Why did The K Foundation burn a million quid? Interview with Gay Byrne: The Late Late Show, 1995
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- čas přidán 19. 09. 2017
- Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty (a.k.a The K Foundation, The KLF, The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The JAMS, 2K) interviewed by Gay Byrne on The Late Late Show in 1995 to try and see why they burned a million quid...
This video is compiled and edited from salvaged footage by Yeah F**k Yeah.
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Original Source Videos can be found here:
Why did The K Foundation burn a million quid? (part 2 of 4):
• Why did The K Foundati...
Why did The K Foundation burn a million quid? (part 3 of 4):
• Why did The K Foundati...
Why did The K Foundation burn a million quid? (part 4 of 4):
• Why did The K Foundati...
Article about the interview here:
www.irishtimes.com/culture/re...
it was the most punk rock statement ever made in music
I fucking love how awkward this is. It's perfection.
KLF wasn't chasing money they was chasing experiences, which have far more value than any amount of money.
Are all KLF fans as illiterate as you?
"they was" was "they" lol
That's the most stupid thing I've ever heard 🙈🙈
@@richscales9022 I know right
Yes, their actions raised the question: What is more important than money?
The booing which came from the audience for not giving it to charity will be music to the big corp’s ears. Get them to pay their taxes, and we don’t need charity. A great statement. Call it art if you like, whatever, but their conscience is rightfully clear.
I think they burnt it as a middle finger to the music industry, "easy come, easy go" and to make an Artistic Statement. I bet Banksy was jealous he didn't think of the idea first
The only thing that sucks is that it's such a shitty quality video, and you might not even realize what is going on if you had no idea what was happening...
Not just the Music Industry, but Capitalism in general.
that’s also the reason for the dead sheep
Or was it a middle finger to Julian Cope specifically?
Partly yeah, probaby more of a middle finger to the Bankers.
The best thing above these guys and their madness they got Tammy Wynette to sing a song about people driving an ice cream van, CLASSIC👍❤️💯
Joe Elliott who famously lived in Ireland to avoid paying tax in UK that would have gone towards NHS, services and schools.
The deaf leopard guy said there are more artistic things you could have done with 1million! Yes mate that’s why you’re in deaf leopard and not the KLF!
*Def Leppard. You can't even be arsed to Google something.
@@Hellwyck yeah you’re right I can’t!! You done me good there well done!
@@Hellwyck They couldn't ""even be arsed to"" check the correct spelling of their name when they started their band.
@@ponysoup9620 I think I prefer your version to their version
Byrne is masterful here, incredulous but keeps the interview solid and in a search for answers.
Art is to evoke a reaction so this therefore transcends all other art as you dont even need to see it to elicit a reaction from most people! Well done gentlemen I sincerely applaud you both!
The KLF are genius ! Money is nothing ! The world is dying because of it !
Great to watch someone who lives in an offshore backing and artistic tax haven grill people who don't about the morals of destroying money.
What a hypocrite.
If I taught economics this video would be shown to the class during the first week.
Possibly the two cleverest musicians in history. “We gonna build a fire”
Why are you here? "Because we were invited" 😅
I like how he tried to turn on them when the audience did and jimmy owned him.
It's so funny because it's the stupid simple truth.
It's not about the money, it's about sending a message.
What's the message?
@@eriksau many years later there might be more of a reason now or never
Him: "People won't be thinking about it tomorrow"
Me in 2021: Thinking about it
3 am Eternal...on 24th April 2022...and STILL thinking ABOUT IT!!!🙂🙃
Yep - June 6 2022, still thinking about it
15 October 2023. Still thinking about it
This piece of art was a huge influence in my view on the world, it made me feel more certain about the way i think about certain subjects..
I think it was a brilliant statement, and very brave, particularly as they both had young families of their own.
At the end of the day it was their money and they could do what the hell they want to do with it
Who said the contrary?
18:02 I love this dude - best thing I've heard in this whole show - very underrated
Yep, and no one answered did they? He's not wrong.
