A ST Helens musician has collaborated with members of U2 and Primal Scream on his new album.

Peter Clarke, better known as Budgie, is famous as the drummer with gothic punk legends Siouxsie and the Banshees. 

Budgie, 66, lived in St Helens before moving to Liverpool where he played with the Spitfire Boys and Big in Japan and was a key member of the city's punk scene centred around the Eric's club on Mathew Street. 

This month sees him team up with fellow drummer, Lol Tolhurst, of The Cure, and stellar producer and multi-instrumentalist Garret ‘Jacknife’ Lee to release an album, Los Angeles, under the name Lol Tolhurst X Budgie X Jacknife Lee.

Guests on the new album include The Edge, guitarist with U2 and Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie as well as James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem. 

The album was first mooted in 2018 when Budgie was passing through LA in esteemed singer-songwriter John Grant’s touring ensemble, and he and Tolhurst, met for lunch in a downtown diner.

Budgie said: “As we were finishing Lol turns to me and says, “I think we should do something together.” With these things, I usually go away and forget, but for once in my life I said to myself, ‘Yeah good idea!’”

The third member of the supergroup, Garrett 'Jacknife' Lee, came on board soon after.

Lee's enviable production CV includes Taylor Swift’s Red, U2’s How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb and the final two REM albums.

 Plans are afoot now to take Los Angeles into the live arena, confirmed Budgie.