Kirsty Anna MacColl (Croydon, 10 October 1959 – Cozumel, Quintana Roo, 18 December 2000) was an English
singer and songwriter. She wrote and recorded several pop hits between
the early 1980s and the 1990s. In addition, she sang on hit recordings
produced by her then-husband Steve Lillywhite, notably on tracks by The Smiths and The Pogues.
At the age of 41, MacColl died after being hit by a boat in Mexico.
Early career
Kirsty MacColl was the daughter of folk singer Ewan MacColl and dancer Jean Newlove. She and her brother, Hamish MacColl, grew up with their mother in Croydon,
where Kirsty attended Park Hill Primary School, Monks Hill High School
and John Newnham High School, making appearances in school plays. At
the time of her birth, her father had been in a relationship with folk
singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Peggy Seeger since 1956 (a relationship that would continue until his death in 1989), and already had a son with her.
She came to notice when Chiswick Records released an EP by local punk rock band the Drug Addix with MacColl on backing vocals under the pseudonym Mandy Doubt (1978). Stiff Records executives were not impressed with the band, but liked her and subsequently signed her to a solo deal.
Debut single
Her debut solo single "They Don't Know",
released in 1979, peaked at number two on the Music Week airplay chart.
However, a distributors' strike prevented copies of the single getting
into record stores, and the single consequently failed to appear on the UK Singles Chart.
MacColl recorded a follow-up single, "You Caught Me Out", but felt she
lacked Stiff's full backing, and left the label shortly before the song
was to be released. The single was pulled, and only a few "white
label" promo copies of the single are known to exist.
MacColl moved to Polydor Records in 1981. She had a UK number 14 hit with "There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis", taken from her critically acclaimed debut album Desperate Character. In 1983, Polydor dropped her just as she had completed recording the songs for a planned second album (to be called Real) which used more synthesizers and had new wave-styled tracks. She returned to Stiff, where pop singles such as "Terry" and "He's On the Beach" were unsuccessful but a cover of Billy Bragg's "A New England"
in 1985 got to number 7 in the UK charts. This included two extra
verses specially written for her by Bragg. Also around this time,
MacColl wrote and performed the theme song "London Girls" for Channel 4's short-lived sitcom Dream Stuffing (1984).
In the United States, MacColl was probably most recognisable as the writer of "They Don't Know". Tracey Ullman's
version, reached #2 in the UK in 1983 and #8 in the United States in
early 1984; Ullman's video for the song featured a cameo by Paul McCartney
near the end. MacColl also sang back-up on the track, providing the
"Baay-byy" as the range was too high for Ullman to reach. It was also
played over the closing credits of Ullman's HBO show Tracey Takes On...
in 1996. Ullman also recorded three more of MacColl's songs, "You
Broke My Heart In 17 Places" and "You Caught Me Out", as the title
tracks of her first and second albums respectively, and "Terry" which
was released as a single in 1985.
Chart re-emergence
When Stiff went bankrupt in 1986, MacColl was left unable to record in
her own right, as no record company bought her contract from the Official Receiver.
However, she had regular session work as a backing vocalist, and she
frequently sang on records produced or engineered by her husband, Steve Lillywhite, including tracks for Robert Plant, The Smiths, Alison Moyet, Shriekback, Simple Minds, Talking Heads, Big Country, Anni-Frid Lyngstad (of ABBA), and The Wonder Stuff among others. She appeared in the videos "Welcome to the Cheap Seats" for The Wonder Stuff and "(Nothing But) Flowers" for Talking Heads (along with ex-The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr).
MacColl re-emerged in the British charts in December 1987, reaching Number 2 with The Pogues on "Fairytale of New York", a duet with Shane MacGowan.
This led to her accompanying The Pogues on their British and European
tour in 1988, an experience which she said helped her temporarily
overcome her stage fright. In March 1989, MacColl sang backing vocals on the Happy Mondays' Hallelujah EP.
After the contract issue was resolved, MacColl returned to recording as
a solo artist and received critical acclaim upon the release of Kite (LP) in 1989. The album was widely praised by critics, and featured collaborations with David Gilmour and Johnny Marr. MacColl's lyrics addressed life in Margaret Thatcher's Britain on "Free World", ridiculed the vapidity of fame in "Fifteen Minutes", and addressed the vagaries of love in "Don't Come The Cowboy With Me Sonny Jim!" Although Kite contained many original compositions, MacColl's biggest chart success from the album was the cover of The Kinks' song "Days", which gave her a UK Top 20 hit in July 1989. A bonus track on the CD version of Kite was a cover of the Smiths song "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby".
