62 Facts About Genesis P-Orridge

1.

On returning to Hull, Genesis P-Orridge founded COUM Transmissions with Cosey Fanni Tutti, and in 1973 they relocated to London.

2.

In 1981, Genesis P-Orridge co-founded Psychic TV, an experimental band that from 1988 onward came under the increasing influence of acid house.

3.

In 1981, Genesis P-Orridge co-founded Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, an informal occult order influenced by chaos magic and experimental music.

4.

Genesis P-Orridge was often seen as the group's leader, but rejected that position, and left the group in 1991.

5.

Genesis P-Orridge was cleared and Channel 4 retracted their allegation.

6.

Genesis P-Orridge continued with this project of body modification after Lady Jaye's 2007 death.

7.

Genesis P-Orridge was credited on over 200 releases during their lifetime.

8.

Genesis P-Orridge was born on 22 February 1950 in Victoria Park, Manchester, to Ronald and Muriel Megson.

9.

The family then moved from Essex to Cheshire, where Genesis P-Orridge attended Gatley Primary School.

10.

At age fifteen, Genesis P-Orridge became a fan of "The Hundred Headless Woman," a book that contained surrealist collages by various artists, including Max Ernst.

11.

Unpopular with other pupils, Genesis P-Orridge was bullied at the school, finding comfort in the art department at lunch-time and in the evenings.

12.

Genesis P-Orridge became interested in occultism, and has asserted that their grandmother was a medium.

13.

That same year, influenced by newspaper accounts of "Swinging London", Genesis P-Orridge organised the first happening at the school, doing so under the auspices of organising a school dance.

14.

Aged 18, Genesis P-Orridge began helping to run the local Sunday school classes, but came to reject organised Christianity.

15.

Afflicted with asthma throughout childhood, Genesis P-Orridge had to take cortisone and prednisone steroids to control the attacks.

16.

The latter of these drugs caused their adrenal glands to atrophy as a side-effect, and so the doctor advised Genesis P-Orridge to stop taking them.

17.

In September 1968, Genesis P-Orridge began studying for a degree in Social Administration and Philosophy at the University of Hull.

18.

Hull was chosen in an attempt to study at "the most ordinary non-elitist, working-class, red brick university", but Genesis P-Orridge disliked the course and unsuccessfully tried to transfer to study English.

19.

Genesis P-Orridge became involved in radical student politics through their friendship with Tom Fawthrop, a member of the Radical Student Alliance who had led a student occupation of the university's administrative buildings as a part of the worldwide student protests of 1968.

20.

In 1969, Genesis P-Orridge attempted to reconstruct the occupation for a film, in the hopes that it would itself become a genuine protest occupation, but this venture failed due to a lack of participants.

21.

In 1969, Genesis P-Orridge dropped out of university and moved to London, and joined the Transmedia Explorations commune, who were then living in a large run-down house in Islington Park Street.

22.

Genesis P-Orridge stayed there for three months, until late October 1969.

23.

On one family trip to Wales, Genesis P-Orridge was sitting in the back of the car, then "became disembodied and heard voices and saw the COUM symbol and heard the words 'COUM Transmissions".

24.

In November 1969, Genesis P-Orridge returned to Hull to meet up with friend John Shapeero, who partnered with Genesis P-Orridge to turn COUM Transmissions into an avant-garde artistic and musical troupe.

25.

Genesis P-Orridge designed a logo for the group, consisting of a semi-erect penis formed out of the word COUM with a drip of semen coming out of the end, while the motto "Your Local Dirty Banned" was emblazoned underneath.

26.

An example performance involved the group turning up to play a gig but intentionally not bringing any instruments, something Genesis P-Orridge considered "much more theatrical, farcical and light-hearted" than their earlier performances.

27.

Meanwhile, Genesis P-Orridge created the character of Alien Brain, and in July 1972, performed as the character at an event entitled the World Premiere of the Alien Brain, at Hull Arts Centre.

28.

COUM began publishing books; in 1972, they brought out the first volume of The Million and One Names of COUM, part of a proposed project to release 1001 slogans, while in 1973 Genesis P-Orridge published Copyright Breeches, which explored an ongoing personal fascination with the copyright symbol and its implications for art and society.

29.

At that year's Edinburgh Festival, Genesis P-Orridge undertook a Marcel Duchamp-inspired performance art piece, Art Vandals, at the Richard Demarco Gallery, engaging guests in unconventional conversation, and spilling their food and drink on the floor.

30.

In February 1975, Genesis P-Orridge gained their first full-time job, working as an assistant editor at St James Press, in which they helped to compile the Contemporary Artists reference book.

31.

Together, Carter, Christopherson, Cosey and Genesis P-Orridge founded a musical band, Throbbing Gristle, on 3 September 1975; they had deliberately chosen that date for it was the 36th anniversary of the United Kingdom joining the Second World War.

32.

