0:00

Where Were You in ninety two is a production

0:02

of I Heart Radio. They

0:06

want you to do something different, They want the shock people.

0:08

They want you to kind of like almost

0:10

destroy their own myth and that's where it went

0:13

to the dark side. Literally, Welcome

0:19

to Where Are You in nine two, a podcast

0:22

in which I your host Jason Lamfier,

0:24

look back at the major hits, one hit wonders,

0:27

shocking news stories, and irresistible

0:29

scandals that shaped what might be the wildest,

0:31

most eclectic, most controversial

0:34

twelve months of music effort this

0:38

week. With their brazen sampling,

0:40

outrageous pr stunts and bizarre

0:42

performances, pop house anarchists

0:45

the Kleft set out to blow

0:47

up the music industry, pairing electric

0:49

guitars with dance beats, rapping with

0:52

New Age lyricism, and the nightlife

0:54

with a contemporary art world. The mysterious

0:56

UK duo of Bill Drummond and Jimmy

0:59

Cardy Or all about breaking rules

1:01

and defying expectations. They

1:03

reached their crazy sonic peak when

1:05

They're left Field collaboration

1:08

with the country icon Tammy Wynett became

1:10

an unlikely global smash, hitting

1:13

number one in eighteen countries.

1:16

The response to their newfound fame. Just

1:19

as fervent fans and bewildered journalists

1:21

felt like they were arriving at the fictitious Mumu

1:23

land at the center of the song, the group

1:26

abandoned music altogether and

1:28

vanished, taking their catalog with

1:30

them. In this episode,

1:33

we explore the KLFs wild ride

1:35

to stardom, from their doomed road trip

1:37

to meet Abba to their infamous performance

1:40

in which one of them took a machine gun and fired

1:42

blanks into the audience, to their

1:45

mind boggling decision to film themselves

1:47

burning their earnings a staggering

1:50

one million pounds. The

1:58

year was seven. Scotsman

2:01

Bill Drummond had been toiling away in the music

2:03

industry for several years and now found

2:05

himself disillusioned. In

2:07

the late nineteen seventies, he'd formed

2:09

the Liverpool punk group Big in Japan.

2:12

His bandmates included Holly Johnson, could

2:15

go on to score an eighties hit called Relaxed with

2:17

his group Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Budget,

2:19

who would eventually become part of Susie and the Banshees.

2:23

After Big in Japan broke up, Drummond

2:25

and another member, David balf founded

2:28

Zoo Records, which released early work

2:30

from Echo and The Bunnyman, whose debut

2:32

album, Crocodiles they produced. In

2:35

the nineteen eighties, Drummond had taken a

2:37

job as an A and R guy for the record label Warner

2:39

Electra Atlantic, working out of its

2:41

London office and pouring a ton of

2:43

time and energy into promoting the rock act Brilliant,

2:47

But the band never really took off, and

2:49

by the age of thirty three, Drummond

2:51

was jaded with the corporate side of the music industry.

2:53

He wanted to be an artist, so in

2:55

nineteen eighties six, he resigned

2:57

from his position is shooting a fake

3:00

press release. Soon after,

3:02

he put out his solo album The Man,

3:05

a well received blend of American country

3:07

and Scottish folk. Drummond

3:10

loved music, in particularly the mystery

3:12

that surrounded it. What do the songs mean?

3:15

How are they made? What were the artists

3:17

behind them really like? But

3:20

he found himself bored with the pop music

3:22

dominating the charts. It had become

3:24

so formulaic. While

3:26

out walking on January one,

3:29

he decided the way forward was hip hop.

3:32

That's where innovation was thriving. He thought trouble

3:37

was Drummond didn't know how the hell to make

3:39

a hip hop record. He'd need to sample

3:41

other songs, but he didn't have a sampler.

3:44

He knew someone who did, though, Jimmy

3:46

Cauty, a member of Brilliant, the group

3:48

he'd signed and promoted as an A n R guy. Brilliant

3:51

had disbanded, and Cauty was not

3:53

only free to explore his next adventure, but

3:55

instantly intrigued by the idea of trying

3:57

his hand at hip hop. By March, the

4:01

pair We're sending out forty five with their first

4:03

track to DJ's and music journalists under

4:05

the alias The Justified Ancients

4:07

of Mumu a k a. The Jams.

4:11

The name was inspired by Robert Shay

4:13

and Robert Anton Wilson's The Illuminatous

4:15

Book trilogy, a sci fi satire

4:17

peppered with sex, drugs, and conspiracy

4:20

theories that Drummond and Couty would source for ideas

4:22

throughout their career. The

4:26

Jams debut song All You Need Is

4:29

Love sampled not only the Beatles song

4:31

of the same name, but also m C

4:33

five's kick Out. The Jams. British

4:35

pin up pop vixen Samantha Foxes touch

4:38

Me and the voice of John Hurt

4:40

from the British ps A Don't

4:43

Die of ignorance about the impact

4:45

and dangers of AIDS, over

4:47

beat box rhythms, Drummond and his

4:49

heavy Scottish accent, wrapped

4:52

with this killer of virus. Who needs war? I

4:54

said, Shag, Shag, shag some more. The

4:57

cut also included snippets of erotic

5:00

hunting and the nursery rhyme ring around the

5:02

Rosie, which some have speculated was about

5:04

the bubonic plag in Europe. So

5:06

yeah, this was a far cry from

5:08

say, beastie boys, fight for your right.

5:13

Michaelangelo Mattos is a music journalist,

5:16

critic, and author of The Underground is Massive.

5:18

How Electronic Dance Music Conquered America.

5:21

He describes the Jam's late eighties work

5:23

as a type of punk playful tongue

5:25

and cheek approach to sampling, not just

5:27

more expansive, but also intentionally

5:29

messy and silly. There are all these DJ

5:32

records, There was this big efflorescence

5:35

of James Brown sampling hip hop

5:37

tracks and in dance music. That

5:39

sound became, you know, instrumental

5:42

versions of those sorts of things, cut

5:44

ups that those

5:47

became very popular in clubs at that point,

5:49

and so the Kleft was like a piss

5:52

take of that. Basically, they

5:54

were basically taking that idea

5:56

and just throwing it in the blender. You

5:59

know, you think you know what sampling can be.

6:01

Here's what sampling can be. We're going

6:04

to just sample every damn thing we

6:06

want. Drummond and Catty hadn't

6:08

gotten permission to use any of the samples,

6:11

but, as Ian Shirley writes in his book Turn

6:13

Up the Strobe, the Koft, The Jams,

6:15

the Time Lords, a History, Drummond

6:18

rejected claims that this was theft. As

6:20

he explained in an interview in the music paper Sounds

6:23

quote, it's like saying Andy Warhol

6:25

just stole other people's graphics, which he didn't.

6:27

He took other people's images and recycled them

6:30

and reused them. That doesn't mean he's robbed

6:32

them and left them with nothing. We're just doing

6:34

musically what he did with the Campbell's soup cans in a picture

6:36

of Marylyn Monroe. In June

6:39

seven, the Justified Ancients of Mumu

6:41

released her debut album, What

6:44

the Funk Is going On. To promote

6:47

it, Drummond and Catty climbed onto

6:49

the roof of the National Theater of the south

6:51

bank of the River Thames and painted the name

6:53

of the record on the building. They got away

6:55

with it, a fusion of house

6:57

music and hip hop. Ninth and

7:00

eighty seven included married samples.

7:02

The Jams remained unapologetic about

7:05

incorporating other artists music without permission.

