“Firstly, you must be skint and on the dole”The KLF. They're justified, they're ancient and they once pulled off one of the greatest pop publishing pranks. Ever.This was just after their first number one; they went on to achieve another five top five singles.
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In 1988 the music duo wrote a tongue-in-cheek book - The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way).As with all things KLF it was a gag but they were actually pretty qualified.It's been thirty years since their puzzling pop opus was published but it still stands as one of the greatest acts of subversion in music history. It may even have delivered actual chart success for some of the bands who read it - including a certain No. 2 hit for Chumbawamba. Bill DrummondIn we learn that having worked in the 1980s as an A&R man for giant conglomerate Warner Music, Drummond had become fed up of the unpredictability of commercial success.So when his own band, The Timelords scored a number one hit with a novelty pop song, he was amused.Deciding to use their success to say something about the bloated pop industry, they wrote a step-by-step guide on how to achieve a number one.
After their first UK no 1 single Doctorin' The Tardis they wrote the manual, in which they discribed how to write a number one. The Manual got published in 1988 following the success of Doctorin' The Tardis by The Timelords. In their book, Bill Drummond and Jimmy.
They even guaranteed your money back if it didn't work.Artists who reportedly drew upon the advice of the text with some success included Austrian band Edelweiss, British girl group The Pipettes, Chumbawumba and Klaxons who achieved a UK top 10 and cited the book as an influence.This wouldn't be the last major stunt by The KLF either, on 23 August 1994, they burned one million pounds on a remote Scottish island.
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