The Timelords (band)

This article is about the musical group the Timelords. For alternate meanings, see Time Lord (disambiguation).

The Timelords was the name used by UK sampling outfit The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu for their 1988 novelty pop single Doctorin' the Tardis, a No.1 hit in the UK. The song is a mix of Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll (Part 1), Sweet's Blockbuster and the Doctor Who theme with sparse vocals inspired by Doctor Who and Harry Enfield's Loadsamoney character. Doctorin' the Tardis reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 12 June, and also charted highly in Australia and New Zealand.

According to group members Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond, the Timelords came about after their purchase of an American Ford Galaxie police car (which had allegedly been used in the film Superman IV filmed in the UK). Cauty and Drummond claimed the car then spoke to them, giving its name as Ford Timelord and advising the duo to adopt the name for themselves. A photograph of the vehicle appeared on the sleeve of the Doctorin' the Tardis single (the car was also credited for the song itself) and was prominently featured in a number of the group's music videos (the car appears in Doctorin' the Tardis, filmed at the now defunct RAF base at Yatesbury, Wiltshire). A more prosaic explanation for the name comes from the Time Lords, an alien race from the planet Gallifrey in Doctor Who.

The Timelords released one other product, a 1989 book called The Manual or How to Have a Number One the Easy Way, a tongue-in-cheek guide to scamming the music industry written by Drummond, a former music industry manager and A&R man. The Manual was re-released in 2002 with a new introduction.

After the Timelords, the duo became The KLF. A reissue of the single in the mid 1990s lists the artist as The Timelords/The KLF, and features both a KLF track (the original uncut version of "What Time Is Love?") and "Gary Joins The JAMS", a version of Doctorin' the Tardis with new vocals by Gary Glitter referencing his own songs.

In 2005, mashup artist Dean Gray digitally mixed Doctorin' the Tardis with punk band Green Day's "Holiday" on Gray's CD, American Edit (an unauthorized remix of American Idiot) as "Dr. Who on Holiday."

• The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu
• The KLF
• K Foundation
• Blacksmoke