The FAQ (not updated in a long time)
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Trancentral - the KLF mailing list
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions (March 97)
This document is completely anti-copyright (of course) so you can copy, print, repackage, transpose, sample, quote as much or as little as you want so long as you make no money from it or pretend its yours.
It was originally written by Stuart Young, < stuey@easynet.co.uk > and was last updated March 1997 by Nick Gilmour <N.W.Gilmour@scand.hull.ac.uk>, with a huge "Thank you" to all who've helped, especially to Jamm!n on the formatting and sanity issues. Nick would appreciate any comments or annotations - especially email any extra info for questions 1.008, 1.009, 1.013, 2.001, 2.005, 2.007, 2.017 and 5.011 and any merchandise you are selling for 3.001-3.003.
Obviously there is a lot of information in this FAQ, but it is not intended to be comprehensive, merely a starting point for those who seek enlightenment. Many of the questions herein refer to other sources and documents, most of which are available in the ftp archive. Many answers can be found in the script for the White Room film (see 4.003) and the various other online resources (see 1.008).
The KLF generally didn't like questions, they referred to them as the four Handmaidens of Evil: _Who_, _What_, _Where_ and _Why_, and urged us to accept the contradictions rather than ask for clarity. However, some of us like questions, so here they are:
General 1.001: Who are the KLF? What is the KLF about? What does KLF stand for?
1.002: Why haven't the KLF released a record for ages?
1.003: Why did they retire?
1.004: Why are you still discussing a dead group?
1.005: I saw a gig by/ a flyer for a gig by the KLF. I thought you said they'd retired?
1.006: What are the various incarnations of the Drummond/Cauty partnership?
1.007: What did Drummond/Cauty do before the JAMs?
1.008: What other on-line resources are there?
1.009: How often did they appear live? Was the music live or on tape?
1.010: How can I contact them? What are their addresses?
1.011: What's the One World Orchestra? What does "The Magnificent" sound like?
1.012: Were 1300 Drums (featuring the Unjustified Ancients of M.U.) really Bill and Jimmy?
1.013: What are Bill and Jimmy both doing right now?
Discordian(t) Question
1.023: What is The ILLUMINATUS! Trilogy and what are the connections between it and the KLF? How did the KLF's use of its ideology affect other bands, such as the Shamen?
Record Details
2.001: Which of their records is still available?
2.002: What's the difference between the US and UK White Room albums?
2.003: What's the difference between the various Shag Times and History Of The JAMs compilations? Where do "Towards the Trance" or JAMS26T fit in?
2.004: What's the difference between the US and UK Chill Out CDs?
2.005: What are the different pressings of 'Whitney joins the JAMs? Why are
some marked 'Made in Scotland'?
2.006: What's the difference between Burn The Bastards and Burn The Beat? 2.007: What are the different WTIL? 1991 (KLF 004X) releases? Where does
KLF004P fit in?
2.008: What's the "original" White Room LP you talk about? 2.009: What's the Black Room? 2.010: How was Chill Out recorded? 2.011: What is Deep Shit and does it exist? 2.012: What does the Madrugana Eterna club mix sound like? 2.013: What does K Cera Cera sound like? 2.014: What does What Time Was Love sound like? 2.015: What does The Man sound like? 2.016: What do Brilliant sound like? 2.017: What is the Pure Trance series? 2.018: How much is _name_ worth? 2.019: How do I know if _name_ is a bootleg or not? 2.020: What is that horrible noise on track 3 of the bootleg 1987 CD?
Merchandise: 3.001: Are there any KLF videos available? 3.002: Are there any books about the KLF available? 3.003: Are there any KLF T-shirts available?
Other Creative Exploits: 4.001: Did Jimmy Cauty really paint a 'Lord Of The Rings' poster? 4.002: What were the Rites Of Mu? 4.003: What's the White Room film? 4.004: What happened at the 1992 BRIT Awards? 4.005: What was the Art Award all about? 4.006: Did they really burn a million pounds? 4.007: What's "Watch the K Foundation Burn A Million Quid"? How can I see it? 4.008: What was "Pissing in the Wind"? 4.009: Why did they push a car over Cape Wrath? What are the terms of that
contract?
4.010: What is 'Bad Wisdom'? 4.011: What's 'A Bible of Dreams'? Is it on the Internet? 4.012: What's Jimmy's sonic weapon? 4.013: Why was Jimmy arrested on weapons charges?
Misc.: 5.001: What was the ABBA thing all about? 5.002: What's a '99'? 5.003: Why Sheep? 5.004: Who is _collaborator_? 5.005: Who is Gimpo? 5.006: Who is Gary Glitter? 5.007: Who/What is Ford Timelord? 5.008: Who are The Fall and what's their connection with the KLF? 5.009: Did they really give beer to the homeless on New Year's Eve? 5.010: What was the Omnibus Documentary about? 5.011: What's the font used on their merchandise, adverts, etc? 5.012: Is there any connection with Coldcut/Yazz (& Plastic Population)? - I
saw a KLF record in the video for "The Only Way Is Up"!!
________________________________________________________________
1.001: Who are the KLF? What are the KLF about? What does KLF stand for?
The creative partnership of Bill Drummond (alias King Boy D, Time Boy) and Jimmy Cauty (alias Rockman Rock, Lord Rock), mainly appreciated for their ground breaking dance music from 1987-92, under the names 'The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu' ('The JAMs'), 'The Timelords', 'The Kopyright Liberation Front' ('The KLF'), 'The Forever Ancients Liberation Loophole' ('The FALL'), and post-1992 as 'The K Foundation' and 'The One World Orchestra'. They have also produced other groups, including their sometime backing singers 'Disco 2000', and re-mixed tracks by 'Depeche Mode' and 'The Pet Shop Boys'. Cauty was also a founder member of 'The Orb' which he left, taking some tracks with him which were released under the name 'Space'. After producing critically acclaimed work, utilising cheap sampling technology to its fullest, yet not selling many records (albeit interrupted by a freak novelty world-wide No. 1), they finally found fame in the emerging UK rave scene, and released a string of world-wide hit singles in the 90's, selling more singles than any other band in 1991.
They have also branched out into other forms: they published a book 'The Manual' and planned but never published at least two others and a graphic novel, filmed a motion picture 'The White Room' which has yet to be shown, released an 'ambient video' and planned at least two art exhibitions but never staged them. They are also infamous for various anarchic situationist 'pranks' or 'happenings' which include billboard defacements, a crop circle hoax, a pagan midsummer's ritual ('The Rites Of Mu', see question 4.002), a BRIT Awards protest involving a dead sheep and buckets of blood (see 4.004), a string of strange full-page mainstream press adverts, staging an alternative art award for the worst artist of the year (see 4.005), and they also burned a MILLION POUNDS (see 4.006) and subsequently toured the film of the burning round the U.K. Bearing in mind the wilfully perverse way they conducted their career, the group they share the most comparisons with would probably be The Residents.
But what are the KLF about? One may well ask. This author believes that this is no easy question and any answer he can give will be far too simplistic for what is a very complex concept. On one level the KLF was about a duo of music business veterans who initially used their knowledge and experience to utilise cheap sampling technology later leading to commercial success and acclaim. But then they also conducted this part of their careers in such a way that it challenged the traditional models of the music-business, and even rebelled against them. To anyone wanting more, this author can only suggest they read ALL the material in this FAQ, and examine the WHOLE of the ftp archive and ALL other related literature and material (including the music itself) and then come to their own conclusions.
The letters 'KLF' stood for many things, which changed many times throughout their life-span. The first documented occurrence is in 1987, when the moniker 'Kopyright Liberation Front' was mentioned on their record releases. But over the years up to the 1992 retirement, they always got asked this question in interviews and were always making up new names. One much-quoted line is "We're on a quest to find out what it means. When we find out, we can stop what we're doing now." Various examples of these names are: 'Kings of the Low(er) Frequency', 'Kool Low Frequency', 'Keep Looking Forward', 'Kevin Likes Fruit' and so on, but the usually accepted definition is 'The Kopyright Liberation Front'. [Nb. this has 24 letters, but if you spell it Kopyrite, then there's 23!!]
The next question is how did this name come about. The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu came from the Illuminatus books, and possibly to some extent the name KLF was influenced by these as well. Over recent years there've been a number of organisations using an acronym ending -Liberation Front. In the 1960's was the NLF - National Liberation Front - the North Vietnamese resistance to the USA supported by 'hippies' in the US. In the 1980's was the ALF - Animal Liberation Front - British radicals who became famous for freeing animals from experimental labs. There's also the Kasmiri Liberation Front. Then in Illuminatus! there's the ELF - Erisian Liberation Front - leading the forces of chaos against order. So it could follow that for sampling in the 80's and 90's there's the KLF - Kopyright Liberation Front - Freeing Mu(sic) from copyright laws and using past sounds as much as you want. There are many other ..LF's too, but I reckon those are the important ones that led to Bill'n'Jimi choosing the name KLF.
Finally, Jamm!n adds: why Kopyright in KLF was spelt with a K... Well, there are three reasons I can think of, all/some/none of which may relate to the real reasons: 1. CLF sounds considerably less cool. 2. The letter K has many mystical connections. Too many to list here, but it is linked to certain grams in I Ching and Tarot amongst others. KLF aren't the only band to spot this; for example mystic-guru-wannabes Kula Shaker with their album "K". "K" was also the letter used to mark barrels of the strongest brewed drink available, and hence is now the brand name of an 8.4% abv cider. Decide the relevance of that for yourself. 3. Kopyright has been used in Discordian circles for some time to draw attention to the complete absence of Copyright. The standard rubric is something like:
Kopyright (k) 3163 Gold & Appel Transfers, Inc. All rites reversed. Reprint what you like.
The use of K here of course has the additional relevance that it is the first letter of kallisti, and hence a common Erisian symbol is the golden apple with just a K on it. ________________________________________________________________
1.002: Why haven't the KLF released a record for ages?
The KLF 'retired from the music industry' on the 5th of May 1992, deleted their entire back catalogue, and burned all remaining merchandise to prove that this action was serious and not a stunt to sell more records. See 1.003 for why they retired. In an ad taken out in the UK music press they stated that for 'the foreseeable future there will be no further record releases from ... any past, present & future name attached to our activities'. Quite how long the foreseeable future represents depends on your own optimism/pessimism. They also said that 'if we meet further along be prepared...our disguise may be complete'.
They did return to public attention as The K Foundation, in a series of strange press ad's in summer 1993 (see 4.005), but as the typeset, the poetic language and pyramid logo were familiar, and there was an excess of letter K's the disguise was certainly not complete. They have commercially released one single since then, the K Foundation's interstellar anthem 'K Sera Sera (War Is Over If You Want It), which is 'Available Nowhere...No Formats' until world peace has been established, although it has been played at major public gatherings including music festivals, and a limited release was arranged in Israel/Palestine to honour the limited peace that the signing of the Rabin/Arafat deal represented. Copies of this single now change hands for very large sums of money. See 2.013 for what this record sounds like. They have recently moved into the art world (see 4.005 and 4.006) and the publishing world (see 4.010 and 4.011).
In September 1995 they recorded a track called "The Magnificent" for the HELP album under the name One World Orchestra (see 1.011). They agreed to make this track, (for free), as it was for a non-profit-making charity record, and Bill considered it worth doing. In an interview (June 96) Jimmy makes out he is taking a bit of a rest from the music business and art world, but there have been subsequent reports of a Cauty solo project under the name "Advanced Acoustic Armaments" or "AAA". See 4.012 for more. Bill has branched out as an author, co-writing 'Bad Wisdom' with Mark Manning (see 4.010), and Jimmy's last public project has been a contribution of artwork to the Looking Glass art experiment (see http://www.redfig.com). He also took part in the A30 bypass protests in Devon (see 4.012). ________________________________________________________________
1.003 Why did the KLF retire?
The official line taken at the time was that they were "worn out" after producing 6 hit singles and a LP over the previous 18 months, but there appear to be many other possible contributing reasons. These are documented in an excellent article in Select magazine in July '92 ('Who Killed The KLF') which is available on the ftp archive. Mainly it seems, once you've reached the top, it is both boring to continue having hits and a pressure to find follow-up's.
They wrote in 'The Manual' of the Golden Rules of hit pop song composition: 'after having had a run of success and your coffers are full, keeping strictly to the G.R.s is boring. It all becomes empty and meaningless... ". Mick Houghton their publicist was in daily contact with them, as they worked on new material in the studio, and began to get the feeling that they just didn't feel there was any point to it any more. An exhausted Drummond would come on the phone, one minute proposing grandiose plans, the next saying things like, "Oh God, it's terrible". "They were just desperate for ideas," says Houghton. "And near the end Bill would ring up and say 'This is not working'. I think he felt it had become too easy to be The KLF and rattle off the hits. It had ceased to mean anything.". In a GQ interview in 1995, Bill revealed he'd almost suffered a nervous breakdown.
Also since they had worked with Tammy Wynette and Glen Hughes they had been plagued by washed-up singers pleading for a collaboration to revive their careers. "I was in the studio," recalls engineer/producer Mark Stent, "and we had Neil Sedaka phoning up, we had Sweet phoning up, we had all kinds phoning up. I mean, that's just when I've been there..."
In retrospect their attempt to shock the public at the BRIT Awards in February '92 (see 4.004) can be viewed as an attempt to take the decision out of their own hands. They wanted to do something so utterly disgusting that it would deliberately ruin their career. Instead the industry viewed their stunt as just another KLF prank which made it worse.
And finally there's the theory that they had always planned to go out at the top, so that their future output would not suffer from "diminishing returns". Kylie said to Jason contained the line "I'm gonna leave this party now" where party has been used by Drummond as a metaphor for the music business before. The Justified and Ancient video contains the subtitle 'The fall of the empire and the death of little Mu are at hand". At the end of the BRIT awards came the announcement "The KLF have now left the music industry". And Drummond wanted the announcement to be made on the 5th of May, fifteen years to the day after he entered the music industry. _______________________________________________________________
1.004 Why are you still discussing a dead group?
Because we still hope they will do more things (and they are). Since they were ahead of their time, we believe they still have relevance. Because there are still issues to discuss, facts to discover, document and order, newbies to educate. People still think Hendrix's music has relevance and he's been dead 24 years. To be polite if you don't like the KLF don't subscribe. ________________________________________________________________
1.005: I just heard that the KLF are playing my town!
I thought you said they'd retired?
The KLF did very few live performances when they were active under that name (see 1.009), and (obviously) none since their retirement. Sometime KLF guest- vocalist Wanda Dee, on the other hand, has performed hundreds of dates round the world for the past three years under the names "The KLF featuring Wanda Dee", "Wanda Dee and The New KLF", "Wanda Dee and the KLF experience" and so forth, which *strangely* always seem to be advertised by promoters as just "The KLF". This is probably what you saw a flyer for. Bill and Jimi have nothing whatsoever to do with these "concerts" and would like very much to see them stopped, but it's difficult to pursue legal action against her unless she performs in the UK, which so far she has been savvy enough not to so. (She's played dates in Russia and Estonia, though!) If you want to spend your hard-earned money to watch a woman gyrate on-stage to pre-taped KLF music, by all means, please attend. :-) There is a review by a KLF fan on the ftp archive, which you should read if you want an idea of what the show will be like.
Whenever Wanda is questioned (either by the press or KLF fans in the audience of one of her shows) she comes up with an explanation somewhat like this: All 90's dance music is constructed in the studio by production teams and this can never be recreated live on stage. However the performers (dancers singers etc.) on the record can play live. She says she is the co-writer and singer of all the biggest hits on The White Room and she was the reason those songs were hits. This is a *slight* misrepresentation of the truth however. The KLF sampled vocal snatches from her (erotic?) rap record "To The Bone" on Tuff City Records and included them in WTIL? and the single version of LTTT. When Wanda's manager heard these records they sued the KLF and the out-of-court settlement was that Wanda would get a cash payment, co- co-writing credits on these songs, and hence publishing royalties, and appearances in the videos for these songs. I expect that if the KLF had known the trouble she would cause them they wouldn't have sampled her. It's up to you to decide whether the non-inclusion of "I wanna see you sweat" and "Come on boy d'ya wanna ride" would have detracted from these songs. Stuart Young has much material on how to spike her if she appears near you. E-Mail him for details. ________________________________________________________________
1.006: What are the various incarnations of the Drummond/Cauty partnership?
From when they first paired up in 1987, to when the KLF split in 1992, Drummond and Cauty progressed through many varying musical styles in their commercial releases.
There are never ending discussions about how bad a certain phase of their history was. You should be aware that Drummond and Cauty had very short attention spans and changed musical direction more often than other bands changed their underwear. You don't have to like everything they've done, but have an open mind and remember the context of the time they produced those songs.
Here's a short guide to the various incarnations. Or is that regenerations?:
1987-1988 as the JAMs: punk ethic, political Scottish rap, blatant cut-n-paste sampling, primitive hip-hop, they gradually got better at it. Huge influence on Pop Will Eat Itself. 1988 as the Timelords: an exercise in nauseating novelty, charting a number one house record "Doctorin' the Tardis" and explaining how they did it in 'The Manual'. Huge influence on Edelweiss. 1988-1990 as the KLF: twin styles of acid trance house and ambient soundscapes, very difficult to find the records, but check out the Chill Out album, which is still in print. The rave stuff was an influence on Black Box, and other Italians, while the ambient stuff practically started the whole '90's ambient scene. 1990-1991 as the KLF: their early singles were remixed and re-remixed and re-re-re-remixed into the Stadium house pop permutations you have probably heard on the radio. Influence on Blue Pearl, Utah Saints, Nomad etc. 1992 as the KLF: they started working on thrash guitar heavy-metal techno dance but scrapped most of the sessions. Could this have been yet another new musical style? Influence on the God Machine and Kerosene? 1993-1995 as the K Foundation: like all good post-modernists they are branching out into interdisciplinary arts but so far just one single, a limited release in Israel/Palestine to celebrate the peace accord. 1995 as the One World Orchestra: they sneaked out of retirement to record a hastily constructed
orchestral/drum'n'bass track for the much hyped Help!, Artists for
War Child LP. See question 1.011 for details.
________________________________________________________________
1.007: What is the pre-JAMs biography of Drummond (and Cauty)?
William E. Drummond was born in 1953 and grew up in Galloway and Corby in the Borders in Scotland. Prior to the formation of the JAMs, the teenage Drummond ran away to sea to become a fisherman off the North East coast of Scotland, which he described as "my youth years lost afloat". And he developed interests in bird-watching, nature walks and the ins-and-outs of livestock farming before going to Liverpool to study art. There he helped to put on a stage production of the cult book Illuminatus! with Ken Campbell's Science Fiction Theatre (see 1.023) (and he maintained an interest in amateur dramatics thruoghout the 80's), before becoming involved with the punk scene and forming Liverpool punk band 'Big In Japan' with Holly ('Frankie Goes To Hollywood') Johnson, and Ian ('Lightning Seeds', now top producer) Broudie, on the 5th of May 1977, a date which he would later refer to as "entering the music industry". Later Budgie ('Siouxie and the Banshees') and Jayne ('Pink Industry') Casey, joined the group, which released a couple of singles in its year-long life.
Bill then formed Zoo Records in 1978 with Dave ('Food Records') Balfe to release an acrimonious posthumous 'Big In Japan' EP and then records by seminal UK independent bands 'Echo and The Bunnymen' and 'The Teardrop Explodes' whom he also managed. Balfe and Drummond were also the Zoo in-house production team 'The Chameleons' and the band 'Lori and the Chameleons'. The Bunnymen and the Teardrops signed publishing deals through Zoo with WEA, and Drummond returned this gesture by re-mortgaging his house to fund a Bunnymen tour, and on making his money back, doing it again to pay for the recording of the first Teardrops LP. Many of the people who would later work with the KLF worked with Zoo in these days: Mick Houghton was publicist for the Teardrops, and Bill Butt directed the Teardrops videos. Drummond later sent the Bunnymen on a tour of bizarre and apparently random sites, including the Northern Isles. "It's not random," said Drummond, speaking as the Bunnymen's manager. "If you look at a map of the world, the whole tour's in the shape of a rabbit's ears." As the Teardrops manager, Bill once told Julian Cope to commit suicide in order to boost record sales. Julian Cope's autobiography, 'Head On' is a good source for more info on the late 70's/early 80's Liverpool scene and all the players therein, including some great anecdotes.
After an acrimonious parting with both bands, he joined WEA Records as a A&R person, working with 'Strawberry Switchblade', 'Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction', 'The Proclaimers' and 'Brilliant' who featured ex-Killing Joke member, now top producer, Youth and ex-artist, Jimmy Cauty and were produced by Stock-Aitken-Waterman.
When Brilliant failed to be a hit with the British public, Drummond retired from WEA in 1986 when he was aged 33 and a third, writing a typically Drummond- esque retirement note. He recorded his solo LP 'The Man' for Creation Records as a cathartic farewell gesture to the music industry in 1986. This features the hilarious 'Julian Cope Is Dead' which is Drummond's answer to the track 'Bill Drummond Said' which appears on Julian Cope's solo LP 'Fried'. (This features Cope quoting what he must have seen as typical Drummond quotes, such as "Give me one good reason why this couldn't wait...". 'Fried' was released on Island Records in about 1985.) Many future KLF collaborators also helped with the recording and production of this album (see 2.015). When Drummond was given money by Creation to film a video, and record a b-side for the 'King Of Joy' he used it to start a new project: 'The Managers Speech' was an ambient video filmed by Bill Butt, with Drummond dressed as a street sweeper ambling up a country lane talking of the music industry and telling how if you sent him 100 pounds he would give new bands important advice on how to be successful. A extract of this featured on the cover tape of the May 1992 issue of Select magazine. His self- imposed retiral from the music industry only lasted six months until on the 1st of January 1987 he decided to form the JAMs.
