Disco 2000
Encyclopedia
Disco 2000 was a British pop
band, a side project of The KLF
. Vocals were handled by Cressida Cauty (wife of KLF co-founder Jimmy Cauty
) and June Montana, also known as Mo (former vocalist of Jimmy Cauty's previous band Brilliant
). Between 1987 and 1989, Disco 2000 released three singles on the KLF Communications
label, none of which entered the top 75 of the UK Singles Chart.
, in which Jimmy Cauty
played guitar. Brilliant were signed to WEA Records
by their A&R man
of the time, Bill Drummond
, but despite considerable investment, the act was commercially unsuccessful. Tired of his job and disillusioned with the industry, Drummond left WEA in July 1986, and some months later co-founded The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs) with Jimmy Cauty. The duo established an independent record label
, KLF Communications
, as a means to release The JAMs' material, and, as a side project, they dabbled in pop music
with 'Disco 2000', a group fronted and vocalised by Cressida Cauty and Mo Brathwaite, who arrived from Leicester. Disco 2000's debut single, the first of three, was "I Gotta CD", released on 30 October 1987. Neither this nor its follow-ups "One Love Nation" (1988) and "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" (1989) entered the UK Singles Chart, despite the pop production sound and some publicity, including music videos for "One Love Nation" and "Uptight". A track entitled "Feel This" was contributed by the group to the 1989 Eternity Project One
LP
(assembled by former Brilliant member Martin Glover
), under the name 'Discotec 2000'.
Cressida and Jimmy Cauty later set up home in a squat that also housed the KLF Communications recording studio
, Trancentral. As Drummond and Jimmy Cauty dedicated themselves to The KLF
, Cressida took on an organisational role for KLF Communications, in addition to design and choreography
work for The KLF, and her own work as an artist.
writer Barbara Ellen described Mo and Cressida Cauty as "two raucous, wicked, hideously beautiful she-cats with diamonds for brains.... For men, Disco 2000 must be like sex
without the draggy chat-up scenario, Mae West
without the lard
, Madonna
staked out in a jacuzzi looking anything but helpless."
In 1987, NME reviewer James Brown described Disco 2000's single "I Gotta CD" as "A captivating KLF offshoot from the Jamms' backing singers crammed with slogans, metal
solos, Farley Jackmaster style pianos, and gorgeously rank clap-a-long choruses. Addictive." NME also considered "I Gotta CD" alongside The JAMs' "Whitney Joins The JAMs
" and "Down Town
" in remarking upon the "accessibility" and increasing "dance-awareness" of KLF Communications releases.
In 2005, International DJ magazine ranked Disco 2000's "Uptight (Everything's Alright)"—a cover of Stevie Wonder's
"Uptight
"—amongst the twenty "worst cover versions in the history of dance music": "The KLF had some brilliant ideas, but forming their own girl group and covering this classic Stevie Wonder Motown stomper wasn’t one of them. The resulting lurid day-glo fusion of Stock, Aitken and Waterman pop, edit-heavy '80s house and dodgy female rap
was possibly one of the worst records in the history of the world." In contrast, a retrospective piece on the work of The KLF and related acts by Trouser Press
magazine called "Uptight" "entertaining" and "like Bananarama
on a rap tip
".
Key
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
band, a side project of The KLF
The KLF
The KLF were one of the seminal bands of the British acid house movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s....
. Vocals were handled by Cressida Cauty (wife of KLF co-founder Jimmy Cauty
Jimmy Cauty
James Francis Cauty is a British artist and musician born in Liverpool, England, in 1956...
) and June Montana, also known as Mo (former vocalist of Jimmy Cauty's previous band Brilliant
Brilliant (band)
Brilliant were a British pop/rock group active in the 1980s. Although not commercially successful and mauled by the critics, they remain notable because of the personnel involved - Martin Glover aka Youth, formerly of Killing Joke and subsequently a top producer/remixer; Jimmy Cauty, later to find...
