Disco 2000 (band)

In 1981, Cressida Bowyer and Jimmy Cauty performed in the band Angels 1–5.[7] They later married.[8] In 1987, Jimmy Cauty teamed up with Bill Drummond to form The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs).[6]/ The duo established an independent record label, KLF Communications,[9] 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 "Cress" (Cressida Cauty) and "Mo".[10] Disco 2000's debut single, the first of three, was "I Gotta CD", released on 30 October 1987.[10] Neither this nor its follow-up "One Love Nation" (1988)[10] entered the UK Singles Chart.[11] A third single, "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" (1989) peaked at #86 in the UK chart.[12] Music videos were filmed for "One Love Nation" and "Uptight".[10][13] A track entitled "Feel This" was contributed by the group to the 1989 Eternity Project One LP, compiled by Martin Glover "(Eternity", better known as "Youth"),[14] under the name 'Discotec 2000'.[10]

Cressida and Jimmy Cauty later set up home in a squat that also housed the KLF Communications recording studio, Trancentral.[15] As Drummond and Jimmy Cauty dedicated themselves to The KLF, Cressida took on an organisational role for KLF Communications,[16] in addition to design and choreography work for The KLF, and her own work as an artist.[15]

Reporting on a 1988 gig by Disco 2000, NME writer Barbara Ellen described Mo and Cress 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."[17]

In November 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."[3] A few weeks later, he remarked on the "accessibility" and increasing "dance-awareness" of recent KLF Communications releases "I Gotta CD", "Whitney Joins The JAMs" and "Down Town".[18]

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."[4] 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".[5]