IF YOU could swap your life with somebody, who would you choose? When Salford poet and comedian Tony Kinsella was asked that very question by a friend, he didn’t hesitate in naming singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl.
“I came to the conclusion that despite the fact she died so young that if I could be one person in terms of their talents and achievements it would be Kirsty MacColl.”
The next obvious question is why? Kinsella ended up with 10 reasons, which he formed into a new show.
“We are both asthmatic and we both love collaborating with other artists,” are just two of the reason he will be sharing in Reasons to be Kirsty, which will be streamed on Derry Playhouse’s website this week.
The performer, who is a regular on the festival circuit and also works as an English lecturer, first collaborated with the Derry theatre with his show Jokes About Chocolate And Girls: My Life Long Obsession With The Undertones, in April 2019.
Reasons To Be Kirsty will present anecdotes, poetry, pop trivia, jokes and images as well as interpretations of Kirsty's songs by West Midlands singer-songwriter Jess Silk.
In the vein of his other shows, including Shangri La Land, about his love of seminal 60s girl group The Shangri Las, Kinsella will weave the life of Kirsty MacColl together with his own life.
However, he does hope audiences learn more about the maverick singer, who tragically died aged just 41 when she was struck by a speeding boat while diving with her sons on holiday in Mexico, in a designated area in which watercraft were restricted from entering.
"Many of you may only know Kirsty MacColl from her annual appearances at Christmas when she sings Fairytale of New York alongside Shane MacGowan of The Pogues, but there's so much more to her legacy than that,” says Kinsella.
The daughter of influential folk singer Ewan MacColl, she started out with punk rock band Drug Addix before releasing five solo albums.
“I've loved her music ever since her first record They Don’t Know came out in 1979 on Stiff Records. It was getting loads of air play and probably would have been a big hit but for an independent distributor strike which prevented copies of the single getting into record stores. It later became a big hit for Tracey Ullman years later,” he says.
MacColl suffered throughout her career from stage fright and for this reason Kinsella only saw her perform live once.
“She wasn’t a natural live performer but I saw her at the Manchester Academy in the summer of 2000 following the release of her Brainstorm album and it was fantastic,” says Kinsella who describes her as “an artist's pop star”.
“Everyone wanted to work with her and she was probably appreciated more within the industry.”
Those she worked with included Billy Bragg, The Smiths, The Rolling Stones, Happy Mondays, Morrissey, Talking Heads, Simple Minds, Alison Moyet and Robert Plant.
“It's sad that she was a brilliant singer-songwriter yet many see her as a cover artist, as the songs she is remembered for most were Fairytale to New York, A New England, which was written by Billy Bragg, and Days, which was written by the Kinks lead singer Ray Davies.”
And his favourite Kirsty MacColl song?
“I love Children of the Revolution," says Kinsella. "Her father was extremely political and Kirstie became a little more politicised when she became a mother.
"And I'm a huge fan of England 2 Colombia 0. It’s about going on a date with a guy who she was really into and watching a football match with him on TV and thinking she was going to go home with him, when his friend tells her he was actually married with three kids.
“One of the things I love about Kirsty is that she put intimate personal experiences into her song lyrics. She was quirky. She wrote about subjects and used words that were not typical of the pop music industry.”
:: Reasons To Be Kirsty by Tony Kinsella will be broadcast via The Playhouse website on Thursday February 18 at 7.45pm. Book and donate online at Playhouse.co.uk
