Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture. Tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Chocolate Absinthe. Doors open at 6:30pm and talk starts at 7pm
Before Coil and Carter-Tutti, before Psychic TV and Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, before even Throbbing Gristle, there was COUM Transmissions: an alchemical cauldron in which many of the personalities and later obsessions of these subsequent projects were explored for the first time.
COUM was more an anarchistic Art Gang than a commune, that at its very best combined latter-day Artful Dodgers and some decidedly Dodgy Artists, regardless of Age, Colour, Gender, or Sexuality. Like something between a love-affair and a cult, Monty Python meets Gilbert+George, hitches a ride with the Merry Pranksters to the nearest Acid Test.In their own words:
“Your local dirty banned, COUM are the folk-music of tomorrow, but there is no tomorrow. Made up of various people from all creative areas, post-psychedelic trash, vanguard for the Wild Boys, soon to become “Wreckers of Civilization.”
COUM urinate down the handrails of your subconscious, and are a nice evening out for the family” (even if the Manson Family!)“COUM are fab and kinky. And never forget that infamous and nasty COUM guarantee of disappointment, sweetie.”
Foxtrot Echo was a key member of COUM, alongside Genesis P-Orridge & Cosey Fanni Tutti. He was the first to meet Monte Cazazza, the first to take nude photos of Cosey, and bridged the move from Hippy Happenings & Street Theatre to later Transgressive & Body Art: also the move to London, and meeting with Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson.
Tonight, Matthew Levi Stevens will explain the salient background, and then invite Foxtrot Echo himself to help unpack the deeper stories, with the help of anecdotes from his rich history, and rare images from his personal archive (many of which have not previously been seen in public.)
Matthew Levi Stevens is the author of The Magical Universe of William S. Burroughs (Mandrake of Oxford, 2014) and various related texts, as well as a range of print and online articles for Beatdom, FANEmag, The Fenris Wolf 12, Furfur, Reality Sandwich, Soft Need 23, and others. He has also spoken at The Last Tuesday Society, The Occult Conference (Glastonbury), The Atlantis Bookshop, Treadwells, and The Horse Hospital.”
The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society is London’s best award-winning alternative cocktail bar hidden within The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. A drinker’s cabinet of wonder filled curious cocktails & extraordinary elixirs —The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour is truly a hidden treasure of East London. Opened by collectors, drinks historians & absinthe experts — Allison Crawbuck (Brooklyn) & Rhys Everett (London) in 2016, the duo bring with them a shared passion for the mysterious world of spirits & the macabre.
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Devil’s Botany is the UK’s first absinthe distillery, founded by Directors of The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour. Celebrating spirit’s connection to art, literature, magic & mixology, Devil’s Botany is unleashing the future of absinthe with bold expressions for the adventurous drinkers of today.
The venue opens at 18:30. Doors will close at 19:00 to avoid disrupting the speaker. We kindly ask that all guests arrive before 19:00. Refunds are not possible for in person events with less than seven days notice in any circumstances.
