Kirsty MacColl
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Kirsty Anna MacColl (10 October, 1959 – 18 December, 2000) was a British pop singer-songwriter.
Family life and career
MacColl was the daughter of dancer Jean Newlove and noted folk singer Ewan MacColl. She grew up in Croydon.Her initial career followed a substantially different path than that of her father; she first came to notice when Chiswick Records released an EP by local punk rock band the Drug Addix with MacColl on backing vocals under the pseudonym Mandy Doubt. Stiff Records executives were not impressed with the band, but liked her and subsequently signed her to a solo deal.
Her debut solo single "They Don't Know", released in 1979, was a huge airplay hit in the UK, but never reached the shops due to a distributors' strike. After another single, "You Caught Me Out", failed to chart, MacColl felt she lacked Stiff's full backing and moved to Polydor Records in 1981. She had a UK Top 20 hit with the witty yet meaningful "There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis," taken from her critically acclaimed debut album Desperate Character.
Lasting success again failed to materialise and in 1983 Polydor dropped her just as she had completed recording the songs for a planned second album. She returned to Stiff, where pop singles such as "Terry" and "He's On the Beach" went nowhere but a cover of Billy Bragg's "A New England" in 1985 got to Number 7 in the UK charts. This included two extra verses specially written by Bragg for MacColl.
MacColl was probably most recognizable in the United States as the writer of "They Don't Know". Tracey Ullman's version, helped by a video guest-starring Paul McCartney, reached Number 2 in the UK in 1983 and the Top Ten in North America. (It was also played over the closing credits of Ullman's HBO show Tracey Takes On for much of the show's run.)
When Stiff went bankrupt in 1986, MacColl was left unable to record in her own right as no record company bought her contract from the Official Receiver. However, her talents meant she was rarely short of session work as a backing vocalist, and she frequently sang on records produced or engineered by her husband, Steve Lillywhite, including tracks for The Smiths, Talking Heads, Annifrid Lyngstad aka Frida from ABBA, amongst others.
MacColl re-emerged in the British charts in December 1987, reaching Number 2 with The Pogues on "Fairytale of New York", a duet with Shane MacGowan. This led to her accompanying The Pogues on their British and European tour in 1988, an experience which she said helped her temporarily overcome her stage fright.
She then bounced back as a songwriter and artist of substance, with Kite (LP) in 1989, widely praised by critics and featuring David Gilmour and Johnny Marr. MacColl's lyrics addressed life in Margaret Thatcher's England on "Free World", ridiculed the vapidity of fame in "Fifteen Minutes", and addressed the vagaries of love in "Don't Come The Cowboy With Me, Sonny Jim!"
Although Kite contained many original compositions of great quality, MacColl's biggest success from the album would be the cover of The Kinks' song "Days", which gave her a UK Top 20 hit. A bonus track on the CD version of Kite was a cover of the Smiths song "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby". Despite being an acclaimed songwriter in her own right, MacColl's success with these songs, as well as her version of "A New England", garnered her a reputation as being a "cover queen".
During this time, MacColl was also featured on the British sketch comedy French and Saunders, appearing as herself and singing songs, including "15 Minutes" (from Kite), "I Ride" and, with Ken Bishop, the Frank and Nancy Sinatra hit "Something Stupid". She continued to write and record, releasing the album Electric Landlady (a play on the Jimi Hendrix album title Electric Ladyland), including her most successful chart hit in North America, "Walking Down Madison" (co-written with Marr and a Top 30 hit in the UK), in 1991. Despite its U.S. chart success, Landlady was not a hit for Virgin Records, and in 1992, when Virgin was sold to EMI, MacColl was dropped from the label.
She released Titanic Days, inspired by her divorce from Lillywhite, in 1994, but again, MacColl was at the mercy of the industry; ZTT Records had agreed to release the album as a "one-off" and declined to sign her to a contract. The following year she released two new singles on Virgin, "Caroline" and a cover of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" (a duet with Evan Dando), together with the "best of" compilation Galore.
Galore became Kirsty's only album to reach the heights of the top 10 in the UK album charts, but neither of the new singles, nor a re-released "Days", made the Top 40. MacColl would not record again for several years; her frustration with the music business was exacerbated by a lengthy case of writer's block. MacColl herself admitted that she was ready to give up her music career and become an English teacher in South America.
Several trips to Cuba & Brazil restored MacColl's creative muse, and the world music-inspired (particularly Cuban and other Latin American forms) Tropical Brainstorm, often described as her finest work, was released in 2000. "Brainstorm" melded the Latinate music with her droll British lyrics to great effect. It included the song "In These Shoes", which garnered airplay in the U.S. and was covered by Bette Midler, featured in the HBO show Sex and the City and adopted by Catherine Tate as the theme tune for her BBC TV show.
MacColl's lyrics, at turns humorous, biting, and achingly sad, are hard to categorize, which sometimes presented a challenge to the commercial viability of her work. She developed a severe case of glossophobia, which first struck during her early tours and which she never truly overcame. She was also devoted to her children, and would spend long periods of time away from the spotlight to focus on raising them.
Death and \"Justice for Kirsty\" campaign
After the success of "Tropical Brainstorm", MacColl decided to take a much needed holiday. She went to Cozumel, Mexico, along with her partner, musician James Knight, and her sons. She intended to introduce her sons during the trip to an activity she loved - scuba diving.