The only one who got the point
I did like their music very much but the fact that they caused debate with the action of burning the quid speaks to the value they added into the world of debate and art.
Yeah i mean here we are 30 years later talking about it lol
If they can afford to burn it, how can governments around the world allow people to starve? Still waiting to hear the answer to that one...
For real i feel like that was the best statement they got and they totally just ignored jt
Money burning is equivalent to gifting the money back to the central bank (or other money issuing authority). If the economy is at full employment equilibrium, shrinking the money supply causes deflation (or decreases the rate of inflation), increasing the real value of the money left in circulation.
It’s good to see that the Def Leppard charity for helping under privileged kids is still doing well. Oh no, wait a second, the never fucking started one did they. Drummond and Cauty might have been 2 sandwiches short of a picnic but at least they’re not as dull as Def fucking tedious Leppard.
Wow, who rattled your cage. Did you get dumped by a metalhead girl at some point?
You seem very triggered, lol !! :-D
@@2112jonr Def Leppard is just an example, not really the main point.
How did such a dull glam metal band manage to stir up so much emotion?!
it was their money so what's the problem
@@johnoshea2581 I don't have a problem with it, though it doesn't seem like the artistic statement they were making was worth the financial loss to their families (both of them have children). It makes for a fun anecdote and adds to their rebel mystique, but didn't really achieve anything significant (in my highly subjective opinion).
if you listen closely you can hear Eris herself laughing
Hail eRis fnOrd
Banba and fodla to emerge
This brings up so many intesting conundrums and one of them is how so many people immediately jump on the charity theme. I wonder if they had given the money to charity how much of that would have gone in administration fees etc.
Having read much on this I think they expected a much bigger reaction but to give them their due nobody has done anything like this.
Yes all those charities are a scam. Never mind administration, the directors simply divide the money among themselves.
Painful watching a presenter and a studio audience being utterly clueless about how currencies work.
He's just so cool though :D
Poor auld Gaybo got conned out of his life savings so many times, it's gone beyond a joke.
If people were not so much into money, money would not even exist. Remember?
"I think they're 2 sandwiches short of a picnic" ... Joe, they're the fucking KLF, of course they are.
It's just paper - isn't it amazing how people see that more than anything else? As interesting point was made that the bread still exists, and yet, nobody will give it away freely. Corporations have billions upon billions. They have enough 'wealth' to feed every starving person in the world for 50+ years - but they don't.
Corporationa are the kind of starved that food wont fed
Yes, the bread part was an absolutely brilliant point and yet, it seemed to just go right over many people's heads in the audience. I was talking about this kind of thing with my father just the other day. The charities put out their adverts for starving children etc (obviously this is so sad, and this should never happen in this day and age), bang on tea time on the TV, to guilt trip the people pretty much at the bottom of the chain who are just working to survive, keep a roof and feed their family. Oh, and pay taxes of course. Gotta work to pay taxes with those pieces of paper we earn. 🙄 So let's make them feel bad for eating their tea while there are children starving all over the world, and make them feel they ought to put their hand in their pocket to give away the money (pieces of paper), to enable the starving children to be fed. Yet, like you say, those who sit on billions of this "money" could end all of this suffering in a heartbeat. They won't buy the bread and end it all, they'd rather keep their billions and increase their monetary wealth wherever possible. I don't see Joe Public telling the billionaires what to do with their money, so why do they feel they have the right to tell these chaps what to do with theirs?! Anyway...what a ridiculous system it is. The guy who makes the bread has to sell it to pay taxes and so on, while the billionaires dodge taxes like the plague, yet the guy who makes the bread is also more likely to give part of the money he sells the bread for, in order to feed the starving children. The billionaires don't care and they're rich in money terms so they're happy - except that they always want more of those darned pieces of paper. Greed is an ugly thing. And the system is just so ridiculous. The tax TAKERS are sort of like the middleman. If we could just cut out the middleman, we might all be better off. Do we really need the middleman creaming off a commission, why not cut him out of the chain altogether and deal direct with each other. This was a really great stunt because it certainly is thought provoking and sparks discussion. Or at least, it SHOULD. You can't eat money, it doesn't contain the vitamins, minerals, calories etc you need to survive. Imagine if all the people who grow the food and bake the bread were to just down tools and only make enough food for their families, and the middleman is no longer around, hounding them to work for pieces of paper or figures on a screen (which would translate to stealing people's time and energy, and let's face it, that's gotta be against their will - nobody wants to put in a vast amount of work, time and energy, only to have to give, say, half of the product of that work away). The more I think about it the more stupid it is. And it feels like they've turned the thumbscrews and sewn the system up so tight that nobody will ever figure a way out of all of it. Rules, regulations and taxes wherever you go, and a uniformed set of people to enforce it all for them. Wow, sorry, no paragraphs and the ramblings of an insomniac at 3 in the morning lol. Hope you have a good day mate. 🙃
@@randomnesspersonified Thanks, I enjoyed reading your post and feel the same way.
