23 Seconds To Eternity: The collected films of The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The KLF and The Timelords (2024)

23 Seconds To Eternity: The collected films of The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The KLF and The Timelords (1988-1992)

Director: Bill Butt

Format: Limited-edition BFI Blu-ray and DVD (Dual Format Edition)

Running time: 1 hour 56 mins

Release date: Out now.

The first collection of videos and short features by the acid house and rave era’s great pop subversives, The KLF.

Considering that, as I write, the higher echelons of the British albums chart contains new music by The Rolling Stones, OMD and Duran Duran, the time spent by The KLF – also known as The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu, furthermore known as The JAMS, and very briefly The Timelords – in the music business spotlight was brief. But it was undoubtedly highly eventful.

This is the first ever collection of the various videos and related short films of their various guises. Each was directed by Bill Butt, a contemporary of Bill Drummond at Northampton Art School in the 1970s. After his studies, he went on to work as a stage and lighting designer for Echo And The Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes, directing promos for both acts. Butt later directed for film and television, earning himself a BAFTA nomination for his work on the Sharks episode of Nigel Marven’s Giants series.

The fun kicks off with Doctorin’ the Tardis, a 1988 novelty number one single for The Timelords. The promo consists of a 1968 Ford Galaxy nicknamed Ford Timelord by Bill Drummond and partner in crime Jimmy Cauty, driving around a disused airfield and the Avebury Stone Circle in Wiltshire, closely watched by a pair of Dalek lookalikes. Made largely from two old tea chests and with two scurrying feet sometimes visible under them, these ‘Daleks’ were designed this badly for a reason: to avoid copyright infringement. Ford Timelord knocks one over and crushes it before it can exterminate anyone.

You could accuse the song of being lowest common denominator pop, and yes, like the video, it is deliberately daft but also a hoot.

Next up is 1989’s The White Room, an ‘ambient road movie’ around 45 minutes long. Again the car makes an appearance, driven from Cauty’s London squat to Spain’s Sierra Nevada region by Drummond and Cauty (aka King Boy D and Rockman Rock) in an attempt to locate and enter the mystical White Room. The plot is minimal and this is far from edge of your seat stuff but the music’s good, with a new soundtrack specially recorded for this release.

That same year, The KLF’s Kylie Said To Jason looked like a blatant attempt to enjoy another hit, cashing in on the Neighbours phenomenon which was then peaking. It has been claimed that the song reflects Drummond’s love of pop rather than any cynicism, but being a sceptic myself, I can’t help but think they were after another smash hit. Strangely enough, the single failed to even make a dent in the top 100. Oh, and if many of the shots look familiar, this is due to footage from The White Room being recycled. The KLF were certainly keen recyclers, as they went on to demonstrate again on their batch of singles.

The so-called ‘Stadium House Trilogy’ from 1990/91 ups the artistic and commercial ante, with international hits 3 A.M. Eternal, Last Train To Trancentral, and Justified & Ancient. Butt makes the most of the increasing budgets and everyone onscreen looks like they’re having a blast. If you’re reading this, you likely know and love these tracks, so I’ll move swiftly along.

A newly restored version of The Rites Of Mu (1991), a 29 minute feature narrated by Martin Sheen channelling his Apocalypse Now voice-over, is next up.

Dreamlike, enigmatic and with more than a touch of surrealism, this documents a Summer Solstice event staged in the Lost Continent of Mu, which is really the Inner Hebridean island of Jura, home to only around 200 inhabitants. It climaxes with the burning of a Wicker Man. Perhaps coincidentally, a chunk of Drummond’s childhood was spent in Newton Stewart in south-west Scotland, where the production team of The Wicker Man was based during the shoot of that folk horror classic. The Rites Of Mu is beautifully filmed with stunning cinematography by Henry Braham. It’s no surprise that he has since established a reputation for being one of the best in his field in Hollywood.

Drummond and Cauty could never be accused of being scared to take risks. For Grim Up North, they reverted to their The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu moniker. Combining pummelling industrial techno with a spoken word recitation of a long list of towns and cities in the north of England, telling us how grim they were might not sound like a likely formula for chart success but somehow, it still managed to make the top 10. For Justified & Ancient they were back as The KLF, teaming up with country queen Tammy Wynette for one of pop’s strangest ever collaborations.

By now the videos were truly lavish, grandiose spectacles with some very impressive choreography. A fictional recreation of the making of the video made an appearance in the final episode of the recent American TV drama miniseries George & Tammy, where Tammy’s daughter visits the set and asks: ‘What the f*ck is this song?’

I doubt she was the only one to ask that question, but again it stormed up the charts.

Final single, 1992’s America: What Time Is Love? was shot back-to-back with Justified And Ancient on the 007 stage at Pinewood Studios. The cost must have been colossal, building an almost full-size Viking longship (later to be burned) can’t have been cheap for starters. This time round, Butt filmed mostly in a moody and velvety black and white to stunning effect. As the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu unwittingly discover America, there’s heavy wind, heavy rain and heavy waves accompanied by a heavy rock screeching vocal by one time Deep Purple frontman Glen Hughes. It’s not my favourite KLF track but the visuals are unforgettable.

Previously unreleased, Krash, originally from 1992 but re-edited in 2022, recorded the violent destruction of Ford Timelord at a demolition derby in Wimbledon. And that was almost that for one of the most defiantly eccentric and crazily ambitious acts to ever emerge from Britain, albeit there were still a Brit Awards ceremony to disrupt and, rebranding themselves as The K Foundation, money to burn. But that’s a whole different story.

To state the obvious, KLF fans will see this collection as a must-have. There’s a wide range of extras too. These include an interview with Bill Butt by producer Mick Houghton (2023); KLF: Unfinished (1992, 30 mins): making of the documentary including optional commentary by director Robert Milton Wallace; This Is Not What The KLF Is About (1991, 15 mins): a short film by Jimmy Cauty capturing the making of Stadium House Trilogy and a series of trailers.

The limited edition also includes an illustrated booklet with new writing by Mick Houghton and the BFI’s William Fowler.

BFI Blu-ray/DVD releases can be ordered from home entertainment online retailers or from the BFI here.

~

All words by Jamie Havlin. Jamie has written a couple of short films screened on British TV and at international festivals and he regularly contributes to the glam rock fanzine Wired Up! More writing by Jamie can be found at his Louder Than War author’s archive.