Roger P presents … The K Foundation: Burn a Million Quid

“The KLF (also known as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (aka The JAMs), The Timelords and other names) were one of the seminal bands from the British acid house movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“Beginning in 1987, Bill Drummond (alias King Boy D) and Jimmy Cauty (alias Rockman Rock) released hip hop-inspired and sample-heavy records as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, and on one occasion (the British number one hit single “Doctorin’ the Tardis”) as The Timelords. As The KLF, Drummond and Cauty pioneered the genres “stadium house” (rave music with a pop-rock production and sampled crowd noise) and “ambient house”. The KLF released a series of international top-ten hits on their own KLF Communications record label, and became the biggest-selling singles act in the world for 1991. The duo also published a book, The Manual, and worked on a road movie called The White Room.”

KLF – America: What Time is Love?

KLF – Last Train to Transcentral

KLF – Justified and Ancient (Stand by the JAMs)

“From the outset, they adopted the philosophy espoused by esoteric novel series The Illuminatus! Trilogy, gaining notoriety for various anarchic situationist manifestations, including the defacement of billboard adverts, the posting of prominent cryptic advertisements in NME magazine and the mainstream press, and highly distinctive and unusual performances on Top of the Pops. Their most notorious performance was at the February 1992 BRIT Awards, where they fired machine gun blanks into the audience and dumped a dead sheep at the aftershow party. This performance announced The KLF’s departure from the music business, and in May 1992 the duo deleted their entire back catalogue.”

1992 Brit Awards Performance: Extreme Noise Terror vs. KLF

“With The KLF’s profits, Drummond and Cauty established the K Foundation and sought to subvert the art world, staging an alternative art award for the worst artist of the year and burning one million pounds sterling. Although Drummond and Cauty remained true to their word of May 1992—the KLF Communications catalogue remains deleted in the UK—they have released a small number of new tracks since then, as the K Foundation, The One World Orchestra and most recently, in 1997, as 2K.

“K Foundation Burn a Million Quid was an action that took place on 23 August 1994, in which the K Foundation (an art duo consisting of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty) burnt one million pounds sterling in cash on the Scottish island of Jura. This money represented the bulk of the K Foundation’s funds, earned by Drummond and Cauty as The KLF, one of the United Kingdom’s most successful pop groups of the early 1990s. The duo have never fully explained their motivations for the burning.

“The incineration was recorded on a Hi-8 video camera by K Foundation collaborator Gimpo. In August 1995, the film—Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid—was toured around the UK, with Drummond and Cauty engaging each audience in debate about the burning and its meaning. In November 1995, the duo pledged to dissolve the K Foundation and to refrain from public discussion of the burning for a period of 23 years.”

K Foundation – Burn a Million Quid (Part 1)

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

K Foundation – Burn a Million Quid (interview, part 1)

Part 2

Part 3

“On September 17, 1997, a new film, This Brick, was premiered. The film consisted of one 3-minute shot of a brick made from the ashes of the money burnt at Jura. It was shown at the Barbican Centre prior to Drummond and Cauty’s performance as 2K.

“On September 27, 1997 a book written by Chris Brook and Gimpo entitled K Foundation Burn A Million Quid (ISBN 0-9541656-5-9, ISBN 1-899858-37-7 paperback) was published. The book contains stills from the film and transcriptions of various Q&A sessions from the tour. The book also contains an image of the single house brick that was manufactured from the fire’s ashes. Publisher Ellipsis promoted the book with an advert modelled on those of the K Foundation – “Why did Ellipsis publish K Foundation Burn A Million Quid?” they asked.

“Initially, Drummond was unrepentant, telling The Observer in 2000 that he couldn’t imagine ever feeling regret unless his child was ill and only “an expensive clinic” could cure him. By 2004, however, he had admitted to the BBC that he now regretted burning the money. “It’s a hard one to explain to your kids and it doesn’t get any easier. I wish I could explain why I did it so people would understand.””

Wikipedia Page – Burn a Million Quid

publishing info	Author |	Dennis Cooper
	Source |	denniscooper-theweaklings.blogspot.com ^
	Date |	December 29th, 2008