7:07

Is Drummond told the Music paper Record Mirror

7:10

quote, It's like, and

7:12

you've got yourself an electric guitar, and then somebody

7:15

from the Acoustic Guitar Society comes around

7:17

and says, I'm sorry, you can't do that. It's

7:19

against the law to use electricity and instruments.

7:22

And that's what it feels like. We've got these

7:24

samplers, how are we meant to use them?

7:28

Included samples from major acts like The

7:30

Monkeys, James Brown, Led

7:32

Zeppelin, Jimmie Hendrix and Stevie Wonder,

7:35

and even lifted a bit from The Lonely goat

7:37

Herd from the Sound of Music for its final track

7:40

Next. But it was our

7:42

greedious sample of a certain beloved

7:44

Swedish pop group on their song

7:46

The Queen and I that caused the Jam's

7:48

trouble, says Turn up the strobe

7:51

author Ian Shirley. They

7:53

used Whitney Houston, They sample Whitney

7:55

Houston. They sampled lots

7:57

of different artists and different sounds, a bunch

7:59

of bit of hot balza. Obviously with Abba,

8:02

they sampled Appa and Apple allegedly

8:04

suited them. After meeting with the Mechanical

8:07

Copyright Protection Society, who

8:09

were about as fun as they sound, Drummond

8:11

and Couty received a letter notifying

8:13

them that they had violated the Copyright Act

8:16

of nineteen fifty seven by not seeking

8:18

permission to use other musicians work to produce

8:21

their own. Not only had they

8:23

breached copyright, but Abba was not

8:25

willing to grant them permission to use their disco

8:27

classic Dancing Queen, and demanded

8:29

that they cease production and distribution

8:32

of their album, as well as acquire

8:34

and surrender all copies of it

8:36

so they could be destroyed. The Swedish

8:38

darlings weren't about to uh take

8:41

a chance on these crooked pranksters. They've

8:44

been slapped with a cease and desist order and

8:47

God only knew what the legal and monetary

8:49

repercussions would be. But the Jams

8:51

had an idea, why not take

8:53

this as an opportunity to use

8:55

Abba again to make more art.

8:58

Their next act of Loopy the version

9:01

to truck it to Sweden and ask

9:03

the group in person for permission

9:05

to use Dancing Queen on

9:10

their song The Queen and I, Drummond asked,

9:12

have you ever met Abba? I'd love to meet

9:14

Abba? Well, yeah, who wouldn't, But

9:17

now he and Cotty were actually going to try to make that happen.

9:20

Their pick or asque A journey would be one of the first

9:23

PR stunts of their career. To

9:25

maximize the exposure, they called on journalist

9:27

James Brown, not the musician

9:30

who was then working at the New Musical Express,

9:33

and photographer Lawrence Watson to

9:35

accompany them on their quest. So

9:41

I'm sure you're already wondering what happened

9:43

when these thieving rogues showed up at ABBA's

9:46

doorstep. What did the Swedish superstars

9:48

say? Well, Drummond and Cotty

9:50

never made it to Abba. Instead,

9:53

Catty's American police car transporting

9:55

the band of misfits puttered out, They

9:57

hit a moose and they ended up getting chased a

10:00

way by a piste off farmer with a shotgun.

10:02

After they sent a bunch of copies of their album seven

10:05

on fire on his property.

10:07

Destroying your music was symbolic They're

10:09

grandiose way of apologizing

10:11

to Aba and ceasing and desisting, but

10:14

it also made for good copy and imagery

10:16

for their enemy story. They

10:19

also asked Watson to shoot them, throwing copies

10:21

of the album off the ferry into the seed during the adventure,

10:24

as journalist Brown recalls and Ian

10:27

Shirley's book Turn Up the Strobe, when

10:29

they arrived in Stockholm, they couldn't

10:31

find Aba. They didn't even have their address.

10:34

So three in the morning and another symbolic

10:36

gesture, they gave a gold record to a

10:39

local prostitute they encountered on the street.

10:41

On it, they had written their Maya koopa and surrendered

10:44

to the pop stars. Their message read

10:47

presented to Benny, Bjorn and Stig to celebrate

10:49

sales and access of zero copies of the

10:51

Justified Agents of Mumu's LP seven.

10:56

Like they've done with the records, they burned and

10:58

tossed off the ferry, asked Watson

11:00

to snap a pick up the prostitute with her new gift.

11:03

This whole excursion was basically pointless,

11:07

but the enemy story ran and the Jams

11:09

came one step closer to cementing their reputation

11:11

as tricksters. They'd

11:13

go on to record other singles with blatant

11:16

samples. Their track Whitney Joins

11:18

The Jams contained snippets from the Mission Impossible

11:20

theme, Isaac Hayes's Shaft theme, and

11:22

Whitney Houston's I Want to Dance with Somebody.

11:25

Another Downtown sampled the nineteen

11:28

sixty whtwe the Clark song of the same name,

11:35

but Drummond and Coudy knew they couldn't continue

11:37

pilfering other acts music. Their

11:39

next pr stunt to release

11:41

a new version called

11:44

The Jams forty five edits that

11:46

left out the samples and instead

11:48

included instructions on the record sleeve for

11:50

how to create the original album with a twelve

11:52

inch a turntable and the music they've used.

11:55

The only way for fans to get this version of

11:57

the album was that they brought their original

11:59

copy into record

12:01

shops and surrendered them.

12:09

Less than a year after their botched attempt to go

12:11

meet Abba, Drummond and Catty's penchant

12:13

for sampling transformed them from cult Darling's

12:16

into bona fide charttoppers, dropping

12:19

their Moniker the Jams, and rebranding

12:21

themselves as the Time Lords. The pair

12:23

released their new single, Doctor and the

12:25

Tartist, a novelty track that

12:27

lifted the theme from the Smash UK show

12:30

Doctor Who, and mashed it up with Gary

12:32

Glitter's seventy two glam

12:34

rock song Rock and Roll Part

12:37

two and bits from the glam rock

12:39

band Suits nineteen seventy three UK number

12:41

one blockbuster. Doctor

12:44

and the Tartist referenced the name of the blue

12:46

phone booth, time machine and doctor Who. Tartis

12:49

is an acronym for time and relative dimension

12:51

in space. The song wasn't

12:53

a house record. It's keewed closer

12:56

to spacey stadium rock, something

12:58

to channel along with its sporting events. Its

13:01

lyrics simply repeated Doctor Who

13:03

The Tartist, add infinitum.

13:07

That's likely why this song scored Drummon and Caudi

13:09

their first number one single, despite

13:11

being widely panned by critics who

13:14

called it everything from quote excruciating

13:16

to quote rancid. Of

13:18

course, the Time Lords were in on the joke.

13:21

They recognize the song's absurdity,

13:23

but they also understood the kind of tunes

13:25

that would invigorate the British masses.

13:28

Doctor and the tartist spent a week at the

13:30

summit of the UK charts, inspiring

13:32

the Time Lords to publish a book titled The

13:35

Manual How to Have a Number One The Easy

13:37

Way. A case studying the song's

13:39

success, it offered a step by

13:42

step guide to writing a number one single with

13:44

no money or musical aptitude.

13:47

They understood this was a foolish and reductive premise,

13:49

but like their sample heavy music, it was more

13:52

of an ironic art piece, a commentary

13:54

on the methodic nature of the pop music

13:56

industry complex and on late eighties

13:58

capitalism.

