BILL DRUMMOND by year
Last updated 27 December 2010
1953
Born in the Transkei, South Africa on 29 April.
Father a Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) missionary.
One older sister.
Mother teaches in mission school.
One month later (29 May), Tenzing Norgay (Sherpa Tenzing) conquers Everest.
1954
Learns to speak Xhosa from the schoolgirls looking after him.
Eats mealies.
Meets a snake in the grass.
1955
Family sail back to British Isles on the Edinburgh Castle.
Settle in Newton Stewart, Galloway in rural southwest Scotland.
Father minister at local Church of Scotland.
They live in the Manse.
Does not understand this other language.
Wonders why everybody is white and where all the black girls have gone.
Stops speaking for six months.
Starts to draw pictures.
Starts to learn this other language.
1956
Lies under the apple tree in the garden and watches the dappled light dance. Gets taken to a small river near Newton Stewart called the Penkiln Burn.
There are bluebells on the bank.
Family adopt stray cat, they call it Tenzing.
Watches his father paint watercolours.
1957
Told he cannot climb on mother’s lap because she is going to have a baby. Brother is born.
Sails to Belfast for first time.
Learns the legend of the Red Hand of Ulster.
Father takes him fishing in the Penkiln Burn, he falls in.
Climbs the apple tree and takes a bite from an apple. It does not taste good. It’s a cooker.
Is discovered dancing naked in front of wardrobe mirror in his bedroom.
The mirror is removed.
1958
Starts at Penningham Primary.
Learns that Scotland is God’s own country.
Father also chaplain at local prison.
At Christmas party for the children of prison staff, experiences the performance of a skiffle group who’s members are inmates.
Draws pictures.
Climbs other trees.
1959
Sees a Kingfisher fly up the Penkiln Burn.
Teacher wonders if he is disturbed.
Accused of stealing a toy from a classmate, confronted by teacher, parents called in, admits to the crime even though he had not committed it.
Is ill and off school for whole term.
Enjoys the stories in Struwwelpeter.
Draws more pictures.
Watches pipe band march past.
Waves at Winston Churchill.
Goes to the fairground and hears rock ‘n’ roll music.
Rides the dodgems.
1960
Told he could not have piano lessons until he learns to read properly.
Climbs Cairnsmore with sister.
Maternal Grandfather takes him to the museum in Norwich Castle, loves the dioramas of natural history and pre-history scenes, loves the paintings by the Norwich School (circa 1803–1833).
Lifts log of wood to discover adder coiled beneath it.
Is caught stealing sweets from Hinton’s.
Is told by Mrs Hinton – ‘That is no way for the son of the Manse to behave.’
Listens to his father read Treasure Island every night for two weeks.
Hears Only The Lonely by Roy Orbison at the fairground.
1961
Listens, watches and falls in love with Elvis Presley at the local picture house.
Climbs lots of trees.
Is put in the backward class.
Goes fishing in the Penkiln Burn as often as possible.
Picks bunch of bluebells from its banks.
Stares into its waters and wonders.
Catches, cooks and eats trout and eels.
Steals apples from other people’s gardens.
His father takes him to the Torhousekie stone circle in the countryside near their home.
His mother tells him about his great-great-uncle, Oliver Tomkins, who went to New Guinea as a missionary and was eaten by cannibals.
Finds New Guinea on map.
Visits Mr McQuirter’s workshop. Mr McQuirter is a joiner and his workshop is dark and mysterious place. Drummond loves the swishing sound made as Mr McQuirter planes the wood. He also loves the smell of the wood shavings.
Hears Halfway To Paradise by Billy Fury at the fairground.
1962
Finds human skull in graveyard beside the Penkiln Burn.
Marches up the main street of Newton Stewart with the skull on top of a pole.
Hitch hikes to Wigtown.
Returns to Mr McQuirter’s workshop on numerous occasions.
Daydreams of fighting alongside Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn.
Is given a pile of old National Geographic magazines in which are photographs of tribesmen in New Guinea with strange masks and painted bodies.
Wonders if these are the same tribesmen that ate his great, great uncle.
Saws wood, hammers nails, and tries to make things.
Finds poems written by his father.
Listens to the sound of the rain on the tin roof of their shed.
Throws his pocket money away in the hedge to see what it feels like to throw money away. Told by his mum to go back and find it. Finds it. Told by his mum to put the money in the missionary box.
Builds tree house.
Sits in tree house smoking a Xhosa pipe, wrapped in his Basuto blanket.
Hears Telstar by The Tornados in the ice rink at Ayr.
1963
Climbs Merrick with sister, they get lost in the snow.
Spends week in Belfast. Loves the bright lights and big city.
Father does three month job exchange with minister of First Presbyterian Church, Lexington, North Carolina, USA.
Family sail to New York on the Queen Elizabeth.
Drinks Coca Cola for first time.
Takes lift to top of Empire State Building.
Disappointed to not see Marilyn Monroe.
Family takes the train from Grand Central Station down to North Carolina.
Sees black faces again.
Family Buick has radio that plays pop music. Mum and Dad like Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh by Allan Sherman, he likes Cinnamon Cinder by The Pastel Six.
Family visits Washington.
Watches Bobby Kennedy give speech in House of Representatives.
Is disappointed that it is not his brother Jack Kennedy, the President.
Family sail back to British Isles on the Queen Mary.
Back at school in Newton Stewart he is no longer backward but still odd.
Climbs a tree hanging over the Penkiln Burn.
Stares down into the water at a large brown trout.
Thinks it is the most beautiful and mysterious thing in the world.
Wishes he was that brown trout.
Makes things out of wood and metal.
Kills a crow with air rifle.
Climbs Cairnsmore by himself.
Listen to the cry of the Curlew.
Stares out at the far blue yonder and wonders.
1964
Runs on pitch after match between Queen of The South and Rangers, where his hero Jim Baxter pats him on the top of his head.
Passes Cub Scout swimming badge in the Penkiln Burn.
Family move to Corby in the English East Midlands.
Corby is a one-industry town. The industry is steel.
The population of Corby is 85 per cent Scots. There are reasons for this.
A pylon stands at the back of their council house.
Loves the humming sound the pylon makes on misty mornings.
Attends Beanfield Secondary Modern. The teachers are English.
They do not know about Robert the Bruce or God’s own country.
Everybody’s mum is listening to Jim Reeves.
Decides not to be a Mod or a Rocker.
Listens to the rattle of the bottles on the milk float early in the morning.
Listens to You Really Got Me by The Kinks at friend’s house.
1965
Is taught not just to hear but how to listen to music by Mr Grimm, the school music teacher.
Mr Grimm makes him sing the first verse of Silent Night solo at school Christmas carol concert.
