Episode 48: Cosey Fanni Tutti part 1

This multipart series Jay discusses the life and musical career of Christine Carol Newby aka Cosey Fanni Tutti. One of the founding members of industrial band Throbbing Gristle. Born in 1951, we follow her upbringing and exposure to the Swinging London music scene of the early to mid 1960’s. Then the height of Beatlemania, she also enjoys LSD and Pink Floyd. Eventually meeting other like minded artists and creates an art movement called COUM. Listen and find out more in this wild and chaotic ride where music and art is as important as life itself.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Hello, rock and roll. Hey there, Jesus. It's been a while since I've seen you. Um I uh was watching the Rams Eagles game, and you know what? And something told me in my head, hey, you gotta do an episode. Yeah, you're right. So I'm sacrificing the game here. I'm not even watching the game. Hello, welcome to uh Jay's Rock and Roll uh Rock and Roll stories. I'm your host Jay. It's been a while, life gets in the way a little bit sometimes. Um I got a different story today. Um something that is definitely uh down the line on the buffet that you know I've never really experienced before. We're gonna be talking about um Kosi Fanny Tootie. Kosi Fanny Tootie. And this is from her book Art Sex Music. She was born Christine Carol Newby and born in 1951. And uh let me just give you an idea of what the hell we're we're where are we going here with this. Um when I was like a teenager, you know, kids are into punk rock and you listen to punk rock bands and shit, and I had a couple friends who were who were interested in what was called industrial music. So it's like just breaking all the rules, and you know, and just uh just going against the grain of creating sounds that uh we'll we'll definitely get more in into it. But the the the main band that she was in was called Throbbing Gristle. But we're not gonna talk about that right now, we're gonna talk about uh you know her early childhood, her upbringing. All of this, uh all the stories in this book called um art, sex, music, is from her diaries, and she explains in the beginning of the book that she says it was a revelatory process and the provided ex and it provided exactly what I needed, albeit a harsh and definitely not rose-tinted view of my past. So all all of the the all all of the book is based on her going back and looking at her diaries. She talks about growing up in uh whole H-U-L-L Hull England, which was actually the second most bombed city during World War II. I think the line. Um, she's living in a council estate during the early 50s. She's born in uh 51. She's kind of like a uh a daydreaming, imaginative child. She finds happiness and security with her mother, her aunt, her grandmother. Her her father's kind of like a grumpy old guy. Um the dad, he's a fireman. Uh he works in like um rotation shifts, you know. He might like one week he's he's going to work at 10 p.m. and coming home at 6 a.m. So she has uh a grumpy dad, but um she would find uh she would find like a safe place in this uh area of the neighborhood called the dump, which was uh just a location of bombed-out buildings from World War II where everyone would just bring their trash. So there's like you know, couches and shit all over the place, and it was just kind of like a fun place to just hang out and run around in. There's broken glass everywhere. Uh she also has fun seeing movies with her friends. She goes to the movie theater and she talks about seeing you know, Flash Gordon, the Lone Ranger, Three Stooges, like you know, they were called cereals back then. She had she did this game where she would crawl on the ground with the friend while the movie's playing underneath the the underneath uh the seats, you know, and they'd be covered in ice cream and and bubblegum and shit, and finally they would get kicked out by the ushers for goofing off. She says that growing up in the neighborhood hole, you you kinda had to be a you kind of had to be tough. She says one time she got beat up by another girl. She went home and her dad asked her about it, and she's you know told, you know, told dad, oh, this girl beat me up, and and he ordered her go back to her house and beat her up. So she goes uh to the girl's house, knocks on the door, the door opens, it's the girl, and she punches her right in the face and says, like, never touch me ever fucking again. That was just normal uh whole behavior, she explains. Alright, yeah, it's this episode is just just a bunch of interesting little little you know anecdotes and stories from her early childhood. One time she was um uh group of friends, they would get together and go to this old man's house, go inside, and he would give the kids treats, like candies and stuff, and all of them knew that he had this suitcase under his bed where they would go and and uh open it and steal his money. And it it it she talks about how it was suspicious to wear it, it's almost like he he he he he you know he planned it that way. Um another time she's about seven or eight, she says she's