THE THIRD EVENING
11 July 2006

The third evening spent in a row on the ledge, and I’ve got myself a pot of tea and a bag of chips for company. The swifts are back, wheeling and tearing across the sky. I’ve got my pencil and notebook out here as well but not so I can come on all Wordsworth again but because I got an email from a woman in Austria.

We are off to Vienna in a couple of days time to do The17 there and the woman who is coordinating the practical details of the event needs to know exactly what I am going to be doing. So I hope to put down as succinctly as I can what it is I do and how it works before it gets too dark to write anymore out here. Here goes …

THIS IS HOW IT WORKS

In a small room I will be sitting
Worrying that tonight it may not work
Even though I know every other night
That I have done this
It has worked.

In a big room, a room with dimmed lighting,
There will be a piano;
A piano stool;
A table with some equipment on it 
17 chairs arced around the piano, stool and table.
Behind the table will be a man called John Hirst.
John Hirst is in charge of the equipment.
On the walls of the room will be 17 framed text works.
These text works are A0 in size
They are also SCORES to be performed.

In a third room there will be 17 people
Wondering what they have come to.
If there is no third room available
The street outside will suffice.
These 17 people will be offered a glass of wine
Then ushered into the big room.
They will sit down and wait.

I will leave the small room.
Come into the big room.
Sit down on a stool in front of them and say
‘Good evening. My name is Bill Drummond
And you are The 17.’

I will then spend the next 40 minutes talking.
Talking about why we are at this point in the history of music
And what The 17 is and why
They are now all members of The 17
For life.
Me talking will both entertain them
And enlighten them.

There will then be a short break of about ten minutes.
In the break they can leave the big room
Have a fag, take a piss,
Drink another glass of wine
And worry about what will happen next.

What will happen next is
They will come back into the big room
Sit on their seats
And I will explain to them about
how we, as in they, John Hirst and me,
Are now going to do a version of
One of the SCORES specifically composed for The 17.
The one called Age.

We will then spend the next 40 minutes
Putting together this version of Age.

Then there will be another short break
After which the lights in the room will be switched off
And we will play back to them what they have just recorded.
This will take five minutes.
One member of the audience will think it was:
The most beautiful thing they have ever experienced
Another will think:
They have heard it all before
The rest will be glad they made the effort to take part,
I hope.
I will then chat for another couple of minutes.
Then John Hirst will delete the recording.
There will be a gasp.
And maybe some applause.

And that will be that.
Some people may try and ask me some questions.
I may answer some.

I will return to my small room.
They will go home.
The history of music will have changed

And now that is done I will pour myself another mug of tea, watch the moon as it lifts itself above the skyline and listen.