The KLF#Retirement

Bill Drummond was an established figure within the British music industry, having co-founded Zoo Records,{{Cite book|last=Reynolds|first=Simon|author-link=Simon Reynolds|title=Rip It Up And Start Again: Post-punk 1978–1984|isbn=0-571-21569-6|publisher=Faber & Faber|year=2005}} played guitar in the Liverpool band Big in Japan,{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=271|title=Big in Japan – Where are they now?|work=Q|date=January 1992|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916112152/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=271 |archive-date=16 September 2016 }} and worked as manager of Echo & the Bunnymen and the Teardrop Explodes.{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=359|title=Tate tat and arty|work=NME|date=20 November 1993|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916112826/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=359|archive-date=16 September 2016}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/shelf-life-bill-drummond-reviews-his-own-back-catalogue-1359029.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/shelf-life-bill-drummond-reviews-his-own-back-catalogue-1359029.html |archive-date=18 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Shelf life: Bill Drummond reviews his own back catalogue|first=Bill|last=Drummond|author-link=Bill Drummond|date=19 October 1996|access-date=27 February 2020|work=The Independent}} Artist and musician Jimmy Cauty was the guitarist in the three-piece Brilliant – an act that Drummond had signed to WEA Records and managed.{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=brilliant-mn0000627485|title=Brilliant|first=Dan|last=Leroy|tab=biography|access-date=5 March 2020}}{{Cite web|title=Return of the KLF: 'They were agents of chaos. Now the world they anticipated is here'|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/apr/27/return-of-the-klf-bill-drummond-jimmy-cauty|first=Andrew|last=Harrison|date=27 April 2017|work=The Guardian|access-date=1 March 2020}}

In July 1986, Drummond resigned from his position as an A&R man at record label WEA, citing that he was nearly 33⅓ years old (33⅓ revolutions per minute being the speed at which a vinyl LP revolves), and that it was "time for a revolution in my life. There is a mountain to climb the hard way, and I want to see the world from the top".{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=397|title=Special K|date=April 1995|work=GQ|first=William|last=Shaw|author-link=William Shaw (writer)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916115215/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=397|archive-date=16 September 2016}} In the same year he released a solo LP, The Man.{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=15|last=Wilkinson|first=Roy|author-link=Roy Wilkinson|title=The Man|type=review|work=Sounds|date=8 November 1986 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916113756/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=15 |archive-date=16 September 2016 }}{{Cite web|author-link=|last=Robbins|first=Ira|publisher=Trouser Press|url=http://trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=klf|title=KLF|access-date=20 April 2006}} Drummond intended to focus on writing books once The Man had been issued but, as he recalled in 1990, "That only lasted three months, until I had an[other] idea for a record and got dragged back into it all". Recalling that moment in a later interview, Drummond said that the plan came to him in an instant: he would form a hip-hop band with former colleague Cauty, and they would be called the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu:

{{blockquote|It was New Year's Day... 1987. I was at home with my parents, I was going for a walk in the morning, it was, like, bright blue sky, and I thought "I'm going to make a hip-hop record. Who can I make a hip-hop record with?". I wasn't brave enough to go and do it myself, 'cause, although I can play the guitar, and I can knock out a few things on the piano, I knew nothing, personally, about the technology. And, I thought, I knew [Jimmy], I knew he was a like spirit, we share similar tastes and backgrounds in music and things. So I phoned him up that day and said "Let's form a band called The Justified Ancients of Mu-Mu". And he knew exactly, to coin a phrase, "where I was coming from"... Within a week we had recorded our first single.{{Cite episode |title=It's a Steal – Sampling |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yrr89 |series=The Story of Pop |station=BBC Radio 1 |number=48 |language=en|interviewer=Alan Freeman |subject=Bill Drummond |minutes=31}} First broadcast in 1994, per {{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2016/03/the-story-of-pop|title=The Story Of Pop|publisher=BBC Radio 6 Music |access-date=9 March 2020}}}}

Early in 1987, Drummond and Cauty's collaborations began. They assumed alter egos – King Boy D and Rockman Rock respectively – and adopted the name the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (the JAMs), after the fictional conspiratorial group "The Justified Ancients of Mummu" from The Illuminatus! Trilogy.{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=479|first=Ian|last=Cranna|title=1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?) review|work=Q|date=1987|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161004150537/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=479|archive-date=4 October 2016}} The JAMs' primary instrument was the digital sampler with which they would plagiarise the history of popular music, cutting chunks from existing works and pasting them into new contexts, underpinned by rudimentary beatbox rhythms and overlaid with Drummond's raps, of social commentary, esoteric metaphors and mockery.

The JAMs' debut single "All You Need Is Love" dealt with the media coverage given to AIDS, sampling heavily from the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" and Samantha Fox's "Touch Me (I Want Your Body)". Although it was declined by distributors fearful of prosecution, and threatened with lawsuits, copies of the one-sided white label 12" were sent to the music press; it received positive reviews and was made "single of the week" in Sounds.{{Cite magazine|title=All You Need Is Love|type=review|magazine=Sounds|date=14 March 1987}} A later piece in the same magazine called the JAMs "the hottest, most exhilarating band this year .... It's hard to understand what it feels like to come across something you believe to be totally new; I have never been so wholeheartedly convinced that a band are so good and exciting.""The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu", Sounds, 16 May 1987.

The JAMs re-edited and re-released "All You Need Is Love" in May 1987, removing or doctoring the most antagonistic samples; lyrics from the song appeared as promotional graffiti, defacing selected billboards. The re-release rewarded the JAMs with praise (including NME{{hsp}}'s "single of the week"){{Cite magazine|last=Kelly|first=Danny |author-link=Danny Kelly (journalist)|title=All You Need Is Love|type=review|magazine=NME|date=23 May 1987}} and the funds necessary to record their debut album. The album, 1987 (What the F**k Is Going On?), was released in June 1987. Included was a song called "The Queen and I", which sampled the ABBA single "Dancing Queen".{{LibraryOfMu|tl=web|mu-id=512|title=The KLF Biography as of 20th July 1990 (KLF BIOG 012)|publisher=KLF Communications|date=December 1990|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916113659/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=512|archive-date=16 September 2016}} After a legal showdown with ABBA{{Cite news|last=Didcock|first=Barry|title=Bitter Swede symphony|work=Sunday Herald|location=Glasgow|date=21 October 2001|page=4}} and the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society,News item, Sounds, 12 September 1987 the 1987 album was forcibly withdrawn from sale. Drummond and Cauty travelled to Sweden in hope of meeting ABBA and coming to some agreement, taking an NME journalist and photographer with them, along with most of the remaining copies of the LP.{{Cite magazine|last=Brown|first=James|author-link=James Brown (editor)|title=Thank you for the music|magazine=NME|date=17 October 1987}} They failed to meet ABBA, who they didn't realize already lived in Britain at the time, so they disposed of the copies by burning most of them in a field and throwing the rest overboard on the North Sea ferry trip home. In a December 1987 interview, Cauty maintained that they "felt that what [they]'d done was artistically justified."

Two new singles followed on the JAMs' "KLF Communications" independent record label. Both reflected a shift towards house rhythms. According to NME, the JAMs' choice of samples for the first of these, "Whitney Joins the JAMs" saw them leaving behind their strategy of "collision course" to "move straight onto the art of super selective theft".{{Cite magazine|title=Whitney Joins The JAMs|type=review|magazine=NME|date=22 August 1987}} The song uses samples of the Mission: Impossible and Shaft themes alongside Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody". Drummond has claimed that the KLF were later offered the job of producing or remixing a new Whitney Houston album as an inducement from her record label boss (Clive Davis of Arista Records) to sign with them.{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=229|last=Longmire|first=Ernie ("Lazlo Nibble")|title=KLF is Gonna Rock Ya!|work=X Magazine|date=1 April 1991|archive-date=1 April 1991|archive-url=http://cardhouse.com/1991/x07/klf.htm|type=Interview with Bill Drummond}}{{LibraryOfMu|tl=interview|mu-id=521|title=Bomlagadafshipoing|last=Drummond|first=Bill|subject-link=Bill Drummond|publisher=Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation Radio 2|date=September 1991|mu-transcript-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916112917/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=521|archive-date=16 September 2016}}{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=261|title=Public NME|type=News item about the KLF turning down Whitney Houston|work=NME|date=16 November 1991|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916124846/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=261|archive-date=September 16, 2016 }} The second single in this sequence – Drummond and Cauty's third and final single of 1987 – was "Down Town", a dance record built around a gospel choir and "Downtown" by 1960s star Petula Clark, with lyrics that commented on poverty and homelessness.Reviewed by NME writer James Brown in the 28 November 1987 edition. These early works were later collected on the compilation album Shag Times.