riding her bicycle, she crashes it, and she's knocked out, and she w and she comes to with a man like helping her up and and give giving her money. Uh another another another story she talks about how they're uh she's in a forest playing with a bunch of friends, and uh they're running around, you know, jumping off rocks and you know, swinging on trees and stuff, and then one of the kids says, Look at that man! They look over, there's a man like masturbating, watch watching the kids and masturbating. Um she's like not understanding what the fuck is going on, you know. But then one of the kids says, Get him! And so they're like throwing rocks at him and throwing branches at this fucking creep, and the guy runs off. Uh, let's see. It's like a very happy childhood, like lots of just escape, you know, especially when you have just like a father who's just really uh kind of just extremely strict, and he would threaten her, like she had a rabbit as a pet, and he would he would say things like, you know, you better do this, or I'm gonna kill your rabbit, that kind of crap. Uh, she would go out, go fishing with her friends, they would catch fish on like a ban, like a homemade bamboo fishing pole, you know, tadpoles, or those little fish, and put them in like a jam jar. And just she talks about how it's a childhood heaven. She had a great time. Um, I like this story where this is a cool story. Churches around the neighborhood are were never locked, you know, like you go to them on Sunday, you go home. Like, why does it need to be locked? So, anyway, so she talks about how churches are open 24-7, and she and her friends would would kind of break into these churches and they're on their bicycles, they're they're running, they're you know, they're racing up and down like like you know, the the paths, and um, and then in the pulpit, sometimes the microphone would be left on, and you know, they're grabbing the microphone, ho ho ho, hello, and like telling jokes and making fart sounds and stuff like that. And I think that's uh it's kind of cool because I think I think that that that idea right there kind of segued uh uh the future music that she would do, just breaking the rules. And here's my microphone. I'm gonna I'm gonna you know, I'm gonna do something else. So they have fun doing that until one time um someone called the police, and then the you know the police came and they scattered on their bikes and stuff. Alright. Got a lot of daddy issues. He's uh, as I said, threatened the rabbit. Um so her quote says, I began to see him as an enforcer of my unhappiness. Uh yet I still wanted to please him, wanted him to love me, because I really didn't think he did, all in the naive hope that I could uh I could receive his feelings toward me, although there were some happy mom moments with dad, his orders and threats dominated and overshadowed my relationship with him, and ironically made me behave worse than I could have done had he been more reasonable and affectionate, which is probably not uncommon anyway. I mean, that's just how it goes. I mean, I'm not defending the dad, I'm just saying. So around 1962, 1963, she's about 11, 12 years old. She's becoming sexually active. She's not having sex, she's a virgin, but she talks about how she's like she messes around with boys, you know, makes out, jerks them off, or whatever. She's very fashionable. Like, okay, think about this. This is this is 62, 63. This is like like, you know, the fashion is mod. You know, it's um that's the rise of the Beatles, Rolling Stone. So it's a very specific look, very sharp. One time she talks about how um she's getting off a bus, and she's wearing uh, where is it here? I wrote it down. She's very specific in her little her little outfit. She says she's wearing a mini kilt, like a like a mini skirt. She's got a black Beatles logo polo neck, beetle stockings, and red and black patent leather kitten heel shoes. I think those are like they're not high heels, but they're that they're pointy, pointed, like sharp, like high heels. She's she's getting off a bus. She's 12 years old, whatever. And um she sees a guy, this tan guy mow no shirt on, mowing a lawn. It's Mick Ronson. Mick Ronson was the uh guitar player for David Bowie when it was uh Ziggy Stardust and Spires and Spires of Mars. And uh Mick Ronson sees her, stops mowing, and gives like a wolf whistle. So she's very into fashion. You know, she likes Beatles, she likes rolling stones. Um, she has a specific look. And then one day she just realizes like uh I don't need to grow up this fast. Like, like other other friends are having sex. She has girls, she has friends at school that are sexually active. She's not. And and she actually tells herself, like, I don't we don't need to do it this fast. So she's she goes back to being like a tomboy, focusing on her school uh art. She loves art, she loves science. Um she'll she'll stay at home, just listen to the Beatles. She talks a lot about how um she started seeing live acts. So she she talks about how she saw live Rolling Stones, Walker Brothers, Dusty Springfield, Geno Washington, Moody Blues, Pretty Things, Roy Orbison, the Trogs, Mary Ann Faithful. Damn, this is fuck. Good shit. See that live 62, 63. Alright, one of these nights, after seeing, like um, she says, um after seeing a memorable band, a memorable band, she doesn't say which one, uh, she enters her home and her father, who is like very, you know, militaristic, controlling, and you know, you you do what I say, she hits he hits her in the head for coming home late. And but she showed no fear and would not cry, would not show, we would not show that you you can control me. It's kind of sad. She talks about how um she sees Jimi Hendrix. She saw Jimi Hendrix live. So this is later. That's that's 66, I think. She saw uh Jimi Hendrix, Cream, yeah, 66, right. Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, that's what she listens to. Um she talks about how she saw Jimi Hendrix live at uh one of those ballrooms. And it's interesting how uh I made a connection here because uh one of her friends talks about how she the friend was dating um what's his name? Uh uh Nash from Crossy Souls, Nash and Young on the Hollies. And um but left Nash and went with Jimi Hendrix. And I I I I read that I read um uh what's his name? Nash. What is his first name? Shit, I forgot. Crossy Souls, Nash and Young. Nash. Graham Nash, ah, forgot. I read Graham Nash's um autobiography, and he and he talks about how he had this girlfriend that he was dating and really liked her, and then he went on tour with the Hollers in the States, and then came back to England and couldn't find the girl, and it turned out she was dating Jimi Hendrix. That was that was uh Kosi Fanitootti's friend. Anyway, I thought I I like it. I like when this the spotter web of rock and roll is all connected. She finishes school, 67 or 68, and she gets seven certificates. She's a fucking good, a good student. Like the father should be more like you're you're kicking ass, you know. And she wants to go to university to study, and she is the perfectly qualified. You're the one. But her father says, Well, your sister didn't go to university, so you aren't either. And that's really shitty. So she's made to get a job, and so she and she gets jobs in offices, like you know, eventually she she does some work with with with with scientists, mostly in like the office part. She talks about how um there's like this gang. Like what when they go to see see bands and stuff, they're called the station gang. And I just thought it was interesting how there was this the leader of the gang was named Ray Harvey, and he was covered in tattoos, and he had a tattoo on his inner lip, and it was just kind of like a violent, uh, violent kind of street gang. She talks a lot about in whole there was like skinhead gangs. Remember, we talking about how we're not talking about like, you know, Nazi skinheads, skinheads, the guy the guys are into like ska and reggae and like war, the suspenders and shit. Um uh what are they called? Hell's Angels, uh, mods, and teddy boys. Like they're all all warring in a whole. Like it that's why, like, that's why hole was was kind of tough because like you kind of had to be involved in a gang, and if you're not, you're still gonna get your ass kicked anyway. Anyway, so she wants to go to school, she can't afford it, dad's not gonna pay for it. She has to find a job, she gets office jobs, she talks a lot about her her clothes, um, she does a lot of partying, and she gets closer to she gets like a couple boyfriends, and uh she does a lot of these entries in this book of like they're there's they're directly from her um journals. This says 24th of December 1968. I nearly got bloody raped, and she talks about the story where she she um went a couple girlfriends and there's a couple guys, they all met up to go to like a show, see a band, and I guess there was a time when I guess the show was over, it was really late, everyone was gone. The girls went into like the the bathroom and while the guys were waiting, and we and when um when she and her girlfriends came out, the guys jumped them. The guys were like the guys were like trying to get something. They're like they jumped them, they're they're they're trying to you know force it, and but they fought off. Like um she was able to fight it off, the friends fought it off, and then they're like, Oh, we were just we were just kidding, we were just kidding, but it really scared the hell out of her. She also says in her journal, this is January uh 1969. Started 1969, a virgin, hoped to end it in the same way, too. Dot dot dot. I never made it. So she talks about her first love she calls Steve B. She's she's not gonna tell us who it is. Steve B. Um, handsome guy, they're into like doing acid partying. They uh they love music together. They they go to this thing called the Plimpton Festival of 1969. The Who? Uh who else um The Who played. Uh, there was one big another big band. Oh, Pink Floyd. Yeah, definitely Pink Floyd. That that's her band, that's her jam. She likes to do acid and listen to Pink Pink Floyd. So she is at this uh festival, and they're do they're doing LSD, and she talks about how she's