THE KLF Rip It Up Unwrapped

Описание: Rip It Up Unwrapped
Series 1: 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. Some claim it was a committed comment on the excesses of the 80s and 90s music industry and as such should be applauded, other see it as the nadir of nihilistic self-indulgence. Some even dispute that it happened at all. After doing this, The KLF retired from the music industry in true anarcho-situationist style at the 1992 Brit Awards when Bill Drummond fired blanks from a machine gun over the crowd before an announcement informed the audience that The KLF were no more. Then they sent a dead sheep to one of the after parties. Still equally divisive and inspiring, The KLF fused acid house and situationist art with pop opportunism to create something genuinely unique and timeless.