Great Expectations : Debut 1985

A musical background - that's what Kirsty MacColl's got. She's the daughter of Ewan Maccoll - a very famous Scottish folk singer. Her brother is in The Roaring Boys - a current Epic tip-for-the-top.

Always singing, whether in the choir at school, or in the car, driving home. Tracey Ullman has recorded her songs. She's sung on a Simple Minds LP. Now she's married to ace producer Steve Lillywhite. They are expecting their first baby in February. Oh yes and she's also found time to release her own hit version of Billy Bragg's New England.

Kirsty burst into the public eye in 1981 with the awkwardly named There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis, and just as abruptly disappeared. A one-hit-wonder? She firmly puts the blame onto her ex-record company - Polydor.

"They just wanted twelve versions of Chip Shop - it was very frustrating. You spend three months working on something, pouring out your heart and soul, writing songs, getting the best musicians, you get it all done in the studio and the record company refuse to release it. If you don't like it yourself when it does come out you may think it could have been better but if it isn't released then you start to think why bother? I can't see why Polydor signed me up, really, except I may have been a tax loss."

She stayed at Polydor for three years and went back to Stiff "because they wanted me back". During that return visit to Stiff someone had the bright idea of teaming up Kirsty's songs with Tracey Ullman. Tracey recorded They Don't Know which shot up the charts, reaching number two in Nov '83 yet Kirsty's own version of her song, which was released in 1976 sunk like a lead balloon, stricken, it seems, by a distribution strike. Kirsty elaborates:

"I don't think it failed because it wasn't good enough - it wasn't any better or worse than Tracey's version- it was practically the same. If there hadn't been an obvious reason for its failure I would have been disappointed but at least there was. As it was, it got plenty of airplay, started my career, got my name known and got me a record deal. I am glad it was finally a hit because it's a nice song- everybody else seemed to think so too otherwise they wouldn't have bought it would they?"

As someone so professionally musical what does she think of Tracey, who treats her singing career as a bit of a sideline to her acting?

"Well she makes me a living so that's it really: It suits me and she doesn't write songs so it suits her."

Kirsty's songs are based somewhere in the sixties: straight-forward arrangements, usually love songs, a bit tongue-in-cheek, so what does she think of bands that have been in the charts over the past few years?

"I like Frankie. I'm not really a Wham! fan. At first they were exciting but now they sound like Culture Club. It all seems pretty boring. I like people who don't sound like anyone else. I'd rather listen to somebody who sings a good song, whoever's singing it isn't important. I tend to prefer the Kim Wilde sort of voice to the 'starlight soul' because I'm not a soul singer and I don't listen to a lot of soul music. I can't bear to listen to all that emotion it does me in - I prefer people who hold back instead of bleeding all over your carpet."

So what were your first musical influences? Scottish folk music? Joseph And His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat?

"No.., em well. . . I used to listen to lots of Steeley Dan, though the first record I ever bought was 'Keep On Running' by the Spencer Davies Group - I was only six then. The songs I wrote when I was 17 weren't that different to the ones I'm doing now. I mean they were like They Don't Know - that was the third song I ever wrote. The stuff I do now is more sophisticated technically but that's because I've learnt more about what I'm doing. I don't think it makes them any better. It's the naive stuff that seems to have done well."

Tracey Ullman, it turns out, is the only person Kirsty has specifically written songs for (her new album contains Maccoll penned songs). Who else would she like to write for?

"Well I guess Stevie Winwood -after all he did sing on the first record I ever bought. Also Alison Moyet. She's got a great voice, she interprets things very well but the songs she gets aren't that good."

The Smiths are the band she'd love to work with, "I can listen to them for hours and hours and they cheer me up in some kind of strange way. You think oh well, if things are bad for me just how terrible they must be for Morrissey and you haven't got any problems. I would just love to be miserable with Morrissey." she giggles.

As someone who usually has her own songs recorded by other artists, Kirsty has now recorded somebody else's song. Her own version of Billy driving Bragg's New England was released in January and was a radio hit, though it only reached the bottom of the charts. [not true: it reached number 7 and was Kirsty's biggest solo UK hit! - FW] How did it come about?

"Well I went to see Billy play about 18 months ago. He just got up on stage with his guitar and a tiny little amp and sang. I thought this bloke's. brilliant. The sign of good song writing is if the song's good it will stand up on its own. People do great productions on songs that aren't really there. When I met Billy he turned out to be a great fan of mine - he'd even bought a couple of my records that I didn't know anybody had got. So that gave me confidence to ask him what he thought if I had a go at New England, he said 'yeah definitely', so I decided to do it. I used to sing all the harmonies that I'd do on record along to Billy's version. It's really a great song with a strong melody."

Why the extra verse?

"Well it just wasn't long enough. Billy had these ideas that he'd thought about using but hadn't got around to doing so he brought them over to me just before he went to America."

In 1983 Kirsty was offered the chance to sing on the new Simple Minds album Sparkle In The Rain - a longstanding admirer of the group she was thrilled.

"It was like being asked to join The Beatles or something. I've always followed Simple Minds and it's great that people that you really admire want to work with you."

The album was produced by U2 and Big Country knob twiddler Steve Lillywhite "After I'd finished the backing vocals he just kept ringing me up - I don't know why!" she laughs.

Since their marriage in June 1984 they have worked together on quite a few things. Do they argue?

"No we get on well work wise - it's not like we've never done anything before and he's the producer trying to make a job for the little wife - I am both know what we're doing and get on with it."

They were both so busy last year that it wasn't until October that they were able to get away for a honeymoon. They went to Barbados. "Probably the most expensive place in the world, they charge you £3.50 for a bottle of Perrier. We of course only drank Rum. Nobody told us it was the rainy season, they had the worst floods they'd had for 83 years. Apart from that it was nice."

The past two years have been quite eventful, what with Tracey Ullman having a hit with They Don't Know, and working with Simple Minds and getting married and getting pregnant. Have you any prediction for 1985? "The music business is so fashionable that you can be up one year and down the next. I really don't know. People who don't take it with a pinch of salt have quite a few problems coming to them." And in ten years?

"Oh now where would I like to be.. . I think I'd like to be in a beach bar in Spain."

Smash Hits features in 1981 and 1983

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Great Expectations : Debut 1985

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