2009

The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour dates and locations will be added to the 2009 & 2010  pages over the coming months.

Bill Drummond delivered a 25 minute talk entitled The History of Music (Part 19) as part of BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival in Liverpool on 2 November 2008. The talk was followed by a Q & A session mediated by presenter Susan Hitch. The talk and Q & A sesseion are to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Night Waves programme.

Bill Drummond will be giving a talk entitled All Recorded Music Has Run Its Course at this years Transmediale Festival. The talk will be followed by a discussion with Martin Conrads. Drummond will also be inviting the audience as individuals to perform the score IMAGINE when they wake up in the following night.

Post Script: Two photographs taken at the event, one of Drummond reading from 17 and the other of him being questioned by Martin Conrads have been added to Flikr

Conversations is the name of work by artist Sally Lemsford. Lemsford uses conversations as a medium in her practice. These conversations are not documented. The conversation that she had with Bill Drummond in the hire van at the back of QUAD in Derby was begun by Lemsford posing the question 'If "The very urge to make recorded music is a redundant and creative dead-end", what is the motivation to produce hard copy artworks?'

The conversations that are included in Conversations work as a chain. The next conversation in this chain will be between Sally Lemsford, Bill Drummond and Tracey Moberly. Location and date of this conversation yet to be set.

Surround Northampton Fishmarket was Bill Drummond’s contribution to the four-man exhibition 60 Miles By Road or Rail that ran at the Fishmarket in Northampton between 20 February and 28 March 2009.

Surround Northampton Fishmarket involved the promotion, execution and documentation of a performance of Score 328 SURROUND performed by The17. The performance of this score happened on Saturday 14 March 2007. 

This performance was part of Vocal Invention 2009 (a weekend of musical experiment). The first half of this performance was an introduction to The17 by Bill Drummond, the second half of the performance was the world premier of a new score by Drummond entitled Divide & Combine.

The title of this talk is The History of Music (part 19), it is also part of Vocal Invention 2009. Drummond first gave a version of this talk as part of BBC Radio 3's  Free Thinking Festival. There will also be a Q & A session after the talk.

This performance is only open to students at the university.

A performance of Score 328 SURROUND on the 5 kilometre circumference of a circle on the streets of Northampton. The centre of the circle is the Fishmarket. Bill Drummond gave an introductory talk at the Fishmarket at 3pm before the perfomance began. 

Photographic documentation by Mac Canonymous of some of the days events, can be viewed at Flikr

This performance of SURROUND is twinned with a perfomance at the 10th Open Performance Art Festival in Beijing, Chinabe in August 2009. This performance is part of the Coast-to-Coast world tour by The17.

For further information visit Silent Protest Berlin

This is to be the world premier of Score 325 North V South. The match will be between NFA Derby FC (The North) and Derbyshire Constabulary (The South).  This will only be the first half of this performance, the second half will be at QUAD on the 24 April 2009.

Bill Drummond will be giving the keynote speech at the M4Music Conference (2009). The title of the speech is The Meaning of Music. For further information click here

This will be a world premier performance of the score NIGHTCLUBBING. For tickets and further information here click This is the first date on the City-to-City world tour

Ted Hughes & Me is the title of a short film about Bill Drummond's relationship with the work of Ted Hughes. This was filmed by the BBC as part of their 2009 poetry campaign. And can be viewed here on the BBC site.

Amogst all the exhibits by other artists this exhibition  contains the one framed copy of Score 326 Stop, by Bill Drummond. This score was first performed on the 31 December 2008 on the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4.

"In the ancient world the stars served as markers for the coming of a new year, the changing of the seasons and dawn of a new day and as ‘signs’ they continue to facilitate our punctuation of time. In 2009, UNESCO's International Year of Astronomy, the world commemorates the 400th anniversary of  Galileo's use of the telescope to observe the night sky. The science, the interaction of glass and light and the development of optical technology has revolutionised our understanding of our place in the universe. ‘Space-Time’ draws together works that capture a moment in space and time, that reflect upon applications of astronomical observations and the role of time in our everyday lives, memory and future."

