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The Kirsty MacColl web site
INFORMATION
This page has recent but not current news.
19 December 2005
Some TV dates for your diaries:
The Story of Fairytale of New York airs on BBC3 at the following times: Monday night 19-20 December @ 21:00 and 01:55, Thursday night 22-23 December @ 23:30 and 02:25, Saturday night 24-25 December @ 00:40. Also Ne'er Day 1-2 January at 00:45 Duration: 1 hour. Uncovering the stories behind famous songs. For the first time in 18 years, all eight members of the Pogues return to the studio where their biggest hit and the nation's favourite Christmas song was recorded. Producer Steve Lillywhite strips Fairytale down to the basics and video director Peter Dougherty reveals the tricks behind the making of the video - including how a cameo from Hollywood star Matt Dillon stopped the Pogues from almost being arrested. *** Includes footage of Kirstyfest in Soho Square ***
It's Christmas with Jonathan Ross on BBC
1, Thursday 22nd December 2005. Time: 20:00 to 21:00.
Jonathan Ross celebrates all things Christmassy, revealing the world's weirdest
and most wonderful festive traditions and exposing the British public's true
feelings about the experience. Joining Jonathan are the brightest stars from
the top of the entertainment tree, including Barbara Windsor and Jools Holland.
Musical magic comes from Roy Wood, while The Pogues are joined
by Katie Melua for the group's first television performance
of the classic Fairy Tale Of New York since 1988.
12 December 2005
Please note that we have now repaired the bug which was preventing new users from registering with the Forum. All are welcome.
12 December 2005
The Pogues Christmas tour is now under way. Tonight's opener in Cardiff was due to feature Cerys Matthews in the coveted Kirsty Karaoke spot.
"I'd be honoured if someone did me (on Stars In their Eyes)" Kirsty MacColl, 2000.
Some quotes from the Pogues mesage board:
"The christmas trees on the stage and the snow falling really set fairytale off.Cerys matthews did a wonderful job preforming with Shane, its just a shame kirsty couldnt be there.Although i dare say she was there in spirit."
30 November 2005
Everyone involved with the reissue of Fairytale of New York is hoping to land the No.1 spot so cruelly denied it by the Pet Shop Boys way back in 1987. Can we make this a reality?
We are urging everyone to buy the single, in any or all of its formats, as well as the digital download version. Buy it for Christmas presents, buy it so you have a copy in every room!
Important Note!
We are reliably informed that purchases of more than 3 copies at one time do not count towards the chart figures. It is therefore not helpful to buy more than a couple of copies in any one transaction. Go back the day after, or to another shop!
HMV, Virgin and Woolworths are the best places to buy from or on Amazon to count properly for chart entries.
21 November 2005
The
Pogues are to re-issue the classic Fairytale of
New York on WEA in time for Christmas - we think December 19th. The
three formats of the reissue - 7" vinyl (backed with Battle
March Medley), CD (with an instrumental singalong
version) and DVD (including the video and a live Top
Of The Pops performance) - all feature the
Pogues/Kirsty original recording from 1987. The band is donating royalties
from this release to charities for the homeless, but it is believed part
of the proceeds will go to the Justice For Kirsty Campaign. There may be
a special download version of the song.
According to Philip Chevron of the band, "This
is the classic performance of the song and the Pogues would never dream
of messing with perfection. In addition, our record company is currently
negotiating with iTunes about the possibility of providing a special
download version of the song which would be recorded live during our
Christmas tour. As anyone who has seen the band live in recent years
will know, a succession of female singers have performed Kirsty's parts
on stage and we are still, at this late stage, in discussion about the
performer for this tour."
"The important point here is that Downloads
will count towards the chart figures, but obviously and sadly, Kirsty is
unable to perform the duty of performing the song live. We are doing our
best here to maintain the integrity of the record and of our collaboration
with Kirsty while at the same time satisfying the commercial concerns of
the record company who do feel, as much as Kirsty fans and Pogues fans do,
that we were "robbed" of the No I slot in 1987 and will be working their
butts off to try to remedy that this year.
Nobody is going to pretend this is an easy balance to achieve, but please believe
that we are doing our best."
The Pogues tour dates are as follows:
If anyone would like to assist in fundraising for the Justice For Kirsty Campaign, they are looking for volunteers to collect cash on the night at all of the above gigs (outside at start & end, inside during proceedings). Contact info@justiceforkirsty.org with your details. You should be enthusiastic, bubbly, persuasive, trustworthy & reliable with an approachable manner (sounding more and more like a job ad!), and please let the team know if you have previous fundraising experience (it does help!). Buckets, leaflets, T-shirts and so on will be provided.