in like a van and doing she's really high with her with her boyfriend Steve B, and she kind of jokes about the story about doing it uh doing acid being really high, and they're on they're sitting on this mattress, right, and they push on the mattress, and then like this like waves go in the air, and they look at the walls of the van, and it's it's just covered in dirt, but they see like different drawings and stuff, and they push on the mattress again, and like this gray mist goes up. The mattress is on fire. So people are like, What the hell? Get out of there! They pull them out. The things are caught on fire, maybe like a joint or a cigarette or something. Uh, it's it's kind of funny. So she is with uh cozy is with her friend Steve or boyfriend Steve B and two other friends, and it's a long like trip, like they're they're traveling in in their van, and they go to a place called Torque Torque T-O-R-Q-U-A-Y, uh to score some hash. It's like a long trip. They go to a festival, they go to a torque, they can score hash. Um, the car that they're driving in uh falls apart, like just breaks apart, and it just kind of sours, you know, like no one's really getting along. Actually, the two friends and Steve are getting along, but everyone no one likes Cozy anymore. They they they I guess they're just pissed off at her or something. And the relationship ends with with Steve B. So she talks about how when that when that van fell apart, like taking all the stuff out of the van, like their clothes and their suitcases, was just watching like the relationship piece by piece fall apart. And she says one time after that when they got back home, like things were not good with Steve B. Whatever happened, it's just kind of soured, got too high, and didn't like the you know, mattress in flames or something. Who knows? But one time there Steve B is driving her home and it's silent in the car, like no one's talking, and they get out of the car, and Steve B throws her to the ground and yells in her face, you got something to tell me. I don't know, like one of those moments where the silence is is so thick, you know. But she says, Nope, I got nothing to tell you, I got nothing to say to you. She goes home after this long trip of music and festivals, LSD, fighting with the boyfriend, breaking up with the friends and the boyfriend, and the father sees her just like in and you know, this you gotta figure this is a time when there's a big difference in the status quo of just you know square crew cut look versus mod hippie like LSD like just you know the counterculture. So dad sees her and and kicks her out. He's like, You're you're you're not you're not living here anymore, you're out. So she gets kicked out and she gets uh she gets really into doing acid. She's hanging out with her friend, she sees Pink Floyd. She talks about how doing acid um with her friends when someone would you know get. Get way too high, start tripping. They would have like this phrase that that they used like something like a safety word, a safety net to bring you back to zero, right? They would say, Nothing ever happens. So someone's freaking out, oh my god, the sky is falling. Nothing ever happens. Oh, you're right. Ah, you're right. Sorry. Nothing ever happens. Bring you back down. One day at a party, she's tripping, and someone comes up to her and says, uh, Genesis requests to see you. She's like, okay, whatever the fuck that means. And it turns out there's this guy named uh Genesis P. Origin. That's not his real name. His real name is like Neil Nibsen or some shit. We'll get we'll do that later. But Genesis wants to see you. And another person came up there, some random person was like, Genesis is the most egomaniac, like selfish person I've ever met. So, sh who is this Genesis P. Origin guy? Um, I don't want to go too much into who he is because I'm I I'm gonna have to do an episode on just on him. But anyway, he's an he's a fellow hippie, lives in a commune. Uh it's just a really intense guy, really selfish. So, anyway, they they end up hooking up. They ended up be they end up becoming, well, from the outside, you would say boyfriend, girlfriend, but they have rules where, oh, well, we're boyfriend, girlfriend. No, not really, but you we're we're free to do whatever we want, you know. All you know, come on, we're human beings. So there's that there's a point where it's like she's trying to get this is 1969, she's trying to get in good graces with her father. So she's homeless. Like, I don't know what to do. I'm sleeping on friends' couches, I'm just doing acid, going to shows. I could do A, you know, straighten up and move back in with you know good old conservative grumpy dad. Or B move into the styrofoam igloo that Genesis Peoridge made that has underneath the kitchen table in the commune he's living in. I could I could bed with him. What would you do? Yeah, she goes with Genesis, right? So they're together, and this is um uh they live in the commune with some other friends. It's like a it's like a vacant building that they're squatting. She she collects, not collects, but she she finds like