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Look up worm in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Lumbricus terrestris, the common earthworm.

Eupolymnia crasscornis in Kona, Hawaii.

An inchworm.

The term worm (pronounced /ˈwɜrm/) refers to an obsolete taxon (vermes) used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, and stems from the Old English word wyrm. Currently it is used to describe many different distantly-related animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body and no legs. Most animals called "worms" are invertebrates, but the term is also used for the amphibian caecilians and the slow worm Anguis, a legless burrowing lizard. Invertebrate animals commonly called "worms" include annelids (earthworms), nematodes (roundworms), platyhelminthes (flatworms), marine polychaete worms (bristle worms), marine nemertean worms ("bootlace worms"), marine Chaetognatha (arrow worms) and insect larvae such as caterpillars, grubs, and maggots. Historical English-speaking cultures have used the (now deprecated) terms worm, Wurm, or wyrm to describe carnivorous reptiles ("serpents"), and the related mythical beasts dragons. The term worm can also be used as an insult or pejorative term used towards people to describe a cowardly or weak individual or individual seen as pitiable.

Worms vary in size from microscopic to over 1 metre (3.3 ft) in length for marine polychaete worms (bristle worms),^[1] 6.7 metres (22 ft) for the African giant earthworm, Microchaetus,^[2] and 55 metres (180 ft) for the marine nemertean worm (bootlace worm), Lineus longissimus.^[3]

Various types of worm occupy a small variety of parasitic niches, living inside the bodies of other animals. Free-living worm species may live on land, in marine or freshwater environments, or burrow.

Distribution and habitat[link]

Worms live in almost all parts of the world including marine, freshwater, and terrestrial habitats. Some worms living in the ground help to condition the soil (e.g., annelids, aschelminths). Many thrive as parasites of plants (e.g., aschelminths) and animals, including humans (e.g., platyhelminths, aschelminths). Several other worms may be free-living, or nonparasitic. There are worms that live in freshwater, seawater, and even on the seashore. Ecologically, worms form an important link in the food chains in virtually all the ecosystems of the world.

Classification[link]

In everyday language, the term worm is also applied to various other living forms such as larvae, insects, centipedes, shipworms (teredo worms), or even some vertebrates (creatures with a backbone) such as blindworms and caecilians. Worms can be divided into several groups, but are still technically decomposers.

• The first of these, Platyhelminthes, includes the flatworms, tapeworms, and flukes. They have a flat, ribbon- or leaf-shaped body with a pair of eyes at the front. Some are parasites.
• The second group contains the threadworms, roundworms, and hookworms. This phylum is called Nematoda. Threadworms may be microscopic, such as the vinegar eelworm, or more than 1 metre (3 feet) long. They are found in damp earth, moss, decaying substances, fresh water, or salt water. Some roundworms are also parasites. The Guinea worm, for example, gets under the skin of the feet and legs of people living in tropical countries.
• The third group consists of the segmented worms, with bodies divided into segments, or rings. This phylum is called Annelida. Among these are the earthworms and the bristle worms of the sea.

In earlier taxonomic classification, all the above were included in the now obsolete group Vermes.

There are hundreds of thousands of species that live in a wide variety of habitats other than soil. Over time this broad definition narrowed to the modern definition, although this still includes several different animal groups. Phyla that include worms include:

• Annelida (segmented worms)
• Arthropoda (inchworms, sometimes called "canker worms")
• Chaetognatha (arrow worms)
• Gnathostomulid (jaw worms)
• Hemichordata (acorn/tongue worms)
• Nematoda (roundworms)
• Nematomorpha (horsehair worms)
• Nemertea (ribbonworms)
• Onychophora (velvet worms)
• Phoronida (horseshoe worms)
• Platyhelminthes (flatworms)
• Priapulida (phallus worms)
• Sipuncula (peanut worms)

Earthworm

To most people the most familiar worms^{[citation needed]} are the earthworms, members of phylum Annelida. Earthworms in general have been around for 120 million years. They enrich and aerate the soil; Charles Darwin found that worms turn over the top six inches (15 cm) of topsoil every 20 years in a field near where he lived. In less favourable conditions, such as waterlogged soils or hard soil deficient in suitable organic matter, or in seasonally dry soils, they cannot achieve anything like that. They lack a brain in the sense of the vertebrate brain, but have nerve centers (called ganglia); they also lack eyes but can sense light with photoreceptors. Worms are hermaphrodites (both sexes in one animal) but can cross fertilize.

