes 'Ah'll huv aaa shaah-waa und thaan phone MA BROTH-AA UP!!!' with an astonishing vocal swoop up an octave. Bonkers. And the instrumentation is more than a match to Mackenzie; it's synth and bass-heavy, usually providing a counterpoint melody (or two) to the vocals. It's proper clever pop.

Club Country. Well, the drums are clattering and loud, as was the vogue in the 80s - and with that killer opening line - 'The fault is, I can find no fault in you'.

The two singles featured here are the two that made it into the charts, proper mind, with appearances on Top of the Pops. To an extent, that's when things started to go wrong for the band. The hype, the drugs and the touring started messing with their minds and they couldn't cope. Mackenzie continued to trade under the name for a long time after Rankine left the band but it wasn't the same.

Billy suffered from depression over the years and committed suicide a few years back. Having been interested in him for so long, I was gutted. I would recommend the excellent book The Glamour Chase for some superb stories about Billy that will make you laugh and cry in equal measure.

If you want to start anywhere with the band I'd suggest their meisterwerk Sulk. If you like to download stuff, try 'Skipping' and the above-mentioned tracks. Also worth checking out is the slightly less slick Fourth Drawer Down (especially 'Kitchen Person').

posted by deafdisco @ 1:00 am