In a Radio 1 'Story Of Pop' documentary interview (full text on Mancentral), Bill said: "It was New Year's Day, um, the first day of 1987. I was at home with my parents, I was going for a walk in the morning, it was, like, bright blue sky, and I thought "I'm going to make a hip-hop record. Who can I make a hip-hop record with?". I wasn't brave enough to go and do it myself, cos', although I can play the guitar, and I can knock out a few things on the piano, I knew nothing, personally, about the technology. And, I thought, I knew Jimi, I knew he was a like spirit, we share similar tastes and backgrounds in music and things. So I phoned him up that day and said "Let's form a band called The Justified Ancients of Mu-Mu.". And he knew exactly, to coin a phrase "Where I was coming from". And within a week we had recorded our first single which was called "All You Need Is Love".
James (or Jimmy or Jimi) Cauty was born in Devon in 1956 and not much is known about him until, as a 17-yr old artist he painted the Lord of the Rings poster for Athena (see 4.001). He has continued painting over the years, with his early reputation being "London artist, bohemian". In 1981/2 he and (now wife) Cressida were in a band called Angels 1-5 which did a Peel session. He next crops up as a guitarist with Brilliant in the 80's with Youth. Youth said he "cut the original ten (or so) members of the band down to just him, June (Montana) and Jimmy..." Brilliant sign for WEA where Jimmy meets Bill. They collaborate on the JAMs early work and Jimmy also DJ's in the Chill Out room at Paul Oakenfold's London club, Heaven, with Alex Paterson with whom he forms the Orb. He then leaves the Orb (see 2.101) and goes to work with Bill full-time. ________________________________________________________________
1.008: What other online resources are there?
There are three anonymous ftp archives for the list:
at ftp://ftp.xmission.com /pub/lists/klf
and it's mirrored at ftp://asylum.sf.ca.us /pub/klf and ftp://jumper.mcc.ac.uk /pub/ttl/KLF
Its JAMs-packed with interesting stuff, including a very comprehensive discography, the famed KLF Communications information sheets (15 in all), scanned record covers, many articles and interviews from the music press, press releases, the List's sample identification list, the KLF's book 'The Manual', the screenplay to their partly-completed movie "The White Room" (see 4.003), the script to Neil Kelly's fictional radio play about the end of the KLF, and the complete archive for the old KLF/Orb mailing lists. There's also an increasing number of digitised sound files around, from complete tracks and sound-bites. Find links to them from the list of sites below.
Ask your system administrator how to carry out ftp file transfers, or read the how to ftp FAQ on the usenet newsgroup news.announce.newusers. If your system is not fully on the Internet, or you're not allowed to use ftp, it is still possible to access these files via email. Two addresses which provide FTP by email access are
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com and ftpmail@sunsite.unc.edu
FTP commands should be placed in the body of your message to these addresses. Note that a human will not read your messages, so don't bother putting anything other than FTP commands for the message body. To get a list of available commands and some information about this service, send a mail with 'help' and then 'quit' in the body of the message.
You should place the following FTP Commands in the body of the mail.
Arguments you should specify and explanations are described in <>s.
connect xmission.com
chdir pub\lists\klf\<etc.> <only one directory per session>
dir <return a listing of the current directory's files>
get <name of file you want sent to you>
In general, you should use connect once, followed by a chdir, and if retrieving files, as many gets as you have file requests. Note that some sites limit the number of gets in a single message, usually to 10 or so.
After a while you should get a mail response informing you that your request has been received and is being processed, with a list of what commands you sent, and your place in the job queue. You cannot delete an FTPmail request once sent, so be careful. Nor can you request that only part of a file be sent. Large files will be divided up into equal sized chunks of a set number of characters (except for the last chunk, of course).
There are numerous World Wide Web sites. But space prevents a detailed listing. It's probably best to use a search engine, as there's so many. Most have links to other sites. Some main ones are:
http://www.swcp.com/~lazlo - Lazlo's links to the WWW KLF Discography and Xmission list archives plus other sites.
http://jumper.mcc.ac.uk/~ttl/KLF - Jamm!n's Mancentral archive which has all of the ftp site content and MUCH MUCH more... - VERY RECOMMENDED
http://www.ubl.com/artists/001992.html - KLF entry at the Ultimate Band list. Wide selection of links to online resources.
http://www.student.brad.ac.uk/~alradtke/kf01.html - Drew Radtke's K Foundation site, with pics, links and an old version of this FAQ in HTML format
http://www.club.innet.be/~ind1991/music.htm - HTMLised version of some of the questions of this FAQ, but in less detail.
http://www.algonet.se/~anders/klf - Anders Hultman's site, including a scientific paper on the KLF (in Swedish) and links.
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~johol/KLF - KLF Mainpage by John Olsson. Good links to resources/sites plus the discog (with sleeve graphics).
http://www.NMR.EMBL-Heidelberg.DE/croft/just4laffs/klf/ - David Croft's site, with all the info-sheets and more.
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~stuey/klf/kollab.htm - Stuart Young's kollaborators list - replete with mini-biogs.
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Alley/2399/badwisdom.html - Jai Nelson's Bad Wisdom site. Reviews, articles etc. And links.
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/lofts/1353/page2.html - Michael Beck's KLF site with pics and links.
http://www.atomiser.demon.co.uk/klf - Stuart Bruce's 'The K-Files site' with pics, includes many Bad Wisdom related ones. And a few links.
http://www.fme.vutbr.cz/~xbrtni00/klfpage.html - Petr Brtnik's page with mirrored docs, lyrics and pics, but in a Slavic language.
http://www. lysator.liu.se/~stco/ - by Stefan Collryd. Basic info on the various KLF guises.
http://www.york.ac.uk/~mrl103/klf/klf.htm - Mike's Moo Moo Land. Some pics and links.
http://www.interport.net/~jrq - Jerry Quartley's KLF screensaver. "...it has a couple of bugs and was really just a test. It requires VBRUN300.DLL. It also requires that you be running in thousands of colors on most VGA cards, millions on others."
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/chillout - Tim Richards sells off KLF vinyl, tapes, CDs, videos and other things
http://people.netcom.co.uk/j.taylor/ - Selling KLF vinyl, tapes, CDs, videos and other things - reliable
http://hyperreal.com:2000/music/artists/klf/ - Not much more than a few links, and a mirrored version of this FAQ.
http://w4u.eexi.gr/~ancient/klftop.htm - underdevelopment by Dionysios Lialios. ________________________________________________________________
1.009: How many live appearances did the KLF make? What sort of performances did they really do? How much was live and how much was on tape?
In lots of the early info sheets (and interviews) they said they were going to do "some live dates", "a heavy metal tour", high and low profile shows", a "JAMs world tour in 1989" and so on, but none of these seem to have happened as info sheets 6 and 8 state that their premier live performance was:
31st July 1989 Land Of Oz, Heaven, London.
"...they were making their debut live performance at the London Club HEAVEN. The performance consisted of a 15 minute version of "WHAT TIME IS LOVE". During which they splattered their audience with polystyrene pellets fired from a giant wind machine. The event was deemed a strange success." This is the live version included on JAMS LP4 - The What Time is Love? Story.
Infosheet six then says that "the lads have done a few impromptu live performances (as K.L.F. not The JAMs). These will develop in their own way, but please don't expect regular gigs". Info Sheet 11 says "the huge orbital raves, at which The KLF became a regular live attraction, blasting their audience with polystyrene pellets some weeks, showering them with Scottish pound notes at others." Apparently there was a club date at which some sheep appeared on stage too.
30th Sept 1989 Woodstock 2, Brixton Academy, London
"They will be in full effect (lasers, smoke, go go dancers etc.) at Woodstock 2 at The Academy in Brixton on Sept. 30th, in the illustrious company of Liz Torres, Corporation of One, Lollita Holloway, Frankie Bones, Little Louie Vega and more!
Feb? 1990 Bootle? Kirby? Community Hall?, Liverpool
The KLF joined the Ian McCulloch-less Echo and the Bunnymen who were playing a benefit concert for a community centre, for an encore of What Time Is Love? which became the record version later that year.
early July 1990 Isle of Rhodes, Greece
no known details
Info sheet nine announces "as usual there will be the odd unannounced performances. The only official one will be happening on The Isle of Rhodes in early July." Bearing in mind all the false promises in the past, whether or not these took place is a matter of conjecture.
late Oct 1990 DMC Convention, Paradiso, Amsterdam
"THE KLF are at the centre of a controversy again after causing a disturbance during the Disco Mix Club's European Convention at Amsterdam's Paradiso Club. During one of their public appearances, as headline act at the DMC Convention, the notorious pranksters decided to 'liberate' the organiser's equipment and re-distribute it to the audience. Reports say they were coming to the end of a 23 minute version of their hit 'What Time is Love?' when Bill Drummond decided to give the Technics decks, mixers and other sound gear away to fans in the crowd. Organisers were forced to step in to try and retrieve the equipment as security staff clashed with Drummond himself. As the melee developed, Drummond's partner Jimmy Cauty allegedly blew up the mixing desk. Most of the equipment was salvaged, but not surprisingly the KLF have been banned from the Dutch venue."
late Dec 1990 Rage, Heaven, London
"It's the day after the all night video shoot [3am Eternal embankment version] and The KLF are building a prop for the night's 'performance' at Heaven. 'We're both quite practical people," says Bill casting a proud eye over rickety heap of wood ... they start to explain their plan to use a wind machine to blow a sackful of one dollar notes into the audience at Heaven that night. That evening, at the Rage club night at Heaven, the joy- boys and gooned-out girls on the dancefloor have their evening's disco-pigging interrupted by a thoroughly strange performance from two men dressed head to toe in deep sea fisherman's garb. For 15 minutes The KLF stand absolutely motionless on stage, one on either side of a pyramid which supports two battered speakers arranged in a 'T' shape, blinding lights beam from behind them. The club sound system plays the crushing acid grind of 'It's Grim Up North'. And video cameramen record the half- struck, half-delighted crowd."
23rd June 1991 Festival Of Comedy, Liverpool
Accompanied on stage by the robed and hooded guests from the Rites of Mu (see 4.002), who chanted Mu Mu in an accapella version of Justified and Ancient. Apparently a lot of Liverpudlians got on stage too and it wasn't very funny. They gave out ice creams from an ice cream van they had borrowed from a man who parked it in the street outside Trancentral.
13th Feb 1992 BRIT Awards, London
Drummond, wearing a kilt and supported by crutches, announced, "The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu versus Extreme Noise Terror: This is television freedom", before the two bands launched into a raucous noise-fest of screaming guitars, super-fast drums, and guttural hoarse shouts of "3 A.M. 3 A.M. ETERNAL" from the two E.N.T. vocalists. This was live on prime-time TV, and performed in front of banks of seats of British music industry executives, at the annual BRIT Awards where the KLF had been nominated for best group and best LP. "Bill was at the front of the stage, leaning on one crutch, practically shouting the vocals into the microphone. The lyrics were all-new (and different to the released version the KLF had just made available which was based on the original 3AM lyrics), but with the Extreme Noise Terror guys charging around the stage, screeching guitars, and the drummer going into overdrive, most of the actual words tended to get lost. I did pick out "The BRITs" and "BPI" (British Phonogram Industry), but little else. Jimmy had his coat with the hood down right up, so his face was practically concealed, but he was weaving around with his guitar. The few shots of the audience during the performance tended to suggest that they couldn't believe what they were seeing - popular 'dance' music act becomes a thrash metal band, with a mind- numbing fusion of guitar and drums to a vague rendition of a well-known tune. Actually, Bill lost his way part through the second verse, and broke up laughing, but he managed to pick it up again just before slamming into the chorus." Bill hobbled off the stage to return with a large automatic rifle instead of a crutch, and a cigar in his mouth, and the whole thing ended with sparks and explosions from the rear of the stage, and Bill shooting blanks into the audience. They left the stage with the audience incredulous, as the voice of Scott Piering announced "The KLF have now left the music industry". For the full dead sheep, buckets of blood, and tabloid press indignation story see 4.004. ________________________________________________________________
1.010: How can I contact them? What are their addresses?
As of March 1997, Bill was known to be resident on a farm near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire and Jimmy had moved from Trancentral (aka. the Benio in Stockwell, London) to Knowle House, near Broadhempston, Totnes, Devon.
However the two main address contact addresses are as follows. A number of other addresses have been used over the years, contact Nick if you're interested.
The WTKFBAMQ info-sheet gives the K-F address as:
THE K FOUNDATION P.O. Box 91 HP22 4RS The U.K.
This is in Aylesbury, near where Bill lives and members have received replies from Bill from writing to this address so I suppose this is the one to use (1996).
The Curfew Press address (but we imagine they're rarely there) is:
The Curfew Press The Curfew Tower Cushendall The Parish of Layde in The Barony of Lower Glenarm County Antrim Northern Ireland.
Other useful addresses are:
Mick Houghton (was the KLF's Publicist) Brassneck Publicity 2nd Floor 112-6 Old Street London EC1V 0DB Phone: 0171 336 8855
Scott Piering (Plugger/PR/collaborator) Appearing 61-71 Collier Street London N1 9BE Phone: 0171 833 2841 (NB old address/tel number - may have changed)
Domenic Free (Lawyer handling KLF's response to Wanda Dee) Simkins Partnership 45-51 Whitfield Street LONDON W1P 5RJ UK
Goddess Empire Inc (Wanda Dee's managment) FAX: 703 569 9103 Attn: Ray McCumber NY Office: Sal DiSanto 212 947 1322
Addresses of other music industry collaborators (e.g. Mark 'Spike' Stent and Nick Coler/Ian Richardson) can be found in any UK music trade directory. ________________________________________________________________
1.011: What's the One World Orchestra? What does "The Magnificent" sound
like then?
To aid the War-Child charity effort in Bosnia, a compilation album featuring original tracks by some of the best artists around was recorded, pressed and shipped in a mere six days (now the fastest recorded studio album ever), in September 1995. The musicians contributing tracks included Oasis, Blur, Stereo MCs, Stone Roses, and the One World Orchestra (Featuring The Massed Pipes And Drums of the Children's Free Revolutionary Volunteer Guards). This turned out to be a new moniker for Bill and Jimmy. (Further information on the album and samples of the song can be obtained from http://help.fma.com/)
The OWO track, entitled "The Magnificent", is a short but spicy drum'n'bass reworking of the orchestral theme from the film 'The Magnificent Seven', with samples from a Serb radio station. It is track number 15 on the CD.
Mark Hawker, K-F friend and operative (see 4.008, 4.009) made a film called "Zombie Town" about underground culture in Belgrade, which was first shown on Channel 4 in 1995 and again in July 1996. A lot of the film centres around Beograd 92, the Serb radio station and the "humans against killing...that's like junkies against dope" and "Radio B92" samples comes from Fleka, the blind DJ on B92. Bill and Jimmy wanted to get Robbie, who'd just split from Take That, on the record but he was on holiday with his mum.
In the months following the album, Bill tried to deny responsibility for the track, but this contrasts with earlier interviews where he talked about how and why they made it. In a Radio 1 interview (full transcript in ftp archive) Jimmy said "It's a novelty record. which is something we're good at.". It is possible that the OWO recorded more tracks (see 5.010). The thinking behind the name One World Orchestra in unknown. ________________________________________________________________
1.012: Were 1300 Drums (featuring the Unjustified Ancients of M.U.) really
Bill and Jimmy?
Shortly after Manchester United FC won the 1995/6 English Football League and FA Cup 'double', a record was released by a group calling themselves '1300 Drums (featuring the Unjustified Ancients of M.U.)', called "Ooh Aah Cantona". The song is a 'tribute' to the Man Utd. footballer Eric Cantona, revered by some Mancunians as a deity. The song is a techno-bassy dance attempt with some sampled crowd noises and keyboard work. The group appeared on Top Of The Pops, hiding behind rubber Eric masks, and with an Eric-"look-a-like". They held up "Ooh Aah Cantona" posters, the font of which seemed familiar. These were also distributed to the crowd at a game against Nottingham Forest the same season.
However, to the best knowledge of the list members, 1300 Drums has NO CONNECTION with Bill or Jimmy. Letters to the record company remain unanswered (in fact some have been returned marked "Address Unknown"), but there is no factual evidence to suggest a link. The most probable explanation is that 1300 Drums are probably fans of both Man Utd and KLF, maybe read the Manual and decided to try out the advice, and the only reason they mention the un-JAMs is because Man Utd = M.U. = Mu. ________________________________________________________________
1.013: What are Bill and Jimmy both doing right now?
As of February 1997:
Bill and Jimmy have yet to collaborate musically on any new projects (their last was the Magnificent - see 1.011). Bill and Mark Manning completed a tour to promote their book 'Bad Wisdom' at the end of 1996 (see 4.010) and it is thought they are currently working on the next volume in the Search for the Lost Chord. Bill occasionally pops up in the Public column of the NME, having been spotted at gigs by the hacks there.
Jimmy was recently seen on UK TV turning up with his APC's to the protests in Fairmile, Devon, UK to help in the demonstrator's campaign against the Government's road-building program there. He was identified as " Jimmy- 'money burner' ". There are unconfirmed reports that he has recorded an album for Paul Smith's Blast First label, under the name "AAA- (Advanced Accoustic Armaments)" or "Triple 'A' Attack Formation Ensemble", BUT these are only rumours. See 4.001 for more. An exhibition on his artwork is currently showing on the Internet and outside a gallery in London as part of the Looking Glass project. Check out http://www.redfig.com/ for more on this.
For the latest info on what's happening, check out the current list traffic. ________________________________________________________________
1.023: What is The ILLUMINATUS! Trilogy and what are the connections between
it and the KLF? How did the KLF's use of its ideology affect
other bands, such as the Shamen?
ILLUMINATUS! is a huge cult sex-drugs-occult-paranoid conspiracy theory-science fiction book, where reality shifts and nothing is as is seems. Or is that what I want you to believe? It was first published in the mid seventies, written by Robert Anton Wilson and Bob Shea (who were employees of 'Playboy' when they wrote it), originally as three separate novels: 'The Eye In The Pyramid', 'The Golden Apple', and 'Leviathan', but now most readily available as the collected Dell edition (ISBN 0-440-53981-1).
It tells the tale of the international conspiracy the Illuminati, who attempt to order and control mankind, and receive individual power (become illuminated) by causing mass deaths. Their arch enemies The Justified Ancients of Mummu (The JAMs), are "an organisation (or disorganisation) who are at least as old as the Illuminati and represent the primeval power of Chaos". Along with affiliated groups the LDD and the ELF (Erisian Liberation Front), the JAMs are engaged in a secret war to prevent the Illuminati from 'immanentizing the eschaton' (bringing closer the end of the world). "Whether the above is fact or fiction is irrelevant. What definitely is the case is; 'The Chaos versus Order War' has been raging on, ever since Time first *got it on* with Space and created the Universe." The JAMs were members of the Illuminati, but were expelled at the behest of a faction protesting "kick out the JAMs". The Illuminati control all the record companies, which is why all music is very dull, and how they managed to incorporate the anti-JAMs jibe "kick out the jams" into a MC5 song. The JAMs started their own company to bring out good music, and combat the Illuminati.
The book is obviously a product of the sixties US counterculture, and of the liberated sexual attitudes prevalent in the Playboy offices. It mixes factional sources with fiction and constantly re-interprets and changes the 'facts' until the reader is left utterly confused. It makes a use of the concept of synchronicity, where connections are made between apparently unrelated incidences, and of numerology, and brings to the readers attention the occult significance of the number 23. Whether there is more significance to 23 than any other number is questionable, but what is definitely true, is that once the reader is informed, and shown where 23 crops up, they will notice 23's popping up oddly themselves. A large part of the fun the book introduces one to, is either spotting 23's or hiding them in works deliberately for others to spot. Finally the book promotes discordianism, "a religion disguised as a joke or a joke disguised as a religion?" Discordians worship the goddess of chaos Eris, and are involved in the chaos vs. order war.
Drummond was 'involved with the set design' for the first ever stage production (adapted by Ken Campbell and Chris Langham as a 5 part 10-hour science-fiction rock-opera epic), which opened in Liverpool on the 23rd of November '76. Drummond was at art college at the time. The play featured 'Illuminatus!' author Robert Anton Wilson as a naked extra, and the 23-strong cast contained a number of actors and actresses, who would later be quite successful. The play moved to London where it was seen by the young Cauty who would read the books because of the production.
