Throbbing Gristle

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Image:ThrobbingGristle1978.jpg

Throbbing Gristle (formed on September 3, 1975 in London) are a British experimental music and Industrial Music group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions. The founding members of Throbbing Gristle were Chris Carter, Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti and Peter Christopherson (sometimes known as "Sleazy").

Their confrontational live performances and use of often disturbing imagery, including pornography and photographs of Nazi concentration camps, gave the group a notorious reputation. However the group always maintained that their mission was to challenge and explore the darker and obsessive sides of the human condition rather than to make attractive music. Throbbing Gristle pioneered the use of pre-recorded samples, and made extensive use of special effects to produce a distinctive, highly distorted background, usually accompanied by lyrics or spoken-word performances by Genesis P-Orridge.

In 1977 they released their debut recording, 2nd Annual Report. Although pressed in a limited initial run of 786 copies on the band's own Industrial Records label, it was later re-released due to high demand. Throbbing Gristle broke up in 1981, with founders Genesis P-Orridge and Peter Christopherson going on to form Psychic TV, whilst Cosey Fanni Tutti and Chris Carter continued to record together under the name of Chris and Cosey. Christopherson later went on to become half of the band Coil with fellow Psychic TV member John Balance.

Throbbing Gristle was noted for its live performances, which were often experimental and quite different from their pre-recorded work. In addition to studio albums, a large number of recordings of live shows were released, of varying sound quality. A concise history of Throbbing Gristle and Coum Transmissions can be found in Simon Ford's book Wreckers of Civlisation (ISBN 1901033600). A 24 CD boxed set, TG24, documenting many live Throbbing Gristle performances was released in December 2002. A follow-up to this boxset chronicling the last 10 performances was released as TG+ in January of 2004. These releases accumulated recordings that had originally been released on cassette-only boxed sets and individually released vinyl albums of official and bootleg status. Long out of circulation, the new releases sparked a renewed interest in the band.

Throbbing Gristle was scheduled to play a live show in May 2004 at the RE~TG festival, but the festival was cancelled due to rising costs and scheduling complications. They decided to play anyway and set up a show at The Astoria in London on Sunday May 16th 2004, which was the same day they were to play at RE~TG. The show was free but open only to those who had tickets to RE~TG, whether they had gotten a refund or transferred the ticket to Throbbing Gristle's final reunion show at All Tomorrow's Parties, in April 2005. The show was filmed by the band, and is supposed to come out as a DVD in 2006. It was Throbbing Gristle's first live performance in nearly twenty-three years to day.

The reformed band (with all four original members) then proceeded to play two concerts at the Volksbühne, Berlin, Germany on December 31, 2005 and January 1, 2006. The first show was a live performance and the second an improvised live soundtrack to Derek Jarman's film 'In The Shadow Of The Sun'. On December 29, 2005, an exhibition entitled 'Industrial Annual Report' opened at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin-Mitte. It was a major retrospective exhibition of artworks and historical documents produced by Throbbing Gristle, curated by Markus Müller, in collaboration with Cosey Fanni Tutti.

Whilst together in Berlin, the band also finished recording their first studio album in almost 25 years. Titled Part Two, it is set to be released by Mute in September 2006.

1 Trivia
2 Discography
3 Further reading
4 External links

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Trivia

The group's name is British (Hull) slang for an erect penis. The cover of the 1979 LP 20 Jazz Funk Greats is considered to be a classic of British album art, ranking alongside Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures and The Clash London Calling - not that Mr. Orridge would (thankfully) necessarily agree with this heretical Triumvirate and the mundanities of commercial art and the affected effect it has on the paying public, however.

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Discography

First Annual Report (CD) 2001 (Studio; Deliberately held back by the band since 1975)
Second Annual Report (LP) 1977
"United" c/w "Zyklon B Zombie" (Single)
DOA: The Third and Final Report (LP) 1978
Funeral in Berlin
20 Jazz Funk Greats (LP) 1979
Heathen Earth (LP) 1980
In the Shadow of the Sun (Soundtrack to Derek Jarman film of same name)
Journey Through a Body 1981
Thee Psychick Sacrifice
Grief (unofficial release)
Mission of Dead Souls (last release) 1982
Entertainment Through Pain (retrospective compilation)
Assume Power Focus (CD) 1975/79 (unofficial release 1995)
Blood Pressure (CD -originally recorded on audio cassette) 1975 (unofficial release 1995)
Funk Beyond Jazz (live in Heaven, London 1980) (unofficial release 1995)
"Discipline" (Single)
Greatest Hits 1990 (a title that is obviously tongue in cheek)
TG24 (24 CD boxset) 2003
TG+ (10 CD boxset) 2004
Mutant TG (CD/LP) 2004 (remix LP)
TG Now (CD/LP) 2004 (originally sold at their concert at The Astoria in London, May 2004)
A Taste of TG (CD) 2004 (compilation of previously released material)
Live December 2004, A Souvenir of Camber Sands (CDR) 2004
Part Two (CD/LP?) 2006