How To Burn A Million Quid

HOW TO BURN A MILLION QUID (320kbs-m4a/368mb/2hrs39mins)
BBC Radio 4 podcast: 15th to 21st January 2019

Outrageous comedy drama telling the true story of the chart-topping pop duo known as KLF who, in 1994, burned £1 million in cash on a remote Scottish Island, with only one journalist and their roadie-come-fixer, Gimpo, in attendance. Why? Why would they do that?

How To Burn a Million Quid lays the story bare. A comic, surreal and fast moving adventure that sees Bill and Jimmy rise to the very top of the music industry, becoming the biggest selling music act in the UK before crashing out of the industry in spectacular fashion and heading toward the art world with the intention of creating similar mayhem. Inspired by a madcap theatrical genius and a cult novel, they blaze a trail that takes them to Sweden, the North Pole and the Sierra Nevada, via Northampton, before arriving finally on the Isle of Jura, with two suitcases containing a million quid.

It was their mission to cause chaos. And they did.

A sonic roller coaster featuring Paul Higgins (The Thick of It, Line of Duty) as Bill Drummond, Nicholas Burns (Nathan Barley, The World's End) as Jimmy Cauty, with Kevin Eldon as Gimpo, Jeremy Stockwell as Ken Campbell and an outstanding cast of multi-voice comedy performers.

Bill Drummond: Paul Higgins
Jimmy Cauty: Nicholas Burns
Gimpo: Kevin Eldon
Ken Campbell: Jeremy Stockwell
Everyone else: Kate O’Sullivan, Polly Kemp, Ronnie Jhuttie and Niall Ashdown
Original music by Somerset & Lewin
Original music by MZYLKYPOP (Mick Somerset, David Lewin, Simon Lewinski, Rachel E, Flip Clegg and Thom Foote)
Sound Design by Carl Scheleeshti Johnson
Produced and Directed by Boz Temple-Morris
Written by Sean Grundy and Cara Jennings

A HOLY MOUNTAIN production for BBC Radio 4.

HOW TO BURN A MILLION QUID - 1. PREVIEW (320kbs-m4a/6mb/3mins)
BBC Radio 4 podcast: 15th January 2019

HOW TO BURN A MILLION QUID - 2. RULE 1 (320kbs-m4a/62mb/27mins)
BBC Radio 4 podcast: 16th January 2019

Rule 1. Begin an inner alchemy to transcend the consensual reality tunnel and move from a state of fixation to a condition of mutability.

HOW TO BURN A MILLION QUID - 3. RULE 2 (320kbs-m4a/55mb/24mins)
BBC Radio 4 podcast: 17th January 2019

Rule 2: Don’t do anything unless it’s heroic.

Bill, Jimmy and Gimpo set off for Sweden in order to persuade Abba to let them sample their music. They’ll be OK with that. Won’t they? Just in case they say no, they’re taking all the records with them so that they can burn the vinyl before the legal deadline. Just in case.

Besides, Bill has another plan for how to get onto Top of the Pops.

HOW TO BURN A MILLION QUID - 4. RULE 3 (320kbs-m4a/67mb/29mins)
BBC Radio 4 podcast: 18th January 2019

Rule 3: Only a madman is absolutely sure.

Pop stardom is going well, the KLF are a music industry sensation with a string of hits. An inspired collaboration with country music legend Tammy Wynette takes them to new heights. But is that enough, asks Bill, where’s the meaning? In the North Pole perhaps? Well that’s the conclusion he reaches and so off they go. Really. All this happened.

HOW TO BURN A MILLION QUID - 5. RULE 4 (320kbs-m4a/49mb/21mins)
BBC Radio 4 podcast: 19th January 2019

Rule 4: Go it alone.

At the height of their success the KLF can do no wrong. But they really want to. News of their forthcoming BRIT Award confirms their status as music industry establishment – exactly the thing they’re fighting against – and so they go in search of an idea so outrageous, so disgusting, that they would succeed in becoming outcast from the industry. At the BRIT Awards ceremony of 1992 they try out their idea…

HOW TO BURN A MILLION QUID - 6. RULE 5 (320kbs-m4a/57mb/25mins)
BBC Radio 4 podcast: 20th January 2019

Rule 5: Know when to walk away.

With the last gasp from the now dead sheep, the KLF leave the music industry. They now take their fight against the Illuminati to the art world, and the Turner Prize of 1994. They are about to have the most brilliant idea of all. Or the most stupid. You decide.

