What Happened To Ford Timelord?
March 31, 2022 8:16 PM Subscribe
Like stegosaurus vs. tyrannosaurus rex, this 1988 KLF retro banger is older today than the Dr. Who show when it was released.
posted by migurski at 10:58 PM on March 31, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by migurski at 10:58 PM on March 31, 2022 [5 favorites]
desperately wishes for someone neurotypical to read through the links and produce a “what?” Explainer
Ok, here's my best shot at explaining what the hell this is about.
See, way back in London there was this band.... Band I wanna tell ya about. Band by the name of the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu. At least that's the handle their loving founder gave 'em, but they never had much use for it themselves. The Mu Mus, they were better known as "The KLF." Now, "KLF," that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But there was a lot about the KLF that didn't make a whole lot of sense. And a lot about where they lived, likewise. I only mention this because sometimes there's a band... I won't say the greatest band of all time, because what's that even mean? But sometimes there's a band. And I'm talking about the KLF here. Sometimes there's a band, well, it's the right band for its time and place. It just fits right in there. And that's the KLF, in London, in the late 80's. And even if it's a batshit-crazy band - and the KLF was certainly that. Quite possibly the batshit-craziest band in London, which would place them high in running for batshit-craziest worldwide. But soemtimes there's a band, sometimes, there's a band. Aw, I lost my train of thought there.
But anyway, here's Doctorin' the Tardis, which probably explains enough.
posted by kaibutsu at 11:22 PM on March 31, 2022 [13 favorites]
Ok, here's my best shot at explaining what the hell this is about.
See, way back in London there was this band.... Band I wanna tell ya about. Band by the name of the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu. At least that's the handle their loving founder gave 'em, but they never had much use for it themselves. The Mu Mus, they were better known as "The KLF." Now, "KLF," that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But there was a lot about the KLF that didn't make a whole lot of sense. And a lot about where they lived, likewise. I only mention this because sometimes there's a band... I won't say the greatest band of all time, because what's that even mean? But sometimes there's a band. And I'm talking about the KLF here. Sometimes there's a band, well, it's the right band for its time and place. It just fits right in there. And that's the KLF, in London, in the late 80's. And even if it's a batshit-crazy band - and the KLF was certainly that. Quite possibly the batshit-craziest band in London, which would place them high in running for batshit-craziest worldwide. But soemtimes there's a band, sometimes, there's a band. Aw, I lost my train of thought there.
But anyway, here's Doctorin' the Tardis, which probably explains enough.
posted by kaibutsu at 11:22 PM on March 31, 2022 [13 favorites]
I was never all that fond of Doctorin' the Tardis but Justified and Ancient came along at precisely the right time - right after my friends and I had gone through a brief Robert Anton Wilson phase, but also in time to somehow enlist Tammy Wynette to sing lyrics that must have been gibberish to her. And yet she turns in a terrific late-career performance, the last hit of her legendary career if memory serves. Until tonight I don't think I'd ever bothered to watch the totally bonkers video but it's everything it should be.
Perhaps the KLF work I heard the most, however, was their ambient album Chill Out, which was a favorite of M, one of my college housemates. Courtesy of M, I heard a fair bit of it back in the day and thus, alas, hadn't bothered to buy a copy of it by the time they pulled their catalog.
posted by Nerd of the North at 1:17 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
Perhaps the KLF work I heard the most, however, was their ambient album Chill Out, which was a favorite of M, one of my college housemates. Courtesy of M, I heard a fair bit of it back in the day and thus, alas, hadn't bothered to buy a copy of it by the time they pulled their catalog.
posted by Nerd of the North at 1:17 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
desperately wishes for someone neurotypical to read through the links and produce a “what?” Explainer
It's ... complicated.
posted by Paul Slade at 3:14 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
It's ... complicated.
posted by Paul Slade at 3:14 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
a “what?” Explainer
- He's Ford Timelord
- He's a car
- And he's made a record
posted by solarion at 5:06 AM on April 1, 2022 [8 favorites]
- He's Ford Timelord
- He's a car
- And he's made a record
posted by solarion at 5:06 AM on April 1, 2022 [8 favorites]
fishin in the rivers of life
posted by flabdablet at 5:54 AM on April 1, 2022
posted by flabdablet at 5:54 AM on April 1, 2022
3AM Eternal is the track that got heavy airplay in Australia. It was a regular fixture on Rage at about 3 in the morning for many months, if I recall correctly, which given my herbal habits of the time I probably don't.
my friends and I had gone through a brief Robert Anton Wilson phase
I have a vague suspicion that the KLF might have gone through a rather longer Robert Anton Wilson phase.
posted by flabdablet at 6:03 AM on April 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
my friends and I had gone through a brief Robert Anton Wilson phase
I have a vague suspicion that the KLF might have gone through a rather longer Robert Anton Wilson phase.
