CONTROVERSIAL rock star Bill Drummond has snubbed the Ilkley Literature Festival to the disgust of the event's director.

Drummond, who was front man of the 80's pop band The KLF, was due to headline the festival's PopTV season with a performance at the Craiglands Hotel next Sunday, June 8.

But the artist has cancelled his national tour after failing to turn up for an appearance at the Brighton Festival last Monday.

David Porter, Ilkley Literature Festival director, said the news was extremely disappointing.

Earlier ths year, Mr Porter was excited to have clinched the duo as the main attraction for PopTV, a season feturing the best of a new generation of young artists.

"Now we feel rather let down and would have liked to have know about it earlier as he was our headlining act. It's too late to replace it," he said.

As frontman of the KLF, Bill Drummond once set fire to £1m in one of his controversial publicity stunts.

"And one can't help but feeling that now one is in one of his publicity stunts," added Mr Porter.

Drummond was booked to appear with Mark Manning, of Zodiac Mindwarp fame, in a performance combining music, words and videos, which was going to be a dramatic change from the usual line-up for the festival.

"Mark Manning managed to get in touch with him and apparently Bill Drummond doesn't want to do any live appearances at all and has now gone incommunicado," said Mr Porter.

The event expected to attract about 200 people and 50 tickets had already been sold.

"We've contacted ticket holders and people are naturally disappointed. Bill Drummond is a cult figure and some students who were coming to see him are doing dissertations on him. He's really let us down and we won't be booking him again," added Mr Porter.

"But what do you expect from someone who is renowned for pulling stunts. We have to deal with mad men and we have to take risks and book them."

Another event, Notes From The Idler's Lounge, has also been cancelled as tickets were being sold jointly with the Drummond and Manning performance.

l PopTV begins on Thursday, June 4, with a performance by Zimbabwe's leading dance troupe Black Umfolosi.

Other acts taking part in the season include performance poet Simon Lewis, Atomic Lip and Benjamin Zephaniah. For more information and to book tickets contact the ILF office, telephone (01943) 601210.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.