COUM's mail art had taken on an increasingly pornographic dimension, and in November 1975 the police charged Genesis P-Orridge with distributing obscene material via in the postal system under the 1953 Post Office Act; this trial was set for February 1976.

33.

Genesis P-Orridge received a number of threatening phone calls, proceeding to record them and use them as a backing track for the TG song "Death Threats".

34.

The decision to name the band "Psychic TV" stemmed from Genesis P-Orridge's belief that while mainstream television was a form of mass indoctrination and mind control, it could be used as an "esoterrorist" form of magick to combat the establishment's control.

35.

Genesis P-Orridge had become acquainted with Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan and ideologue of LaVeyan Satanism, with LaVey making an appearance on the Psychic TV song "Joy", in which he recites the Lord's Prayer backwards.

36.

Video projection and early sampling were used here, as well as whispered utterances by Genesis P-Orridge reprocessed as a soundtrack to Gysin's Dreammachine by the Hafler Trio.

37.

In 1981, Genesis P-Orridge founded a loosely organised network of occultists named Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, with the aid of John Balance, Tibet, and a number of members of the Process Church of the Final Judgement, a group which had exerted an influence on Genesis P-Orridge's occult thought.

38.

Genesis P-Orridge had never wanted to be seen as the leader of an occult order, although many of those involved in TOPY were frustrated that outsiders regularly described Genesis P-Orridge as the group's leader.

39.

Accordingly, Genesis P-Orridge separated from TOPY in 1991, although it continued as a fan community after the departure.

40.

At the time, Genesis P-Orridge was in Thailand undertaking famine relief work; fearing arrest and loss of child custody upon return to the UK, Genesis P-Orridge stayed out of the country for several years, settling in the United States.

41.

Genesis P-Orridge believed that the negative press and police attention were the result of a campaign organised by a Christian group.

42.

At 45 years of age Genesis P-Orridge met Lady Jaye in a BDSM dungeon in New York City and would eventually marry for a second time.

43.

Genesis P-Orridge performed with Nik Turner and other former members of Hawkwind.

44.

Genesis P-Orridge tried to escape the house by crawling through a second-storey window and fell onto concrete stairs.

45.

Genesis P-Orridge suffered a broken wrist, broken ribs, and a pulmonary embolism, as well as a shattered left elbow that, according to Stein, prevented Genesis P-Orridge from playing bass or keyboards.

46.

In 1999, Genesis P-Orridge performed with the briefly reunited late-1980s version of Psychic TV for an event at London's Royal Festival Hall, called Time's Up.

47.

In December 2003, Genesis P-Orridge, using the alias Djinn, unveiled PTV3, a new act drawing upon the early "Hyperdelic" work of Psychic TV with media theorist Douglas Rushkoff among its members.

48.

Since that time Genesis continues to represent the amalgam Breyer P-Orridge in the material 'world' and Lady Jaye represents the amalgam Breyer P-Orridge in the immaterial 'world' creating an ongoing interdimensional collaboration.

49.

From this point, Genesis P-Orridge began referring to themselves in the plural in order to keep Breyer's memory alive.

50.

In September 2009, a retrospective of Genesis P-Orridge's collages, entitled "30 Years of Being Cut Up", opened at Invisible-Exports.

51.

On 4 November 2009 it was announced that Genesis P-Orridge would retire from touring in any and all bands to concentrate on art, writing and music.

52.

In June 2010, Genesis P-Orridge sold the Ridgewood property, holding a garage sale in the basement of a local art gallery to sell off a range of personal items, in addition to an array of dildos.

53.

Genesis P-Orridge returned to regular touring with Psychic TV in 2016, in support of the release of their album Alienist.

54.

In mid-2016, Genesis P-Orridge's artwork was the subject of an exhibition, "Try to Altar Everything", at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City.

55.

The exhibition contained paintings, sculptures, and installations inspired by the Hindu mythology that Genesis P-Orridge had encountered in Kathmandu.

56.

In June 2016, Genesis P-Orridge was featured as a model in a campaign by the designer Marc Jacobs, who described Genesis P-Orridge as "a sort of come-to-life definition of realness and authenticity".

57.

Genesis P-Orridge was diagnosed with chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia in October 2017, and died in New York City on 14 March 2020, aged 70.

58.

Genesis P-Orridge adopted Spare's views on sigils, coming to see their own work as a form of sigil magic.

59.

Genesis P-Orridge adopted this theory, believing that their work operates according to its principles.

60.

Genesis P-Orridge was devoted to the deity Eshu Eleggua, an entity from the Afro-Caribbean syncretic religion of Santeria.

61.

Genesis P-Orridge stated disbelief in the literal existence of gods, deeming such entities to instead be "early attempts at psychology, trying to understand the light and dark side of human nature".

62.

The quote that Genesis P-Orridge attributed to their mentor, "I feel your pain, I feel your shame, but you're not to blame", was used as the catchphrase for the Shirley Ghostman psychic clairvoyant character by comedian Marc Wootton.