The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds

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The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds

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'The best non-fiction book I've ever read. It's magical. Stunning' Dan Schreiber, No Such Thing As a Fish
'A pop biography for people who don't read pop biographies' Dorian Lynskey, Guardian
'Brilliant, discursive and wise' Ben Goldacre
'Utterly irresistible and totally brilliant' The Quietus
'A thing of endlessly fascinating, utterly demented genius' Alexis Petridis

They were the bestselling singles band in the world. They had awards, credibility, commercial success and creative freedom. Then they deleted their records, erased themselves from musical history and burnt their last million pounds in a boathouse on the Isle of Jura. And they couldn't say why.

This is not just the story of The KLF. It is a book about Carl Jung, Alan Moore, Robert Anton Wilson, Ken Campbell, Dada, Situationism, Discordianism, magic, chaos, punk, rave, the alchemical symbolism of Doctor Who and the special power of the number twenty-three. Wildly unauthorised and unlike any other music biography, THE KLF is a trawl through chaos on the trail of a beautiful, accidental mythology.

10th ANNIVERSARY EDITION UPDATED WITH NEW MATERIAL

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This wildly entertaining thesis speculates on how the KLF arrived at a crowning act of transgression even they did not understand, drawing together threads including practical magic, strange patterns of coincidence and punk

A pop biography for people who don't read pop biographies. Higgs approaches the short career of the early 90s top 10 provocateurs like Adam Curtis brainstorming with Thomas Pynchon, exploring all manner of magical thinking and conspiracy theories. Touching on Dada, Doctor Who and Discordianism, it's as playful and sui generis as the KLF themselves, which is saying something

Succeeds by ignoring music for much of the story, in favour of the group's philosophical and psycho-geographical underpinnings in Discordianism, situationism, art and magic. Sometimes, the music is just a means to an end - in their case, a million-quid bonfire that Higgs suggests may be "a magical act that forged the 21st century". Well, maybe . . . -- Andy Gill

Succeeds by ignoring music for much of the story, in favour of the group's philosophical and psycho-geographical underpinnings in Discordianism, situationism, art and magic. Sometimes, the music is just a means to an end - in their case, a million-quid bonfire that Higgs suggests may be "a magical act that forged the 21st century". Well, maybe

Might well be the best music book of the 2010s . . . eccentric, bizarre, confusing, hilarious and more than a little pretentious but utterly irresistible and totally brilliant

Might well be the best music book of the 2010s . . . eccentric, bizarre, confusing, hilarious and more than a little pretentious but utterly irresistible and totally brilliant -- Cay McDermott

The book brilliantly captures the anti-establishment attitude of Drummond and Cauty, and makes you wish the pop charts were full of such madness these days

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