A second album, Who Killed the JAMs?, was released in early 1988. Who Killed the JAMs? earned the duo a five-star review from Sounds magazine, who called it "a masterpiece of pathos".{{Cite magazine|title=Who Killed The JAMs?|type=review|magazine=Sounds|date=13 February 1988}}

===The Timelords===

In 1988, Drummond and Cauty released a 'novelty' pop single, "Doctorin' the Tardis" as the Timelords. The song is predominantly a mash-up of the Doctor Who theme music, "Block Buster!" by Sweet and Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll (Part Two)".

Credited on the record was "Ford Timelord" (Cauty's 1968 Ford Galaxie American police car), "Lord Rock" (Cauty), and "Time Boy" (Drummond).{{Cite AV media notes|publisher=KLF Communications|year=1988|others=The Timelords|title=Doctorin' The Tardis|id=KLF 003T|type=Sleeve notes}} The Timelords claimed that Ford Timelord was the "Talent" in the band and had given them instructions on how to make the record;{{Cite book|title=Fried & Justified: Hits, Myths, Break-Ups and Breakdowns in the Record Business 1978-98|first=Mick|last=Houghton|publisher=Faber & Faber|date=2 July 2019|isbn=978-0-571-33684-5}} Ford fronted the promotional campaign for the single and was "interviewed" on TV.{{cite episode|title=The KLF |series=Rip It Up Unwrapped |network=BBC |station=BBC Scotland |number=5 |season=1}} The car would later be banger raced at Swaffham Raceway in 1991.

They later portrayed the song as the result of a deliberate effort to write a number one hit single.The KLF interview, Snub TV, 30 January 1989 In interviews with Snub TV and BBC Radio 1,{{cite interview |last=Drummond|first=Bill|subject-link=Bill Drummond |interviewer=Richard Skinner |title=Saturday Sequence |publisher=BBC Radio 1 |date=December 1990|url=http://www.brandnew.co.uk/klf/billdrummond/Bill%20Drummond%20Interview_Radio1%20Dec90.mp3|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060524180959/http://www.brandnew.co.uk/klf/billdrummond/Bill%20Drummond%20Interview_Radio1%20Dec90.mp3 |archive-date=24 May 2006 }} Drummond said that they had intended to make a house record using the Doctor Who theme. After Cauty had laid down a basic track, Drummond observed that their house idea wasn't working and what they actually had was a Glitter beat. Sensing the opportunity to make a commercial pop record they went instead for the lowest common denominator. According to the British music press, the result was "rancid",{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=81|author-link=Roy Wilkinson|last=Wilkinson|first=Roy|date=28 May 1988|title=...Ford Every Scheme|work=Sounds|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916112637/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=81|archive-date=16 September 2016}} "pure, unadulterated agony" and "excruciating"{{Cite magazine|title=Doctorin' the Tardis|type=review|magazine=Melody Maker|date=May 1988}} and from Sounds "a record so noxious that a top ten place can be its only destiny". A single of the Timelords' remixes of the song was released: "Gary Joins the JAMs" featured original vocal contributions from Glitter, who also appeared on Top of the Pops to promote the song with the Timelords. "Doctorin' the Tardis" sold over one million copies.{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=315|title=Who Killed The KLF|work=Select|date=July 1992|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011034454/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=315 |archive-date=11 October 2016|first=William|last=Shaw|author-link=William Shaw (writer)}}

The Timelords released one other product, a 1989 book called The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way), a step-by-step guide to achieving a number one hit single with little money or talent.

By the time the JAMs' single "Whitney Joins the JAMs" was released in September 1987, their record label had been renamed "KLF Communications" (from the earlier The Sound of Mu(sic)). The duo's first release as the KLF was in March 1988, with the single "Burn the Bastards"/"Burn the Beat" (KLF 002). Although the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu name was not retired, most future Drummond and Cauty releases went under the name "The KLF".

The name change accompanied a change in Drummond and Cauty's musical direction. As 'King Boy D', Drummond said in January 1988, "We might put out a couple of 12" records under the name The K.L.F., these will be rap free just pure dance music, so don't expect to see them reviewed in the music papers". King Boy D also said that he and Rockman Rock were "pissed off at [them]selves" for letting "people expect us to lead some sort of crusade for sampling."{{LibraryOfMu|tl=web|mu-id=501|first=Bill|last=Drummond|author-link=Bill Drummond|publisher=KLF Communications|date=22 January 1988|title=KLF Info Sheet|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916115810/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=501|archive-date=16 September 2016}} In 1990, he recalled that "We wanted to make [as the KLF] something that was... pure dance music, without any reference points, without any nod to the history of rock and roll. It was the type of music that by early '87 was really exciting me... [although] we weren't able to get our first KLF records out until late '88."

The 12" records subsequently released in 1988 and 1989 by the KLF were indeed rap free and house-oriented; remixes of some of the JAMs tracks, and new singles, the largely instrumental acid house anthems "What Time Is Love?" and "3 a.m. Eternal", the first incarnations of later international chart successes. The KLF described the new tracks as "Pure Trance". In 1989, the KLF appeared at the Helter Skelter rave in Oxfordshire. "They wooed the crowd", wrote Scotland on Sunday some years later, "by pelting them with... £1,000 worth of Scottish pound notes, each of which bore the message 'Children we love you{{'"}}.{{Cite news|last=Rimmer|first=L.|title=T in the Park: Greatest festival stories ever...|work=Scotland on Sunday|department=EG Magazine Edition|date=8 July 2001|page=7}}

Image:The KLF - Trancentral Logo.png

Also in 1989, the KLF embarked upon the creation of a road movie and soundtrack album, both titled The White Room, funded by the profits of "Doctorin' the Tardis".{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=94|last=Mellor|first=Christopher|title=Beam Me Up, Scotty – How to have a number one (The JAMs way)|work=Offbeat|date=February 1989|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070824233847/http://www.libraryofmu.org/display-resource.php?id=94 |archive-date=24 August 2007 }} Neither the film nor its soundtrack were formally released, although bootleg copies exist. The soundtrack album contained pop-house versions of some of the "pure trance" singles, as well as new songs, most of which would appear (in radically reworked form) on the version of the album which was eventually released to mainstream success. A single from the original album was released: "Kylie Said to Jason", an electropop record featuring references to Todd Terry, Rolf Harris, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo and BBC comedy programme The Good Life. In reference to that song, Drummond and Cauty noted that they had worn "Pet Shop Boys infatuations brazenly on [their] sleeves."{{Cite AV media notes|type=Sleeve notes|title=Indie Top 20 Volume 8|publisher=Beechwood Music|id=TT08|year=1990|others=Various Artists}}

The film project was fraught with difficulties and setbacks, including dwindling funds. "Kylie Said to Jason", which Drummond and Cauty were hoping could "rescue them from the jaws of bankruptcy", flopped commercially, failing even to make the UK top 100. In consequence, The White Room film project was put on hold, and the KLF abandoned the musical direction of the soundtrack and single.{{LibraryOfMu|tl=web|mu-id=508|publisher=KLF Communications|title=The White Room – Information Sheet Eight|date=August 1990|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071005024345/http://www.libraryofmu.org/display-resource.php?id=508|archive-date=5 October 2007}} Meanwhile, "What Time Is Love?" was generating acclaim within the underground clubs of continental Europe; according to KLF Communications, "The KLF were being feted by all the 'right' DJs". This prompted Drummond and Cauty to pursue the acid house tone of their Pure Trance series. A further Pure Trance release, "Last Train to Trancentral", followed. By this time, Cauty had co-founded the Orb as an ambient side-project with Alex Paterson.{{cite book |last=Prendergast |first=Mark |title=The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Moby – The Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=1-58234-323-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ambientcenturyfr00pren/page/407 407–412] }}{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/07/how-we-made-the-orb-little-fluffy-clouds-interview|title=How we made the Orb's Little Fluffy Clouds|type=Interview with Youth and Alex Paterson|first=Dave|last=Simpson|date=7 June 2016|work=The Guardian|access-date=7 March 2020}} Cauty's ambient album Space{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=226|title=The KLF: Enigmatic Dance Duo|work=Record Collector|date=1 April 1991|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916120306/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=226|archive-date=16 September 2016}}{{AllMusic|class=album|id=mw0000953894|first=John|last=Bush|access-date=6 March 2020}} and the KLF's "ambient house" LP Chill Out ambient video Waiting were released in 1990, as was a dance track, "It's Grim Up North", under the JAMs' moniker.

