S. Rankine, however, in a dispute over the band's post- Sulk direction, decided to cut ties with Mackenzie on the eve of the Sulk tour, effectively ending The Associates' brief flirtation with mainstream success. 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 (the fourth studio album to be released during Billy Mackenzie's lifetime). In all the time that we played live together, he never bought a drink and if you went to a party with him, he would start rummaging through the bins looking for something to eat.

Anyway you are missing a jewel In Billy McKenzie's crown, Outernational be on the look out for that one. Former band member Michael Dempsey 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. Rankine said that the excessive spending influenced the sound of the album: "If we hadn't spent the money, the album wouldn't have got made in the way it did. Vote up content that is on-topic, within the rules/guidelines, and will likely stay relevant long-term. Twanging bass has you tapping your foot from the off on the addictively alluring Skipping, a song which just increases in intensity the more you listen, with Billy releasing the true depths of his warm brogue.The fact that every single note on Sulk matters, and that it is still the most extravagant, joyous, indulgent (in a good way), downright weird and most important pop record ever made, more than a quarter of a century after its making. This 40th Anniversary Limited Edition 12” Bookpack celebrates Sulk with the original album remastered on 140g Blue Vinyl for the first time. Born in Stirlingshire in 1958, Rankine formed the Associates in 1979 with singer Billy Mackenzie, having made early recordings with him under the name Mental Torture. The second half of Sulk lets the light back in, Skipping is a gorgeous song that balances funk with melancholy and looks beyond the bleak stuff, "doors lead to other doors, roads lead to other roads- they're simple, they just happen.

Why were "The Associate" and "A Girl Named Property" included when they were clearly from “Fourth Drawer Down” is a mystery.Billy MacKenzie's four octave voice is unique, not for its stretch, but for its resonating deep tenderness, and the way it can easily go from the softest of ballads to soaring diva heights in a matter of seconds.