COUM Transmissions

COUM Transmissions were a music and performance

art collective who operated in the United Kingdom from
1969 through to 1976. Inuenced by the Dada artistic movement, COUM were openly confrontational and
subversive, challenging aspects of conventional British
society. Founded in Hull, Yorkshire by Genesis POrridge, other prominent members included Cosey Fanni
Tutti, Spydeee Gasmantell (also at school with Genesis
P'Orridge). Part-time member included Menzies, Haydn
Robb, Ray Harvey, Les Maull (aka The Reverend Lelli),
Ray Harvey and Fizzy Paet. Later members included
Peter Sleazy Christopherson and Chris Carter, who together went on to found the pioneering industrial band
Throbbing Gristle in 1976.

tioning its members out of their routines and conventional behaviour; they were forbidden from sleeping in
the same place on consecutive nights, food was cooked
at irregular times of the day and all clothing was kept in
a communal chest, with its members wearing something
dierent on each day. P-Orridge stayed there for three
months, until late October 1969, when s/he decided to
leave; s/he was angered that the communes leaders were
given more rights than the other members, and believed
that the group lacked an interest in music.[2] P-Orridge
hitch-hiked across the country before settling down in
h/er parents new home in Shrewsbury. Here s/he volunteered as an oce clerk in his fathers new business.[3]

It had a rotating membership, and included both

intellectual and criminal elements and existed formally
from 1969 until 1976. In that year, Genesis & Cosey exhibited at Londons Institute of Contemporary Arts in a
show called Prostitution, which consisted of explicit photographs of lesbians, assemblages of rusty knives, syringes, bloodied hair, used sanitary towels, press clippings and photo documentation of COUM performances
in Milan and Paris. There was a lot of outrage expressed
by London newspapers and UK politicians, including
Tory MP Nicholas Fairbairn, who referred to COUM as
the wreckers of Western civilization. However, memberships to the ICA increased sharply as a result of the
COUM show.[1]
The last ocial COUM performances and art shows took
place in 1976. At or around that time, Genesis proclaimed he was through with performance art. Cosey, on
the other hand, felt she had only just begun. Though she
feels the name COUM to be tainted now and unusable,
she has been known to say her individual projects are still
a part of the COUM family of work. In fact for a while
she had a website called Coum

Genesis P-Orridge, the founder of COUM Transmissions, in

Japan during the 1980s or 1990s.

P-Orridge rst developed the concept for COUM on a

family trip to Wales, during which s/he was sitting in
the back of the car when s/he became disembodied
and heard voices and saw the COUM symbol and heard
the words 'COUM Transmissions. Returning home that
evening, s/he lled three notebooks with various artistic
thoughts and ideas, inuenced in part by h/er time with
Transmedia Explorations.[3] In December 1969 s/he returned to Hull to meet up with h/er friend John Shapiro,
with whom s/he would turn COUM Transmissions into
an avant-garde artistic and musical troupe. They initially debated as to how to dene COUM, later deciding that like the name dada it should remain open to interpretation. 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,

Foundation: 19691970

The founder of COUM Transmissions was Genesis POrridge (1950), a Mancunian by birth who later founded
Throbbing Gristle and other projects. A university student who had developed a great interest in the radical
counter-culture, P-Orridge had dropped out of h/er studies at the University of Hull and spent three months living in the Transmedia Explorations commune in North
London during late 1968. The commune members adhered to a strict regime with the intention of decondi1

