Ford timelord

[garbaldy]

Excellent read and I would love to think the car is sitting undiscovered in a garage just waiting to be saved.

 

That brings me to wonder what happened to the ice cream van then ?

[cort1977]

Impressive research and write up there Mr. Cog.

 

I love the KLF and all their escapades but as above i can't help thinking what that million quid could have done.  I guess that's why I'm not an artist. 

[garethj]

Burning the million quid was art because it makes you think.

 

Unfortunately some of the stuff you think about isn’t too charitable, but there’s plenty of places where a lot more money has been wasted

 

Cracking research Mr Cog, cheers!

[Pillock]

Amazing writeup, thanks!

[Datsuncog]

Heh, cheers guys - glad you haven't found it a complete waste of time and bandwidth!

There's a lot more to the KLF story than I'd expected - I'd heard the songs way back when I was a kid, but because of their back catalogue deletion I wasn't able to easily get my mitts on their discs when I started properly getting into music in my teens. So they kinda went under my radar a bit.

And I didn't know just what a major role WGU had played in so many of the band's exploits and mythology, so this has been a fascinating old trawl for me, too.

I'll stop now though, as there's already plenty of learned tomes in circulation about the history of the band, written by people with far more knowledge than I, and I'm not able to find much more about the Galaxie.

Unless, of course, I attempt to get in touch with Jimmy Cauty...

[treehugger]

I can’t help think of all the good that money could have done.

Could have given it to me.

[egg]

tell you what though, even though I've been a bit critical of their art, there's no way British culture could create two characters like Caulty and Drummond today. Things ain't what they were etc etc

[Datsuncog]

Fantastic write up Tim, I have long been interested in this car and I was a fan of KLF back in the early 1990s.

 

The only thing I am puzzled by is that the car was used in the video for '3am eternal' which was released in 1990 and it didn't look too bad then.

I just can't let it go.

 

I've done more digging, and it seems that the video for the rereleased SSL mix of '3AM Eternal' was shot in central London in December 1990. Roger Morton, the NME journalist who came along to interview the band during the overnight filming, later wrote:

 

"On the night when I met them in Battersea they [...] were rnerely filming a video for their murderously powerful, remixed re-release of their 1989 club hit '3am Eternal'.

 

Being The KLF, however, this involves Jimmy sitting in the ruined hulk of The KLF's customised US cop car, being dragged on a trailer through the streets of London..."

 

So it is the same car, but it's not in a good way. It may well have been tarted up with tape for the video shoot, but by the time John Mace snapped it later in 1991, it was looking pretty sorry for itself. Apparently the video shoot involved hacking out bits of dashboard to fit lights and fireworks, so it's possible a decision had been made that it was never likely to (legally) return to the road again.

 

I have updated my original lengthy post to include this new research.

 

 

I'm concerned that I'm gonna need to ask for a voluntary ban soon, as I just can't keep myself from coming back to this...

[egg]

I guess the Rubberbandits have a bit of their spirit.

[garbaldy]

 

 

I just can't keep myself from coming back to this...

 

Good as I'm enjoying reading it.

[egg]

Seems like Drummond now* drives a Land Rover Dizzle.

 

 

 

[quicksilver]

I know nothing about the KLF but that's a great story. Sounds like the car was hanging even before Cauty and Drummond got their hands on it so it did well to survive their antics as long as it did and must have been utterly fucked by the end. If it does still exist, God knows what state it would be in by now after 25 years of storage.

 

PS. A small pedantic correction: Pinewood Studios is in Buckinghamshire.

[somewhatfoolish]

I know nothing about the KLF but that's a great story. Sounds like the car was hanging even before Cauty and Drummond got their hands on it so it did well to survive their antics as long as it did and must have been utterly fucked by the end. If it does still exist, God knows what state it would be in by now after 25 years of storage.

 

PS. A small pedantic correction: Pinewood Studios is in Buckinghamshire.

Indeed, even given that panel availability may be good(even if new isn't available they made enough of them that dry states will have solid used panels) you'd end up with Trigger's broom. One for "No.1 fans" only.

[Datsuncog]

I know nothing about the KLF but that's a great story. Sounds like the car was hanging even before Cauty and Drummond got their hands on it so it did well to survive their antics as long as it did and must have been utterly fucked by the end. If it does still exist, God knows what state it would be in by now after 25 years of storage.

 

PS. A small pedantic correction: Pinewood Studios is in Buckinghamshire.

 

Noted and corrected! I''m all for pedantry!

 

This whole story just keeps getting weirder and weirder and weirder.

 

To replace the dilapidated Ford Timelord Jimmy purchased two Saracen armoured vehicles at a scrap yard for ukp 4,000 and found equipment in them which he thought could have been used for sonic warfare. He has tried to assemble the acoustic gun from information he found on the Internet. Installing huge amplifiers and special speakers to cope with the very low frequencies cost him “tens of thousands of pounds”.

