Biography
Since the arrival of punk in the closing years of the 1970s, Genesis P-Orridge produced a vast and resolute catalog of music at the margins through involvement with Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, and further endeavors. Early dismissal greeted attempts to unveil concealed taboos inside a society viewed as tainted and self-satisfied, yet enduring commitment and resolve eventually secured a devoted cult audience throughout England and the United States.
Born Neil Megson, Genesis P-Orridge launched a contentious performing path in Hull, England, during 1969. COUM Transmissions, an abrasive improv unit, was founded that year with partner Cosey Fanni Tutti. Few clubs would host the combination of fluxus-influenced performance art and industrialized punk rock, so the group often staged actions outdoors at assorted sites across the city. Grant support later enabled a shared live-work space in Hull, after which the collective shifted to London following arrests of two members.
October 1976 brought a new configuration that incorporated designer Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson and Chris Carter; under the name COUM they mounted the Pornography exhibition at London's Institute of Contemporary Art. The four performed "Music from the Death Factory" at the opening under their fresh identity, Throbbing Gristle. Public funding triggered intense press condemnation and attacks against both the ICA and the band. With scant prospect of label backing, Throbbing Gristle created Industrial Records. In 1977, amid numerous landmark punk releases, P-Orridge (bass, electric violin, vocals), Tutti (guitar, cornet), Christopherson (tapes, trumpet), and Carter (keyboards) tracked Second Annual Report, an unyielding industrial assault built on multiple versions of "Slug Bait" and "Maggot Death" that recounted serial killings. The single "United"/"Zyklon B Zombie" (the B-side referencing a gas employed lethally by Hitler) and the abrasive audio collage D.o.A: The Third and Final Annual Report appeared in 1978. Throbbing Gristle disbanded after Heathen Earth in 1980; Carter and Tutti formed Chris & Cosey while P-Orridge established Psychic TV alongside Christopherson and John Balance.
The sustained intensity and singular beauty of Throbbing Gristle's 20 Jazz Funk Greats partly foreshadowed Psychic TV, which permitted an emerging pop sensibility to coexist with an inherited appetite for indigestible noise and the cut-up methods pioneered by William Burroughs and Brion Gysin. Only two official studio albums emerged—Force the Hand of Chance in 1982 and Dreams Less Sweet in 1983—yet the band issued an astonishing 18 live albums and scored a minor hit with "Godstar," an ode to the late Rolling Stone guitarist Brian Jones. Christopherson and Balance left early to concentrate on electronic outfit Coil. P-Orridge sustained shifting Psychic TV lineups into the early 1990s, when controversy resurfaced. During the 1991 U.S. tour, the group's tattoo artists were arrested in connection with "Operation Spanner." A television crew pursued P-Orridge to his home in an unsuccessful search for incriminating material, after which the singer remained in the U.S. for most of the decade.
Upon returning to England, many cultural taboos that once inflamed critics had become absorbed into a more liberal society. Continuing the search for an ideal musical vehicle, P-Orridge formed Thee Majesty in the late 1990s with Larry Thrasher and Moroccan Jajouka musicians Bachir and Mustafa Attar. The project appeared with a re-formed Psychic TV at London's Royal Festival Hall in 1999. Genesis P-Orridge died on March 14, 2020, in New York City after a two-and-a-half-year struggle with leukemia.
Born Neil Megson, Genesis P-Orridge launched a contentious performing path in Hull, England, during 1969. COUM Transmissions, an abrasive improv unit, was founded that year with partner Cosey Fanni Tutti. Few clubs would host the combination of fluxus-influenced performance art and industrialized punk rock, so the group often staged actions outdoors at assorted sites across the city. Grant support later enabled a shared live-work space in Hull, after which the collective shifted to London following arrests of two members.
October 1976 brought a new configuration that incorporated designer Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson and Chris Carter; under the name COUM they mounted the Pornography exhibition at London's Institute of Contemporary Art. The four performed "Music from the Death Factory" at the opening under their fresh identity, Throbbing Gristle. Public funding triggered intense press condemnation and attacks against both the ICA and the band. With scant prospect of label backing, Throbbing Gristle created Industrial Records. In 1977, amid numerous landmark punk releases, P-Orridge (bass, electric violin, vocals), Tutti (guitar, cornet), Christopherson (tapes, trumpet), and Carter (keyboards) tracked Second Annual Report, an unyielding industrial assault built on multiple versions of "Slug Bait" and "Maggot Death" that recounted serial killings. The single "United"/"Zyklon B Zombie" (the B-side referencing a gas employed lethally by Hitler) and the abrasive audio collage D.o.A: The Third and Final Annual Report appeared in 1978. Throbbing Gristle disbanded after Heathen Earth in 1980; Carter and Tutti formed Chris & Cosey while P-Orridge established Psychic TV alongside Christopherson and John Balance.
The sustained intensity and singular beauty of Throbbing Gristle's 20 Jazz Funk Greats partly foreshadowed Psychic TV, which permitted an emerging pop sensibility to coexist with an inherited appetite for indigestible noise and the cut-up methods pioneered by William Burroughs and Brion Gysin. Only two official studio albums emerged—Force the Hand of Chance in 1982 and Dreams Less Sweet in 1983—yet the band issued an astonishing 18 live albums and scored a minor hit with "Godstar," an ode to the late Rolling Stone guitarist Brian Jones. Christopherson and Balance left early to concentrate on electronic outfit Coil. P-Orridge sustained shifting Psychic TV lineups into the early 1990s, when controversy resurfaced. During the 1991 U.S. tour, the group's tattoo artists were arrested in connection with "Operation Spanner." A television crew pursued P-Orridge to his home in an unsuccessful search for incriminating material, after which the singer remained in the U.S. for most of the decade.
Upon returning to England, many cultural taboos that once inflamed critics had become absorbed into a more liberal society. Continuing the search for an ideal musical vehicle, P-Orridge formed Thee Majesty in the late 1990s with Larry Thrasher and Moroccan Jajouka musicians Bachir and Mustafa Attar. The project appeared with a re-formed Psychic TV at London's Royal Festival Hall in 1999. Genesis P-Orridge died on March 14, 2020, in New York City after a two-and-a-half-year struggle with leukemia.
Albums
Singles
