Goodbye Mr. MacKenzie - Green Turn Red (1993)

Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie formed in Bathgate in 1984 out of the remnants of local post-punk acts Lipstick and Irrelevant, relocating to Edinburgh shortly after the release of their debut split single with Lindy Bergman 'Death Of A Salesman', which came out on West Lothian College's Scruples label, after they spotted a newspaper advert looking for demos. The band were led by vocalist/guitarist Martin Metcalfe, alongside keyboard player Rhona Scobie, bass player Chuck Parker and drummer Derek Kelly, alongside backing vocalists Shirley Manson and Hilary McLean. Both Jamie Waterson (bass) and Ewan Drysdale (keyboards) had been members prior to the single, and Manson had previously been a member of Autumn 1904 and the Wild Indians, who produced one single and one side of a shared album. A second single, 'The Rattler', was recorded for the Precious label, and although a couple of reviewers detected a Bruce Springsteen influence, Metcalfe was never a huge fan. The single was produced by Wilf Smarties, fresh from recording Wet Wet Wet demos, and who was looking to be involved with a more edgy outfit, and he managed the band for a while, but they parted company over a clash of  their musical tastes. After acquiring new management in 1987, they moved on to Clandestine Records for a limited edition 12-inch, 'Face To Face', with the proceeds going to the Rape Crisis Centre, in keeping with the song's theme. They then signed to Capitol via A&R man Simon Potts in February 1988, and at this stage Big John Duncan (ex-The Exploited) joined on guitar, and Fin Wilson became their bass-player. 

They were initially subject to substantial backing, both from Capitol and the press, culminating in a session for the Janice Long show and appearances on The Tube and The Chart Show. Three singles preceded the release of their debut album , with a re-recording of 'The Rattler' breaking the UK Top 40, and 'Good Deeds And Dirty Rags' was released in 1989, reaching the UK Top 30. The band proved unable to sustain this commercial success, however, and although 'Goodwill City', a biting condemnation of the rising AIDS problem affecting Edinburgh, was excellent, its commercial performance was disappointing after their breakthrough with 'The Rattler'. The lack of chart success led to them moving sideways within EMI to Parlophone for the follow-up singles 'Love Child' and 'Blacker Than Black', and sessions commenced in Berlin at the end of 1989 for their second album. Although 'Hammer And Tongs' was completed quite quickly, it was not issued until March 1991, when MCA subsidiary Radioactive bought the band out of their EMI contract and released the album. When it did emerge the critics were impressed, with Nick Terry writing in Select that "while Marti Pellow of Wet Wet Wet favours sweetness, smiles and Beatles covers, Martin Metcalfe of Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie prefers snarls, Iggy Pop, Nick Cave and a few bars of David Bowie's 'Heroes'". 

A new song was recorded on a return trip to Berlin, with the 1991 single 'Now We Are Married' being the band's attempt at perfect pop, and despite most people thinking it would be a great song to walk down the aisle to, it was really about Metcalfe's opposition to marriage, feeling that marriage was not about making a commitment to each other, but it was more like making a pact with the devil. Rhona Scobie left during the European tour to promote 'Hammer And Tongs', and the band were forced to move to their own Blokshok imprint, with the 1993 releases on the label, the live album 'On The Day Of Storms', and their next studio record 'Five', both failing to revive interest outside of the band's existing fanbase. By 1995 they had trimmed down to Metcalfe, Kelly and Finn, alongside guitarist Neil Duncanson, but ongoing problems with drug and alcohol rehabilitation meant that by 1998 Goodbye Mr. MacKenzie were no more, leaving us with one final studio album 'The Glory Hole'. Shirley Manson went on to form Garbage with Butch Vig, Steve Marker and Duke Erikson, while Metcalfe and Kelly are now part of the Isa And The Filthy Tongues project, alongside Portland born singer Stacey Chavis. Goodbye Mr. MacKenzie were yet another under-rated and mostly forgotten band of the late 80's that should have been able to capitalise on the success of their brilliant single 'The Rattler', but they just never got the breaks, and so this collection of rare singles and b-sides can give us an idea of what they could have achieved. 