Mr Grimm tells them stories about the great composers; learns how Paganini sold his soul to the devil in exchange for being the greatest violinist in the world.
Drummond wonders what he could get in exchange for his soul.
Is top of the class at art.
Sings in the church choir.
Listens to Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood by The Animals in Mr Grimm’s classroom.
Gets first pair of walking boots.
Visits Avebury stone circle for first time
Collects bird’s eggs.
Learns to fish in English rivers.
1966
Is transferred to Kingswood Grammar School (later a Comprehensive school).
Likes maps.
Wants to be a geologist.
Dougie King introduces him to pirate radio stations.
Dougie King also supports Rangers.
Hears Bob Dylan.
Watches grass snake swim across river.
Bakes his first cake.
Catches a pike.
Becomes friends with Peter McMahon, he supports Celtic.
Drummond had never got to know a Celtic supporter before.
Watches clip of Ike and Tina Turner perform River Deep – Mountain High on BBC TV programme Top Of The Pops.
1967
Buys his first record, Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles.
Listens to it over and over again.
Watches Scotland beat England’s World Cup winning squad, on TV.
Watches Celtic be the first British club to win the European Cup, on TV.
Dougie King beats him up because Drummond is pleased that a Scottish team has won the European Cup.
Believes that Beatles are the greatest thing in the world.
Still goes fishing.
Listens to Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys.
Watches Jimi Hendrix on Top Of The Pops perform Purple Haze.
1968
Hears Stockhausen on school exchange visit to Germany.
Picks up record sleeve of Live At The Apollo by James Brown and his Famous Flames and wonders what it sounds like.
Forms his first imaginary band.
Considers joining the merchant navy, training as a ships engineer, like his paternal grandfather and great grandfather.
Buys copy of The International Times in Carnaby Street.
Would like to grow his hair long.
Starts to learn to play his sister’s acoustic guitar.
Listens to Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf and Elmore James on Mike Raven’s Rhythm & Blues BBC radio show.
Buys his first pair of red tab, button-fly, shrink to fit, Levi 501s.
Goes to folk clubs.
1969
Passes four ‘O’ Level exams in Mathematics, Geography, Technical Drawing and Metalwork.
Hears Switched On Bach by Walter Carlos.
Sister sends him 7” white labels from Kingston Jamaica.
Sees The Rolling Stones in Hyde Park.
Is now in four imaginary bands.
Watches Johnny Cash live at San Quinton on the television
Listens to Unhalfbricking by Fairport Convention.
Career advisor advises that he should get an apprenticeship at local steel works.
Goes to Isle of White Pop Festival, watches Bob Dylan perform.
Enthralled by what John Lennon is doing with Yoko Ono.
Thinks The Beatles should announce their end on the 31 December.
1970
Asked to leave school by headmaster.
Turns 17 and is into Van Der Graf Generator.
Conversation with another careers advisor:
‘What do you like?’
‘Music’.
‘What do you think you are good at?’
‘Making things.’
He is advised to become a musical instrument maker.
To do this, he is told, you first have to do a course in furniture making, but before you do that you first have to do a foundation course at an art school. He draws some pictures and goes along to the local art school in Northampton. Is accepted but will not start until September.
Visits the Callanish stone circle on Isle of Lewis, for the first time.
Has first tweed suit made in Stornoway.
Gets job in Corby steel works.
Saves £130.
Uses money to buy second hand Gibson ES-330 guitar from shop in London’s Denmark Street.
Gets lift to Iceland on a trawler out of Grimsby with his sister.
Attempts to walk across Iceland from top to bottom.
Fails in the attempt.
Goes to Isle of White Pop Festival, watches Miles Davis, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix and Leonard Cohen. Leonard Cohen was the best.
Goes to art school. Meets Bill Butt and Jim Gregory. Jim Gregory is a greaser and a royalist, he teaches Drummond why art is important and why it is not.
Grows his hair long.
1971
Listens to Rite Of Spring by Igor Stravinsky.
Falls in love with the work of Rembrandt, Turner and Degas.
Decides to dedicate his life to painting.
Reads lots of art history books.
Goes to Andy Warhol retrospective at the Tate Gallery (Britain).
Watches Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa.
Thinks David Bowie is boring and decides that rock music is dead.
Bill Butt’s parents have a fruit and veg stall on Northampton market.
Learns from Bill Butt that it is presentation that sells.
Jim Gregory plays him and Horace Panter Prince Buster’s Greatest Hits.
1972
Commences a three-year fine art course at Liverpool School of Art
Peter Prendergast, his tutor, tries to teach him to see and not just look.
Peter Prendergast insists Drummond spends eight hours a day, five days a week, doing life drawing.
Decides, after nine weeks, he can no longer cope with the regime so gives up life drawing.
Meets Kev Ward. Kev Ward talks about Andy Warhol.
Visits Jim Gregory at Nottingham Art School where Gregory plays Prince Buster’s Greatest Hits to Jerry Dammers.
Buys leather coat from the flea market in Amsterdam.
Listens to A Love Supreme by John Coltrane. Also listens to Roland Kirk, Pharoah Sanders and others. Does not listen to Miles.
Watches La Vallee a French film set in New Guinea, about a bunch of hippies that go in search of a lost valley. These hippies meet tribesmen that look like those in the National Geographic.
Thinks Roxy Music are just art school posers dressing up for the Christmas dance.
Falls ill with pneumonia and pleurisy.
Is in a state of delirium for a number of days.
Thinks he is dying.
Still in love with Elvis.
But in his head he is listening to Distant Drums by Jim Reeves.
1973
Health gets better.
But life gets complicated and scary.
Cuts hair for court case.
Is threatened with four years.
Case gets dropped.
But then …
To explain what got complicated and scary and what the court case was will be explored at a later stage.
Everything changes.
Wanders aimlessly around Liverpool.
Decides that painting is a redundant form.
Decides that Art should use everything.
Decides that Art should be out there.
Decides that Art should be unknown, random, incidental, everywhere.
Decides that an Artist should not make status symbols for the rich, that Art should be available for all.
Attends one-day workshop given by Gavin Bryars about the Portsmouth Sinfonia.
Discovers the idea of making music without first being a proficient musician. Goes to the Somali Club too many times.
Dances to Sex Machine by James Brown.
Listens to Clean Up Woman by Betty Wright.
Reads hundreds of books. Then reads On The Road by Jack Kerouac. Hammers in nails, saws wood.
Asked to leave art school by principal.
Reads poetry.
Decides to experience the real world, and as an artist to use whatever medium is to hand.
Realises that pencil and notebook are cheap and easy to have with you at all times.
Realises that paperbacks are cheap to buy and easy to have with you at all times.
