83. WHAT IS GANTOB? (by GRAHAM)

Today’s blog goes back to the earliest days of GANTOB. I was finding my feet, planning what turned out to be a busy summer. I had been intrigued by the Penkiln Burn pamphlets that had arrived that spring with my orders of Bill Drummond books from Alimentation, and wondered about producing my own to promote my own projekt.

Seeing Graham’s posts about The Harmonics, with his pamphlet that ended up in the copies of “What Is Harmonic?” box available for sale, I decided to give it a try. Over to you Graham

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I had only intended to write one blog for the GANTOB December “Demokratisation”. If accepted, that was all that was required to receive a copy of the next book. However, when I went to submit my post – which links some GANTOB characters back into the plot of The JAMs’ 2023: A Trilogy – I realised that I had unknowingly communicated with GANTOB by email months before.

Back In August I had submitted my question for the first book by Twitter message. I hadn’t spotted the connection at that point. But now, at the tail end of November, I opened up my email to submit my 400 words in a Word document to the email address 100percentvinyl2@gmail.com. I typed the address into search bar, and there it was: An email from June, from Gillian (no surname). It was titled “What is Harmonic?”:

“Graham”, it read, “As a fan of The KLF I was interested to read about your recent discovery of the ‘What is Harmonic?’ box, with contribution by Bill Drummond. Now, I am not in the market for the box, but wondered if you could send me the pamphlet that you produced – Word format would be best. Terrific that you and The KLF archivists have made this discovery. On another note, have you read The JAMS’ 2023: A trilogy – quite an interesting read now that we’re actually in 2023. Bye for now, but keep up the good work”.

I sent Gillian a copy of my “Who Were The Harmonics?” trifold pamphlet as requested. It was from a period when I was scratching around in the minutiae of Bill Drummond’s Penkiln Burn books and pamphlets. It was an exciting and productive time, unearthing a stash of the Harmonics box, which you can still buy from the Eastside Projects shop, and making a series of other discoveries from the earliest days of Penkiln Burn.

But back to GANTOB. I didn’t hear anything more from Gillian after that, except perhaps a reply saying “Ta”, which I would have deleted. Five months on, and realising this connection, I feel the excitement of discovery again, a bit like getting my hands on The Harmonics’ box and hearing the recording of their song. GANTOB is there, right in the heart of that email, and I hadn’t spotted it. I don’t think that this reveals her identity, and I hope that she includes at least one of my blogs.

Graham

15 December 2023

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If you have 400 words to submit, please get in touch. Ignore the deadlines, but please remember to provide an excuse for being late. If your blog is used in December 2023 you will receive a copy of the forthcoming book: GANTOB’s 2023: A trilogy, including your contribution. Good luck!

Cover photo, of What is Harmonic? box is also from Eastside Projects website