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- Jan 6, 2003
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Theres a section here on GPO's own website
http://www.genesisp-orridge.com/index.php?section=article&id=65
"Perhaps it was Jon Savage, or perhaps someone else. But Ian Curtis got hold of my private telephone number and he began to call me. He would call me at odd hours (as the newspapers might say). To talk. To talk about Throbbing Gristle, to talk about my anarchic ideas on popular music; ideas not a little laced with disdain and sarcasm for what I felt were the obvious rock and roll celebrity aspirations of 'punk.' He was a great talker on the phone, and smart. He turned out to have been an aficianado of Throbbing Gristle from as early as 1977".
During the night of 17th May 1980 an abject Ian phoned me for the last time. He was singing, intoning 'Weeping.' I was scared for him. I could feel what was in his mind. I had tried to kill myself to a backdrop of 'Weeping' too. Lou Lou Picasso who painted the cover of 'We Hate You (Little Girls)' for Sordide Sentimental’s Throbbing Gristle single had also tried to commit suicide listening to 'Weeping.' It was all too horrible and inevitable. He was distraught, anguished, angry, frustrated, confused and severely depressed. He felt that somehow he’d let matters slip out of his grasp and control; that nobody around him cared what he wanted, what he needed, and more importantly at that moment, how much he did not want to tour or be in 'Joy Division' right now.
"I am not sure how long after we spoke he actually hung himself in such a very working class Manchester manner. I suspected that nobody would manage to do anything practical. Nobody would make it to go and see him and babysit him through that night. Suicide is often an intense form of temporary insanity. The specific moment passes, and fire cleanses. Somehow the person I spoke with succeeded in putting me into an almost hypnotic holding pattern, persuading me that everything was going to be fine; it was just a prima-donna tantrum and that I should not interfere directly and call anyone else or the police. That it was not any of my business and that I was just panicking and being dramatic. Just like Ian liked to be. I was assured that if anything really serious was going on the Joy Division inner circle would take care of it in their own way. They were used to this kind of thing. "
There's more on the site if you want to read it
Of course it could all be part of the P.Orridge Shamen/Charlatan mythology. Yes last I heard he was getting breasts etc so he could look as hermaphrodite as possible. As you do.
In Hackney in the 80s, I worked with someone who used to look after his children. A very pleasant family I heard. who seemed to get on with the neighbors. I think he only had one daughter (Genesse) at the time.
In the mid 80s when I was at Art School, one evening, he gave us an invited talk about his "history" , the ICA Prostituion show "scandal". media witchhunts and masturbational magick (or is it magic?)
I heard later whether true or not, that he got "banned" because he showed some of his psuedo- snuff type videos at a student seminar group and this upset a couple of people and the Principal got to hear about it.
Ah..the 80s, we were young, we had grants.... those were the days................
http://www.genesisp-orridge.com/index.php?section=article&id=65
"Perhaps it was Jon Savage, or perhaps someone else. But Ian Curtis got hold of my private telephone number and he began to call me. He would call me at odd hours (as the newspapers might say). To talk. To talk about Throbbing Gristle, to talk about my anarchic ideas on popular music; ideas not a little laced with disdain and sarcasm for what I felt were the obvious rock and roll celebrity aspirations of 'punk.' He was a great talker on the phone, and smart. He turned out to have been an aficianado of Throbbing Gristle from as early as 1977".
During the night of 17th May 1980 an abject Ian phoned me for the last time. He was singing, intoning 'Weeping.' I was scared for him. I could feel what was in his mind. I had tried to kill myself to a backdrop of 'Weeping' too. Lou Lou Picasso who painted the cover of 'We Hate You (Little Girls)' for Sordide Sentimental’s Throbbing Gristle single had also tried to commit suicide listening to 'Weeping.' It was all too horrible and inevitable. He was distraught, anguished, angry, frustrated, confused and severely depressed. He felt that somehow he’d let matters slip out of his grasp and control; that nobody around him cared what he wanted, what he needed, and more importantly at that moment, how much he did not want to tour or be in 'Joy Division' right now.
"I am not sure how long after we spoke he actually hung himself in such a very working class Manchester manner. I suspected that nobody would manage to do anything practical. Nobody would make it to go and see him and babysit him through that night. Suicide is often an intense form of temporary insanity. The specific moment passes, and fire cleanses. Somehow the person I spoke with succeeded in putting me into an almost hypnotic holding pattern, persuading me that everything was going to be fine; it was just a prima-donna tantrum and that I should not interfere directly and call anyone else or the police. That it was not any of my business and that I was just panicking and being dramatic. Just like Ian liked to be. I was assured that if anything really serious was going on the Joy Division inner circle would take care of it in their own way. They were used to this kind of thing. "
There's more on the site if you want to read it
Of course it could all be part of the P.Orridge Shamen/Charlatan mythology. Yes last I heard he was getting breasts etc so he could look as hermaphrodite as possible. As you do.
In Hackney in the 80s, I worked with someone who used to look after his children. A very pleasant family I heard. who seemed to get on with the neighbors. I think he only had one daughter (Genesse) at the time.
In the mid 80s when I was at Art School, one evening, he gave us an invited talk about his "history" , the ICA Prostituion show "scandal". media witchhunts and masturbational magick (or is it magic?)
I heard later whether true or not, that he got "banned" because he showed some of his psuedo- snuff type videos at a student seminar group and this upset a couple of people and the Principal got to hear about it.
Ah..the 80s, we were young, we had grants.... those were the days................
