Today it is apparently exactly 23 years since the KLF's rather memorable performance at the Brits alongside Extreme Noise Terror. Strangely all record of this occasion seems to have been wiped from Youtube, but I'm sure those of us over a certain age will be able to recall the "what the f***" reaction that everyone watching had. What the Brits organisers were thinking allowing a group who were essentially berating the pop industry's narrow idea of what represented musical acceptability to open the show was a truly magical moment, although I wish The KLF had gone through with their original plan and chucked dead sheep guts at the audience as well.

The performance of course ended with the announcement that "The KLF have now left the music business" although they didn't officially call it a day until the start of May 1992. So given that this is the 23rd anniversary of their departure has anyone seen any signs???

What seems astonishing about them is that, despite their huge success in 1990-1992, the deletion of their back catalogue means that ask almost anyone under the age of 25 and they'll have no idea who the hell you're talking about. They've gone from the biggest-selling group in the entire country to a fun bit of nostalgia for people in their 30s-40s, their songs very very rarely played today and not available outside of youtube.

I'm 26 and only know them because I heard '3AM Eternal' on VH1 when I was fifteen and thought it was one of the best things I'd ever heard. Even forgetting the whole idea of attempting to 'prank' the music business, the singles they released were bloody brilliant and huge classics of their time. It's astonishing how little they're mentioned or played today and I've already written before how a semi-biographical movie should be made of their career - half of it would be Hollywoodised tosh but it would get their music back in the public eye at least.

Try the Dailymotion for the Brits clip.

The whole thing with the KLF... apart from that they made some pretty god darned fab music is you just would not get anything like them being popular in today's dull conformist music biz.

Ancients of Mu Mu all the way and all the better for it .

Well that's the price they paid for teaming up with Extreme Noise Terror - extreme vegetarians who refused to take part in this extreme anarchy if it involved meat.

They would not play this one on the radio or TV again due to who song it samples. The Daily Mail would explode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdTELokKfCk

It's depressing isn't it. Zero innovation now. The 80s must have been such an amazing period of music. I was too young to appreciate it all. I regret that.

I don't like to get too rose tinted about the past, it makes me feel a little old more than anything else! But yep the 80's were just felt like a magical time when anyone could do anything and it was all about being original. Or if you were going to sample someone at least do it in an original way. I still think there are wonderful artists in todays music scene but not as many.

Its probably highly ironic that one of the KLF piss takes was a book called The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manual

Because its probably has become to template that every talent bypass corporate privates sucking act since has used since. It was almost like a prophecy of what was to come.

I remember a primary school friend of mine had there album and would get his Dad to play the cassette in his car. I remember reading that 'burnt a million quid' and deleted their entire back catalogue.

How on earth did they get Tammy Wynette to do justified and ancient?

If ever a group deserved a film to be made of them.

Offered her an Ice Cream.

Pmsl...

I remember them on the brits and thought wtf! Bloody great!

A very overlooked and underrated act. Original, innovative, influential one of our real treasures.

there's a great mix on soundcloud called trancentral. just stick "klf soundcloud" into google and it should pop up as the first link. or type KLF into soundcloud search and it's about the fourth thing. some folk think it was uploaded by the KLF

The difference is that in the 80s, like the previous decades, the music industry was run by former musicians. They understood the industry and they were prepared to play the long game and nurture new talent with a view to long term success. That success didn't always materialise but more often than not it did.

From the mid-80s onwards the music industry became the music business and the accountants took over. They had little interest in music and were only interested in profit. The end result is what we have now, an endless stream of nice, rather bland, singer songwriters and boy/girl bands who generate rapid return and profit. If their profitability starts to fall they are instantly dropped and replaced.

There are still plenty of very talented artists out there but their chances of achieving mainstream success diminishes by the day, unless they are very lucky.

I didn't know Tammy Wynette was in Justified and Ancient. I didn't know what Mu mu land was, I didn't know they had so many different names etc..

Thanks for introducing all this to me. I'd love to hear the tardis song if anyone has it?

The Timelords - Doctorin' The Tardis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adk1ujjmguo

love that track! what a brilliant pop song... several (early) samples knitted together in one huge p take....

Wow thats awesome. YOu rarely hear that nowadays. Theres a 12" mix too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5fDOCwa9L0

As I said earlier though the use of the GG track now "forbids" it being played anywhere again.

Their last track America What Time Is Love . is not played much, for the Rock fans the singer is Glenn Hughes who was once the Bass player in Deep Purple.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dGj9h8ggCc

Most people know their big hits but one of the great things about the KLF is the extent of their back catalogue and it really pays to go out and explore all of their music from 1987 onwards. I got into the KLF in 1990 off the back of a chance purchase of their album Shag Times (as the JAMs) but their best stuff was released in 1988-89.

A good overview of the KLF's music is contained in their first film The White Room - filmed in 1988 but never officially released.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG3A0jebU0A

And the story behind the film is quite interesting (if true):
http://www.piratecinema.org/the_klf/the_white_room.txt

Their "Stadium House Trilogy" remains amazing to this day. I was slightly too young to remember when they were in the charts but caught up later. I've hoped for a long time they'd come back after 23 years. It'd be fun! A one off performance, a 2015 remix of What Time Is Love and a greatest hits would be nice.

They released the same songs in ingenious different forms. What Time is Love had a Pure Trance version, the stadium house big single, the America version and not forgetting used prominently in the 2K **** the millennium.

My favourite track of theirs by far was 'It's Grim Up North' released as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu and was comic but very dark and inspiring too. The gradual progression from the menacing hard techno merging into the pastoral Jerusalem is one of my favourite music moments ever.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HwtSdJaPCSI

I think "Mu Mu Land" is a reference to the book "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" by
Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, which the KLF were big fans of.

Great track, I agree.

One thing I always noticed is that considering it's a homage of sorts to the north of *England* (ending with "Jerusalem"- i.e. about the closest thing there is to a specifically English national anthem!)... it's ironic- or at least amusing!- that Bill Drummond's recitation of all these place names is in an accent which is still sounds quite significantly Scottish.

Great stuff!

(FWIW, Wikipedia claims that an early version apparently featured (Liverpool-born) Pete Wylie. Drummond himself apparently moved to Corby- i.e. England- when he was 11, but considering Corby used to be known as "Little Scotland" due to the number of Scottish migrants, that might explain why he kept his accent?).