DECODER
“Genesis P-Orridge is talking about the day he was asked to rescue a series of radical movies made by William [S.] Burroughs, artist Brion Gysin and filmmaker Antony Balch from a skip. It was 1980 and P-Orridge was living on the dole in Hackney, east London, fronting art-punk band Throbbing Gristle. ‘Brion called me from Paris,’ recalls P-Orridge. ‘Antony had died, and all the films they had made in the 1950s and 1960s were about to be destroyed. ‘Here’s the address,’ he said. ‘Do what you can to save them. Go and get them, and they’re yours. You’ll know what to do with them.’ ”
No, this isn’t the sequel to The Da Vinci Code.
According to The Guardian, the episode really did take place, and Genesis P-Orridge rescued the films on which Burroughs, Gysin and Balch collaborated — including Towers Open Fire and The Cut Ups — from imminent destruction.
-
fish Fisher