14:01

Drummond explained his reasoning for putting out the book

14:03

inview quote,

14:06

there was an excuse to say a lot of things I wanted to

14:08

say about how the industry worked. It was

14:10

an excuse to go out and say to people all

14:13

they can say to themselves. If you want to

14:15

do something, go and do it. Don't

14:17

wait to be asked, don't wait for a record

14:20

company to come and want to sign you, or a management

14:22

company. Just go and do it. Also,

14:25

it was saying if you want to have a number

14:27

one, you can have it. But it won't make

14:29

you rich, it won't make you happy, but you

14:31

can have it. Of course, the

14:33

book was just another chance for the

14:35

duo to get some media coverage, something

14:38

they were adept dad, says Michaelangelo

14:40

Matos. They knew the press, They

14:42

had the press on their sides. There

14:45

was a certain amount of let's see what

14:47

we can get away with because we know exactly

14:49

how much I think

14:52

we can generate from this.

14:54

The Timelords other strategy for building buzz

14:57

using caudis old American police car,

14:59

the one they've taken to try to meet Aba for all

15:01

the publicity for the single, naming

15:03

it forward Time Lord, they credited the car

15:05

with writing the song and said it to all their

15:07

photo shoots, appearances and interviews. Someone

15:10

affiliated with the group would hide in the vehicle

15:12

under a pile of carpets and field frustrated

15:14

journalists questions. The singles

15:17

cover featured an image of it with the speech bubble

15:19

that read, Hi, I'm for a time

15:21

Lord, I'm a car, and I've made a record.

15:25

The Time Lords were short lived, finished as

15:27

soon as they started. Drummond and Couty

15:29

would release a second hip hop house album

15:31

as The Jams, but they were growing uncomfortable

15:33

with their rising popularity. In the flak they were getting

15:36

for all their sampling, Who Killed

15:38

the Jams marked the end of the justified

15:40

Agents of Mumu and the beginning of the duo's

15:42

new iteration, The Kleft.

15:45

Little did they know they were about to become the most

15:47

famous they'd ever be Up

16:00

next after the break, Drummond and

16:02

Cotty reached their commercial and creative peak,

16:05

scoring a string of worldwide hits and enlisting

16:07

an American country legend to craft

16:09

one of their craziest and most enduring

16:11

singles yet. Plus will

16:14

explore the staggering acts of self

16:16

sabotage that ended their musical

16:18

careers. Before

16:32

Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cotty had spent a

16:34

year audaciously experimenting with samples

16:36

to make strange, very Scottish

16:38

sounding, and frankly very awkward

16:41

hip hop. They'd hit number

16:43

one with their Doctor Who's Sampling novelty

16:45

song Doctor and the Tartis. With

16:48

their offbeat sound collages and over

16:50

the top publicity stunts, they'd garnered

16:52

the attention and for the most part, the respect

16:55

of the music press. They also

16:57

spent a fair share of their time pulling the

16:59

music industries etels. Now

17:01

casting aside their previous stage names, the jams

17:04

and the Time Lords. They were ready to get serious

17:06

about dance music, specifically house

17:08

music, and more specifically acid

17:11

house. Acid

17:14

House was a direct descendant of Chicago

17:16

House and Detroit techno, a

17:18

mostly underground dance movement that had

17:21

failed to infiltrate the mainstream.

17:23

By the late eighties, however, clubs

17:25

were playing in a lot more and it eventually

17:27

became synonymous with UK rave culture.

17:30

Promoters would throw DJ parties and warehouses,

17:33

fields and other clandestine places where revelers

17:35

would dance all through the night and well into

17:37

the morning. The drug ecstasy was a

17:39

major player. Under

17:44

their new name the k LEF, supposedly

17:46

an acronym for the Copyright Liberation

17:48

Front, Drummond and Couty were drawn

17:51

to Acid Houses trademarks. The

17:53

basse created by the Roland TB three

17:55

or three synthesizer and beats

17:57

crafted from Roland t R E O eight

18:00

drum machine. Acid

18:02

House was dark, stabby,

18:04

squelchy and trippy. Their

18:06

first true crack in an asset House influenced

18:09

track was the instrumental cut what

18:11

Time Is Love? Released in October. The

18:14

song became popular in clubs across

18:16

Europe. The Kleft would go on to record

18:18

two more versions of What Time Is Love, adding

18:21

vocals and flushing it out more. In

18:23

July, they released What

18:25

Time Is Love live at trans Central.

18:28

Trans Central was their recording studio.

18:30

The house pop take on the song catapulted

18:33

them into the mainstream, peeking at number

18:35

five on the UK charts. By

18:37

that point, the duo had already released chill Out,

18:40

an ambient house concept album meant

18:42

to chronicle a railroad journey from Texas

18:45

to Louisiana, though neither Drummond

18:47

nor Carty had been to that part of the US, this

18:49

was simply their impression of what it was like, and

18:52

press materials included with revue copies

18:54

of the record, they joked, quote ambient

18:57

house is that the Angels chill out too

18:59

after the Christmas rush.

19:06

Sure they were being their cheeky selves with that description.

19:09

However, Chill Out proved that

19:11

the duo were capable of more restrained,

19:14

well curated, sophisticated music,

19:16

says Matos. So, basically,

19:21

Jimmy Cauty is playing as

19:23

a DJ in the ambient room

19:25

at Land of Oz, which is Paul o'kin Folls

19:27

Club. They're playing ambient music and

19:29

found sound recordings things

19:32

like Electronic Counterpoint by Steve

19:34

Reich or whatever. They're playing this stuff

19:37

in that room.

19:44

That's stuff would inspire. Chillout

19:46

arguably the Kalph's most influential

19:49

release. Over forty five continuous

19:51

minutes, steel guitar and

19:53

samples of Elvis, Fleetwood, Mac and Van

19:56

Halen rub up against bits of bird

19:58

song, crickets, chugging, train bleating,

20:01

sheet news reports, and two in throat

20:03

singers. Chill Out manages

20:05

somehow to be both barely there and

20:08

to totally envelope you. It's the sound

20:10

of waking up the morning or the afternoon

20:13

after the rave. Nothing

20:15

like it had ever been put to take, but

20:23

the trip depicted on Chillout was just a

20:25

detour. The Kaloff were still

20:27

enthralled by asset house and techno, and

20:30

the success of What Time Is Love showed

20:32

that listeners were too. In

20:34

March, they released

20:36

The White Room, the closest rave

20:39

culture had ever come to top forty radio.

20:42

Most of the album's cuts have been recorded in

20:44

some form as the

20:46

soundtrack for a film of the same name, featuring

20:49

scene shot and the mountainous Sierra Nevada

20:52

region of Spain. The movie followed

20:54

them as they searched for the mystical White Room

20:57

that would release them from their contract

20:59

with Eternity, but

21:01

it turned out to be just another expensive k left

21:03

lark, and it was ultimately scrapped.

21:07

The album in the White Room came on the heels

21:09

of the act's first number one single, as

21:11

the KLF three AM Eternal.

