The Associates (or simply Associates) were a Scottish
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...
and
pop band, formed in
Dundee
Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...
in 1979 by singer
Billy Mackenzie
William MacArthur Mackenzie (27 March 1957 – 22 January 1997) was a Scottish singer and songwriter, known for his distinctive high tenor voice. He was the co-founder and lead vocalist of post-punk and new wave band the Associates. He also h ...
and guitarist
Alan Rankine
Alan Rankine (17 May 1958 – 3 January 2023) was a Scottish musician and record producer best known as keyboardist and guitarist for rock band the Associates, which he co-founded with lead vocalist Billy Mackenzie in the late 1970s.
Early l ...
. The group first gained recognition after releasing an unauthorized cover of
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
's "
Boys Keep Swinging
"Boys Keep Swinging" is a song by English musician David Bowie, released on 27 April 1979 by RCA Records in the United Kingdom as the lead single from his 1979 album '' Lodger''. It was written by Bowie and Brian Eno and recorded in Montreux a ...
" as their debut single in 1979, which landed them a contract with
Fiction Records
Fiction Records is a British record label founded by Chris Parry in 1978, owned by Universal Music Group and based in the United Kingdom. It is best known for being the home of The Cure for over 20 years. It was originally a part of Polydor, ...
.
They followed with their debut album ''
The Affectionate Punch
''The Affectionate Punch'' is the debut studio album by Scottish post-punk and new wave band The Associates. It was released on 1 August 1980 on the Fiction label.
The song title "Even Dogs in the Wild" became the title of a novel by Scottish ...
'' in 1980 and the singles collection ''
Fourth Drawer Down
''Fourth Drawer Down'' is a compilation album by Scottish post-punk and new wave band the Associates, released in October 1981 by independent record label Situation Two. It compiles the A- and B-sides from the six singles the band released that ...
'' in 1981, both to critical praise.
They achieved commercial success in 1982 with the UK Top 10 album ''
Sulk
''Sulk'' is the second studio album by Scottish post-punk and pop band the Associates. It was released on 14 May 1982 on their own Associates imprint of Beggars Banquet Records for the UK and throughout the rest of Europe on WEA Records and i ...
'' and UK Top 20 singles "
Party Fears Two
"Party Fears Two" is a song by Scottish new wave band the Associates, written by Billy Mackenzie and Alan Rankine. It was included on their second studio album ''Sulk'' (1982) and released as both a 7-inch and 12-inch single with the preceding t ...
" and "Club Country", during which time they were associated with the
New Pop
New Pop was a loosely defined British-centric pop music movement consisting of ambitious, DIY-minded artists who achieved commercial success in the early 1980s through sources such as MTV. Rooted in the post-punk movement of the late 1970s, the ...
movement.
Rankine left the group that year, leaving MacKenzie to record under the Associates name until 1990.
They briefly reunited in 1993. MacKenzie died by suicide in 1997.
History
1979–1982: Formation and independent success
Billy Mackenzie
William MacArthur Mackenzie (27 March 1957 – 22 January 1997) was a Scottish singer and songwriter, known for his distinctive high tenor voice. He was the co-founder and lead vocalist of post-punk and new wave band the Associates. He also h ...
and guitarist
Alan Rankine
Alan Rankine (17 May 1958 – 3 January 2023) was a Scottish musician and record producer best known as keyboardist and guitarist for rock band the Associates, which he co-founded with lead vocalist Billy Mackenzie in the late 1970s.
Early l ...
met in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1976 and formed the
cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...
duo the Ascorbic Ones,
although Rankine claimed that this was "a fantasy band that Bill and I dreamt up to give ourselves a past".
In 1978, they recorded songs as Mental Torture before changing the name to the Associates.
Disappointed that their early recordings were not getting picked up, Mackenzie concocted the stunt of doing a cover of
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
's "
Boys Keep Swinging
"Boys Keep Swinging" is a song by English musician David Bowie, released on 27 April 1979 by RCA Records in the United Kingdom as the lead single from his 1979 album '' Lodger''. It was written by Bowie and Brian Eno and recorded in Montreux a ...
", without copyright permission, just six weeks after Bowie's version hit the UK Top 10.
Released in June 1979, this debut Associates single reached No. 15 in ''
Record Mirror
''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper between 1954 and 1991 for pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after the ''NME'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK album chart was published in ''Re ...
''s Scottish chart and gained them airplay on
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...
's
Radio One show.
