General Questions

The most frequently asked questions regarding The KLF. This is where you should start reading about the work of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty to explore the History of the JAMS.

General

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’, ‘The One World Orchestra’ and ‘2K’. They have also produced other groups, including their sometime backing singers ‘Disco 2000’, and remixed 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 two books (The Manual and 2023) 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), a BRIT Awards protest involving a dead sheep and buckets of blood, a string of strange full-page mainstream press adverts, staging an alternative art award for the worst artist of the year, and they also burned a MILLION POUNDS and subsequently toured the film of the burning round the U.K.

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Tag: klf
This is what KLF is about, also known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, furthermore known as THE JAMs!Ricardo Da Force (Last Train To Trancentral, 1991)

One may well ask. We believe that this is no easy question and any answer we 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 (though not necessarily to a comfortably filled bank account).

BD: “We’re kind of free-form. We never sit down and think, ‘oh God we have to come up with a new idea’. It just happens. We just get up in the morning and have to finish things, that’s the biggest thing in our lives. We’re not sitting around thinking, let’s make a statement, let’s be subversive. We spend most of our time thinking, ‘hell we´ve got to get this done, we´ve got to get that done’.

JC: “We can play instruments and we can do other things. Nobody seems to be able to do more than one thing without not getting taken seriously; not that we mind not getting taken seriously. We just think, ‘that looks interesting’, so we do it.”Bill Drummond & Jimmy Cauty (Sound On Sound, Apr 1991)

JC: We put all the money back into the records. We don’t keep anything for ourselves. It’s an expensive business. It costs a lot of money. Record companies can afford to let a band go half a million quid into the red and see if it happens. We can’t.

BD: It’s highly unlikely that we’ll ever get rich. It costs a fortune making albums, even singles. And, unlike a major record company, we’ve no forward plan.Bill Drummond & Jimmy Cauty (Melody Maker, 16 Feb 1991)

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.

If we were a proper group we’d obviously keep to one name and one style of music and we’d try to build up a career and make sure that we didn’t upset any following that we might have. But we aren’t and we don’t. We do exactly what we want to do at any given time.Bill Drummond & Jimmy Cauty (Melody Maker, 10 Mar 1990)

A lot of The KLF’s activites might look like situational pranks from the outside, yet they always insisted to be entirely serious about their activities.

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Bill DrummondNME, 12 Jan 1991 We’ve always loathed the word scam. I know no-one’s ever going to believe us, but we never felt we went out and did things to get reactions. Everything we’ve done has just been on a gut level instinct. […]

I think with whatever we do, if we stopped to think about it, it’d be ‘What are we letting ourselves in for now?’ But we don’t. We think ‘Yeah! Let’s do that!’ And it’s a genuine excitement. Something that gives us a buzz. We’re not thinking ‘That’ll impress the bastards!’ Or ‘This’ll take the piss ouf of that!’

Bill DrummondMixmag, Mar 1991 A lot of the time people see us as a couple of scamsters, I’m sure. Sometimes I wish we were. Life might be easier. Then we wouldn’t be in the studio every day of the week worrying about edits and the like.

To anyone wanting more, we can only suggest they read ALL the material in this FAQ, and examine ALL other related literature and material (including the music itself) and then come to their own conclusions.

I think if we wanted to make it easy for ourselves we’d sign to a major company, sign a deal for a million quid and make all the compromises. Because whatever bands say, you’re always completely compromised when you sign to a major label. I know that, if we signed a band, we wouldn’t let them behave like us, doing what the hell they wanted, that’s for sure!Jimmy Cauty (Melody Maker, 16 Feb 1991)

While not given as a direct answer to the question the 2003 audio book release of The Manual features a foreword voiced by Bill Drummond giving the following advice:

If you want to do something, really want to do something, don’t wait to be asked, don’t seek permission. But be prepared to risk complete failure. Whatever it is: start now. Today! Tomorrow is always too late.Bill Drummond (The Manual Audiobook, 2003)

… which certainly fits The KLF’s modus operandi.

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Tags: about, klf

The letters ‘KLF’ stood for many things, which changed many times throughout the band’s 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 ‘Kopyright Liberation Front’.

“Kevin Likes Fruit”, obviously.

Possible Origins

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 is 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 we reckon those are the important ones that led to Bill and Jimmy choosing the name KLF.

Logo of “KLF Communications”

Jamm!n’s Thoughts

Finally, Jamm!n [one of the original FAQ’s contributors – Ed.] 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.

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From when they first paired up in 1987, to when the KLF split in 1992 (and even beyond), Drummond and Cauty progressed through many varying musical styles in their commercial releases.