some cats and she she adopts a f a dog. She she takes care of animals. There's like five people living there, and eventually, like it's like someone someone's like, dude, we need some some money. So she's the one that gets the job while everyone else like gets to play. I like I like her. She's like, she's like like she just seems trustworthy. She just seems like a good friend, you know? Like she she wouldn't let you down. She's the one who's like, alright, I'll fucking get the fucking job at the factory. Everyone else can just get high all fucking day. They live in this place where the bathroom is in the basement, uh and it's just like, you know, it's like shh barely shit piss running through. Um so Genesis Peorage uh has been in several of these artistic groups, these collectives, and the one that they are starting now that Cozy's a part of is called Coom. C-O-U-M. And it's just sort of a group of artists who they they come up with this thing, it's like a a thousand a thousand and one words on Coom or something. Like they come up with these things like Coom is nothing but the truth, Coom is nothing but the lies. Like they have always like it's just this, it's just this freedom of our artistic, whatever you want, you know. They put on these shows, they put on these happenings. Like um, you know, like there's this, like Cozy talks about the one of her proudest shows was the audience had had to go through like this tunnel, and there's there's like in one area, there's one of the members of Coom playing violin, another member, the guy is in a is in a coffin and like sitting up and throwing like like um Oful like intestine at you. Uh just just madhouse, just no rules, but are artistic as you can be. And um, they're really into male art, just sending, just doing work and like sending it into the mail, and that's where she got her name. That's where Carolyn became Cozy Fanny Tootie. One of her artist friends in somewhere in England sent her address to her, Cozy Fanny Tootie. And she's like, I like that. That's where she got her name. Um so the band, it it I don't want to call it a band. It's it's like a movement, it's it's it's a group, it's uh it's a it's a thing, it's a club, it's a gang. It's just whatever we want to do, and however we do it, there's no rules. You can just I don't know. It's it's it's fascinating. I like things like that. When I was a teenager, I was in uh with a group of friends. Like we we had we had something like that. Music, art, video, uh, you know, multimedia. So she lives with Genesis P. Origin, and one time the the guy is Genesis P. Orig is um oh, here's a funny thing. Uh I had friends who listen to Throbbing Gristle, so they always mention the the Genesis P. Origin, and like I always wonder, what the fuck are you saying? Genesis P. Oridge? I'm reading this fucking book, and it tells me that how he got that name P, like P period Orige. Uh so many, so many people uh commenting on the fact that he loves eating porridge. I'm not joking. This was in this book here. He loves porridge. So he just took the name Genesis P. Oridge. Uh he but he's a pain in the ass. Like, okay, I like Cozy. I don't like Genesis. Cozy is like a cool cozy can like Cozy would be like, Can you here take my wallet? Can you just hang on to this fucking for thing for a day? I I gotta get out of here. Like, you'll you would get it back. You give it to Genesis, he would say, What wallet? You know? Um, he he has tantrums, he throws stuff, he he has all these rules, like I'm I'm not your boyfriend, but we are in a relationship. And one time, one time she goes out and has such a like a lovely time with friends and gets high and dances with boys and comes back and he's like in he's like asleep in bed and he's like get out, like kicks her out. Ugh, he's such an asshole. Um so there is uh here's homework for you. Look, look this up. You you can see what I'm talking about. Go to YouTube and just write C-O-U-M. You can also write Cozy Fanny. Make sure you put C-O-U-M. Cozy Fanny Tutti and Genesis Peorge. You can see visuals of the kind of stuff that they were doing. Uh she talks about how they opened for Hawkwind. Hawkwind was like this crazy space rock band that had Lemmy in the band from um oh god, what is it called? Uh Motorhead. Fuck. Motorhead. Um funny thing about that, I you probably already know the story. I love that story where Hawkwind, they're so sick of Lemmy. Well, I don't think his name wasn't Lemmy at the time, but they're so sick of Lemmy because he is like a speed head. He's like a speed freak. And the band is like a hippie band. They like acid, they like weed and stuff. So he's just so intense. They they want to kick him out. How are we gonna fucking kick this guy out? He's too intense. So one time they're on their tour bus, this is like 1970 or something. Uh, they pull, they pull over the side of the street on a country country road because Lemmy has to take a piss. He gets out, takes a piss, they shut the door and they drive off. So long, sucker. That's the way he he was kicked out of a Hawkwind. Anyway, they open for Hawkwind, and they have like just