Other invertebrate groups may be called worms, especially colloquially. In particular, many unrelated insect larvae are called "worms", such as the railroad worm, woodworm, glowworm, bloodworm, inchworm, mealworm, silkworm, Wooly bear worm.

Worms may also be called helminths, particularly in medical terminology when referring to parasitic worms, especially the Nematoda (roundworms) and Cestoda (tapeworms). Hence "helminthology" is the study of parasitic worms. When an animal, such as a dog, is said to "have worms", it means that it is infested with parasitic worms, typically roundworms or tapeworms.

"Ringworm" is not a worm at all, but a skin fungus.

Characteristics[link]

Paragordius tricuspidatus (Nematomorpha)

Worms usually have a cylindrical, flattened, or leaf-like body shape and are often without any true limbs or appendages. Instead, they may have bristles or fins that help them move. A few have light-sensing organs. Worms vary in size from less than 1 mm (0.04 inch) in certain aschelminths to more than 30 m (100 feet) in certain ribbon worms.

Some worms reproduce sexually. Hermaphroditism, the condition in which a single individual possesses both male and female reproductive parts, is common in many groups of worms. Asexual reproduction, whereby new individuals develop from the body cells of another, also occurs in some worms.

Worm species differ in their abilities to move about on their own. Many species have bodies with no major muscles, and cannot move on their own—they must be moved by forces or other animals in their environment. Many other species have bodies with major muscles and can move on their own; they are a type of muscular hydrostat. Many species of worms are decomposers; they break down dead plants and animals to return nutrients to the soil. They have also been known to infiltrate households feeding on food in the early stages of its decomposition namely breads and cheeses.

Earthworms split into three different categories. The first are the surface dwellers, the Epigeic worms. Then there are the upper soil worms, the Endogeic worms. Finally,there are the deep burrowing species, the Anecic.

Image in mythology, literature, and art[link]

Worms are sometimes used as a metaphor of putrefaction or corruption; a corpse may be said to be "fed to the worms".

The word "worm" and its cognates "wyrm" were used for dragons in medieval European languages, and by extension for Satan, Hell, or death.^{[citation needed]}

Egyptian empress Cleopatra reportedly made it a crime to kill worms in Egypt in 50 BCE due to their contribution to agriculture.^{[citation needed]}

Examples:

• Hamlet, Shakespeare
• Twelfth Night, Shakespeare
• The Battleship Potemkin
• "The Conqueror Worm", a poem in Edgar Allan Poe's short story "Ligeia"
• "The Festival", a short story by H. P. Lovecraft
• The Wall, Pink Floyd. Worms are used to represent the main character's slipping grasp on reality, and are "eating into his brain"
• In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth pseudo-mythology, "worm" (and "drake") is a term for dragon

See also[link]

• Sea worm, lists various types of marine worms
• Vermicompost
• Worm cast
• Worm charming

References[link]

1. ↑ Superstar Worm. "Cornwall - Nature - Superstar Worm". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/content/articles/2009/04/07/nature_worm_feature.shtml. Retrieved 2010-03-04. 
2. ↑ Worm Digest - The Mighty Worm
3. ↑ Carwardine, M. 1995. The Guinness Book of Animal Records. Guinness Publishing. p. 232.

