Editing COUM Transmissions (section)

==Foundation: 1968–1970==
The founder of COUM Transmissions was [[Genesis P-Orridge]] (1950&ndash;2020), a [[Manchester|Mancunian]] by birth who later founded [[Throbbing Gristle]] and other projects. A university student who had developed a great interest in the radical counter-culture, P-Orridge had dropped out of h/er studies at the [[University of Hull]] and spent three months living in the Transmedia Explorations commune in North London during late 1968. The commune members adhered to a strict regimen 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. P-Orridge stayed there for three months, until late October 1969, after deciding to leave, due to being angered that the commune's leaders were given more rights than the other members, and believed that the group lacked an interest in music.<ref name="Ford 22-25">{{harvnb|Ford|1999|pp=1.12–1.15}}.</ref> After hitch-hiking across the country, Genesis P-Orridge settled down in their parents' new home in [[Shrewsbury]], and volunteered as an office clerk in their father's new business.<ref name="Ford 1.15">{{harvnb|Ford|1999|p=1.15}}.</ref>

[[File:Genesis P. Orridge.jpg|thumb|left|Genesis P-Orridge, the founder of COUM Transmissions, in Japan during the 1980s or 1990s.]]
P-Orridge first developed the concept for COUM on a family trip to Wales, while sitting in the back of the car; P-Orridge became "disembodied and heard voices and saw the COUM symbol and heard the words 'COUM Transmissions'." Returning home that evening, P-Orridge filled three notebooks with various artistic thoughts and ideas, influenced in part by time spent with Transmedia Explorations.<ref name="Ford 1.15"/> In December 1969, P-Orridge returned to Hull to meet up with friend John Shapeero, with whom P-Orridge 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. P-Orridge 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.<ref name="Ford 1.16">{{harvnb|Ford|1999|p=1.16}}.</ref>

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 (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]].<ref name="Ford 1.16"/> 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.<ref name="Ford 1.20">{{harvnb|Ford|1999|p=1.20}}.</ref>

In December 1969, P-Orridge and Shapeero moved out of their flat and into a former fruit warehouse in Hull's dockland area, overlooking the [[Humber]]. Named the Ho-Ho Funhouse by P-Orridge, the warehouse became the communal home to an assortment of counter-cultural figures, including artists, musicians, fashion designers and underground magazine producers.<ref name="Ford 1.17">{{harvnb|Ford|1999|p=1.17}}.</ref> At Christmas 1969, Christine Newby moved into the Funhouse after being thrown out of her home by her father. Having earlier befriended P-Orridge at an [[Acid Tests|acid test]] party, Newby would move into h/er room at the Funhouse, adopting the pseudonym [[Cosey Fanni Tutti]] after the title of [[Amadeus Mozart]]'s 1790 opera ''[[Così fan tutte]]''.<ref name="Ford 1.17-1.19">{{harvnb|Ford|1999|pp=1.17–1.19}}.</ref>{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=226}} 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 P-Orridge considered "much more theatrical, farcical and light-hearted" than their earlier performances.<ref name="Ford 1.20"/>