Throughout 1990, the KLF launched a series of singles with an upbeat pop-house sound which they dubbed "stadium house". Songs from The White Room soundtrack were re-recorded with rap and more vocals (by guests labelled "Additional Communicators"), a sample-heavy pop-rock production and crowd noise samples.{{Cite magazine|last=Harrison|first=Allan|title=The White Room|type=review|magazine=Splendid|url=http://www.splendidezine.com/departments/guilty/guilty90604.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061112155337/http://www.splendidezine.com/departments/guilty/guilty90604.html |archive-date=12 November 2006 }} The first "stadium house" single, "What Time Is Love? (Live from Trancentral)", released in October 1990, reached #5 on the UK Singles Chart and hit the top-ten internationally. The follow-up, "3 a.m. Eternal (Live at the S.S.L.)", was an international top-five hit in January 1991, reaching #1 in the UK and #5 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The album The White Room followed in March 1991,{{allMusic|id=mw0000264316|first=John|last=Bush|title=The White Room – The KLF|access-date=7 March 2020}} reaching #3 in the UK. A substantial reworking of the aborted soundtrack, the album featured a segued series of "stadium house" songs followed by downtempo tracks. The KLF's chart success continued with the single "Last Train to Trancentral" hitting number two in the UK, and number three on the Eurochart Hot 100.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}} In December 1991, a re-working of a song from 1987, "Justified & Ancient" was released, featuring Tammy Wynette. It was another international hit – peaking at number two in the UK, and number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 – as was "America: What Time Is Love?",{{citation needed|date=March 2020}} a hard, guitar-laden reworking of "What Time Is Love?". In 1990 and 1991, the KLF also remixed tracks by Depeche Mode ("Policy of Truth"), the Moody Boys ("What Is Dub?"), and Pet Shop Boys ("So Hard" from the Behaviour album, and "It Must Be Obvious"). Neil Tennant described the process: "When they did the remix of 'So Hard', they didn't do a remix at all, they re-wrote the record ... I had to go and sing the vocals again, they did it in a different way. I was impressed that Bill Drummond had written all the chords out and played it on an acoustic guitar, very thorough."{{Cite magazine|author-link=James Brown (editor)|last=Brown|first=James|title=The Pet Shop Boys Versus The World|magazine=NME|date=25 May 1991}}

The "stadium house" singles trilogy was characterised by Tom Ewing of Freaky Trigger as applying "the possibilities for mass lunacy" to "awe-inspiring, colossal, unprecedented dancefloor bulldozers." He adds: "For novelty scam-mongers and pranksters, they knew the public well, particularly that strain in British pop listening which likes an occasional brush with the gigantic. The KLF did to house what Jim Steinman did to rock – they turned it into a thing of tottering grand opera absurdity, pushed the excitement in the music to hysteria, traded content for ever-huger gesture. The difference being that the KLF never lost track of what made the music special in the first place. Maybe because there's less inherent 'meaning' in the KLF's music, or maybe just because the 'meaning' in house music is less fragile".{{cite web |last1=Ewing |first1=Tom |title=42. KLF – "Last Train To Transcentral" |url=https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/1999/10/42-klf-last-train-to-transcentral |website=Freaky Trigger |access-date=19 October 2023 |date=28 October 1999}}

After successive name changes and dance records, Drummond and Cauty ultimately became, as the KLF, the biggest-selling singles act in the world for 1991,{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=mn0000074853|title=KLF|first=John|last=Bush|tab=biography|access-date=5 March 2020}}{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=309|title=Timelords gentlemen, please!|work=NME|date=16 May 1992|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011034313/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=309 |archive-date=11 October 2016 }} still incorporating the work of other artists but in less gratuitous ways and predominantly without legal problems.

On 12 February 1992, the KLF and grindcore group Extreme Noise Terror performed a live version of "3 a.m. Eternal" at the BRIT Awards, the British Phonographic Industry's annual awards show.{{Cite news|author-link=Neil McCormick|last=McCormick|first=Neil|department=The Arts|title=My name is Bill, and I'm a popaholic|work=The Daily Telegraph|location=London|date=2 March 2000|page=27|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4720022/My-name-is-Bill-and-Im-a-popaholic.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160227064542/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4720022/My-name-is-Bill-and-Im-a-popaholic.html|archive-date=27 February 2016|access-date=11 March 2020}} Drummond and Cauty had planned to throw buckets of blood over the audience, or to disembowel a dead sheep on stage, but were prevented from doing so due to opposition from BBC lawyers and vegetarians Extreme Noise Terror;{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=292|title=Baa-nned!! KLF sheep chopped by BBC|work=NME|date=22 February 1992|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916115009/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=292 |archive-date=16 September 2016}}{{Cite news|title=Brits behaving badly|work=BBC News|date=4 March 2000|access-date=16 March 2020|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/entertainment/2000/brit_awards/665776.stm}}{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=297|last=Kelly|first=Danny|author-link=Danny Kelly (journalist)|title=Welcome To The Sheep Seats|work=NME|date=29 February 1992|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916111310/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=297 |archive-date=16 September 2016 }} Sheep were a symbol of the KLF, and Drummond conceded that the "sheep hacking" idea was akin to a suicide. Associates reasoned that the plan was to generate such revulsion towards the KLF that they would be ostracised from the music industry and a comeback would be impossible. The dead sheep purchased but the plan thwarted, Drummond considered chopping his hand off with an axe live on stage.{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3558814/Bill-Drummond-pops-prankster-heads-for-destruction.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3558814/Bill-Drummond-pops-prankster-heads-for-destruction.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|work=The Daily Telegraph|title=Bill Drummond: pop's prankster heads for destruction|first=Robert|last=Sandall|author-link=Robert Sandall|date=19 August 2008|access-date=2 March 2020}}{{cbignore}}

The performance was instead concluded with a limping, kilted, cigar-chomping Drummond firing blanks from an automatic weapon over the heads of the crowd. As the band left the stage, the KLF's promoter and narrator Scott Piering proclaimed over the PA system that "The KLF have now left the music business". Later in the evening the band dumped the dead sheep, with the message "I died for you – bon appetit" tied around its waist, at the entrance to one of the post-ceremony parties. Piering's PA announcement was largely not taken seriously at the time; even he and other close associates of the band thought the announcement was a joke. NME's detailed piece on the events at the BRIT Awards and the after-party, which included an interview with Drummond the day after, assured readers that the "tensions and contradictions" would continue to "push and spark" the KLF and that more "musical treasure" would be the result.

In the weeks following the BRITs performance, the KLF continued working with Extreme Noise Terror on the album The Black Room, but it was never finished. On 14 May 1992, the KLF announced their immediate retirement from the music industry and the deletion of their back catalogue:

{{blockquote|We have been following a wild and wounded, glum and glorious, shit but shining path these past five years. The last two of which has [sic] led us up onto the commercial high ground – we are at a point where the path is about to take a sharp turn from these sunny uplands down into a netherworld of we know not what. For the foreseeable future there will be no further record releases from The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords, The KLF and any other past, present and future name attached to our activities. As of now all our past releases are deleted .... If we meet further along be prepared ... our disguise may be complete.KLF Communications advertisement in NME, 16 May 1992.}}

In a comprehensive examination of the KLF's announcement and its context, Select called it "the last grand gesture, the most heroic act of public self destruction in the history of pop. And it's also Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty's final extravagant howl of self disgust, defiance and contempt for a music world gone foul and corrupt." Many of the KLF's friends and collaborators gave their reactions in the magazine. Movie director Bill Butt said that "Like everything, they're dealing with it in a very realistic way, a fresh, unbitter way, which is very often not the case. A lot of bands disappear with such a terrible loss of dignity". Scott Piering said that "They've got a huge buzz off this, that's for sure, because it's something that's finally thrilling. It's scary to have thrown away a fortune which I know they have. Just the idea of starting over is exciting. Starting over on what? Well, they have such great ideas, like buying submarines". Even Kenny Gates, who as a director of the KLF's distributors APT stood to lose financially from the move, called it "Conceptually and philosophically... absolutely brilliant". Mark Stent reported the doubts of many when he said that "I [have] had so many people who I know, heads of record companies, A&R men saying, 'Come on, It's a big scam.' But I firmly believe it's over". "For the very last spectacularly insane time", the magazine concluded, "The KLF have done what was least expected of them".

The final KLF Info sheet discussed the retirement in a typically offbeat fashion, and asked "What happens to 'Footnotes in rock legend'? Do they gather dust with Ashton, Gardner and Dyke, the Vapors, and the Utah Saints, or does their influence live on in unseen ways, permeating future cultures? A passing general of a private army has the answer. 'No', he whispers 'but the dust they gather is of the rarest quality. Each speck a universe awaiting creation, Big Bang just a dawn away'."{{LibraryOfMu|tl=web|mu-id=514|title=KLF Communications – Information Sheet 23|publisher=KLF Communications|date=May 1992|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071005024408/https://libraryofmu.org/display-resource.php?id=514|archive-date=5 October 2007}} There have been numerous suggestions that in 1992 Drummond was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=430|quote=[1992] had been the year of Bill's 'breakdown', when the KLF, perched on the peak of greater-than-ever success, quit the music business, (toy) machine gunned the tuxedo'd twats in the front row of that year's BRIT Awards ceremony and dumped a sheep's carcass on the steps at the after-show party.|last=Martin|first=Gavin|title=The Chronicled Mutineers|work=Vox|date=December 1996|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916120933/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=430 |archive-date=16 September 2016}} Drummond himself said that he was on the edge of the "abyss".{{cite book |last1=Drummond |first1=Bill|author-link=Bill Drummond |last2=Manning |first2=Mark |author-link2=Mark Manning |date=1996 |title=Bad Wisdom |location=London |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-026118-9}} The KLF's BRITs statuette for "Best British Group" of 1992 was later found buried in a field near Stonehenge.{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=322|title=BRITs statuette dug up|work=Q|date=February 1993|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916114416/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=322 |archive-date=16 September 2016}}

