Editing K Foundation

{{Short description|Art foundation set up by Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2015}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name                = K Foundation
| image                 = K Foundation - Time is running out.jpg
| caption            = An early K Foundation advert: "Time is running in"
| image_size            = 130
| background          = group_or_band
| alias               = 
| origin              = United Kingdom
| genre               = 
| years_active        = 1993–1995
| label               = 
| associated_acts     = 
| website                 = 
| current_members     = 
| past_members        = [[Jimmy Cauty]]<br/>[[Bill Drummond]]
}}
The '''K Foundation''' was an art foundation set up by [[Jimmy Cauty]] and [[Bill Drummond]], formerly of [[The KLF]], in 1993, following their 'retirement' from the music industry. The Foundation served as an artistic outlet for the duo's post-retirement KLF income. Between 1993 and 1995, they spent this money in a number of ways, including on a series of [[Situationist International|Situationist]]-inspired press adverts and extravagant subversions in the art world, focusing in particular on the [[Turner Prize]]. Most notoriously, when their plans to use [[banknotes]] as part of a work of [[art]] fell through, they [[K Foundation Burn a Million Quid|burned a million pounds in cash]].

The K Foundation announced a 23-year [[wiktionary:moratorium|moratorium]] on all projects from November 1995. They further indicated that they would not speak about the burning of the million pounds during the period of this moratorium.

==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>

==K Foundation adverts==
The first manifestation of the K Foundation was a series of adverts in UK national newspapers in 1993. The first adverts, in July 1993, were cryptic, referring to "K Time" and advising readers to "Kick out the clocks".<ref>{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=330|type=K Foundation advertisement|title=Divide & Kreate|work=[[The Guardian|Guardian Weekend]]|date=3 July 1993|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916113421/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=330|archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref><ref>{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=329|type=K Foundation advertisement|title=Divide & Kreate|work=[[NME]]|date=3 July 1993|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916112824/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=329|archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref> There was also an advert for their single "K Cera Cera" which was "Available nowhere ... no formats" and which was not planned for release until world peace was established. The single was eventually released, but only in Israel.<ref name="KCera">{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=332|type=K Foundation advertisement|title=K Cera Cera|work=[[NME]]|date=10 July 1993|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916115812/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=332|archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref>

"When the first in a strange series of full-page ads appeared in The Independent on July 4", said ''[[The Face (magazine)|The Face]]'', "people started whispering. The cultish rhetoric, the unfathomable "Divide and Kreate" slogans, the K symbols, all suggested that the kings of cultural anarchy were back."<ref name="Face">{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=374|title=K Foundation: Nailed To The Wall|work=[[The Face (magazine)|The Face]]|date=January 1994|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916112429/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=374 |archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref><ref>"The kings of cultural anarchy" refers, of course, to [[The KLF]].</ref> Each advert cost between £5,000 and £15,000.<ref name="Sandall-ads">{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=549|last=Sandall|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Sandall|title=Adding to the confusion; K Foundation's new ads|work=[[The Times]]|date=12 September 1993|department=Features section|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070827182704/http://www.libraryofmu.org/display-resource.php?id=549|archive-date=27 August 2007}}</ref>

==Turner Prize subversion==
{{Main|K Foundation art award}}

The [[K Foundation art award|1994 K Foundation award]] was an award given by the K Foundation to the "worst artist of the year".
The Foundation commissioned more press adverts,<ref name="Sandall-ads"/> instructing readers to "Abandon all art now"<ref>{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=339|type=K Foundation advertisement|title=Abandon All Art Now|work=[[The Guardian|Guardian Weekend]]|date=14 August 1993|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916111619/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=339|archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref> and then inviting them to vote for the worst artist of the year.<ref>{{Cite news|type=K Foundation advertisement|title=Let The People Choose|work=[[The Guardian|Guardian Weekend]]|date=18 September 1993<!--library of mu ID 348-->}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|type=K Foundation advertisement|title=Let The People Choose|work=[[The Sunday Times (UK)|The Sunday Times]]|date=19 September 1993<!--library of mu ID 349-->}}</ref> The 1993 [[Turner Prize]] was being judged at the same time, and, perhaps not coincidentally, both awards had the same shortlist of four artists.<ref>{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=342|last=Ezard|first=John|title=Worst art hoaxers' scam goes kaput|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=30 August 1993|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916115813/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=342||archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref> The prize being offered by Drummond and Cauty was £40,000 which was double the £20,000 offered for the Turner Prize.<ref name="KellyQ">{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=377|author-link=Danny Kelly (journalist)|last=Kelly|first=Danny|title=Million Dollar Bash|work=[[Q Magazine]]|date=February 1994|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916115143/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=377|archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref>