21:14

It would also become their highest charting

21:16

US hit, peaking at number five. Three

21:19

A M Maternal is the quintessential

21:21

Klef stadium house track,

21:24

even including the sound of rapturous stadium

21:26

applause, though the guys actually recorded

21:28

it in the studio. Drummond

21:30

and Caudy extended this by to the whole

21:33

first side of the album, which unfurrowed

21:35

like a live concert with

21:37

its more polished, accessible sound and soul

21:39

full diva vocals. Three M Maternal

21:42

appealed to both American pop fans and

21:44

party hopping lovers of acid house, which

21:46

had begun to seep into certain dance clubs and underground

21:48

parties, says

22:05

Mike Lent. Lamata's ninety one

22:08

is when the sort of rave sound

22:10

emerges from European

22:12

producers, basically copying

22:15

underground resistance. The techno banned

22:17

from Detroit, and then by

22:20

ninety two it's being sold back to America,

22:23

which is this weird euro euros thing

22:25

where black American music

22:28

has been transmogrified by Europeans

22:30

and sold back to America under

22:32

the auspices of it being European,

22:36

which it in some

22:38

ways is and in

22:40

many ways is not. A lot of that

22:42

music was by black people in Detroit, and

22:45

American independent

22:47

labels weren't going to sell that. They

22:49

weren't gonna like put that face on it

22:51

because they didn't want to. They were trying to sell

22:54

it to the newly emergent alternative

22:56

crowd. The

23:07

follow up single to three M Maternal Last

23:09

Train to trans Central, didn't chart

23:12

in the U S Hot one hundred, but it's soward to number

23:14

two in the UK in the spring. It

23:17

wasn't until late November that year that The

23:19

k Left would release their next single, Justified

23:21

an Ancient stand by the Jams, but

23:23

Drummond and Couty didn't want to just release the album

23:25

version of Justified an Ancient, a song that

23:28

actually showed up in its original form on the

23:30

Jams debut album

23:32

on the White Room. Justified

23:34

an Ancient was a piano lead soul track

23:37

featuring blissed out vocals from reggae artist

23:39

and multi instrumentalist Errol Nicholson

23:41

a K Black Steel, but the

23:43

remix single version would follow in its

23:45

predecessor's thomping footsteps and keep

23:48

the rave going with more beats, more

23:50

samples, and a very surprising

23:53

choice for a guest vocalist. Singer

23:56

Maxine Harvey, who sang on three M

23:58

Maternal, had originally hoarded lead vocals

24:00

for the updated version of Justified an Ancient, but

24:03

she couldn't take the song subject matter seriously,

24:05

specifically the lines They're justified

24:08

and they're ancient, and they drive an ice

24:10

cream fan, as she told Ian

24:12

Shirley in his book Turn Up the Strobe quote,

24:15

even though I was working with different people, I've

24:17

always been conscious about lyrics, and I weren't

24:20

singing about ice cream. In

24:22

his book, Drummond notes,

24:24

without naming her, that the singer quote

24:26

unquote, sounded uninspired, but

24:28

that Cody had an epiphany one day

24:31

suggesting they enlist none other than

24:33

country legend Tammy Wayne Nott for the song.

24:36

A major country fan, Drummond jumped

24:39

at the idea and claims he

24:41

was on the phone with Wynett twenty minutes later,

24:43

playing her the track as she stood backstage

24:45

at a concert in Tennessee. As

24:48

the story goes, Drummond flew to

24:50

Tennessee a week later to meet Tammy

24:52

way Nett in person. Well, she was

24:54

still Country Royalty and touring. The

24:56

forty nine year old singer was no longer

24:59

climbing the chart sin she had in her sixties and seventies.

25:01

Heyday, if Drummond was stoked

25:03

to work with a hero, why Not was enticed

25:06

by the idea of fronting a dance pop

25:08

single with some trendy new hit makers.

25:11

She, Drummond, and her manager and fifth

25:13

husband, George Ritchie went to a local studio

25:16

where why Nott was such a recorder vocals over

25:18

Drummond's backing track. But there was a

25:20

snag. You see, why Not was

25:22

used to singing with a live backing band who took

25:24

her lead. This process was foreign

25:27

to her and she kept singing too quickly

25:29

or slowly for the beats. Drummond

25:31

was pretty mortified, feeling silly for

25:34

forcing one of his idols to sing about ice

25:36

cream and being quote bound for Moomoo

25:38

Land. He remembers the recording

25:40

process as being a complete disaster, with

25:43

him coming back to the UK worried

25:46

he had nothing and that you'd have to

25:48

nix the whole thing. But

25:50

Collegie had good news. By using some

25:52

fancy editing program, they could

25:54

sample why Nott's vocals and sync them up

25:56

with the music, turning what Drummond

25:58

thought was a shattered dream collaboration into

26:01

a sparkling singular reality.

26:14

Errol Nicholson lent some backing vocals,

26:17

and Drummond and Couty layered in vocals from

26:19

some Zulu singers. They'd

26:22

save the track and soon enjoy

26:24

the fruits of their labor. The Ice

26:26

Cream Band and their retooled version

26:28

of Justified an Ancient was not only

26:30

a bound from Moonmuland, but also

26:32

for the charts, parking at

26:34

number two on the UK Singles Charts, number

26:37

two on the US Dance Charts, and

26:39

number one in several countries including

26:41

Austria, Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

26:44

If the Kaleps collab

26:47

with why Not sounds like a risky, gonzo

26:50

polarizing experiment, it was

26:53

Justified an Ancient as damn close

26:55

to indescribable. So if you don't know

26:57

it, remember it. Pass this podcast

27:00

right now and go put it on. But

27:05

also let me try to describe

27:07

it. What you'll hear or

27:09

what you have heard is a country

27:12

rave mash up by way of South Africa,

27:14

a trancy tribal curio

27:17

about yes, an ice cream

27:19

band chugging along towards MoMu.

27:21

But it's also a tune sprinkled with mysticism.

27:25

Take for example, of the line new

27:27

Style meanwhile, always on a

27:29

mission while fishing in the rivers of life

27:32

from the duo's guest rapper Ricardo di Force.

27:36

Justified an Ancient is a perfect

27:38

musical specimen of cheesy

27:42

hetty, random

27:45

all over the place, totally weird,

27:48

totally fascinating. Here's

27:50

how Turn Up the Strobe author Ian Sureley

27:52

describes it. It kind of reached into the

27:54

history of America of country music, which

27:56

is your kind of along with the blues

27:58

and jazz, is your photo music. So

28:01

there was a kind of modern song with

28:03

this sort of element of classic American

28:06

folk music with it. She

28:08

had singing a line that they're justified and their

28:10

ancient and they drive an ice cream

28:12

band. I mean that kind of like lyric

28:16

is just insane really when

28:18

you write it down, but when you actually put it in the

28:20

context of a song, because

28:22

she's singing about their myth. She is

28:24

an American myth singing about this new

28:26

band's own mythology.

28:29

It's all that kind of link in of myths

28:31

and kind of like old law together

28:34

and it's it's just it's so striking. That

28:36

is the thing that makes it work. And since

28:39

this was the Kalf the music

28:41

world ruling stunt Kings,

28:44

the video for Justivated Ancient also

28:46

had to represent these things. There

28:49

is so much muchness in

28:51

it, says Michelangelo Matos.

28:53

It's a big, splendiferous

28:56

video. It's very

28:58

you know, it's a very like opulent

29:01

and very ridiculous, and so

29:03

that was wonderful. I have

29:06

great memories of that. To execute

29:08

their vision of Moonoland for the video, Drummond

29:11

and Coddy had an ancient temple constructed

29:13

at Pinewood Studios, the sound stage

29:15

where some James Bond movies have been shot. During

29:18

the video's production, Alien three was being

29:20

filmed there. The pair then brought

29:22

in dancers, Zulu singers, and

29:24

actors posing as warriors to join my

29:26

Net, who was decked out in a snug,

29:29

sparkly blue dress. Says he and

29:31

Shirley. You know the funny thing about KLFT,

29:34

everyone thought they were live band because

29:37

they thought that these videos were like Parliament

29:40

Funkadelic. This was just a representation

29:42

of the live show and

29:45

that's why they did it. It was to make it look

29:47

like a massive performance because,

29:49

like I said, lots of house and dance

29:52

bands, they were literally just a couple

29:54

of guys behind synthesizers or computers

29:57

and a girl seeing it, well, was this. It

29:59

looked like there was ramas, It looked like there

30:01

was like bass guitarists, they were backing

30:03

singers. There was sort of like nudency.