9 October 2005
Another
successful get together in central London to commemorate Kirsty's birthday.
Here's Jean woth Omar Puente and with the JFK team of Fred Shortland, Louis,
Alan, Philip Rambow and John Dalby. Photos courtesy of Fred
Cuban
violinist Omar Puente with resident guitarists John Meranda and Phil Whiteley.
BBC crew filming the singing of Soho Square and Fairytale of New York in the Square.
Scenes
from the Spice of Life.
24 September 2005
On 19 September the freeworld forum was moved to a new server (not my decision...) so if you have a desktop shortcut or bookmark to the old server address it will appear to have vanished. Simply follow this link to the new forum place. You can then bookmark it again.
13 September 2005
Soho
Square on 9th October The annual commemorative "birthday" meet is anticipated for Sunday, 9th October 2005. Fans will meet at High Noon at the Kirsty Bench in Soho Square before adjourning to a local hostelry for drinks and the traditional singalong. This year's shindig will take place in The Spice of Life (used to be called the Scots House) and it's on Cambridge Circus where Charing Cross Road meets Shaftesbury Avenue. If you are coming from Soho Square just walk down Greek Street, bear left into Moor Street and the pub is on the right.
The 2004 session included appearances by Jean MacColl, Louis Lillywhite, Phil Rambow and Mark Nevin. "Highly recommended" Time Oot.
The 2005 event is being organised by Bob and Claire. See discussion area in the freeworld forum.
9 August 2005
13 September 2005
The Best of Kirsty MacColl has gone Gold, and now has six weeks in the UK album chart, currently nestling happily at 34.
The Best of Kirsty MacColl has entered the UK Album Chart at No. 17.
27 July 2005
The new retrospective, The Best of Kirsty MacColl, is released on Monday. According to Music Week, the following high profile placements are being made by a wide range of stores. It will be accompanied by a TV ad campaign.
Album of the Week at Woolworth and Morrisons.
Recommended Album at MVC
Instore Promotion at Asda, Borders, Safeway, Sainsbury, Tesco and Virgin.
No mention of HMV or WH Smith, though both are backing the TV ad campaign.
26 July 2005
According to EMI, the single will now only be released as a digital download.
12 June 2005
A
digital download single featuring a new version of Sun
On the Water re-recorded and produced by
Pete Glenister and mixed by Steve Lillywhite at Townhouse Studios on
April 28th will be released by EMI on July 18th, with
a possible commercial CD single backed with Days likely to be released
on the same date. (pre-order
from amazon)
On August
1 EMI intend to release a new TV advertised Best
Of... that will also feature the new
version of Sun On The Water.
(pre-order
from amazon) The tracklisting for this compilation is below:
They Don't Know, There's
A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears he's Elvis, Terry, A
New England, He's On The Beach, Don't
Come The Cowboy With Me, Sonny Jim!, Fairytale
Of New York (The Pogues feat. Kirsty), Free
World, Innocence (single remix), Days, Still
Life, Miss Otis Regrets (w/ The Pogues), Walking
Down Madison, My Affair, Soho
Square, Titanic Days (edit), As
Long As You Hold Me, Perfect Day (w/
Evan Dando), In These Shoes?, England
2 Columbia 0, Sun On The Water (new
version)
18 April 2005
Box set and DVD reviewed in RC.
30 March 2005
The song I am afraid (credited to Kirsty in the sleeve notes) was apparently written by Irish singer Dave Couse with his 1992 band A House. The site has been corrected to reflect this. When compiling the set, there was no indication with the tapes that it was not Kirsty's own song, and her fellow musicians at the time were also unaware of it. Apparently this is not uncommon with unreleased archive material. Luckily a post to the freeworld forum alerted us to the song's true parentage.
29
March 2005
From Robert Sandall's review, "Not all the 65 tracks here are classics - like most box sets, this contains a sprinkling of rare or unreleased what-nots which collectors love but others skip. But the story they tell is riveting. MacColl was blessed with a voice in both senses ... (a) strong, clear and sweet (voice) which retained a folky purity ... and the way this voice spoke was sardonic, witty and wickedly observant of masculine frailties.... she sounded like a feminine Ian Dury. Remarkably, some of MacColl's most memorable pronouncements were made in other people's songs which effectively became her own."
