'Who Killed the KLF ?'

[Nungali]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watched it last night  ...... just .... WOW ! 

 

https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/movie/who-killed-the-klf/2157018691801

 

What a trip !  Illuminatus , Discordianism ,  'no reason' ,  the first 'music samplers'  (or was that 'stealers'  - people where outraged , clearly against the law  but sales skyrocketed ) , took over everything themselves , aspects of production, making records, marketing and distribution - a music industry act of 'anarchism'  - that worked !  ,  bizarre ' Surrealistic / Dada / Discordianism '  'artists' .  Started 'performing' at huge dance parties that grew in numbers rapidly .... they didnt even 'play'  ;  " Besides, no one was looking at us, they where all dancing and doing their own thing to the music , it was just all about the music ."  So they just would let the machines and recordings play and get up to ....  all sorts of antics  on stage . Including throwing scads of money off the top of a tower speaker ant a concert into the audience ..... " Wheeeee !   Ecckies, music, dancing, free money ! "

 

 

 

Probably their classic : 

 

 

 

The money flowed in at an incredible rate , they had walls of super high tech equipment  .... so much money that , as it does , sent them 'weirder' , but  IMO , in a better way than usual   that is   .... the idea of money is abso crazy ... and the way it works , it becomes unreal when you get a lot ,  the senselessness of it all is even more prominent , so their 'art' became a demonstration of this - they put vast amounts into their projects ... that they say they had no reason to do, nor did they know why they where doing it or what they where about to do.  There was actually only two of them .... they went around in an old  police cruiser  with the markings adapted to KLF and, of course, number 23 on it .

 

They where behind a discordian movement that spread crazy stuff , no  matter how tongue in cheek they where about it  ( and that had later  wide socio cultural effects ! )  . They put a book out ; how to make a number 1 hit in a month (or something like that ) ... they had done that enough times . One crazy group got together and did it via the instructions in the book . What they did was nuts , crazy , silly, over the top ...... got a number 1   !     

 

And of course they where hounded ; for music, for shows, for interviews and they just cut it all off, said thats it ..... 'disappeared'  and erased everything and that means millions of $$$$ of revenue gone ( after market stuff , etc . ).

 

Poof !   Gone .    ( the old 'vanishing act '  )

 

After a while music journos get a message from KLF   ( they where  usually very strange , cryptic, secret society like , obscurely 'magical' ) . The journos sniffed story and money so where eager . They where told to meet at Heathrow airport  . A plane had been chartered , they ended up at a remote Scottish island  by boat and walked ashore , they where not sure where , they where met by KLF  banners and a checkpoint, had to hand over passports , where told to all dress in the same robes and got led off through the wilderness     .  ... oh yeah , by a guy in a hooded robe with one HUGE horn sticking out of his forehead .  There was a 'ritual' , 'performance'  ??? ( by now, no one could tell ) by some Japanese 'dancers'  and all sorts of 'antics' , money burning , a giant wicca man burning , followed by a huge dance party   and who knows what happened . Then they all got returned to their normal life  .  One of them said it was a great mix of event, intrigue, press release, dancing, music and errr..... 'terrorism'  .       

 

Was this the beginning of 'Burning Man'  type event   ?

 

then there was the whole incidents involved with ; how do we get rid of this million pounds   - they eventually burnt it .

 

Then they got the big music award in UK  and did 'that stuff' on stage .    They where going to kill and dismember a live sheep  (  and that certainly was not on the program) , one of them was about to play the 'guitar solo of his life' that he dreamed of as a kid, and here was the moment ! he only had 20 or 30 seconds ... but he pulled his guitar cord out and could not play and spent 20 seconds trying to find it amidst the mess on stage  

 

Then they sorta walked off .... and left a dead sheep out the back somewhere .      It got rather weird or 'Dadaist'  , there was talk of other mutilations .... maybe like a previous 'artists' had declared he wanted to do ; chop his hand off on stage and throw it into the audience .  Well, thats a 'progression' from throwing money at them I suppose .   Still, they seemed confused as to why they where doing all this, they didnt know why .  Thats what they said in all the touring conferences they did ABOUT the burned money ; people where outraged ; " Why did you do that ! ? " They replied , "Thats what these conferences are for .... we hoped  we could find out why why did it."

 

It goes on and on  ....  finally they met in the country ; one in the old 23 KLF police car , the other in a van with two dead cows in the back . They where supposed to hang them from a big electricity pylon . But they had no way of doing it, they realized , the cows where heavy . One said " I dont even want to do this ." The other said " Neither do I . "  So they just drove off in different directions .

 

As mysteriously and illuminatily as they disappeared, they returned, as predicted ( in 23 years ) in their old ice cream van . But it just seemed to be a book signing for their '2023' . Then they where gone . 

 

I would say it was an 'adventure' in chaos and discord ... and it did leave some 'imprints' .

 

One time, in the studio, things would just not go right . One said to the other , in their joking discordian way ; this needs Tammy Wynette .  You should not make jokes like that to discordians ;

 

 

 

 

 a great doco through .

[Barnaby]

Ah cool, I’ll watch that with interest!

 

Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond, takes me back… Cauty had a big squat in Stockwell, round the corner from a mate’s place: Trancentral. Memorable parties 🤩

 

Drummond’s 33 1/3 book is a good read.

 

Burning that million quid was bad karma though, I reckon 🤣

 

EDIT

The Drummond book: 45

 

Getting my speeds mixed up 😉

Edited January 22, 2023 by Barnaby

[Barnaby]

13 hours ago, Nungali said:

Probably their classic : 

Yeah, but I do have a soft spot for 3am Eternal

[Nungali]

7 hours ago, Barnaby said:

Ah cool, I’ll watch that with interest!

 

Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond, takes me back… Cauty had a big squat in Stockwell, round the corner from a mate’s place: Trancentral. Memorable parties 🤩

 

Drummond’s 33 1/3 book is a good read.

 

Burning that million quid was bad karma though, I reckon 🤣

 

EDIT

The Drummond book: 45

 

Getting my speeds mixed up 😉

 

Its good is it ?  I  might give it a go .

 

2023 didnt get a good rap .... but then again neither did Illuminatus trilogy .  Have you read 2023 ?

[Barnaby]

15 minutes ago, Nungali said:

 

Its good is it ?  I  might give it a go .

 

2023 didnt get a good rap .... but then again neither did Illuminatus trilogy .  Have you read 2023 ?

 

Dunno anything about 2023...

 

I enjoyed 45. He goes over all the KLF stuff, delves back into the Liverpool/Teardrops/Bunnymen era, talks about art and ley lines... It's a good read.

 

[RobB]

I've read 2023. It's OK. If you've read Illuminatus it might seem a bit derivative.