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Wreckers of Civilisation: The Story of COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle
"These people are the wreckers of civilisation", exclaimed the conservative Member of Parliament Nicholas Fairbairn in 1976. His outburst was meant to describe four artists and musicians - Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fani Tutti, Peter Christopherson and Chris Carter. What "these people" had done to deserve such an epithet, and what they were about to do, is the subject of this book.
Wreckers of Civilisation recalls a time which despite volumes of print remains occluded, obdurate, even that moment before the conservative reconstruction. To be awake in London in the late 1970s was to be plunged into externally manifest in riot, internally within various forms of damage and depression and, if one felt brave or driven, extreme aesthetics. COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle mark the furthest reach of that even more so than Punk, they plunged into a technological and personal examination of the dark side - the forbidden, the taboo, the dystopian future on the doorstep. Today this might seem like science fiction or deliberate shock tactics, but then it seemed like reportage, front line dispatches from a convulsed country.
Wreckers of Civilisation recalls a time which despite volumes of print remains occluded, obdurate, even that moment before the conservative reconstruction. To be awake in London in the late 1970s was to be plunged into externally manifest in riot, internally within various forms of damage and depression and, if one felt brave or driven, extreme aesthetics. COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle mark the furthest reach of that even more so than Punk, they plunged into a technological and personal examination of the dark side - the forbidden, the taboo, the dystopian future on the doorstep. Today this might seem like science fiction or deliberate shock tactics, but then it seemed like reportage, front line dispatches from a convulsed country.
300 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
January 13, 2018
Odd perhaps, but decided to re-rate my original generous 5 star rating of this book after reading Cosey Fanni Tutti's excellent memoir 'Art Sex Music'. Still worth the read, but prefer Cosey's version of the COUM / TG history.
April 11, 2011
I'll go ahead and say this is "amazing." Obviously, if you 1) don't care about Throbbing Gristle and/or 2) don't care about performance art, you might not get as much out of this book. Ford does a good job of not just summarizing what TG (and COUM Transmissions) did, but rooting it firmly in the context of what was happening politically and socially around them. If I ever doubted the power of art and the possibilities for making meaningful, politically-driven art, this book dispelled my doubts. I don't typically re-read biographies but I am finding that when I feel like I need artistic inspiration, this is the book I turn to. Some have "The Artist's Way." I've got this.
September 11, 2013
I've only just begun this thing and it's already exciting. Mr. Ford has produced a massive volume full of newspaper and magazine clippings, journal entries from the subjects, and so much more. The cheapest I've seen a copy of this thing going for was $80US in bad condition. I've got through my library who borrowed it from another library. This book either needs a reprint, a digital edition, or someone needs to find me an affordable copy. Dammit.
July 30, 2011
Re-read, 08/2022: This remains an essential document of the histories of both COUM and Throbbing Gristle, despite the fact that large amounts of the story are glossed over (conflicts within the band, especially) or not included.
an absolutely essential document of both coum transmissions and throbbing gristle. dense with detail and information.
an absolutely essential document of both coum transmissions and throbbing gristle. dense with detail and information.
April 4, 2022
Highly detailed, but ultimately a very business and factual oriented, rather than narrative focused text. I wish there were a broader focus on all the members of TG instead of plotting the central narrative around Genesis. It's still an outstanding book and highly comprehensive, just relatively high level.
January 2, 2021
No more thorough window into Throbbing Gristle and the surrounding cultural moment than Ford's beautifully written piece. I highly suggest anyone who starts here move on to "England's Hidden Reverse" right after.
November 14, 2007
TG all the way.
If nothing else, read the part where Genesis & Cosey do their "Cease to Exist" performance piece in Los Angeles. Never has so much been done with so many bodily fluids...
If nothing else, read the part where Genesis & Cosey do their "Cease to Exist" performance piece in Los Angeles. Never has so much been done with so many bodily fluids...