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge
P-Orridge in 2007
Background information
Birth name	Neil Andrew Megson
Also known as	DJ Doktor Megatrip, Megs'on, P. Ornot, PT001, Vernon Castle
Born	(1950-02-22) 22 February 1950 (age 62)
Origin	Victoria Park, Longsight, Manchester
Genres	Experimental, industrial, psychedelia
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, clarinet, synthesizer, violin, vibraphone
Associated acts	COUM Transmissions, Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, Thee Majesty, Splinter Test, Pigface
Website	GenesisBreyerPOrridge.com

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, who was born Neil Andrew Megson, is an English singer-songwriter, musician, writer and performance artist. In the latter capacity he was the founder of the COUM Transmissions artistic collective, which operated form 1969 through to the 1975, while as a musician, P-Orridge fronted the pioneering industrial band Throbbing Gristle from 1975 through to 1980, and then the acid house band Psychic TV from 1981 through to 1999.

Born in Manchester, P-Orridge moved around the country as a child, first to Essex and then to Warwickshire. Here he attended the privately-run Solihull School, where he developed an interest in art, occultism and the avant-garde. Studying at the University of Hull, P-Orridge dropped out, and briefly moved into a hippy commune in North London. Adopting his nom-de-guerre, he returned to Hull, where he founded COUM Transmissions in 1969, which operated out of a communal warehouse which he named the Ho-Ho Funhouse.

P-Orridge's early confrontational performance work in COUM Transmissions in the late 1960s and early 1970s along with the industrial band Throbbing Gristle, which dealt with subjects such as prostitution, pornography, serial killers, occultism, and P-Orridge's own exploration of gender issues, generated controversy. Later musical work with Psychic TV received wider exposure. P-Orridge is credited on over 200 releases.

P-Orridge has two daughters, Caresse and Genesse, with former wife Paula P-Orridge (born Paula Brooking). After marrying Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge in 1993, Genesis and Lady Jaye began a project to become Breyer P-Orridge, a single pandrogynous entity. Genesis Breyer P-Orridge continued this project after the death of Lady Jaye in 2007.

Early life[link]

Childhood: 1950–1964[link]

Neil Andrew Megson was born on 22 February 1950 in Victoria Park, Longsight, Manchester. His father, Ronald Megson, was a travelling salesman who had worked in repertory theatre and who also played the drums in local jazz and dance bands. Neil's mother, Muriel, was originally from Salford and had first met Ronald when he returned to England after being injured fighting for the British Army at the Battle of Dunkirk in 1940.^[1] Throughout his childhood, Neil had a good relationship with his parents, who did not interfere with his artistic interests.^[1] Due to his father's job, the family soon moved to Essex, where Neil attended Staples Road Infant School in Loughton, and for a time lived in a caravan near to Epping Forest while the family house was being completed.^[1] The family then moved from Essex to Cheshire, where Neil attended Gatley Primary School. Passing his Eleven Plus exam, he won a scholarship to attend Stockport Grammar School, which he did between 1961 and 1964.^[2]

Solihull School and Worm: 1964–1968[link]

After his father gained employment as the Midlands area manager of a cleaning and maintenance business, Neil was sent to the privately-run Solihull School in Warwickshire from 1964 through to 1968; a period he would refer to as "basically four years of being mentally and physically tortured."^[2] Unpopular with other students, Megson was bullied at the school, finding comfort in the art department at lunch-time and in the evenings. He befriended Ian "Spydee" Evetts, Barry "Little Baz" Hermon and Paul Wolfson, three fellow students who shared his interest in art, literature and poetry. At weekends they would meet up to discuss books and music, developing an interest in the writings of Aleister Crowley and Allen Ginsberg and the music of Frank Zappa and The Velvet Underground.^[2] He became interested in the occult; his grandmother was a medium.^[3]

In 1965, Megson founded his first band, Worm, with his school friends Peter Winstanley, Ian Evetts and his girlfriend Jane Ray, in doing so being influenced by John Cage's 1961 book Silence: Lectures and Writings.^[4] With Evetts, Hermon, Wolfson and Winstanley, he began a production of a new underground magazine, Conscience, in 1966. Forbidden from selling it on school grounds, they sold copies outside the school gates. Included in Conscience were various articles criticising the school's administration, leading to several changes regarding such issues as school uniforms and benchers' privileges.^[5] That same year, influenced by newspaper accounts of 'Swinging London', he organised the first happening at the school, claiming that it was a school dance.^[5]

Solihull School, designed by J. A. Chatwin in 1882. Megson studied here between 1964 and 1968, despising it.

