The KLF torched £1m "and are haunted by it daily". John Higgs knows why

John Higgs' brilliant and wide-ranging book 'The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band Who Burned A Million Pounds' came out ten years ago and just keeps on selling. It sold initially to the fans who bought their records. Then to those absorbed by the fringe figures in their mythology - Ken Campbell, Alan Moore, Robert Anton Wilson, the Discordians. And then to people who just wanted a staggering and barely believable story about the attacks by two free-wheeling cultural terrorists on the worlds of art and music at the end of the 20th century. It sold so well in fact that it's just been republished in a 10th Anniversary edition with additional material.
John Higgs is an exceptional speaker as this pod demonstrates and talks here about the outer reaches of their extravagantly lunatic strategies - the ABBA court case, the dead sheep, the pagan rituals on Jura, the collaboration with Tammy Wynette - and how many backfired on them and why Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty have barely seen each other in almost 30 years. This podcast was recorded in front of an enthralled audience at 21Soho in London on October 30th 2023.
Order the 10th anniversary edition here: www.amazon.co.uk/KLF-Chaos-Bu...
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[@jackharriet4814]

I was at a screening in Liverpool in 1995 of the KLF money burning film, with the KLF pair sitting at a desk facing the audience as it rolled, looking like a pair of naughty schoolboys. The Q&A session afterwards was very hostile - in fact I wondered why they subjected themselves to the predictable barrage of abuse - this was Liverpool not some arty-farty gallery in Chelsea. And yet the KLF's responses to criticism in the Q&A were surprisingly vacuous, as though they didn't really have anything interesting to say for themselves about it from any standpoint. About the only thing they achieved was creating a 'dead cat' type talking point - as if that made this all worth it. I think it ranks alongside Duchamp's Urinal as a great non-art art piece of the 20th century.

[@matthewcoombs3282]

There is a brilliant interview with Drummond and Cauty had with Gail Byrne on RTE. The audience ask them questions about why they burnt £1 million. Needless to say the audience give them a hard time. A good watch. Drummond looked like he was in shock, Cauty looked like he didnt give a shit.

[@johnnowlan9963]

I just watch it👍

[@buzzawuzza3743]

Higgs is funny and knows how to tell a story.

[@markkavanagh7377]

Those hitch hikers going to see Spiral Tribe at Glastonbury, bet they stank! 😉
Those Crusties sure lived up to their name back in the day!

[@spankflaps1365]

£1 million from 1994 in todays money is £2 million (allowing for inflation).

[@oakygreen7573]

Allowing for conflagration ?

[@markarmstrong7188]

It would be funny (art?) if John Higgs made a million from the book