MacKenzie later said that the band recorded the Bowie song "to prove the point. It was a strange way of proving it, but it worked. People said, 'That is ''awful''. How dare they!'" The ensuing attention earned them a contract with
Fiction Records
Fiction Records is a British record label founded by Chris Parry in 1978, owned by Universal Music Group and based in the United Kingdom. It is best known for being the home of The Cure for over 20 years. It was originally a part of Polydor, ...
, and their debut album, ''
The Affectionate Punch
''The Affectionate Punch'' is the debut studio album by Scottish post-punk and new wave band The Associates. It was released on 1 August 1980 on the Fiction label.
The song title "Even Dogs in the Wild" became the title of a novel by Scottish ...
'', followed on 1 August 1980.
By this time the duo of Mackenzie and Rankine had been joined by bassist Michael Dempsey and drummer John Murphy, though in most promotional material the group were still marketed as a duo.
A string of 1981 non-album singles on the label
Situation Two
Situation Two (a.k.a. Situation 2) was a British independent record label founded in 1981 by Peter Kent as an offshoot of the Beggars Banquet label. At the time, Beggars Banquet releases were often distributed by WEA; to appeal to the indie ...
were compiled as ''
Fourth Drawer Down
''Fourth Drawer Down'' is a compilation album by Scottish post-punk and new wave band the Associates, released in October 1981 by independent record label Situation Two. It compiles the A- and B-sides from the six singles the band released that ...
'', released that October. These releases saw the band develop an interest in experimenting with unorthodox instrumentation and recording techniques, including sounds being amplified through the tube of a vacuum cleaner on the track "Kitchen Person". Also in 1981, Rankine and Mackenzie released a version of "
Kites
A kite is a tethered heavier than air flight, heavier-than-air or lighter-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create Lift (force), lift and Drag (physics), drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. ...
" under the name 39 Lyon Street, with Christine Beveridge on lead vocals. The
B-side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...
, "A Girl Named Property" (a remake of "Mona Property Girl" from the "Boys Keep Swinging" single), was credited to the Associates.
1982–1988: WEA/Warner years
As Situation Two's parent label
Beggars Banquet
''Beggars Banquet'' is the 7th British and 9th American studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 6 December 1968 by Decca Records in the United Kingdom and London Records in the United States. It was the first Ro ...
had a labels deal with
WEA International
Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...
at the time (primarily for Gary Numan), the Associates found themselves signed to Warner with their releases now going out on their own Associates record label. The band's breakthrough came in 1982 with the release of the single "
Party Fears Two
"Party Fears Two" is a song by Scottish new wave band the Associates, written by Billy Mackenzie and Alan Rankine. It was included on their second studio album ''Sulk'' (1982) and released as both a 7-inch and 12-inch single with the preceding t ...
". Buoyed along by the popularity of synthpop at the time, the song reached No. 9 on the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
with the band becoming one of the leading acts of the
new pop
New Pop was a loosely defined British-centric pop music movement consisting of ambitious, DIY-minded artists who achieved commercial success in the early 1980s through sources such as MTV. Rooted in the post-punk movement of the late 1970s, the ...
movement. Two other hits followed, "Club Country" and "18 Carat Love Affair". On 14 May 1982, the band released their most commercially successful album, ''
Sulk
''Sulk'' is the second studio album by Scottish post-punk and pop band the Associates. It was released on 14 May 1982 on their own Associates imprint of Beggars Banquet Records for the UK and throughout the rest of Europe on WEA Records and i ...
''.
Martha Ladly
Martha Jane Ladly is a Canadian academic, designer and musician. She is a professor of design at OCAD University. Ladly also has had a long career as a musician and achieved international fame as part of rock band Martha and the Muffins. She ha ...
, of
Martha and the Muffins
Martha and the Muffins are a Canadian rock band, active from 1977 to the present. Although they only had one major international hit single "Echo Beach" under their original band name, they had a number of hits in their native Canada, and the c ...
, contributed backing vocals and keyboards to this album.
![Billy-Mackenzie-Dundee-Scotland-1985](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Billy-Mackenzie-Dundee-Scotland-1985.jpg)
Rankine left the band in 1982 just before the ''Sulk'' tour. This proved disastrous for the band's career; the band was being courted by
Seymour Stein
Seymour Stein (born April 18, 1942) is an American entrepreneur and music executive. He co-founded Sire Records and was Vice President of Warner Bros. Records. With Sire, Stein signed bands that became central to the new wave era of the 1970s a ...
of
Sire Records
Sire Records (formerly Sire Records Company) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Records.
