List of The KLF's creative associates

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The original music released by The KLF, The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords and 2K was written, produced and performed by Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond. However, the duo called upon the services of recurring contributors to provide vocals, instrumentation and production support. This was particularly the case for the output of The KLF, who often referred to such contributors as "additional communicators" and, on some "Stadium House" singles, as "The Children of the Revolution".

Contents

[edit] Additional communicators

The sleevenotes and labels of KLF Communications releases reveal the following significant contributors:

  • Isaac Bello - Also known as Bello B, the member of Outlaw Posse rapped on "What Time Is Love? (Live at Trancentral)" and "America: What Time Is Love?", and is credited with co-authorship of these tracks.
  • Black Steel - A prominent lead vocal contributor to The White Room (including scat singing), where he also played bass guitar and piano. Before and since his work with The KLF, Black Steel has worked with Mad Professor.[1]
  • Cressida Cauty - Vocalist with The KLF's spin-off project Disco 2000, Jimmy Cauty's wife also contributed backing vocals to several of The KLF's singles and appeared in several of their videos.
  • Nick Coler - Credited for programming and keyboard contributions across The KLF's output, including the orchestral arrangement of Jerusalem in "It's Grim Up North". Since The KLF's retirement, Coler has worked with Saint Etienne.[2]
  • Ricardo Da Force - Also known as Ricardo Lyte and MC Lyte, Da Force provided raps during The KLF's "Stadium House" phase. He is credited with co-authorship of tracks on which he rapped: "3 a.m. Eternal", "Last Train to Trancentral" and "Justified and Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)". Da Force later appeared on N-Trance's cover of "Stayin' Alive".[3]
  • Wanda Dee - Vocal samples on The KLF singles "What Time Is Love?" and "Last Train to Trancentral", taken from her track "To the Bone". To avoid a lawsuit from Dee's manager and husband Eric Floyd, she was given co-writing credit for these tracks (under her real name L'wanda McFarland), and featured in The KLF video The Stadium House Trilogy.[4] Following The KLF's retirement, Wanda Dee toured America and Australia using the 'KLF' name, in an act variously reported as being billed "Wanda Dee and The KLF Experience", "The KLF featuring wanda Dee"[5], and "The KLF".[6] These concerts featured live rapping and singing played to a backing tape of The KLF's music ("the hits that she made famous", Floyd claimed), alongside Wanda Dee's solo work. Neither Drummond nor Cauty were involved with the shows. Cauty has commented "I actually felt more sorry for the band than the audience. We did write to them to ask them to reconsider and got this amazing letter in return, they really thought they were the KLF, and without the Wanda Dee sample we would never have sold a single record. 9 out of 10 for total insanity".[7]
  • Maxine Harvey - The KLF's lead female vocalist on The White Room projects and "Justified and Ancient (All Bound for Mu Mu Land)", a mix in which she replaces Tammy Wynette.
  • Duy Khiem - Played tenor saxophone and clarinet, most prominently on "3 a.m. Eternal". Khiem was also responsible for the a cappella traditional Vietnamese song "Me Ru Con" on 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?).[8]
  • Graham Lee - Contributed pedal steel to Drummond's solo album The Man, and The KLF's Chill Out and The White Room.
  • June Montana - Vocalist with Disco 2000.
  • Scott Piering - A well-respected record promoter by trade, Drummond and Cauty claim in The Manual that Piering's involvement in the promotion of "Doctorin' the Tardis" was crucial to its UK Singles Chart success.[9] Piering also leant his voice to several narrations in The KLF's recordings, including many of the profitable singles and the video The Rites of Mu.
  • Mark "Spike" Stent - The music producer cites his work with The KLF on their most commercially successful recordings as the key to his subsequent rise to prominence.[10]
  • Tony Thorpe - The Moody Boys' Thorpe was credited for rhythms, samples and breaks during The White Room project. The Moody Boys were also responsible for remix 12"s of the "Stadium House Trilogy" singles.

