KLF - did they rock you?

I think you are taking the KLF a little too seriously. They were a couple geezers up for a laugh, and they certainly had one. I thought their music was alright, but 1987(WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON) is an absolutely brilliant album. It is rare as hens teeth as it was only on the shelves for about a day before it was pulled due to copyright violations. A buddy of mine has a vinyl copy and it is absolute madness. Think of rabidly plunderphonic hip-hop as done by the beastie boys if a. they had not tried to sound even remotely influenced by NYC black culture, b. they were hell bent on career suicide, and c. if they had absolutely no flow.

It sounds like it would be god awful, but it is so intentionally bad and purposely clever that is breaks through into genius.

I always thought their writing was more interesting than their music. Check The KLF's Guide To Having a #1 Hit Single The Easy Way, also The White Room Script, and the story about spending 24 hours continously driving on the M03. Simultainously hysterical and insightful. They knew exactly what they were doing.

Anyone remember Bill Drummond's great pre-JAMMs reply number, Julian Cope Is Dead?

Compared to what house/techno?

can you burn cds of mp3's?

he also has evry kraftwerk release via the same method

alternatively. fly to russia/bulgaria/somewhere like that and buy a copy. they cost 50 roubles. (1 pound 25). maybe 60.

The KLF were utterly (utterly utterly) BRILLIANT.

"Three-ay-ee-am; Three-ayeee-ay-em; Three-ay-ee-ay-em-ETERN-UA-AL!!!"

You know the score.

William Blake said he wasn't interested in what could be made "explicit to the idiot" - what on earth was he on about?!

Good for you Tom btw, I didn't think it was possible to adore the Smiths and the KLF...

Where is Drummond when his country needs him?!!!

picked up a copy of the america...what time is love? 12" today - for the hell of it and cuz it was cheap. not something you often see in the us, though i imagine it's a dollar-bin staple in the uk. never was a fan (they never made a dent in the us charts) but this is insane and hilarious and truly truly great. a parody of american excess? i dunno, but it has rocked me.

That's my favourite KLF track. It's so over the top it's incredible. Brilliant cover too, both of them - the one with the sitars and also the longboat one (different in the US).

mine's got the longboat cover, which IS great and suits the music perfectly. listened to it 3 times in a row.

they never made a dent in the us charts

"3 a.m. Eternal" was big in the US and wikipedia says top 5 Billboard.

And oh yeah, they rocked me. One of the greatest ever groups/artists/acts etc etc of all time.

i think you missed the subtext in my earlier remark which might be dumbed-down as, "they never made a dent in the us charts during a period when i was paying more attention to the billboard charts than to my toenails and hey check out this insane sloth."

subtext

/unfunny

it kinda blows my mind that they made #5 in '91, cuz at that point i WAS at least half aware of radio pop and i missed it entirely.

I guess it was a hit because it mentioned "Rock"

plus i lied earlier abt not being a fan. i now remember owning and loving the shit out of their cover of the dr. who theme once upon a really long time ago (late 80s sometime, basically in my childhood). so i guess the truth is that i not only now but always have loved the klf. so what must i hear next?

"If you ask me, there isn't nearly enough Africa in their sequenced drum patterns"
what on earth does this mean?

just finished reading the 17 and was left feeling disappointed, drummond has turned into little more than a grumpy old fart. standing in front of a class of schoolchildren and telling them music is irrelevant seems unhelpful and dickish. plus i don't feel the whole 'recording 17 people going hmmmm then deleting it' is quite the genius idea he thinks it is.

i fought my way through the 17 book recently as well.
enjoyable in parts, but yes, he needs to lighten up.
i ended up agreeing with his mate at the end who bluntly tells him on one of their traditional journeys that the whole 17 thing is crap basically.
the breakdown of his life on a year by year basis is rather fascinating though.

Yeah, just got to finish it about 2 days ago.