Discovers that the means of production between notebook and paperback is a problem.
Meets Bill Harpe, works at the Blackie.
The Blackie is the first artist-led community centre in the world.
It was set up by Bill and Wendy Harpe.
Is taught how to play creative games by Bill Harpe.
Grandfather dies, unable to attend funeral.
Learns that The Wicker Man was filmed in and around Newton Stewart.
Gets job with the Liverpool Corporation as an assistant gardener.
Enjoys the work of Chinn & Chapman
Listens to I Love You Love by Gary Glitter on the radio while digging shrub beds
Threatens to burn unopened pay packet in front of work colleagues but bottles out.
Runs away from Liverpool.
Climbs mountain.
Starts writing.
1974
Works as milkman.
Works as nursing assistant in mental hospital.
Works in steel works (again).
Reads As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee.
Goes off to join the revolution in Portugal, hears gunshots in the distance, gets frightened. Runs away.
Works as apprentice trawler man out of Aberdeen during The Cod War; his trawler gets chased by Icelandic coast guards.
Gets frightened. Quits apprenticeship.
Continues writing.
Bill Butt gets him a job in Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, as carpenter.
Learns how to scene paint.
Discovers the work of George Jones.
Listens to Kraftwerk and Toots & The Maytals.
1975
Moves to Devon.
Works as shuttering joiner on the Exeter bypass.
Listens to Hamilton Bohannon.
Watches KC & The Sunshine Band in club in Exeter.
Buys copy of Stand By Your Man by Tammy Wynette.
Continues writing.
Leaves Devon.
Tenzing the cat dies. Decides that if he ever feels the need to use a pseudonym he will use Tenzing Scott-Brown in honour of the cat and his paternal grandmother.
Offered job at Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, as master carpenter.
Returns to Liverpool under cover of darkness.
Learns how to design stage sets.
Works with Bill Nighy, Julie Walters, George Costigan, Bernard Hill, Pete Postlethwaite and others.
Watches Dr Feelgood at the Liverpool Stadium.
1976
Meets Peter O’Halligan in Mathew Street who tells him to read Memories, Dreams, and Reflections by C G Jung.
Is taught by Peter O’Halligan that poetry is not just words on paper, but can exist in everything you do.
Becomes lifetime member of the Liverpool School of Language, Music, Dream and Pun. Gets married. Signs on the dole.
Meets Ken Campbell in Mathew Street who tells him to read The Illuminatus! Trilogy.
Gets job as stage set designer with Ken Campbell’s
Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool.
Works with Chris Langham, David Rappaport, Jim Broadbent and others.
Is taught how to entertain the idea that anything is possible and how to make that anything happen by Ken Campbell.
Listening to It Should Have Been Me by Yvonne Fair.
Sees photo of Johnny Rotten in music paper.
Experiences Lindsay Kemp performing Salome at the Roundhouse.
Stops writing.
Rereads the Sermon On The Mount.
Meets Clive Langer, Jayne Casey, Ian Broudie, Paul Rutherford and Holly Johnson in Mathew Street.
Watches The Sex Pistols at new Liverpool club called Eric’s run by Roger Eagle in Mathew Street.
1977
Designs stage set for the National Theatre.
Listens to Love Goes To Building On Fire by Talking Heads.
Has conversation with Sir John Gielgud about dying.
Designs stage sets for touring theatre companies.
Learns that a bright and successful career lies ahead
Meets Clive Langer in the Grapes pub, in Mathew St, Liverpool (on 5 May), and is told to dump the bright and successful career that lies ahead and form a band.
Watches The Damned, The Clash, The Stranglers, The Slits, X Ray Spex, The Ramones, The Saints, The Talking Heads and others at Eric’s.
Stops designing stage sets for theatre companies.
Still listens to Jim Reeves singing Distant Drums in his head.
Forms Big In Japan with Kev Ward and Phil Allen.
Writes songs on ES- Gibson 330.
Roger Eagle decides to be the manager of Big In Japan.
Play scores of gigs.
Becomes member of the Ramblers' Association.
Reads A to B and Back Again.
Every body talks about Andy Warhol.
Buys Bringing It All Back Home by Bob Dylan.
Elvis dies.
Cries.
Meets Rob Dickins, boss of Warner Brothers Music UK.
Budgie joins Big In Japan.
Kev Ward leaves.
Listens to I Feel Love by Donna Summer and Marquee Moon by Television.
1978
Meets Dave Balfe who joins Big In Japan.
Splits Big In Japan.
Forms The Zoo with Dave Balfe.
Discusses art and disco music with Balfe.
Reads Hawk In The Rain by Ted Hughes.
Releases records by bands made up of friends and rivals on The Zoo label, including The Teardrop Explodes and Echo & The Bunnymen.
Listens to You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) by Sylvester.
1979
With Dave Balfe, becomes the managers, producers and publishers of these bands.
With Dave Balfe, shares love of girl pop and appreciation of the work of Shadow Morton. They make girl pop record with Lori Lartey. Touch by Lori & The Chameleons is record of the week on BBC Radio 1, but only very minor hit.
Tony Wilson of Manchester’s Factory Records asks The Zoo to take part in joint venture. Zoo Meets Factory Halfway – A Music Festival at Leigh.
Nobody comes.
Watches Joy Division as the light drains from the sky.
Needs specs.
Tony Wilson advises them not to sign bands to major record labels down in London.
Sign bands to major record labels down in London, as they are skint and do not have well-paid-day job as TV presenter. Signs off the dole.
Pete de Freitas joins The Bunnymen.
Gets specs.
Reads Crow by Ted Hughes.
Corby, no longer a ‘new town’, loses its steel industry
Listens to Dusty Springfield’s Greatest Hits.
1980
Bill Butt is enlisted to design light shows and direct pop videos for bands.
The Bunnymen teach Drummond about mystery.
Bill Butt reminds Drummond the pair of them are artists and always will be and there is no way out. Feels that he does not need reminding.
Lori & The Chameleons follow up, The Lonely Spy, is not even a very minor hit.
Is taught how the music industry works by Rob Dickins.
Is taught how to make money out of the music business without selling any records by Seymour Stein. Forgets what he is taught.
Experiences Merce Cunningham dancing to music being made by John Cage at the Everyman Theatre.
Meets Mick Houghton and is taught what PR is and how it works
The bands become successful. Bunnymen debut album reaches 17 in the UK charts.
Matters get complicated.
1981
Gets out of his depth as the bands get even more successful.
Falls in love with the work of the artist Richard Long, who makes his work by walking and doing things on his walks.
Buys maps, and wishes he did what Richard Long did.
Reads more and more poems by Ted Hughes.
Identifies with the subject matter of these poems.
