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The KLF
The Kopyright
Liberation Front
This nOde
last updated December 17th, 2004 and is permanently morphing...
(3 Ix (Jaguar) / 17 Mac - 94/260 - 12.19.11.15.14)

Budgie of Siouxie And The Banshees
and Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes To Hollywood joined Bill Drummond's
punk
band Big in
Japan
in 1977.
The JAMs
_The Queen & I_ MP3
- The iconoclastic Justified Ancients of Mu Mu
released their first album in 1987, called _1987: What the Fuck’s Going On?_
It included many
tracks that contained uncleared samples
of popular music, but this one got them into particular trouble when they were
sued by the Swedish group Abba for using almost all of _Dancing Queen_ MP3
.
The album was deleted and remaining copies destroyed. The record’s original
label read: "All sounds on this recording have been captured by The JAMs in
the name of
Mu.
We hereby
liberate
these sounds from all copyright restrictions, without prejudice." (The JAMs
are also known as the KLF, which stands for
Kopyright
Liberation Front.). The end of the track also features a sample from
the
Sex
Pistols' _Anarchy In The UK_ MP3
- "destrooooy!"
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Programme : "Okay here, we're gonna give you a countdown...4, 3, 2,
1, Fire!" @ 3:06; "[beep] "PF10 by the canaries, how do you read?"
[beep] "<???> canaries"; "Boy, it's just beautiful up here looking
out the window - it's just really fantastic" [beep] "Roger" [beep] "Let
me tell you a litle bit about the ride" @ 5:02
from The KLF
FAQ:
023: What is The Illuminatus! Trilogy and what are the connections between it and the KLF?
Its a huge cult sex-drugs-occult-paranoid
conspiracy
theory-
science
fiction book, where
reality
shifts and nothing is as is seems. Or is that what I want you to believe?
It was first published in the mid seventies, written by
Robert
Anton Wilson and Bob Shea (who were employees of 'Playboy' when they
wrote it), originally as three separate novels: 'The Eye In The Pyramid',
'The Golden Apple', and 'Leviathan', but now most available as the collected
Dell edition (ISBN 0-440-53981-1).
'Illuminatus!' tells the tale of
the international conspiracy the
Illuminati,
who attempt to order and control mankind, and receive individual power (become
illuminated) by causing mass deaths. Their arch enemies The Justified Ancients
of Mummu (The JAMs), are "an organisation (or disorganisation) who are at least
as old as the Illuminati and represent the primeval power of
Chaos
".
Along with affiliated groups the LDD and the ELF (
ErisianLiberation
Front), the JAMs are engaged in a secret war to prevent the Illuminati from
'immanentizing the
eschaton'
(bringing closer the end of the world). "Whether the above is fact or fiction
is irrelevant. What definitely is the case is; 'The Chaos versus Order War'
has been raging on, ever since
Time
first *got it on* with Space and created the Universe." The JAMs were members
of the Illuminati, but were expelled at the behest of a faction protesting "kick
out the JAMs". The Illuminati control all the record companies, which is why
all music is very dull, and how they managed to incorporate the anti-JAMs gibe
"kick out the jams" into an MC5 song. The JAMs started their own company to
bring out good music, and combat the Illuminati.
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The book is obviously a product
of the sixties US counterculture, and of the liberated sexual attitudes prevalent
in the Playboy offices. It mixes factional sources with fiction and constantly
re-interprets and changes the 'facts' until the reader is left utterly confused.
It makes a use of the concept of
synchronicity,
where connections are made between apparently unrelated incidences, and of numerology,
and brings to the readers attention the occult significance of the number
23.
Whether there is more significance to 23 than any other number is questionable,
but what is definitely true, is that once the reader is
informed,
and shown where 23 crops up, they will notice 23's popping up oddly themselves.
A large part of the fun the book introduces one to, is either spotting 23's
or hiding them in works deliberately for others to spot. Finally the book promotes
discordianism, "a religion disguised as a joke or a joke disguised as a religion?"
Discordians worship the female god of chaos
Eris
,
and are involved in the chaos vs.order war.
Drummond was 'involved with
the set design' for the first ever stage production (adapted by Ken Campbell
and Chris Langham as a 5 part 10-hour science-fiction rock-opera epic),
which opened in Liverpool on the 23rd of November '76. Drummond was
at art college at the time. The play featured 'Illuminatus!' author Robert
Anton Wilson as a naked extra, and the 23-strong cast contained a number
of actors and actresses, who would later be quite successful. The play
moved to London where it was seen by the young
Jim
Cauty who would read the books because of the production.
