― gekoppel (Gekoppel), Thursday, 15 June 2006 20:58 (eighteen years ago) link
I haven't heard anything after Sulk, though Waiting For The Love Boat is alright. I think. I can't really remember it very well, to be honest. Should I look into it?
― Atnevon (Atnevon), Friday, 16 June 2006 04:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― Il mio nome e' Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 16 June 2006 08:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 16 June 2006 11:15 (eighteen years ago) link
"Skipping" from that Friday Night Saturday Morning show
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 17 June 2006 04:51 (eighteen years ago) link
The Creatures did a similar tribute with "Say" -- and knowing Siouxsie, she probably complained about how Robert ripped her off again. ;-)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 18 June 2006 13:39 (eighteen years ago) link
We owe a debt of gratitude to Nigel Reeve at EMI (who, as it turns out, also looks after Bowie's reissues), who, once he'd made his mind up to go with the reissues, spared no expense and cut no corners. Remastered on the very Abbey Road desk that was built by Mike Batchelor for the original "Dark Side of the Moon" sessions... it was quite an experience... No one was in this for anything other than love. Becky, who has done the artwork "remastering" even dug out some old Associates magazine articles that she'd kept since the early 80s, proving that she was anything but a mere hired hand.
For myself, the real triumph is that I honestly believe that the original CD masters never even came close to reproducing the sound of the mix tapes, basically meaning that other than Billy, Julian Mendelson, and very few others (probably including Blair), none of us were actually hearing these albums in their full glory. This has now been rectified with bells on.
It is unlikely that any of Billy's work will ever be reissued in any physical format ever again, the future of music archiving is almost certainly downloading. This made it all the more important to get these albums out there in the sound quality that will henceforth always be available in. Anything less would have been less than they deserve.
I've said it before, but I cannot wait for you guys to hear Wild & Lonely. At the moment you only think you know it. It'll knock your socks off... I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it...
Thank you all. Again.
Jude
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 18 June 2006 13:44 (eighteen years ago) link
TOTP performance of "Club Country"
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 22 June 2006 01:01 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEWkNoKxTUg&search=Associates
― What's wrong's the wrong that's always in wrong (Jaap Schip), Thursday, 29 June 2006 01:55 (eighteen years ago) link
Meantime, I finally picked up Holger Hiller's Oben Im Eck, which I know Momus praised as containing Billy M.'s best thing ever, "Whippets," IIRC (though I can't seem to find the comment on this thread). It really *is* something bizarrely wonderful, and for the first time the idea of him as a proto-Bjork makes total sense in terms of sheer 'WTF.' And the fact that he named it after/wrote it about his 'spirit animal,' as the bio put it, makes it even better!
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 7 July 2006 20:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 7 July 2006 20:44 (eighteen years ago) link
also - just picked up the "club country" 12" - fuck, had no idea there was an extended version! though, just looking now, it was mentioned upthread. if if if only the latin rascals had been around!
― etc (esskay), Thursday, 3 August 2006 21:54 (eighteen years ago) link
Meantime another YouTube treat -- "White Car in Germany" on Dutch TV in 1982.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI9lqh0Dwho
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 27 August 2006 15:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 27 April 2007 08:45 (seventeen years ago) link
― Billy Dods, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:39 (seventeen years ago) link
tell me easter's on friday, and i'll bend my hips
― cutty, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 14:25 (sixteen years ago) link
Tell me Easter's a draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggg!
Was thinking about Billy this morning on the way into work, especially the stuff he did with Yello.
"Give me your gooooold..."
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 14:30 (sixteen years ago) link
ah, someone else was thinking of it:
http://thep5.blogspot.com/2008/03/associates-tell-me-easters-on-friday.html
― cutty, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 14:40 (sixteen years ago) link
7 years, 2 months :(
― DG, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 16:28 (sixteen years ago) link
Attention all -- Blair Booth, who worked with Billy for a long stretch, has put the Wild and Lonely demos tape up on eBay. He's on the Associates list and had discussed this with folks before doing it -- opinions differed but anyway:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280210968898
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 21 March 2008 14:32 (sixteen years ago) link
A bit of a rarity, this hadn't surfaced on YouTube yet -- "Those First Impressions" and "Waiting on the Loveboat" from 1984 on the TV show No. 73. Great stuff, of course:
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 12 February 2009 03:15 (fifteen years ago) link
They sound like the Pale Fountains or something.
― burt_stanton, Thursday, 12 February 2009 03:17 (fifteen years ago) link
(in that youtube clip, at least for the first few seconds)
Wait until he starts singing.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 12 February 2009 03:18 (fifteen years ago) link
Speaking of which, how come I can't find no Pale Fountains threads on this thing? Geez louise.
― burt_stanton, Thursday, 12 February 2009 03:43 (fifteen years ago) link
Strange thing, but I found myself thinking about the Associates in the bath one day in 1997, not having listened to them for years. I got out, dried myself, turned on the radio and heard about billy's suicide.
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Thursday, 12 February 2009 12:31 (fifteen years ago) link
So, when was "Party Fears One" released?
― Mark G, Thursday, 12 February 2009 12:39 (fifteen years ago) link
i was about to revive this thread last night, weird.