September 1, 2026
**Disclaimer. I have not read Cosey Fanni Tutti’s autobiography which chronicles her experience in Throbbing Gristle, one that paints Genesis P-Orridge in a reportedly extremely negative light. Gen comes off like a madman in this book, but there are no reports of abusive behavior towards Cosey. In this chronicle, they have a relationship that goes sour. Of course that relationship involves pornography and public sex acts (a tame description, actually), but it makes Cosey sound like a willing participant in the proceedings. Cosey’s book is on the list, but I need a little breather from TG for a bit.**
TO me, Throbbing Gristle is easily one of the most influential bands of the latter half of the 20th century, up there with the Velvet Underground and really the Beatles. The list of bands that have taken something – in sound, look, or attitude – from TG is stupendous. Similarly with Eno and Ambient music, TG didn’t necessarily create the subgenre known as Industrial music, but they definitely christened it, allowing all of those sullen, nihilistic musicians to follow in their footsteps. The Beatles comparison is no mere hyperbole – really TG are the Beatles through the looking glass – Genesis the Lennon-esque revolutionary subversive driving the ship with anti-musical statements and a background in confrontational (and obscene) performance art; Cosey the McCartney face/foil, but instead of a cutesy mop-top with an ear for melody, we have a statuesque model with a background in porno magazines and an icy persona wielding noise-guitar, trumpet, or vocal come-ons; Chris Carter the Harrison mystical engineer, responsible for the toe in futurism with keyboards and sequencers, whose affinity for Tangerine Dream lent a melancholy, robotic, almost melodic undercurrent to the proceedings; and Sleazy the Ringo-styled jester, sampling disturbing found-sounds, and while shaping the culture with some of the most influential album covers of the decade, also somehow finding time to be a full-on devotee of the fetish realms, at a time when one would really need to dig to discover this world. Rumor is that Clive Barker’s Pinhead design came from a glance through Sleazy’s magazines. This combination of abilities, attitudes, and looks made for a groundbreaking stew that really sounded like very little before it – but also resembled nothing in terms of mainstream music. To say that TG (the name itself an obscene joke) were originals is an understatement.
Wreckers of Civilization draws the line connecting 60s avant-garde performance art to TG’s more-punk-than-punk nihilism. The influences – Burroughs, Viennese Aktionists, Captain Beefheart, John Cage, etc – were read/seen by many (remember Burroughs is a member of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) but no one else warped them into an industrial group who broke up when they became too “rockist” – Gen not liking that people were applauding the songs. You weren’t supposed to “like” TG – they were there to remind you of the ugliness of the world, to shake you out of your conventions. So things like you know, playing instruments with some sort of musical ability or having an audience “enjoy” the performance is not part of the mission. Gen changing from a long hair to a buzzcut wearing pseudo fascist gear (around the time of Roger Waters trying to bring out the connections between rockstars and authoritarians) was a reaction to the grime of England. To wit, Gen and TG wanted to approach “music” from the vantage point of industry – Sleazy and Chris can play synthesizers and samplers because they were more engineers than musicians. And at a time when an underground was very much a valid concern, receiving cassette tapes from some shadowy group in England that were Grey live performances consisting of muddily recorded noise, defined this sense of Burroughs Naked Lunch – showing us what’s on the end of our forks. (Ballard went a similar route with Crash – destroying the hubris of society by exposing it to the primal forces underneath the manners.)
I do find yet another method of TG’s influence in its calmer free-form soundtrack work. The 2nd Annual Report’s second side of After Cease to Exist along with Eraserhead’s industrial soundtrack went on to speak to hundreds if not thousands of dissatisfied musicians looking to temper their abrasive moments with a cocktail of drones and distant voices. If the noise tracks were the apocalypse, these mellower moments were a glimpse of what comes after the bomb – the radioactive imprints of humanity annihilated by another technological experiment gone awry.
Taking punk’s reaction to the failed paradise of the 60s a step further than 99% of punks, Throbbing Gristle were a force of their time and ahead of their time. Even something as approachable as 20 Jazz Funk Greats is smothered in the savage irony of death and suffering. I do agree that the reunion somewhat diluted the effect, and Gen’s post TG efforts to become a cult leader of a rock band seemed to show that the confrontational aspect was maybe a bit of a youthful pose (though his pandrogyny and surgical procedures more than put his money where his mouth was), but Throbbing Gristle were truly a force to be reckoned with, and their shockwaves are being felt to this day.
TO me, Throbbing Gristle is easily one of the most influential bands of the latter half of the 20th century, up there with the Velvet Underground and really the Beatles. The list of bands that have taken something – in sound, look, or attitude – from TG is stupendous. Similarly with Eno and Ambient music, TG didn’t necessarily create the subgenre known as Industrial music, but they definitely christened it, allowing all of those sullen, nihilistic musicians to follow in their footsteps. The Beatles comparison is no mere hyperbole – really TG are the Beatles through the looking glass – Genesis the Lennon-esque revolutionary subversive driving the ship with anti-musical statements and a background in confrontational (and obscene) performance art; Cosey the McCartney face/foil, but instead of a cutesy mop-top with an ear for melody, we have a statuesque model with a background in porno magazines and an icy persona wielding noise-guitar, trumpet, or vocal come-ons; Chris Carter the Harrison mystical engineer, responsible for the toe in futurism with keyboards and sequencers, whose affinity for Tangerine Dream lent a melancholy, robotic, almost melodic undercurrent to the proceedings; and Sleazy the Ringo-styled jester, sampling disturbing found-sounds, and while shaping the culture with some of the most influential album covers of the decade, also somehow finding time to be a full-on devotee of the fetish realms, at a time when one would really need to dig to discover this world. Rumor is that Clive Barker’s Pinhead design came from a glance through Sleazy’s magazines. This combination of abilities, attitudes, and looks made for a groundbreaking stew that really sounded like very little before it – but also resembled nothing in terms of mainstream music. To say that TG (the name itself an obscene joke) were originals is an understatement.