At 18:18 I thought we'd flipped from Gay Byrne into an episode of Father Ted...
We wanted to do something more interesting than giving the money to charity - the audience gasps forgetting about all the money they've wasted and will continue to waste on non-productive crap.
Especially considering that Bill and Jimmy’s fortune CAME from the audience, or people just like them, buying JAMs, KLF, and Timelords records. Why didn’t those consumers donate that money to charity instead of selfishly “wasting” it on pop music?
That old establishment creep wasn't worthy of breaking bread with Bill and Jimmy. I'm surprised they agreed to do this.
"If you are an artist and you create an art, for some reason you want to share it with people, I don't know why."
Imagine what would happen if burning tenners went viral.
People don't like to be reminded that money is a fiction and the precepts by which they live their entire lives are wholly meaningless
very underrated musical pioneers. many scenes are still heavily influenced by KLF whether they realise that or not!
Interesting but in today's world you'd just be deleting some 1's and 0's on a computer screen.
the real story is that they were getting sued for copy right infringement of their music sampling and had to turn over all their earning so they decided to burn all profits and bankrupt the label.
yeah??
@@robertloader9826 pretty much - that's the reason for 'timelords' intro to the tardis when they (in the actual recording) mentioned they had 'better samples' with Gary Glitter (which didn't age well at all).
If that happened to me, I’d burn it all too! Lol
But I’d be goin to jail regardless.
Still righteous
Joe Elliott is a muppet 😆
Jimmy Cauty what a legend.
KLF are bloody brilliant in so many ways.👏 😉
If you got stranded on a deserted island and there were no resources, no trees no food no fresh water no arable land but you had £10,000,000 what use is it?
Toilet paper!
@@erikarneberg11 Or tinder for a fire. Funnily enough.
I like the sentiments but if its that much it would make an effective blanket/ shelter. As people die from exposure before dehydration or starvation it could literally save your life.
I'd rather an entrenching tool and a fire starter though.
Looking forward to the return of the KLF
CZcams for KLF returns after 23 years in 2023
I'm officially starting the KLF political party
In hindsight, it feels like 3D slamming into an emerging 5D reality, where no money is required...
Drummond, when am I going to get that £20 back I lent you in 1993?
Gay Byrne is very grounded and sensible and blunt but not in an obnoxious Judge Judy type way.
Ha ha ha haa! You didn't see him interview Kate Bush then...
czcams.com/video/2zkx-omflHY/video.html
Gaybo? The guy lost his life savings in loads of Ponzi schemes
Totally true.
Not religious, but burning 1 million quid would have made Jesus Christ very happy. Didn't he lose his rag and threw out the money changers from the temple?
Quote "And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."
You quoted scripture, not facts. That proves you believe in religion, that proves you're religious.
@@Hellwyck you don't get it. He places himself inside the logic of the religion / Jesus. That doesn't mean he believes it. (And anyway who cares about what you believe in when you speak about a subject on a logical way?)