Seems like the dude's rich enough to just fanny around thesedays.

weren't the klf & co the biggest selling act in the world in 1991 or thereabouts? playing huge stadiums in russia etc. burning £1m probably wasn't probably as big a kick to his bank balance as you'd expect

part of the current wealth reason : the ongoing success of the Proclaimers

he admits as much re their chart topping charity single for which he refused to let go of the royalties

http://www.youtube.com/user/klfcommunicationsnet

^AMAZING RESOURCE

it is - just wasted an hour there. "doctoring the tardis" turns out to be more goofy than revelatory, tho fun. and i realize now that i also used to own the "justified & ancient" 12-inch (or an album it appeared on, something like that). more or less the version featured in the vid. shit is bonkers yo - SO FUCKING GREAT tho i remember it being too fruity for me at the time.

i think i am a fan

Their last public appearance before retiring always raises a smile from UK types of a certain age.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgaik2as06c

I feel compelled to recommend Drummond's AMAZING early solo album The Man on every KLF thread.

Yeah, it's great. Notwithstanding his current, well-earned curmudgeon status, I think he's a genius.

Revive!

Where the hell are these chants of "MU-MU! MU-MU!" in "Last Train to Trancentral"?

Wigglypedia sez:
Splendid Magazine said of the LP version: "The cries of "Mu Mu! Mu Mu! Mu Mu! Mu Mu!" take on a strangely liberating, mantra-like feel. It's the essence of great pop music, of great dance music, wholly compressed."

Tom Ewing, in his Top 100 Singles of the 90s list, sez:
And then it fades away and the chanting begins – “MU MU! MU MU! MU MU! KLF!”

Yes they did rock me.

At the end of the Live from the Lost Continent version, it changes from "Woo-Woo" to "MU-MU"(?)

I've been on a early 90s jamz kick and never realized before how much of an exact rip the 3AM Eternal single is of Snap - 'The Power', down to the Eastern European voice sample at the start. feckin brilliant - How to Have a No 1 the Easy Way indeed...

I think 3AM Eternal came first though - the first version came out in 89, The Power was a hit in 1990.

I just remembered that in one of his books Julian Cope inspiringly uses "Bill Drummond" as an adjective, as in "David Balfe was Bill Drummonded to the tits". Made me laugh.

Here is the "Last Train to Trancentral" video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqxtBggVsi0

Now would that be the "MU MU!"s there at 3:24?

That's what I was thinking, yeah. It's "woo-woo" up till then, then for the last chorus it's "MU MU!".

Has anyone got/heard "Edits", the 'legal' version of the LP? So short, it retailed at the price of a 12" single + came with instructions on how to recreate the original record. I could never decide if this was classic or dud.
― Jeff W, Sunday, February 24, 2002

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-lDwwW7Ql0

+ the instructions themselves:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/woolner/3339270412/sizes/o/

consider me 100% rocked.

yeah, following the badger kull twitter blitz is fun.
clearly part of the 'project' is to get a new band out there without any help from the usual suspects, or even a real band,
but watching it all develop is rather entertaining.

https://youtu.be/btPZhr4FYew

yeah, saw that this morning ..
have to admit, its a rather wonderful thing.

yeah fab

that's Jeff Minter in the back row (somewhere)

Jarvis Cocker?

Did he sing?

Now, we've told him about this..

Anyone read their new book?

what? https://mumufication.com/

GREAT question, well put.

No book on that website, but ta for the link.

the book is on Faber², can't imagine it will be hard to find in UK bookshops

Those excerpt from the book in theGuardian at the weekend were not good

for a rundown on each days events, this girl (the tattoo girl) has given the proceedings a good shot :

http://planetslop.co.uk/?s=klf

still not so sure i would have enjoyed any of the corporate styled team building exercises.

for example : http://www.2019warisover.com/

student rag week taken to the extreme.
still, the jarvis thing + ritual burning thing, does sound rather cool.
and i have actually contemplated the ashes/brick thing once i had a good read around that website.
it does all sound rather legit.

strictly kev post #1 is up :

http://www.djfood.org/welcome-to-the-dark-ages-pt-1-tuesday-2023-book-stamping/

i realise for a lot of people this gang can do no wrong ...

but i think this is an arsey move

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq6XJl9xw80

bugger.
the link is in kevs latest post.
with a followup to the outcome.

