With their unauthorized sampling, outrageous PR stunts, and signature ice cream van, the KLF set out to blow up the music industry. Pairing electric guitars with house beats, rapping with new age lyricism, and rave culture with the art world, the mysterious U.K. duo of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty were all about breaking rules and getting away with it.
They reached their crazy sonic peak when they teamed up with country icon Tammy Wynette for the 1992 dance-pop hit “Justified & Ancient,” which became an unlikely global smash. Their response to their newfound fame? Just as fans thought they’d arrived at the fictitious Mu Mu land at the center of the song, the group abandoned music altogether and vanished, deleting their entire catalog.
In this episode, we explore the KLF’s wild rise and fall, from their doomed road trip to meet ABBA, to their infamous BRIT Awards performance in which Drummond took a machine gun and fired blanks into the audience, to their mind-boggling decision to film themselves burning their earnings—a shocking one million pounds.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Pop Music Takes on AIDS
Bonus Episode: Tori Amos Revisits ‘Little Earthquakes’ (The Full Interview)
Arrested Development: Hip-hop’s Lost Poets
Vanessa Williams’ "Save the Best for Last": The Moon and June Song
Nirvana vs. Guns N' Roses: Overboard and Self-Assured
“November Rain”: Requiem for a Hair Band
The Year of Scandal, Part 2: Sinéad O’Connor Takes on the Pope
Bonus Booty: A Juicy Chat With Sir Mix-a-Lot About "Baby Got Back"
Before MeToo, "Me and a Gun": Tori Amos’ 'Little Earthquakes'
The Year of Scandal, Part 1: Ice-T and Body Count’s “Cop Killer”
The Man and the Mullet: Billy Ray Cyrus’ Party in the Back
Damn, I Wish I Was Your Constant Craving: The Year of the Lesbian Anthem
“Baby Got Back”: The Story Behind the Behind
Introducing: Where Were You in '92?
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Superfancast
Derringer Discoveries - A Music Adventure Podcast
R&B Money
One Song
Bandsplain