That moment was immortalized
for the Spanish fans thanks to the
photos of your friend Salvador Costa,
that you warn to cover the moment.
Snapshots would be published
Punk in the mythical book that brought Star
Books in 1977. For many years,
repeated legend among the punks that
I knew in my town was that among the
pictures of a punk was a Catalan. Now
I understand everything you were. With a painful
pin embedded in the cheek, in fact.
These pictures punk Salvador are of extraordinary quality.
The amazing thing is that all photos of the book is made
in only three days. We were literally running from one pub to another
pub, a club to another club, on and on until the wee hours of
dawn, capturing a unique historical chart paper.
It is one of the very first books about punk around the
world. The first order of the book sold out immediately in Compendium
Books and at the Photographers Gallery in London. I
to ask several times many more copies of the book to Juanjo
Books Star until completely sold out in its editorial.
In London, the book edited by Star was sold as water. In
Punk's book also is a picture of Irene and a Montse, the
Salvador Costa woman.
What about the other country representative in punk
London: Paloma / Palmolive of the Slits, originally from Malaga?
How only two Iberians in punk'77, spied
other's presence? I remember seeing a shooting tion for Weekly
Report an interviewer rather estulto questioned that the only two
Spanish speakers had in front of the Roxy: You and Palmolive,
separately. Did I dream this?No. When I met the team lost by Portobello TVE
I asked if I could lend a hand. By chance
at that time was passing by Dove Slits, the introduced
each other and so they did the interview. I never before
had spoken with her. What it says Paloma is the best of this
punk documentary, by the way. The entire program can be seen today
on You Tube.
Do you think your older somehow influenced your perception
(More thoughtful, perhaps) of punk rock, or the
Instead it embraced as if you had seventeen?
If your body asks you start you will not stay home. Living the
rock is transgression. Otherwise, not worth it. I was the first
to break tables, beer bottles, chairs and starting in the
performance of the Clash at the Rainbow-this is the true origin
of future performances of Vagina Dentata Organ-or
Johnny Thunders share with spliff after his performance
at the Roxy. Or a beer partirnos embraced
Rod Stewart shoulders during one of the six nights of
the performance of the Stones at Earls Court in 1976, while he
laughingly pointed a finger at Ron Wood, was his first
performance with the Stones - telling me that Ron was like a little
brother, little brother ... This is rock n 'roll. It transcends
music itself. So a few years later the Californian artist
Monte Cazazza, the inventor of the term Industrial
Music, half jokingly, half seriously, I gave it the nickname
of juvenile delinquent. Of course while we knew that
punk would become a great marketing, influencing
music, fashion, theater, literature, dance, film, etc.., until
to this day.
How did you view consecutive bifurcations (and polar
opposite each other, in some cases) that flowed from the
punk? The post-punk, Oi!, The mod revival, 2-Tone Case,
the new romantics, the industrial ...
The post-punk and I'm not interested in substitutes. Luckily I already
was heavily involved with Throbbing Gristle. I saw welcome
ska The Selecter and The Specials, for fighting racism
very much alive at that time. But his past was bluebeat
water, as was directed at a very young audience that naturally
did not know the authentic Jamaican ska. From London I
wrote articles on these and other groups to Sal magazines
Common and then Star Dexy's Midnight Runners were fun, nothing more.
I did not like Oi! bands, except Sham 69
which to me was more punk Oi! The actions of Sham
69 at the Roxy were great. Jimmy Pursey, the voice and leader
the group was energetic and his music was thrilling. Their
followers were punks and skinheads. On the other hand the industrial
was already forging while punk. But that is
another story.
