Why Kirsty MacColl was so funny, honest, original and impossible to sell – by Jude Rogers

Jude Rogers – writer, broadcaster, old pal of the pod - first heard Kirsty MacColl when she was nine and felt a connection ever since. She’s just written the sleevenotes for ‘See That Girl’, the best, most diverse and exquisitely packaged compilation of her music ever assembled, an eight CD box-set of singles, rarities, unheard songs, live and Glastonbury appearances, demos, BBC sessions and collaborations, along with an entire unreleased album.

As Jude points out she wasn’t overlooked, but all the things you applauded about her made her very hard to market. She wouldn’t play the game. She refused to be fashionable. She was funny and honest and wrote about an unvarnished, real world which robbed her of a sense of mystery, and a lot of her songs were about fallibility and failure. Among the highlights here …  

… a long-running lyric thread that began with There’s a Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis.  

… why what she wrote about men (and women) was so original.

… her strained relationship with her father.

… what Johnny Marr admired about her and the power of her “Elysian chorus”.

... why you’ll never find another song like ‘Autumnsoupgirl’.

… how she and Dave Robinson’s hairdresser launched Tracey Ullman’s career.

… and David Hepworth’s inspired idea for ‘In These Shoes?’, the West End Kirsty MacColl musical.

Order the 8CD box set ‘See That Girl’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/See-That-Girl-1979-2000-8CD/dp/B0C9GCDZST

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho in London on November 27th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ZOthfatjxi

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