Editing COUM Transmissions (section)

==Notoriety in Hull: 1971&ndash;1973==
[[File:Coum are Fab and Kinky.jpg|thumb|right|"Yes COUM are fab and kinky" (1971), an example of the artwork which P-Orridge produced to advertise the artistic-musical group; the primary image is of himself as a child. 
Underneath L to R Tim Poston, Spydeee Gasmantell, Genesis, Haydn Robb, John Smith, Menzies.]]
On 5 January 1971, by now living at 8 Prince Street Hull, Megson officially changed his name to Genesis P-Orridge by [[deed poll]], combining his adopted 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".<ref name="Ford 2.4">{{harvnb|Ford|1999|p=2.4}}.</ref> This caught the attention of the ''[[Yorkshire Post]]'', who featured an article on COUM Transmissions on 11 February. Soon, COUM began to attract further media attention from newspapers across the country.<ref name="Ford 2.4"/> On 18 April 1971, COUM, consisting of Genesis P'Orridge & Spydeee Gasmantell broadcast their first live radio session, for the ''On Cue'' programme for [[Radio Humberside]] and were interviewed by Jim Hawkins.<ref name="Ford 2.6">{{harvnb|Ford|1999|p=2.6}}.</ref> As well as their radio and press exposure, they performed a variety of other happenings, such as ''Riot Control'' at the Gondola Club and then their first street action, ''Absolute Everywhere'', which got them in trouble with the local police force.<ref name="Ford 2.6"/>

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 Robb (now known as Haydn Nobb) of publishing an obscene advert, although the charges were later dropped.<ref name="Ford 2.7">{{harvnb|Ford|1999|p=2.7}}.</ref> Gaining coverage in the music press, interest in the band grew, and they were asked to support the rock band [[Hawkwind]] at St. George's Hall in [[Bradford]] in October 1971, where they performed a piece called ''Edna and the Great Surfers'', where they led the crowd in shouting "Off, Off, Off".<ref name="Ford 2.7"/>{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=225}} The following month, the band attracted the interest of [[John Peel]], who discussed the band in ''Disco and Music Echo'', remarking that "[s]ome might say that Coum were madmen but constant exposure to mankind forces me to believe that we need more madmen like them."<ref name="Ford 2.8">{{harvnb|Ford|1999|p=2.8}}.</ref> They also featured in an article in ''Torch'', the publication of the University of Hull's student union, entitled "God Sucks Mary's Hairy Nipple"; a title from a message received during a seance in [[Solihull]] attended by P'Orridge, Gasmantell and others in 1967. The author of the article, Haydn Robb, would subsequently join the performance collective.<ref name="Ford 2.8"/> [[Tim Poston]] (1945&ndash;2017), subsequently a lecturer in mathematics at [[Warwick University]] went on to undertake research into [[catastrophe theory]], influenced, it is claimed by Genesis P'Orridge, by his work in COUM.<ref name="Ford 2.11">{{harvnb|Ford|1999|p=2.11}}.</ref>

COUM released one song produced in this early period, "Dry Blood Tampax", on their 1983 cassette ''23 Drifts to Guestling''.<ref name="Ford 2.8"/> They recognised that they would never become a commercial success and so sought out other forms of funding, successfully applying for a small Experimental Arts Grant from the [[Yorkshire Arts Association]], a publicly funded body.<ref name="Ford 2.9">{{harvnb|Ford|1999|p=2.9}}.</ref> Now openly describing themselves as performance artists, COUM looked up to the work of the Dadaists and emphasised the amateur quality of their work, proclaiming that "[t]he future of music lies in non-musicians", and strongly contrasting themselves with the classically trained figures involved in [[progressive rock]] which had attained mainstream popularity in Britain at the time.<ref name="Ford 2.10">{{harvnb|Ford|1999|pp=2.10–2.11}}.</ref> P-Orridge began to take an increasing interest in infantilism, founding a fictitious school of art, the L'ecole de l'art infantile, whose work culminated in a 1983 event known as the Baby's Coumpetition held at [[Oxford University]]'s May Festival, which he had co-organised with Robin Klassnik and Opal L. Nations. Another invention of P-Orridge's at this time was his Ministry of Antisocial Insecurity (MAI), a parody of the governmental [[Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance|Ministry of Social Security]].<ref>{{harvnb|Ford|1999|pp=2.13–2.14}}.</ref> He also set about working on creating a character known as Alien Brain, and in July 1972 performed the ''World Premiere of The Alien Brain'' at Hull Arts Centre, a multi-media happening that involved the audience and which had received funding from the Yorkshire Arts Association.<ref name="Ford 2.18">{{harvnb|Ford|1999|p=2.18}}.</ref> That summer, they also entered the National Rock/Folk Contest at the New Grange Club in Hull with a set entitled ''This Machine Kills Music''; a parody of the slogan "[[this machine kills fascists]]".<ref name="Ford 2.22">{{harvnb|Ford|1999|p=2.22}}.</ref>

They also put together their first book for publication; the first volume in a projected project known as ''The Million and One Names of COUM'' appeared in 1972, containing 1001 slogans, such as "COUM are Fab and Kinky" and "A thousand and one ways to COUM.".<ref name="Ford 2.19">{{harvnb|Ford|1999|p=2.19}}.</ref> This was based on the science fiction short story [[The Nine Billion Names of God]] written by [[Arthur C. Clarke]] in 1953 <ref> Spydeee Gasmantell </ref> Another of P-Orridge's early publications was the book ''Copyright Breeches'' (1973), which explored his ongoing fascination with the [[copyright symbol]] and its wider implications for art and society.<ref name="Ford 2.21">{{harvnb|Ford|1999|p=2.21}}.</ref> COUM organised events for [[Hull City Council]]'s ''Fanfare for Europe'' to commemorate the UK's joining the [[European Economic Community]] in 1973, while that year P-Orridge featured a piece of conceptual art, 'Wagon Train', at the Ferens Art Gallery's ''Winter Show'', proving controversial in local press.<ref>{{harvnb|Ford|1999|pp=3.3&ndash;3.6}}.</ref>