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Throbbing Gristle

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Throbbing Gristle <tr style="text-align: center;"><td colspan="3">Throbbing Gristle in 1978 (From left to right: Genesis P-Orridge, Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson).
Throbbing Gristle in 1978 (From left to right: Genesis P-Orridge, Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson).
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Background information

<tr><td>Origin</td><td colspan="2">London, England</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Experimental, Industrial</td></tr><tr><td>Years active</td><td colspan="2">1975 – Present</td></tr><tr><td style="padding-right: 1em;">Label(s)</td><td colspan="2">Industrial Records</td></tr><tr><th style="background: #b0c4de;" colspan="3">Members</th></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;" colspan="3">Genesis P-Orridge
Peter Christopherson
Cosey Fanni Tutti
Chris Carter</td></tr>

Throbbing Gristle (formed on September 3, 1975, in London) is 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 Civilisation (ISBN 1-901033-60-0). 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 December 2004. The show was filmed by the band, and is supposed to come out as a DVD sometime in the future. It was Throbbing Gristle's first live performance in nearly twenty-three years to the day.

The reformed band (with all four original members) then proceeded to play a concert in Italy in June 2005 and 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 was set to be released by Mute in September 2006 but has since been delayed for unknown reasons.

Contents

[edit] Trivia

The group's name is British (Hull) slang for an erect penis (though 'throbbing gristle' could also refer to the heart). In an episode of the 1980s TV comedy programme Only When I Laugh, written by Yorkshireman Eric Chappell, the character Figgis, played by James Bolam, refers to a greyhound called Throbbing Gristle. It is unlikely the TV censors of the time were aware of the full significance of the reference when they approved the script.

[edit] Influences

Throbbing Gristle were influenced by the pioneering 60s experimental band Fifty Foot Hose, The Velvet Underground, Can, and classical composers such as John Cage and La Monte Young.

[edit] Discography

  • The Second Annual Report (1977)
  • United/Zyklon B Zombie (7") (1978)
  • D.o.A: The Third and Final Report (1978)
  • We Hate You (Little Girls) / Five Knuckle Shuffle (7") (1979)
  • 20 Jazz Funk Greats (1979)
  • Heathen Earth (1980)
  • Adrenalin / Distant Dreams (Part Two) (7") (1980)
  • Subhuman / Something Came Over Me (7") (1980)
  • Greatest Hits - Entertainment Through Pain (1980)
  • In the Shadow of the Sun (1981)
  • Discipline (7") (1981)
  • Mission of Dead Souls (1981)
  • Thee Psychick Sacrifice (1981)
  • Journey Through a Body (1982)
  • TG24 (25xCD) (2002)
  • TG+ (10xCD) (2004)
  • TG Now (LP/CD) (2004)
  • A Taste of TG (CD) (2004)
  • Live December 2004, A Souvenir of Camber Sands (2xCDR) (2004)
  • Mutant TG (2xLP/CD) (2004)
  • Part Two (CD) (2007 April 01)

[edit] Unofficial Releases

  • Grief
  • Assume Power Focus 1982
  • Blood Pressure (CD) 1995
  • First Annual Report (LP/CD) 2001

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

  • RE/Search: Industrial Culture Handbook
  • "Rip It up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984", Simon Reynolds
  • "Wreckers of Civilization: The Story of Coum Transmissions and "Throbbing Gristle", Simon Ford, Black Dog Publishing, 2001

[edit] External links

es:Throbbing Gristle fr:Throbbing Gristle ja:スロッビング・グリッスル pl:Throbbing Gristle sv:Throbbing Gristle

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