[[Channel 4]] Television broadcast coverage of the Turner Prize, during which three more K Foundation adverts were broadcast &mdash; these announced the "amending of art history".<ref>{{LibraryOfMu|tl=citation|mode=cs1|mu-id=516|title=Three 30-second K Foundation TV advertisements|publisher=[[Channel 4]]|date=23 November 1993|mu-transcript-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916114719/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=516|archive-date=16 September 2016|transcripts=yes}}</ref> During the evening, [[Rachel Whiteread]] was announced as the winner of both the Turner Prize and the K Foundation award. Whiteread initially refused to accept the K Foundation prize, but after being told that the money would be incinerated, she reluctantly accepted, with the intention of donating £30,000 to artists in financial need and the other £10,000 to the housing charity, [[Shelter (charity)|Shelter]].<ref name="Face"/><ref>{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=366|title=The Best Of Artists, The Worst of Artists|work=[[New York Times]]|date=29 November 1993|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916115344/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=366|archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref><ref>This was announced in an advertisement placed by Whiteread in ''[[Art Monthly]]'', January 1994. See [[:Image:Rachel Whiteread's K Foundation award advert.jpg]] for a scan.</ref>

==''Money: A Major Body of Cash''==
During the buildup to the presentation of the K Foundation art award to Rachel Whiteread on 23 November 1993, the K Foundation presented their first artwork to the press. ''Nailed To A Wall'', "the first of a series of K Foundation art installations that will also include one million pounds in a skip, one million pounds on a table and several variants on the theme of Tremendous Amounts Of Folding", consisted of one million pounds in £50 notes, nailed to a large framed board.<ref name="KellyQ"/> ''Nailed To A Wall'' had a reserve price of £500,000, half the face value of the cash used in its construction, which ''Scotland on Sunday'''s reporter Robert Dawson Scott was "fairly confident... really was £1 million [in cash]". The catalogue entry for the artwork stated: "Over the years the face value will be eroded by inflation, while the artistic value will rise and rise. The precise point at which the artistic value will overtake the face value is unknown. Deconstruct the work now and you double your money. Hang it on a wall and watch the face value erode, the market value fluctuate, and the artistic value soar. The choice is yours."<ref name="DawsonScott">{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=364|title=K Foundation tries to turn the art world on its head |last=Dawson Scott |first=Robert |date=28 November 1993 |work=[[Scotland on Sunday]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916110254/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=364 |archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref>

Collectively, the K Foundation's money-as-art works were titled ''Money: A Major Body Of Cash'', "seven pieces, all involving various amounts of cash nailed to, tied to or simply standing on inanimate objects".<ref name="Reid"/> ''The Face'' magazine neatly summed up the concepts behind the art project:{{cquote|If there is any overriding theme to all this unfathomable rhetoric, it's that money has become the root of all art. The questions posed in the K Foundation's first catalogue all hint at this idea: "How beautiful is money?" "Why do we try and make money measure the immeasurable?" "Have you ever [[wiktionary:shag#Etymology 3|shagged]] somebody who works in a bank?" In short, "What is money?"