30:06

There was closed there was you

30:08

know, Tammy Whine and all this kind of

30:11

a top thing on these massive Marshall

30:13

stacks, you know, all of the amplification. So

30:16

this is great, big pageantry,

30:18

and it's just a shame that they actually never played

30:21

live. The whole thing was insane.

30:23

But Tammy why Nott was game. I

30:26

like to think of her, Tammy why not. When

30:29

Enemy interviewed went out about the collaboration, she

30:31

was ecstatic, though she admitted she

30:33

had no idea what the hell the song was about. I

30:36

know about ice cream bands, but I've never heard of

30:38

a ninety nine before she said, referring to

30:40

the line make mine and

30:42

nine. A ninety nine is basically

30:44

a special ice cream cone with a chocolate flake

30:46

bar shoved into the top of it. Side

30:48

note. At one point Drummond

30:50

and Coddy considered executing a pr

30:52

stunt in which they had a Jams ice

30:54

cream vand and they would hand out cones to

30:56

people, but also give them a hit of ecstasy

30:58

if they said make mine a nine nine. That

31:01

plan was abandoned. One

31:05

outrageous stunt the KLEF did instigate

31:07

to promote the White Room was the Rights of Move,

31:09

an exclusive and extraordinary event

31:12

in which Drummond and Catty invited a select

31:14

group of journalists to the Isle of Jura, off

31:17

the coast of Scotland for the summer solstice

31:19

on June one. The invitation

31:21

read the KLEP require

31:23

your presence, you'll be transported to

31:25

the Lost Continent Move bring your

31:27

passports. As the

31:29

group arrived by ferry to Jura that weekend,

31:32

sure enough, Drummond was there to stamp the guest

31:34

passports with the Jam's signature pyramid

31:36

logo. What unfolded was an

31:39

elaborate ritual filmed by Bill Botton, who

31:41

had directed videos for Echo and the Bunny Man and

31:43

The kalf Shelves White Room Movie. Dressed

31:46

in hooded robes and faunting big tusks

31:48

coming out of their foreheads, Drummond and Catty

31:51

as escort of their visitors, who were also wearing

31:53

robes. They had been provided to a massive wicker

31:55

man by the sea. They're a

31:57

group of Japanese women donning diaph

31:59

in white gowns and blonde wigs. Took

32:02

a personal item from each guest

32:04

and placed it beneath the Wickerman. Drummond

32:07

recited some nonsense language, they

32:09

set the Wickerman on fire, and

32:11

then soon enough corks were

32:13

popped and drinks were poured. This

32:16

was a media event, after all. The

32:20

next day, the quartet of Japanese

32:22

women hired to portray the Angels

32:24

of MoU were filmed emerging from the sea, with

32:27

Errol Nicholson popping up to sing John to Fide

32:29

an ancient you know, to promote

32:31

the actual music. At the end

32:33

of the weekend, attendees were dropped

32:35

off at the Liverpool Festival, a comedy

32:38

where during the intermission of a show at the Royal

32:40

Court, some took to the stage

32:43

to sing along to justify it an ancient

32:45

and then enjoy ice cream served by Drummond

32:48

and Couty from their trademark ice Cream van.

32:51

Ian Shirley estimates that the rights of new

32:53

event cost about seventy thousand pounds

32:56

or eighty dollars. And to

32:58

think nowadays, all you need is were some kids

33:00

to do a TikTok challenge to one of your songs. Still,

33:03

the exposure of the Kalf gout was significant, with

33:06

journalists reporting on the experience and Butts

33:08

footage running on MTV, But the kalps

33:10

most career defining and ultimately career

33:13

ending spectacles were still to come. At

33:15

one time it was stunts, which was

33:17

all good for good copy. Then

33:19

as as it went on, it got its darker because

33:22

it's almost like they wanted to sort of do something

33:25

even more extreme, and that's

33:27

where it kind of got

33:29

across the line into this kind

33:32

of strange

33:34

sort of thing. What can we do that is going

33:37

to shock people more? Up

33:50

next, after the break, I talked to

33:52

turn Up the Strobe author and Kalf expert

33:55

Ian Shirley about the band's notorious

33:57

self sabotaging performance at the eighteen

34:00

ninety two brit awards and their

34:02

astonishing decision to destroy their

34:04

earnings and abandon the music industry

34:06

altogether. Yea,

34:21

the year was and after

34:23

a string of hits and stunts, the

34:25

Kalif were massive and minted.

34:28

Says k left expert ian Shirley. It

34:31

wasn't that they had a big record label.

34:33

They got a deal through rough

34:35

Trade and distributed their music, so

34:38

if they made a dollar a

34:40

record, they kept the ballow a record.

34:43

It wasn't that big dollar went to the

34:45

record label, who then gave them twelve

34:47

cents. They owned all their

34:49

products, They pressed up their products,

34:52

so they were making a tremendous

34:54

amount of money and don't aget they weren't

34:56

touring, so there wasn't that kind

34:58

of overhead to play for that. So

35:01

they were making a tremendous amount of money. It

35:03

was they were literally making millions

35:06

of dollars. Jimmy Cotty and Bill Drummond

35:08

had loved doing press, but they were suddenly

35:10

feeling tons of requests for interviews, TV appearances

35:13

and commercials, many of which they declined. Pressure

35:16

also rose for them to tour, but as thirty

35:18

something family men, they couldn't fathom life

35:20

on the Road. They even turned down an offer

35:22

to perform as guests for Prince. At

35:24

that point, the Kalif single sales

35:26

were through the roof. One chart

35:29

declared them the third biggest selling

35:31

singles act in the UK after Brian Adams

35:33

and Queen, who had become popular again

35:35

after singer Freddie Mercury's death. To

35:37

commemorate their success, the brit Awards,

35:40

the UK equivalent of the American Grammys,

35:42

invited the duo to perform at their ceremony

35:44

at the Hammersmith Odeon in February. Maybe

35:48

they fell honored to be nominated for three awards

35:51

Best British Group, Best Single and Best

35:53

Album, but Drummond and Catty agreed

35:55

to actually perform live, which

35:57

they never did. Of

35:59

course, this was the Kalef. So

36:02

the rendition of three Am Maternal came with a

36:04

twist. They would recruit UK

36:06

hardcore group Extreme Noise

36:09

Terror for a thrashing, barely

36:11

recognizable heavy metal version of the song.

36:13

You see. The pair had started to record their

36:15

follow up album to The White Room, titled The Black

36:18

Room with the Band, but that project was

36:20

shelved now

36:28

they deserted their original plan, which was

36:30

to cut up a sheep corpse on stage

36:32

and toss buckets of its blood and pieces

36:35

of it under the audience. But the

36:37

Kaliph's birth performance still involved

36:39

some of the most mind blowing hyjunks yet.

