Until the reactivation of Industrial Records for this year’s series of Throbbing Gristle reissues, I had struggled to get a full picture of this most important of English groups. A secondhand copy of D.O.A., sleeve ripped. Fragments of sound from my Gristleism box (best Christmas gift to self, 2009). A battered CD of 20 Jazz Funk Greats. A couple of cassette copies made by friends. It was simply very difficult – and often seemed prohibitively expensive – to track down the original recordings. In a time when so many reissue series are acts of strip mining by desperate record labels, the Throbbing Gristle releases are a labour of love and artifacts to be hunted down by fans new and old alike. For me personally the greatest revelation has been getting to know Heathen Earth, the 1980 live recording which captures TG, as the sleeve notes say, "without the often unpredictable influences of adverse playing conditions on the music and on the technical quality."
Check back on the site later this week for John Doran’s full-length appraisal of the reissues. In the meantime, Rough Trade Shops have kindly given us the audio recording of the interview that I did with Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti in their East End store on November 2nd, 2011. You can listen on the Quietus Soundcloud below as Chris and Cosey talk openly about the reissues and how they put them together, discuss the very different Hackney that was their home and workplace during late 70s, including the time they evicted some pesky neighbours with sound alone. Then there’s conversation about the Throbbing Gristle performance at Oundle School and memories of Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson, their friend and fellow TG member who died a year ago. Thank you to Chris & Cosey for agreeing to do the interview, Rough Trade for asking us along and for the audio recording. Visit the Rough Trade website to purchase the TG reissues.