History Beginnings
The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer ...
, but without MacKenzie's willingness to tour, Stein lost interest. Mackenzie continued to write and record music under the name Associates until 1990. In 1985 the album ''
Perhaps'' was released and charted at No. 23 in the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
.
In 1988, WEA/Warner rejected the fourth Associates album ''The Glamour Chase'' considering it not commercially viable (it was later released on a two-disc set with ''Perhaps''). However, they decided to release Mackenzie's synthpop/techno-pop cover of "Heart of Glass" as a single and also put the track on the record company's ''Vaultage From The Electric Lighting Station'' compilation. This track was to be Mackenzie's last release whilst under contract to WEA in the United Kingdom, as he signed to
AVL/Virgin subsidiary Circa Records (still under the Associates name at this point). "Heart of Glass" was released in September 1988 on a number of formats including a 12 inch single with an anaglyphic 3-D cover (which came with 3-D glasses) and a CD single. It reached number 56 on the UK Singles Chart and was put on ''Popera: The Singles Collection'', by WEA in 1990 alongside withdrawn follow-up single "Country Boy", and a version of the Mackenzie/
Boris Blank song, "The Rhythm Divine".
Between 1987 and 1992, Mackenzie worked with Blank and musical partner
Dieter Meier
Dieter Meier (born 4 March 1945) is a Swiss industrialist, musician and conceptual artist. He is the frontman of the electronic music group Yello, which was co-founded (with ex-member Carlos Perón) by music producer Boris Blank. He is a vocali ...
of
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
avant-garde outfit
Yello
Yello is a Swiss electronic music band, which formed in Zürich in 1979. For most of the band's history, Yello has been a duo consisting of Dieter Meier and Boris Blank; founding member Carlos Perón left in 1983.
Their sound is often charac ...
. Mackenzie wrote the lyrics of the song "The Rhythm Divine", which can also be found on the Yello album, ''
One Second'', with lead vocals by
Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey (; born 8 January 1937) is a Welsh singer. Best known for her career longevity, powerful voice and recording the theme songs to three James Bond films, Bassey is widely regarded as one of the most popular vocalists ...
and Mackenzie singing backing vocals. During these years Mackenzie contributed to three Yello albums: ''One Second'' (1987), ''Flag'' (1988) and ''Baby'' (1991), whilst tracks for ''The Glamour Chase'' and ''Outernational'' were recorded with Blank at Yello's
recording studio
A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enoug ...
.
1989–1997: Circa and solo years
After his fourth album was rejected and "Country Boy" single scrapped, Mackenzie signed to
AVL/Virgin subsidiary Circa Records, to release the fifth Associates album ''
Wild and Lonely
''Wild and Lonely'' is the fourth studio album by the Scottish act the Associates. The album was released on 24 March 1990 by AVL/Virgin subsidiary Circa Records, a label MacKenzie had signed to after WEA/Warner rejected the fourth Associates ...
'' (the fourth studio album to be released during Billy Mackenzie's lifetime).
[''The Glamour Chase: The Maverick Life of Billy Mackenzie'' by Tom Doyle (published by Birlinn General )] The album was released on 24 March 1990 and was produced by Australian record producer
Julian Mendelsohn
Julian Mendelsohn is an Australian record producer, audio engineer and mixer.
Early life
After completing school in Australia, Mendelsohn moved to the United Kingdom. He secured his first job in 1974 at Milner Sound Fulham Rd. Chelsea, run b ...
. It peaked at No. 71 on the UK Albums Chart and had three singles charting in the lower parts of the UK Singles Chart with "Fever", "Fire to Ice" and "Just Can't Say Goodbye", peaking at numbers 81, 92 and 79 respectively.
''
Wild and Lonely
''Wild and Lonely'' is the fourth studio album by the Scottish act the Associates. The album was released on 24 March 1990 by AVL/Virgin subsidiary Circa Records, a label MacKenzie had signed to after WEA/Warner rejected the fourth Associates ...
'' was the last album Mackenzie recorded under the name The Associates, as from this point his releases would go out under his own name. However, recordings were sporadic and subsequent records failed to reach the UK chart and sold far fewer than their/his early albums. In 1992, Mackenzie released an electronica-influenced solo album, ''Outernational'', for Circa Records with limited success.
