March 2004 - KLF - mailman.xmission.com

Re: Re: Re: Subject: [KLF] of course the 1 million burning really ANDwhatwas coming??
by John Smiles 10 Mar '04

10 Mar '04

How can you tell from a lump of ash that it was a million quid ? Anyone could perform a trick like this, david blane would find it a lame trick to do. I respect the KLF in there fullest and everyone on this list, I just think its time everyone stopped believing in trickery, thats all, was good while it lasted type thing. I still disagree that they make money from KLF I would say they actually lose money but need to keep up the hey were ex KLF for their careers. I know someone thats a friend of a friend type thing they tell me that things arent so grate financially at the mo. They may have nice assets house and furniture but no cash. Again I dont want to dis you or them just want a healthy debate on it. Sorry, but im still a non-believer. I would love to go on the spin or phone with a few questions can I have the number. ------- Original message ------- From: Mark Muldowney <mark(a)muldowney.co.uk> Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 02:49:19 -0000 Subject: Re: Re: Subject: [KLF] of course the 1 million burning really ANDwhatwas coming?? I just have to say... well said that man! Mark Muldowney ----- Original Message ----- From: "Derek Knight" To: "'All bound for Mu-Mu Land.'" Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 2:12 AM Subject: RE: Re: Subject: [KLF] of course the 1 million burning really ANDwhatwas coming?? > One mail mentions that they made millions and still are, well that's not quite true, not sure about > Drummond but the Cautys are not wedged up and the royalties are fuck all. Well... I'd argue slightly on this fact. In 1992, The KLF were the best selling artists in the world. On their own label, on their own terms, the best selling White Room material all written and produced by them for relatively little. Unlike lots of rock stars they didn't blow millions on coke, rehab and hookers. They didn't buy mansions in LA or charter their own jets. They just had to pay off a couple of samples. And although their material is deleted in the UK, it's still available in the biggest market in the world, the USA. Even with Arista taking their cut, they must do pretty well out of that each and every year. Especially considering practically every record shop in the UK has US Imports of the White Room and Chill Out. And you've got radio and Music TV all over the world playing their records and videos. Each and every time... Kerching $£$£$. They must do alright out of all that! And as for whether they burnt it or not, the very fact that we're still discussing it pretty much says everything. You only have to mention the KLF in polite society and you tend to get one of two reactions: A) Oh, aren't they the ones who did that "KLF A huh-uh uh-huh-uh-huh" track? B) They're the madmen that burnt a million quid, aren't they? Do I think they burnt it? Yes. Why? Because they're fucking nuts! They deleted their back catalogue after winning best band at the 1992 Brit Awards! That cost them more money than chucking a million in the fire. Don't really wanna start a big argument or anything, just my 2 cents. (In my opinion, the more interesting debate is WHY they did it, rather than whether they did or not.) Del _______________________________________________ KLF mailing list KLF(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/klf _______________________________________________ KLF mailing list KLF(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/klf Lycos EMail has 10 MB of storage space. http://mail.lycos.co.uk

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Re: Re: Subject: [KLF] of course the 1 million burning really AND what was coming??
by John Smiles 10 Mar '04

10 Mar '04

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Re: Out of Office AutoReply:
by Andrew Lee 09 Mar '04

09 Mar '04

Out of Office AutoReply: [KLF] Andy's DVD (Praises, as always!)Just noticed "Ted's" autoreply from an earlier post I made. Are you spying on us over at Warner Music or am I just paranoid? Fnords abound! ----- Original Message ----- From: May, Ted (WMI, UK) To: Andrew Lee Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 10:53 PM Subject: Out of Office AutoReply: I am out of the office on business until the 8th March and then on holiday until the 15th March. I will be checking my emails whenever possible, but any urgent queries or during my holiday period please contact: Victor Aroldoss for Muse and The Darkness. Abigail ScotSimmonds for the Streets. Kirstie Young for Ash. thanks, ted

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RE: KLF Digest, Vol 13, Issue 4
by Brian Calvert 09 Mar '04

09 Mar '04

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Kompetition
by Simon Glass 09 Mar '04

09 Mar '04

I've uploaded the Kompetition tracks to the ftp server as I don't think they've been easily available for some time. As specified in the text file in the main folder, most of the tracks were downloaded from various sources on the net and therefore, judging by the variety in quality, are the 'original' MP3 files that becamse available for download at the time of the Kompetition. The remaining tracks are ripped at 192kbps from CDR (thanx again to John). The tracklisting I used is based on one which was recently posted on the list although i'm not sure who compiled them this way. It's a bit easier than having them all in the same folder I guess. I hope this encourages some discussion of the remixes again as I was neither a member of the list or lucky enough to have regular net access at the time of the Kompetition so I know very little about it. Was it Jimmy's idea, as I have seen the Crapola name mentioned in connection? It's interesting how much the, erm, 'quality' of the remixes varies too (naming no tracks but to simply loop a rough-sounding unreleased recording....is that a remix?). Some are great though...Thomas and Dan's efforts being obvious examples, plus the Daft Punk-sampling Big Louis remix of Kylie, the mad HX!FM remix of Doctorin the Tardis (is this just poor qual or intended to sound like it was taped off some obscure eastern European radio station?) Anyway if anyone could point me to an archive of info on the Kompetition it would be much appreciated. I'm interested in doing some of my own remixes but have to get my head around CoolEdit first. Was gonna suggest a new Kompetition but I think i'll need about a year to get anything decent finished! --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Get better spam protection with Yahoo! Mail

