Live It Up

The KLF
Background Information
Also known as	The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu, The JAMs, The Timelords, One World Orchestra, K Foundation, 2K
Origin	London, England
Genre(s)	House, Techno, Acid House, Hip Hop, Alternative Dance, Ambient House
Years active	1987-1992, 1995, 1997
Label(s)	KLF Communications, Arista, TVT, Echo Beach
Associated acts	Disco 2000, Gary Glitter, Big In Japan, Extreme Noise Terror, The Moody Boys
Former members	Bill Drummond JImmy Cauty

RIYL

• Pet Shop Boys
• Brian Eno

Band Biography

The KLF, a/k/a The Timelords, a/k/a The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, a/k/a The JAMS, a/k/a The K Foundation, a/k/a The One World Orchestra, a/k/a 2K among others have had one of the more interesting histories of pop music, especially one spanning over such a short time. Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty started as The JAMS in 1987 with 1987 (What The Fuck Is Going On?), which was promptly sued-and-then-burned out of existence because of the uncleared samples on it. They reissued it as an EP minus all the samples with instructions on how to recreate the original album. After that, they had a number one single with "Doctorin' The TARDIS", a combination of the Dr. Who theme and Gary Glitter's "Rock 'n' Roll Part II", then proceeded to write a book, called The Manual (still in print!), telling the reader how to record a #1 single. As the KLF, they recorded a series of hit singles while working on a film, The White Room. The song "Kylie Said To Jason" was the teaser single for The White Room Soundtrack, but unfortunately, the single tanked (unfairly, in my eyes; it seems to have been later plundered by many more successful artists who had hit singles ripping it off), and the album was never released. (The album The White Room, which was released, is entirely different than the Soundtrack.) After that, they put out Chill Out, credited with basically starting the '90s Ambient movement.

In 1992, they quit the music industry in a different way than most people: They played an awards show, where Extreme Noise Terror, a noise metal band played a version of one of their hits, while Bill Drummond fired a machine gun (filled with blanks) into the audience. After the performance, a recording played over the PA: "The KLF Have Now Left the Music Industry" -- and folks leaving the awards show came upon a dead sheep on the steps of the building. (Extreme Noise Terror, were not amused; they weren't told of this part of the plan and were all vegetarians with strong feelings about animal rights.) The next day, the KLF deleted all of their albums in the UK (still selling strongly, and one would suspect that their sales would have gone up due to the events of the night before had the albums remained in print) to show they weren't kidding.

Since, they've done the occasional single under different names, but they're possibly most famous for burning one million pounds of their own money and making a film (Watch The K Foundation Burn A Million Quid) of it. (Later, a book came out with transcripts of the question-and-answer periods from when they toured the film; though, it was a bit different than most Q-&-A sessions; it was The K Foundation asking the questions for the audience to answer.) There's much, much more to their story, though, so you might want to check around online for more info -- it's really, really interesting. And they made some great records, too. (Luckily, they were unable to have the records deleted in the US, so some of them are still available.) - Rev. Syung Myung Me

Discography

Albums

• 1987 (What The Fuck Is Going On?) (1987)
• Who Killed The JAMs? (1988)
• Shag Times (1989)
• The "What Time Is Love?" Story (1989) - With Various Artists
• Chill Out (1990)
• The White Room (1991)
• Waiting For The Rites Of Mu (1997)

Singles & EPs

• All You Need Is Love (1987)
• Whitney Joins The JAMs (1987)
• 1987 (The JAMS 45 Edits) - This was their first album with the samples removed, and included instructions on how to re-create the original album
• Down Town (1987)
• Burn The Bastards (1988)
• Doctorin' The Tardis (1988
• Kylie Said To Jason (1988)
• What Time Is Love? (1990)
• 3 A.M. Eternal (1990)
• Last Train To Trancentral (1991)
• It's Grim Up North (1991)
• Justified And Ancient (Stand By The JAMs) (1991)
• Fuck The Millennium (1997)

Videos

• Waiting (1990)
• The Stadium House Trilogy (1991)
• The Rites Of Mu (1991)
• Watch The K Foundation Burn A Million Quid (1994)
• Pissing In The Wind (1995)
• This Brick (1997)

Unreleased Material

• Deep Shit (Part 1) (1988) - 500 copies pressed but deemed unsafe to release
• Deep Shit (The Further Adventures Of The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu) (1988) - Graphic Novel
• Love Trance (Pure Trance 3) (1988)
• Turn Up The Strobe (Pure Trance 4) (1988)
• E-Train To Trancentral (Pure Trance 5) (1988)
• The Lovers' Side (Pure Trance 5) (1988)
• Deep Shit (Part 3) (1989) - 6 copies pressed but remains unreleased
• The White Room - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1989) - Scrapped after the failiure of 'Kylie Said To Jason'. Different to 'The White Room' album.
• The White Room (1989) - Film - Rough version completed in 1989 but the KLF decided to film a 'Outer film' to augment it, but this was never finished.
• The Black Room (1992) - Unfinished album

Appears On

Compilations

• Eternity Project One (1989) - 'Feel This'
• Energy - DJ's In The House (1990) - 'Build A Fire (Lenny Dee Remix)'
• Give Peace A Dance: A CND Compilation (1991) - 'What Time Was Love'
• The Help Album (1995) - 'The Magnificent'

Mix CDs

• The Opposite Of Smoke Is Egg Whites
• Past The Barber and Gymnasium
• De Revrum's Crash Course In De Muzikum Educatchum
• Hobotic Mixed CDs Volumes 1-5
• Dub Club V: The Final Frontier - Aila
• The Long-Lost Scene Cut From The End Of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kubrick Decided It Was Too Disturbing

Radio Shows

• Chris Morris Music Show Episode 21: Including international tannoy contributions from Awilbi Faywed, Aheffbin Fayed and Babayev Rijboerdie - and more unsuspecting interviewees
• GLR Show Year End Highlights January 3, 1992