When Drummond and Cauty decided
to "kick out the old" and attack the music industry, they named their group
the Justified Ancients of Mu
Mu
and their record company the Kopyright Liberation Front (The KLF). Much of their
recorded output features chants of Mu Mu! And their recordings are (c) the sound
of Mu (sic). They took many concepts from the book and incorporated them
into their work. If you haven't read the book you might want to spot them yourself
(that was a poor attempt at a SPOILER WARNING): 'What Time Is Love? and the
original version of 'All You Need is Love' feature a sample of the MC5 shouting
"kick out the jams motherfuckers". 'All You Need is Love' also features the
lyric: "We're back again/ They never kicked us out/ 20000 years of shout shout
shout" which must refer to the real JAMs and also after suggesting an AIDS conspiracy
("Southern Texas seventy-nine/ Killer virus meets the world outside... With
this killer virus who needs war?...Swinging sixties all part of the plan"),
King Boy shouts "Immanentize the Eschaton". Then in 'The Porpoise Song' on JAMS
LP2 King Boy meets a talking porpoise who tells him to join the JAMs! (While
on the huge submarine, the 'Leif Erikson' several of the books characters meet
Howard, a talking porpoise). Scott Piering, their radio and video plugger announces
the motto of The JAMs 'OK everybody lie down on the floor and keep calm...'
at the beginning of 'Last Train To Trancentral' as does John Dillenger when
he robs banks. The Stadium House video is supposedly a KLF live concert at Woodstock
Europa. At the real Woodstock Europa Maria Imbrium vocalist with the 'Sicilian
Dragon
Defense'
hallucinates angels in golden robes coming out of Lake Ingolstadt. At the Rites
of Mu (which of course was held on the lost continent of Mu) the four Angels
of Mu rose out of the
water
at sunset in white robes. The confusion over their name (Kopyright and Kallisti
Liberation Fronts, and Kings of the Low
Frequencies)
may just have been journalistic cleverness inventing them, or the KLF may have
deliberately put them about, to mirror Hagbard Celine who keeps changing the
name of the LDD (Legion of Dynamic Discord, Lawless Delicacy Dealers, Little
Deluded Dupes). I think the multiplicity of names that they took on may be related
to 'the JAMs can't do it alone'. The JAMs need help from The ELF and The LDD
in their battle with the Illuminati. The JAMs need help from The KLF, The Timelords,
Disco 2000 and The Fall in their battle with the music industry. The KLF stated
all through their career that they
intended
to buy a submarine, and at the end of the 'Justified and Ancient (Stand By The
JAMs)' video, they climb into a submarine and are waved off by the rest of the
cast, 'all bound for Mu Mu land'. An insert shows the JAMs-mobile driving off
into the sunset, with "The KLF would like to thank the five for making all of
this impossible" superimposed.
The five of course are the secret
leaders of the Illuminati. Allegedly, there is a reference to "3am eternal"
somewhere in '
Schroedinger's
Cat', and another obscure reference to an art gallery with a "picture" consisting
of a frame with lots of bills nailed to it, but these have yet to be found.
The KLF also hid many 23's in their canon of work for 'Illuminatus!' readers to spot. 'Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu' is 23 letters long. Kopyright Liberation Front unfortunately has one too many letters. The first single 'All You Need Is Love' was JAMS 23. Then "23 years is a mighty long time" is a line in 'Next' on 1987. Also on 1987 is the song 'Rockman Rock (Parts 2 and 3)'. The JAMs-mobile (Ford Timelord) has 23 on its/his roof (all US cop cars have a two-figure number on their roofs). It can best be seen in the 'Doctorin' The Tardis' video. The model car in the 'Last Train To Trancentral' and Stadium House videos also has a 23 on its roof. The Italian bootleg of the Madrugana Eterna club mix has a cat. no of ETERNAL 23. At the Disco Mix Convention in Amsterdam in late Oct 1990 (it may well have been the 23rd!) they played a 23 minute version of 'What Time Is Love?' additionally they did a PA at the Heaven club at the end of December 1990 (could it have been?). The KLF's appearance at the Liverpool Festival of Comedy was on Sunday June 23rd 1991. The final KLF Communications info sheet was #23. There's a Cauty drawing of the cop car in this info sheet, it has a 23 on its side. The K-F's award was announced on the 23rd of November (the 17th anniversary of the opening of the Illuminatus! Liverpool production). The K-F's award was the 1994 award, while the Turner award it was subverting was the 1993 award; could it be because 1+9+9+4=23?.
There are some other poor
ones which only fit if you force them, but are often mentioned by fans
as possible ones (its also stretching a point to believe that the KLF with
their short
attention
span would bother to count up how many of each thing they had or hadn't
done). However: There are 23 bricks in the KLF's pyramid blaster logo.
Well there are 22 complete rectangular bricks. If you count either the
ghetto blaster or the top triangle or the bottom left hand almost
complete brick as the missing brick then yes. You can also manipulate the
KLF's releases to produce 23 releases. There's JAMS LP1-6 (six) JAMS 23-28T
(six) KLF 001-005, 008-011 & 99 (ten). So you need to dig up one more
possibly the Stadium House video or ETERNA1 or the unreleased Black Room.
Personally I don't like this one as I feel that their actions/stunts/pranks
should be counted too, as well as just the records, book and videos. Then
there's definitely not 23 mixes of 'What Time Is Love?' but by selectively
discounting some or including some based on your own prejudices you can
come up with either 13 or 17 (other significant numbers)[however the latest
total count is 33!!]. Taking the alphabetical positions of the letters
KLF (K=11, L=12, F=6) you can get: K+L= 11+12 = 23, and K+F = 11+6 = 17.