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Sunday, September 23, 9 pm
Pirate Cinema Berlin
Tucholskystr 6, 2nd floor
9:15 pm: The White Room
Bill Drummond, Jimmy Cauty, Bill Butt
UK 1989, 700 MB, 45 min
10 pm: Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid
Bill Drummond, Jimmy Cauty, Gimpo
UK 1995, 700 MB, 56 min
Free entry
Cheap drinks
Copies to go
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Am 23. August 1994 verbrannten Bill Drummond und Jimmy Cauty (a.k.a. The KLF)
auf der schottischen Insel Jura eine Million Britische Pfund - nicht nur die
vermutlich legendärste Episode einer an legendären Episoden nicht gerade armen
Schaffensperiode, sondern auch, als Film, und selbst wenn man diesen Film bloss
als ein conceptual art piece betrachtet, eine sehr viel überzeugendere Antwort,
z.B. im Vergleich zu Matthew Barney <1> oder Douglas Gordon <2>, auf die Frage,
was für Bilder man machen kann, wenn man Geld hat.
Als Vorfilm zeigen wir The White Room, der hier vor zwei Jahren, wenn auch in
deutlich schlechterer Bild- und Ton-Qualität, schon einmal lief <3>. Das bereits
damals verlinkte und ansonsten extrem akkurate KLF FAQ aus dem Jahr 1997 <4> ist
insofern veraltet, als mittlerweile von beiden Filmen DVDs, die es, der Legende
nach, eigentlich gar nicht geben sollte, aufgetaucht sind - und zumindest im
Fall von "Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid" hätten wir auch sowas wie
eine vage Idee davon, wie das passieren konnte <5>.
<1> http://piratecinema.org/screenings/20070415
<2> http://piratecinema.org/screenings/20061217
<3> http://piratecinema.org/screenings/20050814
<4> http://piratecinema.org/textz/the_klf_the_faq.html
<5> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_K_Foundation_burns_a_million_pounds
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4.007: What's "Watch the K Foundation Burn A Million Quid"? How can I see it?
As we all know Bill and Jimmy burnt a million pounds (see 4.006) They gave Gimpo
a camcorder to film (in Super 8) the burning as it happened. This resulting film
was first transferred to two 8 mm projector film spools with a soundtrack, and
first shown to bemused villagers on Jura. The film is in colour, good quality
and "quite boring". Quite literally it is 55 minutes of Bill and Jimmy burning
the million pounds, feeding the flames with bundles of 50-pound notes. Jim Reid
appears, and occasionally Gimpo is seen, mainly whilst he's fiddling with the
camera.
Later it was edited down in order to fit it onto one spool because "when the
first spool ran out everyone thought it was the end and seemed disappointed that
they had to sit through even more..." (-Gimpo). However, Jimmy claimed that it
was because everyone talked through it anyway so they thought they'd have the
"audience providing the soundtrack", but this may be a cover, as according to
some reports, the soundtrack tape was 'lent' to the BBC for the Omnibus
programme (see 5.010) and never returned despite Gimpo's best attempts. It is
quite likely they just thought "why bother hooking up the sound?". Jimi said
that the video was to be destroyed two days after the event, because they wanted
people to have faith and not have to have proof. But he was obviously lying!
The highlight for most list members is when Gimpo walks outside of the
boathouse, and we can see the glowing embers rising out of the chimney, and
floating off into the darkness. Somewhere in the film (perhaps its the bit where
he goes outside) Gimpo decides to pocket a bundle of notes - a few minutes later
he starts to feel guilty and puts the money back. Bill (in a letter to Nick)
commented on the problem of the film's name, against it really being Bill and
Jimmy's money: "Calling the film 'Watch The K Foundation Burn A Million Quid' is
a creative compromise."
