Genesis P Orridge Bio, Wiki

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge was born Neil Andrew Megson on February 22nd, 1950. S/he is an English singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, and occultist. P-Orridge rose to notability as the founder of the COUM Transmissions artistic collective and lead vocalist of seminal industrial band, Throbbing Gristle. They were also a founding member of Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth occult group, and fronted the experimental band Psychic TV.

Genesis P Orridge Gender

Genesis P-Orridge identified as third gender, with the preferred pronouns s/he and h/er.

Genesis P Orridge Early Life & Education

Genesis Orridge was born Neil Andrew Megson in Victoria Park, Manchester and grew up in Essex. As a teenager, s/he attended Solihull School in Warwickshire where s/he developed an interest in occultism, avant-garde art, and music. S/he dropped out of the University of Hull to join a London commune, and then departed the commune after three months to found avant-garde art and improvisational music collective COUM Transmissions and changing h/er name to Genesis P-Orridge.

Genesis Orridge helmed the famous Dadaist-inspired collective from 1969 to 1976 and later formed Throbbing Gristle alongside Chris Carter, Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson, and Cosey Fanni Tutti towards COUM’s end.

Throbbing Gristle released their debut album The Second Annual Report in 1977 on their own Industrial Records. The band incorporated white noise, tape-based samples, and spoken-word poetry into their work, and were notorious for provocative imagery—such as Nazi concentration camps and pornography—used at their live shows. Their abrasive blend of rock, electronic, and punk ethos would go on to become the groundwork of industrial music. In total, Throbbing Gristle released nine full albums, despite breaking up in 1981 and getting back together almost two decades later.

In h/er 2017 memoir Art Sex Music, Cosey Fanni Tutti accused P-Orridge of emotional and physical abuse. P-Orridge denied the allegations. “Whatever sells a book sells a book,” s/he told The New York Times.

Christopherson and P-Orridge formed the video art and musical performance group Psychic TV in 1982. The two published a monthly series of live albums beginning in 1986, entering the Guinness Book of World Records for most records released in one year. The acid-house-inspired band collaborated with a wide range of artists including Alex Fergusson (Alternative TV), Current 93, the Cult, Andrew Weatherall, and many more. Their most influential works were 1984’s Pagan Day and 1988’s Allegory and Self, which were reissued in 2017.

Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY), an “anti-cult” network, was created alongside Psychic TV to facilitate discussion around “chaos magic” and occult tradition.

Genesis P Orridge Wife (Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge)

Genesis P Orridge’s second wife was Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge. In 1993, P-Orridge and h/er wife relocated to Ridgewood, Queens, where they would undergo the “Pandrogeny Project”—they received body modification surgery to resemble one another as a single “pandrogynous” being named Breyer P-Orridge and adopted gender-neutral pronouns.

Lady Jaye died suddenly on Tuesday October 9th,  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.

P-Orridge continued to identify as pandrogynous for the rest of h/er life. P-Orridge’s last studio album was Psychic TV’s 2016 album Alienist.

Genesis P Orridge Death & Cause