Bill said in March 1997, over 20 years after the event: "When Ken Campbell put the Science Fiction Theatre together in Liverpool in the early 70s, it was to do Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus trilogy. .. I remember there was a part for a Chinese woman in this play, an Oriental woman. He asks me, who's the biggest Oriental woman in the world today? So I said Yoko Ono And he said, 'Okay, the magic of the phone is that it connects everywhere in the world; every village in China will have a phone and there will be a wire that goes there - you can get anybody1' Within half an hour he was speaking to Yoko on the phone, saying, 'Look, we've got this blah, blah, blah.' Obviously she wasn't up for the part, but I was thinking: if you want to do something, what's going to stop you? That was a big influence"
When Drummond and Cauty decided to "kick out the old" and attack the music industry, they named their group the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu and their record company the Kopyright Liberation Front (The KLF). Much of their recorded output features chants of Mu Mu! And their recordings are (c) "the sound of Mu(sic)". They took many concepts from the book and incorporated them into their work. If you haven't read the book you might want to spot them yourself (that was a poor attempt at a SPOILER WARNING): 'What Time Is Love? and the original version of 'All You Need is Love' feature a sample of the MC5 shouting "kick out the jams motherfuckers". 'All You Need is Love' also features the lyric: "We're back again/ They never kicked us out/ 20,000 years of shout shout shout" which must refer to the real JAMs and also after suggesting an AIDS conspiracy ("Southern Texas seventy-nine/ Killer virus meets the world outside... With this killer virus who needs war?...Swinging sixties all part of their plan"), King Boy shouts "Immanentize the Eschaton". Then in 'The Porpoise Song' on JAMS LP2 King Boy meets a talking porpoise who tells him to join the JAMs! (While on the huge submarine, the 'Leif Erikson' several of the books characters meet Howard, a talking porpoise). Scott Piering, their radio and video plugger announces the motto of The JAMs 'OK everybody lie down on the floor and keep calm...' at the beginning of 'Last Train To Trancentral' as says John Dillenger when he robs banks. The Stadium House video is supposedly a KLF live concert at Woodstock Europa. At the real Woodstock Europa Maria Imbrium vocalist with the 'Sicilian Dragon Defense' hallucinates angels in golden robes coming out of Lake Ingolstadt. At the Rites of Mu (which of course was held on the lost continent of Mu) the four Angels of Mu rose out of the water at sunset in white robes. The confusion over their name (Kopyright and Kallisti Liberation Fronts, and Kings of the Low Frequencies) may just have been journalistic cleverness inventing them, or the KLF may have deliberately put them about, to mirror Hagbard Celine who keeps changing the name of the LDD (Legion of Dynamic Discord, Lawless Delicacy Dealers, Little Deluded Dupes). I think the multiplicity of names that they took on may be related to 'the JAMs can't do it alone'. The JAMs need help from The ELF and The LDD in their battle with the Illuminati. The JAMs need help from The KLF, The Timelords, Disco 2000 and The Forever Ancients Liberation Loophole in their battle with the music industry. The KLF stated all through their career that they intended to buy a submarine, and at the end of the 'Justified and Ancient (Stand By The JAMs)' video, they climb into a submarine and are waved off by the rest of the cast, 'all bound for Mu Mu land'. An insert shows the JAMs- mobile driving off into the sunset, with "The KLF would like to thank the five for making all of this impossible" superimposed. The five of course are the secret leaders of the Illuminati. Allegedly, there is a reference to "3am eternal" somewhere in 'Schroedinger's Cat', and another obscure reference to an art gallery with a "picture" consisting of a frame with lots of bills nailed to it, but these have yet to be found.
The KLF also hid many 23's in their canon of work for 'Illuminatus!' readers to spot. 'Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu' is 23 letters long. Kopyright Liberation Front unfortunately has one too many letters, unless of course you spell 'Kopyrite' thusly, giving 23 letters :) . The first single 'All You Need Is Love' was JAMS 23. Then "23 years is a mighty long time" is a line in 'Next' on 1987. Also on 1987 is the song 'Rockman Rock (Parts 2 and 3)'. The JAMs-mobile (Ford Timelord) has 23 on its/his roof (all US cop cars have a two-figure number on their roofs). It can best be seen in the 'Doctorin' The Tardis' video. The model car in the 'Last Train To Trancentral' and Stadium House videos also has a 23 on its roof. The Italian bootleg of the Madrugana Eterna club mix has a cat. no of ETERNAL 23. At the Disco Mix Convention in Amsterdam in late Oct 1990 (it may well have been the 23rd!) they played a 23 minute version of 'What Time Is Love?' additionally they did a PA at the Heaven club at the end of December 1990 (could it have been?). The KLF's appearance at the Liverpool Festival of Comedy was on Sunday June 23rd 1991. The final KLF Communications info sheet was #23. There's a Cauty drawing of the cop car in this info sheet, it has a 23 on its side. The K-F's award was announced on the 23rd of November (the 17th anniversary of the opening of the Illuminatus! Liverpool production). The K-F's award was the 1994 award, while the Turner award it was subverting was the 1993 award; could it be because 1+9+9+4=23?. And they burnt the million quid on Jura on the 23rd of August 1994. And there are several times in Bad Wisdom where Bill includes the number 23. HOWEVER, at the end of Bad Wisdom, Bill says "...all those 23s were just shoved in for the junior members of the Numerology Club". Make of this what you will, but this author actually has an idea of to whom he might be referring!
There are some other poor ones which only fit if you force them, but are often mentioned by fans as possible ones (it's also stretching a point to believe that the KLF with their short attention span would bother to count up how many of each thing they had or hadn't done). However: There are 23 bricks in the KLF's pyramid blaster logo. Well there are 22 complete rectangular bricks. If you count either the ghetto blaster or the top triangle or the bottom left hand almost complete brick as the missing brick then yes. You can also manipulate the KLF's releases to produce 23 releases. There's JAMS LP1-6 (six) JAMS 23-28T (six) KLF 001-005, 008-011 & 99 (ten). So you need to dig up one more possibly the Stadium House video or ETERNA1 or the unreleased Black Room. Personally I don't like this one as I feel that their actions/stunts/pranks should be counted too, as well as just the records, book and videos. Then there's definitely not 23 mixes of 'What Time Is Love?' but by selectively discounting some or including some based on your own prejudices you can come up with either 13 or 17 (other significant numbers)[however the latest total count is 33!!]. Taking the alphabetical positions of the letters KLF (K=11, L=12, F=6) you can get: K+L= 11+12 = 23, and K+F = 11+6 = 17.
It is often asked whether the Shaman's "Destination Eschaton" single was influenced by the KLF, or just RAW. Bill often 'compares' and contrasts the KLF's work with the Shamen's, as they were around at the same time and doing the same sort of thing (very approx). But despite the influence both groups may have had on each other, and the numerous Eschaton references in the JAMs' music, it is more likely that the single, "Destination Eschaton" was influenced by the concept of eschatology as a whole. The Shamen were big on the work of a certain other American weirdo, namely Terrance McKenna. You are cordially referred to "Re:Evolution" which featured Mr McKenna sounding forth (and completely ruining the underlying music) about tribal shamanism, psychadelic drugs, and how "history is the shockwave of the Eschaton. History is the shockwave of eschatology." ________________________________________________________________
2.001: Which of their records is still available?
All releases on the band's KLF Communications label (UK) were deleted when they retired, but non-UK licensors of the music (including Arista and TVT in the US, Liberation in Australia, and Toshiba/EMI in Japan) will still have the right to produce KLF records for several years. But it will be a finite amount of time, and it seems likely that Drummond and Cauty will never release their product again, so you should think seriously about purchasing what you can now, while you can. Of course, original KLF Communications releases still crop up in second-hand record shops. And list members occasionally sell some things off.
In the UK most of the foreign CD's are available on import quite easily.
This then is what's available:
History of The JAMs (US: TVT) Chill Out (US: WaxTrax!/TVT 7155-2) The White Room (US: Arista)
What Time Is Love? (JAP: EMI TOCP 7401) 3 a.m. Eternal (JAP: EMI TOCP 7402) Last Train To Trancentral (JAP: EMI TOCP 7403) Its Grim Up North Justified And Ancient America: What Time Is Love?
In addition there are two widely available bootlegs:
Ultra Rare Trax (KLF URT1) (CD) Chill Out/Space (Wix Trax! KLF URT3) (CD/tape)
Many list members are often selling some records, eg.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/chillout - Tim Richards' sales of vinyl, tapes, CDs, videos and other things
http://people.netcom.co.uk/j.taylor/ - Selling vinyl, tapes, CDs, videos and other things - reliable
and there are a few other online catalogue mail order companies which still sell things like Chill Out and the White Room. ________________________________________________________________
2.002: What's the difference between the US and UK White Room albums?
The US version is, unfortunately, edited. The UK version presents the first five tracks ("WTIL?" through "Last Train") as a kind of "mini-concert" with sampled crowd noise from, among other places, U2's 'Rattle And Hum'. All five tracks are segued and mixed. The US version eliminates the crowd noise, with some tracks ending very abruptly. It doesn't work nearly as well, and in some places (right after the "Justified" lead-in to "WTIL?") is downright stupid. This is probably as the crowd noise was sampled from a Doors album and hence the obvious copyright problems.
The US edition also has the single mix of "Last Train" instead of the mellower UK album version, edits "No More Tears" down from 9:24 to 6:42, and adds a little more wind noise at the end of the closing "Justified and Ancient". The Japanese version follows the US format, and in addition includes three extra tracks. See the discography for more info. ________________________________________________________________
2.003: What's the difference between the various Shag Times and History Of
The JAMs compilations? Where do "Towards the Trance" and 'JAMS26T'
fit in?
Here are the tracks from the releases in question:
[Shag Times (UK double album)]
All You Need Is Love / Don't Take Five (Take What You Want) / Whitney Joins The JAMS / Down Town / Candyman / Burn The Bastards / Doctorin' The Tardis // Whitney Joins The JAMS (remix) / I Love Disco 2000/ Down Town (remix) / Burn The Beat (club mix) / Prestwich Prophet's Grin (dance mix) / Porpoise Song (dance mix) / Doctorin' The Tardis (minimal)
The last seven tracks (the second disc on the LP version) are labelled only by (innacurate) BPM; these above are the actual tracks.
[Shag Times (European single album)]
All You Need Is Love / Don't Take Five (Take What You Want) / Whitney Joins The JAMS / Down Town / Candyman / Burn The Bastards [edit]
NB. Some discographies note a release "Towards The Trance KLF LP1". "Towards The Trance" was the second part of the Shag Times UK double LP. The first part, "Shag Times" was definitely released as a single album in Europe (and omitting "Doctorin' the Tardis"). No-one has ever seen "Towards The Trance" as a separate single album release. It may be that it never got released, and then they decided to run with "Shag Times" in the UK to cash in on the "Doctorin' the Tardis" success, and bundled it with "Towards The Trance". The catalogue number and above details came from Bill himself when asked in a letter from Culf, what happened to "Towards The Trance". Most of the LP is the second disc of Shag Times, i.e. a collection of remixes showing the JAMs progressing towards the KLF.
The thing that was released in Europe was the remix 12 inch (JAMS 26T) which has remixes of tracks off Who Killed The JAMs? (JAMS LP2). From JAMs info-sheet 001: "JAMS 26T? When we put Downtown out and gave it the cat no. JAMS 27T it was a mistake. We forgot we hadn't made a 26T. Then we decided to release Dance Mixes of tracks from the LP. This would be the missing JAMS 26T. We pressed up 2,000 then decided we didn't like them, so we sold them into Europe. One of the tracks we remixed and is coming out titled 'Burn The Beat' by The KLF with the cat no. KLF 002T. If you are confused so are we."
[History Of The JAMS a.k.a. The Timelords (US version)]
All You Need Is Love / Don't Take Five (Take What You Want) / Whitney Joins The JAMS / Porpoise Song (dance mix) / Down Town / Candyman/ Burn The Beat / Doctorin' The Tardis / Gary In The Tardis [CD only]
[History Of The JAMS a.k.a. The Timelords (Australian version)]
All You Need Is Love / Don't Take Five (Take What You Want) / Disaster Fund Collection / Burn The Beat (ext. 7" mix) / Porpoise Song / Down Town / Candyman / Burn The Bastards / Doctorin' The Tardis
"Burn The Beat" is labelled "Whitney" on this release.
________________________________________________________________
2.004: What's the difference between the US and UK Chill Out CDs?
The UK CD has only one track, 45 minutes long. The US CD separates this into 14 tracks, based on the 'song' titles and approximate timings printed on the label of the UK LP. It seems that the KLF consider Chill Out to be one continuous piece of music, but had to invent a separation into songs so that song-writing royalties can be paid to those sampled. For instance P. Green is credited with co-co-writing "3am Somewhere Outside of Beaumont" with Drummond and Cauty, and of course this is Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac, writer of Albatross, the melody that is heavily sampled on this track. ________________________________________________________________
2.005: What are the different pressings of 'Whitney joins the JAMs? Why are
some marked 'Made in Scotland'?
There are at least two releases on 12" vinyl in existence. Both are one-sided and feature the same mix as on "Shag times", but both have numerous intrinsic variations:
1. (Scottish release) September 87, limited to 500 copies, the etched matrix is "JAM 24T A2", however, at least one copy is known to have the matrix "JAMS 24T". One sided (B- side is smooth). The A side label reads: "bpm 120 Whitney joins the J.A.M.s" This is repeated on the B side, but some DJ copies have blank B-labels. There might even be a small "MADE IN ENGLAND" sticker. Comes in plain black sleeve or generic KLF sleeve A.
2. Re-release at a later date, unknown quantity, etched matrix is "JAMS24T". The B side is not smooth, but has a tone-groove which plays as a high-pitched whine. One run-out groove on the B-side it may say LP FB 12 X, where the 'X' is a '3' and a 'O' overlaid. This matrix is typical of tone-grooves. Comes in generic KLF sleeve A. Some labels state "bpm 120 Whitney joins the J.A.M.s" with "Made in Scotland JAMS24T" but others don't.
Most of the differences can be put down to different production runs. The reason for the "Made in Scotland" inclusion is probably because it was, despite rumours that it was only ever released in Scotland. But most of their other releases state "Made in England" and various other locations. We think this is due to a EEC regulation which means records pressed in the EEC must state the country of origin. The 1987 album was "Made in France" also because it was! As with many 'independent' records at that time, it was pressed by MPO in France, because they were cheaper even with re-importation costs and actually better quality that many of the existing UK plants at the time, and would do more limited runs of records too. However the 'Who Killed the JAMS' LP label says "Made in Wales", which is a complete mystery to all, as it wasn't an MPO pressing. ________________________________________________________________
2.006: What's the difference between 'Burn The Bastards' and 'Burn The Beat'?
The swear words were removed from the 'Burn The Beat' 7" in an attempt to receive radio play. There may be some minor mix differences between the 12" version and 'Burn The Bastards' but they're not obvious. Also the bells/party outro is cut so that all that's left is Den shouting: "Shut Up! its that time again kick out the old, welcome the new". Which could almost be the JAMs motto. The instrumental club mix is more trancey and contains more samples. ________________________________________________________________
2.007: What are the different WTIL? (KLF 004X) releases? Where does KLF004P
fit in?
As far as we know, KLF 004P was never a pressing in it's own right, the matrix was always 004X. We have identified several common variants in this release. Again each may have intrinsic variations:
1. The commercially released version. Dark charcoal grey/blue sleeve, with 'KLF' in large black letters on front, Pyramid Blaster on reverse. These and/or the background on the cover may be glossed to different levels or not - put this down to different production runs. The label is in very dark blue print, and may look black under artificial light - probably also different production runs. The matrix on the A side reads "KLF 004X A' ", which is the 'Live at Trancentral' mix, and the B side reads "KLF 004-C-B1", which is the 'Techno Gate' mix. There is a faint 'DAMONT' etched on the B side, vertically opposite the matrix. The bar code is 5 017139 224240.
2. The promo white label. May come in Generic KLF Sleeve A or plain white or black sleeve. Blank label. The A side matrix reads "KLF 004X A' " (which is the Live at Trancentral mix) and the B side reads "KLF 004X-C-B1" (which is the Techno Gate mix). It may also have "DAMONT" etched on the B side
3. The promo white label with the "Wanda-ful" mix. Generic KLF Sleeve A or plain white or black sleeve. Blank label. The A side matrix reads "KLF 004X A' " (Live At Trancentral) but the B side matrix is "KLF 004X B' " (Wanda-ful mix).
These are the three main ones, but some other variants are: Release 1 but with black sleeve writing; Release 1, etched KLF 004X-C-B1 on the B side, but which plays the Wanda-ful mix; and Release 1, but actually with KLF 004X B' etched on the B side (and which plays the Wanda-ful mix). Each release may also have what appears to be an "R" etched below and between the KLF004X and the A or B, but this is insignificant, as are the letters which may be etched in the 9 o'clock position on the run out grooves.
Just so you know, the Techno Gate mix has vocals only on the intro, but the Wanda-ful mix is "Wanda-full" of her vocals throughout. ________________________________________________________________
2.008: What's the "original" White Room LP you talk about?
The soundtrack album to the 'The White Room' film was completed in 1989, and both their 1989 singles state "taken from the White Room soundtrack LP" on the sleeves. When "Kylie Said to Jason" wasn't a hit they scrapped the release of the album. Studio tapes of this were stolen by the engineer and released to bootleggers, which is how some list members have copies of it. If you would like a copy, try putting out a polite request on the list. The versions of the songs are substantially different from the remixed versions which appeared on the 1991 White Room album. Many songs appear either in whole or in part on the soundtrack to the White Room film (copies of which are also around). The bootleg track-listing is:
The KLF: The White Room Soundtrack [unreleased demos]
4:00 Kylie Said To Jason
4:20 3 a.m. Eternal
3:37 Go To Sleep
3:36 Make it Rain
3:51 Church Of The KLF
3:29 No More Tears
4:54 Build A Fire
4:15 Lovers Side
4:25 The White Room
2:48 Born Free
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2.009: What's the Black Room?
The legendary unreleased LP, the darker, harder twin to the White Room LP. It was referred to in interviews for ages, even before the White Room was released. Originally it was planned to be harder techno (like It's Grim Up North), then it was going to be heavy-metal techno (like America...) and then it was going to be a thrash-metal collaboration with Extreme Noise Terror (like the TOTP version of 3 am Eternal). It's unknown, how much of each incarnation was complete, before it was scrapped and recording was re-started.
Jimmy said of it in December '90: "The 'Black Room' album will all be this kind of electro turbo metal. It's not really industrial like, say, Throbbing Gristle, because it's coming from house and has an uplifting vibe about it. But it's so heavy it will just pin you to the floor."; while Drummond said of it in March '91: "It's the compete yang to the yin of 'The White Room'. It'll be very very dense, very very hardcore. No sort of 'up' choruses or anthems. I think it's going to be techno-metal, I think that's gonna be the sound. Techno-metal. Which'll be, you know, a cross between Techno and Heavy Metal. Megadeth with drum machines."
One NME article noted that the "Black Room" was actually an ante-room to the recording studio they used in West London. It was originally scheduled for the end of '91, which was put back to March '92, and they were still recording in February '92 when they scrapped the sessions. Mark Stent, the engineer/producer for these sessions, thought the music was pure genius. "The most awesome track for me was one called "The Black Room and Terminator 10" which was like a very slow tempo thrash. It was mad. It was brilliant, absolutely brilliant, and it would have shown a lot of people up because it was as ballsy as hell. Guitars screaming all over the place, Bill doing his vocals and Dean (of ENT) doing his. There was such a raw power to it. It was so different from anything anyone else had ever heard. This was really heavy."
Furthermore, in Bad Wisdom, (see 4.010), on page 206, Bill says "Z asks about the Black Room album that me and Jimmy as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu started but were too afraid to complete. I tell him how, when I was standing in the twilight of the recording booth, the microphone in front of me, Jimmy's magnificent metal guitar riffs roaring in my headphones, a voice came out of me which I had never heard before, words flowed that I had never written and a precipice appeared before me. I crept forward and looked over the edge: the abyss. The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu's LP, The Black Room, was never finished. But Z keeps talking and I'm warming to his persuasions. He feels that Jimmy and I are evading our responsibilities; we should return to our war-horse and complete the task. And yes, right now I believe Z may be right. But maybe Jimmy and I should wait until we are both over fifty before we record the sound of us as battle-scarred veterans of a hundred mercenary campaigns, when the music would not be drawn from our fading libidos but from the horror of life spent confronting that abyss - kinda like Milton backed up by Megadeth".
See the NME 'KLF vs. the BRITs' and Select 'Who Killed The KLF' articles in
the ftp archive for further details.
Lyrics from the song "38", recorded in mid-February by Bill Drummond during recording of the scrapped "Black Room" sessions:
"I'm looking for something but it wasn't there/ (next line indecipherable)/ I'm 38 and I'm losing control/ and when I find it I'm going to take it/ and when I find it I'm going to make it/ and when I've found it I'm going to break it/ I'm 38 and I'm losing control/ I'm looking for nothing that I can't feel/ I'm looking for something that I can't see/ I'm 38 and I'm losing control."
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2.010: How was Chill Out recorded?
"Chill Out" was apparently recorded live, without edits, in one take, by the KLF only. The whole album was attempted several times, and if a mistake was made, they started again. Here's what was written in Record Collector magazine # 140:
Cauty: "'Chill Out' was done with two DAT machines and a cassette recorder." Drummond: "It was a live album that took two days to put together from bits and pieces. It was like jamming with bits from LPs and stuff we had lying around. We'd run around having to put an album on here, a cassette on there, and then press something else to get a flow." Cauty: "There's no edits on it. Quite a few times we'd get near the end and make a mistake and so we'd have to go all the way back to the beginning and set it all up again." Drummond then talks of bouncing it from DAT to DAT and playing a few pads on a synthesizer at the notorious Trancentral of legend.
The confusion concerning the recording of 'Chill Out' comes from a Volume interview with The Orb's Alex Patterson, where the interviewer writes the following:
"Alex and Jimmy Cauty started the first 'Chill Out' room at Paul Oakenfold's Land of Oz club, upstairs in London's Heaven. Using two decks and a CD player they mixed tracks by the likes of Kraftwerk and Brian Eno over bird-songs, BBC sound effects and weird tribal chants! Back in Autumn 1989 Alex DJ'd for more than six hours at an eleven-hour 'ambientathon' held at the KLF's Trancentral HQ. And much of the KLF's 'Chill Out' LP is, in fact, made up of cuts from the session! Kopyright Liberation Front: you bet your bottom, matey!"
