http://www.thisishertfordshire.co.uk/news/barnet/display.var.535940.0.art_me... Art: me, 13 men and a singing car /By Lawrence Marzouk <mailto:lmarzouk@london.newsquest.co.uk>/ The sound of 14 men singing to the tune' of a Land Rover's engine was probably not how the patrons of the soon-to-open artsdepot imagined its first foray into world of culture - but art it was. On Wednesday night, I and 13 other men I had never met, congregated at the North Finchley arts centre to become 17', a choir created by Bill Drummond, unorthodox artist and founder of the pop band KLF. Drummond has grabbed the headlines with a host of strange schemes in his career. While riding high with KLF in 1992, he machine-gunned the audience at the Brit awards with blanks, causing some members of the audience to flee in terror. He also set fire to £1 million cash in the name of art. More recently he has been visiting complete strangers to make them soup, and last week was embarking on his latest project at the artsdepot. With the smell of cheesy feet wafting in the air, and a bottle of beer in hand, we sang to a recording of Drummond's Land Rover being driven between The Bull, High Street, Barnet, and the artsdepot, Tally Ho Corner, North Finchley, which included a small accident as he approached the arts centre. No matter that three people didn't turn up, making us 14 instead of 17, this was a simple, informal affair, which nevertheless retained the necessary veneer of artistic pretention. The only advice we were given was not to sound like Freddy Mercury' - but there was not much risk of that in my case - and try to emulate the motor with sounds, not words. And the product of our vocal chords? A soundtrack to a short film which will be played at Drummond's show How To Be An Artist, to be staged at the new arts centre. "I am Bill Drummond. Thank you for taking a risk," were the first words uttered to the crowd, before explaining the concept behind 17, meandering from the prosaic - There is a choir I ****ing love and they are called 16, and I wanted to go one better' - to the exuberance of a confident showman - The 17 struggle with the dark and respond to the light'. Drummond is candid about his work. "Obviously I know that is pretentious. But that's not going to stop me," he explained. According to the Scotsman, the North Finchley rendition was fantastic.' So fantastic, in fact, that he has asked the members to perform a live version for his last show at the artsdepot, although after my performance, 17 may become 13. The artsdepot opens on October 23. For more information call 020 8449 0048. 6:00pm Wednesday 13th October 2004 -- Stuart Young, Michelle Ardern & Felix Ardern-Young (3) Live at: 42B, Sefton Ave, Grey Lynn, Auckland, NZ Phone: +64 (0)9 376 8100 say.map@ihug.co.nz Graphic and Web design, Web development and hosting: http://www.pixelandgrain.co.nz/ Stuey's personal website - a cobweb site: http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~stuey/ Any views expressed in this email are those of the author and not of any of the organisations we are involved with.