In 1993, Mackenzie and Rankine began working on new material together. News of an Associates revival generated hype and speculation of a tour, and the demos recorded by the two were promising. However, Mackenzie was not fully committed to the reunion and especially touring with it, so Associates split for a final time. Mackenzie went back to his solo work, signing a deal with
Nude Records
Nude Records is an independent record label, established in August 1991 in London. The label was set up and operated by Saul Galpern, who had previously worked with artists such as Simply Red, The Fall, Julian Cope, The Triffids, The Slits and ...
and finding a new collaborative partner in Steve Aungle.
Rankine later became a lecturer in music at
Stow College
Stow College was a college in Glasgow in Scotland.
History
The college was named after David Stow, whose primary teaching seminary was founded close to the college at Dundasvale. Stow was the first purpose-built Further Education college in Gl ...
in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, and worked with
Belle and Sebastian
Belle and Sebastian are a Scottish indie pop band formed in Glasgow in 1996. Led by Stuart Murdoch, the band has released eleven albums. They are often compared with acts such as The Smiths and Nick Drake. The name "Belle and Sebastian" come ...
on their 1996 debut album, ''
Tigermilk
''Tigermilk'' is the 1996 debut album from Scottish pop group Belle and Sebastian. Originally given a limited release (1,000 copies) by Electric Honey, the album was subsequently re-released in 1999 by Jeepster Records.
The album is name ...
''.
1997–present: Legacy releases
Mackenzie committed suicide in 1997 at age 39, shortly after the death of his mother. He had been suffering from
clinical depression
Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Introdu ...
. He was contemplating a comeback at the time with material co-written with Aungle. The albums ''Beyond the Sun'' (1997) and ''Eurocentric'' (2000) were released posthumously and, in 2004, reconstructed and expanded with new unreleased songs into the two albums ''Auchtermatic'' and ''Transmission Impossible''.
Before Mackenzie's death, almost all Associates records had been deleted. Former band member
Michael Dempsey
Michael Stephen Dempsey (born 29 November 1958) is an English musician and composer, who has played bass as a member of several post-punk and new wave bands, including the Cure and the Associates.
History
Early years
Dempsey was born on 29 ...
and the MacKenzie estate began a reissue programme to make sure the band's legacy continued, reissuing almost every Associates album, including a 25th anniversary edition of ''The Affectionate Punch'' in 2005. In addition to the original albums, two
compilation album
A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...
s were 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 finally released as a set titled ''The Glamour Chase & Perhaps''. Finally, ''Wild and Lonely'' and Mackenzie's solo album ''Outernational'' were repackaged with bonus tracks in 2006.
The Tom Doyle book ''The Glamour Chase: The Maverick Life of Billy Mackenzie'', first published in 1998 and reissued in 2011, documented the band's career and Mackenzie's subsequent life.
Legacy and influence
The Associates drew stylistically on a variety of genres, including
art rock
Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an art ...
,
disco
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...
,
glam,
minimalism
In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...
,
ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
ry and
cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...
.
Their music has been described as
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...
,
synth-pop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...
,
new wave and
experimental pop
Experimental pop is pop music that cannot be categorized within traditional musical boundaries or which attempts to push elements of existing popular forms into new areas. It may incorporate experimental techniques such as musique concrète, al ...
.
The group was hailed by the likes of
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has de ...
and
U2 singer
Bono
Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by his stage name Bono (), is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, and philanthropist. He is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band U2.
Born and raised in Dublin, he attended M ...
. Björk stated that her "love affair with the Associates started when I was fifteen
.. it was ''Sulk'' I really got into". "I really admired the way Billy used and manipulated his voice on that record".
Bono said about the Associates: "We ripped them off. Billy was a great singer: I couldn't rip him off".
Artists who have covered "Party Fears Two", include
the Divine Comedy
The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and ...
,
Dan Bryk
Dan Waldemar Bryk (born September 23, 1970) is a Canadian-born singer-songwriter and recording artist. Originally from Toronto, Bryk is currently based in Durham, North Carolina. A songwriter and keyboard player, Bryk has released five full-leng ...
,
King Creosote
Kenny Anderson (born January 1967), known primarily by his stage name King Creosote, is an independent singer-songwriter from Fife, Scotland. To date, Anderson has released over forty albums, with his latest full length, '' Astronaut Meets Apple ...
and
Heaven 17
Heaven 17 are an English new wave and synth-pop band that formed in Sheffield in 1980. The band were a trio for most of their career, composed of Martyn Ware (keyboards) and Ian Craig Marsh (keyboards) (both previously of the Human League), an ...