When born your interest in the industrial and electronics
combative? Is there a first contact with the environment Throbbing
Gristle pre-Vagina Dentata Organ, or just started to
interact with them when they were working with your
own "group"?Apart from Stockhausen, electronic music did not interest me
until the Throbbing Gristle and Whitehouse recondujeron with
high doses of disturbance and perversion. Exploding punk
in late 1976, saw the installation of Genesis PROSTITUTION
P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti, at the Institute of Contemporary Art
(ICA) in London. This exhibition was a member
the British Parliament declared that "these people are the bane of
civilization. " An excellent compliment, which brought the resulting
scandal in all the British media. Also
I read an interview in Melody Maker where Gen broke
with all the clichés of rock. Furthermore, long before
punk and industrial music, I was vaguely interested
by classical composers such as Arnold laboratory
Schoenberg, Mompou, Edgar Varèse, Stockhausen and John Cage.
A Cage greeted him in Cadaqués, after a round of questions
and a concert by the pianist played his Alice
Larrocha. In early 1977 I chanced to Genesis
P-Orridge in the street, in Berners Street, in central London.
I went with the mid-back length hair shaved with a triangle
on the front. Looking for a hairdresser. I stopped and talked.
He told me the project of Throbbing Gristle. Thus began our
friendship, which lasted all those years now, we are still
in contact. Another thing about the name of Vagina Dentata Organ, from very young knew the myth of the vagina dentata thanks
to a Picasso painting. He also had read more than one
Once in the press, and a book of Freud, and later in the book
Psychopathia Sexualis by Dr. Richard Krafft-Ebing, psychiatrist
specialist sexual paraphilias. The same day I
first came to Genesis, he carried a large bag
skin with a vast vagina dentata painted on one side of the bag.
Hence was born my nom de guerre: Vagina Dentata Organ. The
Vaginal sonic castrating my work and my actions live.
That same year, 1977, saw action at the Electric Circus in Camden
Town of Warsaw Pact, with singer Ian Curtis. Later
I went with Throbbing Gristle at Manchester in 1979, then played
at The Hacienda. In the first row of fans were Ian Curtis and
all of Joy Division. As we know, unfortunately, Ian
committed suicide at age 23 in 1980. He was a friend of Genesis.
I think you met Genesis in the Iberian Centre of London,
a venue where he also performed anarchist
concerts. I remember seeing a poster on RUDI
live there, full of live and GRAPO ETA (was 1978). And,
if I mistake not, to pedophilia.In January of 1979 I organized an exceptional action
Throbbing Gristle live at the Centro Iberico. At that
time I was fortunate to meet Cos Eliseu Huertas, a biker
Garrotxa, who also had spent many years living in London.
Eliseu be always with his Harley at the concentrations
Hell's Angels in England, and all the Angels will have great
appreciation and respect. It is a connoisseur of rock music: he has lived,
I have read and seen it all. He specializes in Frank Zappa and
the Grateful Dead. After a few years I recorded the album VDO
Un Chien Catalan, with the sound of your Harley-Davidson giving
around in Port Lligat and Cap de Creus, in one night from the north,
very cold in winter. Eliseu has a memory
extraordinary. He has seen double or triple rock music
I always rolled along with the musicians. In late 1978,
I was looking for a place to mount a large performance
T.G. important Eliseu invited me to go to meet the Iberian Center.
This center was a large abandoned school in Harrow
Road turned into a squat, and also had a coffee bar and
passes a large room for film and music concerts. It was a
rendezvous of anarchists, libertarians and communists (not
could see between them). They also told me they were often secret agents of the Spanish Embassy. If I remember correctly,
to organize it for T.G. I had to talk with veteran anarchists
exiles Manuel Manrique and Miguel Garcia. The latter
garrote was spared at the last minute after being convicted
to death by the Franco regime, but spent 20 years of his life imprisoned
Carabanchel. Eliseu Joaquin Sabina told me that was much
Center for Iberian, but then I did not know who he was. More
later also organized direct actions in Whitehouse
the center. For some reason came to the ears of Manrique
and WH Garcia was a fascist and ultra set. Very serious I
convened a meeting that day and at that hour. When I showed
I waited about 10 people sitting in chairs in
a circle, unless it was an empty chair for me. Started
to question. It seems that I convinced them explaining that
William Bennett was a great artist, avid reader of
Divine Marquis de Sade and nothing else. The live performance
WH was done successfully on time and smoothly.
