This fair took me back to the messy side of the 1970s (at least that which I saw around me, given i was at school for all but a year of it). The number of greatcoat gurus and confused art ponces trying to get their brains back in to their heads after a little too much acid was remarkable, and this is very much how I have seen Genesis P Orridge, the other members of the Throbbing Gristle collective being a little saner but no less weird. Abba, they weren’t. But strangely enough, TG rather defined how things would go in other ways. Maybe that’s the Chris and Cosey element.
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Having read Cosey’s book a few years ago, I’m up for this.
I’ve probably spent 100 times longer reading her book than listening to Throbbing Gristle.
It’s a cracking read. As a teen, i saw her in her modelling side-hustle, but my mother told me off and made me dispose of the magazines involved.
I hope you told her was performance art.
It was indeed. I like the concept of TG more than the music.
In the same way we all think Keef is the epitome of rock star cool but I doubt many of us would want to actually be him.
Or perhaps I am just very dull.
Watched and enjoyed.
Use the box!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0012950/other-like-me-the-oral-history-of-coum-transmissions-and-throbbing-gristle
This is the bit (the only bit) after the 60s I get.
Can you imagine being Sleazy?
Boring his tits off at Hipgnosis during the day – how f***** dull must that have been? He might even have had to meet Jimmy Page or Phil Collins, strewth! – while at night simulating sex (as a gay man) with Cosey and/or stitching up his own arm while Genesis drinks urine and masturbates.
I get all that. I really do! Maybe Gong/Hawkwind, Dr. Feelgood’s first album, Modern Lovers, and funk too. Little else.
You’ve gotta admit – next to them, Sainted Dave looks like the Brotherhood of Man.
An essential watch. Well done (again) the BBC.
This sort of thing is what keeps me paying my TV licence.
Excellent show, cheers @vincent
Weirdly, about ten minutes before seeing the post and watching the show, I remembered going as a child to a brilliant installation/experiential show in the early 70s at Durham Light Infantry Museum. It was created by Bruce Lacey, and credited to The Lacey Family. I hadn’t thought about it in ages. And then, fifteen minutes or so into the doc, up pops John Lacey, son of Bruce, and briefly an integral part of the COUM project.
That reminds me, Cosey is in this Arena profile of Delia Derbyshire:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000w6tr/arena-delia-derbyshire-the-myths-and-the-legendary-tapes
I gave up on that I’m afraid.
What was that docco on the Radiophonics that was ruined by some gadgie standing at the back all the time? dreadful in-jokery, in the same category as VM’s Portillo jokes.