Fuck the Millennium
"***k the Millennium" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by 2K | ||||
Released | 13 October 1997 | |||
Studio | Parr Street, Konk | |||
Genre | Acid house | |||
Length | 13:57 | |||
Label | Blast First, Mute (UK) | |||
Songwriter(s) | Jimmy Cauty, Bill Drummond | |||
Producer(s) | Bill Drummond, Jimmy Cauty | |||
Drummond & Cauty singles chronology | ||||
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"Fuck the Millennium", sometimes spelled "***k the Millennium", is a protest song by the band 2K—Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty—better known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (the JAMs) or the KLF. The song was inspired musically by Jeremy Deller's "Acid Brass" project, where a traditional brass band plays acid house classics; these include the KLF's "What Time Is Love?". They were also inspired topically by the then-forthcoming end of the second millennium and the plans to celebrate it.
"Fuck the Millennium" was built around the KLF and Acid Brass' versions of "What Time Is Love?", and premiered at 2K's "1997 (What The Fuck's Going On?)" event at London's
The song was released as a comeback single to mark the tenth anniversary of Drummond and Cauty's first collaborations; however, the performance and single were also in part intended to mock the notion of the comeback. "Fuck the Millennium" reached number 28 in the
Drummond and Cauty's campaign to "fuck the millennium" also involved a number of outlandish activities and proposals under the umbrella of their company K2 Plant Hire Ltd. These activities were intended to culminate in the construction of "The People's Pyramid", a 150-foot-high (46 m) structure built from recycled bricks at no cost to the taxpayer and which would have no entry fee—in pointed contrast to the UK government's Millennium Dome, construction of which had begun earlier in the year—and for people to use as they saw fit, including painting it or chipping it away. The pyramid was never built but the JAMs rebooted the idea in 2017 at their next comeback event, Welcome to the Dark Ages.
Context
From 1987 to 1992, Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond released music under names including the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs) and the KLF.
The UK's preparations for celebrating the end of the second millennium were well underway by 1997 and had already become a hot – and controversial – political topic.[10][11] Following the 1997 United Kingdom general election in May, the new Labour government agreed to go ahead with the "Millennium Experience" project, an exhibition to be housed in a purpose-built Millennium Dome, at an estimated cost of £580 million,[10] £450 million of which would be funded by the National Lottery.[11][n 1] Construction of the Dome began in June 1997.[12]
Also in 1997, British artist
A comeback of the KLF was implied by two black-and-white full-page adverts[19] placed in the 21 August 1997 issue of Time Out.[20][21] The first proclaimed "They're Back. The Creators of Trance. The Lords of Ambient. The Kings of Stadium House. The Godfathers of Techno Metal. The Greatest Rave Band In The World. Ever! 2K. For 23 minutes Only."[22] The second stated "'Jeremy Deller presents '1997 What The Fuck's Going On'", a reference to The JAMs' debut album 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?).[23][18] It continued, "Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond invite you to a 23 minute performance during which the next 840 days of our lives will be discussed."[23]
The Independent looked forward to the event, saying that "It was just a matter of time before Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond hatched another prank and put a grin back on the face of pop music." "You just ache for them to be No. 1 again ..." they said, but "One hopes they are not about to shoot themselves in the foot" because "the idea walks the tightrope between lunacy and brilliance ... the pop world's countdown to the millennium surely starts here."[24]
Performance
"1997 (What The Fuck's Going On?)"
The live performance was directed by
In a comprehensive assessment,
Composition and studio recording
A single, "Fuck the Millennium" was subsequently released, a studio-based recording falsely promoted as an edited version of the Barbican performance.[33] Comparing the single with the live performance, The Times said that "On CD, things become more orthodox, though no less entertaining, comprising an acid brass version of their classic, What Time Is Love? and a young man shouting rude words."[35]
The unedited studio recording of "Fuck the Millennium" is a 14-minute composition,[8] a protest song based around the KLF's house music track "What Time Is Love?", drawing additionally on musical refrains and concepts from throughout Drummond and Cauty's canon.[36] The track contains three main segued parts: a house section led by the brass band Acid Brass, a choral rendition of the English hymn "Eternal Father, Strong to Save", and a rhythmically hardened remix of "What Time Is Love? (Pure Trance Original)".[37] The lead vocals before and after the hymn consist mainly of chants, with over one hundred instances of the word "fuck"[37]—there are 26 instances of the word in the short "Radio Edit" alone.[33]
The track is opened by Gimpo screaming "It's 1997: what the fuck is going on?".
