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.

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)

Fuck me, they’re rereleasing their catalogue.

As the first in a series of The KLF's back catalogue selections officially hits streaming services on January 1st, this year has already proven to be much better than 2020.#kickoutthejams https://t.co/P7mhVSS3tW

— KLF Online (@KLF_Online) January 1, 2021

woah

Following is posted on the new KLF YouTube channel:

KLF exist.

KLF have appropriated the work done between the
1st of January 1987 and 31st of December 1991 by
The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu,
The Timelords
The KLF

This appropriation was in order to tell a story in five chapters using the medium of streaming.

The name of the story is SAMPLECITY THRU TRANCENTRAL.

The five chapters are:

1. Kick Out The JAMs,
2. Pure Trance Series,
3. Come Down Dawn,
4. Moody Boys Selection
5. Solid State Logik (Parts 1 &2).

If you need to know more about the work done by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords or The KLF, you can find truths, rumours and half-truths scattered across the internet.

From these truths, rumours and half-truths, you can form your own opinions.

The actual facts were washed down a storm drain in Brixton some time in the late 20th century.

Further information can be found on a poster, fly posted under a railway bridge on the Kingsland Road in London on the 31st of December 2020.

Would be interested seeing what is on this poster.

There's also The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu vs. Extreme Noise Terror - 3AM Eternal (From The Black Room) with a new edit of the video

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EqpBnJ0XAAUNQGb?format=jpg

goat

Oh shit

just hope they put this stuff up on bandcamp.

Yeah but it'll either cost a million pounds per track or will just be files made to sound like lo-res rips. (I fully endorse either of these moves.)

OK, so all of the "Pure Trance" series?

Colour me interested...

Will donate organs in exchange for the "Pure Trance" series.

while i kind of agree with Ned.
i still want them to be available to download/buy, especially the PT stuff as stirmonster says.

i saw a comment somewhere that this is all due to bill getting a whopping tax demand.
can anyone confirm deny such detail ?

no but it's prima facie absurd bcz

Now they are on Spotify we can look forward to the film “The KLF Earn A Millionth Of A Quid”

— Joel Morris (@gralefrit) January 2, 2021

Was gonna say (but not as well..)

Possibly opens up for licensing/advertising/TVbeds etc..

I missed a lot of this stuff the first time around and I'm really only familiar with Chill Out and The White Room. What is the Pure Trance series? Was it just the trance remixes on those two big singles?

The What Time Is Love 1988 Pure Trance Original is presumably on there? my fav version still

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wzdTTSA7nQ

xp It's complicated....The link Mark G posted is super detailed and goes into the history of the series. You may want to skip to page 3 if you're not interested in their early JAMMS incarnation.

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

I do recommend this one, a KLF rundown.

― Mark G, Tuesday, 26 September 2017 10:18 (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

What is the Pure Trance series? Was it just the trance remixes on those two big singles?

There were 3 Pure Trance 12" singles (with another couple scheduled that never appeared). They were "What Time Is Love?", '3AM Eternal" and "Last Train To Trancentral" and these were the original versions of those tracks that were all later reworked into big pop hits

2 of which i believe were only available on cd via this cheap-n-cheerful compilation

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Warehouse-Raves-4/master/24021

i did not know they had ever seen a cd release so many thanks for that.

i picked the cd up in a cheap bin many years ago.
obviously, well chuffed i did once i realised.
also, some of the other tracks are absolutely fantastic.

indeed. several eternal faves on there.

That Steve Hoffman forum link is gold, thanks for bringing that back to the front.

I had that warehouse raves album on tape when it came out. Pretty thrilling material for a 14 year old

I think a bunch of the "Pure Trance" originals are on the cd singles, but I'm sure that Hoffman link has the details.

I've always been a huge fan of The Moody Boys vs KLF mix of "What Time is Love"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5GjXDAecHQ

That 12" was the only time the Mac-less Echo and the Bunnymen made the charts

https://mixmag.net/read/klf-film-anarchic-electronic-duo-music-peoples-pyramid-news

So, when's the next episode?

Clearly not weekly, so perhaps monthly?