Just gone through a series of mp3's of live recordings of
The Associates. Interesting to find that much of the masterpiece
Sulk had been recorded and played live by the end of 1980, which is a good 2 years before it´s release. The sound is very guitar driven and very rough but the songs were there, even the unreleased follow up to
18 Carat Love Affair,
Australia.
Through the Situation 2 period in 1981 The Associates started to experiment with synthesisers, although the 2 best tracks out of these experiments,
Party Fears Two and
Club Country were reserved for the demo tape sent to Warners.
The Associates had considerable time to arrive at their lush sound of
Sulk . Perhaps the arrival of
Martha Ladly ex
Martha and the Muffins helped on the B-side of the album ie the new tracks
Skipping and
Nothing in Something Particular. The single
Love Hangover was another result of this collaboration.
The follow up to Sulk would have been interesting with Ladly taking a greater role not only in the arrangements but also in the songwriting .
18 Carat Love Affair,
Love Hangover,
Australia and
Waiting for the Loveboat would have been an integral part of the new album. Billy before the recording of the album and even before the Sulk World Tour decided to disband. He never liked mega tours and fame. A dissapointment but his later work yielded some classics. Funnily enough he kept The Associates name.
Billy Mackenzie RIP was truly a maverick and his songs and voice still remain fresh in our ears and hearts.
God Bless you Billy!
Chris C
. Locking it away also meant that I would actually get off my backside and listen to new stuff. 
