The KLF: Chaos, Magic And The Band Who Burned A Million Pounds (2013) - Plot & Excerpts
A winding biography of the KLF with healthy background about Discordians, Illuminatus!, Situationists and spectacle, 70s & 80s music, Doctor Who, the relationship of magic, money, and art, Bill Drummond's artistic understanding, and synchronicity among many things. Spends a good amount of time wondering with Drummond and Cauty about their burning of one million pounds: "The burning of a million ... can be said to be both a meaningless act by two attention seeking arseholes which was in no way connected to the wider changes in the world at large, and also a magical act that forged the twenty-first century." Never conclusive, but good, well-written, thoughtful fun. On August 23, 1994, Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty burned the remaining £1,000,000 that they had earned as one of the biggest music groups in the world. On purpose. Set fire to a massive pile of cash, filmed themselves doing it, and toured with the film asking people why they had done it.They genuinely didn't know why they had done it. They still probably don't know why they did it. Were they just rich idiots? Were they using the money to make a profound statement about the music industry?The author puts forward a fascinating (and compelling, and not nearly as insane as it sounds at a glance) theory that touches upon Lee Harvey Oswald, Carl Jung, punk rock, Doctor Who, and Lucifer.We'll never know for sure why they did it. They'll probably never know for sure why they did it. But we've got an excellent book out of the incident. So there's that.
What do You think about The KLF: Chaos, Magic And The Band Who Burned A Million Pounds (2013)?
Who knew that a late-1980s/early-1990s techno act could have such an interesting and odd backstory?
—alondra
A fantastic book. But you have to have to be of a certain mind set to enjoy it.
—giselle_anderson
Absolutely a blast. Blew my mind several times.
—Meg