To add further weight to this theory, they also pull off a neat conceptual punchline. Their art is made out of cash. The face value of that cash is obvious. The artistic value, until somebody buys it and gives it artistic status, is zero. The K Foundation have put a price on these works precisely halfway between their current monetary value and their artistic value. The joke being that if you were to buy the piece called 10,000 (four piles of mint fifties nailed to a plank of salvaged skirting board) for the asking price of 5,000 (ono), you stand to pocket five grand if you destroy the art and spend the money. Alternatively, hang it on your wall and see the cash value eroded by inflation while the artistic value soars. It's the sale of the century!<ref name="Face"/>}}

During the first half of 1994, the K Foundation attempted to interest galleries in staging ''Money: A Major Body Of Cash''. However, even old friend [[Jayne Casey]], director of the Liverpool Festival Trust, was unable to persuade a major gallery to participate. "'The [[Tate Liverpool|Tate, in Liverpool]], wanted to be part of the 21st Century Festival I'm involved with,' says Casey. 'I suggested they put on the K Foundation exhibition; at first they were encouraging, but they seemed nervous about the personalities involved.' A curt fax from... the gallery curator, informed Casey that the K Foundation's exhibition of money had been done before and more interestingly",<ref name="Reid"/> leaving Drummond and Cauty obliged to pursue other options. The duo considered taking the exhibition across the former [[Soviet Union]] by train and on to the United States, but no insurer would touch the project. Then an exhibition at [[Dublin]]'s [[Kilmainham Jail]] was considered. No sooner had a provisional date of August been set for the exhibition, however, when the duo changed their minds yet again. "Jimmy said: 'Why don't we just burn it?' remembers Drummond. 'He said it in a light-hearted way, I suppose, hoping I'd say: 'No, we can't do that, let's do this...' But it seemed the most powerful thing to do."<ref name="Reid"/> Cauty: "We were just sitting in a cafe talking about what we were going to spend the money on and then we decided it would be better if we burned it. That was about six weeks before we did it. It was too long, it was a bit of a nightmare."<ref name="NMEScreening">{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=463 |title=We didn't set out to make a film, we set out to burn £1m |date=16 September 1995 |work=[[NME]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916115341/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=463 |archive-date=16 September 2016}}
</ref>

==''The K Foundation Burn a Million Quid''==
{{Main|K Foundation Burn a Million Quid}}
On 23 August 1994, in a boathouse on the Scottish island of [[Jura, Scotland|Jura]], Drummond and Cauty incinerated £1,000,000 in cash.<ref>"One million [[wiktionary:quid|Quid]]" in [[British slang]]</ref> The burning was witnessed by an old friend of Drummond's, freelance journalist Jim Reid, who subsequently wrote an article about the ceremony for ''[[The Observer]]''.<ref name="Reid"/> It was filmed on [[Hi-8]] by their friend [[Alan Goodrick|Gimpo]].

Reid admitted to first feeling shock and guilt about the burning, which quickly turned to boredom. The money took well over an hour to burn as Drummond and Cauty fed £50 notes into the fire. Drummond later said that only about £900,000 of the money was actually burnt &ndash; the rest flew straight up the chimney.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0%2C%2C1220512%2C00.html |title='It's not haute cuisine' |last=Simpson |first=Dave |date=20 May 2004 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060404181323/http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0%2C%2C1220512%2C00.html |archive-date=4 April 2006}}</ref>  The press reported that an islander handed £1,500 into the police; the money had not been claimed and would be returned to the finder.<ref>{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=389|first=Gillian|last=Bowditch|title=Duo with £1m to burn leave island guessing|work=[[The Times]]|date=4 October 1994|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916114516/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=389|archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref><ref>{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=388|last=McKerron|first=Ian|title=Duo Burn £1M In Midnight Madness|work=[[Daily Express]]|date=1 October 1994|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916115543/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=388|archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref>

On 23 August 1995, exactly one year after the burning, Drummond and Cauty returned to Jura for the premiere screening of the film,<ref>{{cite news |title=From cash to ash |last=Banks-Smith |first=Nancy |author-link=Nancy Banks-Smith |date=30 August 1995 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |page=T.009}}</ref> now known as ''[[Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid]]''. The film was then toured around the UK over the next few months (plus one showing in [[Belgrade]]), with a Q&A session at the end of each screening where members of the audience asked Drummond and Cauty why they burnt the money and also offered their own interpretations.<ref>See, for example: {{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=400 |title=Who wants to be a millionaire? |last=Harris |first=John |author-link=John Harris (critic) |date=November 1995 |work=[[Q Magazine]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916110536/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=400 |archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref>