HOW TO BURN A MILLION QUID - 7. RULE 6 (320kbs-m4a/73mb/32mins)
BBC Radio 4 podcast: 21st January 2019

Rule 6: Never ask for anyone’s blessing.

Finally, having landed on the Isle of Jura, Bill, Jimmy, Gimpo, and one chosen witness check into the Jura hotel carrying two suitcases containing a million quid. They must pass the night before committing the act for which they have come. Burning one million pounds. Can they really go through with it?

KLF Special

KLF SPECIAL (320kbs-m4a/129mb/56mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 27th August 2017

The KLF are back and to celebrate the publication of their new novel, we look back on their incredibly influential and controversial career.

From burning one million pounds in cash to leaving a dead sheep at the Brit Awards, the KLF / K Foundation / Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu have never failed to shock and intrigue their fans and the music press. In this special programme, we look at how important they were, who they influenced and how they are still relevant today.

With insights from the people who worked with them and knew them, we'll find out just what makes The KLF so incredibly important in music history.

Journalist Jim Reid will tell us exactly what it was like being the only person other than the band and their friend to witness the burning of a million pounds, their long time press agent Mick Houghton will tell talk about being behind some of the most elaborate and significant "stunts" in modern music and Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller will reveal what it was like to collaborate with them on a video project.

We'll also attempt to find out what the future of The KLF might be - with exclusive access to a special event held in Liverpool, to celebrate their return.

Bill Drummond - KLF Memories

BILL DRUMMOND - KLF MEMORIES (320kbs-m4a/170mb/74mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 26th August 2017

Expect the unexpected as Tom Robinson dusts off tracks from the outer reaches of his record collection for the After Hour from 11pm, where, as part of 6 Music's weekend celebrations of the comeback of the elusive KLF, Tom unearths a rare interview from 2004 with JAMMS man Bill Drummond.

The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever [Parlophone]
Big In Japan - Nothing Special
Echo & The Bunnymen - The Killing Moon [Telstar]
X‐Ray Spex - Oh Bondage Up Yours [Virgin]
Bill Drummond - Julian Cope Is Dead
The KLF - Last Train to Trancentral (Live From The Lost Continent) [KLF Communications]
The KLF - Justified & Ancient (Stand By The JAMs)  (feat. Tammy Wynette) [K.L.F. Communications]
Ian Broudie - Song For No-One
Elvis Presley - Crying In The Chapel [RCA]
The KLF - 3 A.M. Somewhere Out Of Beaumont
The KLF - Madrugada Eterna (Club Mix)

Classic Scottish Albums: The KLF - The White Room

CLASSIC SCOTTISH ALBUMS: THE KLF - THE WHITE ROOM (320lbs-m4a/64mb/28mins)

BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 17th March 2017

In the run-up to the 6 Music Festival, taking place this year in Glasgow, we repeat highlights of a series in which musician Davie Scott reveals the stories behind classic Scottish albums.

In this episode, first broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland in 2011, Davie unravels one of music's most fascinating tales, The White Room by the KLF.

Bill Drummond - son of a Church of Scotland minister - was almost 40 years old when he decided to create a 'Stadium House' band. He wanted to unite music fans with "gigantic anthems". A former top music exec, he understood pop music hype and hyperbole and used that to his advantage. While some might have judged he and partner Jimmy Cauty as over-the-hill, Bill's marketing know-how pushed The KLF to become the bestselling singles act in the world in 1991. 'Justified and Ancient' (featuring Tammy Wynette) was inescapable. It was No.1 in 18 countries and provided her highest-ever Billboard placing. 'What Time is Love' provided the first taste of The KLF's big commercial sound and was soon answered by the number 1 single '3am Eternal'.

And it wasn't just the fans who loved them. The music press couldn't get enough of their contrary ways, one journalist enthusing that "as providers of perverse, throwaway, three-minute pop-song manna... (they're) punk rock, the Renaissance, Andy Warhol and Jesus Christ all rolled into one."
The gigantic commercial success of the band flew in the face of taste-making rhetoric, and Bill and Jimmy caused further alarm when - at the height of their success - they gave a "violently antagonistic performance" at the 1992 Brit Awards and left the stage to a tannoy announcement stating that "The KLF have now left the music business". Job done!

The KLF - Steve Lamacq: Archive interview 1995

THE KLF - STEVE LAMACQ: ARCHIVE INTERVIEW (1995) (128kbs-m4a/6mb/7mins)

BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 26th February 2014

Steve continues the build-up to the 6 Music Festival in Manchester, with an archive interview with The KLF, where they discuss the famouse burning of a million pounds.