). Between 1987 and 1989, Disco 2000 released three singles on the KLF Communications
KLF Communications
This discography lists the key British and notable international releases of The KLF and the other pseudonyms of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty. It also details the other releases on their independent record label, KLF Communications, by KLF-spinoff Disco 2000 and Space...
label, none of which entered the top 75 of the UK Singles Chart.
History
In 1981, Cressida Bowyer and Jimmy Cauty performed in the band Angels 1-5. They later married. Between 1983 and 1986, Jimmy Cauty and June Montana were members of the band BrilliantBrilliant (band)
Brilliant were a British pop/rock group active in the 1980s. Although not commercially successful and mauled by the critics, they remain notable because of the personnel involved - Martin Glover aka Youth, formerly of Killing Joke and subsequently a top producer/remixer; Jimmy Cauty, later to find...
, in which Jimmy Cauty
Jimmy Cauty
James Francis Cauty is a British artist and musician born in Liverpool, England, in 1956...
played guitar. Brilliant were signed to WEA Records
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...
by their A&R man
A&R
Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
of the time, Bill Drummond
Bill Drummond
William Ernest Drummond is a Scottish artist, musician, writer and record producer. He was the co-founder of late 1980s avant-garde pop group The KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with which he burned a million pounds in 1994...
, but despite considerable investment, the act was commercially unsuccessful. Tired of his job and disillusioned with the industry, Drummond left WEA in July 1986, and some months later co-founded The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs) with Jimmy Cauty. The duo established an independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
, KLF Communications
KLF Communications
This discography lists the key British and notable international releases of The KLF and the other pseudonyms of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty. It also details the other releases on their independent record label, KLF Communications, by KLF-spinoff Disco 2000 and Space...
, as a means to release The JAMs' material, and, as a side project, they dabbled in pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
with 'Disco 2000', a group fronted and vocalised by Cressida Cauty and Mo Brathwaite, who arrived from Leicester. Disco 2000's debut single, the first of three, was "I Gotta CD", released on 30 October 1987. Neither this nor its follow-ups "One Love Nation" (1988) and "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" (1989) entered the UK Singles Chart, despite the pop production sound and some publicity, including music videos for "One Love Nation" and "Uptight". A track entitled "Feel This" was contributed by the group to the 1989 Eternity Project One
Eternity Project One
Eternity Project One was a 1989 British compilation released by Gee Street Records. It featured the first recorded material by The Orb as well as tracks by several acid house artists of the late 1980s. Many of the tracks include production from Bass , Rockman , and Eternity...
LP
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
(assembled by former Brilliant member Martin Glover
Martin Glover
Martin Glover, also known as Youth, is a record producer and a founding member and bassist of the UK band Killing Joke. He is a member of The Fireman along with Paul McCartney. Glover was born in Africa.-Early career:...
), under the name 'Discotec 2000'.
Cressida and Jimmy Cauty later set up home in a squat that also housed the KLF Communications recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
, Trancentral. As Drummond and Jimmy Cauty dedicated themselves to The KLF
The KLF
The KLF were one of the seminal bands of the British acid house movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s....
, Cressida took on an organisational role for KLF Communications, in addition to design and choreography
Choreography
Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
work for The KLF, and her own work as an artist.
Reviews
Reporting on a 1988 gig by Disco 2000, NMENME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
writer Barbara Ellen described Mo and Cressida Cauty as "two raucous, wicked, hideously beautiful she-cats with diamonds for brains.... For men, Disco 2000 must be like sex
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
without the draggy chat-up scenario, Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
without the lard
Lard
Lard is pig fat in both its rendered and unrendered forms. Lard was commonly used in many cuisines as a cooking fat or shortening, or as a spread similar to butter. Its use in contemporary cuisine has diminished because of health concerns posed by its saturated-fat content and its often negative...
, Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
staked out in a jacuzzi looking anything but helpless."