However since this is not a direct quote from Paterson, it is more reasonable to believe the KLF's actual statements. It is possible that the interviewer was confusing 'Chill Out' with the Space album, which was recorded originally as an Orb album by Jimmy and Alex, then they split up and Jimmy kept the master tapes (since they were recording in his house at Trancentral), reworked it, removed Alex's contributions and added some others of his own, finally releasing it on KLF Communications. There were infamous weekend- long parties held at Trancentral though. Patterson will have had some guiding/inspirational input to 'Chill Out', but it's really the interplay between Bill and Jimmy that makes the KLF great. 'Chill Out' is unquestionably a KLF record - just listen to steel guitars and sheep noises.
The best way to listen to this album is as follows:
1. Close all curtains, and switch off all lights and make sure you won't be disturbed. 2. Lie on the floor, pillow under your head. 3. Close your eyes and relax. 4. Play Chill Out fairly loud and listen to the whole thing in one go.
Various other good times to hear it include 'in the office on an afternoon' or over the piped music in shopping malls or cinemas. ________________________________________________________________
2.011: What is Deep Shit and does it exist?
"Deep Shit" (Cat no. DS1) was a flexi 7" pressed in 500 copies in September 1987 but nobody has ever seen it, so we can't be absolutely sure of its existence. It was on the KLF1 Completeist List as having been pressed, it has never been confirmed. From JAMs info-sheet 001: "Deep Shit (the flexi)? I'm afraid although we recorded this we never actually got it out. We were hoping to slip it in with the first few copies of JAMS LP2." But from JAMs info-sheet 002: "'Deep Shit' can never be made generally available, but don't be surprised if it turns up in odd places."
They allegedly made the single because in 1987 they received a letter from an American calling himself 'Don Lucknowe' who warned them about the "Deep shit" they would be in if they continued with their many links to the "Illuminatus!" trilogy (see 1.023). It all turned out to be a joke (we think!). Their only contact address turned out to be that of a parody news outfit, "Yossarian Universal". Paul Fericano, the then editor thinks the originator of the letter is James Wallis, a British satirist, and long-time Three Stooges fan (hence the name Don Lucknowe = Don't Look Now).
It was then, allegedly released in August 1989 as 6 copies only of a 12" white label (Cat no. KLF 101R), with the A side as "Deep Shit" Parts Two and Three the Illegal Remix" and the B side of "The Lovers Side", from the original TWR album. Again this exists only in myth and has never been seen.
"At the start of 1993, Jimmy completed one issue [started in 1989] of his graphic novel "Deep Shit: The Further Adventures of the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu" but he decided it was "crap" and "threw it out"." ________________________________________________________________
2.012: What does the Madrugana Eterna club mix sound like?
Very much like the version on Chill Out except with a groovy beat and bassline behind it. There were only 20 copies of the unreleased single (KLF ETERNA 1) pressed, so consequently none of us have heard it except for the version which is the soundtrack to the White Room motion picture promo video, which was shown on TV and is on the bootleg compilation video. We assume this IS the club mix. However to confuse the matter there is an Italian bootleg (ETERNITY 23) available in slightly larger quantities (500), which claims to be the club mix, but it is different from the video version. At the moment we believe that this is a fake club mix. However I still like it. Its strange, depending on your state of mind, it can either sound like an ambient track with a trancey beat in the background, OR it can sound like a great club track with a twist (the steel guitar) where the samples of the mad preacher sound like proper vocals, OR it can sound terrible with the two parts clashing and working against each other. Whatever, it seems that the KLF didn't like it and decided not to widely release it. ________________________________________________________________
2.013: What does K Cera Cera [War Is Over If You Want It] sound like?
Bear in mind that the KLF have left the music industry and that this is the K Foundation PRESENTING the Red Army Choir. Its a great novelty pop song. It is unquestionable that it would be a huge world-wide hit if they released it. It really is the Red Army Choir. Bill saw them at a local performance and got them to sing a completely straight version of the old standard 'Que Cera Cera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)', gradually building up to a crescendo of crashing symbols, Cossack dance 'HEY!'s and trumpets as they launch into the chorus. There's a breakdown section very similar to that in 'America...', and the climactic-military-brass-band-style-pomp continues with 'War Is Over If You Want It' i.e. the John Lennon-Yoko Ono Christmas single. If you're not dancing around your bedroom by this point wildly swinging your arms, with a huge grin on your face, then you've missed the point. Finally the song ends in an ambient outro, with church bells and a drum march, similar to 'America No More'.
It was only ever released in Israel in a limited ed. of 3000 on CD and cassette, to 'celebrate' the 1993 Peace Accord there. They also tried to get it played at festivals and live events over that summer, but were usually thwarted because organisers thought it was "crap". On one occasion, at the Reading Festival, Pete Robinson was spotted trying to make a tape of it from the PA playback. Now it's usually only found if someone is selling, or maybe in a second-hand store. Expect to pay upwards of ukp30 for a copy. ________________________________________________________________
2.014: What does What Time Was Love sound like?
Unfortunately the KLF track on the CND benefit album 'Give Peace A Dance' is not a proper song at all. Just a large explosion and a slow rumbling fade to silence for 1.37 minutes, obviously designed to make you think of nuclear explosions, it being a CND album and all. Best description must be: 'BLAM rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble'. However we actually think its a NASA rocket launch soundtrack, as featured on numerous Orb tracks, most obviously at the beginning of "Supernova at the End of the Universe", and of course the KLF have used NASA clips as well, most notably at the beginning of Space, and the end of 'What Time Is Love? (live)'. The second mini-boom on this track could be the second stage rocket firing. In fact it sounds exactly like the rocket launch at the beginning of Space. ________________________________________________________________
2.015: What does The Man sound like?
Bill Drummond's 1986 solo LP on Creation records is a mixed bag of country-rock tunes, awful singing, up tempo instrumentals, a couple of good pop songs, the 'particularly funny' old English ballad type 'Julian Cope Is Dead', and a Scottish Nationalist poem 'Such A Parcel Of Rogues In A Nation' read by his father, the Reverend Jack Drummond. It features most of Australian rock band 'The Triffids' as his backing band, along with Kyiem Lui, Nick Coler and the 'Voice Of The Beehive' girls on backing vocals. Its probably not worth spending a lot of money on if you only like dance music, try looking out for it in used record bins or remaindered records shops. Here's some reviews by list members:
'It's almost comical, actually. Bill strums his guitar and sings country & western ballads in a thick Scottish accent. It's not remarkable except for its collectible value as a KLF member's solo record.'
'It's a country album, with lots of steel guitars. The song "Julian Cope is dead" is particularly funny, the only non-non-country track on the album; it's a traditional English middle-ages ballad. The song about Ian McCulloch is called "Ballad for a sex god", but I have no idea about the lyrics, since he sings with a very thick accent. The record is of course a must for any KLF-collector.'
'I think that you are wrong. I admit I have only heard one song off the album ('The King Of Joy'), but that was definitely NOT a country & western ballad. It is one of the best pop songs I have heard in a long time. If you don't like the songs, then buy it because it is fun to listen to all the allusions Bill pops in about his career and his exploits.' ________________________________________________________________
2.016: What do Brilliant sound like?
Most people who have heard them will think that Brilliant featuring Youth and Jimmy Cauty with June Montana as singer were fairly awful really. Cheesy, clumsy, disco pop music (albeit with loud guitars too) produced by Stock Aitken and Waterman on a major label. "But it's also worth remembering, rather like the KLF, that there are two phases to Brilliant's career. First they were a sort of a funky Killing Joke who released some records via indie label Rough Trade; I remember listening to their first (perhaps only) Peel Session and thinking 'funky bass'. Then they hit the 'big' time, signed to WEA and were given the SAW treatment."
"Also does 'on a major label' equal bad? 'I'm sure we've all got favourite artists who are on majors. I do like to support indies, but I'm sure you get my point. Also 'produced by Stock Aitken and Waterman' does not equal bad either. Those of you who have read the Timelords' Manual will know Bill n' Jimmy have a deal of respect for SAW, and they've produced enough quite excellent pop records to be always worth a listen in my book."
"Their near hit LP I have to confess I've only heard at a party and I was almost quite impressed. I thought I'd just get a few singles by them rather than buy the LP. I would describe their later sound as being quite poppy but with a harder edge. Although totally different musically in some ways they did remind me of Frankie Goes to Hollywood in terms of the interestingness of the production. As a rule bands that SAW produced who were not totally part of the SAW Hit Factory (i.e. SAW did not write their songs) are usually worth a listen." The author of the FAQ can't comment on this one as he's never heard them, and he's relying on other's testimonies by the way.
Some more: "I finally found Brilliant's 'Kiss The Lips Of Life'. Backing vocals are contributed by, amongst others, Princess and Pepsi & Shirley. That shouldn't come as a surprise since the album is produced by Stock Aitken & Waterman (except for one instrumental, "Crash The Car", which Brilliant produced). Not totally typical S.A.W. - those guys only helped co-write 2 of the album's 9 songs. They cover James Brown's 'It's A Man's Man's Man's World', and 'The End Of The World', not very impressively on the latter. Two almost-catchy songs, 'Love Is War' and 'Somebody', are the highlights of the album. Cauty helped co-write the 7 original tunes.'
"Since I like S.A.W. and The KLF in all their incarnations I thought I'd like this album. Not particularly... it was done before S.A.W. found the one beat that they used in 739 Top 40 songs for Jason and Kylie, and just sounds like some poorly constructed cheesy pop. I only paid $5 for it, so I'm happy, but if you have to pay much more I'd pass."
"Quite a few singles were lifted from that album, I have some details somewhere. It was this musical project that caused Jimmy to first meet up with Bill: Drummond was working for WEA at the time, and they put up the money for this material to be recorded etc., since it was being released on a WEA subsidiary, Food Records, run by David Balfe. The project failed: Brilliant never became the megastars they were supposed to become, and the money went towards the setting up of Pete Waterman Limited. So, you *could* say, with a touch of cynicism, that it is Bill who is responsible for all those Stock, Aitken and Waterman tunes you ever hated... ;)." ________________________________________________________________
2.017: What is the Pure Trance series?
Yet another KLF project that didn't quite get off the ground. It was envisaged as 10 x 2000 limited edition 12" singles, released weekly in September-December 1988. All the labels and sleeves were printed up as a batch lot to save money (and still survive - they can be seen in Pete Robinson's 'Justified And Ancient History', and some record dealers try to sell them for 25 pounds a time! Mad!) even though some of the tracks were unfinished. In the end a combination of location filming in Spain for the White Room motion picture taking precedence, and a complete lack of interest from the British public, lead to the series being cancelled, although 5 of the 12" singles were eventually released (unknown whether they contained the same tracks as first realised) and most of the tracks re-appeared as radio edits on the unreleased White Room soundtrack LP (see 2.008).
As envisaged the series was:
Pure Trance 1: What Time Is Love? KLF 004T [17 Oct 1988 - released on time]
Sleeve: front: Large green '1' on black background
back: Large black 'KLF' on green background
What Time Is Love? Remix KLF 004R [24 Oct 1988 - released
24 July 1989]
Sleeve: front: Large yellow '2' on black background
back: Large black 'KLF' on yellow background
Pure Trance 2: 3 a.m. Eternal KLF 005T [31 Oct 1988 - released May 1989]
Sleeve: front: Large pink '2' on black background
back: Large black 'KLF' on pink background
3 a.m. Eternal Remix KLF 005R [7 Nov 1988 - released
18 Sep 1989]
Sleeve: front: Large black '2' on pink background
back: Large pink 'KLF' on black background
Pure Trance 3: Love Trance KLF 006T [14 Nov 1988 - unreleased but 2000 sleeves and labels printed]
Sleeve: front: Large orange '3' on black background
back: Large black 'KLF' on orange background
Love Trance Remix KLF 006R [21 Nov 1988 - unreleased]
Pure Trance 4: Turn Up The Strobe KLF 007T [28 Nov 1988 - unreleased but 2000 sleeves and labels printed]
Sleeve: front: Large yellow '4' on black background
back: Large black 'KLF' on yellow background
Turn Up The Strobe Remix KLF 007R [5 Dec 1988 - unreleased]
Pure Trance 5: E Train To Trancentral KLF 008T [12 Dec 1988 - unreleased but 2000 sleeves and labels printed]
Sleeve: front: Large sea green '5' on black background
back: Large black 'KLF' on sea green background
E Train to Trancentral Remix KLF 008R [19 Dec 1988 - unreleased
However in January 1990, 'Last Train to Trancentral' was released with the cat no. KLF 008, first as a white label, then 2000 standard releases (of which 1000 were warped and not released). It is possible that this is the re-named remix of the original, but no-one knows. Another interesting note regarding KLF008R is that the label's "Other Data" is "Go to Sleep", not "Welcome to the Trance" as on all the other pure trance 12"s]
LTTC Sleeve: front: Large black '5' on blue/sea green background
back: Large blue/sea green 'KLF' on black background
NB Many copies of KLF 008R have a sleeve similar to KLF005T
(pink on black) but the pink is a more fleshy colour than on Pure Trance 2.
All sleeve fronts also featured the name of the track, "THE KLF", a small pyramid blaster in a circle and "PURE TRANCE" in the colour of the number. For full tracklistings see Lazlo's KLF-discography. Love Trance and Turn Up The Strobe have probably never been recorded, but some of Go To Sleep is on the White Room film soundtrack (see 4.003) and it features on the bootleg demos tape (see 2.008). The chorus of Go To Sleep is also sampled on the 808Bass mix of LTTT.
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2.018: How much is _name_ worth? Will I make a lot of money if I sell _name_?
None of the stuff has any intrinsic value - it's worth exactly a) what you'd take from someone else for it or b) what someone else would pay you for it, whichever's higher :-). To convert a price listed in the various guides to cash, you have to find someone willing to pay you that amount. You won't make a killing as record dealers generally pay you only about a fourth of the listed value. Among KLF collectors some of the harder-to-find stuff is obviously going up in value e.g. 'Space' CD; but The KLF aren't exactly Led Zep or Kate Bush in terms of having a widespread fan base, so in the larger market, you're probably not going to have much luck making $50 off your "All You Need Is Love" 12". In fact the price of the KLF releases is actually falling with time (or to be more accurate they are not selling at the higher price any more, yet record shops haven't noticed this and reduced the price yet). ________________________________________________________________
2.019: How do I know if _name_ is a bootleg?
'3 a.m. Eternal' thrash version with Extreme Noise Terror? The original 7" vinyl is one-sided and the catalogue number is KLF 5TOTP. The bootleg is double sided (the same track on both sides) and the catalogue number is KLF 3AM1. It is rumoured that these originated when one member of ENT heard it was not going to be commercially released and had a few printed up on the side, very allegedly.
'1987' LP? There were no CD copies of this LP, so all CD copies are bootlegs. There are two CD bootlegs:
CD: 1991 US (B&M Productions B&M-1)
CD: 1992 UK (...KLFCD 007) [white cover, orange text]
of which the sound quality is reported to be very good. The original vinyl version had a black on white JAMs logo on the front and a white on black 1987 on the back. The vinyl bootleg has a red on white sleeve, and the tracks are printed on the back. On the UK CD the final 3 " CD Bonus tracks" are replaced by some live tracks by, amongst others, Big Black (see 2.020 for more)
'Space' CD? The manufacturers tried to duplicate the Space CD identically, and apart from a slightly botched print job almost managed. The bootleg is easily recognisable though, for a large black area after the phonograph right and copyright symbols and before the words "MADE IN ENGLAND". If it is the original KLF Communications release, it would say 1990 KLF COMMUNICATIONS in that area. The CD itself is distinguishable because of the "fake" compact disc logo and the fact that the text that runs along the edges of the CD is only on the top, as opposed to being on the top and bottom of the original.
'Space' LP? Some bootleg versions of this exist. They are very hard to distinguish, and have an almost-identical cover design but which omits the mention of KLF Communications. If you examine the LP's cover and label art closely, it looks like it was shot from another copy of the LP, which is pretty typical bootlegger's territory, and hardly something they'd need to do on a legit reissue.
Chill Out&Space CD/Tape Bootleg. This was never released by KLF Communications but appears on 'Wix Trax! Records'. The sleeve is an amalgamation of Chill Out and Space sleeves, and the CD itself plays Chill Out as individual tracks, but cuts of the end of 'The Lights of Baton Rouge Pass By' to break into a single track of Space. CD Cat no. is ODY 026 KLF 1
'Ultra Rare Tracks' CD There was never an official KLF release of this compilation. URT are a well-known series of bootlegs, there is also a Depeche Mode one and an Orb one.
'Madrugana Eterna (club mix)' 12"? The original has 3 tracks and is labelled KLF ETERNA 1. The Italian bootleg has only one track and is labelled KLF ETERNAL 23. On top of that it is thought that the track is a fake club mix!
The Lost Sounds of Mu series (Vols. 1-?) CD The Lost Sounds of Mu series is an effort to make available to fans of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty those tracks which have either fallen out of circulation, or are difficult to acquire in their original state. The discs are created and assembled by fans, for fans, and with a desire for the preservation of these Great Men's contribution to popular culture. These are 'Fan Club' discs. ________________________________________________________________
2.020: What is that horrible noise on track 3 of the bootleg 1987 CD?
The bootleg UK CD version of 1987 ('What the : is going on?' KLFCD007 with the orange/white cover) plays as 3 tracks. The first two of which are made up of the tracks which were on either side of the original 1987 release. However, track 3, the bonus tracks which are labelled as: Track 3: Ivum Nya (IBO version) Rap, Rhyme and Scratch Yourself Burn the Bastards Burn the Beat Prestwich Prophet's Grin The Porpoise Song (all live) actually play as a live performance by firstly, american (?)-metal band Big Black and then another similar band called Rifle Sport do a few tracks. The origin of this session is unknown. See the discog for more. ________________________________________________________________
3.001: Are there any KLF videos available?
Yes, firstly two official releases were made:
'Waiting' (KLF VT007) a very rare 42-minute ambient video filmed on the Isle of Jura, was released in November 1990 and sold via mail order only, is now deleted and is PAL/VHS only. I doubt you'll ever find a copy. In it the KLF are filmed waiting for their equipment to arrive, recording the sounds of nature (birds, surf etc.) and then re- broadcasting the sounds back at the ocean, along with some techno. Sheep feature quite prominently. It was filmed on the estate on Jura belonging to an old school pal of Drummond's and is considered by many list members to be "quite boring". [But Jamm!n loves it :)]
'Stadium House' a commercially available compendium of the three 'stadium house' hits presented as a pretend live concert at Woodstock Europa. The versions of 3 am Eternal and What Time Is Love? are different from the original promos. The videos feature Wanda Dee (!). Catalogue info is:
VHS: 1991 UK (Picture Music International MVR 9900983) (PAL) VHS: 1991 US (6 West Home Video SW-5715) (NTSC) VHS: 1991 OZ (Festival 81219) (PAL)
The track listing is:
1:19 [it must be obvious (ufo mix) unlisted; over opening credits] 3:50 3 a.m. Eternal 3:41 Last Train To Trancentral 4:15 What Time Is Love? 2:08 [it's grim up north (original) unlisted; closing credits]
and the UK release adds a bonus ambient feature about the making of the videos:
14:41 This Is Not What The KLF Is About
The video is still available outside the UK, and UK copies are easy to find in second hand record shops. In the USA, Dave Parker <parkerd@primenet.com> has a few NTSC copies available.
There are various KLF promo videos which may turn up in specialist dealers, etc. Generally these are single video promos for TV use. We don't know how many copies there might be of these. Non-UK licensers of KLF product may have made their own promos too. However especially interesting are two different videos of the Rites Of Mu (see 4.002), and a promo video compilation called '1991: 'The Work' released in 1991, which featured various promos from their entire career to date.
One lucky list member has proclaimed: "I found a copy of "Indie Top Video - Take Three" (1990 UK Picture Music International MVP 9912153). It claims to be a companion to Volume 8 of the Indie Top 20 LP/CD/CASS which is included in the KLF Discography. On it is a version of the Kylie Said To Jason Promo Video. It differs from the one found on the "This Is What The KLF Are About" compilation, in that instead of the cue clock at the start, it shows a still from the White Room Film overlaid with text explaining that the Promo contains clips from the forthcoming film - The White Room. Playing over the top is a short ambient soundtrack that blends into the start of Kylie Said To Jason and then the Video starts as per the normal. The end is also slightly different in that it fades to black as the music ends instead of freezing on the satellite dish at the end. The best things about this compilation is (a) the Video is a pristine first generation copy and (b) it only cost me 2 UKP (yes that's right 2!) :-) ) "
Then there are two bootleg compilation tapes which crop up around:
'This Is What The KLF Are About' a 150 min extravaganza of the 'Work' and 'Waiting' videos, various other promos, and lots of bad quality TV appearances. Its not in stereo, and there are some patches of nothing (although these were on 'Work' as well). Track listing:
The KLF: America: What Time is Love
The KLF: Justified and Ancient
The JAMS: It's Grim Up North
The Rites of Mu (version 1)
The KLF: Stadium House Trilogy
The Timelords: Doctorin' the Tardis
The KLF: Kylie Said to Jason
The KLF: The White Room (promo clip)
The KLF: What Time is Love (cornfield version)
Disco 2000: Uptight
Brilliant: Love is War
The KLF: What Time is Love (Top of the Pops version 1)
The KLF: 3am Eternal (Top of the Pops version 1)
The KLF: 3am Eternal (Top of the Pops version 2)
The KLF: Last Train to Trancentral (Top of the Pops)
The KLF: Justified and Ancient (Top of the Pops)
The JAMS: It's Grim Up North (Top of the Pops)
Media Show Appearance (Drummond)
Rapido Appearance (KLF)
The Word Appearance (Tammy Wynette)
Reportage Appearance (KLF)
Snub TV Appearance (KLF)
Waiting
The Timelords: Doctorin' the Tardis (Top of the Pops)
KLF vs. ENT: 3am Eternal (The BRITs 92)
The KLF: What Time is Love (pure trance White Room version)
The KLF: 3am Eternal
The Rites of Mu (version 2, as shown MTV)
The KLF: What Time is Love (Top of the Pops version 2)
This video was available (June 94) from Mike Dutton, 58 Red Lion Court, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, CM23 3YL, UK. Tel: (+44) (0) 1279 505443, but he allegedly stopped making them a long time ago. The video can occasionally be found in second- hand record shops.
