Editing K Foundation (section)

==Context==
In the early 1980s, British musician and artist [[Jimmy Cauty]] was the guitarist in an underachieving pop/rock band, [[Brilliant (band)|Brilliant]].<ref name="Trouserpress">{{Cite web|author-link=|last=Robbins|first=Ira|publisher=[[Trouser Press]]|url=http://trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=klf|title=KLF|access-date=20 April 2006}}</ref> Brilliant had been signed to [[Warner Music Group|WEA Records]] by [[A&R]] man [[Bill Drummond]],<ref>{{AllMusic|id=brilliant-mn0000627485|title=Brilliant|first=Dan|last=Leroy|tab=biography|access-date=5 March 2020}}</ref> formerly a member of the Liverpool group [[Big in Japan (band)|Big in Japan]],<ref>{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=271|title=Big in Japan&nbsp;– Where are they now?|work=[[Q Magazine|Q]]|date=January 1992|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916112152/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=271 |archive-date=16 September 2016 }}</ref> the manager of [[The Teardrop Explodes]] and [[Echo & the Bunnymen]],<ref name="TateTat">{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=359|title=Tate tat and arty|work=[[NME]]|date=20 November 1993|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916112826/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=359|archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref> and co-founder of the independent record label [[Zoo Records]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Reynolds|first=Simon|author-link=Simon Reynolds<!--|page=[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dK-F43T8V0wC&q=zoo+records#v=snippet&q=zoo%20records&f=false ?]-->|title=[[Rip It Up and Start Again|Rip It Up And Start Again: Post-punk 1978–1984]]|isbn=0-571-21569-6|publisher=[[Faber & Faber]]|year=2005}}</ref> In 1986, Brilliant released their one and only album - ''[[Kiss The Lips Of Life]]'' - before splitting up.<ref>{{AllMusic|id=mw0000825633|title=Kiss the Lips of Life - Brilliant|first=Dan|last=Leroy|access-date=5 March 2020}}</ref> In the same year, Drummond left WEA Records to record a solo album.<ref name="SpecialK">{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=397|title=Special K|date=April 1995|work=[[GQ]]|first=William|last=Shaw|author-link=William Shaw (writer)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916115215/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=397|archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref> Whilst out walking on [[New Year's Day]], 1987, Drummond hit upon an idea for a hip-hop record but, he said, knowing "nothing, personally, about the technology", he needed a collaborator. Drummond called Jimmy Cauty who agreed to join him in a new band called [[The Justified Ancients of Mu-Mu]] (The JAMs).<ref>{{Cite episode |title=It's a Steal - Sampling |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yrr89 |series=The Story of Pop |station=[[BBC Radio 1]] |number=48 |language=en |author=[[Alan Freeman]] |author2=[[Bill Drummond]] |minutes=31}} First broadcast in 1994, per {{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2016/03/the-story-of-pop|title=The Story Of Pop|publisher=[[BBC Radio 6 Music]] |access-date=9 March 2020}}<!--We used to link to a Radio 1 page which is now dead http://open.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax/series/STORY+OF+POP and an Australian page https://web.archive.org/web/20010218093054/http://www.abc.net.au/rn/pop/default.htm as backup, and the KLF FAQ for a transcript; but evidently the series has since been rebroadcast on Radio 6 and we now have live links.--></ref>

The JAMs' debut release, the single "[[All You Need Is Love (The JAMs song)|All You Need Is Love]]", was released as an underground [[white label record|white label]] on 9 March 1987.<ref name="discog">{{KLFDiscography}}</ref> By 1991, the duo—now calling themselves [[The KLF]]—had become the best-selling singles band in the world and, according to the ''[[Allmusic]]'', were "on the verge of becoming superstars".<ref name="AMG">{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=mn0000074853|title=KLF|first=John|last=Bush|tab=biography|access-date=22 March 2020}}</ref> Instead, in May 1992 they machine-gunned a music industry audience at the [[BRIT Awards]] (albeit with blanks) and quit the music business.<ref>{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=430|last=Martin|first=Gavin|title=The Chronicled Mutineers|work=[[Vox (magazine)|Vox]]|date=December 1996|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916120933/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=430 |archive-date=16 September 2016|quote=[1992] had been the year of Bill's 'breakdown', when The KLF, perched on the peak of greater-than-ever success, quit the music business, (toy) machine gunned the tuxedo'd twats in the front row of that year's BRIT Awards ceremony and dumped a sheep's carcass on the steps at the after-show party}}</ref>

By their own account, neither Drummond nor Cauty kept any of the money that they made as The KLF; it was all ploughed back into their extravagant productions. Cauty told an Australian ''[[Big Issue]]'' writer in 2003 that all the money they made as The KLF was spent, and that the [[royalties]] they accrued post-retirement amounted to approximately one million pounds:{{cquote|I think we made about £6m. We paid nearly half that in [[tax]] and spent the rest on production costs. When we stopped, the production costs stopped too, so over the next few months we amassed a surplus of cash still coming in from record sales; this amounted to about £1.8m. After tax we were left with about £1m.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Interview: The KLF's James Cauty |last=Butler |first=Ben |url=http://rocknerd.org/article.pl?sid=03/06/18/0539252 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071210011728/http://rocknerd.org/article.pl?sid=03%2F06%2F18%2F0539252 |archive-date=10 December 2007 |type=interview with Jimmy Cauty for ''[[The Big Issue Australia]]''|magazine=Rocknerd|date=18 June 2003<!--library of mu ID 538-->}}</ref>}}
Although the duo had deleted their back catalogue in the UK with immediate effect, international licensees retained the contractual right to distribute KLF recordings for a number of years. The KLF, like any other artist, were also entitled to [[Performing Right Society]] royalties every time one of their songs was played on the radio or television. Rather than spend these earnings or invest them for personal gain, the duo decided the money would be used to fund a new art foundation - The K Foundation.<ref name="Reid">{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=387|last=Reid, Jim|title=Money to burn|work=[[The Observer]]|date=25 September 1994|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916120338/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=387 |archive-date=16 September 2016 }} ''passim''</ref>  "Having created an artistic machine that created money", said ''[[GQ (magazine)|GQ]]'' Magazine, "they [then] invented a machine for destroying it."<ref name="SpecialK"/> Quite what the Foundation, this money-destroying machine, would do with the million pounds plus was still undecided.<ref name="SpecialK"/>

Music journalist [[Sarah Champion (journalist)|Sarah Champion]] pointed out (prior to the million pound fire) that, "Being 'in the money' doesn't mean they'll ever be rich. [Drummond and Cauty will] always be [[wiktionary:skint|skint]], but their pranks will get more extravagant. If they earned £10 million, they'd blow it all by buying Jura or a fleet of K Foundation [[airship]]s or a [[Van Gogh]] to be ceremonially burned."<ref name="Trash">{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=384|last=Sharkey|first=Alix|title=Trash Art & Kreation|work=[[The Guardian|The Guardian Weekend]]|date=21 May 1994|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916110256/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=384|archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref> "There are things we'd like to do which we haven't done.", Drummond told a journalist in 1991. "Totally ludicrous things. We want to buy ships, have submarines. They really are stupid things I know, but I feel confident that in the event of us selling ten million albums we would definitely go out and buy a submarine....Just to be able to say 'Look we've got a submarine and [[808 State]] haven't'."<ref>{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=191|last=Morton|first=Roger|title=One Coronation Under A Groove|work=[[NME]]|date=12 January 1991|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161004150446/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=191 |archive-date=4 October 2016}}</ref>