A Note On The KLF
KLF was the band that left us in the true sense of the word. They took their music with them. They took their legacy with them. They burned a million pounds, filmed it, and let us watch their entire revenue from the music business turn to dust.
They called themselves The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu and they wanted to lead us to a place called The White Room. They had Illuminatus! Trilogy paths and became committed Discordians (whatever that implies). Their hip-hop-infused British acid house became one of the best-selling acts of 1991 and we still remember their videos. We misunderstood them as forgotten one-hit-wonders who had their heyday and then jumped the shark. That was until someone told us to go back and read their story, a genuine tale of annihilation. Thanks, Martin!
KLF left us with nothing, but an overwhelmingly dark and sad one. They gave it a lot of thought. They refused to give the money to charity because they didn’t find it interesting enough (crowd boo-ing). They probably wanted us to remember them as a book with music being only one of its chapters, as though there was supposed to be a higher message above it all. We are yet to find that answer and most probably so are Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty themselves. There is much more text and video in KLF’s catalog than music. They treated music as a stylus pen to draw their blueprint. They devised an outrageous plan, sat back, and observed their life work is utterly demolished.
What on earth were these freaks thinking? And why does it sound so similar to what Jim Jones did to The Peoples Temple? Anyhow, Bill Drummond later confessed that the decision was a mistake, which only adds up to the confusion.
Don’t take our word for it! If you are curious, read The Strange Journey of the KLF via Daily Grail or go buy John Higgs’ terrific The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds.
