A comprehensive online archive of all things Genesis p-orridge,arguably one of the most important icons of alternative culture of the latter quarter of the 20th Century and beyond ...
the essays, interviews, music and magick that has given "CONTROL" headaches for 60-some years now.
*bear with me as i correct spelling and fix formatting on some of this older material!
Gen's upcoming events and Misc.upcoming projects...
GENS MISC. UPCOMING PROJECTS:Heartworm Press are publishing “Collected Lyrics and Poems of Genesis Breyer P-Orridge – Volume One 1961 to 1971. Later they will publish Gen's first novel, written in 1969, “Mrs. Askwith”. Other books will follow.
PSYCHIC TV's complete, unheard show, recorded at the prestigious Marquee Club, London, 20th May 1986. For this event Psychic TV were: Genesis P-Orridge, Alex Fergusson, Mouse, Matthew Best. Tracklisting: 1. Intro, 2. Ov Power, 3. She Touched Me, 4. Just Like Arcadia, 5. Supermale, 6. I Like You, 7. Riot In Thee Eye, 8. Interstellar Overdrive, 9. Unclean, 10. Godstar, 11. We Kiss, 12. Roman P., 13. IT. Ltd x 1000 copies, featuring an 8-page booklet of unseen photos. • All Psychic TV Titles• All Cold Spring Titles
PSYCHIC TV in a unique line-up - a unique show, recorded 19th May 1985 at Hammersmith Palais, London. For this event Psychic TV were: Genesis P-Orridge, Alex Fergusson, Max Prior, Mouse, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Dave Ball (Soft Cell), Rose McDowall (Strawberry Switchblade, Sorrow, Coil, Current 93). Tracklisting: 1. I Like You, 2. Just Like Arcadia, 3. Godstar, 4. Unclean, 5. Baby's Gone Away, 6. Southern Comfort, 7. We Kiss, 8. Thee Starlit Mire, 9. Ov Power, 10. Gen Poetry, 11. Tribal. This is a completely unheard show, with unseen photos! Ltd x 1000 copies. • All Psychic TV Titles• All Cold Spring Titles
PSYCHIC TV, 5th November 1984, Manchester. This was PSYCHIC TV's first show at NEW ORDER / FACTORY's legendary HACIENDA club! For this event Psychic TV were: Genesis P-Orridge, John Gosling (Zos Kia, Coil), Paul Reeson, and Alex Fergusson. Tracklisting: 1. Intro, 2. Enochian Calls, 3. I Like You, 4. Unclean Monks, 5. Unclean, 6. Roman P., 7. Southern Comfort, 8. Godstar, 9. Thee Starlit Mire, 10. Thee Shining. This is the complete show with unseen photos! Ltd x 1000 copies. • All Psychic TV Titles• All Cold Spring Titles
PSYCHIC TV - 'Live At Thee Marquee' CD (Cold Spring CSR189CD) PSYCHIC TV - 'Thee Fabulous Feast Ov Flowering Light' CD (Cold Spring CSR188CD) PSYCHIC TV - 'Hacienda' CD (Cold Spring CSR187CD) • All Psychic TV Titles• All Cold Spring Titles
Taken from the November issue of Dazed & Confused:
The life and work of Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (who refers to h/erself as “we” since amalgamating with late wife Lady Jaye in their Pandrogyny project) is marked by an unending devotion to exploration. Through Early Worm, the Exploding Galaxy, COUM Transmissions, Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, Thee Majesty, PTV3 and beyond, the artist, composer, thinker and performer has made it h/er business to cut apart reality and splice it back together again while expanding boundaries of sound, physicality, belief and consciousness.
In P-Orridge’s high-rise apartment in downtown New York, artefacts from various explorations across the globe are strewn about the premises. Given h/er belief that bodies are merely vessels that house our greater, more spiritual selves, what sort of power can we find in these inanimate objects?
“There’s no way of knowing whether we’re here or if someone is dreaming us,” P-Orridge says. “My dreams are as real as this. Therefore, what’s real? You have out-of-body experiences from meditation, extreme pain or using psychedelic chemicals and you’re like, wait a minute, these walls can just dissolve. It seems solid, but is it really? So these objects are inculcated with some form of energy that can be absorbed and retained. They help me function. The talismans hold power by being believed in, just like people with their crucifixes. All we can say is that we found they have assisted my navigation through this apparent reality.”
