James Cauty (commonly known as Jimmy or Jimi Cauty, also known as Rockman Rock) is a British artist and musician born in Totnes, Devon, England in 1956. Cauty is best known as one half of the hitmaking duo The KLF; as co-founder of The Orb and a leading innovator in the birth of the ambient house genre; and as the man who burnt one million pounds.

Cauty is married to Cressida (nee Bowyer), with whom he has twins, Harold and Daisy.

Career

Early career

As a 17-year old artist, Cauty painted a popular The Lord of the Rings poster (and later, a counterpart based on The Hobbit) for British retailer Athena.

In 1981-2 Cauty was guitarist in a band called Angels 1-5, who recorded a Peel session on 1 July 1981. Lead vocalist was Cressida Bowyer, whom Cauty later married.

In 1984, Cauty took on guitarist duties with pop/rock group Brilliant, in collaboration with singer June Montana and bassist Youth. The group split in 1986 after a less than warm reception to their debut album, Kiss the Lips of Life.

Artistic partnership with Bill Drummond, 1987-1995, 1997

Following Brilliant and a brief stint with Zodiac Mindwarp and The Love Reaction, Cauty joined with Bill Drummond to form The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs), a Situationist-inspired artistic collaboration that played out in various guises and media over much of the next decade.

As an A&R man, Drummond had signed Brilliant to WEA. Concocting a scheme for a hip-hop record on New Year's Day 1987, Drummond needed a like-minded collaborator with expertise in current music technology. Jimmy Cauty instantly sprang to mind, so Drummond telephoned him. Cauty "knew exactly, to coin a phrase, 'where I was coming from'", said Drummond. A week later, The JAMs had recorded their debut single, "All You Need Is Love"; Cauty taking the pseudonym "Rockman Rock" and Drummond becoming "King Boy D". Several singles and 3 albums as The JAMs followed (their debut, 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?); the follow-up, Who Killed The JAMs?; and compilation Shag Times) before a change of direction saw the duo mutate into dance and ambient music pioneers, The KLF. Along the way, the duo scored their first British number one hit single as The Timelords with the Gary Glitter/Dr. Who novelty-pop mash-up "Doctorin' the Tardis".

The KLF released two ground breaking albums - Chill Out and The White Room - and a string of top 5 singles, becoming the biggest selling singles act in the world for 1991. In 1992, suddenly and very publicly, however, The KLF "retired" from the music industry and deleted their entire back catalogue.

Drummond and Cauty re-emerged in 1993 as the K Foundation, releasing one limited edition single ("K Cera Cera") and awarding the £40,000 K Foundation art award for the "worst artist of the year". In 1994, the duo courted infamy by setting fire to one million pounds in cash on the Scottish island of Jura. In 1995, they undertook a screening tour of a film of the burning, before signing a moratorium on K Foundation activities.

Cauty worked with Drummond again in 1997 with a campaign to "Fuck the Millennium", the highlight of which was a 23-minute live performance satirising the "pop comeback" - in which Cauty and Drummond appeared as grey-haired pensioners and wheeled around the stage in electric wheelchairs.

Throughout The KLF's career, Drummond was most often the mouthpiece of the group and is often viewed as their chief protagonist. NME, for example, wrote: "One suspects that the real boiling genius of the duo is initiated by Drummond. The elements of the K Foundation affair are classic Drummond - honesty mixed with deranged publicity-seeking, pop terrorism ideas mixed with utter strangeness and mysticism..., and a sense that the things pop groups do should be visionary and above all should not be mundane." Perhaps a little ironically, then, the initial idea for the K Foundation's one million incineration was actually Cauty's, although he was beginning to express regret in 1995 at which time Drummond remained resolute.

Contrasting with Drummond's image, Jimmy Cauty was perceived - or presented - as "Rockman Rock - cool dude"; the "quiet", enigmatic one, a "long-haired and quietly spoken chain-smoker: a leather-jacketed misfit [who] has carried his adolescent rock obsession into adulthood". However, as the previously quoted NME piece cautioned, "We can't underestimate the importance of Jimmy Cauty". Cauty was the musical bedrock of The KLF, whether laying down the starting track for "Doctorin' the Tardis", or playing electric guitar, bass, drums and keyboard on "America: What Time Is Love?". He and his wife, Cressida, were at the centre of KLF operations, living and working at Trancentral (actually the Cauty's squat in Stockwell, London) and driving the "JAMsmobile" (Cauty's 1968 Ford Galaxie American police car) as their regular, everyday vehicle. Cressida, too, helped out, taking on an organisational role for KLF Communications, in addition to design and choreography work for The KLF, and her own work as an artist.

Ambient house, 1988-1992

In the late 1980s, Cauty met Alex Paterson and the duo began DJ-ing and producing together as The Orb. Paterson and Cauty's first release was a 1988 acid house anthem track, "Tripping on Sunshine" released on the German record compilation Eternity Project One. Eternity Project One also featured a collaborative track between Cauty and future Orb member Kris Weston. The following year, The Orb released the Kiss EP, a four-track EP based on samples from New York City's KISS FM. It was released on Paterson and Glover's new record label WAU/Mr. Modo Records, which Paterson and Glover created out of a desire to maintain financial independence from larger record labels. After spending a weekend of making what Paterson described as "really shit drum sounds", the duo decided to abandon beat-heavy music and instead work on music for after-hours listening by "taking the bloody drums away". Paterson and Cauty began DJ-ing in London and landed a deal for The Orb to play the chill out room at London nightclub Heaven. Resident DJ Paul Oakenfold brought in the duo specifically as ambient DJs for his "The Land of Oz" event at Heaven. Though initially The Orb's Monday night performances had only several "hard-core" followers, their "Chill Out Room" act grew popular over the course of their six month stay at Heaven to the point that the small room was often packed with around 100 people. The Orb's performances became especially popular among weary DJs and clubbers who sought solace from the loud, rhythmic music of the dancefloor. The Orb would build up melodies using multitrack recordings linked to multiple record decks and a mixer. They incorporated many CDs, cassettes, and BBC sound effects into their act, often accompanied with pieces of popular dance tracks such as "Sueño Latino". Most often, they played dub reggae and other chill out music which they described as "Ambient house for the E generation."