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Re: Subject: [KLF] of course the 1 million burning really AND what was coming??
by TheMgnt＠aol.com 09 Mar '04

09 Mar '04

> One mail mentions that they made millions and still are, well that’s not > quite true, not sure about Drummond but the Cautys are not wedged up and the > royalties are fuck all. Never said anything about still making millions, I said that wasn't all of their money as you implied. They still make plenty off of their KLF tracks to this day. In fact, the bank statement showed 1.5m in transfers from an unknown account into the KLF Communications one. I'd be willing to be there was plenty more in that unknown account. > So a bank statement is proof? I don’t see how, I could get a statement saying > I withdrawn a million ( if I had it) would this prove I burnt it. It was proof that the money was taken out, to counter another's arguement that the money was redeposited some point later. Do try to keep up. You haven't answered my questions asking if you've seen the Omnibus documentary where they are seen burning the money, getting the ashes tested, etc. Or if you've seen the book of the incident, where frames of the film are clearly presented for close scrutiny. You can still order the book here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1899858377/ Not that it matters. You're still in denial. And that's ok. Most were at some point. I mean, really, they spent 1m on the White Room movie which never got released. Isn't that just as much of a waste as burning it was? At least they got a nice brick out of it. -paul Currently in rotation: Brian Wilson - Smile (live); PetShopBoys - Release (demos); McCartney - (various mp3)

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Re: Subject: [KLF] of course the 1 million burning really AND what was coming??
by TheMgnt＠aol.com 09 Mar '04

09 Mar '04

In a message dated 3/9/04 5:04:28 AM Pacific Standard Time, john.smiles(a)lycos.co.uk writes: > One mail mentions that they made millions and still are, well that’s not > quite true, not sure about Drummond but the Cautys are not wedged up and the > royalties are fuck all. > <o:p></o:p> > So a bank statement is proof? I don’t see how, I could get a statement saying > I withdrawn a million ( if I had it) would this prove I burnt it. Currently in rotation: Brian Wilson - Smile (live); PetShopBoys - Release (demos); McCartney - (various mp3)

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Re: Subject: [KLF] of course the 1 million burning really AND what was coming??
by Brian Calvert 09 Mar '04

09 Mar '04

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Re: [KLF] of course the 1 million burning really happened
by say.map＠ihug.co.nz 08 Mar '04

08 Mar '04

Not wanting to endlessly re-iterate the evidence for any non-believers out there, I'll just copy and paste what the FAQ says. Note that this FAQ answer contains the misconception about the bank deposit being a few days later - this needs to be changed in future versions of the FAQ (could also include Paul's still from the video). Also the bit about the unburnt notes is not clear, possibly this could mention that the film clearly shows burning notes flying up the chimney into the night so its not a surprise that many of the charred notes were found on the beach, nor that the ashes contain much less than a million pounds. Anyway on with the FAQ answer... -------------------------------------------- 4.006: Did they really burn a million pounds? Yes. They burnt a million pounds in an abandoned boathouse on Jura, (near the village of Ardfin if you want to make a pilgrimage) in the middle of the night of the 23rd of August 1994. It took just over an hour for Cauty and Drummond to pile the wads onto the flames, while Gimpo filmed it, and freelance journalist Jim Reid witnessed it. The whole story is told by Reid in an article called 'Money To Burn' from GQ magazine, available in the ftp archive. Reid admits to feeling at first guilt, then boredom while watching the money burn. In the Omnibus documentary (see 5.010), the K-F's bank confirmed that a million pounds in cash had been withdrawn (intriguingly, the pictured statement also shows a credit transfer of ukp1,300,000 going into the Foundation's account just a few days later!!!), and picked up by a private security firm who also confirmed the amount. Some of the notes remained unburned, were washed out to sea when the tide came in, and were later found by a Jura resident on a beach. He handed 1500 pounds into the police who traced the serial numbers and confirmed with Drummond that they were his and that he didn't want them back. Some ashes (valued in the Omnibus documentary at between ukp 800 to 81,000!) were brought back from Jura, and kept in a suitcase, until Bill and Jimmy asked Chesham brickmaker James Matthews (age 23) to make them into a brick. Bill said the reason for the request would be revealed in 23 years. The film "Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid" was shown to nearly half the population of Jura on the 23rd of August 1995. Unfortunately it was very badly filmed (on Super 8) and all the dialogue is almost intelligible. (see 4.007 for more) The next question is why on earth did they do it? For the first six months of 1994 the K-F tried to get their art exhibition (which consisted of over a million pounds in actual bank notes, see 4.005) staged. The most likely gallery was the Tate in Liverpool, where Jayne Casey from Big In Japan now works (shown here with Bill and Jimmy). Unfortunately it didn't come off so they had to consider other options. They thought about taking the exhibition across Russia by train, but the cost of insuring a million pounds against robbery by the armed gangs that roam across the Steppes, was too high. They decided that the money was a millstone around their necks, that depressed them. They decided they would have to really burn the money. They couldn't decide whether to make the burning public or not. They thought of putting a picture of 'Nailed to the Wall' with a flame-thrower beside it, on a billboard in London. A week later the picture would have changed to ashes. Eventually Drummond decided that 'the shock value will spoil it really. Because it doesn't want to be a shocking thing; it just wants to be a fire'. However they still took a journalist along to witness it. They thought it was important that the public had faith that they did do it, so they (said they had) destroyed the video evidence. All through their career the concept of burning a million pounds comes up. When they deleted their back catalogue it was described as being the equivalent of burning millions of pounds. They threatened to burn the K-F art award prize money (Gimpo was fumbling with matches and lighter fluid when at the last moment Rachel Whiteread accepted the prize). And in the 7th K-F press advert they stated "What would you do with a million pounds? Burn it?" Also they had made the decision that the money was not theirs, it was the K-F's. It had to be used for a K-F project, and couldn't be given to anyone else. The money burning is in effect a massive, and very expensive, publicity stunt so that Drummond and Cauty can go down in history as the men who burnt a million pounds. It is supposed to make you think about money, and its relationship with art. Really what is the difference between spending money on useless objects or publicity, and making the actual loss of the money the publicity. No one castigates Cher for spending her millions on 12 mansions world-wide and not giving them to charity. Why attack the K-F for spending their million and not giving it to charity. Bill once said in a letter to Nick: "...we could have gone and put the money to some publicly acceptable good use (The starving millions, cancer research, Greenpeace; take your pick), but no, we chose to burn it. Why?... What is the appeal?" If they have introduced an important debate about the nature of money, art and fame, then the money might have been used wisely. It's not even true that they are fools who have lost their money, as by having "he burnt a million pounds" on their CV's they will be interesting to the media for the rest of their lives, and able to make it back easily. Just like the first line in every biography and obituary of Divine was "he once ate dog shit on film" the names of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty will always be followed by "the men who burnt a million pounds". Bill also said, in 1996, that someone once told him, (after seeing the video for Earth Song), that the reason the K Foundation burned it is because they knew they would never be as good as Michael Jackson. In March 1997, after some years consideration, Bill explained: "One night an audience was asked: is there anyone here that would've liked to do this or thought about this? And people put up their hands. That became a regular thing and it would be about ten per cent [of the audience], so ten per cent of the population ...or ten per cent of the people who came to see this film! [Drummond laughs uproariously] Or maybe they were just trying to endear themselves to us- but it was a real thing. We realised that it wasn't like we were so different or so special or so far-out or so fucking fucked-up; we just happened to have a million lying around..." ----------------------------------------------- cheers -- This is the webmail account of Stuart Young, Michelle Ardern & Felix Ardern-Young (2) 42B, Sefton Ave, Grey Lynn, Auckland, NZ Phone: +64 (0)9 376 8100 say.map(a)ihug.co.nz Stuey's personal website - a cobweb site: http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~stuey/

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Re: Subject: [KLF] of course the 1 million burning really happened
by TheMgnt＠aol.com 08 Mar '04

08 Mar '04

> Check out the BBC Omnibus documentary where they show you the bank statement. A > couple of days after the money is withdrawn another million is mysteriously deposited in > into their account. But then we all knew that anyway! Actually that's not accurate. The deposit was the *same day* as the withdrawl. http://members.cox.net/themgnt/klf/ These are stills from Omnibus, which I happen to have sitting on my hard drive right now. They are of the Aug 1994 bank statement for KLF Communications. The top pic shows a withdrawl of 1mUKP to KLF Group, and a TRD INT (interest?) deposit of 2863.70UKP, and a TRD deposit of 1,130,000UKP all on the same day. 2x of Aug. The hole punch is covering the second digit. I don't know what TRD stands for. TRD INT looks like Traditional Interest, but what TRD alone stands for I don't know. Is this a general UK banking line item or specific to National Westminster Bank. Would be interesting to know. But the deposit is clearly the same date as the withdrawl. But the important bit is the final balance on the account for the month. 133,097.17ukp. Hardly over a million if the deposit was done afterwards. It doesn't appear the they kept a lot of money in that account to begin with. Look at the Aug2 series of transations. A 500k withdrawl (treasury reserve) and a transfer of the same amount on the same day. Clearly the real money is kept somewhere else and transferred to this account when needed. -paul

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