Wreckers of Civilization draws the line connecting 60s avant-garde performance art to TG’s more-punk-than-punk nihilism. The influences – Burroughs, Viennese Aktionists, Captain Beefheart, John Cage, etc – were read/seen by many (remember Burroughs is a member of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) but no one else warped them into an industrial group who broke up when they became too “rockist” – Gen not liking that people were applauding the songs. You weren’t supposed to “like” TG – they were there to remind you of the ugliness of the world, to shake you out of your conventions. So things like you know, playing instruments with some sort of musical ability or having an audience “enjoy” the performance is not part of the mission. Gen changing from a long hair to a buzzcut wearing pseudo fascist gear (around the time of Roger Waters trying to bring out the connections between rockstars and authoritarians) was a reaction to the grime of England. To wit, Gen and TG wanted to approach “music” from the vantage point of industry – Sleazy and Chris can play synthesizers and samplers because they were more engineers than musicians. And at a time when an underground was very much a valid concern, receiving cassette tapes from some shadowy group in England that were Grey live performances consisting of muddily recorded noise, defined this sense of Burroughs Naked Lunch – showing us what’s on the end of our forks. (Ballard went a similar route with Crash – destroying the hubris of society by exposing it to the primal forces underneath the manners.)
I do find yet another method of TG’s influence in its calmer free-form soundtrack work. The 2nd Annual Report’s second side of After Cease to Exist along with Eraserhead’s industrial soundtrack went on to speak to hundreds if not thousands of dissatisfied musicians looking to temper their abrasive moments with a cocktail of drones and distant voices. If the noise tracks were the apocalypse, these mellower moments were a glimpse of what comes after the bomb – the radioactive imprints of humanity annihilated by another technological experiment gone awry.
Taking punk’s reaction to the failed paradise of the 60s a step further than 99% of punks, Throbbing Gristle were a force of their time and ahead of their time. Even something as approachable as 20 Jazz Funk Greats is smothered in the savage irony of death and suffering. I do agree that the reunion somewhat diluted the effect, and Gen’s post TG efforts to become a cult leader of a rock band seemed to show that the confrontational aspect was maybe a bit of a youthful pose (though his pandrogyny and surgical procedures more than put his money where his mouth was), but Throbbing Gristle were truly a force to be reckoned with, and their shockwaves are being felt to this day.
April 16, 2021
Although incredibly readable and a brilliant subject matter, the fact that the spine of this book is the voice of Genesis P-Orridge and not the other members that were around him made it quite infuriating.
Viva la HULL
Viva la HULL
August 15, 2019
Could include more personal anecdotes for purposes of holistic appreciation but I guess there's always Cosey's book for that, though it's apparently somewhat repetitious.
May 21, 2020
Lots of info on here. But it's a tedious read. The writing style is really not very engaging
December 25, 2021
Cannot recommend highly enough.
June 14, 2024
read this as an ebook at archive dot org. the last of three OOP music books that I wish I had bought and desperately wanted to read. it really is a shame that it is not in print.
biggest gripe is a good third of this book focuses on COUM, which is not necessarily w/o warrant but somewhat cumbersome when one really wants to get to Throbbing Gristle. And the specter of COUM continues to linger throughout.
if Cosey's book is 10 times better, this will remain to be seen--
biggest gripe is a good third of this book focuses on COUM, which is not necessarily w/o warrant but somewhat cumbersome when one really wants to get to Throbbing Gristle. And the specter of COUM continues to linger throughout.
if Cosey's book is 10 times better, this will remain to be seen--
February 15, 2008
I originally read this when it first came out, which was a time when Throbbing Gristle seemed all but forgotten except to hardcore acolytes, shortly after the exile to California of P-Orridge following bogus scandals set up by the UK tabloids. It's the story of the birth of Throbbing Gristle, COUM Transmissions and the early manifestations such as The Prostitution Show at the ICA; and of the early work of the core artists - Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson [of Hipgnosis] and Genesis P-Orridge. Filled with eccentric and anarchic anecdotes, it also discusses how Industrial Records came into being; the first collaborations, and COUM's influences from psychedelia and the occult. Very well researched. Nice pix and memorabilia. MP Nicholas Fairbairn described TG.."These people are the wreckers of civilisation" in Autumn 1976 when punk first started to enter the mainstream in the UK. Given their well-received recent comeback after a long hiatus on solo projects, it's a timely and very interesting reread.