During this time, MacColl was also featured on the British sketch comedy French and Saunders, appearing as herself, singing songs including "15 Minutes" and "Don't Come The Cowboy With Me Sunny Jim!" (from Kite),
"Still Life" (the B-side of the "Days" single), "Girls On Bikes" (a
reworking of B-side "Am I Right?") and, with comedy duo Raw Sex, the Frank and Nancy Sinatra hit "Somethin' Stupid". She continued to write and record, releasing the album Electric Landlady (coined by Johnny Marr, a play on the Jimi Hendrix album title Electric Ladyland), including her most successful chart hit in North America, "Walking Down Madison" (co-written with Marr and a Top 30 hit in the UK), in 1991. Despite the song's U.S. chart success, Landlady was not a hit for Virgin Records, and in 1992, when Virgin was sold to EMI, MacColl was dropped from the label.
Later work
She released Titanic Days, informed by her failing marriage with Lillywhite, in 1993, but ZTT Records
had agreed only to release the album as a "one-off" and declined to
sign her to a contract. In 1995, she released two new singles on Virgin,
"Caroline" and a cover of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" (a duet with Evan Dando), together with the "best of" compilation Galore.
Galore became MacColl's only album to reach the top 10 in the UK Albums Chart,
but neither of the new singles, nor a re-released "Days", made the Top
40. MacColl did not record again for several years; her frustration
with the music business was exacerbated by a lengthy case of writer's
block. MacColl herself admitted that she was ready to give up her music
career and become an English teacher in South America.
In 1998, the album What Do Pretty Girls Do? was released, containing BBC Radio 1 live sessions (featuring Billy Bragg on two songs) that were broadcast between 1989 and 1995.
After several trips to Cuba and Brazil, MacColl recorded the world music-inspired (particularly Cuban and other Latin American forms) Tropical Brainstorm,
which was released in 2000 to critical acclaim. It included the song
"In These Shoes?", which garnered airplay in the U.S., was covered by Bette Midler and featured in the HBO show Sex and the City. After MacColl's death it was adopted by Catherine Tate as the theme tune for her BBC TV show and featured on the soundtrack to British film Kinky Boots.
TV work
MacColl featured regularly in the third series of the French and Saunders Show,
a comedy show on the BBC. Unlike other guests on the show, she was not
part of any of the sketches but sang her songs whilst performing as in
a music video. She also made regular appearances on Jools Holland's TV shows, also on the BBC, singing during the 1995 Hootenanny a rendition of "Miss Otis Regrets" with the Pipes and Drums of the Irish Guards.
MacColl appeared in the 1991 Channel 4 historic musical fantasy The Ghosts of Oxford Street as Kitty Fisher, performing "Fairytale of New York" opposite Shane MacGowan as the Duke of York.
Death
In 2000, following her participation in the presentation of a radio programme for the British Broadcasting Corporation in Cuba, MacColl took a holiday in Cozumel, Mexico,
with her sons and her partner, musician James Knight. On 18 December
2000 she and her sons went diving at the Chankanaab reef, part of the
National Marine Park of Cozumel, in a designated diving area that
watercraft were restricted from entering. With the group was a local
veteran divemaster, Iván Díaz. As the group were surfacing from a dive a
powerboat moving at high speed entered the restricted area. MacColl
saw the boat coming before her sons did; Louis (then 13) was not in its
path, but Jamie (then 15) was, she was able to push him out of the way
(he sustained minor head and rib injuries) but in doing so she was
struck by the boat and died instantly. MacColl's body was repatriated
back across the Atlantic Ocean to the United Kingdom, and was cremated after a humanist funeral at Mortlake Crematorium in South-West London.
The powerboat involved in the collision was controlled by Guillermo González Nova, multimillionaire president of the Comercial Mexicana supermarket chain, who was on board with members of his family. The boat was owned by Carlos González Nova, brother and founder of the chain. One employee of Guillermo González Nova, boathand José Cen Yam, stated that he was in control of the boat at the time of the incident. Eyewitnesses said that Cen Yam was not at the controls and that the boat was travelling much faster than the speed of one knot that González Nova said.
Cen Yam was found guilty of culpable homicide and was sentenced to 2 years 10 months in prison. He was allowed under Mexican law to pay a punitive fine of 1,034 pesos (about €63, £61 or US$90) in lieu of the prison sentence. He was also ordered to pay approximately US$2,150 in restitution to MacColl's family, an amount based on his wages. People who said they spoke to Cen Yam after the killing said he received money for taking the blame.
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