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108.
Wreckers of Civilisation: The Story of Coum Transmissions & Throbbing Gristle.
London: Black Dog Publishing, 1999. First edition. Large 8vo. Wrps., (336pp.). Foreword by Jon Savage. Photo-illustrated throughout.
Taking its title from Tory MP Nicholas Fairbairn’s outburst (headlined in The Daily Mail, October 19th, 1976), Ford’s history provides a detailed narrative of COUM’s history, beginning with its conception in Hull in 1969, the landmark ‘Prostitution’ show at the ICA that provoked Fairbairn’s diatribe, and its metamorphosis into Throbbing Gristle and their eventual split in 1981 (ironically, thirteen years before the ICA show, Fairbairn had acted successfully as defence counsel in a case that challenged Britain’s nudity laws following Ken Dewey’s so-called “nude-happening” [assisted by Mark Boyle and Joan Hills] at the 1963 Edinburgh Festival Drama Conference).
The final section prints a chronology of COUM and TG actions, concerts and exhibitions, and a discography, filmography and selected bibliography.
Wrappers lightly rubbed and soiled; top left corner crease to lower wrapper; very faint reading crease to spine; overall, Very Good plus.