 

The 25,000-watt sonic gun can project sound for around 7 miles, and Jimmy annoyed his Devon neighbours by testing it on Midsummer’s Day, 1996.

 

Jimmy said: “I moved to Devon six months ago for a bit of a rest and this is a project I am taking an interest in. I do not see it as music or art.” He said that he aimed the gun away from homes and it seemed to have no effect on sheep.

Cauty first tested it at a Wire gig on Hungerford Bridge in May. In January, Panasonic [the “Finnish conceptual techno nutters”-NME] borrowed one of the Audio Weapons Systems for tests on how sonic waves affect the human body at Brick Lane in London.

He was testing his two Audio Weapon Systems in a field near his new home. ‘He alerted people to the fact that he was doing this by setting off some military flares. Then he tested his Audio Weapons System for an hour for a very select group of scientists and friends. The Audio Weapons System is not designed to kill people.

[Melody Maker]

 

A fax from ‘Mr. Smith, the Head Of Commercial Exploitation at Advanced Acoustic Armaments’, was sent to The Maker. It read: “The test took place to establish the parameters of the new vehicle solo and in tandem with its sister model, SS 9000K+L. The test featured new software generated for our latest commercial client, EXP LTD, and is described by Mr. Cauty as featuring ‘the ultimate battle between sound and commerce ending in the death of all musicians and their ascension to rock-n-roll heaven or hell as befits them.’ Yesterday we received communication with ex- Government employees who, in the Sixties, worked on audio weapon development with an offer of help and some ex-classified equipment. We regret any such death or damage that has resulted from our tests, but there are casualties in every war. The Triple A Formation Attack Ensemble will perform ‘Foghorns Of The Northern Hemisphere’ as part of an educational programme supporting our research shortly.

 

Most of this is probably scam, but Cauty has (very allegedly) recorded an album of sonic waves for Paul Smith’s Blast First label under the name AAA. The album is in the hands of lawyers who are trying to clear some of the samples used on it, and remains unreleased until now. It appears to be a Cauty solo project.

 

More recently, Jimmy teamed up with new Asian-techno group, Black Star Liner for a happening in a field on Dartmoor [this is the EXP reference above]. Jimmy chartered a ‘chopper to take BSL and assorted journos out to Dartmoor, where he intended to remix the Halaal Rock track in his tank. Apparently, BSL bumped into Cauty on London’s South Bank, while he was driving about in his tank, he got hold of their album, and said that he wanted to work with them. Anyway, the chopper was grounded by severe fog, so everyone was put on a convey of buses. All the journos were given orange jackets to wear.

 

They eventually arrived at a field full of military vehicles, and people in yellow jackets, wearing goggles and ears protectors, doing some form of formation dancing. The journos were lead to their seats, and had large floodlights shone into their eyes, while the yellow jackets let of flares all around them. There were a load of goats skulls on sticks around the field, and a whole pile of fireworks let of towards the end of the mix, when Cauty was mixing in some Jimi Hendrix.

 

However, this didn’t really go down well with BSL. For the record, Choque (leader of BSL) said in the NME “Cauty’s truck is a bag of complete shite. And he’s a fucking misery-guts”

 

Then in November 1996, Jimmy turned up at the A30 road protests in Honiton, Devon, to lend his support. The A30 Action press release read:

 

“A30 Action and A.A.A.(Formerly the K Foundation, formerly the K.L.F.)

 

As of 2300 hrs 19.10.96 the armoured division of the A.A.A. Formation Attack Ensemble established a front line defensive position at the Trollheim Hill Fort, Fairmile, Devon, in collaboration with A30 Action in defence of the threatened trees, badgers and some insects. At dawn on 21.10.96, the Triple A will activate their S.Q.U.A.W.K. 9000 sonic device in response to any offensive action taken on behalf of the Connect consortium. The @utonomous communities of Fairmile, Trollheim and Allercombe have resisted the soul destroying consumer nightmare of the private profit A30 through a 2 year campaign of Non-Violent Direct Action. Now armed with the 2 Saracen armoured personnel carriers both loaded with 15 Kilowatt Soundsystems and weighing over 10 tons they intend to dance in the face of the legions of destruction.”

 

http://klf.de/home/ufaqs/jimmys-sonic-weapon/

 

 

 

 

I will amend the original post at some point, to reflect this additional info.

 

Right now, as the kids say, I can't even.

[Datsuncog]

...aaaand now I've found out that Jimmy Cauty has drawn album artwork for Steeleye Span.

 

 

And was a top-selling Athena poster artist for his fantasy stuff

 

 

That's it, I'm getting out of this madhouse.

