Marking 20 years since its release is the official live recording of Throbbing Gristle's second re-union performance, which was executed and immediately released on December 3rd, 2004. The event was part of a festival held by All Tomorrow's Parties at the Camber Sands resort on Britain's southern coast. The event had originally been planned to occur in May of that year, though it had to be cancelled at the last minute for reasons related to the organizers, having nothing to do with TG. TG still went ahead and performed a reunion show at the Astoria in London, on May 16th, honouring any ticket holders for the cancelled festival. The results of that show were recorded for the RE:TG video, which was eventually released in the TGV box set of the TG video archive in 2007. The initial intent of the RE:TG event was that TG would perform a single, "one and done" concert, with the band returning to their various other projects after that. However, with the festival rescheduled, TG were persuaded to regroup yet again for "one more" show, also promoted as the group's "final" appearance together.
The timing of the show was somewhat cast in a shadow thanks to the unexpected demise of Peter Christopherson's creative and life partner, Jhon Balance (Geoff Rushton), who had fallen to his death from the balcony of their home on November 13th. In the video from the Astoria gig, Balance can be seen at the foot of the stage during the finale of Discipline, rocking back and forth, evidently in the thralls of some transcendental moment. One can only imagine how difficult it was for Sleazy to perform so soon after that tragedy. In the video for the Camber Sands show, also included in TGV, Sleazy wears one of the infamous Coil fur suits that the band had recently used for some of their own live shows, as a tribute to Balance. You can also observe at one point in the performance, the emotional intensity of the moment becomes too much for Sleazy and he is overcome with grief and begins visibly sobbing. It's an incredibly touching moment of vulnerability.
The Camber Sands performance offered much of the same sort of mix of old and new material as the Astoria show, though there is a moment when the band acknowledges the loss of Balance with a brief tribute from Genesis. The principal innovation of the show was the fact that it was being recorded for immediate release on a double CD-R set that would be instantly duplicated at the show for those who wished to purchase a copy on site. Additional copies of the recording could be ordered directly from Mute Records. The resulting double album would be something of a rarity afterwards, until it was finally reissued in 2019 in a properly mastered, professionally manufactured double CD set, complete with track indexes, which were missing from the CD-R version. The benefit of proper mastering also remedied the issue of the overall lack of loudness on the CD-Rs.
Though this was supposed to be the final TG reunion show, it would not be long until the temptation to continue resulted in additional live performances, along with the group returning to the studio to record a new album, 2007's Part Two. The reinvigorated TG would continue on for six more years, until abruptly coming to an end again at the end of 2010, first with the sudden departure of Genesis P-Orridge after the first gig of of an EU mini tour, then with the sudden death of Peter Christopherson.
As a document of the band at the threshold of a new era of activity, A Souvenir of Camber Stands offers up an exceptional collection of music from a collective feeling the surge of creativity from a fresh influx of inspiration. The fact the group managed to reconnect at all after 23 years apart was something of a minor miracle. That they could find a new kind of relevance for themselves, completely sidestepping any blush of being a nostalgia act, was a testament to their integrity and artistic abilities.
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