Throbbing Gristle First era: 1976-1981
What about the first era 1976-1981?
What about the first era of Throbbing Gristle 1976-1981?
Throbbing Gristle evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions, which was formed in Kingston upon Hull by a group of performers centred on Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti. The last known performance of COUM Transmissions--Prostitution, an exhibition which was held in October 1976 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts--was also the public debut of Throbbing Gristle. Throbbing Gristle's confrontational live performances and use of often disturbing imagery, including pornography and photographs of Nazi concentration camps, gave the group a notorious reputation. However, the group always maintained that their mission was to challenge and explore the darker and obsessive sides of the human condition rather than to make attractive music. Throbbing Gristle made extensive use of pre-recorded tape-based samples and special effects to produce a distinctive, highly distorted background, usually accompanied by lyrics or spoken-word performances by Cosey Fanni Tutti or Genesis P-Orridge. Though they asserted they wanted to provoke their audience into thinking for themselves rather than pushing any specific agenda (as evidenced by the song "Don't Do As You're Told, Do As You Think" on Heathen Earth), Throbbing Gristle also frequently associated with the anarchist punk scene. They appeared in the fanzine Toxic Grafity, with a condensation of their own propaganda parody series, Industrial News. In 1977, they released their debut single, "United / Zyklon B Zombie", followed by an album, The Second Annual Report. Although pressed in a limited initial run of 786 copies on the band's own Industrial Records label, it was later re-released on Mute Records due to high demand; however, this later release was reversed with all tracks playing backwards and in reverse order. This was followed by a series of albums, singles and live performances over a four-year period. On 29 May 1981, Throbbing Gristle performed at the Kezar Pavilion in San Francisco, California, United States. This concert marked the end of the group and its mission. As Cosey succinctly put it, "TG broke up because me and Gen broke up". In 1981 Michael Sheppard, concert promoter and founder of Transparency Record label brought Throbbing Gristle to Los Angeles. Genesis P-Orridge and Peter Christopherson went on to form Psychic TV, while Cosey Fanni Tutti and Carter continued to record together under the names of Chris and Cosey, Carter Tutti and Creative Technology Institute. Christopherson had paricipated in Psyshic TV's first releases, and had later joined John Balance in the latter project Coil. Meanwhile, Gen (now known as Genesis Breyer P-Orridge) subsequently formed Thee Majesty and PTV3 with the help of their wife, Jacqueline "Jaye" Breyer. CANNOTANSWER
In 1977, they released their debut single, "United / Zyklon B Zombie",
Throbbing Gristle were an English music and visual arts group formed in 1975 in Kingston upon Hull by Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson, and Chris Carter. They are widely regarded as pioneers of industrial music. Evolving from the experimental performance art group COUM Transmissions, Throbbing Gristle made their public debut in October 1976 on COUM exhibition Prostitution, and released their debut single "United/Zyklon B Zombie" and debut album The Second Annual Report the following year. Lyrical themes mainly revolved around mysticism, extremist political ideologies, sexuality, dark or underground aspects of society, and idiosyncratic manipulation of language.

The band released several subsequent studio and live albums—including D.o.A: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle (1978), 20 Jazz Funk Greats (1979), and Heathen Earth (1980)—on their own record label Industrial Records, building a reputation with their transgressive and confrontational aesthetics; they included the extensive use of disturbing visual imagery (such as ironic fascist and Nazi symbolism and pornography), as well as that of sound manipulation (noise and pre-recorded tape-based samples) influenced by works of William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin.

Throbbing Gristle dissolved in 1981 due to interpersonal differences; the individual members went on to participate in other projects, such as Psychic TV, Coil, and Chris & Cosey. The band was reformed in 2004, and released three more studio albums—TG Now (2004), Part Two (2007), and The Third Mind Movements (2009)—before disbanding again after P-Orridge's departure and Christopherson's death in Autumn 2010. P-Orridge later died in March 2020. The band's final studio project, a cover version of the 1970 Nico album Desertshore titled The Desertshore Installation, was released in 2012 under the moniker X-TG.

History

First era: 1976–1981 

Throbbing Gristle evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions, formed in Kingston upon Hull by a group of performers including Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti. The last known performance of COUM Transmissions—Prostitution, an exhibition held in October 1976 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts—was also the public debut of Throbbing Gristle.

Throbbing Gristle's confrontational live performances and use of often disturbing imagery, including pornography and photographs of Nazi concentration camps, earned the group a notorious reputation, but they maintained that their mission was to challenge and explore the darker and obsessive sides of the human condition rather than to make attractive music. Throbbing Gristle made extensive use of pre-recorded tape-based samples and special effects to produce a distinctive, highly distorted background, usually accompanied by lyrics or spoken-word performances by Tutti or P-Orridge. Though they asserted that they wanted to provoke their audience into thinking for themselves rather than pushing any specific agenda (as evidenced by the song "Don't Do as You're Told, Do as You Think" on Heathen Earth), Throbbing Gristle frequently associated with the anarchist punk scene. They appeared in the fanzine Toxic Grafity, with a condensation of their own propaganda parody series, Industrial News.

In 1977, they released their debut single "United / Zyklon B Zombie", followed by the album The Second Annual Report. Although pressed in a limited initial run of 786 copies on the band's Industrial Records label, it was rereleased on Mute Records following high demand; however, this later release was reversed, with all tracks playing backwards and in reverse order. This was followed by a series of albums, singles and live performances over a four-year period.

In 1981, Michael Sheppard, concert promoter and founder of Transparency Record label, brought Throbbing Gristle to Los Angeles. On 29 May 1981, Throbbing Gristle performed at the Kezar Pavilion in San Francisco in what would be the group's last performance until 2004. Throbbing Gristle announced their dissolution on 23 June 1981, mailing out postcards declaring that their "mission is terminated." In a 1987 interview, Tutti attributed the band's split to her own breakup with P-Orridge, saying, "TG broke up because me and Gen broke up."

P-Orridge and Peter Christopherson went on to form Psychic TV, and Tutti and Chris Carter continued to record together under the names of Chris & Cosey, Carter Tutti and Creative Technology Institute. Christopherson participated in Psychic TV's first releases, and later joined John Balance in the latter project Coil. P-Orridge subsequently formed Thee Majesty and PTV3 with the help of his wife Jacqueline "Jaye" Breyer.

Second era: 2004–2010 

In 2004, Throbbing Gristle briefly reunited to record and release the limited album TG Now. On 2 April 2007, TG released the album Part Two, which the group had finished recording in Berlin. It was originally set to be released by Mute Records in September 2006 but was delayed for unknown reasons.

In March 2007, Side-Line announced Part Two's final release date, adding that a string of special live events would take place in 2007.

A seven-disc DVD set titled TGV was issued in 2007. The set contains old and new footage of the band. TGV came packaged in a deluxe box with a 64-page book, all designed by Christopherson.

The group performed a reinterpretation of their debut album The Second Annual Report twice in 2008 to mark 30 years since its original release. The performance in Paris on 6 June was issued as a limited-edition framed vinyl set titled The Thirty-Second Annual Report, limited to 777 copies (though some sources claim that there were 785).

Throbbing Gristle worked to record an album based on their interpretation of Nico's album Desertshore. The group issued the entirety of the recording sessions for the album as a limited edition 12-CD set packaged in a custom CD wallet, The Desertshore Installation, which sold out via mail order from the group's website.

In April 2009, Throbbing Gristle toured the United States, appearing at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Chicago. The Third Mind Movements, a new release, was made available at these shows, which was edited from jams recorded during the Desertshore sessions.

A collaboration with Cerith Wyn Evans titled A=P=P=A=R=I=T=I=O=N was displayed at Tramway, Glasgow from 7 August to 27 September 2009. Throbbing Gristle contributed a multi-channel soundtrack that was played through 16 hanging Audio Spotlight sound panels that Evans had incorporated into his sculpture.

In November 2009, Throbbing Gristle and Industrial Records released their version of the Buddha Machine, titled Gristleism. It was designed by Throbbing Gristle and Christiaan Virant based on FM3's design. Gristleism offers more loops and almost twice the frequency range of the Buddha Machine. The player comes in three colours: black, chrome and red.

On 29 October 2010, Throbbing Gristle announced on their website that P-Orridge had informed them that they were no longer willing to perform with Throbbing Gristle and would be returning to their home in New York. Carter, Cosey and Christopherson finished the tour under the name X-TG.

P-Orridge's website stated that they had not quit Throbbing Gristle and had merely stopped participating on the current tour; it also said that an explanation would be released when all things were cleared up. However, on 24 November 2010, Christopherson died in his sleep at the age of 55, and the band subsequently dissolved.

Third era: 2011–present 

In 2011, Industrial Records had an official "re-activation", as TG's contract with Mute Records had expired. Because TG has disbanded following the death of Christopherson, the label's plan is to re-release the original TG albums (The Second Annual Report, D.o.A: The Third and Final Report, 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Heathen Earth and Greatest Hits) on the label. Originally intended to be released on 26 September 2011, they had to delay due to a Sony DADC warehouse fire in London. The plan changed to issue each album chronologically once per week starting on Halloween 2011 with The Second Annual Report and ending 28 November with Greatest Hits.

Industrial Records announced that a double album, titled Desertshore/The Final Report, would be released on 26 November 2012. Chris and Cosey produced the album, with the participation of guest vocalists Anohni (from Antony and the Johnsons), Blixa Bargeld (from Einstürzende Neubauten), Marc Almond (from Soft Cell), film director Gaspar Noé and former pornography star Sasha Grey.

A group decision had been made before Christopherson's death that the album would be recorded afresh because they were not satisfied with the ICA recordings. Christopherson had been the driving force behind the project and had been working on the record in Bangkok with Danny Hyde, even getting custom instruments made to use for the album. "It was Sleazy's project, then Cosey and Sleazy's, then I came in on it", Carter said in an interview with The Quietus. After Christopherson died, the Desertshore instruments were given to Carter and Cosey, and they began combining the recordings he had been making with the work they had done themselves. They announced plans to debut the album live at AV Festival on 17 March 2012 accompanied by a screening of Philippe Garrel's film The Inner Scar "for which Desertshore was the soundtrack and inspiration".

On 14 March 2020, P-Orridge died.

Legacy 
The band is widely viewed as having created the industrial music genre, along with contemporaries Cabaret Voltaire. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by Genesis P-Orridge and Monte Cazazza; on Throbbing Gristle's debut album The Second Annual Report, they coined the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". The first wave of this music appeared with Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire.

Alternative Press included Throbbing Gristle in their 1996 list of "100 underground inspirations of the past 20 years."

Wreckers of Civilization, a survey on COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle's original run written by Simon Ford, was published in 1999; its title is a reference to the Prostitution exhibition controversy.

Other, Like Me: The Oral History of COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle, a documentary on both projects consisting of archival footage and photos and interviews with their members, was co-produced by BBC Television and aired on BBC Four in December 2021.

Cover versions
Artists which covered songs by Throbbing Gristle include Marc Almond, Esplendor Geométrico, Peaches, The Horrorist, Merzbow,  Electrosexual/Hanin Elias, NON, Der Blutharsch, and others.

Members 
 Genesis P-Orridge – bass guitar, violin, vocals, guitar (1976–1981, 2004–2010; died 2020)
 Cosey Fanni Tutti – guitars, cornet, vocals, tapes (1976–1981, 2004–2010)
 Peter Christopherson – tapes, sampler, found sounds, cornet, electronics (1976–1981, 2004–2010; died 2010)
 Chris Carter – synthesizers, tapes, electronics, programming (1976–1981, 2004–2010)

Discography 

During Throbbing Gristle's extensive career they have released numerous volumes of music including studio albums, live releases as well as box sets.

Studio albums

 The Second Annual Report (1977)
 D.o.A: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle (1978)
 20 Jazz Funk Greats (1979)
 Journey Through a Body (1982)
 CD1 (untitled) (1986)
 TG Now (2004)
 Part Two: The Endless Not (2007)
 The Third Mind Movements (2009)
 Desertshore / The Final Report (2012) (as X-TG)

References

Further reading

External links 

 

Cassette culture 1970s–1990s
Ableton Live users
British industrial music groups
British electronic musicians
British experimental musical groups
English post-punk music groups
Dark ambient music groups
Musical groups from London
Musical groups established in 1975
Musical groups disestablished in 1981
Musical groups reestablished in 2004
Musical groups disestablished in 2011
Noise musical groups
Performance artist collectives
Industrial Records artists
The Five Ages of the Universe is a popular science book written by Professor Fred Adams and Professor Gregory P. Laughlin about the future of an expanding universe first published in 1999.

Book contents 
The book The Five Ages of the Universe discusses the history, present state, and probable future of the universe, according to cosmologists' current understanding. The book divides the timeline of the universe into five eras: the Primordial Era, the Stelliferous Era, the Degenerate Era, the Black Hole Era and the Dark Era.

In addition to explaining current cosmological theory, the authors speculate on what kinds of life might exist in future eras of the universe. The speculation is based on a scaling hypothesis, credited to Freeman Dyson, the idea being, that all other things being equal the rate of metabolism—and therefore rate of consciousness—of an organism should be in direct proportion to the temperature at which that organism thrives. The authors envision life forms completely different from the biochemical ones of Earth, for example, based on networked black holes.

Ages 
The time scales treated in the book are sufficiently vast, that, the authors find it convenient to use scientific notation. They refer to the "nth cosmological decade," meaning 10n years after the Big Bang. In what follows, n refers to the cosmological decade.

Primordial Era
The Primordial Era is defined as "−50 < n < 5". In this era, the Big Bang, the subsequent inflation, and Big Bang nucleosynthesis are thought to have taken place. Toward the end of this age, the recombination of electrons with nuclei made the universe transparent for the first time. The authors discuss the horizon and flatness problems.

Stelliferous Era 
The Stelliferous Era, is defined as, "6 < n < 14". This is the current era, in which matter is arranged in the form of stars, galaxies, and galaxy clusters, and most energy is produced in stars. Stars will be the most dominant objects of the universe in this era. Massive stars use up their fuel very rapidly, in as little as a few million years. Eventually, the only luminous stars remaining will be white dwarf stars. By the end of this era, bright stars as we know them will be gone, their nuclear fuel exhausted, and only white dwarfs, brown dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes will remain. In this section, Olbers' paradox is discussed.

Degenerate Era 
The Degenerate Era is defined as "15 < n < 39". This is the era of brown dwarfs, white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes. White dwarfs will assimilate dark matter and continue with a nominal energy output. As this era continues, the authors hypothesize that protons will begin to decay (violating the conservation of baryon number given by the Standard Model). If proton decay takes place, the sole survivors will be black holes. If so, life becomes nearly impossible as planets decay.

Black Hole Era 
The Black Hole Era is defined as "40 < n < 100". In this era, according to the book, organized matter will remain only in the form of black holes. Black holes themselves slowly "evaporate" away the matter contained in them, by the quantum mechanical process of Hawking radiation. By the end of this era, only extremely low-energy photons, electrons, positrons, and neutrinos will remain.

Dark Era 
The Dark Era is defined as "n > 101". By this era, with only very diffuse matter remaining, activity in the universe will have tailed off dramatically, with very low energy levels and very large time scales. Electrons and positrons drifting through space will encounter one another and occasionally form positronium atoms. These structures are unstable, however, and their constituent particles must eventually annihilate. Other low-level annihilation events will also take place, albeit very slowly. Essentially, the universe will eventually turn into a void.

Future revision 
The book was published in 1999. , Gregory Laughlin makes the following statement on his web site:

References

External links 
 
 

Popular physics books
1999 non-fiction books This is a List of national sidecarcross champions, including the national championships of Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Latvia, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. Of those competitions listed, the Belgian Championship is the oldest one, dating back to 1951, followed by the French, formed in 1956.

Bold denotes, the team also won the Sidecarcross World Championship or one of its predecessor competitions, the FIM-Cup or FIM European Championship, in that season.

Belgium
The champions of the Belgian national championship, organised by the Fédération Motocycliste de Belgique:

The riders (passengers not included) with multiple championship wins, the number of championships they have won and in what era (first to last title):

Source:

Source:

Denmark
The champions of the Danish championship, organised by the Danmarks Motor Union:

The riders (passengers not included) with multiple championship wins, the number of championships they have won and in what era (first to last title):

Source:

Estonia
The champions of the Estonian championship, organised by the Eesti Mootorrattaspordi Föderatsioon:

Source:

France
The champions of the French championship, organised by the Fédération Française de Motocyclisme:

The most successful riders (passengers not included), the number of championships they have won and in what era (first to last title):

Source:

 1 Also used Marco Godau as his passenger.

Germany
A German national championship has been organised from 1974 onwards by the Deutscher Motor Sport Bund. Before that, from 1970, the OMSK-Pokal was considered to be an unofficial national championship and still continues to be organised, now under the name of DMSB-Pokal.

OMSK-Pokal

National championship
Organised since 1974 the German national championship was converted to an international one in 2007, allowing non-German riders to win it from then on:

The most successful riders (passengers not included), the number of championships they have won and in what era (first to last title):

Great Britain
The champions of the British championship, organised by the Auto-Cycle Union:

The most successful riders (passengers not included), the number of championships they have won and in what era (first to last title):

Source:
 1 Also used Dave Beavis as a passenger.
 2 Also used Barry Williams as a passenger.
 3 Also used Andreas Hüsser as a passenger.
 4 Also used Barry Williams & John Mitchelson as a passenger.
 5 Also used Barry Williams as a passenger.
 6 Also used Shane Skeats & Garry Withers as a passenger.
 7 Also used Garry Withers as a passenger.
 8 Also used David Keane as a passenger.
 9 Also used Jason Peters as a passenger.
 10 Also used Luke Peters as a passenger.
 11 Also used Marc Cooper as a passenger.

Latvia
The champions of the Latvian championship, organised by the Latvijas Motosporta Federācija:

Source:

Netherlands
The champions of the Netherlands sidecarcross championship, organised by the Koninklijke Nederlandse Motorrijders Vereniging:

The most successful riders (passengers not included), the number of championships they have won and in what era (first to last title):

Source:
 1 Also used Bart Notten as his passenger.
 2 Also used Henk Mensinck as his passenger.
 3 Also used J. van Vliet and D. Grootendorst as his passenger.
 4 Also used Frans Geurts van Kessel as his passenger.
 5 Also used Ron Varga as his passenger.
 6 Also used Reto Grütter as his passenger.

Sweden
The champions of the Swedish championship, organised by the Svenska Motorcykel- och Snöskoterförbundet:

The most successful riders (passengers not included), the number of championships they have won and in what era (first to last title):

Source:

Source:
 1 Also used Colin Dunkley as his passenger.

Switzerland
Two national sidecarcross championships exist in Switzerland, the championship of the SAM, the Schweizerischer Auto- und Motoradfahrer Verband, an amateur association, and the championship of the FMS, the FIM affiliated Fédération Motocycliste Suisse: Since 2002, the championship of the FMS has only been held once, in 2009.

FMS

The most successful riders (passengers not included), the number of championships they have won and in what era (first to last title):

Source:

SAM

See also
 List of FIM affiliated federations

References

External links
 The John Davey National Championship Pages
 Sidecarcross.de - Statistik/Hall Of Fame  Calendars and results of the German championship
 Website with links to motocross/sidecarcross websites 

Sidecarcross
National sidecarcross champions
Sidecarcross