. Journalist
Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds (born 19 June 1963) is an English music journalist and author who began his professional career on the staff of ''Melody Maker'' in the mid-1980s. He has since gone on to freelance and publish a number of full-length books on music ...
, called the group "great should-have-beens of British pop". Chris Tighe wrote that the band have "been belated acknowledged as one of the '80s' most inspired pop groups".
Ian Rankin
Sir Ian James Rankin (born 28 April 1960) is a Scottish crime writer, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels.
Early life
Rankin was born in Cardenden, Fife. His father, James, owned a grocery shop, and his mother, Isobel, worked in a schoo ...
took the title of his 2015 Rebus novel, ''Even Dogs in the Wild'', from a track on ''The Affectionate Punch'', and the song itself has a role in the story.
Band members
*
Billy Mackenzie
William MacArthur Mackenzie (27 March 1957 – 22 January 1997) was a Scottish singer and songwriter, known for his distinctive high tenor voice. He was the co-founder and lead vocalist of post-punk and new wave band the Associates. He also h ...
– lead vocals, guitar
(1979–1990, 1993)
*
Alan Rankine
Alan Rankine (17 May 1958 – 3 January 2023) was a Scottish musician and record producer best known as keyboardist and guitarist for rock band the Associates, which he co-founded with lead vocalist Billy Mackenzie in the late 1970s.
Early l ...
– guitars, keyboards
(1979–1982, 1993)
* John Sweeney – drums
(1979–1980)
*
John Murphy – drums
(1980–1981)
*
Michael Dempsey
Michael Stephen Dempsey (born 29 November 1958) is an English musician and composer, who has played bass as a member of several post-punk and new wave bands, including the Cure and the Associates.
History
Early years
Dempsey was born on 29 ...
– bass guitar
(1980–1982)
*
Steve Goulding
Steve Goulding (born 1954) is an English drummer, who has played as a member of Graham Parker and The Rumour, The Associates, Poi Dog Pondering, The Waco Brothers, Sally Timms and the Drifting Cowgirls and The Mekons. He also played the drums ...
– drums
(1982–1983)
*
Martha Ladly
Martha Jane Ladly is a Canadian academic, designer and musician. She is a professor of design at OCAD University. Ladly also has had a long career as a musician and achieved international fame as part of rock band Martha and the Muffins. She ha ...
– keyboards, backing vocals
(1982-1986)
* Miffy Smith - keyboards, saxophone
(1983-1984)
* Martin Lowe – live guitar
(1982)
* Ian McIntosh – live and radio session guitar
(1982–1985)
* Steve Reid – guitar
(1982–1984)
* Roberto Soave – bass guitar
(1983–1985)
* Jim Russell – drums
(1984)
*
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...
– keyboards
(1982–1990)
*
Moritz von Oswald
Moritz von Oswald (born 1962) is a German record producer and percussionist from Hamburg and based in Berlin. He is a co-founder of the production duo and record label Basic Channel. He has collaborated with Juan Atkins, Carl Craig, and Nils Pett ...
– drums, percussion
(1985–1990)
Discography
*''
The Affectionate Punch
''The Affectionate Punch'' is the debut studio album by Scottish post-punk and new wave band The Associates. It was released on 1 August 1980 on the Fiction label.
The song title "Even Dogs in the Wild" became the title of a novel by Scottish ...
'' (1980)
*''
Sulk
''Sulk'' is the second studio album by Scottish post-punk and pop band the Associates. It was released on 14 May 1982 on their own Associates imprint of Beggars Banquet Records for the UK and throughout the rest of Europe on WEA Records and i ...
'' (1982)
*''
Perhaps'' (1985)
*''
Wild and Lonely
''Wild and Lonely'' is the fourth studio album by the Scottish act the Associates. The album was released on 24 March 1990 by AVL/Virgin subsidiary Circa Records, a label MacKenzie had signed to after WEA/Warner rejected the fourth Associates ...
'' (1990)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Associates, The (band)
Scottish new wave musical groups
Scottish pop music groups
Scottish musical duos
British synth-pop new wave groups
Musical groups established in 1979
Musical groups disestablished in 1990
Musicians from Dundee
New wave duos
Fiction Records artists
Situation Two artists
Beggars Banquet Records artists
Sire Records artists
Charisma Records artists
V2 Records artists
Warner Music Group artists
Virgin Records artists
Experimental pop musicians
Rock music duos
Scottish post-punk music groups