View your photo of 1977 with the famous shirt Ulrike Meinhof
leads me to ask you about your vision of the armed struggle,
then and now, and how did you live the days of the Brigate
Rosse, RAF, etc.Personally, I'm interested in all compulsive behaviors
obsessive fans of all kinds. The Red Army Fraction,
(RAF), planned in the European subconscious the years
70, and coincided in time with the punk. Even Brian
Eno produced in magnificent disc set 1977un Snatch
(Consisting of two American girls who lived in London, Pat
Palladin and Judy Nylon) called RAF, inspired by the abduction
and executive assassination of Martin Schleyer. In it we hear the
notices warning the civilian population against the German police
the Baader-Meinhof. It's a mystery to understand how the RAF
could be as utopian and romantic, knowing that
could never achieve their goal, against the powerful
German state.
I think your collaboration with Psychic TV in "Catalan", the
Dream LP less sweet, has done more for the idea of Catalan
non-asshole that all of Pau Casals speeches. One
feeling pretty proud of it, really.O.K. But there are assholes everywhere. Also collaborate on other disks in
PTV and Whitehouse. Even on one occasion,
Genesis is temporarily sick when in 1988 the other three
TG members, act live at the Astoria theater in London,
under the name of Throbbing Gristle I went on stage Ltd.
to sing a duet with Gene endless "Discipline" I was
a whip of almost three meters long in each hand, striking lashes
left and right against the stage floor. That
night sold-out Astoria.
That said, I will ask you a tricky question: You Catalan
but do you feel close to the national Tarannà course?
Do you think people like Francesc Pujols, Trabals, Dali, etc.
are exceptions that prove the rule of Catalan rectum
and correct, or that there is another confirmation of Catalunya,
arrauxada and surreal? I have my doubts, really. And,
another question: Do you feel spiritually close to Spain,
or the rest of the Iberian Peninsula?Paradoxically closely follow international politics and national
but I have a political model itself. I do not care
I see. First I want to say I feel just as well
with friends over a dry martini cocktail at the American Bar
the Savoy in London, or under the dome of the Palace of Madrid,
or in the bar Barcelona Tandem. I feel good in
everywhere. But politically the Spanish state and Catalonia
never have understood. No emotional empathy. By
Therefore, the best from my point of view is a political divorce.
Like life itself. I see more drama than this. That each
you make your bed, and address its consequences.
What do you think of the groups had a similar wave
VDO and operating from Spain, Geometric Splendor
or the first Aviator Dro? ¿Mantenías any correspondence
with them?At first we wrote and we exchanged discs
GA. I still have his letters. I think most were fixed in EG
electronic noise in the deep mind games
the English Throbbing Gristle and Whitehouse. Obviously, we
equidistant both in waves, are very different. Am
sure that they, for other reasons, think the same of VDO.
What are your musical influences non-VDO? Of course,
Surrealism and Dada, right?
In this order: Salvador Dali, Eros and Thanatos. With touches of Dada
and surrealism that turned into hyper-realism. In this
life there is nothing more exciting than reality raw and burning.
Like the paintings of Francis Bacon, who inspire violence, and
Lucian Freud, we are overflowing with human flesh.
Did you, hand in hand with Genesis P. Orridge, any incursion
in Magick? Here at The Modern School are not
much believe in "the occult", although we love to the book
Colin Wilson or The Return of the sorcerers of Pauwel. Us
would like you to try to convince us otherwise (ie,
of that there is the "hidden").I do not believe in ghosts, but I enjoyed reading
Aleister Crowley and Colin Wilson, and I have the Satanic Bible
Anton Lavey. A Wilson went to greet him and talk to him in a
London bookshop. I may be of the few people
Gene environment that did not participate in the rituals inspired
by Crowley. For me it was all a little Kumbaya. Genesis is a
very interesting guy. Lives and works his art 24 a day. It is always
tired. When he moved to California immediately connected
Ken Kesey, the leader of the Merry Pranksters and the author of One flew over the cuckoo's nest.8 Gene worked with Timothy Leary,
the spiritual father of LSD. He was also a close friend of the artist
Brion Gysin, the inventor of the Dream machine: a cylinder which gives
turns on itself, with interior lighting, and presumably alters
your mind (if you get close with eyes closed). The result
as a hallucinogen is natural, without side effects. I
I tried Gene and the rest of Psychic TV in a music studio.