Brought up in the Anglican denomination of Christianity, Megson became the secretary of the school's sixth form's Christian Discussion Circle. Arguing that the group should encompass multiple religious views and not just those of Christians, he invited speakers from a variety of different ideological positions, including from a member of the British Communist Party, to speak to the group.^[5] Aged 18, he also began helping to run the local Sunday School classes, but later came to reject organised Christianity entirely.^[5] Afflicted with asthma, throughout his childhood Megson had taken cortisone and then prednisone steroids to control the attacks, the latter of which caused his adrenal glands to atrophy as a side-effect. Due to this, he stopped taking the steroids on the advice of a doctor, but aged 17 suffered from a serious blackout, after which he returned to taking the steroids. It was while in hospital recovering that he decided to devote himself to art and writing.^[6]

With Hermon and Wolfson, Megson founded a pseudo-society, the Knights of the Pentecostal Flame, who undertook a happening on 1 June 1968 which they entitled Beautiful Litter. Taking place in Mell Square, Solihull, it involved the three students handing out cards to passers by that had a series of words written onto them, such as 'fleece', 'rainbow', 'silken', 'white','flower' and 'dewdrops'. Ensuring that the local Solihull News was informed of the event, Megson told reporters that the Knights wanted to ignite "an artistic revolution in Solihull, by making people aware of the life around them, its essential beauty and tranquility."^[7] In the summer of 1968, Worm recorded their first and only album, entitled Early Worm, in Megson's parents attic in Solihull. It was pressed onto vinyl in November at Deroy Sound Services in Manchester, but only one copy was ever produced. A second album, Catching the Bird, was recorded but never pressed.^[8]

Hull University and Transmedia Explorations: 1968–1969[link]

In September 1968, Megson began studying for a degree in Social Administration and Philosophy at the University of Hull. He had chosen Hull in an attempt to study at "the most ordinary non-elitist, working-class, red brick university", but disliked the course and unsuccessfully tried to transfer to English.^[9] With a group of friends he founded a 'free-form' student magazine entitled Worm which waived all editorial control, publishing everything that was placed into the magazine's pigeonhole, including instructions on how to build a molotov cocktail. Three issues were published between 1968 and 1970 before the Hull Student's Union banned the publication, considering it legally obscene and fearing prosecution.^[9] Developing a keen interest in poetry, Megson won the 1969 Hull University Needler Poetry Competition, judged by Compton lecturer Richard Murphy and the poet Philip Larkin, who was then Chief Librarian at the university.^[10] Megson became involved in radical student politics through his friendship with Tom Fawthrop, a member of the Radical Student Alliance who had led a student occupation of the university's administrative buildings as a part of the worldwide student protests of 1968. In 1969, Megson attempted to reconstruct the occupation for a film, in the hopes that it would itself become a genuine protest occupation, but this venture failed through a lack of participants.^[11]

In 1969, Megson dropped out of university and moved to London, where he joined the Transmedia Explorations commune, who were then living in a large run-down house in Islington Park Street. Formerly known as Exploding Galaxy, the group had been at the forefront of the London hippy scene since 1967, but had partially disbanded after a series of police raids and a court case. Moving into their commune, Megson was particularly influenced by one of the founding members of the group, Gerald Fitzgerald, a kinetic artist, and would recognise Fitzgerald's formative influence in his later work. The commune members adhered to a strict regime with the intention of deconditioning its members out of their routines and conventional behaviour; they were forbidden from sleeping in the same place on consecutive nights, food was cooked at irregular times of the day and all clothing was kept in a communal chest, with its members wearing something different on each day. Megson stayed there for three months, until late October 1969, when he decided to leave; he was angered that the commune's leaders were given more rights than the other members, and believed that the group lacked an interest in music.^[12]

COUM Transmissions[link]

Founding COUM Transmissions: 1969–1970[link]

