Graham has contributed over 8,000 words of text about his recent trip to Cushendall. After some debate in the GANTOB Pamphlet Committee (14 September 2025), we have agreed that it provides detail and interpretation that may be of interest, and fits the level of detail recorded by various historical authors and societies in The Glens of Antrim. Watch this space over coming days, as we feel that it would be too much to read in one sitting.
Any comments about errors or typos, please let us know, usual routes, because this might end up in a print publication at some point.
DGMoG(tp), 15 September 2025
Thursday 28 August 2025. This is my second pilgrimage to Cushendall and Bill Drummond’s curry and bonfire night in Curfew Tower. The first was 2023, when I travelled solo. The focus of that night was the activities of artists from Užupis, a neighbourhood of Vilnius, Lithuania (or perhaps a self-governing republic).
This year I am making the journey with my wife Liz. I am carrying a proof copy of a new book called GANTOB’s 25 Paintings, produced by a collective of writers from around the world, to give to my friend Stephen, who is meeting us in Cushendall with his wife Michelle. Stephen and I have contributed material to some of the earlier GANTOB books. The most recent proof copy was delivered two weeks ago, in a brown paper bag marked “cheese savoury”, with a business card from “The Food and Literature Delivery Rider”. GANTOB HQ is reported to be in Stockbridge, a mile or two west of our house in Leith. There is also a trifold pamphlet titled What is Proof? on puce card in the bag. It is written by Gillian Finks, founder of the GANTOB collective. I have read both in some detail. The book and pamphlet are not related to the bonfire and curry night and are not to be mentioned or distributed at that event. These were apparently terms that Bill made when Gillian first contacted him about the idea of re-enacting a fictional book called Grapefruit Are Not The Only Bombs. That book – GANTOB for short – had been mentioned in 2023: a trilogy, a book written by Drummond and his KLF partner Jimmy Cauty in 2017. It is a long story. Most of the rest of this blog is about Elvis.
| On 18 October 2019, Bill Drummond contributed to an event at Leith Theatre, Ferry Road. That is about 20 minutes walk from our house. The event launched the Neu! Reekie!’s book After Curfew (Penkiln Burn Book 20, 2019). At the event Bill asked the audience to resolve his dilemma: Does Elvis love me? Or Do I love Elvis? I completely missed the event, or even the publicity for the event, because I was very busy with clinical duties, working long hours in Fife. Bill returned to Edinburgh during the pandemic, as part of a Neu! Reekie! exhibition, which I did manage to attend with my daughter, on 9 June 2021. He exhibited a painting – ELVIS T’AMA BILL in white and black text on black and white horizontal stripes. There was accompanied by a pamphlet called Two (PB Pamphlet 33), featuring two plays. Bill also contributed a play (Life Model) to a Neu! Reekie! book (NR #3) in 2020. This is completely unrelated to The Life Model, Bill’s biography by ~140 contributors, published electronically in 2023. |
Liz and I take the same route as I did in 2023, up Leith Walk, under the bridge where GANTOB (the person) is reported to have first encountered The Benefaktor, to Waverley Station, to catch the train to Glasgow Queen Street. An hour later we tramp across to Central Station in the rain to connect to Ayr by train. I think of Elvis Presley as we go through Prestwick International Airport Station, a few stops before Ayr. Elvis stopped off in Prestwick Airport, and even met some fans, on 3 March 1960 on his return from military service in Germany. It was the only time he ever set foot on British soil, but that is another story. Elvis is central to Bill Drummond’s Cushendall activities in Curfew Tower during 2025, referencing Elvis Presley’s Comeback Special, broadcast in 1968/69, depending on where you live. My Mum remembers it well, except for the details. I have only set foot in Prestwick Airport once, when my daughter and I flew on Ryanair to Gothenburg to see Paul McCartney at the Ullevi Stadium on June 12, 2004, when she was only 5 years old. She thought that she was watching The Beatles. I note that Ryanair signs are still displayed prominently as the train departs the station.
A few minutes after arriving in Ayr, we are off again on the bus to Cairnryan. We travel through familiar countryside, with Belted Galloway cattle, the view through the mist to Arran and then as the skies clear, Ailsa Craig to the south of Kildonan. Golf courses (including one owned by the current US President) give way to signposts to Galloway forest and Newton Stewart, prompting memories of our trip to New Galloway in May, to see the Penkiln Burn players perform songs from the Voices from the Galloverse LP. But we are still in Ayrshire almost right up to the ferry terminus. It feels apt to be departing from Galloway, with its strong Bill Drummond connections. But, as we are about to find out, this trip is not about his Galloverse – that will be the setting for another film – perhaps called Poppies in the Field, scripted by Kirsty Allison. We are off to the 25 Comeback Special in Cushendall, inspired by Elvis Presley’s TV special in 1968, but with Bill Drummond imagining his Curfew Tower as Elvis’s Memphis home Graceland. It is (another) long story.
There is a trail of clues. The BBC summarises it as follows in the description of their Radio 4 programme Graceland in the Glens, broadcast at 11:30 on Tuesday 9 January 2024: “In 2019, Elvis Presley Enterprises threatened to deconstruct Graceland and move it to Saudi Arabia, Tokyo, or whoever was the highest bidder. Artist, writer, KLF member and money burner – Bill Drummond – realised something had to be done. Bill’s relationship with Northern Ireland began before his relationship with Elvis – but at some junction, these two relationships were bound to collide. It seems the Curfew Tower at the junction of the crossroads in the village of Cushendall in the Glens of Antrim is where this collision will be taking place”.
That programme is no longer available on iPlayer. I don’t think that I agree that Bill Drummond’s relationship with Northern Ireland began before his love of Elvis. But I’m not going to argue.
Between 3 June and 1 September 2025, Bill Drummond’s Penkiln Burn website provides a wealth of information about the project, but that will no longer be available by the time you read this. I am going to write up my memories of the trip, because I feel that somebody should.
It is a long journey. We board the ferry to Belfast and find seats in one of the lounges. We take a tour of the upper deck, but it is wet and visibility is poor, so we sit down and read our novels. We take the bus into the city centre, past signs for Fortwilliam, and think of misty days beside Ben Nevis on the other side of the Irish Sea. That night in Belfast we have sushi and noodles in the university area. It’s a bustling cosmopolitan district, near the Botanic Gardens. Cafés and bars are open late into the evening, readying themselves for the Queen’s University students for another year.
To be continued. Next stop Belfast.
Featured image is skull displayed at Curfew Tower, 9 August 2023
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