==K Cera Cera and The Magnificent==
The only music release to bear the name of the K Foundation was "[[K Cera Cera]]", released as a limited edition single in Israel and [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] in November 1993. An amalgam of "[[Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)]]" and [[John Lennon]]/[[Yoko Ono]]'s "[[Happy Xmas (War Is Over)]]", it was credited to the "K Foundation presents The [[MVD Ensemble|Red Army Choir]]". Originally intended for release when "world peace [is] established" (i.e. never) and in "no formats",<ref name="KCera"/> the Israeli release was made "In acknowledgement of the recent brave steps taken by the Israeli Government and the [[Palestinian Liberation Organisation]] (PLO)".<ref>{{Cite AV media notes|title=K Cera Cera|type=Sleeve notes|location=Israel|year=1993|others=K Foundation|publisher=[[NMC Music]]|id=KCC 1-2}}</ref> Said Drummond: "Our idea was to create awareness of peace in the world. Because we were worried it would be interpreted by the public as an attempt by The KLF to return to the music world on the back of a humanist gimmick, we decided to hide behind the Foundation."<ref>{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=356|title=Yasser, they can boogie!|work=[[NME]]|date=13 November 1993|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916111935/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=356|archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref>

Also made by the duo during the K Foundation's existence, reported by the ''NME'' as a K Foundation work,<ref name="NMEScreening"/> but officially attributed to "The [[One World Orchestra]] featuring The Massed Pipes and Drums of the Children's Free Revolutionary Volunteer Guards", was "[[The Magnificent (song)|The Magnificent]]", their contribution to the charity album ''[[The Help Album|Help]]''.<ref>{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=444|first=Andrew|last=Perry|first2=Sam|last2=Upton|title=Millennial Mu Mu|work=[[Select (magazine)|Select]]|date=October 1997|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916111306/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=444|archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref> The song, a [[drum'n'bass]] version of the theme tune from ''[[The Magnificent Seven]]'' with vocal samples from [[Fleka|DJ Fleka]] of Serbian radio station [[B92]], was recorded on 4 September 1995. On 5 September 1995, Drummond and Cauty claimed they would "never make any more records". Drummond said,  "What do you expect us to do, go and make a jungle record?"; Cauty added "Yeah, like a jungle novelty record with some strings on it or something. It would just be sad wouldn't it? We're too old." ''NME'' gleefully informed their readers, "The K Foundation's contribution to the 'Help' LP is a jungle track."<ref name="NMEScreening"/> ''Help'' was released on 9 September 1995.

==Moratorium==
Drummond and Cauty announced a [[wiktionary:moratorium|moratorium]] on K Foundation activities in the obscure "[[The Workshop for Non-linear Architecture]]" bulletin of November 1995.<ref>{{cite magazine|author-link=Stewart Home|last=Home|first=Stewart|title=There's no success like failure|magazine=[[Variant magazine|Variant]]|volume=2|number=1|date=Winter 1996|page=18|url=http://www.variant.randomstate.org/pdfs/issue1/success.pdf#search=%22%22k%20foundation%22%20moratorium%22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928081253/http://www.variant.randomstate.org/pdfs/issue1/success.pdf#search=%22%22k%20foundation%22%20moratorium%22 |archive-date=28 September 2007}}</ref> The duo had signed a "[[contract]]", agreeing to wind up the K Foundation and not to speak about the money burning for a period of 23 years. The document was signed on the [[hood (vehicle)|bonnet]] of a rented car which, they claim<!--there are photos, can we find a news story?-->, they then pushed over the cliffs at [[Cape Wrath]]. This was followed on 8 December 1995 by an advertisement in ''[[The Guardian]]'':{{cquote|On 5 November 1995, Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond signed a contract with the rest of the world agreeing to end the K Foundation for a period of 23 years.

