Home / Series / Rip it Up, Unwrapped / Aired Order / Season 1 / Episode 5

The KLF

Born out of an ambition to cynically demonstrate how easy it is to manipulate the music industry, A&R man, music manager and solo performer Bill Drummond created a situationist art project designed to baffle audiences and generate loads of cash. He achieved both, and then some. In the mid 80s, Bill Drummond was an established part of the music industry, having set up Zoo Records and managed The Teardrop Explodes and Echo and The Bunnymen. But in 1986 he resigned from his lucrative A&R job, released a solo album and embarked on a new project with friend Jimmy Cauty - The KLF. The KLF were as much known for their bizarre stunts as they were for their music. They would take out weird adverts in the NME, their appearances on Top of the Pops featured dancers in ice cream cone costumes and most famously they took £1 million of their royalties to Jura and burnt it all. This has become of one the most controversial and divisive acts in pop music history.

English
  • Originally Aired March 30, 2019
  • Runtime 29 minutes
  • Content Rating United States of America TV-PG
  • Network BBC
  • Created November 5, 2022 by
    snoopswarner
  • Modified November 5, 2022 by
    PolarGeek admin