The only person who paid no effect was to me. In
1982 at the Ritzy cinema in Brixton, William met and greeted
S. Burroughs. At the Genesis cinema hosted The Final Academy,
an evening of music, reading, poetry, with the enigmatic
Guest Burroughs, among others. Through gene, also
I met the filmmaker Derek Jarman, and together we shot for Catalan
The Golden Age of Television. Another curious fact: a late
70 years, Genesis sent by certified mail a letter with
a canned soup to Andy Warhol's Campbell in
NYC. By return mail, Gen was in London the same can
of Campbell's canned soup, this time signed in the handwriting
by Andy Warhol. Long live the Pop Art
Although we have seen descriptions of the complete works
VDO on the web written by yourself, we would like
efectuaras now a reflection of what Outlook 2010
they present to you those eight albums and how they
aged.I am currently working on the ninth album of Vagina
Dentata Organ, entitled Irene's cunt.
I always tell my buyers that
VDO discs are not listening. Not
I understand. I still have customers in
worldwide. Chances are that
are a despicable snobs. Very
I often get emails from friends
look on Ebay to see the picture-
VDO discs at prices ranging up to 2,500, $ 3,000 each. VDO discs
are unique. Once the first edition of each
never again be hard to edit. I have always produced the
discs myself, through my brand: World Satanic Network
System. My brother Marc creates all the graphics. Our
modus operandi is similar to that of Bunuel and Dali when filmed
Un Chien Andalou: we send hundreds of emails with many
ideas to get to decide the graphic concept of the covers.
Discard half, and only keep the ideas we like
both. Buñuel and Dalí did something similar with confetti
writings that were breaking, or getting into the important
a shoebox-up to achieve your goal. VDO discs
are unbearable. There are sounds of dogs trained to kill, a
sonic live document of a collective suicide, ritual
drums, different couples fucking live, the mechanical sound
a Harley-Davidson, a remix of the first four
VDO vinyl records, playing the dead bells or violin
performing five variations of the same piece of music.
These discs have a strong emotional charge of violence, sex
and death. I guess the work has been frozen VDO
in space. I do not follow fashions or moral principles. Course
that no.
Everyone, including you, mention the word "nihilism" to
about you and your work with VDO, but frankly, after seeing
in flesh and blood, I find very little nihilistic (and I say
this as a compliment): a type seem enthusiastic, love
of life, passionate ... Perhaps what you call it nihilism
rather, in your case, a perpetual anger against the establishment
and modern society, and their desire to ciscarte
idols, perhaps even a certain pessimism for the future
of humanity ...Appearances are deceptive. Salvador Dali said that it is absolutely
essential to have a violent and subversive attitude, so
to keep a sufficient distance hygienic
cretins and rotting. Precisely this is what I show in
all my live performances VDO. They are acts of violence
and destruction. On the other hand, thanks to the imagination, my
inner world remains optimistic. But my vision for the
outside is just the opposite.
Certainly, the ultra-famous performance at the VDO
The Golden Age of 1984 is quite nihilistic and gives a little
of fear. I love to destroy works of art imbecile
something we should do more often. Of course,
Casademont not remember and neither his father: Who would be your
artistic goal to kill today?Now the English Chapman Brothers puppets painted on
original lithographs by Goya. Fantastic! Dali painted over
great pictures of very old paint. In 2008, in
live action Vagina Dentata Organ in SPECTRA
(The 'first symposium on the conspiracy theory' in the
OCCC Valencia) broke with rage, with a hammer, seven
large mirrors. The following year the Italian artist Michelangelo
Pistoletto did the same, breaking several mirrors
the Venice Biennale in 2009. In live action
VDO in the Auditorium of the MACBA, the Festival LEM
broke hundreds of glass bottles. Then two years later
Lady Gaga in a live performance to the same, broke
three or four bottles false transparent sugar, about
his piano. What is important is the fact implicit destruction.
