The Absence

A TIMES AND ROUGH TRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR

Beautifully written and brutally honestLYDIA LUNCH
A compassionate, relatable love storyMIKI BERENYI
Lyrical, affectionate and often painfully rawRUPERT THOMSON

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.

The beating heart of this painfully honest account of a life often sabotaged by substance abuse and alcoholism is his long-term position as drummer and co-writer with Siouxsie and The Banshees, alongside ex-wife, Siouxsie Sioux. But as their personal relationship fractured, the consequences for the band were inevitable.

The Absence is both fabulously glamorous and a tawdry cautionary tale. For the first time the story of the most exalted and mysterious of bands has been told by one who survived inside the belly of the beast.