36:42

Drummond, dressed in a kilt and holding

36:44

a crutch with a cigar pinched between

36:46

his teeth, ended it by taking

36:48

a machine gun and firing blanks

36:51

into the crowd, Allah said Vicious

36:53

in the nineteen documentary The Great Rock

36:55

and Roll Swindle. The Insane

36:57

set concluded with an announcement riffing

37:00

on the final line of three am turtle Ladies

37:03

and Gentlemen, that KLF have now

37:05

left the building. In

37:07

a more ominous definitive statement,

37:10

the duo's publicists, Scott Pearing,

37:12

declared that KLF have

37:14

left the music business. Later

37:17

that night, they deposited the dead

37:19

sheep they planned to slice and dice at the show

37:21

on the red carpeted steps of the Royal

37:23

Lancaster Hotel, where the Brits after

37:25

party was held. A note attached

37:27

to the carcass read, I died

37:29

for you bone appetite. For

37:32

many, the stunt crossed the threshold

37:35

and too gratuitous and grizzly. It

37:37

wasn't so much funny as it was bewilsering and

37:39

to some infuriating. Meanwhile,

37:41

I want to sort of funk you to the Brits and to the

37:43

whole notion of prestige and accolades in

37:45

general. COTTI took the Pairs Award

37:48

for Best British Group that they won that night

37:50

and buried it near Stonehenge. According

37:53

to the two thousand one documentary

37:55

Who Killed the KLF. After it

37:57

was uncovered two months later and turned

37:59

over to the police, the k left went back

38:02

and buried it deeper. Bill

38:07

Drummond and Jimmy Carty seemed to think

38:09

they'd reached the pinnacle of success and

38:11

that the only place to go from there was

38:14

down. Why do that?

38:16

If they could go out in a high note and

38:18

break up the party themselves, says

38:21

he and Shirley did everything, and

38:23

it was that kind of all encompassing

38:26

mad madness that probably exhausted

38:28

them. And then after a while they realized that they've

38:30

done so much they just couldn't top it,

38:33

and the fact that people love what they were doing kind

38:35

of like turn them off. That's the interesting

38:37

thing. They wanted to kind of like destroy

38:40

what they left their own with and the

38:42

spring of shortly

38:44

after their infamous brit spectacle, the

38:46

k Left stopped pressing albums and singles

38:49

and set out to obliterate their entire

38:51

catalog. A statement they

38:53

released to the press and placed some ads and music

38:55

papers read. For their foreseeable

38:58

future, there will be no further

39:00

record releases from the Justified Ancients

39:02

of Mumu, the Timelords, the Jams,

39:05

the Kalf, and any other past,

39:07

present and future name attached to our activities.

39:10

As of now, all our past releases

39:12

are deleted. Answering machines and

39:15

fax machines were shut off. Drummond

39:17

and Cardi disappeared to Mexico, but

39:20

the story doesn't end there. After

39:22

engaging in another pr stunt and crashing the

39:25

art world with the k Foundation Award, which

39:28

to the artists who produced the worst body of work from

39:30

the previous twelve months, the Klef

39:32

made their biggest, most shocking

39:35

artistic statement yet. They decided

39:37

that they not only wanted to obliterate their music,

39:40

but obliterate any trace of their

39:42

profits from it. So on

39:44

August

39:47

they returned to the island of Jura in Scotland,

39:50

struck a match and set fire to

39:52

their earnings burning one

39:55

million pounds. They

40:00

had originally tried to get Lendon's Take Gallery to allow

40:02

them to display the money now to the wall, but it,

40:05

among other galleries, refused to showcase

40:07

this quote unquote art, so Drummond

40:09

and Catty took matters into their own hands, filming

40:12

their hard earned cash as it turned to numbers

40:15

and presenting footage of their act of self annihilation

40:17

and various cities a year later. Audiences

40:20

who saw it were flabbergasted. Many

40:23

were enraged, says Michelangelo

40:25

Maato's I mean, that's really the most audacious

40:28

thing you could do. I don't know

40:30

how else to describe it. It's

40:32

just it's sort of breathtaking. I

40:34

mean, in a way, it's

40:37

callous. It's an almost

40:39

an act of you

40:41

know, class warfare. I

40:51

tracked out Ian Shirley, Who's two thousand

40:53

seventeen book Turn Up the Strobe chronicles

40:55

Arise and Self Induce Fall of the Kala to

40:58

discuss that notorious Brits performance, their

41:00

career literally going up Your Flames, and

41:02

their decision to finally make their music available

41:04

on streaming services in two thousand twenty one,

41:07

basically right around the time

41:10

that uh you

41:13

know, Justified an ancient was was charting.

41:15

They you know, are invited to perform at the at

41:17

the brit Awards and uh

41:20

in early So tell

41:22

me about tell me about their thought

41:24

process going into the brit Awards

41:26

in two and uh and what

41:28

they had planned, because I think

41:30

this is maybe sort of the beginning of the

41:34

the unraveling of it all. Yeah,

41:36

but it already started. What happened

41:39

was normally you have to submit the song before

41:42

performing because obviously the actual

41:44

show wants to know what you're going

41:46

to play. And this was such a radically

41:49

different version of their own song.

41:52

They almost sort of told them that they couldn't

41:54

play it, but they

41:57

had They allowed the care left to play it.

41:59

But and this is where he got really dark, because

42:01

there's all these talks of what they

42:03

were going to do on stage. I mean,

42:05

one time Bill was going to cut

42:08

up a sheep live on stage. So on the

42:10

morning of the show, he goes and gets a sheep

42:12

that is pre ordered. He was

42:14

going to throw blood over the front of the audience,

42:17

the front row of the audience, so he went up and

42:19

got all this blood. Uh,

42:22

he was gonna at one time chop off on his arms

42:24

or something I've read somewhere. It's just

42:26

this absolute kind of using

42:28

this moment to sort of act

42:31

have this amazingly visual

42:34

kind of darkness. And what's so

42:36

funny is extreme noise terror. We're

42:38

all vegetarians, so the thought

42:41

of actually build cutting up a sheep

42:43

live on stage didn't really go down well

42:45

with them. The thought of actually

42:47

build throwing blood over on the front

42:50

row of the audience didn't go well with them.

42:53

And it's a classic thing that when they did perform, it

42:55

all sort of went wrong because Jimmy

42:58

talked about having this great big guitar our

43:00

solo he'd always wanted he was a guitarist

43:02

and won't have this massive big guitar solo,

43:04

and they had already decided it would be the last

43:06

ever performance, And of

43:08

course, when he actually went step forward to playing

43:11

his guitar, he pulled the lead

43:13

out of the amplifier, and so by

43:15

the time he got it back in, it was all over

43:18

and it was just and

43:20

also builded this classic thing when he came

43:22

out in the trench coat with a cigar

43:24

in his mouth, firing and blanks

43:26

of a machine gun at the audience,

43:29

which is all very much synficious my way

43:31

thing, and of course all

43:34

the audience thought this was just part of the spectacle,

43:37

you know, it was. It was sort of transgressive,

43:39

but it was just all well done. That was exciting.

43:42

Who's the next act? You

43:44

know the fact that they sent a courier bike courier

43:46

to click their award again, it's just sort of like

43:48

a modern kind of you know,

43:50

what someone would do today to get attention

43:53

on social media, and of course at that time

43:55

there was no social media. And

43:57

that was their last performance,

43:59

and that was I think they went

44:01

to the studio they were going to carry on recording

44:04

with extreme noise terror and

44:06

then Jimmy said, look that's it. I

44:08

think we should stop, and they literally did stop

44:10

at that point. That was the last time

44:12

they actually appeared. And then obviously in the UK

44:16

they deleted their entire back catalog,

44:18

they deleted everything. But in America I

44:20

don't think they could delete the back catalog because

44:23

of the deal with a rister, so records over

44:25

there sould for some time. But you

44:27

know, it's insane that an artist, you imagine,

44:29

like Snoop Dogg or mcdonna's

44:31

saying I've stopped now performing. I'm

44:33

not doing anything more. No more streaming

44:36

of my music, no more physical product. I

44:38

mean, look at the weekend

44:41

saying, right, I become a born again

44:43

Christian. Music is wrong. So

44:45

suddenly next month

44:48

you can't stream his music no more, you

44:50

can't download his music no more. It's

44:52

not a YouTube, you can't buy

44:54

the physical product. It's that kind of level

44:57

of success that they turned their

44:59

back up. They just literally said we will press

45:01

no more records and no more CDs,

45:04

and therefore people will not be

45:06

able to buy it anymore. It was an amazing

45:08

sort of like and they cut off their own

45:10

income stry, you know, because really they would

45:12

have actually made quite a lot of money

45:14

over the years by actually

45:17

their back catalog selling it was it would

45:19

sell forever. What

45:21

was the catalyst or

45:24

what were the catalysts for them

45:26

to call it quits? I don't. I mean,

45:28

this is the thing. I mean, when I wrote my book,

45:30

I never got I met I met Finn and Jimmy

45:33

afterwards. But they, you know, they

45:36

kept very tight lipped about their reasons. I

45:38

mean, they had their reasons to stop

45:40

him. Maybe they've had enough, Maybe

45:42

they got you know, Bill and Jimmy thought

45:44

that what how much more successful.