'KLF-OLOGY' a three hour compilation which describes itself as having very high visual quality, most of the material being only second generation, and excellent quality sound, all in stereo. This is a lie. The quality of the TOTP appearances is poor, both in sound and vision, but this quality improves slightly with the Waiting and Stadium House videos. Again a PAL/VHS release. Track listing:
3 a.m. Eternal (Embankment version, as shown on Chart Show)
What Time Is Love? (TOTP appearance 1)
3 a.m. Eternal (TOTP)
Its Grim Up North (TOTP)
What Time Is Love? (TOTP appearance 2)
Its Grim Up North (Promo)
What Time Is Love? (Cornfields version, as shown on Chart Show)
Justified And Ancient (Xmas TOTP appearance)
Waiting
Stadium House
This Is Not What The KLF Are About
1987: What The Fury Is Going On?
(consists of 'Illkillya' A Smile Orange Film: soundtrack 1987)
The 'Illkillya' film is on a totally different, non-KLF related vein. The sort of poorly- scripted, -acted and -produced quality that gets entered for amateur film awards and gets rejected. Good soundtrack though. Try asking of Julian Butler, Smile Orange Films, 29 Villa Road, Bingley, West Yorkshire, BD16 4EU for copies. If not try asking on the list. Unfortunately there are no NTSC bootleg compilations available in the US, a situation which someone should change - they could sell a lot of copies!
Finally, various list members have copies of other rarities, such as the original White Room film (see 4.003) and the Omnibus documentary (see 5.010), which they are quite willing to copy for interested parties:
jemma <jemma@mail.vcn.net> "I have a copy of TWR & Omnibus on NTSC. I am willing, and have in the past, make duplicates for free. All I ask for is the person to supply their own blank VHS tapes."
Jai Nelson will do PAL copies of the White Room film, if asked nicely (and blank VHS tapes are provided). Contact him at: jnel@atlas.co.uk ________________________________________________________________
3.002: Are there any books about the KLF available?
A few, but not enough:
Firstly the book that the KLF wrote in the summer of 1988, and self-published in Feb 89, crediting it to the Timelords:
'The Manual - How to have a number one the easy way' - The Timelords (KLF Publications KLF 009B) ISBN 0-86359-616-9 (The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu reveal their zenarchistic method used in making the unthinkable happen) This lays out a detailed plan for now to have a novelty pop No. 1. starting from a position of no money and no talent; it also serves as an excellent guide to the music industry and the rules of pop, and as a description of the fun that the KLF had being the Timelords, also in there are pieces about some of the KLF collaborators. The book is now deleted, and almost never seen in shops, but an ASCII version is available in the ftp archive.
Will Pop Eat Itself? (Pop Music In The Soundbite Era) - Jeremy J. Beadle (Faber and Faber, London, 1993) IBSN 0-571-16241-X 'explores the advent of post-modernism in pop, suggesting parallels between pop today and high art earlier this century.' A history of the sampler in pop music. Along the way is a great chapter all about the JAMs, including a very good analysis of the lyrical content of 'All You Need Is Love', 'Downtown' and 'Justified And Ancient (Stand By The JAMs)'. The chapter serves as a sort of incomplete history of the JAMs/KLF, although Beadle is less impressed with them once they stop blatant sampling. The JAMs also pop up in other chapters. RECOMMENDED.
'Justified And Ancient History'/'History Rewritten' Two small 'biozines' put together by teenage KLF fan Pete Robinson. The first is a history of the KLF 'from pressing 500 copies of their debut single to selling more singles than any other band'. The writing is no more than a brief summary of all their exploits, but it also contains lots of interesting material including a photo of Trancentral, an exclusive questionnaire filled in by Drummond, and the Pure Trance labels. It has sold more than a 1000 copies! The second is smaller, and about the post-KLF career of Drummond and Cauty up to and including the K Foundation's alternative award ceremony. It includes highlights from their press pack, and reprints most of the K.F advertisements. They are available by mail order for 2.30 and 1.00 UKP respectively, plus postage of 0.50 UKP in the UK, 0.65 [Europe] 1.20 [Oz & Far East] 1.50 [Rest Of The World] for each one (so if you order more than one use your judgement for what the postage should be). UK bank cheques to P. Robinson. Non-UK I dunno. From Pete Robinson, 57 Maple Drive, East Grinstead, West Sussex, RH19 3UR, UK.
'Bad Wisdom (The lighthouse at the top of the world)' - Bill Drummond and Mark Manning (Penguin, London, 1996 ISBN: 0-14- 026118-4) From the back sleeve: "Bill Drummond and Mark Manning were involved with two of pop's most esoteric creations: Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction and The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu. Having exhausted (and been exhausted by) the young man's religion of rock 'n' roll, Drummond and Manning undertake an epic journey to the North Pole to sacrifice an icon of Elvis Presley. Two very different accounts of the journey clash and mesh in Bad Wisdom as the Zenarctic pilgrims venture forth into the frozen wastes at the top of the world." The book is not primarily about the KLF, but Drummond does write in detail about some aspects of the band, such as how it all fell apart. It is widely available. See 4.010 for more. RECOMMENDED
Also Julian Cope's autobiography, 'Head On' and Holly Johnson's autobiography 'A Bone in my Flute' (1994, ISBN: 0-7126-6145-X) feature some details about Drummond's carreer in the early 80's Liverpool scene. ________________________________________________________________
3.003: Are there any KLF T-shirts available?
There are some bootleg KLF T-shirts designed, printed and sold by list members, but there could be more - why don't you get one printed? Indeed a Shag Shag Shag one is in production (see below).
There are no official KLF T-shirts still available. According to the final info sheet any merchandise unsold a month after the retiral was burnt.
There was a long sleeved white T-shirt, with the letters 'KLF' in black on the front, the pyramid blaster on the back inside a circle around which is a list of KLF Communication's bands, i.e. The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The JAMs, Disco 2000, The Timelords, The Liberation Loophole and The KLF, and a smaller copy of this on the left sleeve. There were two similar white short-sleeved also, one which was identical (but nothing on the sleeve) and on the other the back and front were reversed. Copies of this are being sold by: Marshall Dickson <hour24@ix.netcom.com> $10.00 + postage
There was another white short-sleeved with yellow 'Shag Shag Shag' graffiti writing on the front. Copies of this are in production by Tim Richards <100720.1557@compuserve.com>
There was a black long-sleeved one with white "It's Grim Up North" on the front, which was also available in short-sleeve (as see on a dancer in the Chemical Brothers' 'Setting Sun' video).
There was also a white short-sleeved that had the T-shaped speakers, on the front in red and black, with TRANCENTRAL written over them, and MU MU written at the bottom of the back. Unfortunately the writing is swallowed up by your armpits unless you stand as a T too, and it only reads 'ANCENTR'.
Pete Robinson had some printed after the '92 spilt which were black, long-sleeved. The front was a twist on an old "bpm 120 Who Killed The JAMs" T-shirt, reading "bpm 23 Who Killed The KLF?" on the front, and "KLF RIP" in large white letters on the reverse. These have now been deleted.
In the US Dave Parker <parkerd@primenet.com> may have a few T-shirts left that are "XL only, black with white text. On front upper left breast, there is a side shot of the stacked speakers logo (scanned in from the "MU" CD), and around the image, is a circle of text that says "The JAMs K Foundation Disco 2000 Space Bill Drummond Jimmy Cauty The KLF The Timelords" with nice nifty bullets in between each name. On the back, it has a large traditional stacked speaker shot (like the UK 12" of LT2T...but no neon effects), and above the image, is a large "TRANCENTRAL" logo. Very nice, I do believe. The few who have purchased them have been quite satisfied with them.".
"I wore the T-shirt at the Lollipop music festival in Stockholm, Sweden two weeks ago. I constantly got comments from people that saw the T-shirt. Comments ranged from people wanting it to people just tapping me on the shoulder and saying that KLF is a great band. And one very drunk man wanted to discuss the inner meanings of the Illuminati! books with me :-)" ________________________________________________________________
4.001: Did Jimmy Cauty really paint a 'Lord Of The Rings' poster?
Yes, when he was seventeen in the early seventies. It's rather well-done in a stylistic, gothic-y-looking way. "It's quite funny actually - the border is made up of Orcs climbing on top of each other up the sides, and crawling along the top and bottom. For the Tolkienesque out there, it features Gandalf with the Red Ring shining and Glamdring to hip, with Samwise and Frodo hobbits, and also three portraits of Legolas the Elf, Gimli the Dwarf and Gollum the gollum." When Pete Robinson asked Cauty about it, he mentioned that 'it was mainly student nurses who bought it'. It is signed J. Cauty at the bottom. This is one of Athena's best-selling posters, and rumor has it that they came to pick it up in a helicopter. The publishing information from the back of the poster:
2931 Lord of the Rings/ Artist: J.Cauty. illustration based on the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R.Tolkien (c) George Allen & UNWIN (PUBLISHERS) LTD. 1954, 1966 (c) 1988 Wizard & Genius-Idealdecor 8618 OETWIL AM SEE/ZURICH Switzerland. ________________________________________________________________
4.002: What were the Rites Of Mu?
Apparently the KLF disliked the constant attention they got from the dance and pop music worlds: in the form of requests for PA's, remixes etc., and the constant questions they got asked. Indeed they even refer to the 'four handmaidens of evil: WHO WHAT WHERE and WHY'. So as Drummond states in info sheet 13 they decided to hold the Rites of Mu to make "the questions we get asked and are unable to answer" redundant. Of course other reasons for the Rites are more probable: they wanted to hold a good party, they would get a lot of press coverage, and it would increase their enigma. Whatever the reason then, for the 1991 Summer Solstice, The KLF entertained a selection of music industry figures, journalists, etc. on Isle Of Jura in an event known as the Rites of Mu.
The invitation said 'The KLF require your presence. You'll be transported to the lost continent Mu. Bring your passports'. Each guest was given a copy of the following statement as they travelled to Jura, by train, plane, car, bus, and boat on Friday 21st June:
'THE RITES OF MU.
'SINCE THAT FATEFUL DAY WHEN MAN LEFT BY THE EASTERN GATE, FRUIT STILL FRESH IN HIS BELLY, THOSE FOUR BEAUTIFUL HANDMAIDENS OF LUCIFER _WHY_, _WHAT_, _WHERE_ AND _WHEN_ HAVE LONG TEMPTED BUT NEVER QUENCHED HIS DISASTROUS THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE. THE KLF HAVE INVITED YOU TO JOIN THEM IN CELEBRATING THE RITES OF MU THIS SUMMER SOLSTICE, DURING WHICH THE FALL OF MANKIND MAY BE REVERSED, RETURNING HIM TO THE GARDEN WHERE THE REST OF CREATION WAITS.
'THE MOST BEAUTIFUL, YET MOST EVIL, OF THE FOUR HANDMAIDENS IS_WHY_. SHE EVEN NOW MAY BE TEMPTING YOU TO ASK QUESTIONS, WHEN ANSWERS ARE NOT ONLY NOT NEEDED BUT COULD NEVER BE GIVEN. SINCE CELEBRATING THE RITES OF MU FOUR SEASONS PAST, THE KLF'S MOMENT HAS COME; SHIMMERING AND DAZZLING LIKE THE HAUNTING BEAUTY OF AURORA'S RACE, IT IS DESTINED ONLY TO FADE. WHILE THE MOMENT LASTS THEIR STADIUM HOUSE TRILOGY REVERBERATES AROUND THE GLOBE, THE REQUESTS FOR LIVE SHOWS, INTERVIEWS, TV APPEARANCES, REMIXES, PROMOTIONAL TOURS AND COMMERCIAL ENDORSEMENTS HAVE SPEWED FORTH RELENTLESSLY FROM THEIR FAX MACHINE.
'_WHY_, _WHAT_, _WHERE_ AND _WHEN_ HAVE BEEN VERY BUSY; THEIR SEDUCTION TECHNIQUES NEAR-PERFECT. THE KLF, WITH REGULAR FEET OF CLAY, HAVE WEAKENED AT TIMES AND HAVE PRETNEDED TO ANSWER THE UNANSWERABLE. THEY TOO HAVE TRIED TO UNDERSTAND INSTEAD OF ACCEPTING THE UNFOCUSABLE, BEAUTIFUL TRUTH OF THE MYSTERY THAT LIES AT THE HEART OF POP'S PASSING MOMENTS.
'AS WELL AS ASKING YOU TO ACCEPT THE CONTRADICTIONS OF THE ABOVE WE HOPE THAT YOU WILL GIVE YOURSELF FULLY TO THESE THREE DAYS, ACCEPTING WHATEVER THE ELEMENTS TIP OUR WAY; WHATEVER MILD PHYSICAL STRAINS MAY BE PLACED UPON OUR BODIES AND SAVOUR THE UNDERVALUED QUALITIES OF WAITING, AND MAYBE AFTER IT IS ALL OVER WE WILL UNDERSTAND THAT THERE IS FAR LESS TO UNDERSTAND THAN WE EVER KNEW.'
The guests were welcomed from the ferry by Mu passport control officer Drummond in peaked cap and shades, who checked their passports and stamped them with a pyramid blaster stamp. They then allowed themselves to be dressed in yellow ceremonial robes, and led in a chanting procession by a white robed high priest of Mu with Horned God headpiece, over the moors to a bonfire beside a huge (20m?) wicker man, arms raised with weapons poised, head looking up to the sky. The four angels of Mu, in white dresses, with flower head-bands, rose from the sea, and joined the celebrants. The high priest addressed the crowd in 'a tongue that no longer exists, at least not in this world'. What did the KLF have in store, or was it the Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu controlling the KLF? As the ceremony reached its climax at midnight on the longest day, it was still light. The priest encouraged the guests to direct their psychic energy towards the wicker man, chanting 'Burn Burn Burn' and the idol burst into flames with many explosions!!! What lay ahead was 'enlightenment ... or madness'. After the ceremony was over the guests were treated to a huge party. The next day is unrecorded but judging by the statement it involved savouring the undervalued qualities of waiting. However they spent the time, by Sunday 23rd of June, the KLF had transported the guests to the Liverpool Festival of Comedy, where, hooded, they joined them on stage for an accapella rendition of Justified And Ancient as Bill and Jimmy handed out ice creams from an ice-cream van which they had borrowed. The total cost of the weekend was supposed to be around 70,000 ukpounds. But for what?
The event was filmed by Bill Butt, as were all the KLF's public appearances, and edited for promotional use only. A Promo video of 5x2 min episodes was circulated in July 91. The soundtrack music is largely dark, sinister, and evil, often punctuated by sudden outbursts of the industrial 'woooooo!' sound from 'It's Grim Up North'. A narration by Scott Piering (their record plugger) proved that he couldn't act. Each episode begins with the closing scene of the previous.
Part I - The Bonker (the passports to sunset) Part II - The Construction (sunset to procession) Part III - The Initiation (procession to angels of Mu) Part IV - The Offering (angels to high priest chanting) Part V - The Burning (high priest to burning)
By sacrificing the wicker idol, somehow the KLF have reversed the fall of mankind! The film ends intriguingly with 'America 1992 - the celebration continues'. Did they intend to have a Rites Of Mu in the US in 1992? Or is this just a reference to the America promotional campaign.
A new 1x7 min version appeared on 'The Work' promo video at the end of 1991, with the opening credits removed from each episode. There were rumours that it was to be screened on Channel 4 in the UK, or on MTV Europe, at some point that winter, but it wasn't screened until after the retiral, on the shortest day 1992, on MTV Europe, with a re-recorded soundtrack and new narration as the 1x7 min version. On the 26th of August 94 another (new?) version was shown at the NME film season in a triple bill with the Beatles 'Magical Mystery Tour' and Echo and the Bunnymen's 'Shine So Hard' perhaps this version makes more of the mystery tour aspect. ________________________________________________________________
4.003: What is the White Room motion picture? Has it ever been shown?
Is it finished?
Its a 50 minute ambient road movie with footage of Drummond and Cauty setting off from Trancentral on a quest to find the White Room, driving through London and Spain, to a soundtrack of pop-trance. It has been shown in public only once. The full story is rather interesting:
As mentioned in 1.023, the KLF received weird mail from Illuminatus! fans after calling themselves the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu. Much of the mail was from obvious cranks and crackpots, but then in mid 1988, they received a very weird letter: a legal contract. The contract was with an organisation or individual calling themselves "Eternity". The wording of this contract was that of standard music business legal speak, but the terms discussed and the rights required and granted were of a far stranger kind. Whether The Contract was a very clever and intricate prank by a legal minded JAMS fan was of little concern to Drummond and Cauty. For them it was as good a marker as anything as to what direction their free style career should take next.
Their solicitor (David Franks, played by himself in the film) advised that they should not put their names to legally binding agreements without first understanding all of the implications of doing so. He advised them not to sign the Contract. The KLF of course ignored him and signed the contract.
In the first term of The Contract they, Drummond and Cauty, were required to make an artistic representation of themselves on a journey to a place called THE WHITE ROOM. The medium they chose to make this representation was up to them. Where or what THE WHITE ROOM was, was never clearly defined. Interpretation was left to their own creativity. The remuneration they are to receive on completion of this work of art was supposed to be access to THE "real" WHITE ROOM. Your guess is as good as anybody's. Initially Drummond and Cauty planned to stage a art exhibition where the journey and arrival at THE WHITE ROOM would be represented on canvas and exhibited; but driving down the Marylebone Road on a wet September afternoon in 1988 in their infamous U.S. Cop car, Cauty suggested, instead of doing the art exhibition they should make a film. The making of a "Road Movie" had always figured in their vague plans for the future. With money coming in from all over the place for their Timelords record maybe now was the time. Or at least they thought so.
They contacted their friend and associate, the film director, Bill Butt and made plans. Six weeks later they were filming in the Sierra Nevada region of Spain, with a top class international crew (who had just finished working on an Indiana Jones film). But things started to go wrong immediately. The weather, guaranteed to be blue skies of epic proportions until well after Christmas, was low and drizzly. Some business deals crashed, losing the money that was earmarked to complete the film. When they viewed all of the uncut rushes that had been shot, they knew that they had just thrown away the best part of 250,000 ukpounds: Most of the footage was out-of-focus, or badly filmed. Of course if you talk to anybody who tries to make a film they will tell you of the catalogue of disasters that came between them and their reported triumphant premier. Drummond and Cauty had no experience of this. They just felt that the Gods were against them and got seriously depressed. They had meetings with their accountants to assess what the damage would be if they were to cut their losses and pull out then. Bill Butt persuaded them to see it through.
By February 1989 when they had enough funds together for them to shoot the interior scenes and the London location shots, David Franks had become steadily more intrigued by all the implications of the various clauses of The Contract. Although The Contract was between The JAMS and Eternity, Eternity gave no address, Eternity left no room for negotiation. [Note in 'Justified and Ancient': "At 3am Eternity rang, said she knew What Time Is Love?"]. David Franks believed he had found a get out clause. Something that Drummond and Cauty would later call the LIBERATION LOOPHOLE. It was decided by Bill Butt and the other two that the signing of the contract and Franks' discovery of the LIBERATION LOOPHOLE should be dramatically reconstructed, filmed and respectively used at the beginning and the end of the film.
The rest of the film was then shot, Drummond and Cauty recorded the soundtrack. Bill Butt and editor Rob Wright edited the film. It was only 52 minutes' long but it was BIG SCREEN and looked good. They planned either a proper cinema release or a club tour, with the KLF playing the soundtrack live for the second half of 1989. The White Room soundtrack LP was to be preceded by the release of 'Kylie Said To Jason', the video for which included scenes from the film. Additionally many of the scenes were included in a short promo for the film, with a soundtrack of Madrugana Eterna (club mix), which was shown on TV. Drummond and Cauty are shown leaving Trancentral, and driving through London, then driving through mainly desert country. Some memorable scenes include the JAMs-mobile covered in white dustwash, with the windscreen wipers clearing a space, Drummond combing his hair before sauntering down the road as if he was a traffic cop, and the dead eagle scene: Drummond had come across a beautiful but decomposing eagle at the side of the road, which nobody else would go near, as it stank. Drummond insisted on being filmed with it as he strode down a one track rail line, the significance of this at the time could not be argued. Finally the wheels of the JAMs-mobile stop in a snow drift, and the KLF climb upwards through the snow towards a huge radar dish, wherein they find the White Room.