Leaving London, Megson hitch-hiked across the country before settling down in his parents' new home in Shrewsbury. Here he volunteered as an office clerk in his father's new business.^[13] On one family trip to Wales, Megson was sitting in the back of the car when he "became disembodied and heard voices and saw the COUM symbol and heard the words 'COUM Transmissions'." Returning home that evening, he filled three notebooks with various artistic thoughts and ideas, influenced in part by his time with Transmedia Explorations.^[13] In December 1969 he returned to Hull to meet up with his friend John Shappero, with whom he would turn COUM Transmissions into an avant-garde artistic and musical troupe. They initially debated as to how to define "COUM", later deciding that like the name dada it should remain open to interpretation. Megson designed a logo for the group, consisting of a semi-erect penis formed out of the word COUM with a drip of semen coming out of the end, while the motto "YOUR LOCAL DIRTY BANNED" was emblazoned underneath. Another logo designed by Megson consisted of a hand-drawn seal accompanied by the statement "COUM guarantee disappointment"; from their early foundation, the group made use of wordplay in their artworks and adverts.^[14]

COUM's earliest public events were impromptu musical gigs performed at various pubs around Hull; titles for these events included Thee Fabulous Mutations, Space Between the Violins, Dead Violins and Degradation and Clockwork Hot Spoiled Acid Test. The latter combined the names of Anthony Burgess' dystopian science-fiction novel A Clockwork Orange (1962) with Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), a work of literary journalism devoted to the Merry Pranksters, a U.S. communal counter-cultural group who advocated the use of psychedelic drugs.^[14] COUM's music was anarchic and improvised, making use of such instruments as broken violins, prepared pianos, guitars, bongos and talking drums. As time went on, they would add further theatrics to their performances, in one instance making the audience crawl through a polythene tunnel in order to enter the venue.^[15]

In December 1969, Megson and Shapeero moved out of their flat and into a former fruit warehouse in Hull's docking area, overlooking the Humber. Named the Ho-Ho Funhouse by Megson, the warehouse became the communal home to an assortment of counter-cultural figures, including artists, musicians, fashion designers and underground magazine producers.^[16] At Christmas 1969, a woman named Christine Carol Newby (1951–) moved into the Funhouse after being thrown out of her home by her father. Having earlier befriended Megson at an acid test party, Newby would move into his room at the Funhouse, adopting the nom-de-guerre Cosey Fanni Tutti after the title of Amadeus Mozart's 1790 opera Così fan tutte.^[17] Joining COUM, Tutti initially helped in building props and designing costumes, and was there when the group began changing its focus from music to performance art and more theatrical happenings; one of these involved the group turning up to play a gig but intentionally not bringing any instruments, something Megson considered "much more theatrical, farcical and light-hearted" than their earlier performances.^[15]

The rise of COUM Transmissions: 1971–1976[link]

On 5 January 1971, Megson officially changed his name to Genesis P-Orridge by deed poll, combining his school nickname of "Genesis" with a misspelling of "porridge", the foodstuff which he lived off as a student. His new nom-de-guerre was intentionally un-glamorous, and he hoped that by adopting it he would trigger his own "genius factor".^[18] This caught the attention of the Yorkshire Post, who featured an article on P-Orridge and COUM Transmissions on 11 February. Soon, COUM began to attract further media attention from newspapers across the country.^[18] On 18 April 1971, COUM broadcast their first live radio session, for the On Cue programme for Radio Humberside.^[19] On the back of their radio and press success, they performed a variety of other happenings, including Riot Control at the Gondola Club, followed by their first street action, Absolute Everywhere, which got them in trouble with the local police force.^[19]

The Gondola Club was raided by the police and closed down soon after; most other local clubs blamed COUM and unofficially banned them from performing in the Hull area. COUM drew up a petition which they distributed locally to gain support for the group and as a result, the group got a booking at the local Brickhouse, which was their first performance in which the audience applauded and called for an encore. However, the petition had contained their phallic logo, and the police charged P-Orridge and fellow COUM member Haydn Nobb of publishing an obscene advert, although the charges were later dropped.^[20]