{{Main|K Foundation|Fuck the Millennium}}

The K Foundation was an arts foundation established by Drummond and Cauty in 1993 following their 'retirement' from the music industry. From 1993 to 1995 they engaged in art projects and media campaigns, including the high-profile K Foundation art award (for the "worst artist of the year"),{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=366|title=The Best Of Artists, The Worst of Artists|work=New York Times|date=29 November 1993|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916115344/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=366|archive-date=16 September 2016}}{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=362|last=Ellison|first=Mike|title=Terror strikes at the Turner Prize / Art at its very best (or worst)|work=The Guardian|date=24 November 1993|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916112851/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=362 |archive-date=16 September 2016 }} and in 1993 released a limited edition single – "K Cera Cera" – in Israel and Palestine "to create awareness of peace in the world".{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=356|title=Yasser, they can boogie!|work=NME|date=13 November 1993|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916111935/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=356|archive-date=16 September 2016}} They burnt what was left of their KLF earnings – a million pounds sterling in cash (equivalent to £2.35m as of 2022) – and filmed the performance.{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=387|last=Reid, Jim|title=Money to burn|work=The Observer|date=25 September 1994|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916120338/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=387 |archive-date=16 September 2016 }} This article is a first-hand account by freelance journalist Jim Reid, the only independent witness to the burning.{{cite magazine|title=Interview: The KLF's James Cauty |last=Butler |first=Ben |url=http://rocknerd.org/article.pl?sid=03/06/18/0539252 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071210011728/http://rocknerd.org/article.pl?sid=03%2F06%2F18%2F0539252 |archive-date=10 December 2007 |type=interview with Jimmy Cauty for The Big Issue Australia|magazine=Rocknerd|date=18 June 2003}} For Cauty's actual words – a breakdown of The KLF's earnings and spending – see K Foundation Burn a Million Quid.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/Archive/Article/0,4273,3962686,00.html |title=Burning question |last=Smith |first=Andrew |date=13 February 2000 |newspaper=The Observer |access-date=30 May 2015}} Cauty and Drummond announced a 23-year moratorium on all K Foundation activities in November 1995.{{cite magazine|author-link=Stewart Home|last=Home|first=Stewart|title=There's no success like failure|magazine=Variant|volume=2|number=1|date=Winter 1996|page=18|url=http://www.variant.randomstate.org/pdfs/issue1/success.pdf#search=%22%22k%20foundation%22%20moratorium%22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928081253/http://www.variant.randomstate.org/pdfs/issue1/success.pdf#search=%22%22k%20foundation%22%20moratorium%22 |archive-date=28 September 2007}}

File:2K - Wheelchair.gif

Also in 1995, Drummond and Cauty contributed a song to The Help Album as The One World Orchestra ("featuring The Massed Pipes and Drums of the Children's Free Revolutionary Volunteer Guards").{{Cite magazine|title=Help LP diary|magazine=Select|date=January 1996}} "The Magnificent" is a drum'n'bass version of the theme tune from The Magnificent Seven, with vocal samples from DJ Fleka of Serbian radio station B92: "Humans against killing... that sounds like a junkie against dope".

On 17 September 1997, Drummond and Cauty re-emerged briefly as 2K.{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=496|last=Flint|first=Charlie|title=Media Pranksters KLF Re-emerge As 2K|work=Billboard|date=2 September 1997|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916113139/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=496 |archive-date=16 September 2016}} 2K made a one-off performance at London's Barbican Arts Centre with Mark Manning, Acid Brass, the Liverpool Dockers and Gimpo;{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=439|title=Justified and (Very) Ancient?|work=Melody Maker|date=20 August 1997|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916115111/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=439|archive-date=16 September 2016}} a performance at which "Two elderly gentlemen, reeking of Dettol, caused havoc in their motorised wheelchairs. These old reprobates, bearing a grandfatherly resemblance to messrs Cauty and Drummond, claimed to have just been asked along."{{Cite web|title=2K|type=press release & biography|publisher=Mute Records|url=http://www.mutelibtech.com/mute/2k/2kpress.htm|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060327002924/http://www.mutelibtech.com/mute/2k/2kpress.htm |archive-date=27 March 2006 }} The song performed at the Barbican – "***k the Millennium" (a remix of "What Time Is Love?" featuring Acid Brass and incorporating elements of the hymn "Eternal Father, Strong to Save") – was also released as a single. These activities were accompanied by the usual full page press adverts, this time asking readers "***k The Millennium: Yes/No?" with a telephone number provided for voting. At the same time, Drummond and Cauty were also K2 Plant Hire, with plans to build a "People's Pyramid" from used house bricks; this plan never reached fruition.{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=499|title=People's Pyramid|type=News item|work=Melody Maker|date=15 November 1997|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916112355/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=499|archive-date=16 September 2016}}{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=457|title=2K: Brickin' it!|work=NME|date=8 November 1997|type=News item|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916114345/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=457|archive-date=16 September 2016}} K2 Plant Hire Ltd had been registered at Companies House since 1995; Cauty and Drummond are directors.{{cite web|url=https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/03013255|title=K2 PLANT HIRE LIMITED – Overview (free company information from Companies House)|website=beta.companieshouse.gov.uk}} The Directors' Report for the period ending 31 March 1996 listed the company's activities as "a music company," and the accompanying accounts noted a transaction with "KLF Communications Residual Royalties", a Cauty-Drummond partnership.{{Citation|title=K2 Plant Hire Limited Unaudited Report and Accounts|date=31 March 1996|publisher=Companies House}}{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=452|first=Miranda|last=Sawyer|author-link=Miranda Sawyer|title=They set fire to £1m and they're still not happy|work=The Observer|date=26 October 1997|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916110924/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=452|archive-date=16 September 2016|quote=Jimmy and Bill aren't an art foundation any more. 'We're K2 Plant Hire,' announces Jimmy. 'We have been for two to three years. We're a limited company.'}}

{{further|Welcome to the Dark Ages|2023: A Trilogy}}

On 23 August 2017, in Liverpool, 23 years after they burnt a million pounds, Drummond and Cauty returned as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu.{{cite web|last=Paterson|first=Colin|author-link=Colin Paterson|title=The KLF return 23 years after bowing out of the music industry|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-41023934/the-klf-return-23-years-after-bowing-out-of-the-music-industry|work=BBC News|date=23 August 2017|access-date=27 February 2020|type=video}}{{Cite web|url=http://drownedinsound.com/news/4151283-the-ice-kream-van-kometh--the-justified-ancients-of-mu-mu-return|title=The Ice Kream Van Kometh: The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu Return|date=24 August 2017|access-date=26 February 2020|first=Max|last=Pilley|work=Drowned in Sound|archive-date=26 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226003707/http://drownedinsound.com/news/4151283-the-ice-kream-van-kometh--the-justified-ancients-of-mu-mu-return}} The duo launched a novel, 2023: A Trilogy,{{cite web|url=http://www.superweirdsubstance.com/jams-klf-dark-ages/|title=Welcome To The Dark Ages: The JAMs Return|publisher=Super Weird Substance|date=30 August 2017|access-date=26 February 2020|first=Josh|last=Ray}}{{cite news|last1=Ellis-Petersen|first1=Hannah|title=The return of the KLF: pop's greatest provocateurs take on a post-truth world|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/aug/23/klf-bill-drummond-jimmy-cauty-2023-book|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=23 August 2017}} and staged a three day event, "Welcome to the Dark Ages".{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/aug/26/the-return-of-the-klf-what-time-is-chaos|title=KLF Welcome to the Dark Ages review – what time is chaos?|first=Barbara|last=Ellen|date=26 August 2017|work=The Guardian|access-date=4 March 2020}} Ending their self-imposed moratorium, the festival included a debate asking "Why Did The K Foundation Burn A Million Quid?"{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41022272|title=The KLF: Pop's saboteurs return after 23 years|date=23 August 2017|work=BBC News|access-date=26 February 2020}} The JAMs also announced new plans for a People's Pyramid to be built from bricks each containing 23 grams of human ashes.{{Cite web|url=https://www.uncut.co.uk/news/klf-unveil-plans-build-pyramid-dead-peoples-ashes-108260/|title=The KLF unveil plans to build a pyramid from dead people's ashes|date=16 November 2018|access-date=26 February 2020|first=Sam|last=Richards|work=Uncut}}{{Cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/news/the-klf-announce-plans-to-build-pyramid-out-of-34592-dead-people/|title=The KLF Announce Plans to Build Pyramid Out of 34,592 Dead People|date=15 November 2018|access-date=26 February 2020|first=Sam|last=Sodomsky|work=Pitchfork}} New bricks will be laid at the annual "Toxteth Day Of The Dead".{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46342573|title=KLF's Jimmy Cauty: 'We don't make records, we make pyramids out of dead people'|date=26 November 2018|access-date=26 February 2020|first=Ian|last=Youngs|work=BBC News}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/arts-culture-news/pyramid-bricks-containing-ashes-dead-15420625|date=15 November 2018|access-date=26 February 2020|first=Laura|last=Davis|work=Liverpool Echo|title=Why a pyramid of bricks containing the ashes of dead people is being built in Toxteth}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/arts-culture-news/day-dead-street-procession-coming-16882873|title=Day of the Dead street procession coming to Toxteth|date=9 October 2019|access-date=26 February 2020|first=Lisa|last=Rand|work=Liverpool Echo}}

Cauty emphasised to the BBC in 2018 that the People's Pyramid project, inspired by his brother's death, is serious: "It's easy to make it sound like a joke", he said, "but it isn't a joke, it's deadly serious and it's a long-term project." He also confirmed that The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu are a going concern: "It's interesting to be in a band that doesn't make records but only makes pyramids of dead people.

