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They Don’t Know released in June 1979

June 5, 2020 Leave a comment

Released in June 1979, the song that propelled Kirsty into the big time. With some roadblocks and diversions along the way of course.

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Ruffdog, You’re Up

June 4, 2020 Leave a comment

Ruffdog Elliott covers Bragg.

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The Johnny Marr demo for Madison

June 2, 2020 Leave a comment

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Keep On Trucking

June 1, 2020 Leave a comment

Just because I guess.

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Another Ballet Fix For You

May 30, 2020 Leave a comment

Brand new production and on YouTube from The Royal Ballet. There’s lots of great opera out there too while we contemplate coming out of lockdown. The Cellist is wonderful!

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Preserving The Old Ways

May 30, 2020 Leave a comment

Posted by Andy Nichol in April.

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Sing-a-long-a-days

May 29, 2020 Leave a comment

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Regi ft. OT – ‘They Don’t Know’ | Liefde voor Muziek

May 28, 2020 Leave a comment

Regi kiest voor misschien wel dé grootste Nailpin-hit: They Don’t Know. De gitaren en drums heeft hij omgewisseld voor een breekbare versie die door OT wordt gezongen.

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Sing-a-long-a-Colombia-Nil

May 27, 2020 Leave a comment

News

Matt Benson’s Looking For A New England

May 26, 2020 Leave a comment

Matt rocks Bill from April in lockdown.

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Kirsty on facebook

Below are some recent posts from the very active and highly recommended Kirsty Fan Gang and Kirstyfest groups on facebook. You can also join the Kirsty fans group.

Kirsty Guest Book

Visit the Kirsty Guest Book to leave your thoughts and memories about Kirsty.

Annual Meetup

The next Kirstyfest is due to take place at noon in Soho Square on Sunday 11th October 2020, moving on to a nearby hostelry.

Obviously while COVID-19 walks the dark streets of London and everywhere else, this could change.

3 days ago

With covid-19 messing up Record Store Day, all special releases will be spread over 3 days. Kirsty's Other People's Hearts will be released on August 29th. [recordstoreday.nl/album/other-peoples-hearts/](recordstoreday.nl/album/other-peoples-hearts/) ... See MoreSee Less

Other People's Hearts | Record Store Day

recordstoreday.nl

RSD 2020 B-sides 1988-1989, Coloured vinyl

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Comment on Facebook RSD 2020 B-sides ...

Somebody buy me one, please. As Sly Stone said, “There’s a Riot Going On”.

4 days ago

I’ve always loved a new England and the way Kirsty MacColl presented Billy Bragg‘s song and it boiled down to those opening lines, so you can guess my surprise when I learnt this week only that Billy didn’t write them! That honour goes to Simon and Garfunkel youtu.be/WwOgXWOX-iE . Am I the only eejit in the group? 😆 ... See MoreSee Less

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Comment on Facebook "Hello, hello, ...

I always thought the “shooting stars” couplet had been borrowed from S&G?

Blimey. 💯

no i didnt know that either

He has actually borrowed lots of little pieces of lyrics over the years. Discovering those is always fun!

I didn't know either. You're not an eejit, you are a fount of knowledge. Thanks for telling us!

I've been a Billy Bragg fan since 1983 and never knew this. Thank you!!

... or to be more precise "the honour goes to Paul Simon" as (and Im pretty sure im right on this) Art Garfunkle never wrote any lyrics to any of the S&G songs. Please feel free to correct me. But im not aware of a single track Art put 'pen to paper' btw. Kirsty's New England is my ringtone, it works perfectly for this purpose... try it!

Thanks everybody, it was nice to know I wasn’t alone and the discovering of the fact goes to my 15-year-old son who loves The Kinks, the Beatles and more recently Paul Simon. Just found out A New England has its own Wikipedia page and reference to Paul Simon can be found there.

I remember that he wrote to Paul Simon for permission.