'Kylie' was planned to be a big pop hit to promote the LP. It wasn't. The release of the LP was pulled. The What Time Is Love Story LP became JAMS LP 4 instead. A video for the pure trance What Time Is Love is sometimes shown on MTV. It consists of unedited footage from Sierra Nevada. Two shots of sheep in a field bookended a 3 minute shot of the JAMs-mobile gradually driving a couple of miles towards the camera across a barren plain. It's extremely tedious, and getting MTV to show this can be viewed as a prank, despite the fact they often do!. A slightly different version is also available on an compilation tape of Indie promos, but it is VERY rare.
A combination of worries about the dramatic qualities of the film, and lack of commercial success caused huge doubts in Drummond and Cauty's minds. However the rapidly emerging rave and club success of their pure trance songs took their minds off the doubts. They played their premier live performance at the London Club HEAVEN on Monday the 31st of July. Later that evening they met a young down and out, claiming to be called Mickey McElwee. For the price of a meal he told them the most shit scary story the both of them had ever heard. Later they related the story to Bill Butt. It was agreed that it could make the basis of a plot for the film.
The finished film "should" contain both an Inner and Outer film. The Inner film is the original one shot in late 1988 and early 1989. The Outer film contains the dramatically reconstructed events that according to Mickey McElwee, took place, unbeknown to Drummond and Cauty while The Inner film was being shot. There will also be, what we will call, a Third Strand which will consist of scenes plotting the tensions and predicaments that Drummond, Cauty and Butt experienced while attempting to make The Inner film. All three plots will intertwine with each other telling the one simple story. The story of Men out of their Depth. In The Inner film Drummond and Cauty play their alter egos KINGBOY D and ROCKMAN ROCK. In the outer film they play themselves. Bill Butt reckoned it would cost a further $1,000,000 to finish the film. They showed the Inner film to German investors and some sheep in Munich, (its one and only showing!), to try and persuade them to finance the film's completion. It appears they never raised the cash as the script was too weird. But when their pop career took off and they did make some money, it seems as though they dropped their plans to finish the film.
A complete script is available in the ftp archive, containing the Outer, Inner and Third strands, as well as sets/locations/stage directions and lots of other really interesting info. URLs for it are either:
1. ftp.xmission.com /pub/lists/klf/whiteroom.scr 2. ftp://jumper.mcc.ac.uk/pub/ttl/KLF/Misc/whitroom-film.txt
and HTML, follow the link from
3. http://jumper.mcc.ac.uk/~ttl/KLF/Misc
An advert appeared in the NME in 1994, claiming to be copies of the whole film, but investigation has revealed this only to be the inner film. Thus several bootlegged copies of the inner film are around, and available from generous list members. The quality of all known copies is pretty good, considering they're 4th or 5th generation. Sound and visuals are quite clear and noise and interference don't detract from the film's content too much. There is no dialogue in this Inner Film, only the music. It is possible to hear much of the original White Room soundtrack, for example the original "Build a Fire" and "Go to Sleep". It is not known what happened to the original film. ________________________________________________________________
4.004: What happened at The 1992 BRIT Awards?
The whole story is better told in the NME article 'The KLF vs. The BRITs' which is available in the ftp archive. Some more theories are expressed in the Select article 'Who Killed the KLF?' which is also there.
The story perhaps begins the previous year when the KLF were invited to perform at a concert celebrating new British music which was to be filmed to show as clips during the '91 BRITs. The KLF's suggestions for the nature of their performance were so outrageous (involving live elephant sacrifices), that the invitation was cancelled. Then at the end of '91 they were approached to appear on the Christmas edition of Top of the Pops; they planned to perform the thrash-metal version of '3 a.m. Eternal' with Extreme Noise Terror. The BBC however refused, and they performed a straight version of Justified and Ancient. So you'd think that the organisers of the annual music industry back-slapping self-congratulatory show, would have been tipped off that the KLF would try to do something shocking. "It had to be done," said Drummond, his tone as always, somewhere between deadly earnest and total mischief. It soon becomes obvious that there's a devil stuck in this man. "You only get so many opportunities... When they asked us to do it, we wondered if the BRITs people had done their research..."
Somehow the KLF persuaded the organisers to let them perform with Extreme Noise Terror, and they began to plan their performance. "The plans kept changing. They varied from me going onstage and literally cutting my age, Manics style into my chest with a knife, to me snogging Jimmy onstage, to Jimmy simulating sex with his girlfriend. Then we were going to cut up a dead sheep on stage and throw blood over the front rows of the audience. The idea was that two thirds of the way through the song this altar would appear with the sheep on... we'd bought the meat cleavers, the knives, the tablecloth, got everything. Drummond explains how such ideas come to them: "we don't always think things through beforehand...we just do them. Jimmy really had me going, he suggested that I use the cleaver to cut my own hand off!"
On the morning of the show (12th February '92) Drummond drove to an abattoir in Northampton and bought a whole dead sheep and eight gallons of blood. Rumours began to circulate of the plan, and first the BBC lawyers and then hardcore vegetarians Extreme Noise Terror made it blatantly known that they were totally against the idea." So the sheep plan was scrapped, and instead *just* the thrash performance, and Bill spraying the audience with blanks from a machine gun took place. For the full live review see 1.009. There's no doubt however that this performance did annoy, shock and disgust many of the 'pigtails in suits' present in the audience and presumably many of the live TV audience in their living rooms. Trevor Horn (producer of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Relax" !!!!) seemed to be in a state of shock. "They were horrible! Shooting with machine guns! Disgraceful!". Eminent Hungarian classical composer Sir George Solti tried to leave the auditorium during the performance and had to be persuaded to return to his seat.
As Scott Piering's voice announced "The KLF have now left the music business" the two bands hurried off the stage and straight into their van and back to Trancentral. Later in the show The KLF were (jointly with Simply Red) were awarded the title Best British Band. Since they had now left the building they sent along sidekick Hector, resplendent in motor cycle messenger gear, to pick up the statuette. Having been told there was no way he was being allowed access, Hector dashed onstage, grabbed the trophy from startled Martika and escaped into the labyrinth of corridors behind the glittering stage. This of course was cut from the TV coverage. Later, he was cornered by security, who wrestled 'the BRIT' back off him.
Back at Trancentral Jimi and Bill decided to do... more... stuff... They left Trancentral "on a mission". Over at the posh Lancaster Gate hotel where the post-BRITS party is being held, blue and yellow flashing lights are splitting the darkness. A police car prowls around as a rubbish lorry disposes of the carcass of a dead sheep which has been left on the forecourt. Around it is tied a sign; 'I DIED FOR YOU - BON APPETIT'. Bill explains why they did it: 'there was a lot of symbolism about the sheep thing. It said to those people at the BRITs, "If you can't take the contradictions and the shit within pop music, tough; you're all willing to go into this big hotel and eat whatever but you don't wanna look at a dead sheep". I was brought up in the country and I've seen dead bodies and dead animals and I worked on a trawler and saw millions of dead fish. Anyway, the next plan was to take the sheep down to the hotel and leave it there on the stairs, dead, and pour the eight gallons of blood over the entrance. They might've been able to ignore the sheep, but wading through blood? That's symbolic too. It's like the industry wants your blood. And then, when you've given them everything, they want to make you a part of the "rich tapestry of rock". When you're dead, when you're gone, it's all nice, all Sid? Wasn't he great!?"
It does seem that the KLF somehow wanted to purge themselves of the music industry. The fact that they wanted to ritually disembowel a sheep which are deeply embedded in the KLF mythology (For the full 'Why Sheep?' story see 5.003) was perhaps 'a bit like suicide'. It seems that they wanted to do something so deliberately offensive that their careers would have been ruined. Drummond said "there's a twisted part to Jimmy and me that wants to be hated. Really hated..." This was probably the first KLF action that would've really alienated tons of people who normally applaud their every move. Right thinking people probably view the use of animals for some madcap pop/art caper as disgusting. Drummond explained "we'd gone through agonies about this, spent sleepless nights knowing that it was a terrible thing to do. But the sheep didn't die just for us. It was going to die anyway." Then he admits that his wife was "horrified... disgusted, completely disgusted. But y'know, we just can't be the safe little pop group."
Next morning, the backlash began. From the KLF's point of view, they had subverted and disrupted the BRITs and made some sort of point. The editorial in dusty trade mag Music Week was appalled. The tabloid coverage was ridiculous in its inaccuracy and down-right lies. Note the following two stories needed multiple writers:
'The KLF almost brought chaos to the awards by firing a machine-gun into the celebrity- packed crowd. Frightened members of the audience were calmed after organisers said the gun, carried by band leader Bill Drummond, was loaded only with blanks. Then the band were barred from collecting their award. The group ordered a courier company to collect their trophy as a joke. But the organisers of the glitzy show, which went out on TV last night, refused to allow the leather-clad biker into the Odeon. The group's Press officer said after the show: "It looks like their joke backfired." ' -Linda Duff/Julia Kuttner from 'The Daily Star' 13th February '92
'KLF's SICK GUN STUNT FAILS TO HIT THE TARGET The KLF proved to be pop's biggest wallies by 'firing' a realistic machine gun at the star- studded audience. Singer Bill Drummond left the stage as the band performed their No 1 hit 3am Eternal. Drummond, 36, who was using a crutch after damaging his knee in a fall, then reappeared and pointed the gun at the crowd. But his antics were met with apathy by guests who carried on chatting. KLF did manage to cause a stir eventually by trashing their instruments at the end of their song. They hurled guitars across the stage, smashed microphone stands against scenery and threw buckets. Sadly, they won best group award jointly with Simply Red.' -Piers Morgan/Peter Willis/Dan Collins from 'The Sun'
One does wonder why these so-called newspapers bother to distort reality to make the KLF look bad.
The morning after the BRITs Drummond was driving to the studio for Black Room sessions: "I've still got eight gallons of blood in the back of the van. Simon Bates is on the radio, giving out the "truth" about the awards. He's saying how he and his producer foiled the dastardly KLF plot to throw fake blood on the audience. And I'm thinking "Oh Simon is that the 'truth'?". I'm driving along with eight gallons of real blood not fake, in the van. Maybe I'll go over to Radio 1 right now and dump it on him... But I haven't got the guts."
But in the end the KLF's art-terrorist outrages didn't really have the desired affect. The music industry's reaction was more apathy than horror. Or it became part of the KLF's 'scam' mythology. As the NME said: 'He does seem to have himself nicely skewered on the horns of an almighty dilemma. He has taken over pop music and it has been a piece of piss to do so. And he hates that. He wants to be separate from a music industry that clasps him ever closer to its bosom. He loves being in the very belly of the beast, yet he wishes he was something that'd cause it to throw up too. He wants not only to bite the hand that feeds but to shove it into an industrial mincer and stomp the resultant pulp into the dirt, yet pop, as long as you continue to make it money, would let you sexually abuse its grandmother.' After the BRITs there was only one way out. To really leave the music industry.
The BRIT award statuette was later unearthed in a field near Stonehenge by a local farmer. From Q Magazine: "The yeoperson's shovel-wielding presence remains as unexplained as The KLF's wish to bury it there in the first place." Jimmy has been vague when questioned on this. ________________________________________________________________
4.005: What was the Art Award all about?
In June 1993 an organisation called the K-Foundation began taking out full page mainstream national press ad's. At first they were full of Drummond-esques about time running in, and "Kick out the Klocks", and five year journeys which included pop success and deep space travel. A 'further information address' was included. Then a fourth ad appeared, on August 14th, reading: "ABANDON ALL ART NOW. Major rethink in progress. Await further announcements." The next ad (28th Aug) read: "It has come to our attention that you did not abandon all art now. Further direct action is thus necessary. The K Foundation announce the 'mutha of all awards', the 1994 K Foundation award for the worst artist of the year'. It then went on to detail how a shortlist of four artists had been chosen, and that they would be exhibited in the Tate Gallery. The first newspaper piece about the K-F appeared the following Monday, correctly pointing out that the shortlist of named artists and the exhibition were actually both for the 1993 Turner Prize, the controversial annual award given by the UK art establishment to the best young modern artist, which came with a prize of 20000 pounds, but incorrectly assuming that the K-F prize was a hoax. Note the date that the award was to be announced - 23rd November, (for the full significance of 23's see 1.023) and note the fact that it is the 1994 K-F award as opposed to the 1993 Turner award. Obviously this signifies that the K-F are more forward-looking than the Turner, but also try adding 1+9+9+4 together. If you think I'm being pedantic, adding the individual numbers in years together is a standard Discordian thing to do. My [Stuart] theory is that Bill and Jimi were happy with their deliberately weird ads, when they heard that the Turner would be announced on the 23rd of November, decided that that was an opportunity to good to miss, cancelled their previous plans and never sent out any of the further information packs. Bill says he still has all the SAEs which they received, and they may be replied to at some time in the future.
The next ad invited the general public to vote for the worst artist, either by going to the exhibition and using their critical faculties or by letting their inherent prejudices come to the fore. The final ad summarised the whole campaign, asked some questions back to the people that had written to them, and explained that the winner of the K-F award would be announced in a TV advert during the live Turner prize coverage on Channel 4. All the press ad's are available in the ftp archive, as are loads of newspaper and magazine articles about the events of the 23rd of November.
Briefly however: Rachel Whiteread was contacted by the K-Foundation and informed that she had won the 40000 pound prize. She refused to allow her name to be used in the TV advert. 25 witnesses (art critics, journalists, music industry figures, artists etc., there were 15 more people present: I presume they were photographers and video crews) were invited to participate and driven in a convoy of white limos (lead by a gold limo) to a service station where they were handed a press release and 1650 pounds in crisp new 50 pound notes. The accompanying press release stated that 25 x 1600 collectively made up the 40000 K-Foundation prize, and that the extra 50 was for the witness to verify its authenticity by spending it. The witnesses were dressed in fluorescent orange hard hats and safety jackets, and large quantities of champagne were drunk.
Eventually the convoy reached a field patrolled by two orange-painted K-F Saracen armoured cars, driven by Drummond and Cauty, broadcasting 'K Sera Sera' and Abba's 'Money Money Money'. Silver bearded Mr Ball, the compere with a megaphone directed the witnesses to nail their wad of money to a board inside a gilt frame, to assemble the K- F's prize. Unfortunately some of the witnesses pocketed all or some of their wad, and the prize money was 8600 short, which the K-F had to make up. Mr Ball also directed the witnesses to "view the art": A Million pounds in 50 pound note wads, nailed to a large framed board. The K-F's first art work, 'Nailed To A Wall'. All the witnesses were visibly impressed by this sight. When an artist complained that it wasn't a work of art, as it wasn't signed, Mr Ball deadpanned "I think you'll find that every note is signed sir". The witnesses were made to hand over a 10 pound note as payment for an art catalogue. Half of each note was returned to the witness. The reserve price of the works has been set at half the face value of the cash involved. Nailed To The Wall - face value a cool million - is up for sale at 500,000 pounds. The catalogue states: "Over the years the face value will be eroded by inflation, while the artistic value will rise and rise. The precise point at which the artistic value will overtake the face value is unknown. Deconstruct the work now and you double your money. Hang it on a wall and watch the face value erode, the market value fluctuate, and the artistic value soar. The choice is yours." The point is simple: art as a speculative currency, and vice-versa. To put it more bluntly: Art equals Money, and Money equals Art.
Meanwhile three TV adverts costing exactly 20000 pounds were being shown on Channel 4 in between the live coverage of the real award ceremony. Since Channel 4 funded the Turner prize, the K-Foundation were in effect paying for both awards. These ad's, available in the ftp archive, explain that the K-F are currently amending the history of art at a secret location. Rachel Whiteread won the Turner prize too, and absolutely no mention of the alternative award was made in the Turner studio discussion, an act of crass cowardice and stupidity by the Channel 4 programme makers which confirmed all the points about the modern art establishment that the K-F were trying to make.
The motorcade left the site of the amending of art-history and headed back to London, where on the steps of the Tate, Rachel Whiteread was due to be handed the prize money. When she refused to accept the money, the K-F explained that it would be burnt. With the crowd of now very drunk witnesses looking on hoping the money would be burnt, a masked K-F operative (Gimpo) fumbled with matches and lighter fluid. At the last moment Rachel Whiteread emerged from the Tate and accepted the money, stating that she would give it as grants to needy artists.
A huge amount of press publicity ensued, with all the major newspapers and press organisations reporting that Whiteread had won both awards. The K-F's publicist, Mick Houghton, revealed that the voting for the K-F's award was supposed to produce a tie, to illustrate the hypocrisy of the Turner award committee, but that strangely the result had been a huge margin of victory for Whiteread. He speculated that the few thousand voters had just liked or rather disliked the sound of her name.
In the week that followed the K Foundation returned the million to the Bank of England, but pierced with nail-holes, the money was unusable and the Bank fined the K- Foundation 9000 pounds for damaging money and charged them 500 quid to print a new million!! (if they had burnt the money they would have faced criminal charges!). Very many people quoted in the huge amount of publicity that followed expressed the opinion that the K-F had 'wasted' the money by spending it on advertising. Or that the joke was on the K-Foundation as they had lost all this money. Imagine the outrage if they _had_ burnt the money! (see 4.006).
In March 1997, Bill explained thusly: "Most of the people who wrote about what we did, and the TV programme that was made about it, made a mistake. I was only able to articulate it to myself afterwards with hindsight they thought we were using our money to make a statement about art, and really what we were doing was using our art to make a statement about money. Having arrived at that formula, I'm probably manipulating everything we did to fit into the theory, but we were just getting up in the morning and getting on the phone with each other and saying, fucking hell! So at some points we thought we were attacking the art establishment then we were saying, no that's not what this is about." ________________________________________________________________
4.006: Did they really burn a million pounds?
Yes. They burnt a million pounds in an abandoned boathouse on Jura, (near the village of Ardfin if you want to make a pilgrimage) in the middle of the night of the 23rd of August 1994. It took just over an hour for Cauty and Drummond to pile the wads onto the flames, while Gimpo filmed it, and freelance journalist Jim Reid witnessed it. The whole story is told by Reid in an article called 'Money To Burn' from GQ magazine, available in the ftp archive. Reid admits to feeling at first guilt, then boredom while watching the money burn. In the Omnibus documentary (see 5.010), the K-F's bank confirmed that a million pounds in cash had been withdrawn (intriguingly, the pictured statement also shows a credit transfer of ukp1,300,000 going into the Foundation's account just a few days later!!!), and picked up by a private security firm who also confirmed the amount. Some of the notes remained unburned, were washed out to sea when the tide came in, and were later found by a Jura resident on a beach. He handed 1500 pounds into the police who traced the serial numbers and confirmed with Drummond that they were his and that he didn't want them back. Some ashes (valued in the Omnibus documentary at between ukp 800 to 81,000!) were brought back from Jura, and kept in a suitcase, until Bill and Jimmy asked Chesham brickmaker James Matthews (age 23) to make them into a brick. Bill said the reason for the request would be revealed in 23 years.
The film "Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid" was shown to nearly half the population of Jura on the 23rd of August 1995. Unfortunately it was very badly filmed (on Super 8) and all the dialogue is almost intelligible. (see 4.007 for more)
The next question is why on earth did they do it?
For the first six months of 1994 the K-F tried to get their art exhibition (which consisted of over a million pounds in actual bank notes, see 4.005) staged. The most likely gallery was the Tate in Liverpool, where Jayne Casey from Big In Japan now works. Unfortunately it didn't come off so they had to consider other options. They thought about taking the exhibition across Russia by train, but the cost of insuring a million pounds against robbery by the armed gangs that roam across the Steppes, was too high. They decided that the money was a millstone around their necks, that depressed them. They decided they would have to really burn the money.
They couldn't decide whether to make the burning public or not. They thought of putting a picture of 'Nailed to the Wall' with a flame-thrower beside it, on a billboard in London. A week later the picture would have changed to ashes. Eventually Drummond decided that 'the shock value will spoil it really. Because it doesn't want to be a shocking thing; it just wants to be a fire'. However they still took a journalist along to witness it. They thought it was important that the public had faith that they did do it, so they (said they had) destroyed the video evidence.
All through their career the concept of burning a million pounds comes up. When they deleted their back catalogue it was described as being the equivalent of burning millions of pounds. They threatened to burn the K-F art award prize money (Gimpo was fumbling with matches and lighter fluid when at the last moment Rachel Whiteread accepted the prize). And in the 7th K-F press advert they stated "What would you do with a million pounds? Burn it?"
Also they had made the decision that the money was not theirs, it was the K-F's. It had to be used for a K-F project, and couldn't be given to anyone else. The money burning is in effect a massive, and very expensive, publicity stunt so that Drummond and Cauty can go down in history as the men who burnt a million pounds. It is supposed to make you think about money, and its relationship with art. Really what is the difference between spending money on useless objects or publicity, and making the actual loss of the money the publicity. No one castigates Cher for spending her millions on 12 mansions world- wide and not giving them to charity. Why attack the K-F for spending their million and not giving it to charity. Bill once said in a letter to Nick: "...we could have gone and put the money to some publicly acceptable good use (The starving millions, cancer research, Greenpeace; take your pick), but no, we chose to burn it. Why?... What is the appeal?"
If they have introduced an important debate about the nature of money, art and fame, then the money might have been used wisely. It's not even true that they are fools who have lost their money, as by having "he burnt a million pounds" on their CV's they will be interesting to the media for the rest of their lives, and able to make it back easily. Just like the first line in every biography and obituary of Divine was "he once ate dog shit on film" the names of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty will always be followed by "the men who burnt a million pounds". Bill also said, in 1996, that someone once told him, (after seeing the video for Earth Song), that the reason the K Foundation burned it is because they knwe they would never be as good as Michael Jackson.