On 31 December 2020, the release of series of remastered compilations under the collective title Samplecity thru Trancentral was announced on a graffiti and posters hung under a railway bridge on Kingsland Road in Shoreditch, East London. The 30-minute collection of eight remastered singles Solid State Logik 1 appeared at midnight 1 January 2021, on streaming platforms, while high-definition videos were published for the first time on the band's official YouTube channel, marking the first activity of Cauty and Drummond as the KLF since 1992.{{cite news|last=Beaumont-Thomas|first=Ben|date=1 January 2021|title=The KLF reissue music for first time since 1992|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jan/01/the-klf-reissue-music-for-first-time-since-1992|access-date=2 January 2021}} On 23 March 2021, the collection was followed by its part 2 featuring 12" versions of the singles.{{Cite web|last=Krol|first=Charlotte|date=2021-03-23|title=The KLF add compilation including unreleased Jarvis Cocker collab to streaming|url=https://www.nme.com/news/music/the-klf-add-singles-compilation-including-unreleased-jarvis-cocker-collaboration-to-streaming-services-2906340|access-date=2021-03-23|website=NME|language=en-GB}}

On 4 February 2021, a re-edited version of Chill Out was released, retitled Come Down Dawn, with previously unlicensed samples from the original release removed,{{Cite web|date=2021-02-04|title=The KLF release new reworked album 'Come Down Dawn'|url=https://www.nme.com/news/music/the-klf-release-new-reworked-album-come-down-dawn-2872777|access-date=2021-02-04|website=NME {{!}} Music, Film, TV, Gaming & Pop Culture News|language=en-GB}} and added "What Time Is Love? (Virtual Reality Mix)," originally from the 1990 remix EP What Time Is Love? (Remodelled & Remixed), integrated in the new mix.

On 23 April 2021, The White Room (Director's Cut) was officially released as the fourth part of the series. The album's edition includes tracks from the unreleased 1989 album, as well as an extended version of "Last Train to Trancentral" from the 1991 album.

The documentary Who Killed the KLF?, directed by Chris Atkins, was released on April 4, 2022.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nme.com/news/music/watch-the-trailer-for-controversial-new-documentary-who-killed-the-klf-3198234|title=Watch the trailer for controversial new documentary 'Who Killed The KLF?'|website=NME|date=5 April 2022}} Atkins began creating the documentary against Drummond's and Cauty's wishes, but was incarcerated in 2016 for tax fraud for two years;{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/apr/08/who-killed-the-klf-the-film-drummond-cauty-did-not-want-you-to-see|title=Prison, lawsuits and a glovebox of fake cash: the film the KLF didn't want you to see|first=Chris|last=Atkins|date=8 April 2022|website=the Guardian}}{{Cite web|url=https://mixmag.net/read/new-documentary-who-killed-the-klf-watch-news|title=New documentary 'Who Killed The KLF?' is out now|website=Mixmag}} he continued editing the film while in prison. According to Atkins, the duo eventually claimed they "love" the film, though they pointed out some minor inaccuracies.

The band's master tapes were donated to the British Library in 2023.{{Cite news |newspaper=The Guardian |language=en-GB |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/aug/23/klf-donate-copy-of-reconstructed-1987-album-to-british-library |title=KLF donate copy of reconstructed 1987 album to British Library |first=Sammy |last=Gecsoyler |date=2023-08-23 |access-date=2023-08-23 |department=Music |issn=1756-3224 |oclc=60623878}}

File:Pyramid Blaster.png

From their very earliest releases as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu until their retirement in 1992, the music of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty was independently released in their home country (the UK).KLF Communications profile at Discogs.com ([http://www.discogs.com/label/KLF+Communications link] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615115823/http://www.discogs.com/label/KLF%2BCommunications |date=15 June 2013 }}) Their debut releases – the single "All You Need Is Love" and the album 1987 – were released under the label name "The Sound Of Mu(sic)". By the end of 1987 Drummond and Cauty had renamed their label to "KLF Communications" and, in October 1987, the first of many "information sheets" (self written missives from the KLF to fans and the media) was sent out by the label.

KLF Communications releases were distributed by Rough Trade Distribution{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/mar/22/indie-record-labels-changed-world|title=How indie labels changed the world|work=The Guardian|date=22 March 2012|first=Richard|last=King}} (a spinoff of Rough Trade Records) in the South East of England, and across the wider UK by the Cartel. As Drummond and Cauty explained, "The Cartel is, as the name implies, a group of independent distributors across the country who work in conjunction with each other providing a solid network of distribution without stepping on each other's toes. We are distributed by the Cartel."Drummond, B. & Cauty, J. (1989) The Manual (How To Have a Number One The Easy Way), KLF Publications (KLF 009B), UK. {{ISBN|0-86359-616-9}}. ([http://www.kasino.co.uk/klf.txt Link to full text]) {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070205175005/http://www.kasino.co.uk/klf.txt |date=5 February 2007 }} When Rough Trade Distribution collapsed in 1991 it was reported that they owed KLF Communications £500,000.{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=295|title=KLF chase money ... and McCulloch"|work=NME|date=29 February 1992|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916114122/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=295 |archive-date=16 September 2016}} Plugging (the promotion to TV and radio) was handled by longtime associate Scott Piering.

Outside the UK, KLF releases were issued under licence by local labels. In the US, the licensees were Wax Trax (the Chill Out album{{AllMusic|id=mw0000092678|first=John|last=Bush|title=Chill Out|access-date=5 March 2020}}), TVT (early releases including The History of The JAMs a.k.a. The Timelords{{AllMusic|id=mw0000653485|first=John|last=Bush|title=The History of the JAMS a.k.a. The Timelords|access-date=5 March 2020}}), and Arista Records (The White Room and singles{{AllMusic|id=mw0000180385|title=The White Room/Justified & Ancient|tab=releases|access-date=5 March 2020}}{{refn|group=n|Bill Drummond explained the licensing situation – and inducements made by Arista – in an interview by Ernie Longmire, X Magazine, July 1991.}}). The KLF Communications physical catalogue remains deleted in the United Kingdom.

Several threads and themes unify the many incarnations of Drummond and Cauty's creative partnership, many of these influenced by The Illuminatus! Trilogy; combined, these themes, threads and their activities over the years have been said to form a "mythology." Drummond and Cauty made heavy references to Discordianism, popularised by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson in the Illuminatus! books, Situationism, and tactics often interpreted by media commentators as "Situationist pranks.

In a 2000 review of Drummond's book 45, and an appraisal of the duo's career to date, writer Steven Poole stated that Drummond and Cauty "are the only true conceptual artists of the [1990s]. And for all the eldritch beauty of their art, their most successful creation is the myth they have built around themselves."{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=487|author-link=Steven Poole|last=Poole|first=Steven|title=Hit man, myth maker – 45|work=The Observer|date=26 February 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916112918/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=487 |archive-date=16 September 2016 }} This deep and perplexing mythology, he suggested, results in all their subsequent activities (as a partnership or otherwise) being absorbed into their mystique:

{{blockquote|A myth like the KLF's is peculiarly omnivorous. Just as there can never be any evidence to disprove a conspiracy theory because the fabrication of such evidence – don't you see? – is itself part of the conspiracy, so the pop myth of the KLF can never be blown apart by anything they do, no matter how dumb or embarrassing. The myth will suck it up, like a black hole.}}

Drummond and Cauty have also been compared to Stewart Home and the Neoists.Extract from a feature on Stewart Home. Cornwell, J. i-D Magazine, Nov 1993 ([http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=354 link] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916121143/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=354 |date=16 September 2016 }}) Home himself said that the duo's work "has much more in common with the Neoist, Plagiarist and Art Strike movements of the nineteen-eighties than with the Situationist avant-garde of the fifties and sixties." Drummond and Cauty "represent a vital and innovative strand within contemporary culture", he added.Home, Stewart, "Doctorin' Our Culture", published on the website of The Stewart Home Society ([http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/klf.htm link] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314035101/http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/klf.htm |date=14 March 2016 }})

