For over a year before the September 1989 release of "The What Time is Love Story", its catalogue number (JAMS4) had been set aside for "The White Room" soundtrack, which was promised on various KLF record sleeves as being imminently available on CD, LP, cassette and (amazingly) DAT. In the end, as detailed in my previous post, the "White Room" project - which Bill and Jimmy had expended a lot of energy into over the previous year, as the "Tardis" profits slowly dwindled - stalled during summer, falling the commercial failure (for whatever reason) of "Kylie Said to Jason". The soundtrack album sneaked out only as a promo cassette (allegedly less than 50 copies) and by September 1989, the project had been dropped.
Almost impercipitively, however, the KLF's other musical project - the equally stalled "Pure Trance" series of limited edition instrumental 12" singles - began to take off. "Pure Trance 1 - What Time is Love" had originally been released in November 1988, and very rapidly deleted. However, it began to develop a life (and cult) of its own in the clubs of the burgeoning rave scene - so much so that during the spring and summer of 1989 various "soundalikes" and tributes were released across Europe (most famously, Frank De Wulf's "Heartbeat", which Bill and Jimmy forced to be reissued with their names as the songwriters). In May 1989 came "Pure Trance 2" (the original "3 AM Eternal") featuring the vocals of Maxine Harvey (who would appear on many subsequent KLF tracks) and the clarinet of Duy Khiem, a musical colleague of Drummond's from his solo album days. Far more "song-like" than its predecessor, "3 AM Eternal" also found its place in the current rave scene.
The week before the release of "Kylie Said to Jason", furthermore, the KLF reissued "What Time is Love" (the original 12" was now quite scarce) this time in a remixed, limited edition form (KLF4R) which suddenly made the track more readily available for the summer of 1989 DJs.
Despite the disappointing failure of "The White Room" project, the KLF still worked and promoted hard during the autumn of 1989. A party/concert at Paul Oakenfold's Land of Oz Club in London, on the night of the release of "Kylie Said to Jason" on 31st July, featured the KLF's first ever live perfromance, and a month later they made a notorious appearance at an rave in Chipping Norton, performing both "What Time is Love?" and "3 AM Eternal" as well as distributing "free money" amongst the bemused (and rather sparse) group of ravers gathered below their sparkly ball tower. Footage of this can be found on Youtube.
Later in September, the continued their policy of one commercial release and one "underground" release at roughly the same time by bringing out the remix of "3 AM Eternal" (KLF5R) and the compilation album "The What Time is Love Story" on, respectively, the 18th and 25th of the month. Both releasing were interesting in that they featured Jimmy Cauty's new musical partner - ex-Killing Joke roadie, Alex Patterson. The "3 AM Eternal" remix (actually an EP of four very different versions) featured the "Orbital Blue Danube Mix", the first official remix of The Orb (which the actually sleeve promised would reappear on JAMSLP5 "Live at Trancentral"). It also marked the second Cauty exploration of ambient.
"The What Time is Love Story" (or "Now That's What I Call What Time is Love" to use its alternate title) was apparently compiled by Alex Patterson. It featured two KLF versions (the familiar a-side to KLF4T and a new live version taken from the Land of Oz performance six weeks previous) as well as four cover versions (including Frank De Wulf recording as Liasons D.) This lurid, day-glo acid house artifact became one of the rarest of KLF releases - particuarly on CD. I managed to find my copy (mercifully 99.9% free of disc rot even now) for £25 at a record fair in 1994. Copies were going for over £150 during the hey-day of Ebay back in 2002/3.
Here it is, ripped at 320kps from the original CD:
http://www.protectlinks.com/98150
Tracklisting
(1) The KLF: What Time Is Love (original)
(2) Dr. Felix: Relax Your Body
(3) K.L.F.S.: What Time Is Love? (italian mix)
(4) Liasons D.: Heartbeat
(5) Neon: No Limit (dance mix 4'58)
(6) The KLF: What Time Is Love (live) [land of oz 31 Jul 89]
More mixes of "What Time is Love?" at 128kp here are the Primal and Techno Slam mixes, taken from KLF4R along with 2 bootleg recordings of the KLF live (one at Chipping Norton Rave, good quality and the other at the 1990 Liverpool Comedy Festival with Echo & The Bunnymen, which is pretty bad quality) and finishing everything off with the incredibly rare "Monster Attack Mix" (KLF4M - limited to 3??? copies):
http://www.protectlinks.com/98152
p/w on both inverarity
An image taken from Youtube of Bill (who you can just make out on the right) and Jimmy at the Chipping Norton rave.