Mmm...JIMMY CAUTY cud play JESUS CHRIST in his SLEEP. Whereas BILL DRUMMOND is more your PONTIOUS PILATE Type!!!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Burning it was the best use of it for the very reason that it was also to burn the very concept that exchange of value, and also the apportioning of value to that activity, is only where there is money. It hones the human activity of doing anything of any value down to the core at which actual value exists, by destroying the abstraction that has come to represent it to such a ridiculous degree, that most people see the value only in the money. Many of the reactions to this act showed that very reality. This also means that the initial act of burning itself was not the only part of the artistic act, but everything that followed from it.
Most of the money would have gone to the charity bosses/Directors anyways which back then we didn’t know about so yeah I agree with the lads burning that £1million cash
In the "good" charities, 3% gets to the end recipients
The Deaf Leopard's an even bigger tool than I thought!!!
But he can spell his own band's name.
@@Hellwyck you have a problem, man.
@@Gazeld yeah, it's called being 'anally retentive' ha ha.
Is that the same Joe Elliot that messed up so bad that they set up an audience for Bon Jovi to steal and were using Ireland as a tax haven because they failed to square with Revenue in the UK? That Joe Elliot!
The justified ancients of mu mu were not avvin it and their legend lives on because stood up and said NO. To the hype.
fucking legends
The baffled, offended reaction proves that money is our society's god - they did something far more unthinkable and taboo than burning a bible or a flag
It's the ultimate performance art, well apart from doing yourself in for art.
Art creates thought and reaction and debate as we see here.
what is money, pieces of metal and paper or a digital footprint.
Money is the root of all evil so we're told, they did a good thing burning it, they saved us from this evil.
A rock god snorts white powder and it's just rock-'n'-roll no harm done, ignoring the drug trade and lives ruined for a quick high, yet a pop art band burns their own money not inflicting harm on anyone and it's the worst thing ever.
Yeah it would have been nice to have given it to a charity so that the highly paid MD's are kept in a job and a few in need get the trickle down.
Would be nice if rock god's gave their drug funds to charity or that rapper with a $24 million diamond glued to his head gave it to charity but that would not be art.
They were in there own league.....nothing too prove good on them
*their
"Drugs, or guns or (moving) to Brazil..."
I love KLF, I’m 43 and still listen to them today. The way Gay Is putting it to them about people needing hip replacements and people being in poverty who need that money is unbelievable…If at that time, and it was a long time ago, that people had to fast in Cork to raise money for the homeless…what the fuck has that got to do with the KLF? Would that not be the government’s problem and not an electronic bands problem? And the the audience are going along with Gays’ narrative…Fucking unbelievable…The KLF were inspired by an artwork to do this, and they copied it but seriously upped the ante on it…Bollox to anyone who tells you what to do with your money when the CEO’s of “charitable organisations “ are sitting pretty on a fortune and expect the people who are being screwed over day by day to give their hard earned cash away…Bollox, it’s your money and you should do with it what you choose…If Gay was that concerned or any audience member felt the need for that money to go to someone needing a hip replacement why didn’t they put their hands in their pocket…there was nothing stopping them…Years too late but a rants a rant…stop looking to musicians and celebrities to sort shit out..Live Aid done fuck all and where’s the government?
Come on fellas, make some new stuff. You need to save music as it has been dead for nearly 25 years
“With the exception of cliff?”
...who's been stuck in the 1950's.... ever since the 1950's.
The KLF was created as a farce, not the music but it was about the new electro music of the late 80's and early 90's and how anyone could play it and make a million pounds from it, so when they made the money they burnt it.
No, the KLF was created to crate art.
If nothing else they got people thinking about how wasteful the rich are.
WTF. That Deaf Leper is about as rocknroll as Jacob Lee Mogg's hairdresser.
@Mikk Lüftumie Definitive just means average standard... The Jams, Timelord & KLF were innovators who were pioneering genres like Sampledelica & Acid House while creating genres of thier own (Ambient House, Trance & Chill). At the time Joe was being a snotty prick and in retrospect he is clearly a cluless clown too.