Drummond was the set designer on Ken Campbell's 1976 stage production of The Illuminatus! Trilogy.{{Cite magazine|url=https://thequietus.com/articles/21674-the-klf-justified-ancients-of-mu-mu-bill-drummond-jimmy-cauty|title=Embrace The Contradictions: The Strange World Of... The KLF|first=Ben|last=Graham|date=1 February 2017|magazine=The Quietus|access-date=10 March 2020}} In the first KLF Communications Info Sheet, Drummond explained that The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu name was "pinched" from Illuminatus! which he had been reading the year before.{{LibraryOfMu|tl=web|mu-id=500|last=Drummond|first=Bill|author-link=Bill Drummond|date=October 1987|title=KLF Info Sheet Oct 1987|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311225447/http://www.libraryofmu.org/display-resource.php?id=500 |archive-date=11 March 2007 }}

A notable theme of Illuminatus! is the number 23, placed overtly and surreptitiously, both in the book and later throughout the band's career:

• In lyrics to the song "Next" from the album 1987: "23 years is a mighty long time".
• They announced they had signed a contract preventing either of them from publicly discussing the burning of a million pounds for a period of 23 years;{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=519 |title=Cape Wrath |author=K Foundation |date=8 December 1995 |work=The Guardian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916113827/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=519 |archive-date=16 September 2016|type=advertisement}}
• The 1997 return as 2K was "for 23 minutes only".{{Cite web|url=http://www.mutelibtech.com/mute/2k/2k1.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060327005822/http://www.mutelibtech.com/mute/2k/2k1.htm |archive-date=27 March 2006 |website=mutelibtech.com |title=They're Back |url-status=usurped|publisher=Mute Records }}
• In numbering schemes: for instance, the debut single "All You Need Is Love" took the catalogue number JAMS 23, while the final KLF Communications Information Sheet was numbered 23; and Cauty's Ford Galaxie police car had on its roof the identification mark 23.
• In significant dates during their work: for instance, a rare public appearance by the KLF, at the Liverpool Festival of Comedy, was on 23 June 1991; they announced the winner of the K Foundation award on 23 November 1993;{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=368|title=K-Foundation nailed|work=NME|date=11 December 1993|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916115513/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=368 |archive-date=16 September 2016}} and they burned one million pounds on 23 August 1994.
• The 2017 reunion happened at 00:23 on 23 August 23 years after the burning, with the release of a book entitled 2023: A Trilogy. The numerals of the date – 23 August 2017 – also sum to 23 (2+3+0+8+2+0+1+7=23).

When questioned on the importance that he attaches to this number, Drummond has been evasive, responding enigmatically "I know. But I'm not going to tell, because then other people would have to stop having to wonder and the thing about beauty is for other people to wonder at it. It's not very beautiful once you know."{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=392|title=Freak Show|work=i-D|date=December 1994|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916111453/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=392 |archive-date=16 September 2016}}

The "Pyramid Blaster" is a logo and icon frequently and prominently depicted within the duo's collective work: a pyramid, in front of which is suspended a ghetto blaster displaying the word "Justified". This references the Eye of Providence icon, often depicted as an eye within a triangle or pyramid, a significant symbol of Illuminatus!{{Cite news|url=https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1064/is-the-dollar-bills-eye-on-a-pyramid-the-symbol-of-a-secret-society/|title=Is the dollar bill's eye-on-a-pyramid the symbol of a secret society?|first=Cecil|last=Adams|author-link=Cecil Adams|work=The Straight Dope|date=23 May 1997|access-date=9 March 2020}} The pyramid was also a theme of the duo's 1997 and 2017 reunions, with the proposed building by K2 Plant Hire of a "People's Pyramid" (in 1997, a pyramid built with as many bricks as there were births in the 20th century in the UK, and in 2017 a pyramid built from bricks containing the ashes of dead people).

Trancentral (a.k.a. the Benio){{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=123|title=Chill Out|type=review|last=Mead |first=Helen|work=NME |date=27 January 1990|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916112531/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=123|archive-date=16 September 2016}} was the band's studios. Despite the grandiose lyrics of "Last Train to Trancentral", the Trancentral was in fact Cauty's residence in Stockwell, South London ({{Coord|51.471373|-0.128167|display=inline|name=55 Jeffrey's Road, Stockwell, London}}), "a large and rather grotty squat." According to Melody Maker's David Stubbs, "Jimmy has lived [there] for 12 years. There's little evidence of fame or fortune. The kitchen is heated by means of leaving the three functioning gas rings on at full blast until the fumes make us all feel stoned... And pinned just above a working top cluttered with chipped mugs is a letter from a five-year-old fan featuring a crayon drawing of the band."{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=202|last=Stubbs|first=David|title=Pranks for the Memory|work=Melody Maker|date=16 February 1991|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916114935/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=202 |archive-date=16 September 2016 }}

Following the February 1990 release of Chill Out (the press release for which credited sheep as guest vocalists{{Cite press release|publisher=Appearing (media consultants)|title=The KLF – "Chill Out".. (Ambient house) LP|date=1990|url=https://img.discogs.com/4Aeru5tTwZ__OfkMSUeC0UK2S30=/fit-in/600x821/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-28324-1470891481-4641.jpeg.jpg|quote=So what, you might ask, does this have to do with sheep? The KLF have discovered in working with the guest vocalist sheep on Chill Out that sheep – far from being the mindless, lazy animals of easy virtue that is their stereotype – are spiritually highly-evolved creatures who are totally at one with their universe. If you doubt this, just gaze at the cover of Chill Out whilst listening to it and share the serenity.}}), sheep had recurring roles in the duo's output until their 1992 retirement. Drummond has claimed that the use of sheep on the Chill Out cover was intended to evoke contemporary rural raves and the cover of the Pink Floyd album Atom Heart Mother.{{Cite book| last = Drummond | first = Bill | author-link = Bill Drummond | title = 17 | publisher = Beautiful Books | year=2008 | page = 410 | isbn = 978-1-905636-26-6 }}

Drummond and Cauty's work often involved notions of ceremony and journey. Journeys are the subject of the KLF Communications recordings Chill Out, Space, "Last Train to Trancentral", "Justified & Ancient" and "America: What Time Is Love?", as well as the aborted film project The White Room. The Chill Out album depicts a journey across the U.S. Gulf Coast. In his book 45, Drummond expressed his admiration for the work of artist Richard Long, who incorporates physical journeys into his art.{{cite book|title=45|publisher=Little, Brown|first=Bill|last=Drummond|author-link=Bill Drummond|date=2000|isbn=0-316-85385-2}}

Fire and sacrifice were recurring ceremonial themes: Drummond and Cauty made fires to dispose of their illegal debut album and to sacrifice the KLF's profits; their dead sheep gesture of 1992 carried a sacrificial message. The KLF's short film The Rites of Mu depicts their celebration of the 1991 summer solstice on the Hebridean island of Jura: a {{convert|60|ft|m|adj=on}} tall wicker man was burnt at a ceremony in which journalists were asked to wear yellow and grey robes and join a chant;{{Cite news|title=On location: The isle of Jura|url=https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2006/aug/12/filminspiredtravel.scotland|first=Caroline|last=Roux|date=12 August 2006|access-date=25 February 2020|work=The Guardian}} the journalists' money was also burnt.{{Cite AV media|type=VHS|title=The Rites Of Mu|publisher=KLF Communications|year=1991|id= KLF VT014|author=The KLF}}

File:K-Foundation - Fuck the Millenium Advert.jpg

Drummond and Cauty were renowned for their distinctive and humorous public appearances (including several on Top of the Pops), at which they were often costumed.{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=445|last=Frith|first=Mark|author-link=Mark Frith|title=The Return of The KLF|work=SKY Magazine|date=October 1997|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916113500/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=445|archive-date=16 September 2016}} They granted few interviews, communicating instead via semi-regular newsletters, or cryptically phrased full-page adverts in UK national newspapers and the music press. Such adverts were typically stark, comprising large white lettering on black.

From the outset of their collaborations, Drummond and Cauty practised the guerrilla communication tactic that they described as "illegal but effective use of graffiti on billboards and public buildings" in which "the original meaning of the advert would be totally subverted". Much as the JAMs' early recordings carried messages on the back of existing musical works, their promotional graffiti often derived its potency from the context in which it was placed. For instance, The JAMs' "SHAG SHAG SHAG" graffiti, coinciding with their release of "All You Need Is Love", was drawn over the "HALO HALO HALO" slogan of a Today billboard that depicted Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable James Anderton, who had decried homosexuals amidst the UK media's AIDS furore.{{refn|group=n|For a general overview see: "The 1980s AIDS campaign" by Panorama on the BBC News website.{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/4348096.stm|title=The 1980s AIDS campaign|date=16 October 2005|work=BBC News|access-date=27 February 2020}} A fuller set of references are available in the article "All You Need Is Love (The JAMs song)".}}

Music press journalists were occasionally invited to witness the defacements. In December 1987, a Melody Maker reporter was in attendance to see Cauty reverse his car Ford Timelord alongside a billboard and stand on its roof to graffiti a Christmas message from the JAMs.{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=52|first=Mat|last=Smith|title=The Great TUNE Robbery|work=Melody Maker|date=12 December 1987|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161004211026/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=52|archive-date=4 October 2016}} In February 1991, another Melody Maker journalist watched the KLF deface a billboard advertising The Sunday Times, doctoring the slogan "THE GULF: the coverage, the analysis, the facts" by painting a 'K' over the 'GU'. Drummond and Cauty were, on this occasion, caught at the scene by police and arrested, later to be released without charge.

