In Fried & Justified Mick Houghton looks back at his life-spanning career in the music business and the bands and artists he has worked for as publicist. Along with Scott Piering, Houghton probably was the main public voice of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty and the link between the band and the press whenever The KLF prefered to remain silent.
Alongside Houghton’s insights the book features a foreword by Bill Drummond, while the familiar T-shape on the book’s cover has been contributed by Jimmy Cauty.
Back Cover Blurb
The list of bands and artists Mick Houghton worked with in an illustrious career in the music business reads like a Who’s Who of some of the greatest, most influential and downright dysfunctional cult groups of the post-punk era and beyond – Ramones, Talking Heads, The Undertones, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Felt, Sonic Youth, The Wedding Present, Spiritualized and Elastica among them. Often judiciously (or unintentionally) sidestepping the major trends in music – baggy, grunge and Britpop – his reputation for attracting outsiders led to him working with artists as disparate as Sun Ra, Andrew Oldham, Ken Kesey, Bert Jansch, Stereolab, Mercury Rev and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci.
But the three acts Mick is most closely identified with are Echo & The Bunnymen, Julian Cope (and the Teardrop Explodes) and the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu/KLF in all their guises. Between them, these three played a significant role in shaping the musical landscape of the eighties and nineties, and – as confidant and co-conspirator – Mick was with their chorus along the way, carefully navigating the minefield of rivalries and contrasting fortunes. It is Mick’s indefatigable belief that it was always the music that came first, and it is his knack of attracting so-called difficult and troubled artists that makes Fried & Justified such an amusing, honest and insightful tale.
