Publicado
Mon, Aug 28, 2023, 08:00
- The original record was withdrawn from sale after a sample dispute with ABBA.
British band The KLF have recreated their album 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?) and donated the only copy to the British Library.
The record can be streamed in the Library's Sound Gallery until August 30th, after which it will be available to hear in the British Library Reading Rooms. The original record was released in 1987 by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu—an early name used by The KLF. The record featured numerous uncleared samples, including one from the ABBA song "Dancing Queen," which prompted complaints by the Swedish band's record company.
The KLF were ordered by the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society to hand over the master tapes of the album and destroy all unsold copies. The KLF travelled to Sweden in an attempt to meet ABBA but were unable to, and so burned a number of copies in a field in Gothenburg, using a photo of the fire on the cover of their next album.
The recreated version is credited not to The KLF but to "The Ice Kream Van." The British Library released a statement saying, in part: "Today the British Library announces it has acquired The Acetate, a unique disc containing a reconstructed version of 1987 (What the F**k Is Going On?) by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (later known as KLF) and all surviving KLF Communication master tapes."
There followed this statement from The Ice Kream Van: "As a lifetime, card-carrying and founding member of The KLF Re-Enactment Society, I felt it my duty to not only 're-enact' The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu's album 1987 (Blah, Blah, Blah?) but present it to the world in a way far superior than their original version… That said, I am very aware, even if they are not aware that I am aware, that my aging Ice Kream Men, have 'pirated' a copy of my re-enactment' and have had an acetate cut of it and have 'donated' their pirated copy to the British Library for those that visit such places. Yours forever... The Ice Kream Van."