In November 1991, the JAMs placed a photograph of graffiti with the slogan "It's Grim Up North" – which had appeared on the junction of London's M25 orbital motorway with the M1 that runs to Northern England{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=258|title=The JAMs: centre of political interest|work=NME|date=9 November 1991|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916114545/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=258|archive-date=16 September 2016}} – as an advert in the NME.{{Cite magazine|title="It's Grim Up North" Graffiti Advert|type=advertisement|date=2 November 1991|magazine=NME}} The graffiti, for which the JAMs denied responsibility,{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=257|title=It's Grim Up North|type=Single of the Week|work=NME|date=2 November 1991|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916125203/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=257|archive-date=16 September 2016}} had been the subject of an early day motion in the British House of Commons on 21 October 1991.{{Cite web|url=https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/2130|title=MOTORWAY GRAFFITI – Early Day Motions|publisher=House of Commons|date=21 October 1991|access-date=29 February 2020|quote=That this House calls on the Secretary of State for Transport to remove the huge white painted graffiti on the bridge over the M1 on the northbound carriageway just north of the M25 junction which reads – Its Grim Up North, or alternatively arrange to add the words, Gruesome in the Midlands, and Nowt but Homeless Folk in Cardboard Boxes in London, to restore a fair regional balance during the next election.|type=Early Day Motion by Joe Ashton MP}} In September 1997, on the day after Drummond and Cauty's brief remergence as 2K, the graffiti "1997: What The Fuck's Going On?" appeared on the outside wall of London's National Theatre, ten years after the slogan "1987: What The Fuck's Going On?" had been similarly placed to mark the release of the JAMs' debut album.{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=465|title=Pre-millennium tension hits new high|work=NME|date=27 September 1997|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916120234/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=465 |archive-date=16 September 2016 }}

Cauty and Drummond's tactics have often been labelled by media commentators as "pranks" or "publicity stunts". In 1991, Drummond told an NME journalist that "we never felt we went out and did things to get reactions. Everything we've done has just been on a gut level instinct", whilst acknowledging that people would likely not believe him.{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=191|last=Morton|first=Roger|title=One Coronation Under A Groove|work=NME|date=12 January 1991|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161004150446/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=191 |archive-date=4 October 2016}} On the morning after the BRITs performance, an impassioned Drummond told the NME that "I really hate it when people go on about us being 'schemers' and 'scammers'. We do all this stuff from the very depths of our soul and people make out its some sort of game. It depresses me." Cauty has expressed similar feelings, saying of the KLF, "I think it worked because we really meant it."

File:KLF - J&A ice cream ad.jpg", with a quote from the lyrics: "They travel the world in their ice cream van, they've voyaged to the bottom of time. They've been to the place where the Mu-Mu mate, and the children still cry 'Mine's a 99!'"]]

Chill Out is cited by AllMusic as "one of the essential ambient albums". In 1996, Mixmag named Chill Out the fifth best "dance" album of all time, describing Cauty's DJ sets with the Orb's Alex Paterson as "seminal".{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=478|first=Dom|last= Phillips|work=Mixmag|title=50 greatest dance albums – No. 5, Chill Out – The KLF|date=1 March 1996|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916110651/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=478|archive-date=16 September 2016}} The Guardian has credited the KLF with inventing "stadium house";{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=437|title=The horny old devils|first=John|last=O'Reilly|work=The Guardian|date=29 August 1997|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916115808/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=437|archive-date=16 September 2016}} NME named the KLF's stadium house album The White Room the 81st best album of all time{{Cite web|title=nme.com – Top 100 Of All Times|url=http://microsites.nme.com/reviews/top100.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010305081004/http://microsites.nme.com/reviews/top100.html|archive-date=5 March 2001|date=October 1993}} whilst Q listed it as the 89th best British album of all time, in 2000.{{Cite news|title=Beatles still rule the rockers' roost|work=The Guardian|location=Manchester|date=2 May 2000|page=9|first=Paul|last=Kelso|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/may/02/paulkelso|access-date=19 March 2020}}

In 1991, Chris Lowe of Pet Shop Boys said that he considered the only other worthwhile group in the UK to be the KLF. Neil Tennant added that "They have an incredibly recognisable sound. I liked it when they said EMF nicked the F from KLF. They're from a different tradition to us in that they're pranksters and we've never been pranksters."

At the time of the KLF's retirement announcement, Drummond's old friend and colleague David Balfe said of Drummond's KLF career that "the path he's trod[den] is a more artistic one than mine. I know that deep down I like the idea of building up a very successful career, where Bill is more interested in weird stuff ... I think the very avoidance of cliché has become their particular cliché".

In March 1994, members of the anarchist band Chumbawamba expressed their respect for the KLF. Vocalist and percussionist Alice Nutter referred to the KLF as "real situationists" categorising them as political musicians alongside the Sex Pistols and Public Enemy. Dunst Bruce lauded the K Foundation, concluding "I think the things the KLF do are fantastic. I'm a vegetarian but I wish they'd sawn an elephant's legs off at the BRIT Awards."{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=378|author-link=Stuart Maconie|last=Maconie|first=Stuart|title=Chumbawamba interview|work=Select|date=March 1994|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916114318/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=378 |archive-date=16 September 2016}}

The KLF have been imitated to some degree by German techno band Scooter, being sampled on virtually every album Scooter have released.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.electronicbeats.net/style-icons-h-p-baxxter-on-the-klf/|first=H.P.|last=Baxxter|author-link=H.P. Baxxter|title=Style Icons: H.P. Baxxter on The KLF|magazine=Electronic Beats|date=March 2013|issue=35}}

In the weeks leading up to the 1996 FA Cup Final, a group called "1300 Drums featuring the Unjustified Ancients of M.U." released a novelty single to cash-in on the popularity of Manchester United footballer Eric Cantona.{{KLFDiscography}}

The Timelords' book, The Manual, was used by the one-hit-wonders Edelweiss to secure their hit "Bring Me Edelweiss".{{Cite news|last=Reighley|first=Kurt B.|title=Hear No Evil|work=Seattle Weekly|date=26 May 1999|url=http://www.seattleweekly.com/music/9921/two-reighley.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016192929/http://seattleweekly.com/1999-05-26/music/hear-no-evil.php|archive-date=16 October 2007}}

The duo "The FLK" released two albums and several singles in the 2010s, appropriating the KLF's aesthetic and musical style and mixing it with samples and references from folk music.{{cite web|url=https://www.echoesanddust.com/2015/12/the-flk-mummers/|title=The FLK: Mummers|author=Si Forster|website=Echoes and Dust|date=1 September 2015|access-date=10 July 2020}} Their anonymity, along with details such as their use of a Ford Timelord which was very similar to the original in their videos and promotional material, led some to believe that the FLK actually were the KLF. However, it emerged in 2018 that they were two ex-members of the Leeds-based indie band The Hollow Men.{{cite magazine |last=Smith |first=Mat |date=Aug 2020 |title=Time Machine |magazine=Electronic Sound |location=Norwich, UK |publisher=Pam Communications Limited |pages=16–17 }}

Drummond and Cauty have appeared frequently in British broadsheets and music papers since the KLF's retirement, most often in connection with the K Foundation and their burning of one million pounds. The NME called them "masters of manipulating media and perceptions of themselves".{{Cite web|url=https://www.nme.com/news/klf/9225|title=Fresh JAMMs?|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115183849/http://www.nme.com/news/klf/9225 |archive-date=15 January 2016|work=NME|date=6 September 2001|first=Adam|last=Bychawski}}

In 1992, NME referred to the KLF as "Britain's greatest pop group" and "the two most brilliant minds in pop today", and in 2002 listed the duo in their "Top 50 Icons" at number 48.{{Cite web|title=Top 50 NME Icons|work=NME|url=http://microsites.nme.com/nme50/41_50.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020529172441/http://microsites.nme.com/nme50/41_50.html|archive-date=29 May 2002}} The British music paper also listed the KLF's 1992 BRIT Awards appearance at number 4 in their "top 100 rock moments of all time".{{Cite web|url=https://www.nme.com/news/kurt-cobain/6010|title=Top 100 Rock Moments of All Time|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303181059/http://www.nme.com/news/kurt-cobain/6010 |archive-date=3 March 2016|website=NME.com|publisher=NME}} "What's unique about Drummond and Cauty", the paper said in 1993, "is the way that, under all the slogans and the sampling and the smart hits and the dead sheep and the costumes, they appear not only to care, but to have some idea of how to achieve what they want."