In just over a decade we experienced the explosion of punk, new wave, hip hop, electro-pop, house music (including: acid, rave, trance, techno & ambient) and the rise of manufactured pop... Bill Drummond had a hand and influence in all of those genres while they were still fresh. Joe Leppard was never the shepherd, he is, was and forever will be just another bleating sheep. Def Leppard were also very bland and average in comparison to other UK metal bands that already existed like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, Motorhead etc. They were immitating and not innovating... And that is basically the problem with modern music.
@Mikk Lüftumie I get ya Mikk, I guess I just feel similar to Bill about medicrity... Cauty is the musician and Bill is the vision, no doubt about that. The bands you mentioned were certainly not just taking the piss (The Timelords aside). Sampling was relativley new and only previously used sparingly by a small few (Pink Floyd, Alan Parsons, Ron Geesin etc), bands like YELLO, M/A/R/R/S, Art of Noise, Sputnik and The JAMs were pushing back against the formulatic sounds of maufactured pop and well trodden dross. Look at the state of the music industry now, its just a bland carpet of samey sounding disposable crap... There's no soul or meaning (other than money) to it anymore, because we have been conditioned to accept the sugary junk that they want us to swallow.
I was referring more to Bills influence on punk/post punk/new wave/House/Acid/Ambient etc. Take Bill Drummond out of the music industry and you lose Big in Japan and arguably therefore: Frankie goes to Hollywood, The Lightning Seeds, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes, The KLF, The Orb, The Proclaimers... You lose at least 2 genres of music and all the trance/ambient/Chillout acts that followed... Take Def Leppard out the picture and you lose just another metal band.
@@Yungrexy absolutely spot on that is
Awwwww. Little Gen Xer 20 year old "niceand" displays his complete absence of rock knowledge.
Joe Elliott came from nothing, a working class family in Sheffield and created the ONLY British band that has sold two consecutive platinum selling albums back to back.
That's 10,000,000 albums, plus another 10,000,000 albums.
Even The Beatles and Led Zeppelin never achieved that.
Go back to your nursery school and learn to read, and how to spell "jealous".
Then ask yourself what YOU have given to humanity.
Bell end.
@@2112jonr He speaks about Rock'n roll, you speak about millions of albums sold...
The KLF burning a million pounds caused multitudes more public outrage than the Sex Pistols swearing on the Bill Grundy show. Even the goldilocks lead singer of Def Leppard (what the hell is a "Def Leppard"?) couldn't handle it.
I loved this
The KLF was a "punk"-movement in itself.
Money is just metal and paper, a control system, i think they just went beyond that, starvation is not to do with money, but a poor governing of the planet, good on you lad's, im not well off, but i get your point.
When you try and be edgy and burn a million quid. Of course the KLF understand the psychology behind the act and what it would do to their reputation.
Could please someone type in what they phone call said at 9:15 and the blond guy at 14:45 ? I couldn't understand ..
He says “I think they were a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic - personally” - his personal opinion is that they are insane.
The phone call says: “I have 20 years service as a psychiatric nurse, I’m a qualified nurse, and after watching these lads they will be plenty of work for me in the future” - hope that helps.
Thank you @deeman3000 !
They done it for an artistic statement, the statement they wanted to make is still fully unknown to this day, even to them.
Who are Deaf Leppard?….I have literally never heard of them or that blonde hippy.
KLF on the other hand are legendary.
@MLG cheetos never heard of them? Are they a boyband or something?
I wish I too had never heard of them and more to the point, their music.
Wow KLF and Joe Elliot talking about burning money. Wow
True artists are never appreciated in their lifetime - FYI Joe Elliott people are still talking bout this/watching it who’s bothered with Def Leopard? No one 😂😂😂😂😂
LEPPARD
@@Hellwyck When you've got a real band to be listening to, then we'll worry about the spelling.
This isn't a comment, It's a statement.