As I remember after chatting to Billy it's just the first two lines he knicked

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5 days ago

Kirsty MacColl - Days - Wogan 1989 ... See MoreSee Less

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Comment on Facebook 10157653956269227

Legendary 😍❤️

5 months ago

I moved to Prague in 1992, after finishing 'Kite' (and many 'b'sides and extra tracks that Kirsty loved putting on the 10",12" and cd singles for her diehard record collecting fans) I'd also worked on 'Walking down Madison', 'Children of the revolution', 'The hardest word', 'Maybe it's imaginary', 'My way home', Halloween and 'My affair' for Electric Landlady'. Also 'Soho Square', '[Angel](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_(Kirsty_MacColl_song))' and 'Last Day of Summer' for Titanic days. I visited Kirsty a few years later and played her my Czech band Colorfactory's version of 'La Forêt de Mímosas' - She frowned, saying "The vocal's too quiet, but the cello is very nice" (she always said that she wanted the listener to understand every lyric on first listening) - It's from our 2nd album, which was originally titled "Infinite One", but EMI CZ said it was too confusing to have "one" in the title of a 2nd album! When they told me i laughed and said "Ok morons, we'll call it Second Infinity" - youtu.be/E6L6bflGfho ... See MoreSee Less

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Comment on Facebook Provided to YouTube ...

I think one of my favourites from "Kite" is '"Mother's Ruin"

5 months ago

After we got the demo together Kirsty sang the first vocal on Tread Lightly, then said "Nah, lets leave it, the chorus doesn't work" - I wanted to scream IT'S A GREAT SONG, but instead i took a deep breath and said "Yeah, the major/minor chorus sounds a bit clunky, but once the harmonies are on it i'm sure this one will be epic" - K "Really" - Me "Yes i'm sure" - Fortunately we continued with it and it became one of her best IMHO. Some weeks later in Townhouse studios, i helped Pino sort the bass part, then suggested to Mel that he play his classic snare crescendo at 2.07 - "You'd look the devil in the eye and tell him to be gone, bye bye he'll never get you in this lifetime" Kirsty was a truly amazing musician and i'm proud to have contributed even the most minor touches to her artistry.
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Comment on Facebook Track 8 from 'Kite' ...

Awesome story Colin! Kite is one of my favourite albums

More! More! Great stories, wonderful to hear.

Thank you. Kite is just an amazing album.

Wonderful. Thank you for sharing.

That is really nice to hear. Thank you. Thank God that Kirsty didn't abandon this song! I love singing along to it, even though I get very out of breath by the time I get to "rubbing salt in all those open sores and wounds we should have left to heal"!

Thanks for sharing these stories

One of the standouts on the album.

One of her best, and thank you for sharing

Simply not an average track on Kite is there? The production, the writing, the melodies, all of her work was underrated. There is a great live version of this you can find on youtube by Amy MacDonald by the way. I appreciate these memories from you Colin. I had a chance to meet her in the 90's, didn't go that night, but my friend brought back a personal written message from Kirsty. I regret being too shy to go (!), as then there was no "next time", as she wrote in the note. One of my biggest regrets because I somehow feel deeply connected to this woman, irrelevant to having personally known her. I gather from all I've heard, she was as real and down to earth as it gets. (and still is, I do believe in that💜🌈)

Great song

Kite is my favorite album thanks to tracks like this. As always kirsty's lyrics and vocals are brilliant but the production turns this into a towering piece of work so the back story to this is really interesting. Thanks for sharing.

I love Kirsty,have been a fan for years. Always will be. Her voice gave character to her songs,she could paint with words as she sang and she had a real heart of gold. Beautiful woman inside and out 😍😇🤩

Colin Stuart thanks for this!

Great tune! Takes me right back to the early 90s …..

Great song thanks for sharing

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Kirsty MacColl

They Don’t Know released in June 1979

Ruffdog, You’re Up

The Johnny Marr demo for Madison

Keep On Trucking

Another Ballet Fix For You

Preserving The Old Ways

Sing-a-long-a-days

Regi ft. OT – ‘They Don’t Know’ | Liefde voor Muziek

Sing-a-long-a-Colombia-Nil

Matt Benson’s Looking For A New England

Kirsty on facebook

Kirsty Guest Book

Annual Meetup

Recent Posts

Related pages

How to support us

The Small Print & GDPR Policy