In 1971, P-Orridge met the American novelist and poet William S. Burroughs (1914–1997) after a brief correspondence, and Burroughs later introduced P-Orridge to the English poet and performance artist Brion Gysin (1916–1986).^[21] Gysin would become a major influence upon P-Orridge's ideas and works and was his primary tutor in magic.^[22]

In 1973 they were joined by Hipgnosis' Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson. COUM employed confrontational imagery, including Nazi-influenced elements and the occult.^[23]

They were prosecuted in 1975 for making collages combining postcards of Queen Elizabeth with soft-core porn, but the jail term and fines were suspended on condition they did not continue.^[24]

[edit] The Prostitution show: 1976

Their Prostitution show, in 1976 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London included on display Tutti's pornographic images from magazines as well as erotic nude photographs. The show featured a stripper, used Tampax in glass, and transvestite guards. Prostitutes, punks, and people in costumes were among those hired to mingle with the gallery audience. The show caused debate in Parliament about the public funding of such events. In the House of Commons, Scottish Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Fairbairn demanded an explanation from Arts Minister Harold Lever and proclaimed P-Orridge and Tutti as "wreckers of civilisation".^[25] Fleet Street was not slow to pick up the story. The reviews were cut up, framed and put on display for the remainder of the exhibition. This was also reported in newspapers, so cut-ups about the cut-ups were also put on display.^{[citation needed]}

Toward the end of COUM, performances would often consist of only P-Orridge, Cosey and Sleazy, the core group who went on to form Throbbing Gristle.

Throbbing Gristle[link]

Throbbing Gristle was formed in the autumn of 1975^[27] at the ICA^{[citation needed]} as a four-piece band consisting of P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, and Chris Carter.^[27]

The first Throbbing Gristle performance was at the Air Gallery in London on 6 July 1976. The band performed in one room with the music "appearing" in an adjacent room. Peter worked in special effects and provided the performers with simulated scars; meanwhile, Chris actually used a razor to slash himself.^{[citation needed]}

At that point Throbbing Gristle headquarters was 10 Martello Street, Hackney, East London, an address of an artist collective. P-Orridge and Tutti's living and work space was the mailing address of Industrial Records. The final Throbbing Gristle single was "Discipline".^{[citation needed]}

The final IR release was called Nothing Here but the Recordings, a best-of album taken from the archives of William S. Burroughs, who had allowed P-Orridge and Sleazy access to his reel-to-reel tape archive.^{[citation needed]}

The final TG event, Mission of Dead Souls, was in May 1981 in San Francisco. Soon after, Genesis and Paula P-Orridge (née Alaura O'Dell) were married in Tijuana.^{[citation needed]}

Psychic TV[link]

Genesis P-Orridge posing in Japan

Psychic TV was formed in 1979,^[28] after Alex Fergusson of Alternative TV had encouraged P-Orridge to start something new.^{[citation needed]} The musical collaboration between the two goes back to the very first ATV line-up, which included Genesis as drummer.^{[citation needed]} According to the official P-Orridge and Voiceprint websites, the name was Fergusson's idea, with the "psychic" part representing P-Orridge and the "TV" part representing Fergusson.^{[citation needed]} "Just Drifting" was the first PTV song, based on a poem by P-Orridge.^[29]

Psychic TV made its debut in 1982 at an event organised by P-Orridge, David Dawson, and Roger Ely, called The Final Academy. It was a 4-day multimedia celebratory rally held in Manchester and at the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton, South London. It brought performers and audience together with literature, performance, film and music. PTV, Cabaret Voltaire, 23 Skidoo, Z'EV, John Giorno, William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Terry Wilson, Jeff Nuttall, and The Last Few Days participated to honour the cut-up techniques and theories of William S. Burroughs, Ian Sommerville, Anthony Balch and Gysin. Video projection and early sampling were used here, as well as whispered utterances by P-Orridge reprocessed as a soundtrack to Gysin's Dreammachine by the Hafler Trio.^{[citation needed]}

Force the Hand of Chance, Dreams Less Sweet, Allegory and Self, and Trip/Reset are considered by P-Orridge, in an interview with Sonic Envelope, to be the fully realized PTV albums – "metaphorical and very, very considered and carefully constructed meticulous albums."^{[citation needed]}

At around the same time as Psychic TV were formed, P-Orridge also founded Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, a loose network of people operating as a blend of artistic collective and practitioners of magic.