NOTORIETY IN HULL: 19711973

while the motto YOUR LOCAL DIRTY BANNED

was emblazoned underneath. Another logo designed by
Megson consisted of a hand-drawn seal accompanied by
the statement COUM guarantee disappointment"; from
their early foundation, the group made use of wordplay in
their artworks and adverts.[4]
COUMs earliest public events were impromptu musical gigs performed at various pubs around Hull; titles
for these events included Thee Fabulous Mutations, Space
Between the Violins, Dead Violins and Degradation and
Clockwork Hot Spoiled Acid Test. The latter combined
the names of Anthony Burgess' dystopian science-ction
novel A Clockwork Orange (1962) with Tom Wolfe's The
Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), a work of literary
journalism devoted to the Merry Pranksters, a U.S. communal counter-cultural group who advocated the use of
psychedelic drugs.[4] COUMs music was anarchic and
improvised, making use of such instruments as broken violins, prepared pianos, guitars, bongos and talking drums.
As time went on, they would add further theatrics to their
performances, in one instance making the audience crawl
through a polythene tunnel in order to enter the venue.[5]
In December 1969, P-Orridge and Shapiro moved out
of their at and into a former fruit warehouse in Hulls
docking area, overlooking the Humber. Named the HoHo Funhouse by P-Orridge, the warehouse became the
communal home to an assortment of counter-cultural gures, including artists, musicians, fashion designers and
underground magazine producers.[6] At Christmas 1969,
a woman named Christine Carol Newby (1951) moved
into the Funhouse after being thrown out of her home
by her father. Having earlier befriended P-Orridge at
an acid test party, Newby would move into h/er room at
the Funhouse, adopting the nom-de-guerre Cosey Fanni
Tutti after the title of Amadeus Mozart's 1790 opera
Cos fan tutte.[7] Joining COUM, Tutti initially helped
in building props and designing costumes, and was there
when the group began changing its focus from music to
performance art and more theatrical happenings; one of
these involved the group turning up to play a gig but intentionally not bringing any instruments, something POrridge considered much more theatrical, farcical and
light-hearted than their earlier performances.[5]

Notoriety in Hull: 19711973

On 5 January 1971, Megson ocially changed his name

to Genesis P-Orridge by deed poll, combining his school
nickname of Genesis with a misspelling of "porridge",
the foodstu which he lived o as a student. His new
nom-de-guerre was intentionally un-glamorous, and he
hoped that by adopting it he would trigger his own genius
factor.[8] This caught the attention of the Yorkshire Post,
who featured an article on P-Orridge and COUM Transmissions on 11 February. Soon, COUM began to attract further media attention from newspapers across the

Yes COUM are fab and kinky (1971), an example of the artwork which P-Orridge produced to advertise his artistic-musical
group; the primary image is of himself as a child.

country.[8] On 18 April 1971, COUM, consisting of Genesis P'Orridge & Spydeee Gasmantell broadcast their rst
live radio session, for the On Cue programme for Radio
Humberside and were interview by Jim Hawkins.[9] On
the back of their radio and press success, they performed
a variety of other happenings, such as Riot Control at the
Gondola Club and then their rst street action, Absolute
Everywhere, which got them in trouble with the local police force.[9]
The Gondola Club was raided by the police and closed
down soon after; most other local clubs blamed COUM
and unocially banned them from performing in the
Hull area. COUM drew up a petition which they distributed locally to gain support for the group and as a
result, the group got a booking at the local Brickhouse,
which was their rst performance in which the audience
applauded and called for an encore. However, the petition had contained their phallic logo, and the police
charged P-Orridge and fellow COUM member Haydn
Robb (now known as Haydn Nobb) of publishing an obscene advert, although the charges were later dropped.[10]
Gaining coverage in the music press, interest in the band
grew, and they were asked to support the rock band
Hawkwind at St. Georges Hall in Bradford in October
1971, where they performed a piece called Edna and

