Pic by Tracey Moberly
THE predictable dance of the media interview has been turned on its head in 100, Bill Drummond's latest book.
Back in 2010, the artist and former Zoo Records and KLF luminary reflected that for years he had been asked a variant of the same four questions and thus had his “polished stock answers to give”.
The city of Liverpool was given the opportunity to ask four questions of the author - through four individuals representing it
So Drummond decided to make it a bit more interesting: for the rest of his life, he would respond to only a finite number of interview requests.
The first half, comprising 100 questions in all, and their answers – would form a book.
Tall Paul: In itOver the course of that year, Drummond invited the first 25 people who contacted him for an interview, to ask him four things. No face-to-face musings over tea or a pint, only email correspondence; questions he agreed to respond to on the proviso that they had never been asked before.
"In the past, I always had a pretty clear idea how these interviews would end up once they were published," he says.
"The first half of the feature would be a précis of my career to date. In recent years this has often been lifted from Wikipedia, factual errors included. The second half would be about modern culture and how the things I do, relate to it.
"This latter half might be hung around a few quotes selected from the recording of the interview - often these quotes were taken out of context. To me, this seemed unsatisfactory. I was either going to give up doing interviews altogether or make the interviews I gave, every bit as much part of my creative process, as the books I write, the actions I provoke or the music I instigate."
He went on: "For years I tried to have some ‘control’ over the media I appeared in by being as picky as I could about the interviews I gave. The thinking being, that by attempting this, somehow I would be able to make my media presence work for me.
"As of the 1 January 2010, I flipped this thinking."
In the event, 23 publications made it into the book – and that's not 100 questions, you're thinking.
No. So, in addition, the city of Liverpool was given the opportunity to ask four questions of the author - through the first four individuals from the city who he came into contact with that year.
These turned out to be Impropriety actor Tall Paul, talking about Capital of Culture; Liverpool Confidential's editor, Angie Sammons, who had accidentally emailed Bill Drummond requesting a gas bill; Deltasonic and Magnet founder Johnny Mellor, who wondered if it was all a pisstake, and the Everyman Theatre.
Drummond asks and answers the final four himself.
Subjects in 100 spin wildly from Haiti, graffiti, art as a commodity, Abba, Goebbels and the internet, the Death of Princess Diana, Zoo Records, The Brit Awards, dead sheep and setting things on fire.
Is it any good? Well, apart from the fact that Liverpool Confidental is in it and we would say so, yes. The obvious danger in such a project is that it could easily unfold into the ramblings of an ego let loose. Yet here, the questions are considered and the discussions often illuminating, whether you are familiar with the author and their work or not (we tested this out on an 11-year-old yesterday).
Next month's mortgage sortedDrummond's books are highly collectable. A copy of his first 67-pager, From The Shores of Lake Placid, which had a limited print run of 500 in Liverpool in 1998, is now selling online for an unbelievable £370.
And there are only 1,000 copies of 100 in existence.
Want one? Well, it's not straightforward.
You can't buy it on Amazon or any other corporate retailer. Instead, the entire edition - or the half of it that's left - will arrive on a pallet in Liverpool as a stacked sculpture next month.
It will spend the whole of July in the window of independent booksellers News From Nowhere, at 96 Bold Street, where it may be purchased for £15. And when it is gone, as they say...
Coming to a bookshop near you, ie News From Nowhere, which this isn't
However, this being Liverpool there are a couple of extra bolt-ons.
On Thursday July 5, expect to spot a mystery “Lone Sweeper”, a superhero. Homburg worn on head at all times; face in shadow of brim, who will be making his entrance to Liverpool via the Mersey Tunnel.
The Lone Sweeper will push a broom along Lime Street. Up Renshaw Street. Down Bold Street, up Bold Street and into News From Nowhere. "In doing so he will have constructed the sculpture Two Hours of Pushing Broom #3."
But, says Drummond, "the most interesting thing about a superhero is the back story,” and you can hear all that - and more about 100 - when he conducts a special one-off performance - "How I Became A Superhero" - at the Mello Mello bar, Slater Street, on Wednesday July 4. 8pm.
Tickets - there are only 100 of them - are £10 and are available exclusively from here. As a bonus, audience members get a fiver off the book for this one night only.
100 questions down and just 100 more to go.
