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The Kirsty MacColl web site
MEMORIAL
Q
March 2001
Ian Cranna
Even
in a career filled with ironies and twists of fate, it seems singularly perverse
that Kirsty MacColl, one of Britain's cleverest songwriters, should find chart
success only through the works of others - Billy Bragg (who reworked her A
New England in 1985) [it was Bragg's song! - FW], The Pogues (Fairytale
Of New York, a Christmas Number 2 in 1987) and, in 1989, her own cover of The
Kinks' Days.
Kirsty MacColl was born 10 October 1959, the daughter of communist folkie Ewan MacCoil (author of First Time Ever I Saw Your Face). Signed to Stiff at just 16, she was unlucky not to have a hit with her first single, the girl group tinged They Don't Know About Us (later a Number 2 for Tracey Ullman in 1983). Unfortunately for anyone hoping to mould this bright, funny girl into a marketable pop product or a demure female singer-songwriter, MacColl was her father's daughter: too sharp and too full of life. The possessor of a famously acid tongue, her songs were peppered both with scathing references to the injustices of society (New World (sic), Walking Down Madison) and to anyone who didn't care, particularly those of the male sex.
She finally secured her first hit in 1981 with the sardonic There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis. But it was to be MacColl's sole self-penned Top 20 hit in what ultimately proved a stop-start career. She suffered badly from stage fright and deemed being a mother to her two boys by producer Steve Lillywhite more important than personal fame. She was also a sought after backing singer, working with Simple Minds, U2, The Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, The Smiths and Van Morrison.
MacColl picked up her solo career at the end of the '80s, finding album success with 1989's Kite and 1991's acclaimed Electric Landlady (which featured Children Of The Revolution, a collaboration with ex-Smith Johnny Marr), but took another break after 1993's Titanic Days.
Her death in Mexico last December -she was hit by a speedboat which had strayed into an area for swimmers - was all the more tragic since it followed a brand new album in which all her gifts flowered dramatically. Poignant and sophisticated, Tropical Brainstorm marked the culmination of MacColl's long-held interest in Latin American music (a six-part TV series she made on this topic was due to be screened the week of her death but has been put on hold). Since her passing a memorial fund has been set up to provide musical equipment for children in Cuba, a country she visited many times in the last decade.
Kirsty MacColl's funeral was held in private. A public memorial service took place at St Martin's-In-The-Field, London, on 20 January.
Ian Cranna
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