Photography by Fumi Nagasaka
Motorcycle jackets
“The Illuminati jackets are from Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth’s motorcycle club – that’s what they called them-selves. They were based in Portland. When we were touring in the late 80s, we’d drive up to Portland and then six of them would actually follow us all down the west coast: two in front, two behind and two at the side. It looked fucking fabulous. And there were these people doing merch who had a heavy Volkswagen thing behind that, so it was a real convoy going through. Blew the citizens’ minds, it did! We also used to have Hells Angels colours and Gypsy Jokers too. We gave back the Hells Angels colours as tradition demands, but kept the Gypsy Jokers. Then one day we were walking down the road in Hackney and a whole crowd of Hells Angels surrounded me and said, ‘Why are you wearing those colours?’ And we said, because I’m a member of the Gypsy Jokers, and they went, ‘We want it! Give it to us!’ And we went, ‘No!’ But it so happened we were on a bridge over a canal, and they got out their spanners and chains and said, ‘Here’ the deal. You either give it to us or we beat you half to death and throw you in the canal so you drown.’ So I gave it to them. Because, you know, you can’t argue with that. Really a sad day. I still miss that jacket.
Breyer P-Orridge clone DNA
This is a clone of me and Lady Jaye. It’s all the DNA necessary to create something that’s made from both of us. It’s a mini version of the alchemical wedding. Both of us integrated. It’s got pubic hair, hair from the head, eyebrows, toenails, fingernails, skin off of heels, blood.
THESE TALISMANS HOLD POWER BY BEING BELIEVED IN. THEY HAVE ASSISTED MY NAVIGATION THROUGH THIS APPARENT REALITY
Derek Jarman’s seaside gift
We met Derek in 1969 when we were in the Exploding Galaxy. That was the period when gay lib street theatre and being a transvestite as a political act began. So on the weekends we would all dress up in drag and run around Portobello Road, doing fake opera and ballet and hugging people and kissing men, and so on. Then there was a gap of time as often happens, and we were walking down Tottenham Court Road and heard this incredibly distinctive, posh voice: ‘Gen, is that you?’ And it was Derek. He lived above a cinema and we went for the traditional British cup of tea and reconnected. He was really excited by the idea of Throbbing Gristle, and was even more excited by Psychic TV because he was into magick. So he started to ask me, could you do soundtracks? So TG did In theShadow of the Sun andPsychic TV also did one which was originally called Mirrors. Instead of money, he would give me paintings and objects. This one is from Dungeness, where he had his cottage. It says on the back that he carved that piece of clay on a beach in 1961. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? And it has memory. Thank God Scotland Yard didn’t take it.
Photography by Fumi Nagasaka
Dreamachine
This one arrived in the mail unexpectedly in a parcel. We opened it and there was this dreamachine (a stroboscopic flicker device created in 1961 by Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville, William Burroughs’s ‘systems adviser’ and lover) with a note from this guy called Johnny Smoke, this very intensely, self-consciously eccentric person. He said, ‘I’ve been making dreamachines and if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t know how. So I’ve had the idea of making them available the way that Brion Gysin wanted.’ So we said, that’s great! He’s asked me to do some kind of template of the inside and paint it or write on it for a special Breyer P-Orridge dreamachine. He’s made one with fur on the outside. He’s pimping dreamachines! Next he’ll have a low-rider one with hydraulics. But it’s just great that it’s there because that’s what Brion wanted. He didn’t care if it became public domain. He just said they are a really good tool for activating the internal mechanism.
Tridents
We once took these through customs. They said, ‘Hey, what are you? Neptune or Satan?’ It was fortunate they were amused. We got them all in Kathmandu, where there are these shops with Tibetan and Nepali stuff, necklaces and stuff. The tourists want all the shiny bits, but this one shop is run by a guy who has one lightbulb and everything is covered in dust. It’s obvious he doesn’t care if he sells anything, and that’s where we go rooting around. We feel a compulsion to rescue these because to us they feel alive. And they shouldn’t be in the corner turning rusty, they should be respected like animals. They’re spiritual orphans and we’re their foster parent.”
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, a limited-edition book of unpublished personal photographs, is published by First Third Books on November 4
