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[[Image:The JAMS- 1987 (What The Fuck Is Going On?).jpg|thumb|right|''[[1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?)]]'', Drummond & Cauty's debut album]]
Re-reading ''Illuminatus!'' in late 1986, and influenced by hip-hop, Drummond felt inspired to react against what he perceived to be the stagnant soundscape of popular music. Recalling the moment in a radio interview, Drummond said that the plan came to him in an instant. He would form a hip-hop band with former colleague Jimmy Cauty, and they would be called The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu.{{cquote|It was New Year's Day ... 1987. I was at home with my parents, I was going for a walk in the morning, it was, like, bright blue sky, and I thought "I'm going to make a hip-hop record. Who can I make a hip-hop record with?". I wasn't brave enough to go and do it myself, 'cause, although I can play the guitar, and I can knock out a few things on the piano, I knew nothing, personally, about the technology. And, I thought, I knew [Jimmy], I knew he was a like spirit, we share similar tastes and backgrounds in music and things. So I phoned him up that day and said "Let's form a band called The Justified Ancients of Mu-Mu.". And he knew exactly, to coin a phrase, "where I was coming from". And within a week we had recorded our first single which was called "All You Need Is Love".<ref>[[BBC Radio 1]] "Story Of Pop" documentary interview with Bill Drummond. Original BBC broadcast date unknown, but was transmitted by Australian national broadcaster [[ABC Radio|ABC]] on January 1, 2005 [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/pop/default.htm]. Transcript taken from the [http://www.klf.de/faq/index.php?cate_id=1 KLF FAQ].</ref>}}
He recounted this - in a more hyperbolic fashion - in the October 1987 KLF Communications "Info Sheet", the first in a series of despatches from Drummond and Cauty to subscribers and journalists:
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[[Image:The KLF-The White Room (album cover).jpg|thumb|right|''[[The White Room]]'', The KLF's Stadium House tour-de-force ([[KLF Communications|KLF Communications JAMS LP6]])]]
The name change accompanied a change in Drummond and Cauty's musical direction. Said Drummond (as 'Kingboy D') in January 1988, "We might put out a couple of 12" records under the name The K.L.F., these will be rap free just pure dance music, so don't expect to see them reviewed in the music papers". Kingboy D also claimed that he and Rockman Rock were "pissed off at [them]selves" for letting "people expect us to lead some sort of crusade for sampling"<ref name="info88">Kingboy D, KLF Communications Info Sheet, 22 January 1988 ([http://www.libraryofmu.org/display-resource.php?id=501 link]).</ref> In 1990 he recalled that "We wanted to make [as The KLF] something that was ... pure dance music, without any reference points, without any nod to the history of rock and roll. It was the type of music that by early '87 was really exciting ''me'' ... [although] we weren't able to get our first KLF records out until late '88"<ref name="skinner"/>.
The 12" records subsequently released in 1988 and 1989 by The KLF were indeed rap free and house-oriented; remixes of some of The JAMs tracks, and new singles, the largely instrumental acid house anthems "[[What Time Is Love?]]" ({{audio| The_KLF_-_What_Time_Is_Love_(Pure_Trance_version)_(excerpt).ogg|sample}}) and "[[3 a.m. Eternal]]" - the first incarnations of later international chart successes. The KLF described the sound of these new tracks as "Pure Trance".
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In 1990 The KLF launched a series of singles with an upbeat pop-house sound which they dubbed "Stadium House". Songs from ''The White Room'' soundtrack were re-recorded with rap vocals (by guests labelled "[[The KLF discography#Additional_communicators|Additional Communicators]]"), a sample-heavy pop-rock production and crowd noise samples. The Stadium House singles, including "What Time Is Love?", "3 a.m. Eternal" ({{audio| The_KLF_-_3_a.m._Eternal_(Live_at_the_S.S.L.)_(excerpt).ogg|sample}}) and "Last Train to Trancentral" ({{audio| The_KLF_-_Last_Train_to_Trancentral_(Live_from_the_Lost_Continent)_(excerpt).ogg|sample}}) were international hits along with the 1991 UK top-ten album, ''[[The White Room]]''. A new version of "[[Justified and Ancient]]" ({{audio| The_KLF_-_Justified_and_Ancient_(Stand_by_The_JAMs)_(excerpt).ogg|sample}}) featuring vocals from American country star [[Tammy Wynette]] was also released.
In 1990 and 1991, The KLF [[remix|remixed]] tracks by [[Depeche Mode]] ("[[Policy of Truth]]"), [[The Moody Boys]] ("What Is Dub?"), and the [[Pet Shop Boys]] ("So Hard" from the ''[[Behaviour (album)|Behaviour]]'' album and "It Must Be Obvious"). Pet Shop Boy [[Neil Tennant]] described the process: "When they did the remix of 'So Hard', they didn't do a remix at all, they re-wrote the record ... I had to go and sing the vocals again, they did it in a different way. I was impressed that Bill Drummond had written all the chords out and played it on an acoustic guitar, very thorough."<ref name="psb">Brown, J. "The Pet Shop Boys Versus The World", ''[[New Musical Express]]'', 25 May 25 1991.</ref><!-- broken link: ([http://microsites.nme.com/petshopboys/site/versus.html link])
After successive name changes and a plethora of highly-influential dance records, Drummond and Cauty ultimately became, as The KLF, the biggest selling singles act in the world for 1991, still incorporating the work of other artists but in less gratuitous ways and predominantly without legal problems.
