Bill Drummond
45 'As I entered my 45th year, I decided to write a book that contained snapshots of the world from where I was standing', says Bill Drummond on the opening page of 45.
Drummond is a name widely revered within the dance music industry. Best recognised, along with partner in crime Jimmy Caulty, for late eighties projects The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords, and the KLF, they helped motivate and change the face of dance music and provided an inspiration to many of today’s artists.
Though synonymous with the KLF, Drummond’s musical career began ten years earlier in Liverpool as a member of Big In Japan. With Dave Balfe he formed Zoo records and took on management responsibilities, though admittedly with little idea of what was really involved, of both Echo and the Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes. This creative era of Liverpool punk and art sets the early stage of 45.
Drummond is a born and infectious storyteller. Anecdotes and thoughts follow at unabated pace. Sketches of art, music and motivation, about money and about hair brained adventures with no logical motivation. Psychology and philosophy. Tales of phantom bands from Finland, of dead cows and pylons, of graffiti, of a mad 25-hour drive around the M25, of the infamous burning of a million quid, and my personal favourite, of building a 6250-can cube of Tennant’s Super and a mad effort to distribute it to the homeless of London on Christmas Eve. Meetings with blues legend Peter Green, country’s Tammy Wynette, of buses and libraries, of nazi assholes, of comebacks. So many rollicking yarns that I need to start reading all over once again to remind myself.
45 is as colourful as it is funny. Often very personal, it provides insight into a universe inside Drummond’s head that many would probably find slightly twisted. But if we all examined ourselves as closely, that is if we were brave enough to do so, how different would we feel? Here is a man not afraid to say, on paper at least, exactly what and how he thinks, and it is this honesty that really shines above all else.
Though synonymous with the KLF, Drummond’s musical career began ten years earlier in Liverpool as a member of Big In Japan. With Dave Balfe he formed Zoo records and took on management responsibilities, though admittedly with little idea of what was really involved, of both Echo and the Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes. This creative era of Liverpool punk and art sets the early stage of 45.
Drummond is a born and infectious storyteller. Anecdotes and thoughts follow at unabated pace. Sketches of art, music and motivation, about money and about hair brained adventures with no logical motivation. Psychology and philosophy. Tales of phantom bands from Finland, of dead cows and pylons, of graffiti, of a mad 25-hour drive around the M25, of the infamous burning of a million quid, and my personal favourite, of building a 6250-can cube of Tennant’s Super and a mad effort to distribute it to the homeless of London on Christmas Eve. Meetings with blues legend Peter Green, country’s Tammy Wynette, of buses and libraries, of nazi assholes, of comebacks. So many rollicking yarns that I need to start reading all over once again to remind myself.
45 is as colourful as it is funny. Often very personal, it provides insight into a universe inside Drummond’s head that many would probably find slightly twisted. But if we all examined ourselves as closely, that is if we were brave enough to do so, how different would we feel? Here is a man not afraid to say, on paper at least, exactly what and how he thinks, and it is this honesty that really shines above all else.
