Billy Mackenzie

• Birth Name — William MacArthur MacKenzie • Born — 27 March 1957 • Birthplace — Dundee, Scotland • Died — 22 January 1997 • Place of death — Auchterhouse, Angus, Scotland • Occupation — * Singer • songwriter • Instrument — Vocals • Genre — * Post-punk • synth-pop • experimental pop • new wave • Years Active — 1976–1997 • Label — * MCA • Fiction • Situation Two • WEA • Circa • Virgin • Nude • One Little Indian • Past Member Of — The Associates

William MacArthur MacKenzie was born on 27 March 1957 in Dundee, Scotland. As a child, he lived on Park Avenue in the Stobswell area of the city. He attended St Mary's Forebank Primary School and St Michael's Secondary School. He led a peripatetic lifestyle, decamping to New Zealand at the age of 16, and travelling across America aged 17. Here he married Chloe Dummar, the sister-in-law of his Aunt Veronica. While MacKenzie was quoted as saying the marriage was made to stave off deportation so that he could sing with the New Orleans Gospel Choir – calling his wife a 'Dolly Parton type' – Dummar still believes the pair were in love. He left her after three months of marriage and returned to Dundee, and the two never had contact again. Chloe Dummar filed for divorce in 1980, and MacKenzie did not contest the filing. Chloe was the sister of Melvin Dummar, who claimed to be a beneficiary of Howard Hughes' will and was the subject of the movie Melvin and Howard.

MacKenzie returned to Scotland where he met guitarist Alan Rankine and in 1976 formed the Ascorbic Ones. They changed the name to Mental Torture and finally the Associates in 1979. Rankine left the Associates in 1982, but MacKenzie continued to work under the name for several years until he began releasing material under his own name in the 1990s.

MacKenzie collaborated with many other artists during his career. He had a fruitful partnership with the Scottish indie musician Paul Haig of the post-punk band Josef K, the result being low key dates in Glasgow and Edinburgh during the mid-1980s, which mixed their own best known songs with covers of songs such as Sly and the Family Stone's 1971 song "Running Away" and Yoko Ono's 1981 song "Walking on Thin Ice". Later the pair united to perform "Amazing Grace" on a Scots Hogmanay television programme, and each donated a song to the other's forthcoming studio album. "Chained" proved a highlight on the next Haig album, although MacKenzie's version of "Reach the Top" remained unreleased after the Associates' The Glamour Chase project was shelved by WEA. Following MacKenzie's untimely death in 1997 an entire album of Haig and MacKenzie material, Memory Palace, appeared on Haig's own label Rhythm of Life. In 1987, he wrote lyrics for two tracks on Yello's fifth studio album One Second: "Moon on Ice", which he sang himself, and "The Rhythm Divine", which was sung by the Welsh singer Shirley Bassey and was released as a single. A version sung by MacKenzie was released on the cassette and CD versions of Associates' compilation album Popera. MacKenzie also collaborated with B.E.F. (British Electric Foundation), a band and production company that span-off Heaven 17, for their two studio albums Music of Quality and Distinction Volume One (1982), and Volume Two (1991). In 1991, he returned as a guest singer for the track Capri Calling on Yello's new album Baby. His final recording was the song "Pain in Any Language", with the English electronic music group Apollo 440. The band made a dedication to MacKenzie in the album notes to their second studio album Electro Glide in Blue (1997).

During a 1996 interview with Gary Mulholland in Time Out magazine, when presumed by Mulholland to be gay and asked about the ongoing speculation regarding his sexual orientation, MacKenzie clarified, saying: "Well, it's something that... how would you say? My background is that I'm more interested in individuals and if I've got an affection towards them, then I don't really see hang-ups or boundaries coming into things. So if you're honest and you like either sex, if you're comfortable with that, that's OK." Later in the same interview, he added, "It's what's behind somebody's gender that appeals to me and what they are in essence." This would be the first time MacKenzie spoke candidly about his bisexuality to the press. Rankine noted in a 2016 interview with the online talk show Dangerous Minds, "A lot of his songs are about his struggling with his gender and his sexuality." In his lifetime, MacKenzie did not publicly label his gender identity, but in the aforementioned Time Out interview, he stated: "I'm just waiting for the day when we're all what we were intended to be... hermaphrodites." MacKenzie made allusions to androgyny and cross-dressing in his solo songs "Falling Out with the Future" and "Velvet", as well as an unreleased demo with Steve Aungle, "Gender Illusionist". In a 1982 interview with Smash Hits, he mused about getting a sex change to avoid having to go to war. Music journalist Ned Raggett presented A Matter of Gender: The Fluid Life of Billy Mackenzie, an analysis of MacKenzie's quotes on gender and the personal observations of others in his life.