3
the Great Surfers, where they led the crowd in shouting
O, O, O.[10] The following month, the band attracted the interest of John Peel, who discussed the band
in Disco and Music Echo, remarking that "[s]ome might
say that Coum were madmen but constant exposure to
mankind forces me to believe that we need more madmen
like them.[11] They also featured in an article in Torch,
the publication of the University of Hulls student union,
entitled God Sucks Marys Hairy Nipple"; the author
of the article, Haydn Robb, would subsequently join the
performance collective.[11] Another member who joines
was Tim Poston (1945), a lecturer in mathematics at
Warwick University who would go on to undertake research into catastrophe theory, inuenced by his work in
COUM.[12]
COUM would only ever release one song produced in
this early period, Dry Blood Tampax, which they included on their 1983 cassette 23 Drifts to Guestling.[11]
They recognised that they would never become a commercial success and so sought out other forms of funding, successfully applying for a small Experimental Arts
Grant from the Yorkshire Arts Association, a publicly
funded body.[13] Now openly describing themselves as
performance artists, COUM looked up to the work of
the Dadaists and emphasised the amateur quality of their
work, proclaiming that "[t]he future of music lies in nonmusicians, and strongly contrasting themselves with the
classically trained gures involved in progressive rock
which had attained mainstream popularity in Britain at
the time.[14] P-Orridge began to take an increasing interest in infantilism, founding a ctitious school of art,
the L'ecole de l'art infantile, whose work culminated in
a 1983 event known as the Babys Coumpetition held
at Oxford University's May Festival, which he had coorganised with Robin Klassnik and Opal L. Nations. Another invention of P-Orridges at this time was his Ministry of Antisocial Insecurity (MAI), a parody of the governmental Ministry of Social Security.[15] He also set
about working on creating a character known as Alien
Brain, and in July 1972 performed the World Premiere
of The Alien Brain at Hull Arts Centre, a multi-media
happening that involved the audience and which had received funding from the Yorkshire Arts Association.[16]
That summer, they also entered the National Rock/Folk
Contest at the New Grange Club in Hull with a set entitled This Machine Kills Music; a parody of the slogan "this
machine kills fascists".[17]

joining the European Economic Community in 1973,

while that year P-Orridge featured a piece of conceptual art, 'Wagon Train', at the Ferens Art Gallerys Winter
Show, proving controversial in local press.[20]

3 Move to London: 19731976

Following continual police harassment, P-Orridge and
Tutti relocated to London, moving in to a squat and obtaining a basement studio in Hackney which they named
the Death Factory.[21] After a brief correspondence,
here P-Orridge met American novelist and poet William
S. Burroughs (19141997), who later introduced him
to the English poet and performance artist Brion Gysin
(19161986).[22][23] Gysin would become a major inuence upon P-Orridges ideas and works and was h/er
primary tutor in magic.[24] 1973 saw COUM take part
in the Fluxshoe retrospective that toured Britain exhibiting the work of the Fluxus artists; it was organised
by David Mayor, who befriended P-Orridge.[25] At that
years Edinburgh Festival, they undertook their Marcel
Duchamp-inspired Art Vandals piece at the Richard Demarco Gallery, in which they engaged guests in unconventional conversation, and spilled their food and drink
on the oor. Exhibiting alongside the Viennese Actionists, they came under increasing inuence from these
Austrian performance artists, adopting their emphasis on
using shock tactics to combat conventional morality.[26]
September 1973 saw them produce their rst lm, Wundatrek Tours, which documented a day out to Brighton,
while throughout the year they sent postcards that they
had designed to mail-art shows across the world.[27]

4 The Prostitution show: 1976

Their Prostitution show, in 1976 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London included on display
Tuttis pornographic images from magazines as well as
erotic nude photographs. The show featured a stripper,
used Tampax in glass, and transvestite guards. Prostitutes, punks, and people in costumes were among
those hired to mingle with the gallery audience. The
show caused debate in Parliament about the public
funding of such events. In the House of Commons,
Scottish Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Fairbairn demanded an explanation from Arts Minister Harold Lever
and proclaimed P-Orridge and Tutti as wreckers of
civilisation.[28] Fleet Street was not slow to pick up the
story. The reviews were cut up, framed and put on display for the remainder of the exhibition. This was also reported in newspapers, so cut-ups about the cut-ups were
also put on display.

They also put together their rst book for publication; the
rst volume in a projected project known as The Million
and One Names of COUM appeared in 1972, containing 1001 slogans, such as COUM are Fab and Kinky
and A thousand and one ways to COUM.[18] Another
of P-Orridges early publications was the book Copyright
Breeches (1973), which explored his ongoing fascination
with the copyright symbol and its wider implications for
art and society.[19] COUM organised events for Hull City Toward the end of COUM, performances would often
Council's Fanfare for Europe to commemorate the UKs consist of only P-Orridge, Cosey and Sleazy, the core
group who went on to form Throbbing Gristle.

