They
salute the memory of Billy MacKenzie in their own special way. This page
is theirs.
55th Birthday Tribute in the Scotsman
Pete
Martin wrote a piece for the March 27s edition of The Scotsman
(Scotland's national newspaper) about Billy MacKenzie.
Here is a link to this article on their website.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/pete-martin-songs-of-love-and-loss-1-2197726
Boy Song (for Billy MacKenzie) UPDATED
Sebastian and the Dream is the monicker of a new musical project by Aidan Casserly defined as "electronic music with acoustic touches". The first album was planned to include the track Boy Song (for Billy Mackenzie).
This project was reworked later as Aidan's second solo album THE NAMING
OF BLUE. The beat and the piano at the start of the song is a homage to
Strasbourg Square
but with a gentler arrangement which exemplifies what the album WILD
AND LONELY could have sounded like. This song was written in 2006. On the same album, this writer recommends the song Steal for Love. You
can listen to the tracks at Aidan's YouTube page.
Boy Song (for Billy MacKenzie)
Steal for Love
Read more about Aidan --and Aidan about Billy-- here in the Links/Artists section.
The Associates exhibition, 19 March-21 June 2009, Dundee Contemporary Arts
Excerpt from the DCA web site: The
Associates is a survey exhibition charting some of the most talented
artists to emerge from Dundee since the late 1990s (...) The title of
the exhibition is affectionately pinched from the seminal Dundee pop
group The Associates who were one of the city's greatest artistic
statements. Billy Mackenzie and Alan Rankine burst on the scene thirty
years ago with their first single Boys Keep Swinging and we want to
celebrate their influence on modern Dundee. This exhibition reveals an
18 carat love affair with Dundee. (...)
On the 15th of March 2009, Scotland on Sunday has published an interview with Alan Rankine in relation to the Associates Exhibition.
DCA: The Associates Exhibition
Scotland on Sunday: Glamour chase is over
Balgay Hill, 9-27 June 2009, Dundee Rep Theatre
Dundee
Rep Theatre is producing a play based on the life of Billy Mackenzie
called Bungay Hill opening on June 9th.
Here is an excerpt from the Dundee Rep announcement: Balgay Hill is a story about a sublimely talented singer, about heroes,
about fame and the glamour chase, but most of all, it's a story that
puts Dundee in the spotlight. Weaving the tales of 4 characters into
the real-life story of local legend Billy Mackenzie, frontman of the
Associates, Balgay Hill brings Dundee's past, present and future to
life (...).
The play is going to use
footage from the The Glamour Chase documentary made by Andrew Miller for Scottish TV in 2000.
Here is the flyer:
Review in Scotland on Sunday: Dundee's alive and kicking to the magic of pop hero Billy
Tickets & info at the Dundee Rep: Balgay Hill A New Play By Simon Macallum
Behind The Scenes video on the Dundee Rep YouTube page.
[Thank you Susan]
Screening of the STV documentary, 2 June 2009, Dundee Contemporary Arts
Dundee Contemporary Arts screened the 40-minute long version of the
documentary in their cinema on June 2nd introduced by Alan Rankine and Andrew Miller (director of the documentary). Then Billy Sloan interviewed Alan Rankine. To close, Alan played a Billy-penned song that had never been recorded before called Gemini's Twins. According to a member of the audience (and of the associates mailing list) it was a (quote) well attended evening and an excellent tribute to the man.
[Thank you Linda]
Documentary screening at DCA: The Glamour Chase : Special Screening and Talk 2 June 2009
Susan's poem
In January 2008, Susan wrote a poem in tribute to Billy MacKenzie.
London Tribute, March 2007
On March 28th 2007, one day after what would have been his 50th birthday, Sound Seekers, an international development charity that works to
help deaf children (read more) presented A Tribute to Billy MacKenzie in Aid of Sound Seekers at the Sheperd's Bush Empire in London.
The following artists had agreed to Gary's invitation: Howard Hughes, Mower, Subterraneans with Christine Beveridge and Paul Haig (first live appearance since 1989), Claudia Bruecken & Andrew Poppy, OneTwo (Claudia Bruecken & Paul Humphreys), Electric Soft Parade, British Electric Foundation (aka B.E.F. for their first-ever live appearance) and Apollo 440.