In March 1997, after some years consideration, Bill explained: "One night an audience was asked: is there anyone here that would've liked to do this or thought about this? And people put up their hands. That became a regular thing and it would be about ten per cent [of the audience], so ten per cent of the population ...or ten per cent of the people who came to see this film! [Drummond laughs uproariously] Or maybe they were just trying to endear themselves to us- but it was a real thing. We realised that it wasn't like we were so different or so special or so far-out or so fucking fucked-up; we just happened to have a million lying around..." ________________________________________________________________
4.007: What's "Watch the K Foundation Burn A Million Quid"? How can I see it?
As we all know Bill and Jimmy burnt a million pounds (see 4.006) They gave Gimpo a camcorder to film (in Super 8) the burning as it happened. This resulting film was first transferred to two 8 mm projector film spools with a soundtrack, and first shown to bemused villagers on Jura. The film is in colour, good quality and "quite boring". Quite literally it is 55 minutes of Bill and Jimmy burning the million pounds, feeding the flames with bundles of 50-pound notes. Jim Reid appears, and occasionally Gimpo is seen, mainly whilst he's fiddling with the camera.
Later it was edited down in order to fit it onto one spool because "when the first spool ran out everyone thought it was the end and seemed disappointed that they had to sit through even more..." (-Gimpo). However, Jimmy claimed that it was because everyone talked through it anyway so they thought they'd have the "audience providing the soundtrack", but this may be a cover, as according to some reports, the soundtrack tape was 'lent' to the BBC for the Omnibus programme (see 5.010) and never returned despite Gimpo's best attempts. It is quite likely they just thought "why bother hooking up the sound?". Jimi said that the video was to be destroyed two days after the event, because they wanted people to have faith and not have to have proof. But he was obviously lying!
The highlight for most list members is when Gimpo walks outside of the boathouse, and we can see the glowing embers rising out of the chimney, and floating off into the darkness. Somewhere in the film (perhaps its the bit where he goes outside) Gimpo decides to pocket a bundle of notes - a few minutes later he starts to feel guilty and puts the money back. Bill (in a letter to Nick) commented on the problem of the film's name, against it really being Bill and Jimmy's money: "Calling the film 'Watch The K Foundation Burn A Million Quid' is a creative compromise."
On the 4th September 1995, and on some further occasions, newspaper adverts appeared advertising the film to local audiences. They announced a showing of the film, to be followed by a debate centring around a question e.g. Why did the K Foundation burn a million quid? Was it Art?, Was it Madness?, Was it Rock and Roll? etc. The 5th September saw Bill and Jimmy at the In The City convention in Manchester, showing the film, followed by a discussion in front of a 100-plus music-industry audience, where they asked for people's opinions, not on whether it was ethical to burn the money, but on whether it was Rock and Roll? Then they were interviewed on Radio 1's Evening Session. Bill said: "And we're very proud of this film, this is the biggest kinda visual thing we've done.".
The film was toured around the country, usually gracing cultural centres in major towns and cities, and some more obscure venues like film festivals, builders yards, Glastonbury Tor, an inner-city comprehensive and then Eton on the same day, and MIND drop-in centres. In Glasgow they planned to show it at various venues over a weekend of 'art- terrorism' eg, Barlinnie prison, (but they were refused permission and asked to leave!) (see the relevant archived articles from the Sunday Times, Blah Blah Blah and the Scotsman for more on this eventful weekend). Bill and Jimmy also took the film to Belgrade, in Serbia. The Independent on Sunday reported that it was very well received because 1) they showed to this very artistic community and 2) Serbia experienced 36 million % inflation so they could relate to burning money. Each showing was followed by a discussion, where Bill and Jimmy wanted to get the audience to voice what they thought was the reason B&J burnt the money. Many reviews of the showings from local newspapers and transcripts of various local and national radio interviews are available in the ftp archive, or from Stuart Young.
Following the Cape Wrath contract (see 4.009) Bill and Jimmy would no longer comment on the burning at post-film discussions, preferring to leave an associate, Chris Brooke or Gimpo to lead them. Bill and Jimmy's self-imposed silence was usually broken after around five minutes.
An Info-sheet (available in the ftp archive) was distributed in the later stages of the tour. Attached to this were a series of quotes of audience observations from the various screenings. Bill and Jimmy invited audiences to write to the address given (The K FOUNDATION, PO Box 91, HP22 4RS, The UK), with their own reactions. Some people even got replies from Bill. A poster for the film can be seen at Jamm!n's Mancentral archive (http://jumper.mcc.ac.uk/~ttl/KLF). Other list members gained other memorabilia at the screenings, such as soggy newspapers adverts, signed vodka bottles, and in one case a signed ukp 50 note!
As well as discussing the film, Bill occasionally opened up on other matters. At the Manchester showing in November 1995 he is quoted as saying "We would do it [release records] again, if we thought people would like it". At the same showing he refused to sign a copy of Pete Robinson's Justified and Ancient History, saying "That's a load of bollocks...It's all lies." Pete Robinson has yet to reply to Nick on these allegations. Bill is also notorious for refusing to be held to quotes.
The film was due to be shown for the final time in a car-park in Brick Lane in London, 8th December 1995. Several list members turned up to witness the event turn into something of a fiasco. The car-park idea was abandoned on the night, but a basement room was hired in the Seven Stars pub nearby. Around 400 people turned up for the showing, and most somehow managed to crowd into the small room. Bill and Jimmy hung around, but were evidently nervous, and hid for most of the evening in the toilets with their minders. Gimpo showed some of the film but the cramped conditions proved too much and the showing was abandoned. Some reports indicate the police called it off, but although the police did turn up, it is understood that they had no part in the decision.
The film was due to be cut up and sold off for ukp 1 per frame after the Brick Lane showing, but this never happened. At the end of the show, when everyone tried to grab frames, Gimpo protested "no, it's not this film that's being cut up, it's the other [two- spool] copy", going on to point out that he didn't even want to do it, it was all Club Disobey's idea. A subsequent advert in the NME gave the ansaphone number of London's Club Disobey (0181-960 9529), but to the best knowledge of the list members, no frames were ever gleaned from this. The only frames list-members obtained were blank ones from the film header.
At several screenings people with professional cameras, camcorders and dictaphones recorded the film and subsequent discussions but bootleg copies have yet to surface. Gimpo also made videos/recordings saying "maybe a video sometime next year". He is also quoted (from the Omnibus documentary) as saying "I've never been a film director before." ________________________________________________________________
4.008: What was "Pissing in the Wind"?
When the WTKFBAMQ film tour reached Glasgow on the Friday 3rd November 1995, Bill and Jimmy enacted a piece of performance art entitled "Pissing in the Wind whilst thinking of Bob Dylan".
Occurring early afternoon, the 'performance' featured Bill, Jimmy and Marc J Hawker, a Glasgow resident and friend of the K-F. It took place in Kelvingrove Park (medium: artists, park, security cameras, urine). Apparently, there was to be a live cc-TV link-up with the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University which would have shown the boys in action to an audience of 200 luminaries, but this didn't happen (the CC camera missed them), although a video of the urination was eventually shown there in the early evening. Bill is quoted as saying that it was probably a good thing it wasn't live.
Wearing cammo jackets, they quite literally pissed into the wind, behind a shed. A photo in Scotland on Sunday (see archive) only managed to catch a stream of urine coming from Drummond. Cauty and Mark Hawker were either just finished or about to start. You can't see their willies by the way! ________________________________________________________________
4.009: Why did they push a car over Cape Wrath? What are the terms of that contract?
The Cape Wrath contract was conceived in a Little Chef diner at Newtonmore (just outside Aviemore in the Highlands), the morning after Friday's Glasgow showings of WTKFBAMQ (see 4.007) and the Pissing in the Wind episode. Bill and Jimmy appeared to be fed up with the reactions they were receiving to the film, which were mainly questions to them, rather than answers. They wanted to use a van Gimpo had borrowed to write the contract on , but he got scared and drove it straight back to London. Thus abandoned Bill and Jimmy (and two witnesses both called Mark!) phoned Craig McLean, journo, now editor of Blah Blah Blah, in Edinburgh and offered him an exclusive story if he would drive them! By the time he got up to Cape Wrath (about 6hrs drive from Edinburgh), they'd hired a G-reg. Nissan Bluebird from Aviemore; and on the morning of the Sunday (5th Nov 1995) they drove it onto a helipad on a MoD live bombing range called Faraid Head, 10 miles down the road from Cape Wrath itself., painted the contract on the side and pushed it over the edge. Jimmy took off the radiator cap so "it smokes more as it goes over". Photos of the painted (and falling) car later appeared in Blah Blah Blah (see the archive).
To quote the info-sheet, handed out during the latter stages of the film tour:
"For the sake of our souls we the trustees of the K Foundation agree unconditionally, totally, and without hesitation to a binding contract with the rest of the world, the contract is as follows.
1) Bill Drummond + Jimmy Cauty agree to never speak, write or use any
other form of media to mention the burning of one million pounds of their own money which occurred on the Island of Jura on 23 August 1994 for a period of 23 years after the date of signature.
2) Bill Drummond + Jimmy Cauty are free to end the K Foundation in all
respects for a period of 23 years after the date of signature.
3) Bill Drummond + Jimmy Cauty agree to store all assets of the K
Foundation, including the ash of the one million pounds burnt on Jura, for a period of 23 years from the date of signature. This is to be completed within 14 days of signature.
4) Bill Drummond + J Cauty agree to allow Alan Goodrick use, for whatever
purpose, the film "Watch The K Foundation Burn A Million Quid" and all film rushes.
5) Bill Drummond + Jimmy Cauty agree to publish this contract as a one
page advert in a broadsheet of their choice within 14 days of signature and to cover costs.
6) It is agreed that in signing this contract, the postponing the K
Foundation for the said period of 23 years, provides opportunity of sufficient length for an accurate and appropriately executed response to their burning of a million quid.
(signed in Gold pen on the windscreen: J Cauty, B Drummond, (Mark 1),
Mark J Hawker (Mark 2), 5 Nov 1995) "
This developed later into:
"On the 5th November 1995, Cauty and Drummond signed a contract agreeing to end The K Foundation for a period of 23 years. This postponement 'provides opportunity of sufficient length for an accurate and appropriately executed response to their burning of a million quid'. Cauty and Drummond have rescued themselves from the burden of an impossible explanation. Their fate now lies irrevocably sealed in the imploded remains of a Nissan Bluebird nestling among the rocks 120 feet below Cape Wrath.".
This was repeated in two newspaper adverts, one of which appeared in the Times on the 8th of December, the same day the film was due to be shown for the final time in Brick Lane, London. ________________________________________________________________
4.010: What is 'Bad Wisdom'?
In November 1992, Drummond and friend Mark Manning (also known as failed rock star Zodiac Mindwarp, furthermore known as Zed or Z) decided to save the world by planting a photo of Elvis at the North Pole, with the idea that his soul would seep down across the world on the ley lines and bring about world peace. The two were also hoping to find Baby Jesus within themselves. So they and Gimpo to drive to the North Pole. They got all the way up to Lapland, almost freezing to death, before realising that the road runs out and the unfrozen Arctic Sea starts. However they did meet the keeper of the 'most northerly lighthouse in the world' so they presented the photo to him and then came home.
Drummond and Manning decided to write a book about their trip called initially 'Bill and Zed's Excellent Adventure' or 'The Lighthouse At The Top Of The World'. They decided that it would be a limited edition of one, hand-transcribed and illustrated by them (they were both artists after all) and bound in 18th century reindeer leather which had been recovered from a shipwreck (!!) and which Drummond bought from an auction for some outrageous price. The idea being that before the invention of the printing press books were so rare and special that an interested reader would make a pilgrimage across Europe to see a book. In this age of information technology, they wanted to re-capture some of that magic. So the book was to be displayed in the specially purchased Curfew Tower, which was built as a prison for 19th century dissidents, in Cushendall on the East coast of Northern Ireland. Unfortunately they hadn't considered just how long it would take to hand-write and illustrate, and the project was put on hold. Then, in October 1996, it was somewhat surprisingly published in paperback by Penguin and is now widely available as 'Bad Wisdom'. (see 3.002 for publishing details).
The style of the book somewhat reflects that of Hunter S. Thompson (author of 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'). The sleeve reviews are by Jarvis Cocker from Pulp: "The truth, no matter how uncomfortable, cannot help but be beautiful - this is a very beautiful book" and subversive writer/artist Stewart Home: "This is a brilliant anti-novel with a pedigree running from Swift and de Sade to Dada and Burroughs. Blunt, shocking, uncomfortable. A future underground classic."
There is no dedication, and it all begins on Monday 2 November 1992 the day Bill'n'Z'n'Gimpo set off for Helsinki. The text alternates between Drummond and Manning. Drummond just recounts the detail of the events, presumably truthfully, and describes people in his own often wonderful way. He also writes relfectively about life, his past (and the KLF and it's demise) and various things that irk him about the world, eg. MTV. In the meantime Manning is writing wild Hunter S Thompson fiction, wild horrific trips of fancy based around the real life characters, but presumably with some basis in truth, like he's tripping all the time and he sees everything exaggerated. The interplay between the two accounts is very interesting and works very well most of the time. You start to recognise the events or objects or people in real life (i.e. Bill's account) that Z bases his fantasy's around. Bill even writes about Z writing which sheds further light ... one page he's bored and not writing anything ... the next he's scribbling away furiously in the back of the car chuckling demonically ... the next he's acting out the characters he's created, entertaining Gimpo and Bill.
To publisice the book Bill and Mark (and 'tour manager-cum-support act' Chris Brook. Gimpo also went along, but played no part in the actual performances) undertook a series of public performances (and book signings) initially starting off with a date in New York then at various venues in towns and cities across the UK. From the event flyer:
"This performance is adapted form the novel Bad Wisdom which is based on Drummond and Manning's journey to the North Pole in the winter of 1992. The performance reflects the double narrative of the book wiht Manning and Drummond relating their separate but intertwining versions of the story."
They react a rehearsed performance, with Zed standing behind an ornate brass lectern which Bill picked up from a church salvage yard for 300 quid, and Bill using "Stig of the Dump's bird table - a crazed scaffold of fence posts and sycamore stumps".
Check out Jai Nelson's http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Alley/2399/badwisdom.html for the tour dates, copies of 'New Agenda' posters (unknown if these are K-related) and transcripts of list member's reports of the shows. Mark Radcliffe's (late) late-night show on Radio One featured Bill and Mark reading from their book, and sound-clips of these quotes can be found at Mancentral. URLs:
http://jumper.mcc.ac.uk/~ttl/KLF/Sounds/scared.wav /cybernaz.wav /715.wav /deaddog.wav /badwiz1.wav and also /badwiz1.mp2 /badwiz2.wav and also /badwiz2.mp2 /badwiz3.wav and also /badwiz3.mp2 /badwiz4.wav and also /badwiz4.mp2
They also made an appearance on MTV's Hanging Out, which is pretty surprising considering Bill's anti-MTV stance in the book. This may be related to the following anecdote from one well-connected list member: "Okay. This is gospel - it came from a friend who works there and saw it happen. A guy who works in transmission at MTV in London found a black bag in the street last week. He took it to work, and from the contents (which I only know to include several sheafs of A4 and six copies of Bad Wisdom) deduced that the bag belonged to none other than...Bill Drummond! So a contact number was found, and Bill had to turn up at MTV to reclaim the bag!!!! According to my friend, he was scowling something horrid, and was rather terse with whoever it was he talked to (so same as ever there then!)."
In May 1996 Bill and Mark went to the Congo to write the next chapter in the search for the Lost Chord. Bill said the next chapter will probably be out around 1998! They say that for the final chapter, they will voyage to the moon. ________________________________________________________________
4.011: What's 'A Bible Of Dreams'? Is it on the Internet?
A Bible of Dreams is a book of images by Mark Manning (Zodiac Mindwarp), largely photomontages, with text by Bill Drummond. It is described as "a visual poem composed by MS Manning", with Drummond giving "a personal interpretation of the poem" in a commentary, along with a biographical background piece. The colour plates are reproductions of a picture collage pieced together by Manning in a scrapbook during a 1992 Scandinavian tour, and sent to Drummond shortly after tour ended. Drummond found himself repeatedly drawn to its contents, each perusal revealing more, "like a collection of good verse". Manning was horrified when he suggested publishing it.
The book is published by The Curfew Press, the two men's publishing company based in The Curfew Tower, (see 4.010). It's available only in a limited edition of 200 numbered copies, signed by Drummond and Manning, costing UKP500. It is bound in blue Nigerian goatskin, each page hand-printed and stitched into a calf-leather spine, and comes in a blue moire silk slipcase. It's not so much an expensive book as an average work of art. They have sold a few to "universities and the like" If you want one and have a "large amount of money" to spare, contact the Curfew Press (see 1.010 for address)
Zed's art in The Curfew Press' A Bible Of Dreams looks like it's deliberately fallen. The collected trash of a rock'n'roll degenerate, the collages entangle images from heavy metal, pornography, Nazi Germany and Disney. Drummond's text suggests they represent an archetypal rock'n'roll headspace: a place where sleaze, ambition, rebellion and religion meet. Zed reckons that just by sampling these images he's raising them from the base to the divine. And there are points in his commentary where Bill finds a postitivity in porn. Maybe Zed and Drummond are examining cultural inequality. Wondering why some kinds of art are raised over others. Which is no great surprise from two men who work in rock or pop, an area of culture that is often ignored by art critics.
Drummond and Manning undertook a series of interviews to promote the book, in i-D, Vox and GQ magazines - these are online @ Mancentral. In one interview Manning said that the text of the book was available on the Internet, then laughed. List members have looked far and wide and have found no trace of it. It is most likely that this statement was a deliberate wide-up for us and people like us, and an Internet-hype backlash joke. We don't think it is online. ________________________________________________________________
4.012: What's Jimmy's sonic weapon?
To replace the dilapidated Ford Timelord (see 5.007) Jimmy purchased two Saracen armoured vehicles at a scrap yard for ukp 4,000 and found equipment in them which he thought could have been used for sonic warfare. He has tried to assemble the acoustic gun from information he found on the Internet. Installing huge amplifiers and special speakers to cope with the very low frequencies cost him "tens of thousands of pounds".
The 25,000-watt sonic gun can project sound for around 7 miles, and Jimmy annoyed his Devon neighbours by testing it on Midsummer's Day, 1996. Jimmy said: "I moved to Devon six months ago for a bit of a rest and this is a project I am taking an interest in. I do not see it as music or art." He said that he aimed the gun away from homes and it seemed to have no effect on sheep.
The Melody Maker said: "He was testing his two Audio Weapon Systems in a field near his new home. 'He alerted people to the fact that he was doing this by setting off some military flares. Then he tested his Audio Weapons System for an hour for a very select group of scientists and friends. The Audio Weapons System is not designed to kill people." ... [Cauty] first tested it at a Wire gig on Hungerford Bridge in May. ... In January, Panasonic [ the "Finnish conceptual techno nutters"-NME] borrowed one of the Audio Weapons Systems for tests on how sonic waves affect the human body at Brick Lane in London. ... A fax from 'Mr. Smith, the Head Of Commercial Exploitation at Advanced Acoustic Armaments', was sent to The Maker. It read
- "The test took place to establish the parameters of the new vehicle solo
and in tandem with its sister model, SS 9000K+L. The test featured new software generated for our latest commercial client, EXP LTD, and is described by Mr. Cauty as featuring 'the ultimate battle between sound and commerce ending in the death of all musicians and their ascension to rock-n-roll heaven or hell as befits them.' Yesterday we received communication with ex- Government employees who, in the Sixties, worked on audio weapon development with an offer of help and some ex-classified equipment. We regret any such death or damage that has resulted from our tests, but there are casualties in every war. The Triple A Formation Attack Ensemble will perform 'Foghorns Of The Northern Hemisphere' as part of an educational programme supporting our research shortly."
Most of this is probably scam, but Cauty has (very allegedly)recorded an album of sonic waves for Paul Smith's Blast First label under the name AAA. The album is in the hands of lawyers who are trying to clear some of the samples used on it, and has yet to be released (01/97). It appears to be a Cauty solo project.
More recently, Jimmy teamed up with new Asian-techno group, Black Star Liner for a _happening_ in a field on Dartmoor [this is the EXP reference above]. Jimmy chartered a 'chopper to take BSL and assorted journos out to Dartmoor, where he intended to remix the Halaal Rock track in his tank. Apparently, BSL bumped into Cauty on London's South Bank, while he was driving about in his tank, he got hold of their album, and said that he wanted to work with them. Anyway, the chopper was grounded by severe fog, so everyone was put on a convey of buses. All the journos were given _orange_ jackets to wear. They eventually arrived at a field full of military vehicles, and people in _yellow_ jackets, wearing goggles and ears protectors, doing some form of formation dancing. The journos were lead to their seats, and had large floodlights shone into their eyes, while the yellow jackets let of flares all around them. There were a load of goats skulls on sticks around the field, and a whole pile of fireworks let of towards the end of the mix, when Cauty was mixing in some Jimi Hendrix. However, this didn't really go down well with BSL. For the record, Choque (leader of BSL) said in the NME "Cauty's truck is a bag of complete shite. And he's a f---ing misery guts"
Then in November 1996, Jimmy turned up at the A30 road protests in Honiton, Devon, to lend his support. The A30 Action press release read:
A30 Action and A.A.A.(Formerly the K Foundation, formerly the K.L.F.)
