And another milestone

The inception of TGV started after our TG 're-grouping' performance at the Astoria in May 2004 (on disc 6, I think). That show alone was a major milestone for TG as, apart from being 'free', it was our first show for 25 years or more, started the TGV ball rolling and we somehow accumulated a paid crew of around 40 people. Which was a big change from the 1970s' & 80s' when we just had a handful of volunteer helpers.
Naturally there was a film crew: consisting of a dozen or so camera operators dedicated to filming the whole thing on stage and back stage, the 'FX Rentals crew': who were recording everything onto 24-track and binaurally, a 'second unit / just in case' crew from Mute studios: who were piggy-back recording onto another 24-track, a hardcore FOH 'seen it all before' PA crew (TG's first encounter with Charlie Poulet, who's now become our regular FOH engineer). Plus of course, what was to become the current 'TG entourage' made up from: TG ourselves, our manager, tour manager, onstage & road crew, the Mute PR & merch teams and various but essential friends and family. And it's this entourage that has been our ongoing 'TG support structure' since the Astoria. So if you've ever wondered why TG don't perform live quite as much as you'd expect us to it's because (apart from following our own non-TG careers) this 'not so little lot' costs an absolute fortune in transport, airline tickets and hotel bills. Plus there's the matter of a TG fee of course! That's why we have yet to play in the USA this time around, partly because most of TG and our entourage are based in the UK and there don't seem to be (so far) any US promoters prepared to cover our substantial costs, plus the continuing demise of the Dollar exchange rate has to be factored in too. So, so far we've only played festivals in Europe or large or unusual venues like Tate Modern and the ICA where things like 'finance budgets' aren't such an issue. I guess a re-grouped TG playing in the USA would be another milestone wouldn't it?

Ken Russell was sweet

Spent the weekend in London: I went with Cosey to the Tate Britain symposium. Her 'Confessions' film was very well received: as usual, Ken Russell was sweet, and very eccentric. Later we met up with friends and Portion Control & Neon Judgement at the monthly Cosey Club all nighter. It was funny really... on the dance floor were all these industrial/gothy 'twenty-somethings' getting it on to classic 80s' & 90s' EBM tracks originally played by these middle aged musos (us included) backstage. With conversations about "aches, pains and ailments", "did you know so and so was dead" and "I'm not usually up this late" it was like a (slightly scary) 1980s' twighlight zone. We all had a bloody good time though!
If you live in (or near) London I highly recommend a trip to Richard Clouston's Cosey Club, fantastic atmosphere, amazing DJ sets and some inspired choices of bands. I've posted a few photos from the evening in my Flikr pages.

The new (as yet untitled) Carter Tutti album is coming along slowly but sounding wonderfull. We're toying with the idea of posting some mp3 'teaser clips' on the C&C site when we have some finished mixes. We'll see...

TG are selling the Throbbing Gristle 24-track HD recorder. It's only been used a couple of times but for various reasons it's now "surplus to our requirements".

A lot of (TG) distractions last year

After a lot of (TG) distractions last year our much delayed second Carter Tutti album is finally under way and sounding great. Cosey and I will also be performing two Carter Tutti concerts in Italy - on 31st March in Pisa and on 5th April in Venice. Cosey is also exhibiting at Tate Britain in London from March 2006.
As there are still some TG projects to be completed there won't be as many performances and new releases from Carter Tutti in 2006 as we would like. We just don't have the time this year. But we're thrilled that the majority of our extensive Chris & Cosey catalogue will finally be made available as online downloads throughout 2006.

TG in Berlin was amazing, but also exhausting, frustrating and bloody cold. The film premier, exhibition, rehearsals, performances and recording all went well, despite some sound gremlins at the first gig. The improvised second-nighter was a completely different affair and vibe. We played to a new 35mm print of Derek Jarman's 'In The Shadow of The Sun' and it looked wonderful projected behind us. We spent the second week recording new TG material at an old East Berlin radio studio. The studio was an incredible place and the staff and technicians were really helpful. So big thanks' to all those at Planet Roc who made our time there so relaxed and productive. The whole TG Berlin trip was extensively documented (on a daily basis, which was a slightly odd experience) so I expect we'll see a lot of photos from it later this year.