April 20, 2011
I was incredibly impressed with just how much information there was on COUM transmissions in here. This is THE primary source to get information on the group. It's sad that there is no online source to get such information, especially since I don't believe this book was ever released in America.
Ford does a good job of covering all bases, and transcribes multiple viewpoints of the same situation whenever there was a conflict of memory between the members. One wishes there was more documentation on COUM's antics but Ford scrapes together as much as he can. The book is very well illustrated with lots of photos of actions. However the main form of documentation always seems to come from Genesis' vivid descriptions.
If you interested in an obscure controversial performance art group this is a great way to start. A study of provocation, community, art, and how they can all be fit into life.
Ford does a good job of covering all bases, and transcribes multiple viewpoints of the same situation whenever there was a conflict of memory between the members. One wishes there was more documentation on COUM's antics but Ford scrapes together as much as he can. The book is very well illustrated with lots of photos of actions. However the main form of documentation always seems to come from Genesis' vivid descriptions.
If you interested in an obscure controversial performance art group this is a great way to start. A study of provocation, community, art, and how they can all be fit into life.
July 25, 2007
An amazingly in-depth and, for the most part, chronological telling of the philosophical and artistic evolution of a group of artists who shaped underground culture for nearly 30 years.
This group--known as Coum and later as Throbbing Gristle--worked for years in a variety of media (including popular music) updating and popularizing magickal practice and thinking, confronting the hypocrisy of social convention, and expanding the boundaries of what is called art.
This book is probably the only place you will find an accurate and detailed account of the Coum/TG story, as the band themselves tend to rewrite their own history periodically. It is, after all, just another media/format to be manipulated and rereleased as artistic output.
This group--known as Coum and later as Throbbing Gristle--worked for years in a variety of media (including popular music) updating and popularizing magickal practice and thinking, confronting the hypocrisy of social convention, and expanding the boundaries of what is called art.
This book is probably the only place you will find an accurate and detailed account of the Coum/TG story, as the band themselves tend to rewrite their own history periodically. It is, after all, just another media/format to be manipulated and rereleased as artistic output.
September 1, 2009
An exhaustive and inspiring study of Throbbing Gristle and Coum Transmissions that tries to avoid the hysteria that surrounded both projects when they were active. Also a cool exploration of what it means to attempt to live off a creative project and keep one going in a hostile environment. Anyone not familiar with these projects will still get a lot out of this book and will be amazed at what they produced when they produced it. You get a sense of the performance art scene in Europe in the late 60s, early 70s. . .
August 28, 2010
This was well worth the read. I was always interested in Coum Transmission and what they were about. The depth of history on CM was great and enthralling.
At the beginning of the book Genesis P. Orridge is quoted as saying (paraphrasing here), An artist's life is usually more interesting their work. Not true with CM and TG. Both their lives and work are very interesting.
At the beginning of the book Genesis P. Orridge is quoted as saying (paraphrasing here), An artist's life is usually more interesting their work. Not true with CM and TG. Both their lives and work are very interesting.
November 28, 2012
This is one of the most important books that I have in my library. I read this book once a year for inspiration. The one band that I honestly never get sick of. All of the living members stay current within the avant garde and still remain on the cutting edge of art and music. I honestly couldn't recommend this book highly enough.
June 17, 2007
an invaluable history of COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle. The pictures are great and some of them are not seen elsewhere. Another book that motivated me to "get out there and do something".
September 7, 2007
I didn't finish this book, but...
The incredible tale of COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle. Absolutely astounding larger-than-life story.
The incredible tale of COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle. Absolutely astounding larger-than-life story.
September 13, 2007
Obsessive documentation about the history of the once great Throbbing Gristle.
December 14, 2007
SIMPLY AMAZING
December 22, 2007
5 stars with a bullet! If you're a Throbbing Gristle obsessive, this is just going to make it even harder to sleep at night. Great, exhaustive history of this great, exhausting band.
November 22, 2008
Throbbing Gristle/COUM bio, heavy on the praise.
Read
May 10, 2009Recommended
May 21, 2014
What can I say? They changed my life.
July 5, 2015
Really fascinating, painstakingly detailed account of Throbbing Gristle/Genesis P Orridge. Hard to find but worth the effort!
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews