Tom Doyle: The Glamour Chase – The Maverick Life Of Billy MacKenzie (Bloomsbury)
Martin Aston, Q, September 1998
EVERY PICTURE tells a story. In this biography of the late singer Billy MacKenzie, there's a photo, circa 1971, of St. Michael's School's under-15s Football 11, posing in full kit, arms traditionally folded. Off to one side, for reasons unexplained, there's MacKenzie, in day clothes, hands on hips, with matching defiant grimace. Even this early, he was the outsider, a boy who possibly knew too much, but about whom we know too little.
Total word count of piece: 364