Psychic TV set about, in the mid-eighties, to release 23 live albums on the 23rd of each month for 23 months^[28] in recognition of the 23 enigma. The group didn't reach its goal, but still managed fourteen albums in eighteen months to earning an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records.^[28] The liner notes to each of these releases functioned somewhat like mini-manifestos in the tradition of the Situationist International or William S. Burroughs' Electronic Revolution in addition to recounting aspects of the recordings contained therein. For example, the fourth album in this series, Live In Reykjavík, featuring part of a ritual from Godhi Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson includes liner notes that refer to Christianity as "sham X-tianity," in reclamation of a Pagan heritage via an Ásatrú marriage, over which Beinteinsson presided, below a statue of Thor in "the wilderness".

Psychic TV returned to the stage in 2003, with a concert in New York under the guise of PTV3 and was accompanied by (with the exception of Genesis) an all new line-up. In September 2004, an extensive tour of Europe (covering 16 countries) and North America was launched. 2005 saw the band return to the studio, recording their first album in over 10 years (Genesis also spent 2005 working with Throbbing Gristle on what would be their first album in over 25 years).

In January 2006, the new PTV album was announced on P-Orridge's website. Hell is Invisible... Heaven is Her/e was recorded in NYC and features Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and Gibby Haynes (Butthole Surfers) guesting on some tracks. Genesis describes it as "The Dark Side of the Moon for the 21st century".^{[citation needed]} To inaugurate the release of Hell is Invisible... Heaven is Her/e, PTV3 hosted a five night residency in September 2006 at Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. On 17 August a new album was announced, "Mr. Alien Brain Vs. The Skinwalkers" will be released by Cargo/Sweet Nothing Records on 20 October 2008.

Recent life[link]

PTV3 live in Germany 2004: Alice Genese, G. P-Orridge, Markus Persson

Genesis and his second wife Lady Jaye, née Jacqueline Breyer, relocated to Brooklyn.^[30] There, they began an ongoing experiment in body modification aimed at creating one pandrogynous being named Breyer P-Orridge.^[31] They received breast implants and adopted gender neutral and alternating pronouns.^[32] A book of Breyer P-Orridge's writings, poems, and observations, called Ooh, You Are Awful... But I Like You!, was published in Nepal^{[citation needed]}.

In the mid-1990s, Breyer P-Orridge collaborated with different people in music, including Pigface, Skinny Puppy, and Download. Breyer P-Orridge also performed with Nik Turner and other former members of Hawkwind.^[33] In June 1998, Breyer P-Orridge won a $1.5 million lawsuit against producer Rick Rubin and his American Recordings label for injuries he sustained while trying to escape a fire at Rubin's home in April 1995.^[34] According to Breyer P-Orridge's attorney, David D. Stein, Breyer P-Orridge was staying at Rubin's home as a guest of Love and Rockets when the fire broke out. Breyer P-Orridge tried to escape the house by crawling through a second-story window and fell onto concrete stairs. Breyer P-Orridge suffered a broken wrist, broken ribs, and a pulmonary embolism, as well as a shattered left elbow that will prevent him from playing bass or keyboards, according to Stein. The jury found that the liability for the fire rested with Rubin and American Recordings and awarded Breyer P-Orridge $1,572,000 for his injuries.^{[citation needed]}

In 1999, Breyer P-Orridge performed with the briefly reunited late-1980s' version of Psychic TV for an event at London's Royal Festival Hall, called Time's Up. This is also the title of the first CD by Thee Majesty, Breyer P-Orridge's spoken-word project with noise guitarist Bryin Dall. The MC for the event, via pre-recorded video, was Quentin Crisp. A DVD was made of this event, which included the Master Musicians of Jajouka, Question Mark & the Mysterians, Billy Childish, and Thee Headcoats.