On being asked by a journalist why so much creativity comes out of Liverpool answers:
Because there is this interstellar ley line that comes in from outer space and hits the earth where the Atlantic rift begins in Iceland, its next fixed point is Mathew Street in Liverpool it then leaves earth and heads back into outer space from New Guinea. Down this interstellar ley line surges a creative energy that effects all that get in its way
Laughs.
The journalist laughs.
But matters get even more complicated.
1982
Life gets dark and twisted.
Sends Echo & The Bunnymen off to Iceland for photo shoot for next album. Releases album of various recordings titled To The Shores Of Lake Placid. Claims the music on this album is taken from a play of the same name.
The play exists in his head.
Revisits the Callanish stone circle in the Outer Hebrides.
Wants The Teardrop Explodes to do photo shoot for their next album to be done in New Guinea.
First child is born. The mother is not Drummond’s wife.
1983
Billy Fury dies.
Can’t pay rent.
Takes up offer from Rob Dickins of three-year contract to become A&R consultant for WEA Records in London.
With Dave Balfe signs Strawberry Switchblade to Zoo Music.
Moves to Buckinghamshire with wife.
Tries to persuade Echo & the Bunnymen that their forthcoming fourth album Ocean Rain, should be their last.
And from now on they should only ever play live.
And never record again.
Thus their status as the greatest cult band the world has ever known will be sealed.
They do not heed his advice.
Stops managing bands.
Inspects the collection at the National Gallery.
Rock music appears to have died.
Matters fall apart and focus is lost.
1984
Has expense account.
1985
Meets artist and musician Mark Manning (also known as Zodiac Mindwarp), Meets artist and musician Jimmy Cauty.
Meets artist and designer Cally.
Meets Pete Waterman, he has a machine called a sampler and an ego.
Mark Manning teaches him about magic.
Peter Waterman teaches him and Jimmy Cauty how to approach making records in a completely different way and the how a sampler can help in this.
Jimmy Cauty buys a sampler.
Travels to New Orleans to try and persuade Pete de Freitas to come home, stop taking drugs and that the duck is not the most significant creature in the universe. Fails. Pete de Freitas has breakdown.
Reads his father’s poetry.
With Dave Balfe, signs Zodiac Mindwarp to Zoo Music Publishing.
Starts thinking about hip hop.
Collects water colours by the Norwich School.
Second child is born, this time to wife.
1986
Tenzing Norgay dies.
Decides to leave music business to get on with art, life, writing and climbing mountains. But first decides to write and record solo album.
The Man by Bill Drummond released on Creation Records.
His Gibson ES-330 featured on cover of album and used to write all songs.
Makes film with Bill Butt – The Manager.
Leaves music business.
Still in love with Elvis.
Starts writing book Why Andy Warhol Is Shite.
Listens to Schoolly D.
Decides that hip hop is the only music that is fit for these modern times.
Decides to see if a British version of hip hop can be created.
Balfe and Drummond sign The Proclaimers to Zoo Music.
Contacts Jimmy Cauty to make a hip hop record using his sampler.
1987
On 1 January they start working together as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu in order to make a British hip hop record.
Drummond and Cauty discuss music, art, life and the way things could be. They decide that their records and everything else they do should be released through their made up organisation, KLF Communications. People think that KLF stands for Kopyright Liberation Front, it doesn’t.
They do things.
Lots of things.
The music papers start writing about them.
Drummond co-produces, with Dave Balfe, the Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reactions album Tattooed Beat Messiah and the accompanying hit singles. This is a heavy rock record and has nothing to do with hip hop.
Drummond is taught by Jimmy Cauty to accept the contradictions.
Goes for long walks in the country.
Picks blackberries.
A third child is born.
1988
Stops listening to hip hop and starts listening to Chicago House music.
Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond meet radio promotions man Scott Piering who teaches them what music, daytime BBC Radio One will play and what they will not.
Cauty and Drummond decide to use this knowledge, to make a novelty record and to become one-hit wonders.
Which they do.
Doctorin’ the Tardis by The Timelords goes to Number One in the UK.
They write a book The Manual (How To Have A Number One The Easy Way). Acid house dawns.
As The KLF, Cauty and Drummond, record and release the first of their series of five Pure Trance 12” singles. This is the first time the word trance is used to define a genre of music.
They play at raves.
Listens to a nightingale singing in a bush just before dawn.
Roy Orbison dies.
Pete de Freitas is killed in motorcycle accident.
Drummond attends funeral and cries.
1989
They decide to use the money made from the novelty hit to make a road movie like Wim Wenders might.
Bill Butt is enlisted to be the director.
They begin work on the film The White Room in the Sierra Nevada.
Discover that they are not Wim Wenders.
Bakes cakes. Picks wild damsons to make jam.
Attends Dave Balfe’s wedding in the role of best man.
1990
Drummond brings together the words ‘chill’ and ‘out’ to be used as the title of the first album by The KLF.
Chill Out is released.
They describe the music on Chill Out as ambient house.
Tens of thousands of words describing Chill Out and its influence are written. Included in the words are seminal and self-indulgent.
Sometime after the release of the album he notices that the words ‘chill’ and ‘out’ are being brought together with a hyphen to form one word – ‘chill-out’.
And the use of this word chill-out is spreading through culture like a virus.
Cauty and Drummond decide to make a series of records called the Stadium House Trilogy which includes version of songs they have already written called What Time Is Love, 3AM Eternal and Last Train To Trancentral.
He uses the Gibson ES-330 to co-write all these songs.
1991
The Stadium House Trilogy become worldwide hits. Number ones in dozens of countries.
He is still in an imaginary band that he has been in since 1968. He rips of ideas from this imaginary band to use in The KLF.
Cauty and Drummond make film with Bill Butt on the Isle of Jura, titled The Rites of Mu. Martin Sheen does voice over for film.
They decide to have a Christmas number one, and so enlist the ‘First Lady of Country’ Miss Tammy Wynette to provide the lead vocals on a remake of one of the first songs they wrote together, Justified and Ancient.
Queen’s Freddy Mercury dies,
Justified and Ancient featuring Tammy Wynette only makes it to the number two slot on Christmas Day.
The re-released Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen is number one.
But Justified and Ancient does go to number one in 18 other countries.
The KLF are officially the biggest selling band in the world for 1991.
Their album The White Room is a multi-million seller.
Drummond is listening to Bach’s The Goldberg Variations as performed by Glenn Gould
1992
Starts recording The Black Room.
Stops recording The Black Room.
The KLF are nominated in four categories in the UK ‘BRIT’ awards, and are asked to perform at the awards ceremony.
