The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds

Description

They were the bestselling singles band in the world. They had awards, credibility, commercial success and creative freedom. Then they deleted their records, erased themselves from musical history and burnt their last million pounds in a boathouse on the Isle of Jura. And they couldn't say why. This is not just the story of The KLF. It is a book about Carl Jung, Alan Moore, Robert Anton Wilson, Ken Campbell, Dada, Situationism, Discordianism, magic, chaos, punk, rave, the alchemical symbolism of Doctor Who and the special power of the number 23. Wildly unauthorised and unlike any other music biography, KLF: CHAOS MAGIC MUSIC MONEY is a trawl through chaos on the trail of a beautiful, accidental mythology.

John Higgs is the author of I HAVE AMERICA SURROUNDED: THE LIFE OF TIMOTHY LEARY and THE BRANDY OF THE DAMNED. He is currently writing STRANGER THAN WE CAN IMAGINE, an alternative history of the twentieth century, to be published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2015. He created the long-running BBC Radio 4 quiz show X MARKS THE SPOT and has directed over 100 episodes of animated pre-school British TV. He was raised in North Wales and now lives in Brighton with his partner and their two children. He blogs at www.johnhiggs.com.

By far the best book this year, brilliant, discursive and wise - Ben Goldacre Book of the Century. Most pop biographies are a dull patchwork of clippings - this is something else - B3ta - Rob Manuel Might well be the best music book of the 2010s... eccentric, bizarre, confusing, hilarious and more than a little pretentious but utterly irresistible and totally brilliant - The Quietus