The aforementioned Thee Majesty CD Time's Up was released by The Order of the Suffering Clown via World Serpent Distribution. Jaqueline Megson is credited as providing Point Of View, Bryin Dall for Frequency Of Truth, and Genesis as Divination Of Word.

In December 2003, Breyer P-Orridge, using the alias Djinn, unveiled PTV3, a new act drawing upon the early "Hyperdelic" work of Psychic TV with media theorist Douglas Rushkoff among its members.^[35] On 16 May 2004 all four former members of Throbbing Gristle performed at the London Astoria for the first time in 23 years.

Breyer P-Orridge appears in the 1998 film and 2000 book versions of Modulations, in the 1999 film Better Living Through Circuitry, in the 2004 film DiG!, the 2006 documentary Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback, in Nik Sheehan's 2007 feature documentary on the Dreamachine entitled 'FLicKeR', and the 2010 documentary "William S. Burroughs: A Man Within."

On 11 October 2007 Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge died.^[36] This message was posted on the official Genesis P-Orridge website:

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and her reactivated Psychic TV aka PTV3 are terribly sad to announce the cancellation of their November North American tour dates. This decision is entirely due to the unexpected passing of band member Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge. Lady Jaye died suddenly on Tuesday 9 October 2007 at home in Brooklyn, New York from a previously undiagnosed heart condition which is thought to have been connected with her long-term battle with stomach cancer. Lady Jaye collapsed and died in the arms of her heartbroken "other half" Genesis Breyer P-Orridge.^[37]

Psychic TV's current incarnation, PTV3, released a CD/DVD set, Mr. Alien Brain vs. The Skinwalkers on 9 December 2008. The album was the first full-length release since the death of Breyer P-Orridge's "other half". The two had previously embarked on a years-long pursuit of pandrogyny, undergoing a series of plastic surgery procedures in order to become gender-neutral human beings that looked like each other.^[38]

We started out, because we were so crazy in love, just wanting to eat each other up, to become each other and become one. And as we did that, we started to see that it was affecting us in ways that we didn't expect. Really, we were just two parts of one whole; the pandrogyne was the whole and we were each other's other half.^[39]

On 4 November 2009 it was announced that Breyer P-Orridge would retire from touring in any and all bands (including Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV) to concentrate on art, writing and music.^[40]

Personal life[link]

Esotericism and religion[link]

In describing his theological beliefs, P-Orridge has commented that "I don't believe in any gods. I believe that gods are early attempts at psychology, trying to understand the light and dark side of human nature. The deeper part of human nature where you go right inside yourself, beyond dreams and into those recesses which we should look into, but we're out of practice [in doing that] in our culture."^[41]

P-Orridge has openly criticised contemporary Christianity, describing it as "an incredibly sick social pseudo-religion", and arguing that it was based upon the tenet of "Be good now, agree, or else we will punish you forever and ever when you're dead. And we may punish you while you're alive…". He maintains that such an attitude was established in Christianity by St. Paul and the early Roman Catholic Church, and that it differed from the "ecstatic mysticism of the original Christianity, the Gnostic Christianity."^[41]

Discography[link]

Note: this is for releases specifically credited to Genesis P-Orridge, for work with PTV see Psychic TV discography, for work with Throbbing Gristle see Throbbing Gristle discography.

• Interview By TOPYSCAN
• The Industrial Sessions 1977
• What's History (1983)
• Je T'Aime (1985)
• Alaura/Slave Priest (1990)
• What's History (1990)
• At Stockholm (1995)
• Vis Spei (1995)
• A Perfect Pain (With Merzbow) (1999)
• Direction Ov Travel (2002)
• Painful 7 Inches (2002)
• Wordship (2003)
• When I Was Young (2004)

References[link]

Footnotes[link]

Bibliography[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Genesis P-Orridge

• Official website
• Breyer P-Orridge via InvisibleExports gallery