Drummond is talked out of chopping off his right hand on stage and throwing it into the audience, a reference to the legend behind the Red Hand of Ulster. Instead the KLF slaughter a sheep and do a thrash metal version of their hit 3AM Eternal, with the help of the band Extreme Noise Terror.
Honoured guest George Solti walks out of the venue in protest at the noise. Solti is the only musician in the audience that Drummond has respect for. Cauty and Drummond use the occasion to announce their retirement from the music industry.
They leave.
They are given the award for the best British band of the year in their absence.
Drummond is listening to the music of Arvo Pärt.
Life grows dark and twisted again.
He splits up his last remaining imaginary band.
Drummond runs away to Mexico, then heads north and crosses the border at Brownsville. That night he witnesses a snake swish through the grass away from him. He imagines that it has just left his body.
He returns to the UK.
His marriage disintegrates.
He is listening to George Jones.
Revisits Lexington, North Carolina with parents where he listens to his father preach a sermon.
Drummond lives alone in a two-up, two-down railway cottage in the middle of nowhere, with no telephone TV, radio or record player.
Starts writing letters to Mark Manning that discuss art, murder, poetry and rape but not suicide.
Spends too much time on his own.
Buys pick up truck. Picks blackberries.
Manning, Drummond and friend Gimpo set off to the North Pole via Finland, taking with them an icon of Elvis Presley with a plan to place the icon of Elvis at the North Pole in the belief that it will radiate love and happiness down the longitudes and out across the latitudes, thus enabling world peace to break out.
Fail to get to the North Pole. The icon now hangs in the most northerly lighthouse in the world, off the north coast of Norway.
Drummond listens to a blackbird singing from the top of the hedge across the road.
1993
On the night that Cauty and Drummond are burying their BRIT award at Stonehenge they decide to instigate the K Foundation. They have no idea what the K Foundation is for.
The two cloaked and top hatted figures that can be seen lurking in the background of the Scream by Munch are to be its trustees, and the bulk of the money earned from The KLF is used as capital.
They believe that the art being produced in the UK is not dangerous enough.
The first work carried out by the K Foundation is the 1994 K Foundation Award designed to hold up a dark mirror to the Turner Prize award.
The K Foundation are catapulted onto front pages, achieve art world infamy and are hailed as the champions of those that know fuck all or too much about art.
They try to buy the Rollright stone circle but can’t.
Has third tweed suit made in Edinburgh.
Chill-out enters the Oxford English dictionary. As does a new definition of the word Trance – as a musical genre.
Select magazine lists the 100 coolest people in pop. From Elvis Presley to Kurt Cobain, from Johnny Rotten to Robert Plant. From the 100th to the 1st. And in this list they name Bill Drummond as number one, top of the heap, the coolest man in pop.
Drummond listens to the wind.
1994
The K Foundation’s second work is the burning of £1,000,000 in fifty quid notes of their own money, intended to be done in the full blaze of the world’s media. The latter part is rejected in favour of a derelict boathouse on the Isle of Jura off the West Coast of Scotland.
The act is filmed by Gimpo and witnessed by one journalist, Jim Reid.
They then felt it their duty to their families to come up with a very good reason for doing such a thing.
Discover that there is never a good enough reason and a colleague suggests that they should not try and explain or defend the event but just leave it there for people to make of it what they will.
Witness how some people consider the work to be a con,
Witness how some people consider the work to be a publicity stunt,
Witness how some people consider the work to be a tax dodge,
Witness how some people consider the work to be a lie.
Realises that this one event will continue to cast a dark and long shadow over everything else that he ever does in the future and how all his other work will be judged in its context.
Richard Long walks across Iceland from top to bottom and on the walk he makes a stone circle.
The K Foundation’s third work – the only musical piece – is the making of a record that would only be released once world peace had broken out. For this they enlist the Red Army Choir and Orchestra and record them performing a medley of Doris Day’s Que Sera Sera and John and Yoko’s Happy Christmas (War Is Over). The track is entitled K Cera Cera.
Drummond decides that it is the best thing they ever recorded together.
1995
Buys a tower in Cushendall, Northern Ireland. It is called the Curfew Tower. Cushendall is a small town on the Antrim coast. He buys it because he believes that the internet is going to change everything.
And this change is for the good.
Fourth child is born to third mother.
Buys, for $20,000, photography and text work by Richard Long called A Smell Of Sulphur In The Wind. And hangs it on bedroom wall. The work depicts the stone circle constructed by the artist while walking across Iceland in 1994. Coincidently it also depicts the spot in Iceland where Drummond and his sister had given up walking across Iceland in 1970.
Goes to watch George Jones perform.
The fourth and final work of the K Foundation was the donating of several thousand cans of Tennent's Super lager, to the homeless in London on Christmas Eve.
Drummond is still listening to the work of Arvo Pärt.
1996
Drummond and Manning’s account of them attempting to take their icon of Elvis to the North Pole is published by Penguin Books.
Manning expressed that the underlying impulse for their journey, was probably not world peace, but an attempt to rid them selves of the lure of rock ‘n’ roll by dumping Elvis as far away as possible in the artic wastes, in the hope that the king would freeze and die.
The book was to be entitled Lighthouse At The Top Of The World (Book One in the Bad Wisdom Trilogy).
Penguin publishes it as Bad Wisdom.
Drummond & Manning tour a spoken-word performance of Bad Wisdom in the United States and UK.
Drummond drives through red lights and writes-off pick up truck, he is physically unscathed.
Manning and Drummond believe that they have sold their souls to the Devil. But cannot recall when.
Or what they got in return.
They make plans to get their souls back.
With Gimpo, they travel to the heart of the Dark Continent.
Sail up the River Congo on a barge.
This much is fact.
But on reaching the rivers source they believe they will find the Tree of Knowledge still standing.
And in its branches, the Serpent still up to his beguiling tricks, offering bites of apples to the innocent.
And while Gimpo entertains His Satanic Majesty, Drummond and Manning will slip around the back of the tree.
And find where he stashes the souls.
And find theirs.
And nick them back.
They carry out this plan.
Sort of.
They do not know if they actually got their souls back.
Fifth child is born.
Buys a Land Rover
1997
Discovers Mark Manning also has imaginary bands in his head.
Drummond and Manning go to Helsinki and write and record songs with Finnish groups and artists. The names of these groups and artists are The Daytonas, Kristina Bruuk, Molten Rock, The Blizzard King, Aurora Borealis, Dracula’s Daughter, Gormenghast and their favourite The Fuckers. These groups and artists only exist in Drummond and Manning’s collective imagination. But the songs and recordings are real and are created with a bunch of Finnish musicians. This is to be the soundtrack to the book Bad Wisdom. Uses Gibson ES-330 to co-write all songs.
Cally designs record sleeves for these recordings.