• The Affectionate Punch (1980) • Fourth Drawer Down (1981) • Sulk (1982) • Perhaps (1985) • Wild and Lonely (1990) • The Glamour Chase (2002)

• Outernational (1992), Circa • Beyond the Sun (1997), Nude – UK No. 64 • Memory Palace (credited with Paul Haig) (1999), Rhythm of Life • Eurocentric (credited with Steve Aungle) (2001), Rhythm of Life • Auchtermatic (2005), One Little Indian • Transmission Impossible (2005), One Little Indian

• "Baby" (1992), Circa – UK No. 88 • "Colours Will Come" (1992), Circa – UK No. 95 • "Pastime Paradise" (1992), Circa – promotional release only

• B.E.F.'s Music of Quality and Distinction Volume One album: "Secret Life of Arabia" and "It's Over" (1982) • Stephen Emmer's Vogue Estate album: duet with Martha Ladly on "Wish On" (1982) • Sweden Through the Ages EP: It Helps to Cry (1986) • Yello's Snowball and the Sound of Yello: "Life Is a Snowball" (1987); unreleased promo CD • Yello's One Second album: "Moon on Ice" (1987) † • Yello "The Rhythm Divine" (version 2): special limited edition 12" single (MERXR253) featuring MacKenzie's lead vocals in place of Shirley Bassey's (1987); the same recording later appeared on the Popera album (1990). "Norma Jean", a variation of "The Rhythm Divine" song with different lyrics originally recorded for an unfinished project by Yello's Dieter Meier about Marilyn Monroe, was released as track 9 from his Auchtermatic CD compilation (One Little Indian – TPLP442CD, 2004) • Uno's self-titled album: Cinemas of the World (1987), as well as the single of the same name • Holger Hiller's album Oben Im Eck (1986): title track and version, "We Don't Write Anything on Paper or So", and "Whippets" single (1987) • Yello's Baby album: "Capri Calling" (1991) • B.E.F.'s Music of Quality and Distinction Volume Two album: "Free". (1991) "Free" also appears on the 1998 B.E.F. 'Best Of' album, later reissued by Disky in 2001 • Loom's "Anacostia Bay" single (1996) † ‡ • Barry Adamson's Oedipus Schmoedipus album: "Achieved in the Valley of the Dolls" (1996) ‡ • Apollo 440's Electro Glide in Blue album: "Pain in Any Language" (1997) † ‡ • "Put This Right" – Co-written by Laurence Jay Cedar and Billy MacKenzie. (1996) • "Deamanda" – Co-written by Laurence Jay Cedar and Billy MacKenzie. (1996) † lyrics by MacKenzie ‡ also appear on Auchtermatic • Unreleased tracks "Sinking Deeper" and "The Hungry Look" recorded 1980 under the name Strange News. Billy, Steve Reid and rhythm section Andy and Gavin. Only copies of tracks exist.

• The track "Fields" on the Joy album by the fellow Scottish band Skids: "Fields" single (7" and 12" mixes) (Virgin, 1981) also released on Skids' Dunfermline CD (1987) • Yello's One Second album: the singles "Call It Love", "The Rhythm Divine", and 'Goldrush' (1987) • Yello's Flag album, the single "Of Course I'm Lying", and "Otto Di Catania" (1988) • Jih's Take Me to the Girl single >, title track plus "Come Summer Come Winter" and "Wake Up" (1988) • Boris Grebenshchikov's Radio Silence album/single: "That Voice Again" (1989) • Yello's Baby album: "Drive/Driven" and the single "Rubberbandman" (1991) (Six of MacKenzie's Yello tracks later released on the Essential Yello album) (1992) • Siobhan Fahey: "Do I Scare You" (1996) unreleased until 2004 when it first appeared on Shakespears Sister's 'Best Of' double CD, and then on the "3" album in 2005 • Peach – Audiopeach album: "Deep Down Together" and "Give Me Tomorrow" credited as the MacArthurettes with Caragh McKay (1998) • Paul Haig – "Listen to Me" single (1997)> = lyrics by MacKenzie

• Orbidöig's "Nocturnal Operations" single: MacKenzie played tubular bells (1981) – this single was reissued in 1984, credited as the Sensational Creed • Sweden Thru the Ages – "It Helps to Cry" single, produced by MacKenzie (1986) • Paul Haig Chain album: "Chained", lyrics by MacKenzie, performed by Haig (1989)

The authorities additionally record the headings William MacArthur Mackenzie and William Mackenzie. His recorded languages were English and Scots.