Thee Majesty were a British
industrial music group.
History
In 1998,
Genesis P-Orridge
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (born Neil Andrew Megson; 22 February 1950 – 14 March 2020) was an English singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, visual artist, and occultist who rose to notoriety as the founder of the COUM Transmi ...
was ending their association with the name
Psychic TV
Psychic TV (aka PTV or Psychick TV or several other aliases) were an English experimental music, experimental video art and music collective, formed by performance artist Genesis P-Orridge and Scottish musician Alex Fergusson (musician), Alex ...
, the band they created after the termination of
Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English music and visual arts group formed in Kingston upon Hull by Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti, later joined by Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson and Chris Carter. They are widely regarded as pioneers of in ...
. At the same time, they began conceptualizing Thee Majesty as a
spoken word-based project springing from the Splinter Test project with PTV alumnus
Larry Thrasher. The first major Thee Majesty performance was in 1998 in Stockholm, Sweden at an international spoken word festival that included
Michael Gira
Michael Rolfe Gira (; born February 19, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, author and artist. Now based in New Mexico, he founded the band Swans, in which he sings and plays guitar, in New York City in the 1980s at the height of ...
and
Wanda Coleman amongst other notable spoken word artists. That first Thee Majesty lineup for the Sweden show included P-Orridge, Larry Thrasher, Bachir Attar and Chandra Shukla. Later in New York, P-Orridge met
Bryin Dall (4th Sign of the Apocalypse, A Murder of Angels, Dream Into Dust) and began doing live performances in New York and San Francisco and tours with the industrial band
Pigface
Pigface is an American industrial rock supergroup formed in 1990 by Martin Atkins and William Rieflin.
History
Pigface was formed from Ministry's ''The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste'' tour, which produced the '' In Case You Didn't Fee ...
. Thee Majesty's second major performance was at the
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London, England. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a G ...
in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
on 1 May 1999, which was also the "final" show of PTV. The show was called "Time's Up" which was also the name of the new project's debut CD, released on the same date by Dall's label The Order of the Suffering Clown via
World Serpent Distribution
World Serpent Distribution was a England, British record label and music distribution house formed in the 1990s by David Gibson, Alan Trench and Alison Webster. Douglas Pearce of Death In June coined the company name in 1991, ''World Serpent'' b ...
. Since then, Thee Majesty has remained an intermittent project, only playing sporadic festivals, art events, and intimate venues in Europe and the US, and releasing very few original studio albums. In 2009 Thee Majesty played a show expounding on a transgender creation story theme at the
Centre Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...
with P-Orridge, Thrasher, Dall and Edley in the lineup.
Members
Besides P-Orridge and Dall,
Larry Thrasher has performed several live shows including two tours of Europe. They were joined in 2004 by P-Orridge's wife, Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge, and briefly by Morrison Edley (
Toilet Böys). The project remains a vehicle for P-Orridge's semi-freeform rants and concepts, supported by Dall's guitar and sample soundscapes along with Thrasher's tabla playing and noise soundscapes, at times augmented by some combination of other players. Edley, now known as "Electric Eddie", has focused mainly on PTVII, the latest incarnation of Psychic TV. Lady Jaye died on Tuesday 9 October 2007.
Discography
Thee Majesty's discography is a bit confusing. As noted above, ''Time's Up'' was the name of multiple releases and events including the debut album. P-Orridge has also opted to use the name on reissues of works predating the band's inception. ''A Hollow Cost'', ''
At Stockholm'', and ''Thee Fractured Garden'' were originally Psychic TV or Splinter Test releases, but in reissues they were given new artwork and credited to both Genesis P-Orridge and Thee Majesty. ''Mary Never Wanted Jesus'' was a special
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...
-themed limited release that contains some different tracks and running orders on the
vinyl
Vinyl may refer to:
Chemistry
* Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer
* Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation
* Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry
* Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...
and
CD versions. ''Vitruvian Pan'' is the band's second proper full-length studio album, though it contains elements from live recordings.
Note: releases marked with
‡ are dual-credited reissues of older material.
*''Time's Up'' (1999)
*''Time's Up Live'' (2001)
*''A Hollow Cost'' (2003)
‡
*''At Stockholm'' (2004)
‡
*''Thee Fractured Garden]'' (2004)
‡
*''Mary Never Wanted Jesus'' (2005)
*''Vitruvian Pan'' (2007)
See also
*
Psychic TV
Psychic TV (aka PTV or Psychick TV or several other aliases) were an English experimental music, experimental video art and music collective, formed by performance artist Genesis P-Orridge and Scottish musician Alex Fergusson (musician), Alex ...
*
Splinter Test
*
Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English music and visual arts group formed in Kingston upon Hull by Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti, later joined by Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson and Chris Carter. They are widely regarded as pioneers of in ...
References
External links
Official myspace{{Authority control
British electronic music groups
British techno music groups
British industrial music groups