I have one question: what the fuuk is going on?

The driver of the car seemed to be smiling. Don't think he minded. Could be wrong though.

Ah, just read the blog post. Does seem to be a dick move. Situationist art is all well and good when it's your own property you're using, but if there was no coordination with the car owner, this was pretty poor form.

yeah .. car owner was not happy.
he confronted jimmy later in the day, and it was uncomfortable by all accounts.
more to be revealed by all involved later on i believe.
that said, i love the postscript on kevs post.

I do not know what the fuck to make of this 2023 book, or even if I'll read it, or why I should read it ... joke's on me, I guess?

Is it more like a Bad Wisdoming of Drummond's last 5-10 books, an actual novel, or just an Illuminatus knockoff? Hasn't been published here (I'm surprised it's in Chicago already!)

I literally can't tell what it is. It's hard to tell what is supposed to be a put on, or is it all a put on, does it have a plot? I've only skimmed bits of it, but it's very ... conceptual? It's novel-esque but features plenty of direct and oblique KLF mythology, from the Bunnymen on up. Just really intimidating.

I bought a "used" copy online via Amazon, just arrived today. There is literally one review on Amazon right now, a five-star review. The complete text is "I am amused."

http://www.forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-klf-album-by-single-by-album.692361/

I do recommend this one, a KLF rundown.

Something's going down in Mumuland.

https://mumufication.com/

xpost, just discovered the Steve Hoffman forum thread on them, essential reading for any KLFhead.

Though think he's wrong about 'Whitney Joins the JAMMs'.

I hang out there, but don't want to have to trawl through the thread.

is there a problem with 'Whitney ..' ??

yeah that thread is a great read.

xpost, he's a bit sniffy about it, rating it as an annoying novelty song. Which I suppose it is, but I find the concept very amusing and the punchline whene she 'joins' the JAMMs utterly joyous.

ta Dan, as I expected.
it was a glorious moment in which the guys declared their love for dance music as opposed to the JAMMS hip hop origins.
for me that 12" was a massively defining release as I too was a hip hop kid, but getting bored with the genre.
so to hear a 12" that hit the house groove using a song I hated was a big wake up and opened my ears to a whole new world.
its anything but a novelty, it was the perfect bridge from JAMMS to the KLF.

and yes .. "joyous" is the perfect word for it.

JAMMs

JAMMs

JAMMS

JAMMS

guys

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d4/The_JAMS-_1987_%28What_The_Fuck_Is_Going_On%3F%29.jpg

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51pgGyXKYbL._SY355_.jpg

https://www.rockers.de/cover/1024/133491a.jpg

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f19e93_8fd2a977d69b4556a14f9bfb7e896d6f.jpg/v1/fill/w_567,h_509,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/f19e93_8fd2a977d69b4556a14f9bfb7e896d6f.jpg

http://img.tradera.net/images/105/279249105_20437804-2e53-4d3e-86c4-f88bcd4a664b.jpg

http://s3.amazonaws.com/mhka_ensembles_production/assets/public/000/032/211/large/LP_front_1.jpg?1465309126

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/86/07/80/86078014de3fb0c30d15c4a211355549--uk-images-music-albums.jpg

haha.
sorry, old habits die hard.

Whoops!

6 part BBC radio drama “How to Burn a Million Quid”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06x3pn5

.. and Bill Drummond's response ( received via email, this morning)

The JAMs don’t do Sidekicks

You are either in The JAMs or you are not in The JAMs.

