Wreckers of Civilisation: The Story of Coum Transmissions & Throbbing Gristle

Wreckers of Civilisation: The Story of Coum Transmissions & Throbbing Gristle
by Simon Ford

Wreckers of Civilisation: The Story of Coum Transmissions & Throbbing Gristle
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Book Summary Information

Author: Simon Ford
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-06-01
ISBN: 1901033600
Number of pages: 300
Publisher: Black Dog Publishing

Book Reviews of Wreckers of Civilisation: The Story of Coum Transmissions & Throbbing Gristle

Book Review: Very good overview of TG/Coum
Summary: 5 Stars

It took me all of 1999 to get hold of this book, and finally amazon.com sold me a slightly damaged copy for $32. People are waiting for a second printing and/or a US edition. The cover looks cheap, white with a cut-out and rearranged photo of TG members from the «20 Jazz Funk Greats» album cover. But that's about the only negative thing I could say about the book. This will stand as the definitive work on the subject for a LONG time. It's incredibly thorough, and with many picures and illustrations never or rarely seen before, including many photos of the pre-TG hippie version of Genesis P-Orridge. It tells the full story from GPO's birth in 1950 up to the split of TG in 1981.

While TG has been the subject of quite a lot of writing before, in two of the RE/Search books and many music mags, the performance art COUM period has had very little attention and critique. This is fully rectified here. When TG put out their first LP, you're more than halfway thru the book. Ford's unfolding chronological work is strong on both personal biographical detail and assessment of COUM/TG's place in art history.
I see TG/GPO as much stronger conceptualists than actual artists, much like their mentor William Burroughs. But as such, they have wielded an extremely strong influence on others, and sown the seeds of whole new genres of art and music. The unorthodox use of synths, «industrial» noise and cut-ups are now commonplace, while in the 70's it could cause riots when presented to an audience most used to the popular music of the time.
The COUM group's extreme use of bodily fluids and food in performance could be viewed as a continuation of the ground-breaking work of people like Hermann Nitsch and Otto Mühl. Coum did some far out stuff, but were in my opinion not as much pioneers in their field as TG was. But the scandalous 1976 «Prostitution» show at the ICA in London must have been a lot of fun. Backed by tax-payers' money, Cosey Fanni Tutti tore out nude pics of herself from men's magazines she had posed in, and presented them as art. If it's in a gallery, it must be art, right? Not quite. The exhibition created a massive moral outrage.
For record-collecting geeks, a full discography listing ALL releases (official, semi-official and bootlegs) is included in the back of the book, but in the book itself only the recordings released while TG was active are discussed. Which is a perfectly valid decision, as these are the original «manifestos» authorized by all TG members.
An indispensable book for anyone with an interest in 20th century art and music history.

Summary of Wreckers of Civilisation: The Story of Coum Transmissions & Throbbing Gristle

Performance artists Coum Transmissions and the music group Throbbing Gristle are subjects of the first major book by critic and art historian Simon Ford. The four key members of the groups, led by Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti, were shocking and controversial, exposing the physical and emotional truths that were at the core of the political and social makeup of England in the 1970s. Paving the way for the onslaught of the punk movement, Coum and TG extended the boundaries of both art and music, where the profane was provocative and private acts became public display. P-Orridge exposed the groups' essential credo when he exclaimed, "When in doubt-be extreme." Tory MP Nicholas Fairbain responded by calling groups like Coum and TG "the wreckers of civilisation."

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