As of 2300 hrs 19.10.96 the armoured division of the A.A.A. Formation Attack Ensemble established a front line defensive position at the Trollheim Hill Fort, Fairmile, Devon, in collaboration with A30 Action in defence of the threatened trees, badgers and some insects. At dawn on 21.10.96, the Triple A will activate their S.Q.U.A.W.K. 9000 sonic device in response to any offensive action taken on behalf of the Connect consortium. The @utonomous communities of Fairmile, Trollheim and Allercombe have resisted the soul destroying consumer nightmare of the private profit A30 through a 2 year campaign of Non-Violent Direct Action. Now armed with the 2 Saracen armoured personnel carriers both loaded with 15 Kilowatt Soundsystems and weighing over 10 tons they intend to dance in the face of the legions of destruction.
Numerous photos of the Saracens cam be found in the ftp archive, on Mancentral and at: http://www.atomiser.demon.co.uk/klf ________________________________________________________________
4.013: Why was Jimmy arrested on weapons charges?
Shortly after Jimmy began blasting local Devon residents with Puff the Magic Dragon at the protest against the A30 road-building, an article appeared in the Big Issue (mag by and for the UK homeless), by self-styled "art terrorist" Stuart Home describing how he was kidnapped and shown an arsenal of weapons at Jimmy's house. The article was a spoof, but the UK security services took it seriously and put Jimmmy's house under surveillance for several days before finally 30 police with sniffer dogs turned up and searched the place from top to bottom. They found nothing, except the two Saracens which were both properly taxed and insured. Jimmy was released without charge. He said "I suppose if you take two tanks to a road protest you've got to expect the authorities to get involved." Finally, the two Saracens were towed from the road protest with Jimmy's consent, (but not cooperation). A few weeks later he took them back. ________________________________________________________________
5.001: What was the ABBA thing all about?
On their first LP, '1987: What The Fuck Is Going On?' the stand out track is 'The Queen And I' - a derogatory, political rap about the state of democracy in the UK, which samples large parts of Abba's Dancing Queen, (i.e. the whole chorus) and accompanies this with cheeky baby 'wah wah' noises. The whole thing is very punky, crude and hilariously funny. And Abba not surprisingly didn't like it. The Mechanical Copyright Protection Society got in touch with the JAMs and ordered the masters and all copies destroyed, and all copies in the shops recalled. To avoid a court case the JAMs decided to comply with this but first they would try to meet Abba and convince them of the sincerity of their actions. Of course you could be cynical and say that the trip to Sweden was a publicity exercise pure and simple as they took an NME journalist and photographer along with them in Jimmy's Galaxy V8 Ford police car, but the truth probably lies somewhere between that and a romantic road trip ideal that the JAMs have and an unthinking 'lets do it' attitude.
So the JAMs and their guests took the ferry to Sweden, drove cross-country to Stockholm where they presented a gold disc "in recognition of sales in excess of zero" to a blonde prostitute outside Abba's studio at 3am (!) in the morning. The photographs of this were supposed to convince the world that this was Agnetha, now fallen on hard times. They obviously failed to get a meeting with Benny and Bjorn (if they even tried) and they set off back to England, stopping in a Swedish field to build a fire out of the unsold copies of 1987, a scene which is captured on the cover of 'Who Killed The JAMs' and History Of The JAMs'. As they returned to the JAMs-mobile to drive off an irate Swedish farmer appeared, furious at the heap of burning vinyl giving off acrid black smoke in his field, who proceeded to fire a shotgun at the JAMs-mobile as it drove off. Further down the road the unfortunate car broke down perhaps helped by the shotgun, but luckily (and not so romantically) the JAMs had taken out Automobile Association membership before they left and they got towed home. In Justified and Ancient History Pete Robinson states that on the ferry home they played their only live date for a Toblerone bar, and chucked some more copies of the LP into the sea.
The whole story is told in a great NME article, included on the Shag Times CD gatefold insert. At some point during the JAMs excursion to the land of Stigs they were reported to have run over and killed a moose. There's even some lyrics about it in one of their songs. However, one list member (Chris Leuty) once wrote to the KLF about this (August 1990), cos' "...I didn't quite believe it, and got a reply from Jimi. He said, and I quote: "No it was a giant dog". Write to James Brown c/o NME-he's got some Polaroid photo's of the attack."
A postscript to all this LP destruction is that the KLF took out a full-page ad in The Face magazine, offering to sell the five remaining unplayed copies for 1000 pounds each. In 1988 Info sheet two, King Boy says "we sold 3 of the 5 LP's ... it went some way to paying off our creditors, we gave one away as a prize. We have one left, the price just keeps going up." This could be the copy oft seen in the back window of their ice-cream van. ________________________________________________________________
5.002: What's a '99'?
An ice cream in a cone with a chocolate flake stuck in it. The first KLF ice cream connection took place at the Liverpool Festival of comedy when they handed out 99's from an ice cream van they'd borrowed from it's owner outside Trancentral. Then came Justified and Ancient with its ice cream references in the lyrics, an ice cream van on the cover, a catalogue number of KLF 099, and promo's labelled CHOCICE 1 to 3. When they appeared on TOTP Drummond and Cauty were dressed in huge latex 99 costumes designed by Luck and Flaw of the 'Spitting Image' TV programme. In promotional campaigns in the US, Arista organised ice cream van stunts too.
All this lead some fans to wonder if there was a connection to The Ice Cream Men from 'Rudy Rucker's cyberpunk novels 'Software' & 'Wetware'. It would seem not as "The Ice Cream Man was a android controlled by one of the main computers on the moon, who was advancing the cause of one of the two factions in a revolution between the little robots and the big robots that was ongoing on the moon. It was also to allow the 'personalities' that had been read (by the aforementioned brain-eating) into the computer to operate as if they still had human bodies. (The brain eating took all of the chemically- encoded memories into a processor so that the computer could integrate the personality.) Anyway, the ice-cream man's van was really a refrigerator for the robot brain that it carried around, I seem to remember. Since the novel took place in the Orlando-Cocoa Beach-Daytona Beach area of Florida, USA and no-one has reported that Bill and Jimmy acted a bit 'mechanical' on meeting them, I don't see that there's much connection beyond the coincidental. However, they were written back in the late 80's, so there is a slight possibility of it being influential, but it just doesn't seem likely to me." However, strangely, Info sheet 13 has a list of "questions that we get asked and are unable to answer. So we decided to hold "The Rites Of Mu" to celebrate this year's summer solstice and in doing so hopefully make the above questions redundant." One of the questions was 'Are you the ice cream men?' But the KLF's ice cream activities came _just after_ the 'Rites Of Mu', where they performed in Liverpool using an ice-cream van they had borrowed from a man in the street outside Trancentral. But why did someone ask if they were the ice cream men, before they had done any ice cream related activity? ________________________________________________________________
5.003: Why Sheep?
Sheep have been associated with the KLF throughout their career. There were sheep noises on the ambient version of 'Last Train To Trancentral', and on 'Chill Out', where sheep also appear on the cover and merchandise insert. Its rumoured that some sheep appeared on stage at one of the club PA's they did in 89-90. There are many publicity shots of the KLF standing with sheep, and sheep appear in 'Waiting'. Sheep are mentioned in the "It's Grim Up North" sleeve essay and when they showed The White Room film in Germany (see 4.003), several sheep were guests of honour. Then there was the notorious dead sheep incident at the BRITs (see 4.004). But 'Why Sheep?' This incidentally is one of the "questions that we get asked and are unable to answer." It is also printed under a picture of them holding a sheep on the "White Room" CD insert.
Its to his credit that our list co-ordinator (Lazlo Nibble) is one of the only people to interview Drummond who has got an answer on this. The full X Magazine interview is in the ftp archive. Bill Drummond said: "The sleeve is a very very English thing. The Pink Floyd album ATOM HEART MOTHER, do you know that album? The sleeve with the cow's head on it? That's a very English thing and it has the vibe of the rave scene over here. When we're having the big Orbital raves out in the country, and you're dancing all night and then the sun would come up in the morning, and then you'd be surrounded by this English rural countryside ... so we wanted something that kind of reflected that, that feeling the day after the rave, that's what we wanted the music for. So when we went to the photo-library, we had a copy of ATOM HEART MOTHER under our arms, and we went in: 'Okay, we want a picture of sheep, like this.' They didn't have any pictures of sheep that were like the cover of ATOM HEART MOTHER, but they had these other pictures of sheep ... hundreds, thousands of pictures of sheep, and we picked the ones we used because it had that same sort of feeling."
Additionally in the KLF vs. the BRITs article in NME (also on the ftp archive) Drummond is asked why cut up sheep on stage? "Tons of reasons. You know, it's that whole thing about sacrificial lambs and about lambs to the slaughter. And there was something in there about that Geoffrey Howe thing, being savaged by a dead sheep." [quiet peaceful Howe had a savage attack on Mrs Thatcher after she sacked him which helped to bring her down.] Danny Kelly then reminds Drummond that "sheep...(are) deeply embedded in the JAMs/KLF mythology (and so) wasn't the sheep-hacking idea a bit like suicide? Drummond agreed "Exactly, that's in there too. That's what the "KLF have now left the music business" was about..." ________________________________________________________________
5.004: Who is _collaborator_?
Over their time as the JAMs and the KLF (and after this) Bill and Jimmy have worked with numerous other people from both the Music and Art worlds and other fields. There've been the obvious big names like Tammy Wynette and the Pet Shop Boys, and then the more obscure, such as Gimpo, Nick Coler and Ian Richardson, Mark 'Spike' Stent, Scott Piering, etc, etc. A completist list of collaborators together with mini-biogs, can be found at:
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~stuey/klf/kollab.htm
Much more infomation on many of these people can probably be found in many Rock Directories, or on the Web, but a few of the more minor collaborators have descriptions in both the Manual and in the White Room script. The following three questions deal with collaborators Gimpo, Garry Glitter and Ford Timelord. ________________________________________________________________
5.005: Who is Gimpo?
His real name is Alan Goodrick. Throughout Bad Wisdom, Bill tells us a bit about his background - the best descriptive passage is in the first chapter. Bill says he was born and raised in Manchester (althought there are rumours that Gimpo himself says he's from Mold in Wales), and is a 'brother-in-law' to Mark Manning (Zodiac Mindwarp). Gimpo was a squaddie and served with Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the Falklands War. After that war he met up with Zodiac and started to work part-time for Z's band The Love Reaction and after a period of roadying for various Food Record bands (eg. Jesus Jones) he set up Pit Bull management and began to manage the Love Reaction.
"Gimpo is also very strong; very very brave - can look death in the face and piss in it's mouth; does not smoke; has short wavyish dark hair;blue eyes;sensible clothes." - Bill
He was also a roadie for the KLF (but thinks Pete Robinson's Justified & Ancient History is "bollocks"), and then a K Foundation 'operative'. He shot the WTKFBAMQ film, drove Bill and Z to the top of the world and was the masked person fumbling with lighter fluid and matches when Rachel Whiteread came to claim the K Foundation Award. However, the last known roadying he did was at the 1996 BRIT Awards where he touched the sole of Michael Jackson. Since then he says he's given up roadying (cos' he doesn't need the money) and went on the Bad Wisdom tour just for the heck of it. He lives in Clerkenwell, London with his wife, Anne.
He has achieved a minor celebrity status amongst the list members, especially for those who have met him. Bill sums him up very well with: "He's one of the warmest and most honourable men you are ever likely to meet." He really is great. If you want a picture of the man himself, check out:
http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/~plastic/jesus.jones/uktour/big/img0052.jpg
Nb. Apparently he had to sign a 50 ukp contract with Penquin over Bad Wisdom so that he can't sue them for slander, but he hasn't got the money from them yet, - reckons he's been done. ________________________________________________________________
5.006: Who is Gary Glitter?
"He was a cartoon pop star from the early seventies who recycled his one basic song in a handful of different hits. He was famous for having a distinctive two drummers style, and was part of the style called 'Glam' which also included 'The Sweet', 'Mud', 'The Rubettes' etc. etc.. The hits are quite catchy in a moronic sort of way but ultimately crap. He stopped having hits pretty quickly, but amazingly has managed to continue his career continually up to this day, by becoming a joke, and using any and every opportunity to promote himself, and never changing and still wearing the same stupid sparkling outfits and glitter wigs. He always plays big shows at Christmas." - Stuart
To quote Pete Robinson's Justified and Ancient History: "For the re-mix [of Doctorin' the TARDIS], Gary Glitter himself was recruited for a special "Gary in the TARDIS" version of the single, and a new track "Gary Joins the JAMs" in which Kingboy snubbed James Brown's samples in favour of "the Godfather of Glam"...Mr Glitter himself. Drummond later said "He's the original Diamond Geezer - he'll use anything to his advantage.". Glitter thanks the KLF in his autobiography "Leader" for taking him on and getting him on the cover of the NME." ________________________________________________________________
5.007: Who/What is Ford Timelord?
A brief history of Ford Timelord:
1. A Ford Galaxy American police car born in 1968.
2. Has a V8 engine: "In our Galaxy custom V8 Ford, we were always on patrol." - The Prestwich Prophet's Grin
3. According to the script for the White Room film:
* Shipped to England in the 70s to appear in a number of Hollywood-financed films being made at London studios. * Bought for 230 pounds by Jimmy * Best part of 5000 pounds spent keeping it roadworthy (up to the point
of the White Room. Probably much more until its final demise.)
"Today the JAMs were discovered in possession of a recently resprayed Ford Police car which they claim was a prop from SUPERMAN IV and purchased for 300 ukp. When asked for a proof of purchase, King Boy D looked pale, and stuttered: 'Because of the position we're in, anything we say could be taken and used against us. No comment.'" (Sounds - 19 september 1987)
4. Ford was the car used to carry the JAMs to Sweden to meet Abba. Much of the expense noted above was probably caused by the irate Swedish farmer who shot at the car while the JAMs were burning the remaining copies of 1987, causing the engine to blow up on the journey back. This is all reported in NME articles.
5. Makes several guest appearances on Who Killed The JAMs, long before Doctorin The Tardis eg. "Is this car insured yet?" -- Candy Store and on Shag Times (linking Burn the Bastards to Doctorin the Tardis). It is believed that either Nick Coler or Ian Richardson (or someone with an Essex accent) helped Ford conduct interviews and the like.
6. Starring roles in Doctorin The Tardis and, later, The White Room film (where he gets a nice coat of whitewash, having driven across most of Spain). He also featured in videos for Brilliant and Disco 2000, and in the video for The Beatmasters (feat. Merlin) hit pop single, "Who's In The House?", where said car pulls up in front of the House carrying a policeman with megaphone, and with a huge KLF diamond logo on the road or footpath or something. Ford has the number 23 painted large on his roof, with various JAMs and KLF logos on his bodypanels. His (very) little identical twin gets to fly in the video for LTTC on the Stadium House video compilation.
7. Current wherabouts unknown; he was last seen driving off into the sunset on the Justified & Ancient video. However, he is believed to been written off when Jimmy used him for a celebrity charity Demolition Derby at Wimbledon dog-track in 1992, whereupon Jimmy then rolled out his newly acquired APCs and proceeded to literally crush the competition.
It is worth noting there are rumours that Ford Timelord had a 'sister', who made occasional appearances, but these have yet to be confidently confirmed. ________________________________________________________________
5.008: Who are The Fall? What connection do they have to the KLF?
The Fall are a British indie group from Manchester led by loud-mouth singer Mark E Smith. They have been releasing uncompromising guitar punk-pop tunes for an incredible 18 years so far. There is no connection to the KLF other than Big In Japan and The Fall started at the same time and they (and members of the Teardrops and Bunnymen) were all hangers on in the Northwest punk scene in 1977.
However there are some connections in the KLF's body of work. Firstly The Fall's 'Totally Wired' single is sampled in 'Next' on 1987. It was the only sample on the LP that they had permission to use, and it is the only sample that appears on 1987 - The Edits (JAMS 25) which is the LP with spaces instead of samples so that it's legal!!
Secondly the lyrics of "The Prestwich Prophets Grin" on "Who Killed the Jams?" contain a reference to The Fall. In a section on changing identities, and the end of the JAMs the lyrics are something like:
"Well Mark E Smith, it's your turn now/ To roll the dice and win/ The tables turned, now we're The Fall/ The North will rise again!
Around this time the Fall were enjoying their only period of chart success, including a dance-influenced single called 'Hit The North'
Then The FALL was listed as one of the alias of the KLF in The Manual, and spelt out as The Forever Ancients Liberation Loophole (and on a 1990 T-shirt). This refers to the liberation loophole which their lawyer David Franks found to release them from their contract with Eternity in the White Room movie. They mention the liberation loophole in the lyrics of the UK LP version of Last Train... by the way.
Different people pretending to be the same person, is a common situationist-inspired tactic as practised by Stewart Home and friends who produce different magazines all called 'Smile' written by multiple Karen Elliots reviewing music produced by multiple Monty Cautsins. ________________________________________________________________
5.009: Did they really give beer to the homeless on New Year's Eve?
Before Christmas, one of the two newspaper ads had promised free cans of lager to those who turned up to the Brick Lane showing of the WTKFBAMQ film. As things had turned out this didn't happen, so Bill and Jimmy were left with several hundred cans of beer. It was reported in very early 1996 that Bill and Jimmy had given away a few thousand cans of Tennant's Super-strength lager to the homeless of London.
The reports allege that these were made into a piece of artwork (a photo appeared in Blah Blah Blah with the cube of 6,237 cans (approx. 25x10x24)) They were driven around London on the back of a lorry on New Year's Eve (1995)by Gimpo, Bill and Jimmy. However, there was an accident on London Bridge, and some of the cans fell off. They were then distributed to the homeless by Bill and Jimmy that night. ________________________________________________________________
5.010: What was the Omnibus Documentary about?
Shown on Monday 6th November 1995 (BBC1, 50 mins) directed by Kevin Hull and subtitled "A Foundation Course in Art". The Omnibus programme set out to "tell the story of the creative partnership of Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond, and how they tried to storm into the art world." The programme began with a (very) brief history of Bill and Jimmy's music career, from the Timelords to the BRITs, and then concentrated on the burning of the million pounds. Using clips from the "Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid" film (complete with original soundtrack), interviews with both Bill and Jimmy, Gimpo and other associates like Jane Casey, the documentary managed to account the events leading up to and the burning itself, and then went on to look at the aftermath; Bill and Jimmy's motives for doing it (they gave little away), what they planned to do with the ashes and whether the money burnt was genuine.
As 4.004 states, they had tried to get several galleries to exhibit the "Nailed to the Wall", or host the burning, but none would, so they went to Jura and did it there. The programme makers took ("stole" according to Bill, who says he had no knowledge of it at the time) a briefcase containing the remaining ashes from the burning to a number of galleries, to see whether they considered it 'art' and what value they would place on it, but most didn't and hence wouldn't. It was also taken to a lab where some 'experts' examined the ashes, validated the notes and proclaimed them to be the remains of around ukp 80,000 worth of 50-pound notes.
The programme also looked at the beginnings of the film tour, with footage of the In The City showing, Bill and Jimmy in discussion with Jane Casey about projecting it onto the side of the Tate in Liverpool and Gimpo's reactions to them giving him ownership of the film ("I've never been a film director before"). One interesting point is that the film showed Bill and Jimmy being interviewed for Radio 1, and Jimmy rummaging in a bag for the DAT of "The Magnificent". Bill is clearly heard to say "Make sure it isn't the DAT with 3 tracks on it". The nature of these mystery tracks is (as yet) unknown.
List members thought the programme was not really pro-the burning, and perhaps a tad sceptical and biased against it, but was most interesting and informative, nevertheless. Some list members may still have copies lying around (see 3.001), and stills from the prog. are available from Jamm!n's Mancentral archive (http://jumper.mcc.ac.uk/~ttl/KLF/kf-omni.html). ________________________________________________________________
5.011: What's the font used on their merchandise, adverts, etc?
We're not entirely certain, but we think it is a version of Compacta Bold or similar. Jamm!n has a .zip file of 5 members of this font family (in TrueType) on Mancentral. (http://jumper.mcc.ac.uk/~ttl/KLF/Misc/compacta.zip)
However, whilst many of the letters of the KLF font match with these, some don't. It has also been suggested that the KLF font may be related to Folio, Helvetica, or even Hattenschweiler.
To be honest, we're not sure. If you really want to know, try to contact either Mick Houghton (who did their publicity) or Scott Piering, or even Bill or Jimmy themselves. (See 1.010 for addresses). ________________________________________________________________
5.012: Is there any connection with Coldcut/Yazz (& Plastic Population)? -
I saw a KLF record in the video for "The Only Way Is Up"!!
From the fingers of Culf:
Coldcut produced and released "Doctorin' The House" as by Coldcut, the title of which was a pun on their original "Doctor In The House" available to DJs for some time before. The "Doctorin' The House" release also featured Yazz and the Plastic Population.
The KLF thought this was a jolly amusing pun, and worked on their "Doctorin' The Tardis" using Gary Glitter, the Doctor Who theme and The Sweet and released it to world-wide adulation and admiration.
Around the same time (but probably before), Coldcut produced Yazz' first solo single, "The Only Way Is Up", again featuring the Plastic Population, and billed to Yazz and them. No mention of Coldcut, except in the production credits. The video to this single (which was a UK number 1) showed a DJ scratching with a KLF record. I assumed at the time that it was the back side of "Burn The Bastards/Burn The Beat", as I don't think "Doctorin' The Tardis" had been released then. Try checking the relative release dates of the latter with "Doctorin' The House".
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