Wednesday morning we were called to a venue called Constellations where we are given our tasks for the week by MC for the week Oliver Senton who played Robert Anton Wilson in the ‘Cosmic Trigger’ theatre production by Daisy Campbell, Ken Campbell‘s daughter. They seemed to be very much in charge for the whole week, under the direction of the JAMs most likely, but they made the events happen.

The buckets with numbers were on stage and names were withdrawn at random, the jobs were many and most were baffling. There’s already a webpage collecting all the different cards handed out to the 400 that day plus a few bogus ones that were created in response to events later in the week, I was given the job of ‘Skull Painter’ which I was overjoyed about.

This was the point at which the band Badger Kull were chosen and formed, the four members’ only requirement being that they could play the bass, who were then whisked away by Pete Wylie (of Wah! fame) to be indoctrinated into the ways of the rock world, rehearsed and readied for their performance that Friday. A choir was also formed, under the orders of Nick Coler, long time KLF studio associate (look on the back of the records) as well as ragwort collectors, Badger Kull street-teamers and grave diggers amongst many more. David Hopkinson from the Cube Cinema in Bristol was one of the 400 and hawking the last copies of my Million Mu notes for those that wanted them, the proceeds going to fund repairs to the building. He would come into his own later on in the week as a Badger Kull fan and the man he’s selling to here came along with his wife, son and daughter-in-law!

At 7pm we gathered at The Black-E, a huge venue near the Dead Perch, to be greeted by the T-speaker again in the foyer and made our way into the upstairs space to bear witness to ‘A Hearing’ on why the K Foundation burned a million quid. *A screen in the main room showed a brick with the letters ‘HG’ and ‘M’ on it and then simply, ‘Why?’ What was this brick motif for? It seemed to have nothing to do with the burning episode. *UPDATE / correction courtesy of David Hopkinson – see comments below – in fact it was made from the ashes of the burnt one million pounds, fascinating that they made a brick back in 1997 and 20 years later continued the theme, as we will find out.

Five different experts from different fields gave their angles on it and five independent witness were called to give evidence. Jeremy Deller gave an excellent presentation, complete with slides, at one point illustrating the decline and commercialisation of dance music with a gurning Norman Cook to much applause.

Annebella Pollen made a fascinating comparison with the K Foundation/KLF/JAMs imagery and activities alongside the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift group from earlier in the 20th century and Ann Pettifor gave a perspective from the financial sector, surmising that they were destroying the promise to pay that money gave, reliving the banks of some of their financial debit.

Tom Hodgkinson, founder of The Idler and Clive Martin, a journalist from Vice magazine also gave their takes before Gimpo and Jim Reid were called, both present at the Jura boathouse when the pair burned the money. Ex-publicist William Houghton and tour manager Craig McLean gave often hilarious accounts of the disastrous Glaswegian leg of the original ‘Why did the K Foundation burn a million quid?’ film showing tour as well as the Cape Wrath car episode, most revealingly telling the audience that Bill and Jimmy were both in the midst of having nervous breakdowns at the end of the KLF era.

I’ve often wondered if that was the case, in 1991 alone they released three KLF singles and an album, a JAMs single and must have been recording the beginnings of ‘The Black Room’ and ‘America: What Time Is Love’ plus making videos to go with four of the above and coming to terms with sudden massive success. Who wouldn’t crack up and pull off a performance like The Brits the next year under such pressure? Chris Brook who authored the book ‘K Foundation Burn A Million Quid’ in 1998 rambled on for far too long and members of the audience at the original film showing in Liverpool gave their accounts of the hostile reception they witnessed. Finally, with the event running an hour over time, author John Higgs all too briefly summed up his take with the assertion that it really didn’t matter why.

We were then called on to vote for who we thought gave the most compelling reason out of the original five on the panel and chaos descended again for 15 minutes as 400 people tried to place a one pound coin they’d been given on entry into a bucket with the name of their chosen candidate on it. Annebella’s presentation was the most interesting and original but I felt the summation of what she said (“the act was part of a ceremonial magick tradition of releasing material goods via ritual (& general weirdness!)) didn’t really convey the message well and sounded contrived. Nevertheless she romped home with a clear majority and the JAMs were brought in to hear the verdict to which they simply responded, “whatever”, Drummond looking particularly unimpressed. Had John Higgs been on the panel instead of a witness I would have voted for him by a mile.

Part 3 here