No matter what the object to liquidate. My thing is to destroy,
or burn, for the sake of destroying. This is the most urgent
for me. Nothing more. But something still unsettles me after 10 years of art school at the University of
Grenoble, France, invited me to present an exhibition
of the paintings in my blood devoted to top models.
After opening the school principal we
invited to dinner at my brother Marc, Eric and Marc curators
Hurtado Étant Donnés electronic assembly, and other guests,
men and women, related to the world of art.
Much later, on reaching the hotel room, we put
TV news: ETA had killed that
afternoon in Barcelona politician Ernest Lluch. Immediately
related the innocent blood spilled in the streets of Barcelona
with the blood of my paintings. We were thoughtful,
without words. It was on 21 November 2000.
What do you think of the transformation that has made the art
anti-art and truly dangerous destructive people
as Whitehouse and Throbbing Gristle, and has recovered
been for the people of shock art and memos from the likes of Tracey
Emin or Damien Hirst mercantilist idiot?Fashion has always been charged to the winner. Tracey Emin
and Damien Hirst are great people and artists. I have seen the birth
and grow artistically. I even bought several of his works
when no one knew. I still believe that ART is a device
it only serves to make money. But now I prefer a thousand
Sometimes an Emin, a Hirst, Gavin Turk a, a Banksy, a Marc
Quinn, the Chapman Brothers or a Pablo Picasso. We
leave the past to enjoy and look forward.
In 1978 Throbbing Gristle performed live at Goldsmiths'
College of Art Only four people were to see them. One of
Damien Hirst was them, then a student of this school recognized
Art from the University of London. A Tracey Emin, Irene
and I met at a party given by the photographer Mat Collishaw
in London. Damien and Tracey are from outside London. Are
provinces, as we say here, and working class origin,
as they say the very English class. From my point of view
I think it's great to see as your imagination only have revolutionized the art world fanatically universal. He deserve. Although go laughing to the tomb.
Oh. Vale. Postmodernism says there is no truth,
all ranges, there is no center, no better or worse, not
there is a moral, etc ... Here at The Modern School are
moralistic, anti-postmodern and anti-deconstructionists, and
we firmly believe that objective truths do exist. Not
know if you agree with this.Let's pretend sentenced Aleister Crowley: "DO WHAT
WILL YOU SHALL BE THE WHOLE OF THE LAW ". That
can be interpreted roughly as: Do as I go
of the balls, or ovaries. I think self-categorized in
words and topics traps us in a straitjacket. Fortunately,
today everything is changing and changing very fast. But it is not
sufficient. We can only release is to move forward.
Evolution or brain death. Without going into details, I
curse especially conservative political parties and
religions. They are the biggest culprit in this disastrous ballast
against progress, science, and individual freedom.
1 Ex-punk, ex-mod reborn a fan of The Christians
2 French emigrant and prominent member of the 70's punk Angeleno, founder of the legendary
Slash fanzine and label. The editors of The Modern School were fortunate enough to
Hangover get to interview for a fanzine irregular also published.
Bessy lived in Barcelona in the last stage of his life, and died here in 1999.
3 Do not remember which of your referrals. Obviously, I never dared to poke.
Moreover, this artifact did not appear to have been made so that no one would listen;
seemed to challenge you to do, in fact.
Xavi told it 4 Me Cot, the organizer of the first two festivals in Barcelona Punk
in 1978.
5 Although we respect, missing more.
6 Valls adds: "This concert is considered the official end of the hippies and the
Flower Power. "
7 And then of Dexy's Midnight Runners and Specials.
8 And also one of the favorite books of the Modern School: Sometimes a great
notion (1964)
