After a near-death experience left him determined to follow his notion of becoming a beatnik writer, the young P-Orridge's instinct for finding other "genetic terrorists" like himself led him to the psycho-therapeutic bootcamp of the Exploding Galaxy/Transmedia commune (which also included filmmaker Derek Jarman). Members were required to sleep in a different location every night, to take meals at different times during the day, and to act out assigned roles and attitudes, often in costume and with unerring earnestness, going so far as to have atypical sexual encounters (in character!) or risk getting badly beaten up if a situation warranted it.

The commune's anarchistic spirit and insistence on life as art and art as life inspired the performance art events of COUM (pronounced "coom") Transmissions. Staged primarily by P-Orridge and part time pin-up model Cosey Fanni Tutti (born Christine Carol Newby, 1951), COUM's outrageous "happenings" were parallel to the work of Viennese Actionist Otto Muehl and Hermann Nitsch's Orgies Mysteries Theater. COUM's shamanic improvisations involving enemas, blood, roses, wire, feathers, sexual intercourse, milk, urine, licking up vomit, crucifixion, maggots and self-mutilation were often not conceptualized until the very moment of the performances, if at all. Indeed, the point often escaped the performers themselves. For P-Orridge and Tutti it was about freeing themselves (and the spectators) of their own taboos by performing benign exorcisms of a sick society's malignancies.

COUM's ephemeral oeuvre was celebrated in an ironic 'retrospective' at London's prestigious Institute of Contemporary Art in October of 1976. The show, called "Prostitution" --a wry, multi-leveled commentary on the artist's role in society-- consisted of beautifully framed photographs of Cosey cut straight out of the pornographic magazines that she'd posed for; P-Orridge's post-Fluxus sculpture which utilized her used tampons; photo documentation and props from past COUM actions. Most importantly, the opening night party featured the official debut of the 'musique concrete' freakout of Throbbing Gristle.

Great Britain's self-appointed moral guardians, predictably, went apoplectic at COUM's decidedly avant-garde provocation. "Prostitution" became a symbol for everything that was wrong with the country and compounding the furor, the exhibit had been staged at the taxpayer's expense. P-Orridge and Tutti appeared live on primetime television after a week of media overkill with over 100 magazines, newspaper headlines, even cartoons (mostly) denouncing the duo. Tory Member of Parliment Nicholas Fairburn declared the show "a sickening outrage. Obscene. Evil. Public money is being wasted here to destroy the morality of our society. These people are wreckers of civilisation!"

All of this, it should be pointed out, was a few weeks before the Sex Pistols swore their way into history at talkshow host Bill Grundy's expense and long before Andres Serrano's Piss Christ or Karen Finley's yam-stuffed asshole caused similar firestorms in Reagan-era America. "Prostitution" was one of the most highly publicized art scandals of the 20th century and with it 'the music of 1984,' had arrived a bit early. Throbbing Gristle's 'mission of dead souls' had begun.

For Throbbing Gristle, P-Orridge and Tutti were joined by Chris Carter (synthesizers, rhythms) and Peter Christopherson (prepared tapes, electronic percussion). Carter had constructed light shows for bands like Yes and Hawkwind. Christopherson designed album covers as a partner at the legendary 70's design firm, Hipgnosis. P-Orridge played bass, electric violin and fronted the group. Tutti played the guitar. The TG sound ran the gamut from soft (albeit doomy) improvised proto-ambient instrumentals (In the Shadow of the Sun), to punishing rhythms and electronic squall played at top volume layered with P-Orridge's psychotic screaming (Subhuman) to Carter's ABBA influenced synthpop (United). "It was John Cage meets Stockhausen meets the Velvet Underground" P-Orridge says.

The group deliberately encouraged myth and confusion by titling its debut album Second Annual Report and its flirtation with quasi-fascist symbolism such as the now familiar red and black TG 'electric bolt' logo reminiscent of the National Front symbol and the anarchist flag, further muddied the waters. Lyrically TG continued COUM's policy of not toning down the members' interest in the darker areas of the human psyche. The red light district of London's seedy Soho, deadly viruses, burn victims, mass murderers like Myra Hindley, Ian Brady and the Manson Family were all grist(le) for the lyrical mill. TG's disturbing obsessions liberated the concept of what could serve as thematic fodder for pop music for all time, yet it was difficult to tell if the group was endorsing their subject matter or just saying 'Here it is.' The group's dangerous ambiguity was meticulously calculated to force the audience to think--not so much conceptual art, rather it was "deceptual art" as P-Orridge friend, painter Brion Gysin described their work.