Discography

REFERENCES

[3] Ford 1999. p. 1.15.

[4] Ford 1999. p. 1.16.

In July 2009, American record label Dais Records released the COUM Transmissions LP The Sound Of Porridge Bubbling in a limited edition of 500 copies, as
was the case with Early Worm (Genesis P-Orridge and
friends, 1968) in 2008. When announcing the release
of the album, Dais stated that it is to be the rst in a
planned continuing series of lost recordings by COUM
Transmissions.[29]
The COUM LP was recorded in 1971 and then shelved
due to the uid nature of COUMs membership and interests. What musical content the LP features is improvisational and avant-garde in nature, and for the most part the
albums tracks consist of spoken word material and sound
experiments, at times reminiscent of the audio material
that William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin had been experimenting with in the 1960s, in fact one track, Nude
Supper is a direct reading from William S. Burroughs
work, Naked Lunch

[5] Ford 1999. p. 1.20.

[6] Ford 1999. p. 1.17.
[7] Ford 1999. p. 1.171.19.
[8] Ford 1999. p. 2.4.
[9] Ford 1999. p. 2.6.
[10] Ford 1999. p. 2.7.
[11] Ford 1999. p. 2.8.
[12] Ford 1999. p. 2.11.
[13] Ford 1999. p. 2.9.
[14] Ford 1999. p. 2.102.11.
[15] Ford 1999. p. 2.132.14.
[16] Ford 1999. p. 2.18.
[17] Ford 1999. p. 2.22.
[18] Ford 1999. p. 2.19.

Track listing

[19] Ford 1999. p. 2.21.

[20] Ford 1999. pp. 3.33.6.

Side A
1. Welcome To The Alien Camp - 1:57
2. Real Sure Alien Brain - 2:51
3. On The Count Of Three - 1:57
4. Dogs Are Funny People - 1:24
5. Its Easy With Kesey" - 1:32

[21] Ford 1999. pp. 3.73.9.

[22] Ford 1999. pp. 3.93.10.
[23] Metzger, Richard (31 December 2009). Genesis Breyer
P-Orridge: Thee Psychick Bible. Dangerous Minds
[24] P-Orridge, Genesis. Magick Squares and Future Beats.
Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the
Occult. The Disinformation Company, 2003: 103118
ISBN 0-9713942-7-X
[25] Ford 1999. pp. 3.113.14.

6. 73 Vibrant - 2:56

[26] Ford 1999. pp. 3.143.17.

7. Magazine Illustration - 0:48

[27] Ford 1999. pp. 3.173.18.

Side B
1. Magickal Variants - 5:16
2. Nude Supper - 9:46
3. The Sound Of Porridge Bubbling - 1:56

7
7.1

References
Footnotes

[1] Walker, John. (10 August 2009). Cosey Fanni Tutti &
Genesis P-Orridge in 1976 - Media frenzy, Prostitutionstyle / Excerpts from Art and outrage, Art Design Publicity.
Retrieved 23 January 2010.
[2] Ford 1999. pp. 1.121.15.

[28] Williams, Sheldon. Genesis P-Orridge. pp. 770772

in Naylor, Colin & Genesis P-Orridge (editors). Contemporary Artists. Macmillan Press/St Martins Press, 1977.
ISBN 0-333-22672-0
[29] Dais Records. Dais Records. Retrieved 2012-08-13.

7.2 Bibliography
Abrahamsson, Carl (2011) [1989]. An Interview
with Genesis P-Orridge. The Fenris Wolf I3
(Stockholm: Edda). pp. 3250. ISBN 978-91979534-1-2.
Daniel, Drew (2008). 20 Jazz Funk Greats. London:
Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-2793-9.
Ford, Simon (1999). Wreckers of Civilisation: The
Story of COUM Transmissions & Throbbing Gristle.
Black Dog Publishing. ISBN 978-1-901033-60-1.

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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COUM Transmissions Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COUM_Transmissions?oldid=663760290 Contributors: Camerong, Bearcat,

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