Tuesday, March 18, 2008

The KLF's "Maverick Stunts"

From a 2005 interview with Bill Drummond, the writer's summary of Drummond's "Maverick Stunts":

1986 Having been the manager of Julian Cope's group The Teardrop Explodes, Drummond records a solo album, The Man, containing the track "Julian Cope is Dead".

1992 The KLF announce their retirement by machine-gunning that year's Brit Awards audience with blanks, causing the conductor Georg Solti to flee in terror.

1993 Alongside the £20,000 Turner Prize, The KLF offer the winner Rachel Whiteread £40,000 as the worst artist of the year.

1994 The K Foundation makes the biggest cash withdrawal in British banking history, £1m, and burns it. A film, Watch The K Foundation Burn a Million Quid, tours the UK. The final screening is at a car park off London's Brick Lane.

1995 The K Foundation sign a contract with the artist Marc J Hawker, agreeing to a 23-year moratorium on all K Foundation activities. The contract is signed on the bonnet of a rented car which they then push over the edge of a cliff at Cape Wrath.

1995 With 6,250 cans of Tennent's Super, Drummond, Cauty and their collaborator Gimpo drive around London on Christmas Eve distributing alcohol to street-drinkers and the homeless.

1997 The KLF reform for a show (1997 - "What the Fuck's Going On?" ) at the Barbican where they perform their single "Fuck The Millennium".

1999 Drummond and Cauty announce their intention to destroy Stonehenge with their JCBs, as a "gift to the nation".

2002 Drummond puts up 100 posters in Liverpool during the Biennial art fair, offering to have sex with anyone for £10,000. There are no takers.

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