Archive for the ‘Live Appearances’ Category
Postponed for 2 weeks due to the death of Princess Diana, they returned as 2K, but for 23 minutes only, at a theatre that normally stages operas. The highly amplified performance was a collaboration with artist Jeremy Dellar and the Williams Fairey Brass Band who had impressed Bill and Jimmy with their ‘Acid Brass’ version of What Time Is Love? After an intro consisting of a tape of Fame, horrible and loud, intercut with foul rock guitar and white noise screeches, there was a short introduction by Anthony Wilson before the glorious, jaw-dropping mess began. Onstage were a brass band, a choir of lifeboatmen dressed in oilskins, a string section, a rhythym section, Gimpo in white coat, and Zed as a gold lame preacher and a couple of bus loads of sacked Liverpool dockers with banners and placards. Cauty and Drummond careered around in motorised wheelchairs, knocking over the string section and sending sheet music flying. They were dressed as ‘Old Gits’ in pyjamas, each with a giant horn strapped to his forehead, throughout it they fought over a dead swan, tearing out feathers and throwing them to the crowd. Everyone seemed to be miming to the Fuck the Millennium single, with K Sera Sera in the middle. The audience were requested to stand and sing during the hymn section, but no-one did. The whole thing was shown on Swedish TV and copies are available, some footage was shown on MTV, but not the live coverage promised, and the show was edited into a promo video for the single.
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. ETERNNAAAAL” from the two E.N.T. vocalists. This was 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, 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 the 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.” (Culf’s review on the Mailing List) 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”. For the full dead sheep, buckets of blood, and tabloid press indignation story see the FAQ.
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. They gave out ice creams from an ice cream van they had borrowed from a man who regularly parked it in the street outside their london offices. According to a list member who was there a lot of Liverpudlians got on stage too and it wasn’t very funny.
“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 throughly 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.” (NME, 12th Jan 91)
“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.” (NME, 3rd Nov 90)
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. There is an NME account, which I don’t have (10th Mar 90). Mike Dutton has a bootleg tape of this, fairly poor quality.
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.
“I saw a on the danish BABY HITS compilation (incl what time is love), that the KLF played live in Denmark newyearseve 89-90 in The Baby Klub, can anyone confirm this. I’ve heard once that it was a trash version of WTIL, but I don’t remember where I heard that”
“I have heard that Steffen Andersen from a Danish teknogroup (Mental Generation) has confirmed that KLF played in Denmark new-years-eve 89-90 at the Coma Club” (emails from Ulrik Hansen, moo(at)mip.ou.dk )
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 childrn’ 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.”
stephen(at)hk.net adds:
“god if only I had taken better care of those brain-cells!!! yeah I was at this party, but always thought it to be a bit closer to brighton than oxfordshire – still muddled-minds-will-travel …… remember the throwing of the notes well, due to a large contingent of the crowd demanding more, once they had run-out!!! … remember nothing of the music though – blurred-dazes-of-yester-year…”
“personally saw them on two occasions – one in a field not a million miles from brighton/london (have the flyer in a box somewhere) – have no idea if it was live – they were on top of some scaffolding fiddling around – and second time in brixton, a bit more of a musical event this one – although the rest of the line-up (guru-josh adamski) were not – how to say – ‘not to my taste!’…”
KLF Comunications Info Sheet #9 proclaimed “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!” But did it take place? because the very same night…
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