Think it says a lot about money and greed the audiences reaction to this. By explaining they would be better off giving the money to charity they are only really drawing from the power of that money and trying to draw some selfish gain by stating something positive they would do with the money.
As they say, the reactions are very interesting. Clearly this did have a lasting impact and I think we can all agree there was some lasting value in what they did.
Reshpecct...
"I use to talk to my dad like that when I was sixteen" 🤣
You can do what you want with your own money and possessions.
2022 still thinking about it
I love the quote "i understand that you've been doing this for years at 3:20+
Thank you KLF ,a good reason to stop doing music because they already have The White Room album best ever end forever!!! Respect!
I wish they would give me a million pounds, I'll burn it i promise, 🤣
In 2021... We have the KLF streaming on Spotify and CZcams? Wait... WHAT?
Can they make the million euros/pounds they burned out? Time will tell...
They don’t need the money .. or particularly want it ..
Bruh this is like a whole area of history I missed. On rte?
That Def Lepard guy is so negative
Bitter old man syndrome. Remember what he had and wasted.
The klf’s mindset is of cognitive dissonance and cant be compared to the average working person in the street. Money , sadly, has a controlling effect on us all on a daily basis and as jimmy said as a member of “the industry” theyve become numb to the money’s controlling effects. Jimmy and Bill operate on a higher level that most of us cannot comprehend. The fans will kind of get it coz its the chaos that is the klf that theyre used to , but like ive said the vast majority will simply see it as a waste of a life changing opportunity. The debate will roll on for years!
Let it be! It’s a sacrifice or an ‘offering’ to the goddess in my opinion. It was just something that felt that should be done. But I’m wondering if the crown was concerned?
If only they could turn the clocks 🔙 lol 👀
Legends
Physical bills only represent money. The british pound only exists because of laws. All british pounds are nothing more than accounting notations on the ledgers of the BoE. In this case, easily replaceable. Pounds, Euros, dollars, etc. have no real physical existence.
As much as I love The KLF, there’s no denying that they are also mental. 😵💫 Much cocaine.
When you sell the rights to the film to ch4, the ashes to an art gallery and do paid for interviews.... The klf NEVER lost a million quid, but they did burn it and got it back see above.
It's a point no one brings up. They still have ashes in a case and a video, so no, it's not gone. It's converted into something else. The BBC will easily spend a million quid on an hour's footage - these lads made something much more memorable.
And rough trade went bust and other bands lost out
Most Charitys donations get used as ADMINSTRATION costs, it is really wrong and that is the reason i never give to any charity anymore, Oxfam have 8 people that are so called directors on more than 100K a year, how does that work??
They are the first ones ever to have done it...at least physically and intentionally, so that is something.
If we had spent it on swimming pools and Rolls Royce's nobody would care. the audience accepted it but still think what they did was wrong. an audience full of mugs.
Part way through and the charity thing comes up all the time. The simple truth is that if the tax rate on the mega wealthy is increased by 0.001% it would dwarf their million pounds many times over.
I like it just for how angry it makes people who support capitalism. Like you can bet the guy who says "they shouldn't be allowed" votes Tory and talks about the nanny state.
why isn't bob geldof interviewing them?
I bet the central bank of england just printed an extra million when they heard
they were cold, needrd to do some fire, had a case full of money, one hour heat, the most expensive in the world, but they can afford it :) It's genius. They are artists, they did it for the thrill, for the emotions.
And they were not the first: serge gainsbourg burnt on TV in the news a 500 francs notes to explain to the interviewer how much tax the french government take from what he earns.
Maybe KLF wanted to pay less tax to the UK gov. Maybe they did it for many intuitions: I think they like to make a show of themselves and bring attention to them and their Art: they are not called mu mu for nothing and their songs and musics contain an hidden message about reality. Check the biggest secret from David Icke and you will understand KLF discography from a completely different angle.
It is not what they intended that matters. It was an act of chaos magic so the impact this had on others is “the result” of this spell. People should be asking this question: “what happened in the world 23 years AFTER they burned the money?”