There are never ending discussions about how good or 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:

1987-1988 as The JAMs

Punk ethic, political Scottish rap, blatant cut-n-paste sampling, primitive hip-hop, but they gradually got better at it with their second LP. Huge influence on Pop Will Eat Itself.

1987-1989 as Disco 2000

Started as a Cauty solo project. Cheesy pop. Resembled later JAMs singles like Burn The Bastards, while influencing the later following pre-Stadium House KLF records.

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 who in fact got a Number One hit by following the Golden Rules.

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 in the USA. The rave stuff was an influence on Black Box, and other Italians, while the ambient stuff practically started the whole 90’s ambient scene along with The Orb.

They also recorded various songs for their soundtrack of the “White Room” movie but never released them in their original form. Trying to mimic the style of the Pet Shop Boys around that time with their single Kylie Said To Jason.

1990-1992 as The KLF

Their early singles and huge parts of the White Room soundtrack 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.

1990-1991 as The JAMS

While gaining success with their KLF releases, they teamed up once more as the JAMS and released a remixed version of their previous promo It’s Grim Up North, a first glimpse of the always-scheduled-and-delayed Black Room album. Dark electronic.

1992 as The KLF

They started working on thrash guitar heavy-metal techno dance together with Extreme Noise Terror but scrapped most of the sessions. Could this have been yet another new musical style? Possible influence on God Machine and Kerosene (who both did a KLF cover).

1993-1995 as K Foundation

Like all good post-modernists they are branching out into interdisciplinary arts, releasing their only single K Cera Cera, a limited release in Israel/Palestine to celebrate the peace accord. A mix of orchestral sound and Russian choir.

1995 as One World Orchestra

They sneaked out of retirement for one day to record a hastily constructed orchestral/drum’n’bass track for the much hyped “Help! (Artists for War Child)” LP.

1997 as 2K

Celebrating the 10th birthday of The JAMS, they released Fuck The Millennium as a statement against the more and more growing Y2K frenzy and, according to Drummond, “to celebrate the crapness of comebacks”. Somewhere between early 90’s acid-pop, Chemical Brothers-style big beat and a 40-piece brass band.

2017 as The JAMs

In 2017 The JAMs came out of retirement once more to announce the release of 2023, as well as their foray into cremation and pyramid building.

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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. 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, 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.

In September 1995 they recorded a track called The Magnificent for the HELP album under the name One World Orchestra. 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 September 1997 they returned for a brief moment as 2K, releasing the single Fuck The Millennium as well as doing a live performance at the Barbican Centre, London. There is a whole chapter in Bill Drummond’s book 45 dedicated to the How’s And Why’s of this short-lived episode.

In 2021 parts of the JAMs/KLF’s back catalogue was eventually made officially available through digital streaming platforms, and while those releases did not contain any completely new recordings some of the contents had been edited and updated.

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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…

Their publicist Mick Houghton 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 Glenn 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 Sekada 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 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.

The real Justified Ancients Of Mummu and the chaos are always going to be here. We’re not.Bill Drummond (Sounds, 2 Mar 1991)
Tag: klf

The KLF did very few live performances when they were active under that name, 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 Jimmy 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 do. (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.

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Tags: klf, live, wanda-dee
We certainly feel like conmen when we’re playing live. That’s because we don’t feel we can give the audience anything of what’s essential about the records.Bill Drummond (Melody Maker, 16 Feb 1991)

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 (date from infosheet) 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!”

30th Sept 1989 Helter Skelter, Oxfordshire

Matthew Collin’s book ‘Altered State – The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House’ (Serpent’s Tail, London, New York, ISBN 1-85242-3777-3, UKP 10.99, www.serpentstail.com) is a MUST read. But surprisingly perhaps it only mentions the KLF once, on page 105, describing a live appearance on September the 30th 1989: “To the north of London, the Helter Skelter party brought an awesome line up of performers to a muddy plough field in Oxfordshire. The incongruity was sweet, seeing these house icons climbing up a rickety ladder onto the back of a flat bed lorry – in open farmland! – to sing and play. … There were post-punk pranksters, The KLF, who demanded their UKP 1000 fee upfront, in Scottish pound notes, upon each of which they scribbled the message “we love you children” before throwing them to the crowd, a dress rehearsal for their burning of 1 million pounds in a situationist art statement a few years later. Despite the drizzle and the turn-out (only 4000!), the mood was elevated.”

