1979–1982: Formation and independent success Billy Mackenzie and guitarist
Alan Rankine met in
Edinburgh, Scotland in 1976 and formed the
cabaret duo the Ascorbic Ones, although Rankine claimed that this was "a fantasy band that Bill and I dreamt up to give ourselves a past". In 1978, they recorded songs as Mental Torture before changing the name to the Associates. Disappointed that their early recordings were not getting picked up, Mackenzie concocted the stunt of doing a cover version of
David Bowie's "
Boys Keep Swinging", without copyright permission, just six weeks after Bowie's version hit the UK Top 10. The ensuing attention earned them a recording contract with
Fiction Records, and their debut studio album,
The Affectionate Punch, followed on 1 August 1980. and drummer
John Murphy, though in most promotional material the group were still marketed as a duo. A string of 1981 non-album singles on the label
Situation Two were compiled as
Fourth Drawer Down, released that October. These releases saw the band develop an interest in experimenting with unorthodox instrumentation and recording techniques, including sounds being amplified through the tube of a
vacuum cleaner on the track "Kitchen Person". Also in 1981, Rankine and Mackenzie released a version of "
Kites" under the name 39 Lyon Street, with Christine Beveridge on lead vocals. The
B-side, "A Girl Named Property" (a remake of "Mona Property Girl" from the "Boys Keep Swinging" single), was credited to the Associates.
1982–1988: WEA/Warner years As Situation Two's parent label
Beggars Banquet had a labels deal with
WEA International at the time (primarily for
Gary Numan), the Associates found themselves signed to Warner with their releases now going out on their own Associates record label. The band's breakthrough came in 1982 with the release of the single "
Party Fears Two". Buoyed along by the popularity of
synth-pop at the time, the song reached No. 9 on the
UK singles chart Two other hits followed, "Club Country" and "18 Carat Love Affair", a vocal version of the instrumental track "Nothinginsomethingparticular". On 14 May 1982, the band released their most commercially successful studio album,
Sulk.
Martha Ladly, of the Canadian rock band
Martha and the Muffins, contributed backing vocals and keyboards to this album. in 1985 At the last minute, Mackenzie refused to proceed with the extensive tour that had been planned to promote the release of
Sulk. This proved disastrous for the band's career; the band was being courted by
Seymour Stein of
Sire Records, but without Mackenzie's willingness to tour, Stein lost interest. In the aftermath of Mackenzie's refusal, Rankine left the band. Mackenzie continued to write and record music under the name Associates until 1990. Their third studio album
Perhaps was released on 9 February 1985. It was a commercial failure in comparison to their previous releases, peaking at No. 23 on the
UK Albums Chart but only selling around 40,000 copies, putting Billy Mackenzie in significant debt to Warner Music Group. However, it was their only album to chart in the Netherlands, peaking at No. 29 on the
Dutch Albums Chart. The first single taken from the album was "Those First Impressions" which reached No. 43 on the UK singles chart, "Waiting for the Loveboat" peaked at No. 53, and "
Breakfast" turned out to be their last Top 50 hit, peaking at No. 49. "Breakfast" was also their sole showing on the
Dutch Single Top 100 chart, peaking at 36. The non-album single "Take Me to the Girl" was also released around this time, but only made No. 95 on the UK singles chart. In 1988, WEA/Warner rejected the band's fourth studio album
The Glamour Chase, considering it not commercially viable (it was later released on a two-disc set with
Perhaps). However, they decided to release Mackenzie's synth-pop cover version of
Blondie's 1979 single "
Heart of Glass" as a single and also put the track on the record label's compilation album
Vaultage from the Electric Lighting Station. This track was to be MacKenzie's last release whilst under contract to WEA in the United Kingdom, as he signed to
AVL/Virgin subsidiary Circa Records (still under the Associates name at this point). "Heart of Glass" was released in September 1988 on a number of formats including a
twelve-inch single with an anaglyphic
3D cover (which came with
3D glasses) and a
CD single. It reached number 56 on the UK singles chart. The track was included on
Popera: The Singles Collection by WEA in 1990, alongside withdrawn follow-up single "Country Boy", and a version of the Mackenzie and
Boris Blank song, "
The Rhythm Divine". Between 1987 and 1992, Mackenzie worked with Blank and musical partner
Dieter Meier of the Swiss
electronic music band
Yello. Mackenzie wrote the lyrics of the song "The Rhythm Divine", which can also be found on Yello's fifth studio album,
One Second, with lead vocals by the Welsh singer
Shirley Bassey and Mackenzie singing backing vocals. During these years Mackenzie contributed to three Yello studio albums:
One Second (1987),
Flag (1988) and
Baby (1991), whilst tracks for
The Glamour Chase and
Outernational (1992) were recorded with Blank at Yello's
recording studio. The album was released on 24 March 1990 and was produced by the Australian record producer
Julian Mendelsohn. It peaked at No. 71 on the UK Albums Chart and had three singles charting in the lower parts of the UK singles chart with "Fever", "Fire to Ice" and "Just Can't Say Goodbye", peaking at numbers 81, 92 and 79 respectively. Rankine later became a lecturer in music at
Stow College in
Glasgow, and worked with the Scottish
indie pop band
Belle and Sebastian on their debut studio album,
Tigermilk (1996).
1997–present: Legacy releases Mackenzie committed suicide in 1997 at age 39, shortly after the death of his mother. He had been suffering from
clinical depression. He was contemplating a comeback at the time with material co-written with Aungle. The studio albums
Beyond the Sun (1997) and
Eurocentric (2000) were released posthumously and, in 2005, reconstructed and expanded with new unreleased songs into the two studio albums
Auchtermatic and
Transmission Impossible. Before Mackenzie's death, almost all Associates records had been deleted. Former band member
Michael Dempsey and the Mackenzie estate began a reissue programme to make sure the band's legacy continued, reissuing almost every Associates album, including a 25th anniversary edition of
The Affectionate Punch in 2005. In addition to the original albums, two
compilation albums were released:
Double Hipness (2000), a collection of early tracks with the 1993 reunion demos; and
Singles (2004), an extended version of
Popera – The Singles Collection which caught up with post-1990 material and included the cover version of Bowie's "Boys Keep Swinging". In 2002,
The Glamour Chase (recorded in the years 1985–87) was finally released as a set titled
The Glamour Chase & Perhaps. Finally,
Wild and Lonely and Mackenzie's solo studio album
Outernational were repackaged with bonus tracks in 2006. The Tom Doyle book
The Glamour Chase: The Maverick Life of Billy MacKenzie, first published in 1998 and reissued in 2011, documented the band's career and Mackenzie's subsequent life. Rankine died on 3 January 2023 at the age of 64. == Legacy and influence ==