This performance is for the first 17 people who stuck their names on the sheet of paper at Eastside Projects on the 31 October 2008. They know who they are. No further information.

This is the second part of the performance of NORTH V SOUTH. The first half was on the 23 March 2009. No Further information available.

Ninian & Me is the title of a short film about the influence of Presbyterianism on the life & work of Bill Drummond. This was filmed by the BBC as part of a programme entitled Calvin & Me to celebrate the 500 anniversary of John Calvin. It will be screened in September 2009 on BBC Four. Further details to follow. The Ninian in question is Saint Ninian who landed at the Isle-of-Whithorn in 397 bringing Christianity to Scotland for the first time.

Michele Jackson and Bill Drummond made the first complete Cake Circle to ever be constructed in England. It was done over two days in the small town of Newton-le-Willows, half way between Manchester and Liverpool. Documentation of this Cake Circle and its construction will be made available else where.

This was the world premier performance of the score DESTROY by Michele Jackson. Further details of this score and performance will be made available else where.

Recording first half of spoken word version of the book 17

Photographs taken for  25 Paintings and for the book Caught By The River

Recording second half of spoken word version of the book 17

The UK premier performance of Score 80 HOKUSAI MOTION written by Simon Cullen

Rupert & Me

Saul Taylor will perform Score 6 CLIMB on the top of Snowdon after he has completed competing in the Welsh 1000m Peaks race. His description will be added to this page once he has written it up. ABANDONED DUE TO EXTREME WEATHER CONDITIONS.

As part of taking part in The17's performance of Score 349 DESTROY at Chester University on 6 May 2009, it was decided to retire the website www.youwhores.com. This was symoblically done at the time by Bill Drummond daubing a canvas with the words I WILL FUCK YOU FOR £10,000 and then slashing the canvas. The site was not actually retired until 10 June 2009. It was replaced by the new job You & Me - Me & You. The You Whores site can still be visited but only viewed as an museum peice,  it is no longer open for business.

Caught By The River (hardback) is a collection of new writings on rivers by numerous living authors. The writers include Irvine Welsh, Jon Savage, Jarvis Cocker, Chris Yates and Bill Drummond amongst others. Drummond's contribution is called The Penkiln Burn, and edited  extract from this was published in The Times and this is a link to  it here. Caught By The River is available from Amazon

All the artists who have previously exhibited at VOID between 2005-2009 have been invited to make a work of art using only a blank side of and A5 size post card. These are to be sold  in aid of Void Art School. For further information contact +44 (0)28 7130 8080.   

A performance of Score 8 TAKE. This performance took place in a field near Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England. The members of The17 were Steve Peck, Ruth Crome, Frances Cavendish, Paul Benney, Rowan Swanson, Lucy Andre, Catherine Lindsay Davies, Ros Coleman, Rob Hawe, Adam Brace, Cally, Jeannie Calloman, Tracey Moberly, John Hirst and Bill Drummond

This will be a full performance of Score 4 AGE. The17 will be made up of 85 residence of Cushendall. This performace is part of the Coast-to-Coast world tour by They17. Further details to follow.

This is the annual open day at the Curfew Tower, where all can vote for the best piece of work produced by an artist-in-residence over the previous 12 months. In the evening there will be a bonfire in the backgarden and a free bowl of curry and glass of wine for all comers. The winner is announced at 11pm.

This will be a performance of Score 328 SURROUND at the 10th Open performance art festival in Beijing, China. This performace is part of the Coast-to-Coast world tour by They17. Further details to follow.

Year five of a five year plan. Bill Drummond will be doing a press conference in Vienna on 18 November and another one on 19 November in Linz. For further information about these press conferences contact Anatol Bogendorfer anatol@servus.at for German language media or Maija Handover maija@sounduk.net for English and all other language media.

As part of the Ghetto Biennale in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the17 will perform Score 7 COLLABORATE. The members of The17 for this performance will be made up of 56 students from a school in Port-au-Prince. This is part of Coast-to-Coast world tour by The17. Further details to follow.