The KLF - Chaos, Magic and the band who burned a million pounds
For anyone under the age of 25 you may not have heard of the KLF or The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords or The K Foundation (as they were latterly known as).
If like me, you’re in your mid 30’s or older and recall dancing (badly) in the high school disco to hits such as Doctorin the Tardis or (America) What Time is Love, you might vaguely recall the time they took one million pounds to an abandoned boathouse in the Scottish Isle of Jura, and proceeded to burn the lot while being filmed. This book is about that event and a whole lot more. If you’re looking for a bog standard KLF biography this certainly isn’t the book for you!
The quite brilliant author John Higgs somehow manages to link the thought process behind the money-burning event, with everything from Surrealism, Discordianism and the Kennedy assassination to Tony Blair, Dr Who and even the nature of consciousness itself. This is a book that requires an open mind, and willingness to go along with the ideas being proposed to fully appreciate where it’s leading.
When The KLF were in their Top 40 UK chart hit phase in the mid nineties, I was in secondary school and wasn’t aware of their previous incarnation as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu or The Jams — although I do vaguely remember watching Doctorin the Tardis on the now defunct show Top of the Pops, which is also described in nostalgic detail in the book.
KLF members Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty already had a long & established history in the UK music scene as musicians in other popular bands and in Bill Drummonds case — the manager of acts such as Echo & the Bunnymen and The Teardrop explodes. The KLF was at that point (1988) another project started by 2 men with similar interests in Discordianism, esoteric conspiracy novels and art.
The book starts with the burning of the money itself, laid out in terms of the common perceptions at the time from the music and news press with the overriding feeling of The KLF having done something pointless, wasteful and unexplainable. The chapters that follow, with titles such as ‘Illumination and Illuminatus’, ‘Sirius and Synchronicity’, ‘Magic and Moore’ and ‘Ceremonies’ might start to give you a basic understanding of how John Higgs has pieced the mysterious jigsaw together.
Each following chapter seems to be more jam(s) packed with incredible thought provoking information than the last. For a book that draws clear lines linking the event to everything from the banking crisis to the devil, it is amazingly well structured and enjoyable to read. Higgs explanations of how events such as the beginning and ending of cultural climates and numerous avant garde movements, all in some way contributed to Drummond and Cauty burning one million pounds is fascinating and insightful.
Chapter 4 ‘Magic & Moore’ introduces the idea of the money burning act being a possible combination of OCD, Art and Magical thinking, with Higgs drawing similarities and common ground between Bill Drummond and Comic book writing genius Alan Moore (who apparently doesn’t appreciate the expression ‘Graphic novelist’.) The idea of Alan Moore’s belief in an ‘Ideaspace’ - where all art and creativity is born, is particularly interesting and begins to build a concept of how the seeds of the money burning may have been sown.
There is so much more to this book and to attempt to break it down completely by short summaries of each chapter wouldn’t do the subject matter any justice and the amazing synchronicities would be lost in the process.
At 310 pages The KLF is a fairly short read overall. My copy arrived in the post the day before I embarked on 6 flights worth of business travel, so was the perfect travelling companion throughout. Such is the nature of the book that I found myself several times mid-flight having to stop, put the book down and gather my thoughts — it really is that kind of a read. There are certainly more than enough nuggets of fascinating information to contemplate upon and take into your very own ‘Ideaspace” long after you’ve put the book down.
If you’re willing to appreciate how the truly great, absurd and insane ideas come about then this may be a book you’d appreciate. It’s amazing to read just how much 20th century culture, history and counter-culture this small book touches upon in pursuit of a reason for the money being burnt.
The book itself is completely unofficial in every way, however Higgs may well be on the right path to providing an insightful explanation of this mysterious event — or it could be a complete waste of your time and the money burning was an absolutely meaningless act! Read the book and find out for yourselves.