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{{cquote|We have been following a wild and wounded, glum and glorious, shit but shining path these past five years. The last two of which has led us up onto the commercial high ground — we are at a point where the path is about to take a sharp turn from these sunny uplands down into a netherworld of we know not what. For the foreseeable future there will be no further record releases from The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords, The KLF and any other past, present and future name attached to our activities. As of now all our past releases are deleted.... If we meet further along be prepared...our disguise may be complete.<ref>KLF Communications advertisement in ''[[New Musical Express]]'', 16 May, 1992.</ref><ref>"Timelords gentlemen, please!", ''[[New Musical Express]]'', 16 May 1992 ([http://www.libraryofmu.org/display-resource.php?id=309 link])</ref>}}
In a comprehensive examination of The KLF's announcement and its context, [[Select Magazine|''Select'' Magazine]] called it "the last grand gesture, the most heroic act of public self destruction in the history of pop. And it's also Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty's final extravagant howl of self disgust, defiance and contempt for a music world gone foul and corrupt."<ref name="select92"/> Many of The KLF's friends and collaborators gave their reactions in the magazine. Movie director Bill Butt said that "Like everything, they're dealing with it in a very realistic way, a fresh, unbitter way, which is very often not the case. A lot of bands disappear with such a terrible loss of dignity
The final KLF Info sheet discussed the retirement in a typically offbeat fashion, and asked "What happens to 'Footnotes in rock legend'? Do they gather dust with Ashton Gardner and Dyke, the Vapours, and the [[Utah Saints]], or does their influence live on in unseen ways, permeating future cultures? A passing general of a private army has the answer. 'No', he whispers 'but the dust they gather is of the rarest quality. Each speck a universe awaiting creation, Big Bang just a dawn away'."<ref>KLF Communications Information Sheet #23, May 1992 ([http://www.libraryofmu.org/display-resource.php?id=514 link])</ref>
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===Trancentral, Eternity, Sheep===
[[Trancentral]] (aka the Benio<ref>Mead, H. (1990), ''Chill Out'' review, ''[[New Musical Express]]'' ([http://www.libraryofmu.org/display-resource.php?id=123 link]).</ref>) was the operations centre of The KLF, their mythological home, and their studios. Despite the grandiose lyrics of "Last Train To Trancentral", Trancentral was in fact Cauty's residence in [[Stockwell]], [[South London]], "a large and rather grotty [[Squatting|squat]]" said David Stubbs in ''[[Melody Maker]]''. "Jimmy has lived [there] for 12 years. ('I hate the place. I've no alternative but to live here.') There's little evidence of fame or fortune. The kitchen is heated by means of leaving the three functioning gas rings on at full blast until the fumes make us all feel stoned.... And, pinned just above a working top cluttered with chipped mugs is a letter from a five-year-old fan, featuring a crayon drawing of the band."<ref name="Stubbs"/>
[[Eternity]] is a recurring theme in song titles ("3 a.m. Eternal", "Madrugada Eterna") and lyrics, and also - Drummond and Cauty asserted - 'Eternity' was the author of an ambiguous, far-reaching contract offered to The JAMs.<ref name="info8" /> See [[The White Room (film)|The KLF films: ''The White Room'']].
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In 1991, [[Chris Lowe]] of the Pet Shop Boys said that he considered the only other worthwhile group in the UK to be The KLF. [[Neil Tennant]] added that "They have an incredibly recognisable sound. I liked it when they said [[EMF (band)|EMF]] nicked the F from KLF.<ref>Morton, R. "One Coronation Under A Groove", ''[[New Musical Express]]'', 12 Jan 1991 ([http://www.libraryofmu.org/display-resource.php?id=191])</ref> They're from a different tradition to us in that they're pranksters and we've never been pranksters." <ref name="psb"/>
At the time of The KLF's retirement announcement, Drummond's old friend and colleague [[David Balfe]] said of Drummond's KLF career that "the path he's trod[den] is a more artistic one than mine. I know that deep down I like the idea of building up a very successful career, where Bill is more interested in weird stuff.... I think the very avoidance of cliche has become their particular cliche
In March 1994, members of the anarchist band [[Chumbawumba]] expressed their respect for The KLF. [[Alice Nutter (musician)|Alice Nutter]] referred to The KLF as "real situationists" categorising them as political musicians alongside [[The Sex Pistols]] and [[Public Enemy]]. [[Dunst Bruce]] lauded the K-Foundation, concluding "I think the things The KLF do are fantastic. I'm a vegetarian but I wish they'd sawn an elephant's legs off at the Brit Awards."<ref>[[Stuart Maconie|Maconie, S.]], Chumbawumba interview, ''[[Select Magazine|Select]]'', March 1994 ([http://www.libraryofmu.org/display-resource.php?id=378 link]).</ref>
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