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Dec. 18th, 2005 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shinytoasterMorning, flist
It's that day again. It's now five years since one of the UK's most expressive, talented and underappreciated musical talents was tragically and horribly killed at the age of 41 in a power boat accident while scuba diving with her sons in a restricted diving zone in Cozumel, Mexico.
Five years later, nobody has yet been held accountable for her death. The power boat, which belonged to Mexican businessman Guillermo Gonzalez Nova, had entered a restricted diving zone illegally. Gonzalez Nova later claimed that the boat was moving at one knot, although all witnesses have countered this claim. Gonzalez Nova's boathand, a man named Cen Yam, was at the controls of the boat at the time. Yam did not hold a power boat licence and had never taken the helm of Gonzalez Nova's boat before. Yam claimed to have taken a seaman's course, but when questioned by police, he failed to answer basic questions on seamanship. Gonzalez Nova, it has since emerged, did not hold a licence either.
Yam has subsequently been charged with causing her death and found guilty of negligent homicide, which carries a sentence of up to seven years.
But Gonzalez Nova has never faced criminal charges for his lethal negligence and it is time to rectify this miscarriage of justice. Unfortunately for us he is a very prominent Mexican businessman, and is able to bring his influence to bear on a corrupt Mexican judiciary. Despite the five year long efforts of Kirsty's mother, family and friends to secure justice for her, they have found themselves continuously obstructed. Their website can be found at Justice for Kirsty, and the family could really use your support.
In the meantime, please take some time out to play your favourite Kirsty track and dance around in your socks. If the only Kirsty MacColl track in your library is her collaboration with the Pogues, Fairytale of New York, then you're bloody lucky it's nearly Christmas and you can get away with playing it over and over. If you've got more, then play that too.
Kirsty once loudly proclaimed 'I fucking hate folk music,' so it's probably ironic, 'That it may be for her performance on what is probably be the most popular folk song of the past thirty years that Kirsty will be remembered,' wrote friend and collaborator Billy Bragg in the wake of her death. 'But that’s okay because, although it wasn’t her record, she brought something of herself to the Pogues’ Fairytale Of New York. When Shane MacGowan cries into his beer “I could have been someone!”, Kirsty’s quick as a flash response “Well, so could anyone" - was very much in keeping with her attitude to life. All of us who sat whingeing in her kitchen about fickle husbands, lovers, record companies, reviews etc got the same short shrift. She would laugh, get you another beer and play some fabulous Celina Gonzalez track, inviting you to dance your cares away.'
Latin American music, and the culture and people of this part of the world were very important to Kirsty, and during her last years, following her divorce from producer Steve Lillywhite, it's fair to say that this love, which first bloomed in 1991 when she recorded the magnificent My Affair in a New York Club for the album Electric Landlady, revitalised and recharged her. She travelled extensively in Cuba and South America, and became fluent in Portuguese in Brazil. It all came together on her last, and probably her absolute best album, Tropical Brainstorm, critically acclaimed on its release in 2000, which combined her newly found groove with her 'natural wit, which as she got older was becoming nicely sardonic,' according to Bragg.
If you feel like supporting a slightly different cause this Christmas, then you should take a look at the Music Fund for Cuba. In her last years Kirsty was heavily influenced by Latin music, and particularly that of the island of Cuba, a country to which she made several trips - indeed, one of her last completed projects was a radio documentary on the island's music for the BBC. Cuba is awash with musical talent and its people are renowned for their passionate expression of their identity through this medium. But as you can imagine, musical supplies are in critically short supply and this threatens to cut off Cuba's huge pool of potential talent. The Music Fund For Cuba was set up in Kirsty's memory, and in 2001, raised £11,200 ($19,854.11) to supply oboes, French horns, double basses, cellos, reeds and strings to 23 music schools in 14 provinces of Cuba.
It's that day again. It's now five years since one of the UK's most expressive, talented and underappreciated musical talents was tragically and horribly killed at the age of 41 in a power boat accident while scuba diving with her sons in a restricted diving zone in Cozumel, Mexico.
Five years later, nobody has yet been held accountable for her death. The power boat, which belonged to Mexican businessman Guillermo Gonzalez Nova, had entered a restricted diving zone illegally. Gonzalez Nova later claimed that the boat was moving at one knot, although all witnesses have countered this claim. Gonzalez Nova's boathand, a man named Cen Yam, was at the controls of the boat at the time. Yam did not hold a power boat licence and had never taken the helm of Gonzalez Nova's boat before. Yam claimed to have taken a seaman's course, but when questioned by police, he failed to answer basic questions on seamanship. Gonzalez Nova, it has since emerged, did not hold a licence either.
Yam has subsequently been charged with causing her death and found guilty of negligent homicide, which carries a sentence of up to seven years.
But Gonzalez Nova has never faced criminal charges for his lethal negligence and it is time to rectify this miscarriage of justice. Unfortunately for us he is a very prominent Mexican businessman, and is able to bring his influence to bear on a corrupt Mexican judiciary. Despite the five year long efforts of Kirsty's mother, family and friends to secure justice for her, they have found themselves continuously obstructed. Their website can be found at Justice for Kirsty, and the family could really use your support.
In the meantime, please take some time out to play your favourite Kirsty track and dance around in your socks. If the only Kirsty MacColl track in your library is her collaboration with the Pogues, Fairytale of New York, then you're bloody lucky it's nearly Christmas and you can get away with playing it over and over. If you've got more, then play that too.
Kirsty once loudly proclaimed 'I fucking hate folk music,' so it's probably ironic, 'That it may be for her performance on what is probably be the most popular folk song of the past thirty years that Kirsty will be remembered,' wrote friend and collaborator Billy Bragg in the wake of her death. 'But that’s okay because, although it wasn’t her record, she brought something of herself to the Pogues’ Fairytale Of New York. When Shane MacGowan cries into his beer “I could have been someone!”, Kirsty’s quick as a flash response “Well, so could anyone" - was very much in keeping with her attitude to life. All of us who sat whingeing in her kitchen about fickle husbands, lovers, record companies, reviews etc got the same short shrift. She would laugh, get you another beer and play some fabulous Celina Gonzalez track, inviting you to dance your cares away.'
Latin American music, and the culture and people of this part of the world were very important to Kirsty, and during her last years, following her divorce from producer Steve Lillywhite, it's fair to say that this love, which first bloomed in 1991 when she recorded the magnificent My Affair in a New York Club for the album Electric Landlady, revitalised and recharged her. She travelled extensively in Cuba and South America, and became fluent in Portuguese in Brazil. It all came together on her last, and probably her absolute best album, Tropical Brainstorm, critically acclaimed on its release in 2000, which combined her newly found groove with her 'natural wit, which as she got older was becoming nicely sardonic,' according to Bragg.
If you feel like supporting a slightly different cause this Christmas, then you should take a look at the Music Fund for Cuba. In her last years Kirsty was heavily influenced by Latin music, and particularly that of the island of Cuba, a country to which she made several trips - indeed, one of her last completed projects was a radio documentary on the island's music for the BBC. Cuba is awash with musical talent and its people are renowned for their passionate expression of their identity through this medium. But as you can imagine, musical supplies are in critically short supply and this threatens to cut off Cuba's huge pool of potential talent. The Music Fund For Cuba was set up in Kirsty's memory, and in 2001, raised £11,200 ($19,854.11) to supply oboes, French horns, double basses, cellos, reeds and strings to 23 music schools in 14 provinces of Cuba.