Other reviews:
Thanks to Nick & Phil for these, any more links appreciated!
in the March 27th Night & Day Magazine free with the Mail (I think), the Kirsty MacColl boxset appeared at No.5 in the '10 musts of the week'.
"There was a fair writeup of the DVD in Metro dated 8th April, and the May Classic Rock and the May Uncut(Robert Plant/Jimmy Page covers)had some excellent reviews of the box set! I was surprised to see her in Classic Rock, but I assume they remember her giving the Black Sabbath anthology a good writeup in the Daily Mail!" BK
26 March 2005
The reviews are now starting to appear, the first I've seen is in The Times, where Nigel Williamson awards a maximum 5 stars. "We bemoan the lack of British women with distinctive pop voices to rival the likes of Joni Mitchell, Madonna and Emmylou Harris. But it took the death of Kirsty MacColl in 2000 to wake us up to the fact that we had one such talent in our midst all along.
29 March 2005
Paul Murphy has written an article on Kirsty, her career, campaigning
and JFK which will appear (edited) in Socialist Worker
newspaper issue 1944, available Weds 23.3.05 from all good newsagents, or Socialist
Worker sellers, or PO Box 82, London E3 3LH.
10 March 2005
A two page spread in gay lifetyle mag Attitude this month. Mark Nevin will be on the Phill Jupitus Radio 6 breakfast show on Monday 14th at 9.30am talking about Titanic Days. Also, the next Record Collector is running a career retrospective featuring all of the the re-releases. Source: ZTT Man/others
10 March 2005
Not confirmed. Union Square (2 CDs): Stiff Catalogue: [They Don't Know, You Caught Me Out, Terry, He's On The Beach 12", 80 Year Old Millionaire, Patrick, Quietly Alone, Boys, Motor On, Please Go To Sleep, Terry 12", New England 12"], BBC: [Chip shop, New England, Darling Let's Have A Baby], Cowboy, Pretty Girls, Don't Run Away From Me Now, Still Life, Bad, Can't Stop Killing You, Caroline, Free World, Beach], Fleadh: [They Don't Know, Innocence, Miss Otis Regrets, My Affair, Sedated], Glastonbury: [Tread Lightly, Fifteen Minutes, Cowboy, Train In Vain, Madison, Free World, Chip Shop]
21 March 2005
The freeworld forum has full details of how to enter two competitions, one for each release (check the "Reissue Fever" section). You have to be a member of the forum or the yahoo mailing list to enter, but either is free, easy and quick to sort. Closing date for both is end of play on Monday 28th March.
2 March 2005
Sources at the BBC have confirmed that the documentary, Who Killed Kirsty MacColl, is to be shown on BBC2 on Friday 18th March, at 23:40.
28 February 2005
All you have to do is answer a couple of easy questions for each prize. Note that you must be registered as a freeworld forum member (you can do this easily at the time) to enter the competition. Please see the forum "Reissue Fever" for full details of the competition.
28 February 2005
The next two releases in the series should be in the shops and internet retailers now.
22 February 2005
The first past the post of the reissues is Titanic Days, available now from ZTT's online shop. Cost is a very affordable £10 (UK) or £12 (Worldwide) which includes P&P. Go get.
The reissue includes Can't stop killing you Australian release only B sides Fabulous Garden and Touch Me, Caroline's B Side Irish Cousin, various mixes of Angel (Single, Piano, Stuart Crichton, Into The Light, Apollo 440 Remixes), the Solana Beach live versions of Miss Otis regrets and Free World, and two previously unreleased demos from the era: King Kong and Dear John.
21 February 2005
The freeworld forum was destroyed over the weekend by an internet worm attack on the hosting server. It has been rebuilt using a December 2004 backup, so all posts made in 2005 have been lost unfortunately. The forum is however back in business.
11 February 2005
David Hepworth has marked the imminent reissue season with an excellent two page splash.
We will be maintaining the above list of release infomation with the latest details right up until release time.
In anticipated order of appearance, .... (last updated 28 January 2005) ... the more unusual items are emboldened. (unusual to the mainstream audience that is!). Links to amazon.co.uk have been added as available, don't forget you can assist freeworld's running costs if you use the links provided to buy from amazon!
28 January 2005
The Pogues reunion tour raised around £5,000 for the Justice For Kirsty Campaign. More cash was generated at the Billy Bragg Celtic Connections bash in Glasgow.
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