Kalevala Records releases recordings as a series of seven-inch 45s.
Each in an edition of 500.
They are also only available on export from Finland.
Reads the Book of Psalms.
Drummond is listening to Sibelius.
1998
Returns to the Penkiln Burn, shows two of his older children where he would like his ashes scattered.
Reads Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes while on a train between Bombay and Calcutta. After reading each page he tears it from the book, folds it into a paper plane and launches it from the window.
Decides to evolve a way of working that side steps the long shadow cast by previous works. The main thrust of this plan is to produce and release work anonymously, outside of the contexts that music, art and literature normally rely on, away from London, at distance from the media.
This proves difficult.
Discovers that the shadow has ways of turning corners and that his vanity seeks applause.
Decides that all his future work is to be released, published, made public, distributed under the unifying banner of The Penkiln Burn. This is not the river but something else.
Continues to work with Cally in all aspects of The Penkiln Burn.
Publishes the first Penkiln Burn Pamphlet.
Tammy Wynette dies.
Drummond is invited to take part in an exhibition in a house in Belfast.
He responds to the invite by making soup for 40-odd folk who turn up at the house. Considers the soup-making to be a success.
Publishes small book, From The Shores Of Lake Placid (Penkiln Burn Book One). The story in this book is also printed on series of posters that are pasted around Liverpool. These turn out to be the first of dozens of Penkiln Burn Posters to be printed and pasted on walls around Europe.
Realises he no longer has a satisfactory relationship with A Smell Of Sulphur In The Wind by Richard Long.
Decides to sell it for the original $20,000.
And take the cash in one-dollar bills to Iceland.
And then to start walking across Iceland from top to bottom.
And bury the cash in the centre of the stone circle.
And take a photo of the now enriched stone circle.
And complete the walk across Iceland.
And hang this new photo on the wall of his bedroom.
All in the hope that his relationship with the work would be reinvigorated.
Drummond turns down an invitation from the Scottish Football Association, to write and record the official song for Scotland’s World Cup squad.
The Curfew Tower becomes an artist’s residency.
Ted Hughes dies.
Drummond starts work on a larger book to be called 45.
Starts drinking coffee.
Is listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival very loudly.
1999
Continues to write 45.
Creates his first website penkilburn.com. It exists to document the jobs that he has begun working on.
Roger Eagles dies.
Stops reading poetry.
Is persuaded to designs first stage set in over 22 years. The play is called Cruel Britannia, written by Johny Brown and stars Tam Dean Burn. He uses the pseudonym Tenzing Scott-Brown in the programme credits. The stage set is made from neon lighting.
Matters appear to be getting dark and twisted again. Starts suffering from strange mental glitches. These recur when the dark and twisted bits start to overload. One of these glitches causes him to have another car accident on Christmas Eve. The other car is a write-off. Both parties are physically unscathed.
2000
45 is published by Little Brown. The blurb on the back – written by Mick Houghton – contains the two following sentences:
He avoids and confronts issues, infuriates and inspires those around him, muses and confuses, creates and destroys. He has maintained a penchant for reckless schemes.
45 reaches number 17 in the Sunday Times bestseller list.
Scott Piering dies. Gives address at funeral.
Discovers that the city of Belfast is not twinned with any other foreign city so Drummond twins it with Your Wildest Dreams and this is welcomed by the people of Belfast.
Instigates the Intercontinental Twinning Association (ITA).
Loathes nostalgia.
Sixth child born.
2001
Drummond has not walked across Iceland or even sold work by Richard Long for $20,000.
Decides to cut the work up into 20,000 equal sized fractions and sell them at a dollar a go.
Cally encourages him to consider things.
Jim Baxter dies.
Refers to the work carried out under the name of The Penkiln Burn as jobs and not as works.
Publishes poems written by his father.
Artist’s residency at Curfew Tower continues.
Artists from all over the world apply.
Is surprised to learn that his great, great uncle, Oliver Tomkins, was actually eaten by cannibals in New Guinea on 4 April 1901. Attends centenary memorial service in his honour.
Reads account of Tomkins in book about fellow missionary James Chalmers, who was eaten at the same meal.
Meets artist Tracey Sanders-Wood.
Finds his musical palette jaded.
Refuses to accept that the music of his youth was better than that of today. Wonders what it would be like to hear no music for an entire year.
And then hear it again.
Decides this would not only be impractical but impossible.
Vows to only listen to music that has been recorded in the previous 12 months by bands, soloists, ensembles or composers who have never made or released a recording before.
2002.
God Is Not A Cunt is the proposed title of an exhibition that Drummond is invited to take part in. He considers the title of the exhibition inappropriate as some may consider God to be a cunt.
Influenced by watching Pop Idol on television, sets up two phone lines.
One to phone if you think God is a cunt, the other if you think he isn’t.
This job evolves in numerous directions.
One direction is to give away 40 bunches of daffodils to complete strangers. He does this.
He then makes a commitment to give away 40 bunches of daffodils to complete strangers every year for the rest of his life.
How to Be An Artist (Penkiln Burn Book Six) published.
In this book Drummond explores ideas surrounding our relationship with art and the process he has embarked upon with the Richard Long work.
Drummond can no longer resist the urge to start painting again, but first he lays down certain stipulations.
The stipulations are:
No more than 25 paintings – all canvases the same size – 1,910mm X 1,350mm.
Only use acrylic paint.
Pallet limited to black, white and the three primary colours.
No mixing.
The subject – text.
The typeface – Trade Gothic Bold Condensed.
These paintings must act as markers sign posts or adverts for his other Penkiln Burn jobs.
Gives How To Be An Artist performance/sales pitches at various places, around the UK.
Meets John Hirst.
These include drop-in centres, schools, art galleries, prisons and other places. Between 2002 and 2005 he gives 83 of these performance/sales pitches, selling more than 9,000 of the fractions.
Starts to work with John Hirst and takes his consul on how to construct performances and other things.
How To Be An Artist evolves into an exhibition; which later goes on to be exhibited in ten major regional public galleries between 2002 and 2005.
Drummond decides to resume this process at a later date, when all 20,000 fractions will be sold.
Tracey Sanders-Wood shows him some chicken wire and teaches him that all things are connected
Considers the funerals he has attended over the past years do not work. Responds to this consideration by launching mydeath.net.
In response to the threatened invasion of Iraq, creates card game Silent Protest.
They do not prevent the invasion of Iraq.
Wonders if he could go a month without listening to any music.
Decides this would be impractical and impossible.
Stops drinking coffee.
Considers going on the game for one month at the next Liverpool Biennial at £1000 a trick. Publishes pamphlet – You Whore.
Becomes aware of a weird strange primeval choir of voices that sing in his head when he drives the Land Rover.
