| "***k the Millennium" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by 2K | ||||
| Released | 13 October 1997 | |||
| Studio | Parr Street, Konk | |||
| Genre | Acid house | |||
| Length | 13:57 | |||
| Label | Blast First, Mute (UK) | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Jimmy Cauty, Bill Drummond | |||
| Producer(s) | Bill Drummond, Jimmy Cauty | |||
| Drummond & Cauty singles chronology | ||||
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"Fuck the Millennium", sometimes spelled "***k the Millennium", is a protest song by the band 2K—Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty—better known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (the JAMs) or the KLF. The song was inspired musically by Jeremy Deller's "Acid Brass" project, where a traditional brass band plays acid house classics; these include the KLF's "What Time Is Love?". They were also inspired topically by the then-forthcoming end of the second millennium and the plans to celebrate it.
"Fuck the Millennium" was built around the KLF and Acid Brass' versions of "What Time Is Love?", and premiered at 2K's "1997 (What The Fuck's Going On?)" event at London's Barbican Arts Centre on 17 September 1997. The performance featured, amongst others, Acid Brass, Mark Manning and Gimpo, and was directed by Ken Campbell. 2K's lifespan was billed as the duration of the Barbican performance—23 minutes.
The song was released as a comeback single to mark the tenth anniversary of Drummond and Cauty's first collaborations; however, the performance and single were also in part intended to mock the notion of the comeback. "Fuck the Millennium" reached number 28 in the UK Singles Chart in October 1997. As of March 2020[update], the single remains the only international commercial release of music by the duo since The KLF's 1992 retirement.
Drummond and Cauty's campaign to "fuck the millennium" also involved a number of outlandish activities and proposals under the umbrella of their company K2 Plant Hire Ltd. These activities were intended to culminate in the construction of "The People's Pyramid", a 150-foot-high (46 m) structure built from recycled bricks at no cost to the taxpayer and which would have no entry fee—in pointed contrast to the UK government's Millennium Dome, construction of which had begun earlier in the year—and for people to use as they saw fit, including painting it or chipping it away. The pyramid was never built but the JAMs rebooted the idea in 2017 at their next comeback event, Welcome to the Dark Ages.