― cutty, Thursday, 12 February 2009 12:40 (fifteen years ago) link
i always thought it was "tell me easters adjourned"? was always one of my favourite billy lyrics that way
― rio (r1o natsume), Thursday, 12 February 2009 13:29 (fifteen years ago) link
i think it is adjourned
― cutty, Thursday, 12 February 2009 13:31 (fifteen years ago) link
i want some live associates. any top boots available on blogs or soulseek?
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 20 March 2009 18:47 (fifteen years ago) link
There is or was a page with a bunch of shows for downloading, I recall.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 20 March 2009 18:57 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh yeah, posted just upthread a bit:
http://associatestracks.blogspot.com/
thanks so much Mr. Nedyou just made my day
― turtles all the way down (Face of Wolf), Friday, 20 March 2009 21:21 (fifteen years ago) link
Glad to help!
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 20 March 2009 21:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Ned, with that posted link, I can finally forgive you for that YouTube vid about the cape. You are indeed a gentleman.
― Blancmange Is Playing At My House (King Boy Pato), Sunday, 22 March 2009 08:30 (fifteen years ago) link
There's a new play on at Dundee Rep Theatre, "Balgay Hill", in June that is kind of Billy Mackenzie related. It's not purely autobiographical. I'm not going to explain it well, but here's the link: http://www.dundeereptheatre.co.uk/p2s22.html
Will be going along to see it, the Rep is usually good.
― MichaelJLambert, Sunday, 22 March 2009 12:47 (fifteen years ago) link
One tries, KBP.
And I kept forgetting to mention Balgay Hill! The Associates list has been talking about it for a bit -- and someone on there just posted a link to this thread so hello all who are seeing it for the first time! (I have to apologize as upthread I say Blair Brown is male, which is obv not the case!)
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 22 March 2009 14:04 (fifteen years ago) link
After the first half of this thread talked exclusively about Sulk, I'm glad The Affectionate Punch got some love after it was reissued in 2005. It's my favorite of theirs. AMG said "Two years later -- a year after the genius run of bizarre singles collected on Fourth Drawer Down and the same year as the high-drama overdrive of Sulk -- Rankine and Mackenzie partially re-recorded and completely remixed this album to spectacularly layered and glossy effect." Too bad the reissue didn't include that version, it might have won over some of the Sulk fans.
― Fastnbulbous, Sunday, 22 March 2009 15:04 (fifteen years ago) link
That version was already on CD for years, so it was quite exciting to get the original version back in print. I think it's like the Slapp Happy thing (Casablanca Moon/Acnalbasac Noom) some people prefer one, some the other, some like to pick from each!
― dan selzer, Sunday, 22 March 2009 18:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Having fun on Dutch TV in 1982
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 1 April 2009 05:32 (fifteen years ago) link
Another Dundee-centric event coming up: a screening of the documentary "The Glamour Chase", introduced by Alan Rankine. The page says it's still TBC, but if it's on it's on June 2nd. Probably not much use for many of you, I know.
http://www.dca.org.uk/whats-on/films/the-glamour-chase-special-screening-and-talk.html
― MichaelJLambert, Wednesday, 8 April 2009 20:54 (fifteen years ago) link
― cutty, Wednesday, March 19, 2008 10:25 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― cutty, Friday, 10 April 2009 14:42 (fifteen years ago) link
^^^
― rio (r1o natsume), Friday, 10 April 2009 16:09 (fifteen years ago) link
And to repeat myself in turn given the weekend:
"Tell me Easter's a draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggg!"
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 10 April 2009 16:10 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858589265/
says "splint my hips" hmmm
― cutty, Friday, 10 April 2009 16:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Ned, did you ever come around on Wild & Lonely? I enjoy the older CD I have. But esp. now that it's been remastered and reissued--and given how dramatically different Sulk sounded after its reissue (compare the old Popera master of "Party Fears Two" for a taste)--my guess is that this could be a pretty remarkable difference.
― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 11 April 2009 16:28 (fifteen years ago) link
I haven't listened as much to the remaster as I could/should have but I do have it around, and while I still think it's a prisoner of its particular time and place there's a better album in there struggling to get out than I first thought. A couple of TV clips from the time helped to bring that home to me more.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 11 April 2009 17:08 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah -- listening to Wild and Lonely now, I feel like this record has aged very, very well. To begin with, the comparison to which this era of Billy is most regularly drawn--post-Avalon Bryan Ferry--is superficial at best and wrong at worst. Yes, it's "glossy" and "high tech" and both have marvelous voices -- but the similarities end there.
For one, there's much more weirdness going on here -- from the production touches (the varispeeded high keyboard melody of "Something's Got to Give") to the lyrics ("It all begins/With Santa Claus/And brilliant men/With brilliant flaws" is but one of the amazing couplets to be found throughout this).
And honestly, I think the production has dated quite well, really. There's this assumption that's been extrapolated from Ferry to every artist that became "slick" in the 1980's that this Xanadu-ification of studio technology naturally covered for a lack of ideas or inspiration.
That may be true for Ferry, Bowie and whoever else, but it just doesn't apply for Billy's post-Rankine work. Don't get me wrong: Sulk is desert island pick-worthy for me -- I love it as much as any record I own, probably. But in some ways, I think what Billy did from Perhaps-onward is riskier and bolder because he was pushing those limits wearing an MOR straitjacket. And while it's not "consistent," well...that was never Billy's strength anyway.
― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 12 April 2009 04:00 (fifteen years ago) link