Names this choir The17.
Beanfield School Secondary Modern is demolished
2003
Decides to make The17 a reality.
But.
Does a deal with himself that he will not make The17 a reality until he is 60.
Makes soup in a packed house in Nottingham, a strangely successful event. Instigates the Soupline and writes the following text for a poster:
Take a map of the British Isles. Draw a straight line diagonally across the map so that it cuts through Belfast and Nottingham. If your home is on this line, contact Soupline@penkilnburn.com Arrangements will then be made for Bill Drummond to visit and make one vat of soup for you, your family, and your close friends.
Breaks vow to only listen to music released in the past 12 months by artist.
Decides that over the next year to only listen to bands, soloists, ensembles, or composers, whose name or surname begins with B.
And over the next 26 years work his way through the alphabet.
Gives away 40 bunches of daffodils to complete strangers in Milton Keynes. Tries to go a week without hearing any music – he fails.
Has conversation with Seamus Heaney about the Antrim coast in general and The Curfew Tower in particular.
Mark Manning sends him illustrated copy of The Sermon On The Mount with a recommendation that he should read it at least once a year.
Twins Hull with Your Darkest Thought.
Creates a poster – it reads:
The Intercontinental Twinning Association (ITA) exists
To twin cities, towns or thoughts.
These twinnings can be random, premeditated or instantaneous.
These twinnings can take the outward appearance of traditional town twinning or not.
Makes film of drive in Land Rover from one end of the M62 (Hull) to the other end of M62 (Liverpool).
Breaks vow to only listen to music released in the past 12 months by artist who have never released and album before by listening to Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys immediately followed by The Byrds Greatest Hits.
Decides that over the next year to only listen to bands, soloists, ensembles, or composers, whose name or surname begins with B.
And over the next 26 years work his way through the alphabet.
2004
Gives away 40 bunches of daffodils to complete strangers in Lincoln.
Thinks that nobody should make a work of art bigger than themselves.
Inspired by this thought and a ball of blue tack stuck to the dashboard of his Land Rover launches The Open Manifesto at www.openmanifesto.com
Prints new poster, it reads:
The Open Manifesto Exists.
It exists to define what art is and what art is not.
And how art should be made.
And what art is to be used for.
And how it can be discussed.
And what there is to be learnt.
And whom it is for.
It accepts.
Whatever is said today makes redundant what was said yesterday.
What was said ten years ago might be suddenly as fresh as what will be said tomorrow morning.
The Open Manifesto is ongoing, never-ending.
The Open Manifesto needs more.
All new doctrines, dogmas or principles are welcomed for consideration to be added to the Open Manifesto.
Please visit www.openmanifesto.com and make your submission.
WARNING: No jokers, time wasters. Mean what you say even if you fall short of what you proclaim.
Reneges on deal with himself and decides to make The17 real and now.
Enlists 17 men to sing what he hears in his head.
Records them.
Uses the recording to be soundtrack for M62 film.
Twins Kensington, Liverpool with Kensington, London using the medium of kettles.
Drinks Red Bull.
Launches youwhores.com
Wishes he hadn’t.
Tracey Sanders-Wood gets married.
He makes her and groom three-tiered wedding cake.
She is now Tracey Moberly.
Discovers he has painted 25 paintings but still feels the urge to paint more.
Starts painting over already painted canvases.
Is very excited about the The17.
But dumps the M62 film.
Writes the following statement:
All recorded music has run its course. It has all been consumed, traded, downloaded, understood, heard before, sampled, learned, revived, judged and found wanting. Dispense with all previous forms of music and music making and start again.
Year zero now.
The17 is a choir. Their music has no history, follows no traditions, recognises no contemporaries. The17 has many voices. They use no libretto, lyrics or words; no time signatures, rhythm or beats; and have no knowledge of melody, counterpoint or harmony. The17 struggle with the dark and respond to the light.
Is arrested.
Spends night in cell.
Is summoned to court on charge or driving while banned.
Barrister tells him to bring pyjamas, toothbrush and a change of clothes, just in case.
Does not go to prison.
Is given 60 hours community service.
Goes a day hearing no music.
Moves to Norwich with three youngest children and partner.
Reads Chronicles by Bob Dylan.
2005
Does community service digging ditches on the Norfolk Broads.
Thinks long and hard about music while digging ditches.
Decides that now we have arrived at a time where all recorded music from the entire history of recorded music over the past 100 years can be listened to wherever, whenever, while doing whatever we want, our relationship with music is changing in a very fundamental way.
Realises that recorded music will be seen as a medium of the 20th century.
Decides that The17 exists where any group of 17 people gather to make music using their mouths, throats, lungs, ears and mind.
Decides the music of The17 will never be recorded for posterity, never be broadcast on radio, TV or internet, never be commodified for the market place, never be performed for an audience.
Decides that it exists only for the experience of those performing it.
Community service comes to an end.
He enjoyed digging ditches.
Long-term relationship disintegrates.
Heart breaks.
Does not listen to George Jones.
Has vasectomy.
Gives away 40 bunches of daffodils to complete strangers in Lambeth. Instigates Souplines International in Estonia.
First Curfew Tower Award presented to the artist who has created the ‘best’ work of art in the previous 12 months.
The ’best’ work was voted for by the residence of Cushendall.
Listens to Push The Button by the Sugababes.
Constructs first Cake Circle.
The Intercontinental Twinning Association continues, but sees its efforts flag. Goes public with No Music Day on 21 November.
The 22 November is Saint Cecelia’s day.
Saint Cecilia is the patron saint of music.
And nomusicday.com is launched.
The Wild Highway by Drummond & Manning published.
The Wild Highway is book two of the Bad Wisdom Trilogy.
It is based on their journey up the Congo in 1996.
2006
Russian language version of mydeath.net is launched in Moscow as part of Death & Desire, a joint exhibition with Tracey Moberly.
Gives away 40 bunches of daffodils to complete strangers somewhere in Sweden.
Moves to London to be near his younger children.
Website the17.org launched.
The17 perform in Moscow, Oslo, Saint Petersburg, Newcastle, Stockholm, Sete, Huddersfield, Vienna and other places.
59 performances in all.
The second Curfew Tower Award is held, voted for and given.
BBC’s Most 20 Punk people list Drummond at number 18, one below Quentin Tarantino and one above Tracey Emin.
Spends too much time in the city.
Starts work on a book with working title 17.
On 21 November, Resonance FM observes No Music Day 2006.
Turns down offer to be housemate on TV series: Celebrity Big Brother.
Time heals.
2007
Fails to give away 40 bunches of daffodils to complete strangers anywhere in spring time.
Tony Wilson dies.
