Associates, The

The Associates: The Affectionate Punch

Review by Paul Morley, NME, August 1980

RUMOURS have been dripping down from Scotland about a diverse horde of determined post Skids/S. Minds/Scars groups all ready to shift our attention. Positive Noise, ...

The Associates: Boys Keep Scoring

Interview by Paul Morley, NME, September 1980

THERE'S SOMETHING a little odd about Billy Mackenzie. When he was younger, he says, his friends used to think that he was crazy. Mental. ...

Disassociate!: The Associates

Interview by Paul Morley, NME, October 1982

THE WHIPPETS have pissed on the carpet of Chris Parry's Office. Billy Mackenzie grins, a little wickedly; there's a nice little stain that should be ...

Spoilt Brat, Silly Prat Or Visionary Genius?: Billy Mackenzie

Interview by Don Watson, NME, September 1983

ONLY A YEAR AGO The Associates seemed to have the world at their feet; with three hit singles behind them and their first tour in ...

The Associates: First Impressions

Interview by Bill Black, Sounds, June 1984

HE'S BACK. And although it's been two years, an aborted LP and a thousand rumors since we last heard the Associates' flighty, feisty pop, listening ...

The Associates' Billy Mackenzie: Wild Man

Interview by Max Bell, No.1, August 1984

AS LEAD SINGER with The Associates, Billy Mackenzie has long been at the forefront of great new British vocalists. ...

The Smiths: Meat Is Murder; The Associates: Perhaps

Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Statesman, Spring 1985

MORRISSEY OF The Smiths is still the unlikeliest pop star of all. Watching him jerk and flounder about on Top Of The Pops last week, ...

Yello: Shirley and Company

Interview by Mark Sinker, NME, June 1987

2005 note: Easily my favourite NME piece. Kudos also to the sub who chose the original caption: "Helvetica Bold" ...

The Associates: Wild and Lonely

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, March 1990

THE FIRST TIME I heard the Associates was when I saw 'Party Fears Two' on Top Of The Pops. It was one of those moments ...

The Associates: Popera

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, January 1991

ONCE UPON A time (the early '80s), there was something called "new pop". For about a year Morley's pipedream of a chartbusting music that combined ...

Those Last Impressions: Billy MacKenzie

Retrospective by Lucy O'Brien, Q, 1997

When Billy MacKenzie committed suicide in January, he was about to re-launch a career that sparkled briefly but brilliantly with The Associates. Lucy O'Brien recalls ...

The Bizarre Life And Lonely Death Of Billy Mackenzie

Retrospective by Paul Lester, Uncut, June 1997

TOP OF THE POPS, MARCH 3, 1982. A relatively unknown band from north of the border are about to do what David Bowie, Roxy Music ...

The Associates: The Affectionate Punch

Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, February 1998

THIS is impossible music. It's impossible to mimic its myriad uniqueness, impossible to place in pop time, impossible to imagine how such music could ever ...

The Associates: Reissues

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, August 2000

Legendary Scottish duo — featuring late, great Billy MacKenzie — issue best work and pre-fame material ...

Billy MacKenzie

Profile by David Stubbs, Uncut, August 2000

"MacKenzie's real fear was the banal actuality of pop success…to keep his perfect, impossible-past-and-future pop fantasy intact, it was necessary to destroy Associates" ...

Boys Keep Swinging: The Associates’ Singles

Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, September 2004

All the 45s from the sublime Scottish duo who briefly threatened to run away with the ‘80s pop circus. ...