{"id":9999,"date":"2018-12-31T14:26:36","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/?p=9999"},"modified":"2024-01-16T14:47:22","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T14:47:22","slug":"throbbing-gristle-and-psychic-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/throbbing-gristle-and-psychic-tv\/","title":{"rendered":"Throbbing Gristle And Psychic TV: An essay by Al Puppy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

THIS POST WAS WRITTEN BY AL \u2018PUPPY\u2019 IN APRIL 2005 TIDIED UP WITH PHOTOGRAPHS AND SCANS ADDED BY MICKEY \u2018PENGUIN\u2019 IN 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n

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It was in 1977 that I finally found, and bought, a copy of the Sex Pistols \u2018Anarchy in the UK\u2019 on EMI Records. It cost 37p from Woolworths in Castle Douglas, and I\u2019ve still got it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1978 I found, and bought, a copy of\u00a0 Throbbing Gristle\u2019s \u2018United \/ Zyklon B Zombie\u2019 7\u2033 single.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Funny thing is I was kind of disappointed by \u2018Anarchy\u2019 at the time, as it was after all, only well produced but raucous rock n roll. But \u2018Zyklon B\u2019 \u2013 that sounded like what I had imagined from reading about punk, what punk should sound like \u2013 all distorted, weird and ugly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

August 1979: By this time I was living in Ilford and working. I used to hang out at the Small Wonder record shop in Walthamstow every Wednesday before going to Waltham Forest College to study engineering. One of Pete Stennet\u2019s mates who used to turn up was called Coz (Colin) and Coz started promoting concerts as \u2018Final Solution\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Final Solution concerts started in a big way that August at the YMCA in Tottenham Court Road, over four nights, four concerts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I attended the first two concerts.<\/p>\n\n\n

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First concert was Echo and the Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes, Joy Division and Essential Logic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Echo and the Bunnymen I thought at the time, must have been a newly formed group as I had witnessed problems by the band working out where to plug guitar into! Maybe the members of the band were just \u2018speeding\u2019 affecting their collective judgement!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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The next concert was Rema Rema, Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also played in background of the hall was the yet to be released \u2018Bela Lugosi\u2019s Dead\u2019 by Bauhaus, which was eventually released on the Small Wonder record label. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what I remember most is Throbbing Gristle. They came on to Village People\u2019s \u2018YMCA\u2019 which gradually slowed down as Gen struck poses under a strobe light\u2026 They were awesome.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I saw Throbbing Gristle performances on two further occasions. Once in February at the Scala Cinema in Kings Cross and in March at Goldsmiths College in Deptford. I bought the records. I joined the \u2018fanclub\u2019, I even tried to tape the noise of the Durex condom making machines at work, to send to the band!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also had a bit of fun writing to Throbbing Gristle HQ on my employers London Rubber headed paper \u2013 and I got some replies from Cosy at work which caused some raised eyebrows \u2013 all letters were read by office manager\u2019s assistant and stamped \u201cWorks Engineers Dept\u201d before I got them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The actual records were interesting, but live \u2013 Throbbing Gristle were IT, they \u2018anti-rocked\u2019, they created the most intense atmosphere of any group I have ever seen or heard. \u2018Heathen Earth\u2019 is maybe the closest on an album to what I describe, but witnessing Throbbing Gristle performing live, this was the \u2018real deal\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Next up was Toxic Graffity (sic) fanzine. It was a very Crass influenced fanzine. The writer, Mike D, came from Tunbridge Wells and was intrigued by the Toxic Graffity \/ Throbbing Gristle synchronicity (TG\/TG) and so me and him set off one day to the \u2018Death Factory\u2019 in Martello Street, beside London Fields in Hackney, to do an interview. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wandered around but there was no sign of anyone,so we wander around the corner to Beck Road and met Genesis and some other people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t remember any actual interview happening though. Shame, it would have been amusing to find Throbbing Gristle in Toxic Graffity alongside Crass and the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Beck Road is one one side of Mare Street, with railway line running on arches over head \u2013 for years there was Class War graffiti on one of the arches \u201cToffs out of Hackney\u201d. I don\u2019t think it was ironic, I don\u2019t remember Class War doing much irony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Brougham Road is on the other side near the original \u2018Albert Square\u2019. A big housing estate had been built and then the money ran out or something so a row of Victorian terraced houses that were left which were then squatted for a few years \u2013 ex Bader Mienhof person Astrid Proll lived there for a while under an assumed name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think Mark from The Mob lived at Brougham Road for awhile, Min did too, and so did a white South African draft dodger J.C. more names, ummm I can\u2019t remember, but there was a woman with a young family too.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Fod\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Min and Andrew<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The point being that after Throbbing Gristle <\/a>ended in 1981 and Psychic TV emerged as Gen and Sleazy\u2019s new project (Chris and Cosey had their own group) a bit of overlap began to emerge with some anarcho-punk Hackney squatters being some of the first TOPY \u2013 \u2018Temple Ov Psychick Youth\u2019 youths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, I never enjoyed Psychic TV as much as I had Throbbing Gristle. I think the tensions and differences within Throbbing Gristle made their music more interesting, whereas Psychic TV became more and more Gen\u2019s project. Can\u2019t really say though, I was buying fewer and fewer records, so don\u2019t have any Psychic TV to compare with Throbbing Gristle.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I think part of the attraction of Psychic TV was their total \u2018myth and ritual\u2019 approach, like that of Crass, and even Hawkwind and maybe the Grateful Dead. That what you got was not just a bit of noise on a record, you got a whole lifestyle and ideology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certainly, there was a lot of cross-links between us anarcho-goth-punks and Psychic TV. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1984 I remember us all going to Psychic TV gigs at a squatted synagogue in Drayton Park, at Hammersmith Town Hall and at Heaven in Covent Garden.<\/p>\n\n\n

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And of course, a further\u00a0cross-link between us anarcho-goth-punks and Psychic TV was when All The Madmen Records, of which I was a part of,\u00a0 released the Zos Kia\u2019s \u2018Rape\u2019 7\u2033 single \u2013 sleeve artwork on the cover showing a pierced willy, which got faded down a bit to make it less obvious.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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