Better the Devil you know (?)

I can't remember the last time Cosey and I were this busy, probably during our early to mid Nineties period. But then it was recording, performing and working on projects almost exclusively related to Chris & Cosey. And although we've always had Cosey's solo Art career running in parallel with what the two of us work on together it's since 2002 that we've had to factor in ever increasing amounts of Throbbing Gristle and Industrial Records related work and projects. But during the last 12 months TG & IR has at times almost taken over our lives (well mine & Cosey's at least) and has impacted our own solo and CarterTutti projects pretty drastically.

Even if you haven't read the TG book 'The Wreckers of Civilization' you may know that the core of TG/IR (the TG four) has always been run as a democratic co-oprative cottage industry. In as much that everything we do is decided by a majority vote, all our income is shared equally and we try keep as much as possible of what we do and how we do it 'in-house' - or 'in the family'. No matter what it may appear like to outsiders the realm of TG/IR is not a dictatorship, and it never has been. In the early days: the 1970s' & 80s', that literally meant everything, well except physically pressing records. We even ran our own cassette duplication facility, churning out thousands of cassettes and covers from a converted kitchen in Hackney. I used to rent or borrow vans and Genesis and me would deliver vinyl, cassettes, t-shirts and merch in person all over London. This was apart from all the equipment building, recording, editing, mastering, filming, videoing, performing and self-promotion we did. And for most of that period we all had regular day-jobs too.

So here we are in 2009... and there are obviously still aspects and areas within TG & IR that we individually excel at or specialise in, or are sometimes co-opted into out of necessity. But it seems a lot of what we do nowadays, to keep TG running smoothly (or at all) falls on the shoulders of Cosey and me. And if we didn't 'step up to the plate' as often as we do (which is pretty much all the time) I honestly think TG would fade out of existence and cease to exist as a living, working collective.

Just telling it like it is....