Luke Haines was born in 1967. He learned guitar in the red light district of Portsmouth and subsequently formally studied music at the London College of Music. After a short period in a group called The Servants, he signed to Hut Recordings in 1992 as The Auteurs. Their debut album, "New Wave", was shortlisted for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize. Since then he has released albums as The Auteurs ("Now I'm A Cowboy", "After Murder Park", and "How I Learned To Love The Bootboys"), as Baader Meinhof ('Baader Meinhof') and is a founder member of Black Box Recorder ('England Made Me and 'The Facts Of Life'). The Auteurs have toured worldwide. Haines has regularly been described in the media as one of the greatest English contemporary songwriters. His wry commentaries respect few boundaries and his musical arrangements are uniquely suited both to the worlds of music and film. He is equally at home writing about teenage sex, terrorism, pop/film stars, child murder or broken love affairs. His prodigious output speaks for itself.)
At the beginning of 2000 Luke Haines was invited to score the soundtrack to a film called 'Christie Malry's'. Own Double Entry. After reading the book he could hardly turn down a job to reflect the thoughts and actions of a lone terrorist who was inspired by an monk/accountant from Renaissance Italy to take revenge against those who crossed him - starting by scratching the paint off expensive cars and climaxing with the death of thousands of people.
Inspired by this experience Haines decided to formally disband his group, The Auteurs. "I've been disbanding The Auteurs after every album they've made", he said, "No reason to stop now." Time will tell whether this moniker will be revived.
If band names are really brand names and branding is at the core of the 21st century obsession of the commodification of art, who better to make a concept album about this than the man who has four b(r)ands at his disposal. Taking the history, theory, and practice of the Situationist International as his cornerstone Haines carefully put together a magnum opus examining revolutionary millenarianism, the death of the music industry, the commodification of art and music, death, religion, global politics, and the foggy beliefs of British imperialism