45:46

Can we be We've had worldwide

45:49

hits, a worldwide top seven

45:51

album. You know, there's

45:53

no there's no much there's not much

45:55

further you can do. And that's why when they

45:58

they transitioned into these sort of found nation

46:00

where they actually, you know, did

46:02

the prize, remember the Turner Prize, and then

46:04

they gave their own awards and

46:06

things like that, and they started doing stunts

46:09

after that where lots of

46:11

the journalists would come along and say, oh, this looks

46:13

great. But when they realized there was no music,

46:16

there was no kind of new video,

46:18

new song, that they

46:20

lost interest in them. That the interest

46:22

weighed because it was no longer these

46:24

guys doing the merry pranks

46:27

and there's some great music coming out.

46:29

It was these guys doing these quite dark

46:31

things which kind of like turn

46:34

people off, and they lost kind of a lot

46:36

of traction, which I think in

46:38

some respects they enjoy it and

46:40

other times they thought, well, we want more attention.

46:43

It was when that's why the ultimate thing

46:45

of burning a million pounds, this insane

46:48

kind of idea that all the money they

46:50

made from music was

46:52

tarnished, so therefore they had to burn

46:55

it. And you know, it's kind of It's

46:58

that kind of what mental eight were

47:00

there in to sort of come up with that, and

47:02

then what mental state were they actually actually follow

47:04

through with it. And I know that from

47:07

you know that some of the wives weren't happy after

47:09

that. You know that why

47:12

why and exactly how do they go about

47:14

doing it? But I don't I mean, I think

47:17

even today, I mean, you know, they was

47:19

one of the things is sad in some respects

47:21

that they're remembered more for burning the money

47:23

than they're after the music. It's

47:25

something that they decided to do and

47:28

they had to live with it after that, and

47:30

you know, obviously they you know

47:32

that they actually had to we had

47:35

to pay tax on it or something because it was you know, they burnt.

47:38

It's the money that had earned you know, it

47:40

wasn't not wasn't unearned, you know, the money that in fact

47:42

that the fact that I love the fact that they could

47:44

get a million pounds out of the bank.

47:47

People were very upset because you

47:49

know, you're it's their money. They can do what they want

47:51

with it. But people thought it was a very kind of

47:55

strange thing to do. And the fact that

47:57

they didn't come out, they didn't come out of it people saying,

47:59

well, that's amazing. People thought, you

48:01

know, you're stupid, why are you burning money? And unfortunately

48:04

became a coda. You know, they are the band

48:07

that burned a million dollars or you know, a

48:09

million pounds, and you

48:11

know, I think for a long time it was a

48:13

shadow whatever Bill and Jimmy did it

48:15

sort of cut. Mean, Jimmy's done lots of art, and

48:18

Bill's written lots of books and done lots of different

48:20

things. But that's the one thing they remember

48:22

me, if they're remembered by I mean, it's

48:25

rather than the music. Music is great.

48:27

I can see how some people would have thought it was in partaste,

48:30

why not take that million pounds and donated to

48:33

some charities, you know anything,

48:37

I do wonder if

48:39

they're plotting some sort of comeback

48:42

or or what

48:44

is in the works, because it

48:46

was a little strange, you

48:49

know, the beginning of two thousand twenty

48:51

one, when you know,

48:54

some of their tracks were

48:57

released on streaming and digitally

48:59

the first time really since they

49:02

took it all away, right, did you

49:04

did you know this was coming or did you wake up surprised

49:07

to discover that as well? They

49:10

did the twenty after twenty years. They did the thing in

49:12

Liverpool which I went to, where that they had

49:14

like a sort of three day k or ethics traffic

49:16

anzer. I didn't

49:18

know the music was coming, A

49:21

lot of people didn't, but it's the sort of thing they would

49:23

do. But I

49:25

don't think they have any plans.

49:27

I mean, Jimmy has been you know, it's quite well known

49:29

as an artist who sort of you know, in a sort of

49:32

banksy moment really, and Bill

49:34

has always done different things from choirs

49:36

to cook into people. It's just it's

49:39

just not like part of their history. I know they've got a very

49:41

rapid fan base, but I don't think they are

49:43

looking to make new music, to

49:46

do different things. I mean, I think the fact that they

49:48

put the music out is

49:50

sort of like the fact that you

49:52

know, they said, right, people have forgotten the ballot,

49:54

so now and let people listen to it again. I

49:56

mean obviously were streaming now, I mean

50:00

to make millions and millions of plays for them

50:02

to make any money. They probably do make money from

50:04

it, but I think it's very much

50:07

part of their past. You know, they're not

50:09

looking now to come back

50:11

and restore the KLF, and nor should

50:14

they. I mean I think what they did now

50:16

sounds sort of test of time. With music. It's

50:19

still the time, test of time of visuals, it's

50:22

still the test of time as sort of pranksters

50:25

and kind of what they did as artists,

50:27

and you know, people can look back on it and enjoy

50:30

it now. You can watch the video and

50:32

not you know, it's funny they I

50:35

think they've spent a quarter million pounds on some

50:37

of the songs and videos, but no one

50:39

sort of like writes that off against

50:41

them burning a million pounds. I

50:43

mean Michael Jackson remember when he was doing

50:45

history or something. He was like,

50:48

I don't think he's like paying a million dollars attract

50:50

to work with people or something like that.

50:52

You know, all the pop industry at

50:54

one time, the amount of money that is spent on

50:56

promo videos and things like

50:58

that, and it just doesn't scene to matter.

51:01

But if you go out and burn a million pounds,

51:04

it's kind of like people do get offended.

51:07

It's interested, it's

51:10

resonated. Yeah, it's interesting.

51:13

That is a really that is a really

51:15

fascinating take on it, because it almost makes

51:17

me wonder if it was at least partly commentary

51:20

on the fleeting nature

51:23

of music and all the money that is dumped

51:25

into these you know, like

51:28

you said, a single, one single perhaps,

51:30

right, and then let's say that single tanks

51:33

doesn't go anywhere, you know,

51:35

barely scrapes the top forty or not even.

51:38

And but yet they all this

51:40

money was dumped into the promo video,

51:43

you know, remixes maybe,

51:46

and and that's just gone. It's

51:49

but it's like with politics. And look in America,

51:52

every time there's a Democratic or Republican

51:54

campaign, a presidential campaign, billions

51:56

of dollars spent on advertising

51:59

on all of these things, and no one questions

52:02

that is a waste of money. No

52:04

one questions it. Every day on

52:06

the TV. I mean, I like American football

52:08

when it's on. I watched endless adverts

52:11

for pizza Pizza Hut or these

52:13

insurance companies, and they spend obviously

52:15

millions of dollars to have it on during the American

52:17

football. No one questions that this money

52:20

is spent just to reinforce the brand.

