1984 Singles # 20 Associates

 

I'm living a life that runs on  smooth repetitive pathways these days dictated by routine. Waking early, listening to a record, writing about it, having a leisurely breakfast heading to the fiitness centre. Finding myself in the sauna. Alternating between that and the plunge pool for half an hour. Showering in  between. Then heading back home to complete my breakfast and begin my day in earnest. It's paying dividends and my mental and physical health is improving incrementally.

'Alright you self-regarding dullard', I hear you cry. 'That's all very well and we're very pleased for you. But what's all that got to do with Associates? That's why we're here.' OK. No need to snap at me. Don't bite my head off. I was getting to that. A crucial part of this process of my early morning regime is the chats that I have with regulars and Hotel Guests of The Royal Station Hotel . This morning I met a very nice bloke in the sauna and had a conversation that is pertinent to the post I'm writing. Here we go.

This fellow was about the same age as me and told me he was staying in the hotel for a few days work related purposes. He was a risk assessment manager for property related issues for Lloyd Bank and he came from and lived in Dundee. 'Ah' I' said 'Associates. Billy Mackenzie' and expressed my incredible admiration for both. 'Yes I knew Billy' he replied. 'He was some figure. Sad story. He had substance issues. Sad end.'

This is where many of us are with Billy and Associates these days. Alan Rankine his partner in crime, who also gave of an incredible, physical poise, grace and beauty passed last year, and it seemed like sad closure to one of the most arresting stories in Rock & Roll history.

Mackensie and Rankine and the Associates limo they drove was a sleek vehicle indeed. Sulk and the three magnificent hit singles they released in 1982 were something to behold and cherish, something that many who experienced their Top of the Pops performances and witnessed the way they handled their fame with such luxuriant excess will never quite forget. We'll never see their like again.

Such moments are probably inevitably not built to last . This one wasn't. Rankine and McKenzie went their separate ways before the en of the year. Reasons and rumours are legion. Billy's refusal to submit to excessive tour schedules are probably among the most credible. Associates never had another Top Forty hit.

This was not because they didn't make good records. They made excellent ones. Waiting For The Love Boat was better than almost all of the fifty two singles which were above it in the year it hit its chart peak. The likes of Simon Bates would never understand. But Bily needed Alan as Alan needed Billy for the flame to truly ignite. Sometimes that's just the way it is.