I have collected information about the concert here.
 |
 |
 |
| The evening's flyer |
The Sheperd's Bush Empire |
Sound Seekers' web site
|
Glasgow Tribute, January 2007
On
January 20th 2007, to honour the memory of Billy Mackenzie and to mark
the 10th anniversary of his death, Scenester Promotions presented Double
Hipness at The Classic Grand in Glasgow.
Double
Hipness focused on the beautiful pop music of The Associates. The
evening consisted of both live bands paying tribute to the songs of
The Associates in their own way and a clubnight. Alan Rankine was acting as a special advisor. The
(country) club was manned by XFM Scotland's Jim Gellatly (a
Dundonian and massive Associates fan) with special guests.
The following bands were present: Grant McNally (aka Jih), Wake the President, Babygod, Mouse Eat Mouse. The Low Miffs were to be there but they could not make it.
[setlists to be added]
Here is the evening's flyer (click to enlarge):
Scenester Promotions
http://www.myspace.com/scenesterunderground
Lucy's poem
Lucy has
written a poem about Billy in the middle of the night. If you want to read it, click in the middle of the night...
Herbert's poem
So far
we know little about W.N. Herbert who is the author of this poem but the
text is a beautiful tribute to Billy MacKenzie.
A
lament for Billy MacKenzie [mirror page]
James' tattoos
Says James
: On my right arm is the man himself and on my left arm is some of the
lyrics from Saline Drips which are as follows :
You Say
life's life, no matter how its lived,
And what
you have you dont know how to give.
(c/o
James Reid)
Peter's football
shirt
Says Peter
: It's a Gillingham FC shirt I had personalised for a recent sporting
event - would you believe lots of people actually came up to me to tell
me that they remembered the Associates!
(c/o
Peter Stean)
Paul's mobile
madness
Paul
Smiths' invitation to Billy fans everywhere :
You
should type this tune into your Nokias
4.g2
16#f2 16g2 8#f2 8d2 8b1 4a1 8b1 8c2
4a1
8g1 8f1 4e1 8g1 8d2 8c2 8d2 8e2 8d2
4a1
8b1 8c2 8a1 8d2 8e2 8d2 8c2 4.d2 16a2
Why
Paul ?
Two
reasons :
1)
It dentifies you as being part of the Billy clan - certainly, should I
hear this on someone else's mobile I will immediately introduce myself
2)
It is a bloody top tune.
Tribute albums
Members
of the associates mailing lists have recorded Associates or Billy songs
under the banner of The Affectionate Bunch (more a reflection of the spirit
of these lists than a tribute to this humble web site).
These
songs have been compiled in two sets :
 |  |
Volume
1 :
THE
AFFECTIONATE BUNCH |
Volume
2 :
ASSOCIATES
TRIBUTE TWO |
Both
albums have been produced on a non-profit basis.
Kevin
aka doginthewild has put up a web
site where you can find information about these recordings.
Jovan's book
Jovan
Evermann has written a book about German TV series :
THE
SERIEN-GUIDE - Das Lexicon aller Serien im deutschen Fernsehen von 1978
bis heute
(THE
SERIES GUIDE - The dictionary of all German TV series from 1978 till tody)
This
book is dedicated "im memoriam" to Billy Mackenzie.
The
Creatures
Siouxie
Sioux and Budgie --aka The Creatures-- have dedicated one song to Billy
in their album ANIMUS ANIMA. It is called Say. Read more about it
here.
The
Cure
Robert
Smith and his band the Cure were The Associates' label mates at Fiction
Records in the early 80s. Twenty years later they have recorded a song
called Cut here and released it in their GREATEST HITS album in
2001. This song is about Billy. Read more about it here.
The glass
whippets
These
glass whippets (above left, photography by Anne Bevan and Cathy Pilkington)
were made for a dance installation called Memory Palace - Billy Mackenzie
- A celebration of his life and music produced by the Scottish Youth
Dance company in the Summer of 1999. The show toured in Endinburgh
(August 24-29, during the Fringe Festival), Stirling (Setptember 15) and
Aberdeen (September 17).
This
production featured songs from the MEMORY
PALACE and BEYOND THE SUN albums
and work of artists Anne Bevan and Cathy Pilkington as well as the performance
of dancer Andy Howitt. The above right picture is the brochure of this
artistic event (photography by Alan Crumlish).
The
whippets were shown as well as in the STV documentary
"The Glamour Chase" (sitting beside each interviewee).
Scottish
Youth Dance
Feel
free to visit the Fan tributes page of Alex Bunch's site at billymackenzie.com
!
http://www.billymackenzie.com
