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Picture: ALAN CRUMLISH
SOMETIMES I feel as though I'm a shiny Rolls-Royce, kept in the garage and only brought out at Christmas."
It's a metaphor which Paul Haig thinks sums up the career of his late friend Billy MacKenzie. "He said it as a bit of a joke, but even then I saw the truth in it as it describes the appalling way Billy was treated by the music industry throughout his career. He had a great talent, one which the corporate big boys didn't know how to control."
Well, Christmas is coming early this year and the summer of '99 looks like being something of a Billy MacKenzie-fest; an event that fans of the late singer think is long overdue. In the two and a half years since the world lost one of its greatest and most individual voices, things have been mighty quiet. The posthumous Beyond The Sun and a biography by Tom Doyle aside, there have been no cash-in compilations, not even reissues of the classic Associates albums, some of which have never even been released on CD.
A strange state of affairs indeed, but then, in death, as in life, nothing regarding Billy MacKenzie could ever be said to be predictable.
All that is about to change. His family and his friends feel the time is right for us all once again to enjoy his soaring vocals and off-kilter lyrics. Playing a pivotal role in all this is Paul Haig, one of MacKenzie's closest allies and a regular collaborator over the years.
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