On December 18, 2000, she and her sons went diving in Cozumel, in a specific diving area that watercraft were restricted from entering. With the group was a local veteran divemaster, Ivan Diaz. As the group was surfacing from a dive, a speeding powerboat entered the restricted area. MacColl saw the boat coming for her sons. Louis was not in the boat's path, but Jamie was. She was able to push him out of the way (he sustained minor head and rib injuries) but in doing so, the boat hit her and she was killed instantly. [link]
It was subsequently discovered that the boat was owned by Mexican supermarket millionaire Guillermo González Nova (owner of Comercial Mexicana), who was on board with several members of his family. A boathand, José Cen Yam, claimed to have been driving the boat when the accident occurred. However, several eyewitnesses have indicated that Cen Yam was not at the controls; eyewitnesses also indicate that González Nova's boat was traveling at far higher speeds at the time of the accident than the one knot claimed by González Nova.
Cen Yam was found guilty of culpable homicide and was initially sentenced to 2 years 10 months; he was, however, under Mexican law, allowed to pay a punitive fine of 1034 pesos (about US$90) in lieu of a prison sentence of that many days. He was also ordered to pay approximately US$2150 in restitution to MacColl's family, an amount based on his meager wages. A British newspaper report in 2005 claimed that Cen Yam had been heard saying he had bought a house with money he had been paid for taking the blame for the incident.
MacColl's family are campaigning for a judicial review into the events surrounding her death, including an application to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The BBC has featured on several of its channels a documentary by Olivia Lichtenstein, entitled Who Killed Kirsty MacColl? U2 and Bono support the cause and dedicated a song to Kirsty in a 2006 concert in Monterrey, Mexico. The next day the Mexican government promised results from the investigation. [link]
Posthumous career
Since MacColl's death, Billy Bragg has always included "her" extra verses when performing "A New England". She was honoured in 2002 with a memorial concert in London at the Royal Festival Hall, featuring a number of musicians that had worked with her or been influenced by her.
In 2001, a bench was placed by the southern entrance to London's Soho Square as a memorial to her, after a lyric from one of her most poignant songs: "An empty bench in Soho Square/ If you'd have come you'd have found me there".
MacColl continues to receive media exposure; in 2004 a biography of MacColl authored by Karen O'Brien, Kirsty MacColl:The One and Only, was published. As for her music, a retrospective three-CD set spanning her full career, From Croydon To Cuba, was released in 2005. Titanic Days was re-released in 2005 as a deluxe 2CD set, and Kite and Electric Landlady were also remastered and rereleased with additional tracks. Her first album Desperate Character remains out of print, but some tracks from that work were included in the box set. On 7 August, 2005, The Best of Kirsty MacColl (a single-disc compilation including the 'new' single "Sun on the Water") made its debut on the UK album charts at #17.
Fairytale of New York was rereleased in the United Kingdom in December 2005 with half of the proceeds being donated to the Justice for Kirsty Campaign. It reached #3 on the UK charts spending five weeks top 75 over the Christmas and New Year period.
Discography
Albums
Studio Albums
- Desperate Character (July 1981)
- Kite (April 1989)
- Electric Landlady (June 1991)
- Titanic Days (February 1994)
- Galore (March 1995)
- Tropical Brainstorm (March 2000)
Other Albums
- The Essential Collection (1993)
- Galore (March 1995)
- What Do Pretty Girls Do? (February 1998)
- The One and Only (December 2001)
- From Croydon To Cuba (March 2005)
- The Best Of Kirsty MacColl (August 2005)
Charted singles
| Year | Song | UK singles | Irish Top 30 | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | "There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis" | 14 | 9 | Desperate Character |
| 1983 | "Terry" | 81 | align="center" valign="top" | |
| - | ||||
| 1985 | "A New England" | 7 | 8 | - |
| 1987 | "Fairytale Of New York" (with The Pogues) | 2 | 1 | If I Should Fall From Grace With God (Pogues album) |
| 1989 | "Free World" | 43 | align="center" valign="top" | |
| Kite | ||||
| 1989 | "Days" | 12 | 9 | Kite |
| 1989 | "Innocence" | 80 | align="center" valign="top" | |
| Kite | ||||
| 1990 | "Don't Come The Cowboy With Me Sonny Jim!" | 82 | align="center" valign="top" | |
| Kite | ||||
| 1990 | "Miss Otis Regrets/Just One of Those Things" (with The Pogues) | 85 | align="center" valign="top" | |
| Red Hot + Blue (compilation album) | ||||
| 1991 | "Walking Down Madison" | 23 | 12 | Electric Landlady |
| 1991 | "My Affair" | 56 | align="center" valign="top" | |
| Electric Landlady | ||||
| 1991 | "Fairytale Of New York" (with The Pogues)(reissue) | 36 | 10 | - |
| 1995 | "Caroline" | 58 | align="center" valign="top" | |
| Galore | ||||
| 1995 | "Perfect Day" | 75 | align="center" valign="top" | |
| Galore | ||||
| 1995 | "Days" (reissue) | 42 | align="center" valign="top" | |
| Kite | ||||
| 1999 | "Mambo De La Luna" | 114 | align="center" valign="top" | |
| Tropical Brainstorm | ||||
| 2000 | "In These Shoes" | 82 | align="center" valign="top" | |
| Tropical Brainstorm | ||||
| 2005 | "Sun On the Water" (download only) | align="center" valign="top" | ||
| align="center" valign="top" | ||||
| The Best Of Kirsty MacColl | ||||
| 2005 | "Fairytale Of New York" (with The Pogues)(2nd reissue) | 3 | 4 | The Best Of Kirsty MacColl |
External links
- [Official site]
- [Justice for Kirsty] – in-depth information regarding MacColl's death
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