Summary
Broadcaster Janice Long tells Matthew Parris why singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl led a "great life" despite her tragically early death in a boating accident in Mexico in 2000.
Kirsty MacColl was a supremely gifted singer-songwriter in the "English" tradition, often compared to Ray Davies or Morrissey for her kitchen-sink realism and sardonic wit. She loved pop but insisted on witty and literate writing, and, whilst sporadically successful in her own right, she was everyone's favourite collaborative artist. She battled stage-fright and writers block to produce five outstanding albums, and worked with The Smiths, Talking Heads, the Rolling Stones, Simple Minds and U2. She once described her talent as a "one-woman-Beach Boys" for her ability to layer and orchestrate harmonies.
Her father, Ewan MacColl, was a famous folk singer, but Kirsty had no interest in folk music - a clear rejection of the world her father inhabited - and wanted instead to create great, "edgy" pop records.
She died in controversial circumstances when she was hit by a speedboat whilst on a diving holiday in Mexico in 2000.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
| 0:11.8 | telly we share what we've been watching |
| 0:14.0 | Cladie Aide. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less searching |
| 0:25.7 | and a lot more auction. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.9 | Thank you for downloading this great Lives podcast from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:34.3 | For more information and details of other podcasts, |
| 0:36.9 | just visit BBC.co. UK slash Radio 4. When our Great Life this week released her album Tropical Brainsstorm, arguably |
| 0:46.4 | her best, she said that whenever I go into a studio I operate on the principal |
| 0:51.4 | that I might get hit by a bus tomorrow and I'd on the principle that I might get hit by a bus tomorrow, and I'd hate the obituaries to have to read, and her last album was her not very good album. |
| 1:00.0 | Well, she was hit, not by a bus, but by a speedboat and killed, and she never produced |
| 1:06.4 | her not very good album in her career. |
| 1:09.2 | And here to champion her life is the broadcaster Janice Long. Janice began her career at Radio Merseys |
| 1:15.0 | before moving to Radio 1 in the 1980s. She can now be heard presenting on Radio 2. |
| 1:20.0 | In fact, she is the midnight voice of Radio 2, a voice that's got me through many a long drive up the M1. |
| 1:27.0 | Janice, whom have you chosen as your great life and why? |
| 1:30.0 | I have chosen custody McColl, who was a dear friend and somebody I still think about all of the time. |
| 1:36.7 | In fact, she's on my key ring. I've got a photograph of her on my key ring that I had before she died and it, you know, it's still there and I just can't part with it. |
| 1:44.5 | I just think that in her short life, she really did give so much, she was incredibly |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.