Well the writing has been on the wall all along, but after the TG show in Hoxton London a week ago, which was relatively painless, enjoyable, and even began to pay off some of the cost of tickets, Genesis decided to move, first hotels, and then cities, un-announced, making herself unavailable for the remaining tour dates, and leaving the rest of TG and all the promotors and fans in a certain amount of a quandry.
Either we could bow to Gen's seemingly senseless and out-of-the-blue decision and pull the tour completely, and so be jointly responsible for all the money paid out, to get us to London, and round Europe, put us up in in hotels etc, or we could play the remaining shows as best we were able (albeit at a reduced fee since Genesis chose not to be there) to lessen our joint losses....
Fortunately, to our great gratitude, and the relief and appreciation of the fans who showed up (amounting to some 99% of ticket holders - very few were only there to see Gen it seems), what Chris, Cosey and I did as X-TG was greeted with just as much enthusiasm as TG had been in the past.
Apparently the public share our interest in "Chamber Music for the Coming Hard Times", and, despite missing the jumping-up-and-down-encore factor led by our undoubtly-skillful and curious looking, trans-dressing (though not trans-gendered) figure head - everyone said X-TG was just as good, if not better, than the old style TG.
On her website Genesis is keen to point out she only left THAT tour and still considers herself part of TG. For anyone that is interested, her included, I can confirm that TG will continue to complete all existing contracts, sales, ongoing negotiations and the recording/delivery obligations already in place, but it's clear neither Gen nor the rest of TG have the interest, time, energy (or even spare cash) to risk pursuing further live performances together, fraught as they are with the possible problems we all suffer from: concerns about health, unequal treatment or contribution, availability of the appropriate medications for pain, stress or lack of sleep, not to mention our own outside/personal commitments...
Also about the future of TG live, I do not regard it as possible for any changed band or variation of personel to perform live as Throbbing Gristle without all the original four of us on stage. If Chris, Cosey and I play live together again it will be as X-TG to make it clear it is a new entity, despite its Provenance which will draw on our own individual work and interests, just as much as any TG reference, which feel to me at least, tired, though the approach to music composition, remains as unique and exclusive to us, as any band I have ever come across....
I for one bear Genesis no ill will, though it would be nice to recieve some communication explaining what happened, rationally, and accepting that her precipitous actions had consequences for all of us, even though I am still several thousand pounds worse off than when we all agreed to do these dates...Money I can ill-afford to lose at this point...
As luck would have it, the "doors" Genesis opened by flying home, and out of the way unexpectedly, have revealed hitherto unseen paths into the future that are both interesting, exciting, as well as being ones I would probably not have pursued, if I'd just been Harry Pottering around in Bangkok with my HouseBoys...
So I thank you all for that, from the bottom of my heart!
Sathu, Sathu, Sathu....
Nobody knows the future, after all.... All we can do is try to make it as enjoyable, inspiring, helpful, encouraging and illuminating for everyone as possible, in the time that we have left.
In my book that means not only remembering the past and music of 30 years ago, (whether or not it's good enough to satisfy drunken Americans!) BUT NOT REPEATING IT, no matter how easy.
best2all
unklesleazy