Genesis Peorage is just you know saying poetry. There's a guy playing guitar, there's a guy playing violin, someone playing bongos. Uh Cosy Fanitootti is throwing like those packaging pellets, those styrofoam pellets everywhere. They got a fan blowing them everywhere, and the the styrofoam pieces get get in um Hawkwind's gear and like fuck up their like stereo, their speakers and shit. Hawkwin uh comes up to the show after the after the set and they're like, Wow, man, you guys are weird. What kind of drugs are you on? They're like, no, we're we're completely sober. We're sober. Uh let's see. There's one time when all right, so she talks about how she uses the word lib, sorry, excuse me, liberating. So for example, what do you have in your bag? Oh, a bunch of fruit and bread and stuff I liberated from the store. What do you have in your bag? Oh, a bunch of books, you know, and like records I liberated from the other store. Yeah, they they do a lot of shoplifting, and one time um they get caught. Cozy Genesis and a couple other friends in the coming. They get caught shoplifting, and they actually um spend the night in jail. The mother comes and picks up Cozy and the release all at the same time, and the mother starts crying because she's thinking like she's like the mom, the mom was thinking that she's like fucking like all of these guys all the fucking time. And she's like, Mom, I'm not no, come on, mom. I I live with these guys, I don't do anything else with so that then the father refused to see her, and then there's um another time uh they move out. This is 1970. She moves out of the commune, her and Genesis. Her and Genesis are together, though. It's serious. She it's like she's towing the line, walking the fine line. She's just she's normal. I mean, not normal, like boring, but nor like functional, reasonable. Genesis is just all over the place. So they they leave the commune in 1970 and they move into this this old, like, I don't know, man, this like weird Victorian house that's that's connected to an old cathedral, and all these old cobblestone like roads, like the rooms are all dark and stuff, and it's like a really, really cool place. I guess man, I I'll have to look it look it up again. I I didn't write it down, but I guess it's like a historical monument. They're living in a historical monument. There's a there was like some old some old guy who owns a couple properties and just let them live there, and uh so she cooks and she cleans and Genesis works on his like art and poetry and stuff. Um yeah, so that one time they got they got uh arrested, they let they were let go, the the father wouldn't see her, and the one time there was a little fire that broke out on the block where they live in this new like cathedral Victorian home or whatever, and the fire brigade, that's what they I'm saying fire brigade because that's what they we say the fire truck or the fireman. Fire brigade came and guess who is part of that fire brigade? Her father. And her father didn't say a word to her, and and she sums it up to like if she were if he were to like you know engage with me, like me looking all hippie and and you know crazy with my crazy clothes and stuff, he would have to answer questions from his fire brigade brothers like who was that? What are you talking about? And he would have to explain, so he didn't say anything, and she talks about how he looks so frail and old. Yeah, it's a sad relationship. God, that happens a lot in rock and roll. These fu God, everyone has a fucking issue with their fucking parents, man. Just you know, just try to get along. Anyway, so they live in this old place, and another time they talk about how um she uh she had to get an abortion, she got pregnant with Genesis, because Genesis refuses to use condoms. And you know, so she got pregnant and she um she got an abortion at uh at a clinic. I guess I guess abortion was legal at in in that year, 1970, and it it took a long time for her to recover. So anyway, back to back to the the music artistic part. Coom is getting to be sort of um taken seriously, and they're like they're they're given grants, you know, like the like the art council of England or whatever you want to call it at the time would would would fund things for for Coom. Um it's uh it's moving in uh in the right direction, and that's where we're gonna end it for now. So that was her upbringing, and um the next episode is really gonna take off with just just strictly about uh you know music and art and stuff. But so far I like it. I think she's cool. Like I think she's a she's a she would be a cool friend, you know. She would like uh you're dependable, uh you count on her. So far, so good, cozy. We'll see. We'll see what happens in the world of rock and roll. All right, everyone. Thanks for sticking around. Uh it's been a while, haven't seen you in a while. Uh, if you like this episode or you like the podcast, give me five stars, or write a review, or if you want to send an email, send it to Joy's rock and rollstores at photop.mp. Till then, see you next time for Cozy Part Two of It You Do. See ya, I'm gonna do it.