posted by flabdablet at 6:03 AM on April 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
Bill Drummond was involved in Kenneth Campbell's stage adaptation of Illuminatus! in the late 1970s, and is basically as old-school Discordian as one can be on that side of the pond.
posted by acb at 6:08 AM on April 1, 2022
posted by acb at 6:08 AM on April 1, 2022
Ford Timelord was reincarnated some 33 years later as a (NB unbelievably NSFW) Volvo.
posted by doop at 6:35 AM on April 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by doop at 6:35 AM on April 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
i am going to have to start charging rent for the amount of space you people take in my head
posted by elkevelvet at 7:10 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by elkevelvet at 7:10 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
The whole KLF saga is stranger than fiction, and it's great Andy Warhol-style art. I've always found it hilarious that as part of the settlement for sampling Sandra Dee without her permission in "Last Train to Transcentral," she got to play herself in the resulting video.
posted by jabah at 7:35 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by jabah at 7:35 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
here's Doctorin' the Tardis, which probably explains enough.
Just in case it doesn't, here's The Rites of Mu.
posted by flabdablet at 8:03 AM on April 1, 2022
Just in case it doesn't, here's The Rites of Mu.
posted by flabdablet at 8:03 AM on April 1, 2022
My wife somehow lived through the 90s, is otherwise cool, but had never heard of KLF. I recently introduced her to 3AM Eternal on our big TV with the volume set to annihalate. While I tore it up around the dancefloor/living room, she just stared at me mouth agape. Parts of the 90s were...were...you...you just had to be there, man.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 10:01 AM on April 1, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 10:01 AM on April 1, 2022 [5 favorites]
I have a vague suspicion that the KLF might have gone through a rather longer yt Robert Anton Wilson phase.As I see it, as long as they're not immanentizing the eschaton it's all in good fun..
posted by Nerd of the North at 12:18 PM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
Bill Drummond was involved in Kenneth Campbell's stage adaptation of Illuminatus! in the late 1970s, and is basically as old-school Discordian as one can be on that side of the pond.
I was once lucky enough to spend an afternoon with Ken Campell, when I told him a story I'd heard about Bill Drummond's spell managing Echo & the Bunnymen*. The story relates how Drummond once sent the band off on a British tour round a selection of ridiculously unsuitable small towns and villages, the route of which he'd decided simply by scrawling a giant pair of bunny ears on a map of the UK.
"Of course," I added. "That might just be apocrophal". Campbell gave me a weary look. "Everything about Bill Drummond is apocrophal." he said.
* This story is lent some credence by the fact that the Bunnymen's gigs on that tour included a show on the Outer Hebrides. They played it too.
posted by Paul Slade at 2:57 PM on April 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
I was once lucky enough to spend an afternoon with Ken Campell, when I told him a story I'd heard about Bill Drummond's spell managing Echo & the Bunnymen*. The story relates how Drummond once sent the band off on a British tour round a selection of ridiculously unsuitable small towns and villages, the route of which he'd decided simply by scrawling a giant pair of bunny ears on a map of the UK.
"Of course," I added. "That might just be apocrophal". Campbell gave me a weary look. "Everything about Bill Drummond is apocrophal." he said.
* This story is lent some credence by the fact that the Bunnymen's gigs on that tour included a show on the Outer Hebrides. They played it too.
posted by Paul Slade at 2:57 PM on April 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
My Robert Anton Wilson phase was far, far too early to be healthy. It did mean that, when as an 18 year old who went with his new college friends to see "Ken Campbell Hails Eris" at the Edinburgh Fringe, in the moment in the Student Union bar afterwards when they were all trying to work out what was true and what was apocryphal about Campbell's tales of that whole scene, I had the unsettling task of explaining, no, that that bit of inconceivable invention (the crazy Discordian religion, the Loompanics catalogue, the Playboy letters, the existence of Bill Drummond) was all documented fact. Or at least, existed outside Campbell's fevered imagination in some form.
After KLF, Bill briefly helped run a bar in East London called The Foundry, and I got to see a bit of it all working close-up. I'd say that there's no big secret: just aspire to make your failures as spectacular as your successes.
posted by ntk at 3:44 PM on April 1, 2022
After KLF, Bill briefly helped run a bar in East London called The Foundry, and I got to see a bit of it all working close-up. I'd say that there's no big secret: just aspire to make your failures as spectacular as your successes.
posted by ntk at 3:44 PM on April 1, 2022
>I heard a fair bit of it back in the day and thus, alas, hadn't bothered to buy a copy of it by the time they pulled their catalog.
