TG on Celluloid

Another French connection, this time an unsavory one… pictured below, my copy of Throbbing Gristle’s D.o.A album on the French Celluloid label. Celluloid earned the wrath of Industrial Records when the label put out unauthorized copies of the Second Annual Report and D.o.A. I’m unaware of the exact circumstances of the fallout – a quick flick through Simon Ford’s book doesn’t offer any explanation, but TG (or perhaps Genesis P-Orridge) outlined their position in no uncertain terms in the 1982 RE/Search book William S. Burroughs/Brion Gysin/Throbbing Gristle. I picked up my copy of the Celluloid D.o.A in the early 90’s, a few years before I discovered it was a counterfeit but I’ve never felt inclined to “Destroy all copies” as the RE/Search book advises. Interestingly, Celluloid also put out Industrial’s Thomas Leer & Robert Rental album The Bridge in 1979 (to little controversy it seems), and what’s more, Celluloid’s website, which includes the label’s complete discography omits the two TG albums, the crime airbrushed from history so to speak…