The daughters of Genesis P-Orridge, who is known to be the leader of Throbbing Gristle, confirmed the heartbreaking news through Facebook on Saturday, March 14.
- Mar 15, 2020
AceShowbiz - Throbbing Gristle leader Genesis P-Orridge has died, aged 70.
The musician and artist's daughters, Genesse and Caresse, confirmed the sad news via Facebook, revealing Genesis died at her home in Manhattan, New York on Saturday, March 14.
Born Neil Andrew Megson in Manchester, England, in 1950, Genesis hit the headlines for her colourful life more than her music - as well as fronting Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, she ran a soup kitchen in Kathmandu, Nepal, and undertook a long-running surgical project to merge identities with her late wife, Jacqueline Mary Breyer.
She also formed controversial British performance art group COUM Transmissions, which stunned the art world with a 1976 exhibition called Prostitution at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts. The exhibition included pornography, strippers and used tampons. COUM became Throbbing Gristle, an experimental band at the forefront of the industrial music genre.
In the 1980s P-Orridge formed psychedelic band Psychic TV and enjoyed a hit with a cover of the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations".
Genesis, her first wife, Paula, and their daughters turned their back on the group and Britain in 1991 and relocated to Nepal, ahead of a police raid on the family home in Brighton, England. Cops confiscated materials they believed were linked to a satanic cult. Though no charges were filed, the family went into voluntary exile, ultimately calling California home.
After her first marriage fell apart, Genesis shacked up with New York dominatrix Jacqueline Breyer, and the pair decided its love was so powerful they should fuse into a single entity.
Genesis and Breyer moved to New York after the musician and artist was injured in a fire at the home of producer Rick Rubin in 1995, and they used the money from a lawsuit related to the injuries from the blaze to fund their "pandrogyne" project. The couple underwent matching breast implant surgery and Breyer had work done on her chin and her nose to look like P-Orridge.
Lady Jaye, as she became known, died in 2007.
Genesis was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2017 and friends and fans launched a GoFundMe campaign to help the musician raise money to cover medical costs. She revealed she was undergoing a new "experimental chemo" treatment, as well as a blood transfusion, in an effort to beat the disease.
In November, she thanked fans for their support, writing: "We are broke. No savings, no pension, an overdraft. And debts. We grew up being taught to be stoic and never admit we needed help nor ask for it... but we have hit a brick wall. We really DO need any and all help we can get. Please help if you possibly can... all we can offer in exchange is our creativity and our generosity of soul."
