THE HAMMS

Dear KLF Re-enactment Society,

My friend Ade Scripps and I have been inspired by, paying tribute to, covering and otherwise ripping off the KLF since we ended up at university together in autumn of 1992.

We formed a group called Cat Food and a KLF-inspired splinter group The HAMMS soon evolved out of that, releasing tapes and staging a bunch of events and interventions to liven up our time at college in Wall Hall near Watford (at the time part of the University Of Hertfordshire). Somewhere they may exist the letter we wrote to the K Foundation PO Box address offering our services very early on.

Both of us attended the screening of K Foundation Burn A Million Quid at the Seven Stars in Whitechapel (I was sat in the pub waiting for Ade before the film started when Bill and Jimmy came and sat at the next table, I've seen plenty of photos from there online since). We also went to the 2K event at the Barbican and the Rites Of Mu screening with the Bunnymen's Shine So Hard at the BFI (I think it was). I went to the launch for the K Foundation Burn A Million Quid book in Brick Lane too. Neither of us took photos at any of these events though.

Anyway, here's a few pictures, videos and discography bits that scratch the surface of our commitment.

Selected discography:

Cat Food & The HAMMS - 'The Ed EP' (cassette, Cheapskate & Porno [blame Ade for that record label name, I think he brought it with him from Staines], CHEAP 4, 1993). Includes 'The Manics Join The HAMMS' and 'Peter O'Sullevan Joins The HAMMS'.

The HAMMS - 'Ffft' (7" flexi, CHEAP 6, 1993). We couldn't afford to press an actual flexi so I just carved grooves into 7" circles of acetate with a craft knife. It's just a bit noisy really, Photo attached.

The HAMMS - 'Destroy All Misters' (cassette, CHEAP 25, 1999). Each copy sealed in a cube of concrete.

The HAMMS - 'Fuck The Millennium' - Cover of the 2K song, featured on the compilation tape 'I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside' (Coastline Records, STER 9, 1999) https://www.discogs.com/release/3537210-Various-I-Do-Like-To-Be-Beside-The-Seaside

Videos:

The HAMMS in Bushey (summer 1993), includes Ade in his HAMMS robes: https://youtu.be/px6EDPOLWpA?si=1D1jsWuPSyftanHB

The HAMMS - 'Peter O'Sullevan Joins The HAMMS', new mix by Ade: https://youtu.be/Tp2YmX-iKb0?si=Yw0ZbB-PsLUt-Jkx

Cat Food - Live From The Lost Competence 2003. New Year's Eve DJ mix by Ade: https://youtu.be/k8J3Q0xdwgI?si=zajDEoKGx7WDHGyU

Also a few photos from the HAMMScentral Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/10219733885

HAMMScentral was the name of the flat we rented in Watford, there's some pictures of the interior, including one of a bit of the pyramid Ade built in his bedroom; another pyramid we built while working at Glastonbury 1994; various other pictures of events, posters and stage wear.

Kept us amused.

Oh yeah, here's a feature I wrote about The KLF for the Toppermost website a few years back https://www.toppermost.co.uk/the-klf/

All the best,

Stu

THE HAMMS (Horrendous Atrocities Made To Mu(Sic) ) were or are Christopher Saint and Urotsukidoji, manifesting through the pop duo Cat Food (Ade and Stu). Tapes, posters, videos, events and re-enactments as follows, as far as we can remember...

Cheapskate & Porno discography

CHEAP 1 Cat Food - The Album (60 min cassette compilation, Xmas 1992). Cat Food was our first band, formed in our shared room in our first year at University Of Hertfordshire, autumn 1992.

CHEAP 2 Introductory Newsletter (A4 flyer)

CHEAP 3 The Cat Food Section (unused fanzine contribution). First mention of The HAMMS ("If you thought the KLF were clever being renegade pop pirates. But you've seen nothing yet becoz HERE COME THE HAMMS. You just can't dance that well.")

CHEAP 4 Cat Food & The HAMMS - The Ed EP (cassette EP in 7" mailer, spring 1993). Photo attached. Includes 'Peter O'Sullevan Joins The HAMMS' and 'The Manics Join The HAMMS' (sampling racing commentator Peter O'Sullevan and the Manic Street Preachers respectively). From the sleeve notes: "Exclusive to Cheapskate & Porno Records inc is the hottest dance sensation since the polka. Two Aliens / Man-beasts / Demons / Man-vegitables (sic) have arrived here one half fungus, the other half human. They arrived with some stunnin tracks but unfortunately due to the fact that on earth we have no 'thought to tape' machines they are hampered into using instruments and recorders, hence the shaky shaky start. But no doubt withe (sic) large amounts of cash, the true genius of these two will shine through."

CHEAP 5 HAMMS shorts (clothing). Before we made cloaks and headgear, we started with cut-off and graffitied army trousers.

CHEAP 6 The HAMMS - Ffft (handmade 7" flexi). "KICK IN THE HAMMS MOTHERFUCKERS!" Description and photo attached in previous email.

CHEAP 7 HAMMS logo poster (massive one-off poster, as seen in the background of the HAMMS Headgear and HAMMS Disko photos in previous email.

CHEAP 8 Cat Food - The Movie (incomplete film project). Our friend Clare shot the only bit of this, with us in our HAMMS clothes, on 8mm film on our Bushey campus, summer '93 https://youtu.be/px6EDPOLWpA?si=KuHWMcAzS2fN8Ede

CHEAP 9 Cat Food - Trip To Novelty Island (cassette idea, eventually developed into Cat Food's 'HAMMS Disko On Novelty Island' Xmas 2002 YouTube playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYmJ5NY4taiqNfpq4WHW1ixHSKk1JsgIK )

CHEAP10 Cheapskate & Porno Midsummer Newsletter (fanzine). Summer 1993.

