The Absence by Budgie, Paperback, 9781399621571 | Buy online at The Nile
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The Absence

Memoirs of a Banshee Drummer

Author: Budgie  

The Absence
Paperback

A classic postpunk memoir by a cult hero of the 80s - Budgie, the drummer in Siouxsie and the Banshees - with a twist

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10th June 2025
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Summary

A classic postpunk memoir by a cult hero of the 80s - Budgie, the drummer in Siouxsie and the Banshees - with a twist

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Description

As a member of Big in Japan, The Slits and, most famously, Siouxsie and The Banshees and The Creatures, 'Budgie' became one of the era-defining drummers in the much-mythologised post punk scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Growing up in working class St Helens in the 1960s, Peter Clarke lost his mum as a young boy and it's her 'absence' that haunts the pages of this book. Disenchanted with art school inLiverpool, Peter became Budgie and befriended the likes of Jayne Casey, Holly Johnson, Pete Burns, Bill Drummond and other luminaires of the legendary Eric's' Club, before taking off for London and the big city heat of punk. Budgie's unique technique and musical sensitivity endeared him to the all-female group The Slits, who asked him to play on their debut album Cut. Subsequent touring with former members of the Sex Pistols and others from the post punk aristocracy firmly established Budgie's reputation for innovation.

But the beating heart of this painfully honest and frank account of a life often sabotaged by substance abuse and alcoholism is, of course, his long-term position as Siouxsie and The Banshee's drummer and co-writer alongside ex-lover, and ex-wife, Siouxsie Sioux. In the Banshees and seminal side project The Creatures, their creative partnership produced some of the most seductive and celebrated pop music of the decade, from Juju, through A Kiss in the Dreamhouse to the salutary valedictory album, Peepshow. Eventually, their personal relationship started to fall apart, with inevitable consequences for both bands. The Absence is brave and unflinching in its dissection of how and why this happened. Angels emerged, many of them female, to show Budgie that a mother's lost love can be replaced.

A man and musician whose creativity and singular style came to define the goth-pop 1980s as much as any other individual, Budgie's life is both fabulously glamorous and a tawdry cautionary tale. For the first time the story of this most exalted and mysterious of bands has been told by one who survived inside the belly of the beast.

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Critic Reviews

Given how devoted Budgie was to obliterating himself, and given that the people surrounding him were either unwilling or unable to communicate, it seems miraculous that his memoir exists at all, still more miraculous that the writing is so present, so lucid, and so tender. We feel exactly what it was like to be caught up in the stomach-lurching post punk whirlwind of the late 70s/early 80s. His mother's devastating early death became a kind of engine for his life, propelling him forwards into creativity and exhibitionism even as it held him back emotionally. Lyrical, affectionate and often painfully raw, The Absence is the literary equivalent of what Budgie does behind the drums - the one place, as he says, where he 'can't fake it'. Nothing is faked in this vivid hymn to vulnerability, damage and excess, and the haunting, unforgettable music that came flowing out of it -- RUPERT THOMSON
The Absence lays bare the burden of overcoming guilt, shame, loneliness and the search for validation through art and music - the salves to the universal wounds. Beautifully written, brutally honest, a travelogue of self discovery by one of the most unique artists still reaching new levels of musical experimentation -- LYDIA LUNCH

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About the Author

Peter Clarke (Budgie) was born in 1957 in St. Helens in the Northwest of England. He studied Fine Art at the Gamble Institute and at Liverpool College of Art, before taking a sabbatical in 1977 to join a band... or two. He is known internationally for his unique style of drumming on 'The Slits' debut album, Cut (1979), and as writer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist, with both Siouxsie And The Banshees (1979 - 1996) and The Creatures (1981 - 2004). Self-taught, his influences range from Ringo to Rothko (via Ravel). Budgie was described by John Cale of 'The Velvet Underground' as a 'musician's musician'. He lives in Berlin, Germany with his wife, two children, three cats, and a Giant Schnauzer.

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Product Details

Publisher
Orion Publishing Co | White Rabbit
Published
17th July 2025
Pages
320
ISBN
9781399621571

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