Thinks.
Continues work on book to be called 17.
Cally continues to encourage him to consider things.
Kingfisher flashes past.
Has inspected the collection at the National Gallery every year since 1983.
Third Curfew Tower Award held, voted for and given.
The Open Manifesto remains open and is now available in Arabic, Chinese and Spanish.
Adder crosses his path on the Isle of White.
On 21 November, BBC Radio Scotland observes No Music Day 2007.
Still does not smoke and still only drinks in moderation.
Tracey Moberly sends him text messages he can’t understand.
Considers what he learnt from Peter Prendergast about seeing and not just looking to be a life long learning thing.
Still works with Gimpo and John Hirst.
Decides he would like to stop drinking Red Bull.
Is in regular contact with Jimmy Cauty.
The Gibson ES-330 is still ready and waiting for the call of duty.
Climbs Table Mountain.
John Hirst points out that The KLF were not the first to bring the words CHILL and OUT together. In fact they were not even the first band to call an album Chill Out, Black Uhuru did that in 1982.
Commences writing the final book in the Bad Wisdom trilogy with Mark Manning.
His relationship with God is founded on something far more solid than the whimsy of faith.
Has unsettling dreams about managing Echo & The Bunnymen at least once a week.
These dreams are mainly bad and often concern the death of Pete De Freitas.
Is no longer in love with Elvis.
Finds he has long lost the ability to support Rangers.
Would rather Queen of The South had won on that day back in ’64.
Consults Dave Balfe regularly.
Admits that other than The Bible and the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, On The Road by Jack Kerouac is the book that has had more influence on his life than any other.
George Jones is still alive but Drummond has no need of his services at present.
Finishes book called 17
Decides to compile, a year-by-year biography for media use.
Attempts to give away 40 bunches of daffodils to complete strangers in Corby, UK on 20 December.
2008
Gives away 40 bunches of daffodils to complete strangers in Caerphilly, Wales.
Finishes book called 17
The17 begin their Coast-to-Coast world tour in Derby, UK.
This performance involves 1,700 of the citizens of Derby as members of The17.
This performance takes over three months to complete.
The book 17 is published.
Does a tour of Waterstone’s to promote book.
17 is his most critically and commercially successful book todate.
Goes to Siberia to be a judge at a film festival.
Ken Campbell dies.
Birth Marriage & Death is the name of exhibition at VOID gallery in Derry, Ireland. The exhibition is based on the performance by The17 of the scores WELCOME, CELEBRATE and COMPLEMENT.
Finds he no longer dreams about managing Echo & The Bunnymen.
Delivers talk entitled The History Of Music (part 19) as part of BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking Festival. To be broadcast early in 2009.
São Paulo, Brazil is the focus for No Music Day 2008.
Instigates performance of Score 326: STOP on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on 31 December. This performance is part of the Coast-to-Coast tour and this performance is to be twinned with a performance on a radio station in Timbuktu.
2009
Gives away 40 bunches of daffodils to total strangers in Southend-on-Sea.
Instigates a performance of Score 328: SURROUND in Northampton, UK with 100 local members of The17
Instigates a performance of Score 328: SURROUND in Beijing, China with 100 local members of The17
Both of the above performances are part of the Coast-to-Coast tour.
Instigates the premier performance of Score 324: NIGHTCLUBBING in Zurich, Switzerland.
His father dies.
Starts work on the Life & Death Of An Artist series of photographs with Tracey Moberly.
Goes fishing regularly with his youngest son.
The construction of the first Cake Circle is completed in Newton-le-Willows, UK.
Przedostatnie kuszenie Billa Drummonda (The Last Temptation But One Of Bill Drummond) is a play written and directed by Marcin Wierzchowski for the Theatre Wilama Horzycy, in the city of Torun, Poland. The real Bill Drummond has neither read, seen or had anything to do with the production.
Instigates a performance of Score 7: COLLABORATE at Kingswood School, Corby, UK.
The city of Linz, Austria embraces No Music Day: 2009 completely. This performance of No Music Day is the final of the Five Year Plan.
Instigates a performance of Score 7: COLLABORATE at L'Ecole Guillaume Manigat, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This performance is twinned with the performance at Kingswood School.
2010
Gives away 40 bunches of daffodils to 40 total strangers in Hungerford.
Continues leading The17’s Coast-to-Coast and City-to-City world tours.
Claudel Casseus was his You & Me – Me & You partner for the year. Together they produced a number of works including the book IMAJINE by Claudel Casseus’s. It being Casseus’s memoir of the Haitian earthquake and the days following it.
Painted eleven of the 40 IMAGINE WAKING UP TOMORROW AND ALL MUSIC HAS DISAPPEARED graffiti were painted under bridges close to locations where The17 had performed on the Coast-to-Coast world tour.
Answered 100 different questions in writing and as fully has he could. These are to be published as Volume One -100 Answers to 100 Questions , sometime in 2011.
Decides to embrace living in London by instigating a number of endeavors, including the construction of the London Cake Circle.
His mother dies.
Is composer in residence at the Mittersill Composer’s Forum, Austria.
Makes bed out of wood, by hand and in public in Guangzhou, China. This is the fourth bed that is part of the ongoing 40 Beds work.
2011
Gives away forty bunches of daffodils to forty total strangers on Ladypool Road, Birmingham.
Publishes IMAJINE by Claudel Casseus (PB Book Fourteen)
Continues leading The17’s Coast-to-Coast world tour.
Painted five of the forty Imagine Waking Tomorrow & All Music Has Disappeared graffiti under or on bridges close to locations where The17 had performed on the Coast-to-Coast world tour.
Is composer in residence at the Sensoria Festival, Sheffield, UK.
Launches career as shoe-shine boy at the Venice Biennale
Writes and publishes Man Makes Bed (PB Book Fifteen) and Man Shines Shoes (PB Book Sixteen)
Constructs the Liverpool Cake Circle
Makes beds Five and Six of the ongoing Forty Beds sculpture in Rotterdam and Watford.
Cally continues to encourage him to consider things.
Still does not smoke and still only drinks in moderation.
Still works with John Hirst.
Consults Dave Balfe regularly.
Is in regular contact with Jimmy Cauty.
The Gibson ES-330 is still ready and waiting for the call of duty.
NOTES
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Inventory as at December 2011:
Since the inception of The Penkiln Burn there have to date been:
Two Cake Circles constructed
Three major twinnings.
Six beds made from wood and in public
14 books published
20 solo exhibitions mounted
25 paintings painted and repainted
28 pamphlets published
30 soup makings
389 performance/events performed
392 different posters printed
395 scores written for The17
And lots of time taken.
Drummond is still concerned there may not be enough time to get everything done before he dies