Open
Your Arms

They emerged from an abandoned air-raid shelter in Bathgate in the early 80s, a couple of kids with big dreams and a mysterious manifesto. By the end of the decade they had grown into a gang of six, a beautifully strange collection of misfits who became revered on Britain’s indie circuit. Played on Radio One then banned by the BBC. Courted by all the big record labels before landing a major deal at what felt like the final time of asking.

With the looks of a Thin White Duke-era Bowie and a voice pitched somewhere between Neil Diamond and Nick Cave, frontman Martin Metcalfe was the band’s driving force, taking on weighty lyrical subjects like rape, the Aids crisis...and mad cow disease.

Singer and keyboardist Shirley Manson would go on to achieve superstardom with Garbage but admits her wildest, most decadent years were spent earning her "rock’n’roll education" with the Mackenzies.

Amid the excess, their debut single The Rattler cut through and almost made them huge. They recorded their second album at the legendary Hansa Ton Studios and witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall. Around the same time the gang would also fracture and reshape with Shirley heading up the Angelfish project on a Stateside assignment with Talking Heads while guitarist Big John Duncan joined Nirvana for their final year on the road, striking up an unlikely and charming friendship with Kurt Cobain.

Open Your Arms is the first full account of how it all happened and how, against every reasonable expectation, the band found their way back to a stage in 2019 and are now recording their first new music in 30 years.

Due for publication in November 2026, the first 50 copies purchased will contain a signed bookmark by the author and band members.