Sunday, August 28, 2016

Civic pride

New towns: concrete abominations developed by myopic planners, with too many roundabouts and no soul or character - right? Not according to Bill Drummond (yes, he of The KLF and the K Foundation), whose love of new towns - chronicled in an article for Vice - sprang from a childhood move from Scotland to Corby. Such moves, common in the post-war era, marked an escape from "crowded squalor" to places of "quiet beauty".

That said, Drummond also recounts how and why he suddenly fell out of love with new towns - it was all Pete Winkelman's fault for not only moving Wimbledon lock, stock and barrel to Milton Keynes and changing their name to the MK Dons, but also for having the nerve to ask Drummond to compose and record an anthem for the team. It was never a commission that arch provocateur Drummond was ever likely to accept or even consider, other than with severe disdain.

No comments: