Coil - Royal Festival Hall, London, UK (2000-04-02) [SBD

Coil
"Cornucopea (Two South Bank Evenings with Julian Cope)"
Coil Presents Time Machines / Time Machines from the Heart of Darkness / The Industrial Use Of Semen Will Revolutionize The Human Race
Live at Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, London, UK
April 2, 2000
Feeling: Fluffy

SBD #1c
Taper: Unknown
Quality: 9+/10
Complete: No
Length: 5 min
Lowest Gen: M0 (?), FLAC
Comments: Found by Andrew Lahman on one of Peter’s tapes; originally shared by Lahman as a part of Sleazy Final Playlist, his tribute to Peter after his passing. “Sipping Birdsong Through Bedsprings” only.
Pictures - Mister_p6, etc.

First gig of the new millennium. “Time Machines from the Heart of Darkness” phase, named after the live CD featuring this show, which was based on their studio albums Time Machines (released in January 1998) and Queens of the Circulating Library (released in April 2000 at this very show). The band famously donned the fluffy white suits with hoodies during this phase, which were designed by their friend David Cabaret and inspired by the outfits of jazz musician Sun Ra and his Arkestra.

The full event name was “Cornucopea (Two South Bank Evenings with Julian Cope).” Julian Cope, an underground cult musician known for his solo work and The Teardrop Explodes, is relevant to the Coil story as before he joined them, Thighpaulsandra played for him. The two would later have a falling out over sexual imagery in Thighpaulsandra’s solo work, leading to the rest of Coil distancing themselves from Cope and John even slighting him at the 2002-06-07 Den Haag show. This didn’t stop Cope from publishing tribute album John Balance Enters Valhalla in 2019, however.

According to Phil Barrington in his book “The Golden Age of Bloodsports: The Collected Words, Lyrics, and Performed Songs of Jhonn Balance“, Coil’s first major live appearance for around 17 years was at Julian Cope’s Cornucopea event at London’s Royal Festival Hall, billed variously as ‘Coil Presents Time Machines,’ ‘Time Machines from the Heart of Darkness,’ and ‘The Industrial Use Of Semen Will Revolutionize The Human Race’ (the latter also apparently the proto-title of the ‘Circulating’ track). Balance appears with a black eye (the others soon to apply makeup to their faces to match his beaten look). Jhonn’s bruised eye is referred to only as a ‘drunken incident.’ Whether this was self-inflicted, a result of misadventure, or even a bar-room ‘disagreement’ is not publicly known.”

"Sipping Birdsong Through Bedsprings" was almost entirely edited out of all official releases for unknown reasons. The title was unofficially coined by Coil fan and friend Andrew Lahman, first released on the Sleazy Final Playlist compilation as a tribute to Peter after he passed away in November 2010.

John Balance had previously sang at a few Current 93 concerts in the 90s, but this was his first confirmed Coil concert singing, though he kept his vocals to a minimum. Recollections from attendees indicate the band were stony faced in concentration throughout. Every action from the band appeared carefully rehearsed.

Peter’s backing audio tracks for this concert have not yet surfaced, though John Balance later admitted to a fan, much to his embarrassment, than most of the music “performed” was actually pre-recorded and played over CD. Strangely, additional instrumentation is edited out of officially released sources.

The audience apparently laughed as Coil filed onto the stage, given their costumes, but let out a collective “Awww” and applauded when John and Peter hugged each other.

LCA Concert Page, containing more info: http://live-coil-archive.com/2000-2/2000-c...

John Balance – vocals
Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson – Ableton sequence, Fenix Synthesizer
Thighpaulsandra – Fenix Synthesizer
Simon Norris (Ossian Brown) – synthesizers

Recordings:
SBD #1c: https://archive.org/download/Coil_Sleazy_F...
AMT #1: https://archive.org/details/Coil_Live_at_C...