I have never done a book review before so in hindsight this is probably not the best book to start with, the crazy world of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty. But now is a good a time as any with the release of their latest film “23 Seconds to Eternity” and KLFKare.com so when the suggestion was floated that I should review this book I was all in.
I am not the most prolific of readers, I have loads of music books in the “to read” pile and average about three books a Year so this review could take some time to finish but I have a Week off work so will make a start.
I never usually bother reading the Prologue due to laziness I guess, but I am glad I did for this book I really enjoyed the Timothy Leary connections.
Just for the readers information I am going for a scatter gun kind of approach to reviewing and mentioning chapters but always in forward motion.
Chapter 2 has me chuckling away to myself about the Playboy letters page edited by two Discordians who created some surreal replies about Illuminati. You need to keep your wits about you reading the “Sirius and Synchronicity” chapter and Thornley’s connections or alleged connections to Lee Harvey Oswald.
I am glad I stayed focused and fully alert as there is a nice reference/conspiracy to the film Donnie Darko, lots of conspiracy theories so far in this book.
Don’t get caught napping or losing your concentration as chapter 4 flirts with Quantum Physics!
“The Man and the Mu Mu” chapter 5 that opening line “Bill Drummond was visiting his parents and went for a walk in the morning, it was New Years Day, he had left the music industry”. Is this the end of the story or just the beginning? A pivotal part of the book, not Bill Drummond releasing his solo album “The Man” with its so called stand out track “Julian Cope is Dead” but around this time Drummond starts listening to Schoolly D and Jimmy Cauty buys a sampler, a phone call later between the two of them and “The JAMS” are formed AKA “The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu” and suddenly all the previous chapters in this book so far slot into place.
I had to break off two pages into Chapter 6, my mind racing over a short live performance the KLF did at the Barbican Arts Centre in 1997 introduced by the one and only Tony Wilson, it’s a crazy, genius, sometimes disturbing 27 minutes of squelchy acid house and Drummond and Cauty surreal madness “Fuck the Millenium” in support of the Liverpool Dockers its well worth the watch on You Tube. I have had to go back to the start of the chapter as we have gone down a Doctor Who, Discordianism rabbit hole. The start of the chapter gives the reader the relevance which I had lazily forgot or got side tracked watching the Barbican performance. The relevance is the release of the somewhat accidental hit single from May 1988 “Doctorin’ the Tardis” under the name of The Timelords. Definitely a surprise to Drummond and Cauty that it was a hit. It was meant to be a dance record but the four, four beat didn’t work so they ended up with this crazy, somewhat cringy, novelty record.
Chapter 7 and we welcome the brief discussion of the subliminal classic groundbreaking Ambient House album “Chill Out” now the boys are renamed The KLF. I finally managed to pick up an expensive CD copy quite recently even though this a PDO manufactured copy infamous for disc rot around the 1990 period. The bronzing “rot” on my copy is fortunately concentrated around the centre spool so the playback is unaffected and sound lovely through my Bowers and Wilkins 685 speakers. I better mention before I get caught up in Hi-Fi chat that Jimmy Cauty also formed The Orb with Dr Alex Paterson, I have the Kris Needs and Alex Paterson’s book “Babble on an’ ting” in the pile to read, possibly the next book to tackle.
The room lit only by candle light as the sunsets, the green power led from the Cambridge Audio amp as “Chill Out” ebbs and flows the lush guitar of Evil Graham Lee and Elvis samples you drift away only to be woken with some acid house beats, a wonderful ambient 45-minute masterpiece and I haven’t even mentioned the crop circles yet.
We move on to journalists, Jura, visions of the Wicker Man and maybe a mention of the mythical Quality Street tin, here’s to hoping on that one, but it’s becoming a very entertaining read. Now firmly placed in Chapter 8 the burning of the million pounds is being mentioned more frequently and is also explored more deeply from a social and ethical level later in the book. Also appealing to my inner nerd is the devil’s music Tritone “The devil’s interval” which was used on the first three notes on Black Sabbath’s debut album, what an amazing album that is I reviewed it as part of a “Decade” article I wrote. The scary thing is when I play the said track via a popular music streaming service its all distorted, is Lucifer at work? “The devil in the music”.
The genius of “The White Room” album, from Discordianism, Ice Cream van’s, Illuminatus and an American country singer famous for singing “Stand by your Man”, the Tammy Winette track “Justified and Ancient” really is a perfect song and then there is the 12” Stand by the JAM’s mix which kills it dead as stone cold classic. We are on a roll now hit after hit single on this record with various remixes thrown in, the House trilogy – “What time is Love” an early DJ set opener for Paul Oakenfold, the original 1988 mix is pure acid house, “3am Eternal” and “Last train to Transcentral”. From the Ambient House of “Chill Out” to the House tracks of “The White Room” these two albums sit back-to-back perfectly for that time period. With this in mind it explains why these two records are so difficult and expensive to get hold of now and also adds an extra sprinkle to that mythical element.
If there aren’t already enough myths surrounding The KLF they went and deleted their entire back catalogue making CD’s and records like precious jewels. Luckily the digital formats have been reinstated now to a certain degree.
“The KLF have left the music industry” was heard over the PA as they exited the Brit Awards in 1992 after Extreme Noise of Terror’s version of “3am Eternal” finished with Drummond firing blanks into the audience from an antique machine gun. The majority of the music industry crowd were appalled and confused by the performance.
Ironically in 1992 The KLF had sold more records than any other act in the World, they needed to reclaim and cleanse their souls. This is when and why they deleted all their music catalogue costing them approx. 5 million pounds in predicted earnings. The building of the KLF legacy had begun, this book has now really drawn me in and delivering what I had expected from it, get me to the money burning!
Chapter 12 “Undercurrents” begins with ripples of the money burning but doesn’t go into too much detail then we deviate to talk of “Dada” in relation to art, could this be the same as “Dadaism” that Eric Clapton referred to in interviews over the Years when talking about his band Cream?
The chapter then starts to lose me a bit with talk of Hans Arp, The Dao De Jing and trying to decipher the meaning of Dada, only two more pages to Chapter 13!
“Foundations” Drummond and Cauty form The K Foundation an art foundation which seems to be all centred around sabotaging the Turner Prize and other crazy “Abandon All Art Now” stunts in the build up the final act the money burning. Shunned by the art world the money burning almost seemed inevitable in The K Foundation’s eyes, what other choice did they have?
The blurred imagery from 23rd August 1994 of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty burning a Million pounds in a deserted boat house on the Isle of Jura seems a fitting way to end this review “of sorts” Just remember the number 23 and also check out “What time is Love – Echo and he Bunneymen Remix)” you will thank me for it later.
Michael Conboy
meansmagazine.com 