Neil McCormick wrote in The Daily Telegraph that the single may be "noisy and confrontational" but that "it looks set to provide these pop situationists with another... hit, tapping into the fear and anxiety many people feel about the end of the century".[18] Select journalist Mark Frith enthused about the track in the context of the duo's wider catalogue: "As soon as it starts you immediately remember the excitement that comes from hearing a KLF record for the first time. The original ambient house melody kicks in – and it hasn't dated a day. The chorus is given an extra kick by Acid Brass' massed ranks of horns and trumpets ... It is quite brilliant."[17]
K2 Plant Hire
Cauty and Drummond were (and, as of February 2020[update], are) directors of K2 Plant Hire Ltd, a company incorporated and registered at Companies House in 1995.[39]
Around the time of the single's release, further full-page adverts appeared in the national press, this time asking readers "***k The Millennium: Yes/No?", with a telephone number—the "Millennium Crisis Line"—provided for voting: "If you want to fuck the millennium, press '1'. If not, press '2'."[33] The adverts were placed by K2 Plant Hire Ltd., who duly claimed that 18,436 (89%) of respondents wished to fuck the millennium. Thus, on 31 October 1997, K2 Plant Hire announced plans to build the "Great Northern Pyramid Of The People", or "The People's Pyramid",[40] from as many house bricks as there were British 20th century births.[41] The company estimated that the structure would require approximately 87 millions bricks; be 150-foot (46 m)-high; and take five years to complete, all at no cost to the taxpayer.[40][41] Members of the public were urged to donate bricks, with 1.5 bricks per Briton being needed to complete the project.[40][41] K2 Plant Hire promised that the Pyramid "will be open to the public free of charge, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You will be able to do what you want with it. Climb it, paint it, polish it, eat your sandwiches on it or chip it away. It will stand for as long there is any of it left. It will promote nothing. Be sponsored by nobody. And owned by everybody.";[40] Melody Maker noted the pointed contrast of the "intended virtues" of the People's Pyramid with "the drawbacks of the officially sponsored Millennium Dome".[40] The Guardian noted drily that the idea "would appear to be far-fetched even by [Cauty and Drummond's] own standards" and that "planning permission might pose a problem."[42][n 3]
K2 Plant Hire also contributed a short story, written by Drummond, to editor Sarah Champion's anthology Disco 2000. "'Let's Grind' or 'How K2 Plant Hire Went To Work'" is a fictional account of K2 Plant Hire's plan to demolish Stonehenge on the eve of the millennium.[44] Drummond and Cauty reportedly tried to use K2 Plant Hire's remaining funds to bid for purchase of the ancient Rollright Stones.[44] Psychogeographer Stewart Home alleged that despite K2 Plant Hire's bid being the highest, the owners of the monument refused to trade with the duo.[45]
Themes
Drummond and Cauty's works are both highly
Seafaring was a recurring element of Drummond and Cauty's output, in lyrics from
2K's lifespan was billed as the duration of the Barbican performance,
Although the references to Illuminatus! and themselves were in keeping with Drummond and Cauty's tradition, this was also in part intended to be a self-parodying dredge of the KLF's "myth".