[edit] Guest contributors

Whereas The JAMs' earlier work sampled prominently and illegally from the popular works of established artists, The KLF's international reputation allowed their later releases to feature guest vocals from such established performers as Tammy Wynette (for "Justified and Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)", Gary Glitter (for "Doctorin' the Tardis") and Glenn Hughes (for "America: What Time Is Love?"). Drummond has expressed disgust at this notion in his book 45. In a chapter written in 1998, Drummond professes to have "worshipped" Wynette's voice, yet he nevertheless says, "The whole British tradition of 'young' white artists dragging up some has-been legend to perform with is an evil and corrupt exchange; the young artist wanting to tap into the mythical status and credibility of the has-been, the has-been wanting some of that 'I'm still contemporary, relevant (and will do anything to get back into the charts)' stuff."[11]

[edit] Other creative associates

  • Bill Butt - Director of The KLF's unreleased road movie The White Room.
  • Jeremy Deller - Deller's Acid Brass project, featuring the Williams Fairey Band, provided inspiration for Drummond and Cauty's 1997 "Fuck the Millennium" project, under the pseudonym 2K; a performance by 2K was billed as "Jeremy Deller presents 2K", as was the subsequent single release.[12]
  • Echo and the Bunnymen - The band (for whom Drummond had once been manager) are credited with a remix of "What Time Is Love?" on the single "What Time Is Love? (Remodelled & Remixed)".
  • Extreme Noise Terror (ENT) - British grindcore band with whom The KLF collaborated for a version of "3 a.m. Eternal" and the unreleased album The Black Room.
  • Miomir Grujic (DJ Fleka) - Radio DJ on Serbian station B92, DJ Fleka contributed a vocal sample to Drummond and Cauty's track "The Magnificent" (donated by the duo to The Help Album of 1995).[13]
  • Alan Goodrick - Also known as "Gimpo", Goodrick is a friend and associate of Drummond and Cauty. He has made several films used by the duo in their artistic and musical work. He also contributed vocals to "Fuck the Millennium" and, for Cauty's later project Blacksmoke, "Gimpo Gimpo".
  • Mark Manning - Also known as "Zodiac Mindwarp" or "Z" from The Love Reaction, Manning contributed vocals to "Fuck the Millennium" and has since accompanied Drummond on expeditions documented in their books Bad Wisdom and Wild Highway.
  • Alex Paterson - Cauty's co-founder of The Orb, Paterson was influential in the development both of The KLF album Chill Out and the Space album released by KLF Communications. Chill Out was derived in part from Paterson and Cauty's DJ sessions at the monthly London club night "Land of Oz", and Paterson is thanked on the sleeve.[14] Cauty left The Orb in 1990, following Paterson's concern that The Orb should not be perceived as a side-project of The KLF.[citation needed] Paterson retained and developed 'The Orb' name, while Cauty took recordings originally intended for The Orb's debut album, removed Paterson's contributions and released Space under the pseudonym 'Space'. Prior to the split, The Orb produced an ambient remix of "3 a.m. Eternal" entitled "The Blue Danube Orbital".

[edit] Notes & references

  1. ^ Black Steel discography at Discogs.com. Retrieved 31 May 2006 (link)
  2. ^ Nick Coler discography at Discogs.com. Retrieved 26 April 2006 (link)
  3. ^ Ricardo Da Force discography at Discogs.com. Retrieved 31 May 2006 (link)
  4. ^ Dinnen, N., "The KLF featuring Wanda Dee", Beat magazine (Melbourne), 27 October 1993 (link).
  5. ^ Te Koha, Nui, "KLF? Not!", The Herald Sun, 28 October 1993 (link).
  6. ^ Midro, J., "Wanda Dee and KLF", Zebra magazine (Melbourne), 27 October 1993 (link).
  7. ^ Butler, B., interview with Jimmy Cauty for The Big Issue Australia, 18 June 2003 (link).
  8. ^ Drummond, B., "1987: The Edits", sleevenotes, JAMS 25T, November 1987 (link).
  9. ^ Drummond, B. & Cauty, J. (1989) The Manual (How To Have a Number One The Easy Way), KLF Publications (KLF 009B), UK. ISBN 0-86359-616-9. (Link to full text)
  10. ^ Mark Stent, in Tingen, P. "The Work of a Top Flight Mixer", Sound on Sound magazine, January 1999 (link). Retrieved March 2006.
  11. ^ Drummond, B., "They Called Me Up In Tennessee", 45, Little & Brown, ISBN 0316853852 / Abacus, ISBN 0349112894, 2000.
  12. ^ Drummond, B. and Cauty, J., advertisement, Time Out, 21 August 1997 (link).
  13. ^ Collin, M., "Obituary: Miomir Grujic", The Guardian (Manchester), 25 August 2003, p17.
  14. ^ Sleevenotes, Chill Out, KLF Communications JAMS LP5, 1990.
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