Throbbing Gristle

An Endless Discontent

Author: Ian Trowell Series: Global Punk

This book situates the British band Throbbing Gristle as both a lens and critical tool for England during the punk years and the Winter of Discontent. Using detailed archival research and testimony from key performances, it plots the impact and affective reach of the band. 20 b/w illus.

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Summary

Description

Drawing on archives and live performances, this book traces the impressions and reverberations of UK punk band Throbbing Gristle.

This book looks at late 1970s Britain, before, during, and immediately after the Winter of Discontent, to situate the activism of Throbbing Gristle in this time. It explores how the band worked in and against the time, and how they worked in and against punk, as punk worked in and against the time and place. Punk acts as a mediating factor and nuisance value in the band’s story, as Throbbing Gristle emerged with punk in late 1976, grappled with it through 1977, and then went on to create and eventually criticize a number of post-punk scenes that had flourished around 1979.

Critic Reviews

'Ian Trowell’s book is a marvellous trawl through the alternative and underground music of the late 1970s and early 80s, hung on the story of Throbbing Gristle; more specifically, a number of their live concerts, or performance events, around the UK. [...] Why do I say this book is marvellous? Well, for the way it genuinely captures the time it describes [...] and for how Trowell uses the different locations of the TG gigs – London, Wakefield, Derby, Sheffield and others – to explore what was going on around the UK, recognising that whilst punk may have expired in London, it was only just happening elsewhere; also, that many different kinds of what we call post-punk were happening.'

-- Rupert Loydell, International Times