When we were asked to do the party, we understood it was going to be £15 to get in. They ended up charging £25, which we thought was such a shitty rip-off that we decided to throw the money away as a sort of statement. We wrote ‘Children, we love you’ on each one, crumpled them up and threw them down. But even then, as soon as we’d thrown it all away, the people down the front were shouting, We want more money, we want more money!Bill Drummond (i-D, Mar 1990)

January 1990 Energy, Brixton Academy, London

We always try to think of an alternative to an ordinary live show and for one party we played, Energy at the Brixton Academy, we wanted to build a hill on the stage, cover it with turf, put a fence around it and let five sheep with The KLF painted on their sides roam around it while we played a track through the PA. We planned to have some equipment up there too with the hope that if the sheep knocked into something it would make a noise and be an added bonus. We thought, ‘Yeah, this is it, this is the future of rock’n’roll’. But Lambeth Council refused to let us have live animals onstage.Bill Drummond (Melody Maker, 10 Mar 1990)

One list member, writing in 1997 recalls he was there: “not sure if it is the gig you are refferring to as woodstock-2, but I did attend a show at the Brixton Acad sometime around 89/90, where the KLF did play (even carried a sheep with them – or at least caused a big pre-gig fuss by proclaiming that they were bringing in a load) – …. heard them though, but just a tad-busy at the time to bother getting up to view them – an ambientish-set if my mind serves me correctly…. not sure if it is the same show though – pretty sure frankie-b played – again very, very mashed up at the time…..”

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

This live appearance has been mentioned on the KLF mailing list, but no details about it are known. 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.” Apparently scenes of this were later used in the embankment version of the video clip for ‘3 a.m. eternal’ as well.

23rd June 1991 Festival Of Comedy, Liverpool

Accompanied on stage by the robed and hooded guests from the Rites of Mu, 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”.

25th Sep 1997 Barbican, London

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Tags: klf, live

While it is true that The KLF “left the music business” in 1992 both Bill and Jimmy continued to do more things (and they still are, yet not necessarily together). Because there are still issues to discuss, facts to discover, documents to order, newbies to educate.

Since they were ahead of their time, we believe they still have relevance. People still think Hendrix’s music has relevance and he’s been dead for more than 30 years now.

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Bill Drummond

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 (and he maintained an interest in amateur dramatics throughout 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 (‘Siouxsie 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’. Both 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 (and now top producer) Martin ‘Youth’ Glover 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. 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. An 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, 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”.

Jimmy Cauty

James (or Jimmy or Jimi) Cauty was born in Devon in 1956 and not much is known about him until, as a 17-year old artist he painted a quite famous Lord of the Rings poster for Athena. He has continued painting over the years, with his early reputation being “London artist, bohemian”. His later paintings include various posters and postcards, which also got released on Athena, as well as a record cover for the audio book ‘The King Of Elfland’s Daughter’ (narrated by Christopher Lee and featuring later KLF vocalist P.P. Arnold).

In 1981/2 he was in a band called Angels One 5 along with his later wife Cressida Bowyer. He next crops up as a guitarist with Brilliant in the mid-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. After releasing a handful of singles, he then leaves The Orb and goes to work with Bill full-time.

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Bill Drummond is currently doing his 25 Paintings Ten-Year World Tour until 2025.

Jimmy Cauty is working on ESTATE TPD 446 (A Town Planning Directive), a project that will see the building of 23 derelict tower blocks at 1/30 scale. You can follow the creation of ESTATE on Instagram.

The Estate (TDP 446)

In the meantime the ADP Riot Container is still changing places regularly.

As The JAMs (and part of CCC&D) they are currently overseeing their MuMufication project kicked off in 2017.

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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 Nickif 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 we 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.

Alteratively, you could try to get in touch with them through their respective projects’ websites, Penkiln Burn and Blacksmoke.

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

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.

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Unfortunately, most of the old KLF websites disappeared due to the lack of updates or fading time of their creators. There once even had been an official K-Foundation website but that went offline as well. Yet there are still some external websites that are worth checking out.

Official Websites

James Cauty

The website of Jimmy Cauty.

Penkiln Burn

The website of Bill Drummond.

MuMufication

Everything you need to know about the People’s Pyramid and MuMufication.

K2 Plant Hire Ltd.

Official outlet of K2 Plant Hire Ltd., currently displaying the announcement posters for “2023”.

Related Websites

L-13.org

Home of the London-based L-13 Light Industrial Workshop. While not actually run by either of them it is one of the few outlets through which Jimmy’s work is regularly available for purchase.

Alimentation

The KLF Re-Enactment Society

Unofficial/Fan Websites

KLF-Communications

Run by Mark Rolfe. Featuring an extensive discography as well as a couple of easter eggs hidden throughout the site.  🙂

WhatTheFu.uk

Maintained by Andrew Lee (with the help of various additional contributors) WhatTheFu.uk is the definitive archive of newspaper clippings, tabloid articles and industry adverts covering the history of Bill and Jimmy. Be ready to sink countless hours into this vast collection of preserved reading material.

Like for everything else there is also a KLF fan group on Facebook of course.

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Tag: links