In 1987, NME reviewer James Brown described Disco 2000's single "I Gotta CD" as "A captivating KLF offshoot from the Jamms' backing singers crammed with slogans, metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
solos, Farley Jackmaster style pianos, and gorgeously rank clap-a-long choruses. Addictive." NME also considered "I Gotta CD" alongside The JAMs' "Whitney Joins The JAMs
Whitney Joins The JAMs
-Release:"Whitney Joins The JAMs" was given a low-key release in the UK, initially as a run of 500 one-sided 12-inch singles in generic monochrome KLF Communications sleeves. The vinyl labels contained only the title and "120 bpm"...
" and "Down Town
Down Town
"Down Town" was the a 1987 release by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu . The song is gospel music driven by house music rhythms, incorporating a sample of Petula Clark's 1964 single "Downtown".-Origins:...
" in remarking upon the "accessibility" and increasing "dance-awareness" of KLF Communications releases.
In 2005, International DJ magazine ranked Disco 2000's "Uptight (Everything's Alright)"—a cover of Stevie Wonder's
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
"Uptight
Uptight (Everything's Alright)
"Uptight " is a 1966 hit single recorded by Stevie Wonder for the Tamla label. One of his most popular early singles, "Uptight " was the first Stevie Wonder single to be co-written by the artist....
"—amongst the twenty "worst cover versions in the history of dance music": "The KLF had some brilliant ideas, but forming their own girl group and covering this classic Stevie Wonder Motown stomper wasn’t one of them. The resulting lurid day-glo fusion of Stock, Aitken and Waterman pop, edit-heavy '80s house and dodgy female rap
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
was possibly one of the worst records in the history of the world." In contrast, a retrospective piece on the work of The KLF and related acts by Trouser Press
Trouser Press
Trouser Press was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow Who fan Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" ...
magazine called "Uptight" "entertaining" and "like Bananarama
Bananarama
Bananarama are an English female pop duo who have had success on the pop and dance charts since 1982. Rather than relying on a two part harmony, the duo generally sings in unison, as do their background vocalists. Although there have been line-up changes, the group enjoyed their most popular...
on a rap tip
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
".
Discography
I Gotta CD Artist: Disco 2000 Year: 1987 Catalogue Number: KLF Communications D 2000 |
|
One Love Nation Artist: Disco 2000 Year: 1988 Catalogue Number: KLF Communications D 2002 |
|
Uptight (Everything's Alright) Artist: Disco 2000 Year: 1989 Catalogue Number: KLF Communications D 2003 A cover of Stevie Wonder Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist... 's "Uptight (Everything's Alright) Uptight (Everything's Alright) "Uptight " is a 1966 hit single recorded by Stevie Wonder for the Tamla label. One of his most popular early singles, "Uptight " was the first Stevie Wonder single to be co-written by the artist.... ". |
Formats and track listings
| Format (and countries) | Track number | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| I Gotta CD | ||||
| 7" white-label promo single (UK) (limited edition of 500) | CD | |||
| 12" single (UK) | CD | L | ||
| One Love Nation | ||||
| 12" single (UK) | o | O | OC | |
| Uptight (Everything's Alright) | ||||
| 7" single (UK, rest of European Community) | u | h | ||
| 12" single (UK, Germany, rest of European Community) | U | H | ||
| CD single (European Community) | u | h | U | H |
Key
| CD - "I Gotta CD (7" edit)" (3:47) | OC - "One Love Nation (Club Mix)" (5:18) |
| CD - "I Gotta CD" (6:50) | u - "Uptight (Everything's Alright) (Banana 2000)" (3:40) |
| L - "I Love Disco 2000" (5:25) | U - "Uptight (Everything's Alright) (Discorama Mix)" (4:45) |
| o - "One Love Nation (Radio Edit)" (3:40) | h - "Mr Hotty Loves You (edit)" (4:28) |
| O - "One Love Nation (Full Length)" (6:09) | H - "Mr Hotty Loves You" (6:14) |