A best-of came to streaming services, available since January 2021. Previously.
posted by k3ninho at 3:49 PM on April 1, 2022
A best-of came to streaming services, available since January 2021. Previously.
posted by k3ninho at 3:49 PM on April 1, 2022
After KLF, Bill briefly helped run a bar in East London called The Foundry
The Foundry was evicted to make room for an art-themed boutique hotel, or some similar scheme for monetising the traces of Shoreditch's bohemian days, though they seemed to have trouble getting around to it, and the space ended up being reused for some other bar/café (presumably one kept on a tighter leash and/or run more profitably). When I last visited London a month or so ago, after 2½ years away, I saw that they finally demolished the building.
posted by acb at 5:01 PM on April 1, 2022
The Foundry was evicted to make room for an art-themed boutique hotel, or some similar scheme for monetising the traces of Shoreditch's bohemian days, though they seemed to have trouble getting around to it, and the space ended up being reused for some other bar/café (presumably one kept on a tighter leash and/or run more profitably). When I last visited London a month or so ago, after 2½ years away, I saw that they finally demolished the building.
posted by acb at 5:01 PM on April 1, 2022
> the route of which he'd decided simply by scrawling a giant pair of bunny ears on a map of the UK.
Bill Drummond describes managing Echo & the Bunnymen and this very action in his book 45.
posted by user92371 at 1:24 AM on April 2, 2022
Bill Drummond describes managing Echo & the Bunnymen and this very action in his book 45.
posted by user92371 at 1:24 AM on April 2, 2022
a “what?” Explainer that’s 100% Doylist
You may enjoy this excellent regularly-updated summary post in a discussion thread on a UK car forum - it tells all the relevant bits of the KLF story, and has more detail and photos. The thread as a whole has lots of discussion about these cars.
(For what it's worth, I don't think rustyoldrubbish's suggestion that the Jon Mace photos are correctly dated but show the original car is correct - it looks to be the same car as in the 1989 Snub TV interview, post The White Room. I might have spent too much time watching old KLF videos this weekend...)
posted by offog at 10:51 AM on April 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
You may enjoy this excellent regularly-updated summary post in a discussion thread on a UK car forum - it tells all the relevant bits of the KLF story, and has more detail and photos. The thread as a whole has lots of discussion about these cars.
(For what it's worth, I don't think rustyoldrubbish's suggestion that the Jon Mace photos are correctly dated but show the original car is correct - it looks to be the same car as in the 1989 Snub TV interview, post The White Room. I might have spent too much time watching old KLF videos this weekend...)
posted by offog at 10:51 AM on April 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
BobTheScientist: You might like to consider the method employed by Kit Williams in his famous Masquerade treasure hunt of the 1970s (previously). Williams' book provided a clue which pointed to the spot in the English countryside where the peak of a specific monument's shadow would fall at precisely 12:00 noon of the Spring Equinox. This worked well enough for a man called Mike Barker to find the precise spot two years and seven months after the prize was buried. Here's a bit more detail:
As 12:00 noon comes round at each longitudinal point on the Earth's Northern hemisphere, shadows there point due north. At noon on any given date - in this case the Spring Equinox - those shadows hit a precise and predictable length. Barker got his wife Celia to stand next to the cross so he could gauge its height, adjusted his sighting compass's reading by six degrees to compensate for the Earth's magnetic deviation, and worked out that the tip of the cross's shadow would fall about 20 feet from its base at Williams' chosen hour. The ground north of the cross was on a slope, though, and without more sophisticated instruments, he could only narrow the spot down so far. “We're talking about an area of ground that's about the area covered by the average double bed,” he told O'Farrell. “I decided to go home and make an inclinometer so I could pin-point it more accurately.”
posted by Paul Slade at 11:28 AM on April 3, 2022
As 12:00 noon comes round at each longitudinal point on the Earth's Northern hemisphere, shadows there point due north. At noon on any given date - in this case the Spring Equinox - those shadows hit a precise and predictable length. Barker got his wife Celia to stand next to the cross so he could gauge its height, adjusted his sighting compass's reading by six degrees to compensate for the Earth's magnetic deviation, and worked out that the tip of the cross's shadow would fall about 20 feet from its base at Williams' chosen hour. The ground north of the cross was on a slope, though, and without more sophisticated instruments, he could only narrow the spot down so far. “We're talking about an area of ground that's about the area covered by the average double bed,” he told O'Farrell. “I decided to go home and make an inclinometer so I could pin-point it more accurately.”
posted by Paul Slade at 11:28 AM on April 3, 2022
Mods: I added the above comment to the wrong thread. Please delete it for me if you get the chance. Thanks.
posted by Paul Slade at 3:18 AM on April 4, 2022
posted by Paul Slade at 3:18 AM on April 4, 2022
« Older Cats A Rising Star, Pet Improv | I'd like to painstakingly research and digitally... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by traveler_ at 9:25 PM on March 31, 2022