Track listing

Disc I - 1984-1989

01 Death Of A Salesman (split single with Lindy Bergmann 1984)
02 The End (We Never Got The Way That We Should Go) (b-side of 'The Rattler' 1986)
03 Face To Face (single 1987)
04 Green Turn Red (b-side of 'Goodbye Mr. MacKenzie' 1988)
05 Stars And Bars (b-side of 'Goodbye Mr. MacKenzie' 1988)
06 Pleasure Search (b-side of 'Open Your Arms' 1988)
07 Here Comes Deacon Brodie (b-side of re-recording of 'The Rattler' 1989)  
08 I'm Sick Of You (b-side of 'Goodwill City' 1989)
09 What's Got Into You (b-side of 'Goodwill City' 1989)
10 Insidious Thing (b-side of 'Goodwill City' 1989)

Disc II - 1989-1993
11 Strangle Your Animal (bonus track with vinyl edition of 'Good Deeds And Dirty Rags' 1989)
12 Somewhere In China (out-take from 'Good Deeds And Dirty Rags' 1989)        
13 Heroes (b-side of 'Love Child' 1990)
14 Green Green Grass Of Home (b-side of 'Blacker Than Black' 1990)
15 Mad Cow Disease (b-side of 'Blacker Than Black' 1990)
16 Friday's Child (b-side of 'Now We Are Married' 1991)
17 Candlestick Park (II) (b-side of 'Now We Are Married' 1991)
18 Candy Says (b-side of 'Now We Are Married' 1991)
19 Mystery Train (b-side of 'Goodwill City Live' 1993) 
20 Working On The Shoo-Fly (b-side of 'Goodwill City Live' 1993) 

Shirley Manson - Noir (2018)

When Garbage were on hiatus in the second half of the 2000's, Shirley Manson set about working on a solo album, which reportedly featured a collaboration with Rivers Cuomo, but when she brought the material to her then-label Geffen, she was told it was 'too dark', as they had envisioned Manson having international radio hits and becoming the 'Annie Lennox of her generation'. She and Geffen subsequently parted ways and she continued working on solo material, and also considered leaving the music industry behind entirely, but then Garbage reunited and released albums in the 2010's, and the solo album was put on the back burner. Some of the songs have since appeared online, with 'In The Snow' and 'Pretty Horses' surfacing in 2009, followed by 'Lighten Up' the next year, and Manson posted 'Dark Hearts And Heart Beats' on her Facebook page in 2015, but investigation has discovered that it was copyrighted in 2010, and was therefore part of the solo album recordings. Manson also collaborated with other artists, and provided songs for TV and film soundtracks throughout the decade, and so there are actually enough songs out there to make up a 'solo' album for her. I've done a bit of work on 'Brass Muscles', which was a 54-second piece that appeared on the soundtrack to the TV series 'Wet Hot American Summer', and by repeating the verse and chorus and then adding a coda to fade out I've expanded it to sound like an actual song of almost two minutes. Even on the collaborations Manson takes most of the lead vocals, and so by mixing her own demos with the duets we end up with a very creditable solo album from her, and as she used to refer to it as her 'noir record', that's what I've called it. 

Track listing

01 In The Snow (demo 2009)
02 Samson And Delilah (from the 'Terminator' TV series 2008)
03 The Hunger (single from 'Prometheus Bound' rock musical 2011) 
04 Lighten Up (demo 2010)
05 Meet The Foetus / Oh The Joy (duet with Brody Dalle from 'Diplod Love' 2017)
06 Dark Hearts And Heart Beats (recorded 2010, uploaded 2015) 
07 Queen Of The Bored (with Brian Reitzell from 'American Gods' TV series 2017)
08 Pretty Horses (demo 2010)
09 Brass Muscles (with Craig Wedren from 'Wet Hot American Summer' soundtrack 2015)
10 Shame, You're All I've Got (from 'Cry Is For The Flies' with Le Butcherettes 2014)
11 The Sun (single with Pondus 2018)