COUM Transmissions

COUM Transmissions were a music and performance art collective who operated in the United Kingdom from 1969 through to 1976. Influenced by the Dada artistic movement, COUM were openly confrontational and subversive, challenging aspects of conventional British society. Founded in Hull, Yorkshire by Genesis P-Orridge, 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.

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 London's 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 official 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^{[citation needed]}. In fact for a while she had a website called Coum

Foundation: 1969–1970

The founder of COUM Transmissions was Neil Andrew Megson (1950–), a Mancunian by birth who changed his name by deed poll to Genesis P-Orridge. A university student who had developed a great interest in the radical counter-culture, he had dropped out of his 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 deconditioning 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 different on each day. Megson stayed there for three months, until late October 1969, when he decided to leave; he was angered that the commune's leaders were given more rights than the other members, and believed that the group lacked an interest in music.^[2] Megson hitch-hiked across the country before settling down in his parents' new home in Shrewsbury. Here he volunteered as an office clerk in his father's new business.^[3]

Genesis P-Orridge, the founder of COUM Transmissions, in Japan during the 1980s or 1990s.

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

COUM's 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-fiction 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] COUM's 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, Megson and Shapiro moved out of their flat and into a former fruit warehouse in Hull's docking area, overlooking the Humber. Named the Ho-Ho Funhouse by Megson, the warehouse became the communal home to an assortment of counter-cultural figures, 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 Megson at an acid test party, Newby would move into his room at the Funhouse, adopting the nom-de-guerre Cosey Fanni Tutti after the title of Amadeus Mozart's 1790 opera Così 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 Megson considered "much more theatrical, farcical and light-hearted" than their earlier performances.^[5]

Notoriety in Hull: 1971–1973

"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.

On 5 January 1971, Megson officially changed his name to Genesis P-Orridge by deed poll, combining his school nickname of "Genesis" with a misspelling of "porridge", the foodstuff which he lived off 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 country.^[8] On 18 April 1971, COUM, consisting of Genesis P'Orridge & Spydeee Gasmantell broadcast their first 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 first 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 unofficially 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 first 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. George's Hall in Bradford in October 1971, where they performed a piece called Edna and the Great Surfers, where they led the crowd in shouting "Off, Off, Off".^[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 Hull's student union, entitled "God Sucks Mary's 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, influenced 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 non-musicians", and strongly contrasting themselves with the classically trained figures 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 fictitious school of art, the L'ecole de l'art infantile, whose work culminated in a 1983 event known as the Baby's Coumpetition held at Oxford University's May Festival, which he had co-organised with Robin Klassnik and Opal L. Nations. Another invention of P-Orridge's 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]

They also put together their first book for publication; the first 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-Orridge's 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 Council's Fanfare for Europe to commemorate the UK's joining the European Economic Community in 1973, while that year P-Orridge featured a piece of conceptual art, 'Wagon Train', at the Ferens Art Gallery's Winter Show, proving controversial in local press.^[20]

Move to London: 1973–1976

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 (1914–1997), who later introduced him to the English poet and performance artist Brion Gysin (1916–1986).^[22][23] Gysin would become a major influence upon P-Orridge's 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 year's 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 floor. Exhibiting alongside the Viennese Actionists, they came under increasing influence from these Austrian performance artists, adopting their emphasis on using shock tactics to combat conventional morality.^[26] September 1973 saw them produce their first film, 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]

The Prostitution show: 1976

Their Prostitution show, in 1976 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London included on display Tutti's 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. ^{[citation needed]}

Toward the end of COUM, performances would often consist of only P-Orridge, Cosey and Sleazy, the core group who went on to form Throbbing Gristle.

Discography

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 first 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 fluid nature of COUM's membership and interests. What musical content the LP features is improvisational and avant-garde in nature, and for the most part the album's 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

Track listing

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. "It's Easy With Kesey" - 1:32
6. "73 Vibrant" - 2:56
7. "Magazine Illustration" - 0:48

Side B

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

References

Footnotes

Bibliography