After the event
Contemporary press reaction to 2K and their Barbican performance was mixed but mostly negative. Since then, however, Colin Paterson in The Observer held up the Barbican show as the model of a pop performance. "At one unfortunately memorable Stereophonics gig ..." the paper said, "the extent of Richard Jones' showmanship was to play his bass while standing on a rug ... this is hardly the pyjama-clad KLF, horns strapped to their heads, whizzing around the Barbican in wheelchairs with Zodiac Mindwarp in a pulpit and hundreds of sacked Liverpool dockers yelling "Fuck the millennium!" at the tops of their voices ..."[55] Likewise, a 1999 feature on Drummond and Cauty in The Irish Times reported their millennium activities with some warmth. "As a critique of the sponsor-saturated multi-million pound Millennium Dome," the editorial ran, "the 'people's pyramid' is unsurpassed."[56]
Recounting the exploits of 2K, and the press reaction, in his book 45 (published in the millennium year, 2000), Drummond said:
I wanted to stamp my feet and scream "But you don't understand, the whole show was about the crapness of the comeback, of blowing one's own myth. You are supposed to see that and applaud the fact that we have an incredible understanding and postmodern take on all things pop, at the same time as delivering the goods". And then I did understand. Everything was OK. The show was a success, the record stiffing at number twenty-eight in the charts was just what the doctor ordered. We had not only blown it, we had destroyed whatever remnants of credibility, bankability and myth we had left.[34]
Formats and track listings
"Fuck the Millennium" (or "***K the Millennium")[8][30] was given an international single release on 13 October 1997, and as of March 2020[update] it remains the most recent musical work by the duo.[8] The record was not a success in comparison to the KLF's earlier chart-topping endeavours, peaking at a number 28 in the UK Singles Chart.[57]
All formats contained at least one version of 2K's "Fuck the Millennium" and one of Acid Brass' "What Time Is Love?". The formats and track listings are tabulated below:[8]
Format (and countries) | Track number | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
Cassette single | m | K | ||||
CD single (France), 12" single | M | K | P | |||
CD single (Japan) (inc. 4 stickers, 12-page booklet) | c | M | m | K | P | O |
CD single (elsewhere) | M | K | m | c |
Key
- m – "***K the Millennium" (radio edit) (4:18)
- c – "***K the Millennium" (censored radio edit) (4:18)
- M – "***K the Millennium" (13:57)
- K – "Acid Brass / What Time Is Love (Version K)" (4:33)
- P – "Acid Brass / What Time Is Love (Version P – Royal Oak Mix)" (5:28) (remixed by Pan Sonic)
- O – "Acid Brass / What Time Is Love (Original Version)" (4:39)
Personnel (studio recording)
"Fuck the Millennium" and "What Time Is Love?" were written and produced by Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty.
- Jeremy Deller – Acid Brass concept
- arrangementby Rodney Newton
- Gimpo – spoken contributions
- Mark Manning – "Reverend Bitumen Hoarfrost"'s evangelicalnarration
- "The National Retired Life Boat Men's Choral Society" (Jimmy Cauty, Nick Coler and Bill Drummond[38]) – hymnal singing
- Nick Coler – Arranger and conductor
- Donald Johnson – live drumming
- Mark "Spike" Stent– mixing
Samples:
- "Kick Out the Jams" by MC5
- "Theme from Shaft" by Isaac Hayes
- Various samples from the JAMs albums 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?) and Who Killed The JAMs?, and the KLF's 1988 "Pure Trance Original" version of "What Time Is Love?"
Source except where stated: Sleevenotes, Blast First/Mute Records Catalogue Number BFFP 146 CDK[36]
Charts
Chart (1997) | Peak position |
---|---|
Hungary ( Mahasz)[58]
|
10 |
26 | |
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[60] | 29 |
28 | |
UK Dance (OCC)[62] | 16 |
UK Indie (OCC)[63] | 5 |
Notes
- ^ According to McGuigan, the project ultimately consumed £628m in Lottery funding and nearly £200m in government funding.[11]
- ^ Originally scheduled for 2 September, but postponed due to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales on 31 August; reportedly, a 2K spokesman ascribed this to the expectation that the concert would have been deprived of tabloid coverage.[25]
- ^ The Pyramid was never built, but Cauty, Drummond and K2 Plant Hire Ltd resurrected and revised the concept in 2017 after the death of Cauty's brother, Simon.[43] The new pyramid is to be built from bricks containing human ashes; the first brick to be laid contained Simon Cauty's ashes.[43] Jimmy Cauty emphasised that the project is serious and not a joke.[43]
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{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c d e f 2K (1997). ***K the Millennium (CD). Blast First/Mute Records. BFFP 146 CDK.
- ^ ISBN 0-316-85385-2.
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