52:22

It doesn't make a blind bit of difference. I mean

52:24

whether I buy a pizza or not. You

52:27

know, all of these things whereby money is

52:29

spent willy nearly

52:31

on things. If you can sum up

52:34

You've touched on this a little bit already, but if you could sum

52:36

up the legacy and impact

52:40

of the kl AFT in

52:42

music specively, but then you know, in pop

52:44

culture as a whole, how would you

52:46

how would you sum up their impact and legacy.

52:49

I think the KFT have left

52:51

sort of like musically as a tombstone. They've got

52:53

the White the White Room album,

52:55

you know, Justified and Ancient Free Am

52:57

E Turn or What Timer's

53:00

Love. You know, these are records

53:03

and songs that will just go on forever

53:05

and people will discover them because they're great.

53:07

It's great music, and you

53:10

know, and they do they did the right

53:12

thing, which has to make these amazing videos

53:14

to promote the songs, so that when

53:16

people look back, these

53:18

young people who look on Spotify,

53:21

they will think that the k left for a big band

53:23

that toured. They will think that they filled

53:25

stadiums around the world because they see

53:28

these videos. I think that's just a little more replication

53:30

of what they did live on stage. So

53:33

what they've done, they've created this myth

53:36

and in some respects what they did by stopping,

53:38

they actually solidify what they did

53:41

because there's no kind of post White

53:43

Room albums that don't cut

53:45

it. There's no kind of working

53:48

with you know, they did Tammy win It,

53:50

and then they decided to work with someone like

53:53

I don't know, Tony Christie, or

53:56

they work with you know, Kirk

53:58

Gabay which didn't come off, or there's

54:00

no kind of coda where the music just

54:03

sort of like gets tired. They stopped

54:05

making music right at

54:07

the peak. And that

54:09

was the kind of most savvaest thing they did.

54:12

They went out on top and everything that

54:14

happened afterwards, people will look

54:16

back and see what they did. These prez

54:19

absolute monster singles, one

54:22

bigger than the other, in the music,

54:24

in the visuals, and in the chart

54:26

places around the world. And they

54:28

went out and said, thank you very much. Was

54:33

it mic drop? As they said, A

54:36

very big, very billowy, very

54:39

smoky, very

54:42

mic drop. Three

54:55

decades later, the smoke is long cleared,

54:58

but we're still left wondering if that money

55:00

burning on the Isle of Jurro was a the

55:02

most expensive and dramatic dissilusion of

55:04

the band ever be the

55:06

product of the k left guys teetering on the

55:09

edge of sanity see

55:11

the result of a lot of drugs and alcohol

55:13

or d all the above, says

55:16

Mottoes. There's nothing on

55:18

the record where they ever come

55:21

clean about any other intention

55:23

other than let's see what it's

55:25

like regardless. On August

55:29

seventeen, Drummond and Catty barreled

55:31

into Liverpool, England and they're now old

55:33

and battered ice cream van to prove that they

55:35

still had a few treats to serve up to their die

55:37

hard fans. Exactly twenty

55:40

three years after they scorched all that

55:42

cash, Drummond and Catty resurrected

55:44

the Justified Ancients of Mumu, releasing

55:47

a dystopian novel two a

55:50

trilogy, and hosting a three day

55:52

happening called Welcome to the Dark Ages.

55:55

The event, which some four quote

55:58

unquote volunteers attended, included

56:01

various role playing and a panel debate

56:03

that posed the eternal question why

56:05

did the k Foundation burn a million quid?

56:08

Conceptual artists and academics weighed

56:10

in. When Drummond and Caughty themselves

56:12

were asked the question, they simply replied,

56:15

whatever, So, after all

56:17

that time had passed, still no answer,

56:20

but guests were given torn out pages of the Jam's

56:22

new novel for their time. The

56:27

Jams also announced their latest endeavor

56:30

no not music, but a

56:32

literal pyramid scheme, The

56:35

People's Pyramid, a massive structure

56:37

made of bricks from human ashes.

56:40

Those who wish to contribute to the momification

56:43

could pay pounds to have their

56:45

remains packaged into said bricks. The

56:48

slogan for the process was by now

56:50

Die Later. The pyramid

56:52

would be erected in Talks Death in Liverpool

56:55

and updated each year on Talks Death

56:57

Day of the Dead. After the annount

57:00

Samanth, a yellow robed choir, took

57:02

to the stage of the event held at the Arts

57:04

Venue the floor. They were joined

57:06

by a blue hooded figure, soon revealed

57:08

to be Jarvis Cocker, the lead singer

57:11

of the UK brit pop band Pulp, who

57:13

led them in a gospel version of

57:15

Justified an Agent. The

57:19

happening culminated with the volunteers

57:21

assembling in a field around a large pyramid,

57:23

onto which structure is called Coffins for

57:25

life were stacked. Then, like

57:28

the Wickerman at the rights of move and

57:30

like the Kleft Millions and Earnings,

57:33

the whole thing was set on fire, Drummond

57:35

and Caudi sporting horns like they had at

57:37

the rights of the Moon. Nearly thirty years before stood

57:40

in the night, watching from the sidelines. Depending

57:48

on who you are, welcome to the Dark Ages

57:50

was either the comeback of the decade, a failed

57:53

attempt to recapture the chaotic

57:55

magic of a bygone era, or

57:57

just a bunch of nonsense. But

57:59

if you cared to remember the Kaleps

58:01

and music as much as their mischief,

58:04

this wild and wooly story has a happy

58:06

ending. It does for me anyway.

58:08

On January one, two one,

58:10

I, along with many others, awoke to discover

58:13

with glee that the Kalif had finally

58:15

put some of their songs on streaming services Solid

58:18

State Logic one, a collection of eight

58:21

remastered singles, including three m

58:23

Maternal and Justified an Ancient, had

58:25

dropped at midnight, while several

58:27

of their official videos had been published

58:29

for the first time on the duo's YouTube

58:31

channel. Three more releases, including new

58:34

versions of the album's Chill Out in the White Room, followed.

58:37

The kal Lef had re entered the building,

58:39

their strange and boundary pushing dance

58:41

music, re emerging from its thirty

58:43

year moratorium. Like an acid house

58:46

Lazarus. I was reminded of

58:48

their loony, impish brilliance

58:50

and all the ship that went down to those seven

58:53

short years, says Michelangelo

58:55

Mattos, like fucking Kalef for

58:57

the coolest, Like they're fucking more masks

58:59

and a wore like Hosmat

59:02

suits, and they were like anonymous

59:04

and sarcastic, and they pulled

59:07

stocks. Well, it was not to like

59:09

the records were great. Who knows

59:11

why Bill Drummond and Jimmy Carty decided to break their

59:13

musical silence and make a large chunk of their

59:15

discography available again. Perhaps,

59:18

like Ian Shirley suggests, they figured

59:20

many had forgotten about it, so why not? And

59:23

the kalf Mythos motives

59:26

tend to remain mysteries. Logic

59:28

can't be applied here, so then maybe

59:31

it's best to just hit your eye in the ice cream

59:33

van, follow the trail to Mumu

59:35

Land, and lose yourself in the crazy.

1:00:11

Where Were You in ninety two was a production of

1:00:13

I Heart Radio. The executive

1:00:15

producers are Noel Brown and Jordan run

1:00:17

Talk. The show was researched, written

1:00:20

and hosted by me Jason Laffier,

1:00:22

with editing and sound design by Michael Alder

1:00:24

June. If you like what you heard,

1:00:27

please subscribe and leave us a review. For

1:00:29

more podcasts for my heart Radio, check

1:00:31

out the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast,

1:00:34

or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.