memorylane1980s's video: Associates - Those First Impressions Top Of The Pops 1984

Nice quality video recorded live in the studio of Top Of The Pops 1984. Associates were a Scottish post-punk and new wave band of the early 1980s. They were known for the operatic voice and theatrical antics of singer Billy Mackenzie, who committed suicide in 1997. Mackenzie and guitarist Alan Rankine met in Dundee in 1976 and formed the cabaret duo The Ascorbic Ones. In 1979 they recorded songs under the name of Mental Torture before finally changing their name to The Associates. They then recorded their debut single, a cover of David Bowie's "Boys Keep Swinging". Their version attracted a good deal of attention, not least from David Bowie, as it was released in June 1979 just six weeks after Bowie's version had hit the UK Top 10 in April. A string of highly regarded singles were released and two albums The Affectionate Punch and Fourth Drawer Down. In 1981 Rankine and MacKenzie also released a version of "Kites" under the name "39 Lyon Street" with Christine Beverage on lead vocals, the b-side track "A Girl Named Property" was credited to The Associates. The band's breakthrough came in 1982 with the release of the single "Party Fears Two". Buoyed along by the popularity of synthpop at the time, the song reached number 9 on the UK Singles Chart. Two other hits soon followed, "Club Country" and "18 Carat Love Affair". That year the band released their most commercially successful album, Sulk. Martha Ladly, of Martha and the Muffins, contributed backing vocals and keyboards to this album. Rankine left the band in 1982 just before the Sulk tour. This proved disastrous in terms of the band's career, in particular as the band were being actively courted by Seymour Stein who thought they could become massive stars in the USA. Mackenzie continued to write and record music under the Associates name until 1990. The albums Perhaps, The Glamour Chase (which the record company refused to release, considering it not commercially viable) and Wild and Lonely were made during this period. However, without the guiding hand of Rankine, recordings were sporadic and subsequent Associates records failed to reach the charts in the UK and sold far fewer than their early albums. Before Mackenzie's death almost all Associates records had been deleted. Former band member Michael Dempsey and the Mackenzie estate began a reissue programme to make sure the band's legacy continued. Almost every Associates album has been re-issued so far, including a 25-Anniversary edition of The Affectionate Punch in 2005. In addition to the original albums, two compilation albums have been released: Double Hipness (2000), a collection of early tracks with the 1993 reunion demos; and Singles (2004), an extended version of Popera - The Singles Collection which caught up with post-1990 material and included the cover of Bowie's "Boys Keep Swinging". In 2002, The Glamour Chase (recorded in the years 1985-87) was eventually released. Finally, Wild & Lonely and Mackenzie's solo album Outernational were repackaged with bonus tracks in 2006. Artists who have covered "Party Fears Two" include The Divine Comedy, Dan Bryk and Heaven 17. An instrumental section of "Party Fears Two" was used as the theme music for the BBC Radio 4 satirical current affairs series Week Ending. The instrumental piano passage from the "Nocturne VII" track (which appeared on the posthumous Beyond The Sun album) was used in the BBC series Masterchef in November 2009. An edited version of "Club Country" appeared in the second series finale of the BBC drama Ashes to Ashes, set in 1982. American electronic pop duo, Microfilm, did a tribute song to Billy Mackenzie in 2009 titled "I'll Sing Like Billy Mackenzie in Heaven" which featured guitar and additional vocals by Scissor Sisters' member Del Marquis. It appeared on the 2009 EP "Blips Don't Lie" and the subsequent singles compilation I Am Curious: Microfilm 2006-2010. Singles: "Boys Keep Swinging" (Double Hip, 1979) "The Affectionate Punch" (Fiction, 1980) "Tell Me Easter's on Friday" (Situation Two, 1981) "Kites" [as 39 Lyon Street] (1981) "Q Quarters" (Situation Two, 1981) "Kitchen Person" (Situation Two, 1981) "A" (Fiction, 1981) "Message Oblique Speech" (Situation Two, 1981) "White Car in Germany" (Situation Two, 1981) "Party Fears Two" (WEA, 1982) UK No.9 "Club Country" (WEA, 1982) UK No.13 "18 Carat Love Affair" / "Love Hangover" (WEA, 1982) UK No.21 "Even Dogs In the Wild" (1982) "Matter of Gender" (1982) "Ice Cream Factory" (1983) "Those First Impressions" (1984) UK No.43 "Waiting for the Love Boat" (1984) UK No.53 "Breakfast" (1984) UK No.49, NL No.36 "Take Me to the Girl" (1985) "Heart of Glass" (1988) UK No.56 "Country Boy" (WEA, 1989 - withdrawn) "Fever" (1990) "Fire to Ice" (1990) "Just Can't Say Goodbye" (1990) Please visit my other Channel. Keep Rockin!. http://www.youtube.com/user/squizzy104?feature=mhum /a/u/1/se0F7dEZ-zs