For the first time
in forty years
the rock horror
cult classic novel
"A hell of a ride... The closest parallel is probably David Bowie's Diamond Dogs album."
From the Foreword by Alwyn W. Turner
A wild neon-lit nightmare city -
A band on the edge of sanity
...At the first moment of their appearance in the stadium the constant screaming of the fans swelled to a great bestial chaos of sound.

Malk held up his arms and appealed for quiet, shouting into his mike in a futile attempt to make himself heard.

—Okay, here we go. A-four, a-three, a-two, a-one!

They launched into the act. No-one heard them. Like figures in a silent movie they plucked their guitars, mouthed and gaped, stamped, shook, gesticulated.

When Sonny smashed his instrument to pieces and hurled away the bits, began to tear off his clothes and scratch his face, the fans took it all as part of the performance.

They smelled blood, and howled for more...
...Psychedelic, psychotic...
Too out-of-this-world to be fact,
too true-to-life to be fiction
"A future world dominated by vast discrepancies in wealth and power, and shaped by sex, drugs and rock and roll, with lashings of violence, riots and revolution, not to mention transvestites and deviant sex...
There’s barely a pulp fiction button left unpressed."
- Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats

Read the first chapter free!
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Includes the foreword
Adult content warning:
Not recommended for children or hippies,
except children of hippies.
About the Author
Richard Carlile was born in Scotland, is a graduate of St. Andrews University, messed around and was messed around in the music and movie businesses, and now lives in a fishing village on the West Coast.

DRUMMER was first published in 1971, when the Manson Family murders, deaths at the Altamont festival, and other savage ultraviolent cultural flash-points were at the forefront of society's consciousness. The novel gained a dedicated cult following. This new 2018 edition marks its return to print after more than forty years, to a very different but no less brutal or uncertain world.
Press Kit
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Hi-Res DRUMMER Front Cover
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Hi-Res DRUMMER Promo Photo
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DRUMMER Press Release Intro Text - Raw

In 1971, Scottish author Richard Carlile’s novel DRUMMER was first published. A delirious nightmare journey melding rock-‘n’-roll madness, bloody ultraviolence, and unnerving psychological horror, it was a visceral reaction to the recent Manson Family murders, deaths at the Altamont festival, and other savage cultural flashpoints at the forefront of society’s consciousness. The novel’s unique immediacy and impact earned it a dedicated cult following.

Now, DRUMMER returns to print after more than four decades, published by Carlile’s son and with a new foreword by pop-culture maven Alwyn W. Turner, emerging into a very different but no less brutal or uncertain world. Appearing surprisingly prescient to the 2018 eye, DRUMMER reveals a twisted carnival-mirror vision of the corrupting exploitation of the entertainment industry — transgenderism — mass hysteria — and the tragic descent of a divided society into all-out civic war.