Day 211

No New Comic Book Day today because of the Bank Holiday, so I'm going to use the time to write up my thoughts about the recent JAMs event, ‘Welcome To The Dark Ages’.

In a nutshell ‘Welcome To The Dark Ages’ was a three-day event involving 400 volunteers under the influence/direction of by Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, the Justified and Ancients of Mu Mu, to carry out certain tasks (such as collecting ragwort or being a Badge Kull hardcore/super fan) and to take part in a number of events (such as being a keeper of a page of ‘2023’ or ‘The Great Pull North’):

Vicky Pea at Planet Slop has a great overview of ‘Welcome To The Dark Ages’ and what it was like to take part in it. For me the key events were:

1) the book signing/stamping – this was the big re-entrance of Bill and Jimmy as the JAMs after a spring and summer of teases:

and set the tone for the rest of the event, that it’s not about the past, it’s about the future, e.g. the restrictions on talking about the past and the promise to destroy any memorabilia or relics that were brought to be signed. 

2) the painting of the fan’s Ford Timelord, the fan didn’t seem to line this, but it fits in with the promise to destroy any memorabilia or relics, it makes the car more ‘authentic’ and like the car is in ‘The White Room’ film, and it felt like a proper KLF happening.

3) the hearing on why the K Foundation burnt a million quid, which found that they burnt the money as it was part of “a deep historical tradition of weirdness”. To which Bill and Jimmy responded with “Whatever”. To me it seems that this event least interested Bill and Jimmy and it seemed that it happened out if a sense of obligation rather than wanting to find the answer. Maybe it would have been different if the hearing had found a different answer? For more details click here.

4) making the 400 volunteers keepers of pages from ‘2023’, all the volunteers were handed a page from ‘2023’ torn out by Bill or Jimmy, informed that they were the keeper of that page and that they should team up with the other volunteers who were keepers of the pages from that particular chapter and use it as inspiration to produce something (which would be presented at the end of the day and recorded in a book called ‘Grapefruit Are Not The Only Bombs’). This feels like it was the highlight of the three days, as it empowered the volunteers to let lose their imaginations and go crazy. It put from front and centre and gave them permission to step outside of everyday restrictions and to be artists.  

5) The Rites Of Mumufication and Toxteth Day Of The Dead, announced Bill and Jimmy’s new jobs as undertakers and a refinement of the People’s Pyramid, so that it will be made out of bricks that contain the ashes of those who sign up for Mumufication and that the bricks will be placed into the Pyramid annually on the Toxteth Day of the Dead, which is the 23rd of November of each year. To celebrate the first Toxteth Day of the Dead a choir performed a version of Justified & Ancient with Jarvis Cocker.

6) The Great Pull North, where the ice cream van was pulled through Liverpool to a pyramid pyre, where two coffins were taken for the ice cream van and burnt on the pyramid pyre. This felt like it carried over the empowerment of being a keeper of a page, especially as no permits or permissions had been obtained to do the great pull. It also felt like the most cult like event of the three days and a slight call back to ‘The Rites Of Mu’. After the pyre, there was the graduation ball for the 400 volunteers, which featured DJ Food, Greg Wilson and the first (and last) performance by Badger Kull, playing their one and only song.

To me, a lot of ‘Welcome To The Dark Ages’, feels like it was great fun and empowering for the volunteers, but not that interesting for those observing it second-hand. Maybe, that's why there doesn't seem to have been much press interest.

That it was designed for the people taking part and not for an audience, which fits in with Bill’s ‘The 17’ work. Except for the Rites Of Mumufication and Toxteth Day Of The Dead, which seem interesting and worth further thought and aren’t tied to being involved in the event.

Some fans have said that this is further evidence that Bill and Jimmy don’t care about their fans, that should re-issue their music, in remastered and expanded forms and stop their silly stunts. Which, to me, ignores what Bill and Jimmy are about. Yes, it would be great to have a deluxe version for Chill Out that includes outtakes and demos or to have the version of Space that includes Dr LX’s contributions or to be able to buy KLF songs from Juno or Amazon or iTunes, but Bill and Jimmy don’t care about their past works, that’s done and dusted, they’re concerned about what they’re doing now and in the future.