CHEAP11 The blue mini van (vehicle, sold for scrap). Graffitied with HAMMS artwork. Bought for around £300 I think, sold for scrap a few weeks later for less. The engine blew up. Very much the 90s Student Loan re-enactment of Ford Timelord, from a possibly disreputable Watford car dealership. Ade has the original photo, black and white photocopy attached.

CHEAP12 A cairn (sculpture). Constructed on a beach below Hastings Country Park, summer 1993.

CHEAP13 The HAMMS on tour (event). Ade drove the van to 1993 Phoenix Festival and got beaten up in a riot there. We later tried to drive it to the village of Beer in Dorset but the vehicle didn't survive the trip.

CHEAP14 Tour books (uncompleted book project). I wrote mine, Ade was supposed to write his (this pre-empts the twin narrative tales of Bill Drummond and Mark Manning's Bad Wisdom, entirely coincidentally).

CHEAP15 Blue mini van playmat (A2 map poster, portraying the journeys of the Blue Mini Van. I think we had a Matchbox toy equivalent of the Van at some point to drive around it).

CHEAP16 HAMMS Society headgear (clothing). Made from cereal packets, photo in previous email. Autumn 1993. With third HAMMS member Nick Verlaine, we gatecrashed a student halls of residence rave in these outfits and filled the room with balloons.

CHEAP17 HAMMS Disko 1 (event, posters etc). Poster pic in previous email.

CHEAP18 Xmas Message (poster). Pic attached.

CHEAP19 Christopher Saint election campaign (event, posters etc). The HAMMS helped Ade run unsuccessfully for election to the Student Union, spring 1994. Poster pics attached.

CHEAP20 HAMMS Disko 2 (event, posters etc). Poster pic in previous email.

CHEAP21 Cat Food - Reefer Madness (cassette - unissued). Included The HAMMS version of The KLF's version of 'Born Free' (we'd bought a bootleg tape of the original KLF 'White Room' album at a record fair).

CHEAP22 The HAMMS - Chris Likes Thieving (cassette). AKA Kris Likes Fieving. The HAMMS' Chill Out/Space inspired magnum opus, mainly constructed by Ade with multiple dub/downtempo techno records, tapes of various kids shows, sci fi films and documentaries about the imminent impact of the Shoemaker-Levy comet on Jupiter, summer 1994. Recorded in our Watford flat HAMMScentral.

CHEAP23 The Return of The HAMMS (event). Fifth anniversary tour, summer 1997. We couldn't afford to do K Foundation styles broadsheet newspaper adverts so we took out an ad in the local Friday Ad small ads paper, photo attached. The tour took us as far as Shrewsbury in Ade's VW camper van before it packed up.

CHEAP24 The Cheapskate & Porno Archive (building, Hemel Hempstead). Ade's attic, where all our stuff was stored for a while around the turn of the millennium.

CHEAP25 The HAMMS - Destroy All Misters (cassette). Cassette, each copy sealed in a solid concrete block (9x9x9" or thereabouts) and raffled to unlucky winners at the Ridding Festival, Catsfield, East Sussex, summer 1999 (photo of The HAMMS onstage attached, this time featuring l-r Laura O'Callaghan White, Stu, Ade (Nick out of shot).

CHEAP26 The HAMMS - Fuck The Millennium (cassette contribution). Cover of the 2K track, recorded by Ade, Stu, Nick, Laura and Mason Chorley, released on the various artists cassette 'I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside' (Coastline Records, STER 9, 1999)

CHEAP27 Cat Food Random Xmas Card (gift)

CHEAP28 Self Assembly Interview Tape (one-off, unravelled cassette)

CHEAP29 Ni Chi Def - Def 'n' Taxis (cassette - unissued). One of Ade's aliases.

CHEAP30 Future/Modern Newsletter (flyer)

CHEAP31 The HAMMS vs Some Wankers - The Original Noise! (cassette). Split tape of HAMMS odds and ends, the other side featuring old demos by Some Wankers (a noise duo of me and Paul Mitchell - Paul also wrote the sleevenotes for the Cat Food compilation tape 'Just About Made Mu(sic)' on Coastline Records, STER 3, 1999, that featured a few HAMMS pieces - photos of both tapes attached).

CHEAP32 HAMMS logo 2000 (design)

CHEAP33 Christopher Saint & his Well-Dressed Three - EP (cassette). Another Ade project, photo attached.

CHEAP666 Demands to Satan (pact - unfulfilled). We genuinely came up with 666 demands to Satan that we'd sell our souls to him if he fulfilled them (again, pre-empting elements of Bad Wisdom).

Once we reached the year 2000 we moved to opposite ends of the country, me back down south and Ade up to Ballater in Aberdeenshire, and sort of accidentally fulfilled a promise we'd made to do a 23 year silence (although we started our 23 years in 1992 when the HAMMS formed and finished in in 2015). The remix of 'Peter O'Sullevan Joins The HAMMS' on YouTube comes from 2015 https://youtu.be/Tp2YmX-iKb0?si=sSmb91iUvKX-EzwY and Ade's done all sorts of strange stuff up in Ballater ever since (photo of him at Ballater Duck Week attached). We still collaborate on stuff at a distance, and always flag KLF and JAMS related events up to one another.

Lateral not Literal, I think.