On the 4th September 1995, and on some further occasions, newspaper adverts
appeared advertising the film to local audiences. They announced a showing of
the film, to be followed by a debate centring around a question e.g. Why did the
K Foundation burn a million quid? Was it Art?, Was it Madness?, Was it Rock and
Roll? etc. The 5th September saw Bill and Jimmy at the In The City convention in
Manchester, showing the film, followed by a discussion in front of a 100-plus
music-industry audience, where they asked for people's opinions, not on whether
it was ethical to burn the money, but on whether it was Rock and Roll? Then they
were interviewed on Radio 1's Evening Session. Bill said: "And we're very proud
of this film, this is the biggest kinda visual thing we've done.".
The film was toured around the country, usually gracing cultural centres in
major towns and cities, and some more obscure venues like film festivals,
builders yards, Glastonbury Tor, an inner-city comprehensive and then Eton on
the same day, and MIND drop-in centres. In Glasgow they planned to show it at
various venues over a weekend of 'art- terrorism' eg, Barlinnie prison, (but
they were refused permission and asked to leave!) (see the relevant archived
articles from the Sunday Times, Blah Blah Blah and the Scotsman for more on this
eventful weekend). Bill and Jimmy also took the film to Belgrade, in Serbia. The
Independent on Sunday reported that it was very well received because 1) they
showed to this very artistic community and 2) Serbia experienced 36 million %
inflation so they could relate to burning money. Each showing was followed by a
discussion, where Bill and Jimmy wanted to get the audience to voice what they
thought was the reason B&J burnt the money. Many reviews of the showings from
local newspapers and transcripts of various local and national radio interviews
are available in the ftp archive, or from Stuart Young.
Following the Cape Wrath contract (see 4.009) Bill and Jimmy would no longer
comment on the burning at post-film discussions, preferring to leave an
associate, Chris Brooke or Gimpo to lead them. Bill and Jimmy's self-imposed
silence was usually broken after around five minutes.
An Info-sheet (available in the ftp archive) was distributed in the later stages
of the tour. Attached to this were a series of quotes of audience observations
from the various screenings. Bill and Jimmy invited audiences to write to the
address given (The K FOUNDATION, PO Box 91, HP22 4RS, The UK), with their own
reactions. Some people even got replies from Bill. A poster for the film can be
seen at Jamm!n's Mancentral archive (http://jumper.mcc.ac.uk/~ttl/KLF). Other
list members gained other memorabilia at the screenings, such as soggy
newspapers adverts, signed vodka bottles, and in one case a signed ukp 50 note!
As well as discussing the film, Bill occasionally opened up on other matters. At
the Manchester showing in November 1995 he is quoted as saying "We would do it
[release records] again, if we thought people would like it". At the same
showing he refused to sign a copy of Pete Robinson's Justified and Ancient
History, saying "That's a load of bollocks...It's all lies." Pete Robinson has
yet to reply to Nick on these allegations. Bill is also notorious for refusing
to be held to quotes.
The film was due to be shown for the final time in a car-park in Brick Lane in
London, 8th December 1995. Several list members turned up to witness the event
turn into something of a fiasco. The car-park idea was abandoned on the night,
but a basement room was hired in the Seven Stars pub nearby. Around 400 people
turned up for the showing, and most somehow managed to crowd into the small
room. Bill and Jimmy hung around, but were evidently nervous, and hid for most
of the evening in the toilets with their minders. Gimpo showed some of the film
but the cramped conditions proved too much and the showing was abandoned. Some
reports indicate the police called it off, but although the police did turn up,
it is understood that they had no part in the decision.
The film was due to be cut up and sold off for ukp 1 per frame after the Brick
Lane showing, but this never happened. At the end of the show, when everyone
tried to grab frames, Gimpo protested "no, it's not this film that's being cut
up, it's the other [two- spool] copy", going on to point out that he didn't even
want to do it, it was all Club Disobey's idea. A subsequent advert in the NME
gave the ansaphone number of London's Club Disobey (0181-960 9529), but to the
best knowledge of the list members, no frames were ever gleaned from this. The
only frames list-members obtained were blank ones from the film header.
At several screenings people with professional cameras, camcorders and
dictaphones recorded the film and subsequent discussions but bootleg copies have
yet to surface. Gimpo also made videos/recordings saying "maybe a video sometime
next year". He is also quoted (from the Omnibus documentary) as saying "I've
never been a film director before."
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