 

 

Good day to you, gents.

[jakebullet]

https://vimeo.com/81637315

 

Wonder what they did with these? Bonkers nonsense.

[2MB]

They sound like absolute arseholes. Artists in the truest sense of the word

[somewhatfoolish]

Noted and corrected! I''m all for pedantry!

 

This whole story just keeps getting weirder and weirder and weirder.

 

 

http://klf.de/home/ufaqs/jimmys-sonic-weapon/

 

SaracenCars.gif

 

 

 

I will amend the original post at some point, to reflect this additional info.

 

Right now, as the kids say, I can't even.

Them's Humber Pigs, not Saracens.

 

A Saracen, earlier.

 

 

A different Saracen, even earlier.

 

[Shep Shepherd]

On the subject of big old Fords ok its not the same but hell yeh its in the spirit of it,I would so buy this tomorrow but er indoors would have kittens

 

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1971-Ford-galaxie-500/173683627686?hash=item287059d6a6:g:d8gAAOSwip5cDWI2:rk:9:pf:0

 

That immediately brings back memories of Lois Lane's 'death car' in the original Superman film, although that was a 1972 Custom.

 

To this day, I don't understand why she just didn't get out of the car when the crack appeared in the road. It would have saved an awful lot of trouble.

[UltraWomble]

Fan turns up in replica car

Washed up musicians pour paint all over it

 

What a pair of hoofwanking bunglecunts.

 

 

Brief history of everything &

 

Before the event opened, Drummond and Cauty had put out a warning that any fans discovered bringing old KLF memorabilia along with them would have it confiscated and destroyed.

 

It seems that they operated a typically hardline stance on that policy.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq6XJl9xw80

 

 

 

I stand by my earlier opinion.

 

Hoofwanking Bunglecunts. Both of them.

Talented Hoofwanking Bunglecunts, but Hoofwanking Bunglecunts none the less.

[Bren]

Brilliant write up. Many thanks.

 

Drummond and Cauty obviously like the shock factor that goes with art - and no doubt have a chuckle when lots of pretentious wankers try to give their take on what it means.

 

I like the music - it really does take me back to when I felt my youth ( I was 18 when what time is love? charted). Even my 13 year old son likes them.

[sierraman]

I was reading about KLF last night, they were mad weren’t they. What was all that burning a million quid about eh?

[PiperCub]

Apparently "It's art love".

 

Personally, I've never been convinced they did burn actual real money. Art or otherwise, I still don't believe it to this day. 

 

If they did genuinely do it then I've even less time for them as it's quite the most stupid thing I've ever heard of. Fuck art, you could have given to people & organisations it would have helped. Thought this at the time and still do.

[egg]

I think the line between truth and fantasy in their story is, unclear, to say the least!

[dome]

Mr Cog, fantastic post. Thank you.

 

You're going to try and contact Jimmy Cauty aren't you?

 

I have Bill Drummond's book 45 somewhere, I'll need to revisit it. He grew up not far from me

[Datsuncog]

Them's Humber Pigs, not Saracens.

 

That's quite true. They're Humber Pigs, not Alvis Saracens. Since both make regular guest appearances in quaint and charming photographs of Riots in Olde Norn Irn, I'm not quite sure what I was thinking (other than misled by the several references to the KLF's steeds as Saracens, which those plainly ain't - although the 'Advanced Acoustic Armnaments' in the video above posted by JakeBullet are Saracens, so it mebbe Cauty owned both Saracens and Pigs at one point, hence the confusion?).

 

 

A Saracen was what rolled over my grandfather's Austin 1100 at a junction (visibility wasn't that great, apparently). A Pig wouldn't have been able to do that.

 

As you were!

[Datsuncog]

Anyway, I promised myself I wouldn't get drawn back into this!

 

Because it basically boils down to...

 

220px-Doctorin'_The_Tardis.jpg
I wonder what happened to this?

 

 

[6,300word thesis] Dunno. [/6,300word thesis]

 

 

[Datsuncog]

You're going to try and contact Jimmy Cauty aren't you?

 

You know, against my better judgement, and despite all the crazy that's running down the walls every time I look at this thread, I probably am...

 

 

Place your bets now, kids...

 

2/1 odds he doesn't respond

 

10/1 I get a polite 'fuck off' from his management team

 

40/1 he tells me to fuck off personally

 

150/1 he somehow manages to put an inside-out bullock into my greenhouse in the dead of night

 

10,000/1 he actually tells me what happened to the Galaxie

[Bren]

I have read on tinterweb car may still exist as it is possibly in a container.

[Split_Pin]

Perhaps drop a mention of this place?

 

I've ordered an Atlas Dinky Galaxie on the back of all this. Wrong year but its generally similar.