"[Of their many aliases,] it is as the KLF that they will go down in pop history," wrote Alix Sharkey in 1994, "for a variety of reasons, the most important being the resolute purity of their self-abnegation, and their visionary understanding of pop." He added: "By early 1992 the KLF was easily the best-selling, probably the most innovative, and undoubtedly the most exhilarating pop phenomenon in Britain. In five years it had gone from pressing up 500 copies of its debut recording to being one of the world's top singles acts." The same piece also quoted Sheryl Garratt, editor of The Face: "the music hasn't dated. I still get an adrenaline rush listening to it." Garratt believes their influence on the British house and rap scene cannot be overestimated. "Their attitude was shaped by the rave scene, but they also love pop music. So many people who make pop actually despise it, and it shows."{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=384|last=Sharkey|first=Alix|title=Trash Art & Kreation|work=The Guardian Weekend|date=21 May 1994|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916110256/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=384|archive-date=16 September 2016}}

Trouser Press reviewer Ira Robbins referred to the KLF's body of work as "a series of colorful sonic marketing experiments". The Face called them "the kings of cultural anarchy".{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=374|title=K Foundation: Nailed To The Wall|work=The Face|date=January 1994|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916112429/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=374 |archive-date=16 September 2016}} Robert Sandall wrote in 1993 that one of the KLF's "maxims" was "making the unthinkable happen".{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=549|last=Sandall|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Sandall|title=Adding to the confusion; K Foundation's new ads|work=The Times|date=12 September 1993|department=Features section|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070827182704/http://www.libraryofmu.org/display-resource.php?id=549|archive-date=27 August 2007}} In 1999, Ewing wrote: "Even before they put their money where their matches were, the KLF, also known as the Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu, furthermore known as the JAMMS, were the most brilliant pop-artists of the decade. They were witty with the left hand and baffling with the right; they had a sense of timing and event like nobody since Maclaren; they appeared to not give even the merest hint of a fuck; and they made records which were the best shotgun wedding of concept to rhythm this side of Kraftwerk."{{cite web |last1=Ewing |first1=Tom |title=75. The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu – "It's Grim Up North" |url=https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/1999/09/75-the-justified-ancients-of-mu-mu-its-grim-up-north |website=Freaky Trigger |access-date=19 October 2023 |date=12 September 1999}}

In 2003, The Observer named the KLF's departure from the music business (and the BRITs performance in which the newspaper says "their legend was sealed") the fifth greatest "publicity stunt" in the history of popular music.{{Cite news|last=Thompson|first=Ben|title=The 10 greatest publicity stunts|work=The Observer|date=27 September 2003|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/the10/story/0,11109,1043955,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070315112412/http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/the10/story/0%2C11109%2C1043955%2C00.html |archive-date=15 March 2007|url-status=live }} A 2000 piece in The Daily Telegraph called the BRITs performance "violently antagonistic" and reported that the "music-business audience" was "stunned"; on the other hand, Piers Morgan writing shortly after the performance called the KLF "pop's biggest wallies". A 2004 listener poll by BBC 6 Music saw the KLF/K Foundation placed second in a list of "rock excesses", after The Who.{{Cite news|last=Barnes|first=Anthony|title=The Who top rock's hall of shame|work=The Independent on Sunday|location=London|date=20 June 2004|page=5|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/the-who-top-rocks-hall-of-shame-732856.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/the-who-top-rocks-hall-of-shame-732856.html |archive-date=18 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=17 March 2020}}

A 2017 piece in The Guardian, pondering the rumoured return of The KLF, noted that "in the 25 years since their disappearance, nobody else has come up with anything that matches the duo's extraordinary career";{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2017/jan/05/klf-comeback-bill-drummond-jimmy-cauty?CMP=fb_gu|title=The KLF are back (sort of) – and it's exactly what 2017 needs|date=5 January 2017|access-date=25 February 2020|first=Peter|last=Robinson|author-link=Peter Robinson (journalist)|work=The Guardian}} another piece in the same newspaper in the same year, by a different author, called them "abstruse" and "pop's greatest provocateurs", and their career "anarchic, anti-commercial and mostly ludicrous".

Early releases by the JAMs, including the album 1987, were performed using an Apple II computer with a Greengate DS3 sampler peripheral card, and a Roland TR-808 drum machine.{{Cite AV media notes|publisher=KLF Communications|type=Sleeve notes|title=1987: The JAMs 45 Edits|id=JAMS 23T|year=1987}}{{Cite magazine|title=Down Town|type=review|magazine=NME|date=28 November 1987|quote=The Kings of The Greengate Sampler}} On later releases, the Greengate DS3 and Apple II were replaced with an Akai S900 sampler and Atari ST computers respectively.{{Cite magazine|author-link=Paul Tingen|last=Tingen|first=Paul|title=Spike Stent: The Work of a Top Flight Mixer|magazine=Sound on Sound|date=January 1999|url=http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan99/articles/spike366.htm|access-date=17 March 2020}}

The KLF's 1990–1992 singles were mixed by Mark Stent, using a Solid State Logic automated mixing desk, and The White Room album mixed by J. Gordon-Hastings using an analogue desk. The SSL is referenced in the subtitle of the KLF single "3 a.m. Eternal (Live at the S.S.L.)", and the title of their 2021 digital compilation albums Solid State Logik 1 and Solid State Logik 2.

The house music of Space and the KLF involved much original instrumentation, for which the Oberheim OB-8 analogue synthesiser was prominently used.{{Cite AV media notes|publisher=KLF Communications|type=Sleeve notes|title=The White Room|id=JAMS LP6|year=1991}} Drummond played a Gibson ES-330 semi-acoustic guitar on "America: What Time Is Love?",{{Cite AV media notes|publisher=KLF Communications|type=Sleeve notes|title=America: What Time Is Love?|id=KLF USA4|year=1992}} and Cauty played electric guitar on "Justified & Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)" and "America: What Time Is Love?". Graham Lee provided prominent pedal steel contributions to the KLF's Chill Out and "Build a Fire". Duy Khiem played clarinet on "3 a.m. Eternal" and "Make It Rain". The KLF track "America No More" features a pipe band. The Roland TB-303 bassline and Roland TR-909 drum machine feature on "What Time Is Love (Live at Trancentral)".

{{Main|The KLF discography}}

• The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu: 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?) (The Sound of Mu(sic), 1987)
• The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu: Who Killed The JAMs? (KLF Communications, 1988)
• The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu/The KLF/The Timelords: Shag Times (KLF Communications, 1988)
• The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu/The KLF/The Timelords: The History of The JAMs a.k.a. The Timelords (TVT Records, 1989)
• The KLF/Various Artists: The "What Time Is Love?" Story (KLF Communications, 1989)
• The KLF: Chill Out (KLF Communications, 1990)
• Space: Space (KLF Communications, 1990)
• The KLF: The White Room (KLF Communications, 1991)
• The KLF: Solid State Logik 1 (KLF Communications, 2021)
• The KLF: Come Down Dawn (KLF Communications, 2021)
• The KLF: Solid State Logik 2 (KLF Communications, 2021)
• The KLF: The White Room – The KLF 1989 Director's Cut (KLF Communications, 2021)

• List of ambient music artists
• List of The KLF's creative associates
• Anti-art

{{reflist|group=n}}

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book|title=45|publisher=Little, Brown|first=Bill|last=Drummond|author-link=Bill Drummond|date=2000|isbn=0-316-85385-2}}
• {{cite book|title=The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|first=John|last=Higgs|author-link=John Higgs|date=26 September 2013|isbn=978-1-78022-655-2}}
• {{cite book|title=Turn Up The Strobe: The KLF, The JAMMs, The Timelords – A History|publisher=Cherry Red Books|first=Ian|last=Shirley|date=7 August 2017|isbn=978-1-909454-63-7}}

{{refend}}

• [http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/klf KLF mailing list]
• {{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p4694|label=The KLF}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060222002713/http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~stuey/klf/23.htm The KLF and Illuminatus!] – including a list of their references to the number 23

{{The KLF|state=expanded}}

{{Brit British Group}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Klf, The}}

Category:KLF Communications artists

Category:English electronic music duos

Category:Acid house musicians

Category:Arista Records artists

Category:Alternative dance musical groups

Category:British ambient music groups

Category:British conceptual artists

Category:British Eurodance groups

Category:Deutsche Grammophon artists

Category:English techno music groups

Category:English dance music groups

Category:Brit Award winners

Category:British male musical duos

Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1992

Category:Musical groups established in 1987

Category:Electronic music groups from London

Category:Musical groups reestablished in 2017

Category:English remixers

Category:20th-century squatters

Category:Wax Trax! Records artists

Category:1987 establishments in England