Why did two men burn a million pounds on a Scottish island?

It may be ancient but was it justified?

Thirty years ago today, two men burnt £1m on the Isle of Jura in a now notorious stunt.

Scottish musician Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty – together known as electronic band The KLF – set alight the bulk of their earnings from the music industry and watched the fortune turn to ash at a disused boathouse on the island.

Originally formed as a dance music duo, Drummond and Cauty had previously fired machine gun blanks from the stage towards the crowd at the Brit Awards ceremony, dumped a dead sheep at the front door of an after party and quit the music business after being named the best British band all in the space of one evening.

English artist and musician Jimmy Caulty and Scottish artist, musician, writer, and record producer Bill Drummond of electronic band The KLF, UK, 1996. (Photo by Roberta Parkin/Redferns/Getty Images) Getty Images

But their most outlandish stunt, or at least the one they are best known for, took place on Jura’s Ardfin Estate – far removed from a global audience – on August 23, 1994.

The burning stunt provoked a ferocious backlash but it came as no surprise to former music journalist Claire Fletcher, who travelled to meet the KLF on Jura a year before their audacious artistic performance.

Claire was working as a production assistant on Steve Wright’s BBC radio show when she received an invite from the KLF, which simply stated she should go to London’s Heathrow Airport and bring nothing but her passport and mosquito repellant.

She told STV News: “We were flown to Glasgow with music journalists from around the world. At that point, there was another departure board that simply said ‘Further’, we had no idea where we were going.

“We eventually landed on Isla and were bussed across the island and caught a ferry to Jura. We were met there by Bill and Jimmy who stamped our passport with the KLF logo.

“The 19-year-old driver who transported me to my accommodation is now my husband and we have four kids together – one of whom has the initials KLF (Kitty Lily Fletcher).

Claire and Andy on their wedding day at Jura Church in July 1998. Contributed

Claire Fletcher, 56, has owned Lussa Gin in Ardlussa for nearly ten years

She said: “We went to an all-night rave at Ardfin Estate – it was a massive party with a wicker man on fire, music playing from a sound system brought up from Brixton and people dressed in yellow druid outfits.

“I was absolutely clueless that we were coming to this – I had never been further north than Watford. The KLF always had a reputation as mavericks. I always thought they were weird, but not this weird.

“On the way back to London we stopped at Liverpool and performed ‘Justified and Ancient’ in front of an ice cream van. Thinking back, it feels like a different world – one small step can take you in a completely different direction.

“The night the KLF burned £1m, Andy was in the pub bemoaning that nothing exciting happens on the island. Little did he know that nearby the KLF were plotting to burn a suitcase full of money- and it was real money – at the small boathouse on the Ardfin Estate.

The boathouse on the Ardfin Estate. David Hoult

“The band came back to Jura a few years later and couldn’t understand why people were so upset. They were trying to prove a point about the value of money – they did not know what they were doing.

“In some ways, it’s like ‘hats off to you’. Everything is too manicured these days, you’ll never see their likes again.”

Neither Drummond, nor Cauty, has ever fully explained the true reasons behind the burning stunt, although both have since acknowledged some regrets.

Jura had only been chosen after a slew of other sites vetoed the project. Although Drummond spent his youth in Scotland, he grew up in Newton Stewart, while Cauty had little connection with the country at all.

Three years earlier they had burnt a 60-foot tall wicker man to celebrate the summer solstice nearby in front of a much larger crowd.

A 67-minute film of the piece, entitled “Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid”, was released a year later with a novel film tour that allowed the duo to question audiences on their thoughts of the meaning behind the stunt rather than the other way around.

Plans were put in place for screenings at Celtic and Rangers football matches, and at Glasgow Green, but those, like another proposed showing at Barlinnie Prison, never took place.

The duo placed a moratorium on talking about the stunt for a time limit of 23 years from the date of the burning, later releasing a book to coincide with that particular anniversary.

STV reached out to the enigmatic Drummond ahead of today’s 30th anniversary via his Penkiln Burn website. The stipulated format is that Drummond only answers questions in batches of four, with four word answers provided.

The exchange went as follows:

Would Mr William Drummond be available for an interview ahead of the anniversary for a piece on STV News?
Answer – ‘I don’t do television’
How have his feelings about the burning changed over the years?
Answer – ‘Feelings exist to repress’
Would Mr Drummond do it again or is there something else he would rather burn?
Answer – ‘Never do things twice’
Why is Justified and Ancient such a banger?
Answer – ‘Ban all old music’

Perhaps the mystery of exactly why the KLF burned £1m on Jura will endure for another 30 years.