Fried & Justified: Hits, Myths, Break-Ups and Breakdowns in the Record Business 1978-98

We arrived in a fleet of white stretch limos at a clearing in a wood near Woking. Here the K Foundation was exhibiting a million pounds in cash, while Bill Drummond & Jimmy Cauty circled the perimeter in two orange Saracen armoured vehicles, blasting out ABBA's 'Money Money Money' . . .

The list of bands & 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 & downright dysfunctional cult groups of the post-punk era & beyond - Ramones, Talking Heads, The Undertones, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Felt, Sonic Youth, The Wedding Present, Spiritualized & Elastica among them. Often judiciously (or unintentionally) sidestepping the major trends in music - baggy, grunge & 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 & Gorky's Zygotic Mynci.

But the three acts Mick is most closely identified with are Echo & the Bunnymen, Julian Cope (& the Teardrop Explodes) & 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 & nineties, & - as confidant & co-conspirator - Mick was with their chorus along the way, carefully navigating the minefield of rivalries & contrasting fortunes. It is Mick's indefatigable belief that it was always the music that came first, & it is his knack of attracting so-called difficult & troubled artists that makes Fried & Justified such an amusing, honest & insightful tale.