This postponement provides opportunity of sufficient length for an accurate and appropriately executed response to their 'burning of a million quid'. The K Foundation's fate now lies irrevocably sealed in the imploded remains of a [[Nissan Bluebird]] nestling among the rocks 600 feet below Cape Wrath, Scotland.<ref>{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=519 |title=Cape Wrath |author=K Foundation |date=8 December 1995 |work=[[The Guardian]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916113827/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=519 |archive-date=16 September 2016|type=advertisement}}</ref><ref>Note that they have spoken about the burning since then to a limited extent (references can be found in [[K Foundation Burn a Million Quid]], including quotations from Drummond where he expresses regret at burning the money); the "contract" was not followed as strictly as The KLF's stated intention to delete their back catalogue in 1992. Cauty and Drummond officially ended the moratorium in 2017.</ref>}}

The final act of the K Foundation was distributing a van load of [[Tennent's Super]] - a high-alcohol-content lager - to London's [[drinking in public|street drinkers]] on [[Christmas Day]] 1995. <!-- Recalling The JAMs' 1987 single, ''[[Down Town]]'', this was the second occasion in which Cauty and Drummond juxtaposed the spirit of Christmas with the plight of the urban alcoholic homeless. : Maybe, but we need a source to make the connection --> However, the Foundation discovered that their choice of location for this endeavour — near [[London Waterloo railway station|Waterloo station]] on the [[South Bank]] — was unusually devoid of homeless people, many of whom were in homeless shelters for the day. "That was a pity", said Jimmy Cauty. "If you are down-and-out, would you rather have a bowl of soup or a can of Tennent's?"<ref>{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=412|title=English charity gives out beer to London's ranks of homeless|work=[[San Jose Mercury]]|date=26 December 1995|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916120340/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=412|archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref> ''The Sunday Times'' later called the scheme "ethically dubious".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Heaney|first=Mick|title=Bill Drummond once burnt £1m for art's sake. Now he is taking a soupopera to Belfast|work=[[The Sunday Times]]|date=18 April 2004|page=18}}</ref>

Drummond and Cauty - reunited as The Justified Ancients of Mu-Mu under the auspices of K2 Plant Hire Ltd - ended the moratorium on 23 August 2017, 23 years after the burning.<ref name="drownedinsound">{{Cite web|url=http://drownedinsound.com/news/4151283-the-ice-kream-van-kometh--the-justified-ancients-of-mu-mu-return|title=The Ice Kream Van Kometh: The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu Return|date=24 August 2017|access-date=26 February 2020|first=Max|last=Pilley|publisher=[[Drowned in Sound]]|archive-date=26 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226003707/http://drownedinsound.com/news/4151283-the-ice-kream-van-kometh--the-justified-ancients-of-mu-mu-return}}</ref><ref name="Ellis-Petersen">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/aug/23/klf-bill-drummond-jimmy-cauty-2023-book|title=The return of the KLF: pop's greatest provocateurs take on a post-truth world|access-date=23 October 2017|date=23 August 2017|first=Hannah|last=Ellis-Petersen|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> "Why Did the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid?" was debated during a three-day festival celebrating the launch of their novel ''[[2023: A Trilogy]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41022272|title=The KLF: Pop's saboteurs return after 23 years|date=23 August 2017|work=[[BBC News]]|access-date=26 February 2020}}</ref> In the intervening period, the duo had worked together in 1997, when they attempted to "[[Fuck the Millennium]]" as 2K (music)<ref>{{LibraryOfMu|mu-id=496|last=Flint|first=Charlie|title=Media Pranksters KLF Re-emerge As 2K|work=[[Billboard magazine|Billboard]]|date=2 September 1997|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916113139/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=496 |archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref> and K2 Plant Hire (conceptual art).<ref>{{LibraryOfMu|tl=news|mu-id=452|first=Miranda|last=Sawyer|author-link=Miranda Sawyer|title=They set fire to £1m and they're still not happy|work=[[The Observer]]|date=26 October 1997|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916110924/http://www.libraryofmu.net/display-resource.php?id=452|archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref>

==''Omnibus'' documentary==
In November 1995, the BBC aired an edition of the ''[[Omnibus (BBC)|Omnibus]]'' documentary series about The K Foundation entitled "A Foundation Course in Art".<ref>{{Cite news|type=Review|title=Omnibus: A Foundation Course in Art|author-link=Tom Sutcliffe (broadcaster)|last=Sutcliffe|first=Thomas|work=[[The Independent]]|date=7 November 1995|department=TV section|page=24}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Anti-art]]

==Notes and references==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

{{The KLF}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Good article}}

[[Category:The KLF]]
[[Category:British conceptual artists]]
[[Category:Art duos]]
[[Category:British electronic music groups]]
[[Category:Foundations based in the United Kingdom]]