The Justified Ancients of Mummu is one of the two protagonist 'secret societies' in the "Illuminatus!" series of books by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. In the books, the JAMs are in a seemingly endless struggle for control of human culture, government and power with their enemies, the Illuminati. Whereas the Illuminati's tactics are to restrict, govern and control the populace, the JAMs' aim is to bring about anarchy and an end to any possibility of ultimate control. 23 The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels written by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. ... Robert Joseph Shea (1933 - March 10, 1994) was the co-author (with Robert Anton Wilson) of The Illuminatus! Trilogy. ... Robert Anton Wilson Robert Anton Wilson or R. A. W. (born January 18, 1932) is a futurologist, libertarian, and novelist. ... The Illuminati is the name of many groups, modern and historical, real and fictitious, verified and alleged. ...

The Justified Ancients of Mummu was a name adopted in 1987, by Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, fans of the books, for their intended attack on the institution of the music industry in the UK, mirroring the (fictional) JAMs' gleeful political tactics of causing chaos and confusion by bringing a direct, humorous but nevertheless revolutionary approach to making records. The JAMs' primary instrument was the newly invented digital sampler, with which they would plagiarise the history of popular music, cutting chunks from existing works and pasting them into new contexts. An early and seminal influence in the development of sampling music in the United Kingdom, The JAMs notoriously and wilfully ran afoul of copyright laws when they sampled large portions of the ABBA single Dancing Queen. Currently active as a writer and artist, Bill Drummond (born April 29, 1953) is best known as co-founder of The KLF, the avant-garde pop group of the late eighties, the K Foundation, its nineties avant-art media-manipulating successor, and for burning a million pounds in 1994. ... James Cauty, Jimmy or Jimi, also known as Rockman Rock, was born in Devon, England in 1956 and not much is known about him until, as a 17-year old artist, he painted a popular Lord of the Rings poster (and later, a counterpart based on The Hobbit) for Athena. ... A sampler can be any of the following things: In general, a sampler is any broadly representative cross-section of some collection; for instance, food products are sometimes packaged in samplers containing a variety of chocolates or beers. ... In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or element of a new recording. ... ABBA (clockwise from top: Benny, Björn, Frida, Agnetha) on the cover of their album The Definitive Collection (2001) ABBA (1970 - 1982) was a Swedish pop music group. ... Dancing Queen is the title of a song, which was one of the biggest hit singles recorded by Swedish group ABBA. Written by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Stig Anderson, recorded in 1975 for the groups album Arrival, and released as a single in 1976, the song preceded...

After a legal showdown with ABBA and the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society, their debut album 1987 - What The Fuck Is Going On? had to be withdrawn from sale. They travelled to Sweden in hope of meeting ABBA and coming to some agreement, taking a journalist and photographer with them, and all the remaining copies of the LP. They failed to meet ABBA, and disposed of the copies by burning most of them in a Swedish farmers field and throwing the rest overboard on the North-Sea ferry on the trip home. Some of the copies were secretly kept however and they took out a full-page advert in The Face magazine offering to sell the last five copies for £1000 each. This only served Drummond & Cauty's legendary aspirations and after successive name changes and a plethora of highly-influential dance records, they would ultimately become, as The KLF, the biggest selling singles act in the world (for 1991), still incorporating the work of other artists in less gratuitous ways and, in the main, without legal problems. The KLF (Kopyright Liberation Front), more recently known as the K Foundation, also known as The Timelords, furthermore known as The JAMs, was one of the seminal bands around the time of the Acid House movement in Britain in the late 1980s and early 1990s. ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The JAMs are associated with the cultural movement which has come to be termed Samplism and which retrospectively bundles together those literary and artistic works which make use of what could be termed 'creative plagiarism'. Other luminous figures claimed unilaterally by the Samplists as 'members' of their movement include writers William Burroughs, T.S. Eliot, Michael Moorcock, artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, the video-sampling pioneers, Michael K, X$X, Emergency Broadcast Network and a host of musicians ranging from Beethoven through John Cage, Philip Glass, The Beatles to the more obvious contemporary hip-hop and dance acts. William S. Burroughs. ... Thomas Stearns Eliot (September 26, 1888 - January 4, 1965), was a major Modernist Anglo-American poet, dramatist, and literary critic. ... Michael John Moorcock (born December 18, 1939) is a prolific British writer of both science fiction and science fantasy. ... Young Pablo Picasso Pablo Picasso, formally Pablo Ruiz Picasso, (October 25, 1881 – April 8, 1973) was one of the recognized masters of 20th century art, probably most famous as the founder, along with Georges Braque, of Cubism. ... Violin and Candlestick, Paris, spring 1910 (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) Georges Braque (May 13, 1882 – August 31, 1963) was a French painter and sculptor, and with Pablo Picasso one of the inventors of Cubism. ... Like Monty Cantsin, Karen Eliot and Luther Blissett, Michael K. is a psuedonym that anyone is welcome to use for an artistic endeavour. ... Emergency Broadcast Network is the name of a multimedia performance group. ... Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized December 17, 1770; died March 26, 1827) was a German composer of classical music, who predominantly lived in Vienna, Austria. ... John Cage John Milton Cage (September 5, 1912–August 12, 1992) was an American experimental music composer and writer. ... Philip Glass looks upon sheet music in a portrait taken by Annie Leibovitz. ... The Beatles (L-R, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, John Lennon), in 1964, performing on The Ed Sullivan Show promoting their first U.S. hit song, I Want To Hold Your Hand, and ushering in the British Invasion of American popular music. ...

In Toronto, Ontario, Canada a group calling themselves the Justified Agents of Mummu stage public acts bent on provoking people to pay more attention, and promote mystery.

See also

• The Timelords
• The KLF
• K Foundation
• Blacksmoke

Doctorin the Tardis The Timelords was the name used by UK sampling outfit The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu for their 1988 novelty pop single Doctorin the Tardis, a No. ... The KLF (Kopyright Liberation Front), more recently known as the K Foundation, also known as The Timelords, furthermore known as The JAMs, was one of the seminal bands around the time of the Acid House movement in Britain in the late 1980s and early 1990s. ... The K Foundation was an arts foundation set up by Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty in 1993 following their retirement from the music industry. ... Blacksmoke are an occasional art collective and musical group dedicated to the propagation of audio visual noise. The group are believed to consist of KLF co-founder Jimmy Cauty and James Fogarty, a 24 year old heavy metal musician. ...

External link

• The copyright website on the 1987 Abba v the JAMMs case
• Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS)