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 US communal counter-cultural group who advocated the use of psychedelic drugs. 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 added further theatrics to their performances, in one instance making the audience crawl through a polythene tunnel to enter the venue.