In an English national newspaper in January 2019, there was a short piece about a podcast called How To Burn A Million Quid. It would have been written by a journalist just trying to get a job done.

A job that they might not have been thinking that much about.

A job that needed a sprinkling of adjectives etc to spice it up.

In this short piece Jimmy Cauty, my colleague of some thirty years and counting, was passingly defined as a sidekick. I don’t think I have ever known someone to be less of a sidekick than Jimmy Cauty. But even more important than that – The JAMs don’t do sidekicks.

The media often make assumptions about the roles of those working in creative partnerships. This is often done for the sake of the story that is being told. And we all want our stories to be simply understood. We want to know who the baddy is and who the goody is from the moment the film starts etc…

Over those thirty years and counting that Jimmy Cauty and I have been working together most of the memorable things that we have done as The JAMs started as a passing suggestion by Jimmy Cauty. This is a list of some of those suggestions:

1: Including ABBA's Dancing Queen on the album 1987 – What The Fuck's Going On?

2: Using the Doctor Who theme in a pop song and combining it with the glitter beat

3: Creating The KLF crop circle in Wiltshire

4: Using the cash from Doctorin’ The Tardis to make a road movie

5: Creating a KLF wicker man on the isle of Jura

6: Performing a metal version of 3AM and using a machine gun at the Brits

7: Deleting the KLF catalogue

8: Burying the Brit award at Stonehenge

9: The 1994 K Foundation award for worst artist

10: Burning the money

But the narrative that seems to keep coming up time and time again, is that Bill Drummond comes up with the unrealistic ideas and Jimmy Cauty has to use practical skills to make them a reality. Or that it is me that comes up with the words and Jimmy Cauty comes up with the tunes.

Wrong…

When I got my first guitar at the age of 15, and after I had done the Bert Weedon Play in a Daybook, I bought the Bob Dylan Song Book and learnt the chord structure of every song in it. And from there I went to learn the chord structures of every hit that Goffin & King had ever written. And it is that knowledge I used in the basic structures of almost all of The KLF tracks. Whereas when Jimmy Cauty got his first guitar he learnt every riff that Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page had ever played. And it was with that understanding and knowledge he was able to create the riffs in almost all of The KLF tracks.

In any creative partnership there is no simple black and white. The sum is always greater than the parts.

Neither of us could have ever done it with anyone else.

I hoped I would never have to talk about The KLF again in my life, let alone find myself writing about it, but that line in that newspaper has prompted this outburst.

The JAMs don’t do sidekicks.

Bill Drummond 30 January 2019

awesome

Did BBC edit that blurb, cos I don't see the word "sidekick" or anything equivalent there?

It wasn't the podcast itself he's referring to, the English national newspaper piece is here: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jan/25/what-made-the-klf-burn-a-million-pounds-podcasts-of-the-week?CMP=share_btn_tw

I managed to get a copy of "2023", the "novel" that is seemingly authored by the KLF.

Despite the Amazon reviewer suggesting it's "probably" more the work of Drummond that Cauty (once again)..

I find that it's quite an entertaining read. The Amz reviews are either 1 star or 5, but hey. Also, most say it's "inpenetrable", but who wants to penetrate a book?

hey don't knock it etc etc

!

just ordered it since it's like 50% off on Amazon... hope it's better than the Julian Cope novel from a few years back

probably" more the work of Drummond that Cauty (once again)..

Don't let weedy St Etienne kick out the JAMs – vote for It's Grim Up North

Group III.13: I've never felt so strong

Saint Etienne! https://t.co/v7roiHGtFX
Grace Jones! https://t.co/OJvy6fF86v
New Order! https://t.co/KkyIMe586q
The JAMS! https://t.co/8YN780vt4p

— Tom Ewing (@tomewing) May 21, 2020

I mean, I like all these tracks but the top two go through and St Etienne are well represented elsewhere.

Also there's at least one other better Saint Et song still in the game (Avenue)