The KLF

C

catalog

Well-known member
Good shop, pretty tiny, like being in someone's house. Zully adler and Heather were there at same time, was a good laugh
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
This thread reminds me that a guy I knew years ago was in a band with his mate and they were being promoted by Bill Drummond. I went to one of their gigs, which was a lot of fun, and Bill was there and I briefly spoke to him. Very approachable guy.

I don't think anything much ever came of it but I see they've still got a bunch of tracks up on SoundCloud. This was ca. 2005.
 
Leo

Leo

Well-known member
Drummond's solo LP "the man" is pretty good, some decent folk/pop songwriting alongside cheeky throwaways like "Julian cope is dead"
 
pattycakes_

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
Leo said:
Drummond's solo LP "the man" is pretty good, some decent folk/pop songwriting alongside cheeky throwaways like "Julian cope is dead"
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Those journalists wanted to know what the name 'Echo & the Bunnymen' meant. It didn't actually mean anything. Cope had gone against the tide of the usual, 'blunt' punk band names when he came up with The Teardrop Explodes and now other Liverpudlian bands were creating similarly elaborate and psychedelic-sounding names in an effort to compete. Echo & the Bunnymen was one of the better attempts, while names such as Frankie Goes To Hollywood or Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark were perhaps less impressive. Echo & the Bunnymen was just one of handful of names suggested by a friend of the band known as Smelly Elly, and was adopted on the grounds that it was the best suggestion that they had. The band wanted a better story than this for journalists, however, so they claimed that Echo was their drum machine, and that they were Bunnymen in a similar way that Playboy models were Bunnygirls.
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The spreading of this story did not please Bill Drummond. He had his own personal meaning for the name, and he far preferred his version. It was triggered by the sleeve of their first single, Pictures On My Wall, which featured a scratchy silhouetted drawing of a strange powerful beast. The two shapes emerging from the top of its head would perhaps normally be interpreted as horns, but in the context of the band could be considered to be rabbit ears. But what a rabbit! This strange beast was sinister and powerful, and Drummond intuitively knew that this creature, whatever it was, was Echo. The Bunnymen, therefore, were his followers.
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In Drummond's mind Iceland, Papua New Guinea and Liverpool were linked in a manner that made sense emotionally, if not rationally. His idea was to arrange for the Bunnymen to play a gig in Iceland at exactly the same time as the Teardrops played in Papua New Guinea. He would remain in Liverpool and, at the correct time, he would go and stand on the manhole cover. Quite why he would do this, though, was another matter. He had a vague feeling that something would happen, but exactly what was hard to define. Perhaps he would somehow absorb the energy of the two bands? Perhaps he would gain some form of enlightenment? It was completely mad, of course, he knew that. But that wasn't a good reason to not do it.
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Drummond's influence over Cope at this point was complex, to say the least. Cope, who saw no humour in Drummond's Julian Cope Is Dead song, had taken to wearing a 'Julian Cope is Dead' T-shirt on stage every night, but he wore it inside out so as not to display the slogan to the audience. He also felt the need to make a pilgrimage to Drummond's home town, where he spent a night walking around, thinking about Bill. Mitchell was with Cope on the Isle of Lewis undertaking research for the stone circles book when Cope received a phone call, and was told that Drummond was planning to flatten Silbury Hill with earth moving equipment. Silbury Hill is a massive man-made Neolithic mound at Avebury, of intense personal importance to Cope. Mitchell recalls how shaken up by this threat Cope was. "He went white [after the call], it was a shock to see him like that actually. No-one else had that power over Julian. Bill was the only person that he was scared of."
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WashYourHands

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
King Lucifer Forever!

Shapeshifters with an eye for spectacle. Their presence was a beautifully surreal backdrop for a certain time.

A mate is still obsessed - the 23 bricked pyramid thing. Synchronistic timing because this came up in another email v recently too.
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
It's funny when these lot came out I was only 8 or 9 and they were just a favourite pop band to me, I had absolutely no idea about all their cool art prankster credentials until many years later. I still remember skidding about on my knees at the primary school disco to 3am eternal - loved that one.

Chill Out still sounds pretty good to me too, dunno about their other stuff.
 
Woebot

Woebot

Well-known member
Benny B said:
It's funny when these lot came out I was only 8 or 9 and they were just a favourite pop band to me, I had absolutely no idea about all their cool art prankster credentials until many years later. I still remember skidding about on my knees at the primary school disco to 3am eternal - loved that one.

Chill Out still sounds pretty good to me too, dunno about their other stuff.
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@Benny B benny you always had great taste
 
Woebot

Woebot

Well-known member
i have two KLF stories.

1) when i was art school this super-cool girl on my course lived with them. i went round to the house once (lambeth way). they weren't there sadly but the police car was parked outside and they had a fire alarm for the doorbell (1989-ish)

2) when i was hanging out with ken downie a few years later (a friend of jimmy's) we went to some odd expo (mike batt of the wombles was there) and we met jimmy cauty. i was literally thrilled. jimmy had this tank with a sonic weapon on the back. they'd just burnt all that money and someone asked jimmy how he felt about the burning and he kinda shrugged (probably 1995)
 
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