Set List

1. Something
2. Higher Beings Command
3. Amethyst Deceivers (Version 1)
4. What Kind of Animal Are You?
5. Blood from the Air
6. I Am the Green Child
7. Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil

Feeling: Glowing

“Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil” phase.

Supporting act(s): 2nd Gen (Wajid Yaseen)

SBD #1 and SBD #2 are different audio mixes; the harmonizer effect varies on “I Am the Green Child” and some of John’s vocals on “Amethyst Deceivers” and “Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil” are drowned out by the instrumentation on the former.

Something / Higher Beings Command

Io Pan, Io Pan, Io Pan, Io Pan [repeated]
The woods are alive with the smell of his coming
The woods are alive with the swell of his coming

From Wikipedia: “Pan is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, rustic music and impromptus, and companion of the nymphs. He has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, in the same manner as a faun or satyr. With his homeland in rustic Arcadia, he is also recognized as the god of fields, groves, wooded glens and often affiliated with sex; because of this, Pan is connected to fertility and the season of spring. The word panic ultimately derives from the god’s name.” Pan became a central figure in Crowleyian paganism, due to his similar look to the goat-form of Satan, which in turn inspired Coil to write the 1984 song “Panic” and reference him throughout their career. “Io Pan” is an invocation of him. John signed a lot of his emails and public forum thread posts from around this time with the phrase.

What Kind of Animal Are You?

I’m wearing a crown of thorns
A crown of black thorns
Thy black birds, like black splinters
From the black throne
Of the black Pope
Of black Rome

I’m wearing a crown of thorns
Like black splinters from the throne
Of the black Pope of black Rome
I’m wearing a crown of thorns

The ancient[s] in your brain is not the cause of our pain
The Asian[s] in the brain is not the cause of our pain
The Asian[s] in your brain is not the cause of our pain

I am a dog whose bite is bright as light
I am a dog whose bark is dark as night
I am a dog whose bite is bright as night
I am a dog whose bark is dark as light

[Yelping]

And when you strip your plastic back
Then you’ll see, then you’ll see, then you’ll see
Man is the animal [repeated]
Man is divine, man is divine
There is no time, there is no time, there is no time

I am a salamander
A burning, burning salamander
A sala-salamander
I am a salamander [repeated]
I am an animal
Man is the animal
Man is
You don’t keep goats in papa pagodas
You don’t keep goats in papa pagodas

Those lights at the end of your tunnel
You see those lights at the end of the tunnel?
They’re the fires of your burning brains
What kind of animal are you? [repeated]

Blood from the Air

Best friends die
Worst enemies die
Pets, places change, decay
Everyone is a complete disappointment
Everyone is probably already dead
I’m dead inside
I’m trying to live [repeated]

Peter sings backing vocals.

I Am the Green Child / Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil

John: “I am the Green Child. Hello; I am the Green Child!”

At war with words

Leave a paper cut
Cut off my head
Get on the front pages
With a splash of red

I’m up on a cross
Smelling a sprig of mint
With a koala bear on each of my arms

For the first of only two times, “I Am the Green Child” transitions into “Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil.”

John: “I am the most accomplished surgeon of moral deformities. This is the lowest common abominator you are ever gonna hear, you’re ever gonna hear, ever gonna hear, gonna hear.” The surgeon line is a reference to “Copacabala,” a song from the abandoned Backwards sessions, while “Lowest Common Abominator” was a song off of 2000’s Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil album.

Louder, louder, louder, louder, LOUDER!

The gig ends without any closing words from the band.

John Balance – vocals, Alexis AirFX on “Amethyst Deceivers,” Yamaha SPX 1000 pitch-shift effect on “I Am the Green Child,” metal sheet percussion on “Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil”
Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson – backing audio sequence, video projections, Clavia Nord Modular Synthesizer, backing vocals on “Blood from the Air”
Thighpaulsandra – Fenix Synthesizer, Clavia Nord Modular Synthesizer
Simon Norris (Ossian Brown) – Kurzweil Synthesizer
Tom Edwards – marimba

The day before this show, Arno Peeters interviewed Coil for 2 hours, segments of which were then edited with Coil’s Backwards demos, a COH EP produced by Coil, and the SBD #2 recording of this concert in a 4-hour radio special. He was in charge of splitting the audio signals during the performance in order to make the live mix.

The special aired on “Supplement” on June 18, 2001, between 8pm and 12am. The website’s program read: “Tonight on Supplement a 4 hour special about the English group Coil. Originating from the industrial scene of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV in the early eigthies, Coil is still productive. Polished studio-productions notwithstanding, the subjects are still raw (sex, drugs and death are well-known Coil themes) and the music still experimental [joke here: the Dutch word should be ‘experimenteel’, but is spelled ‘experiMentaal’, ‘mentaal’ being Dutch for ‘mental’]. The rich history, the albums, their film music and commercials, augmented of course with an in-depth interview. Also, never before broadcast and unreleased material, the premiere of the new CD on Eskaton, Coil’s own label, and recordings of Coil’s only concert in The Netherlands, recorded on june 1st at the Paradiso in Amsterdam.”

The program was rebroadcast late at night on July 14, 2002 and released as a 4-CD bootleg with Coil’s permission as Dutch Radio4 Supplement.

Here’s Arno’s September 18, 2016 testimony: “Out of curiosity, I revisited my files from back than. I always wondered how the recordings got into the public domain, but I myself gave them to a fan who had to ask permission of Rufus from Threshold House for non-commercial dissemination, which he got. Coil got the tape as well (with some of my own music (of course ;^). Note for technically inclined: It appears that it was recorded on a DA88 (by engineer Paul Schoenmakers, NOB) and transferred to Pro Tools, where I mixed and mastered it; see the added screenshot of the Mix Window. Processing was used sparsely, only on the vocals and some bass added to the main mix. The overheads apparently picked up mainly audience’ so I used the mics from the marimba for some ambience. So the recording that circulates that has not been taped from the radio show is in fact the direct master.”

Here is an email exchange between Arno and Coil:

Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 10:54:00 -114145
To: info@tapetv.nl
From: Coil <john@loci.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: DA88 on it’s way !

>Hi John & Peter !
>
>Today I’ve send you the DA88 tape and some other goodies by insured mail. It should arrive on Friday or early next week…
>Please let me know when you received all in good order.

HI Arno

The package arrived today – everything looks amazing – You did a great job!
– Please tell the Boudisques guy that we will be making our own live
CD/DVD soon (not sure which venues yet) and so would rather not
license this tape right now, thanks.

You should have told us you were planning to play the Backwards demos
from Napster – We could have have given you the entire completed
album as a one time only thing as we are scrapping it and working on
new tracks right now ;^)

Do you know anyone who has a video of the gig besides Claus Laufenberg’s?

Best wishes
Peter and Jhon

Further on the recording, Arno Peeters states: “Back than, keeping backups was a more complex thing, so what’s out there are copies of the source-CD-R’s that made the 4hr ‘Supplement’ radio show. So it’s not recorded off-air. It’s as close as you can get…Btw: I recorded it myself in multichannel so there never was a stereo recording, only my mix of that.”

Why the mix differs so dramatically between SBD #1 + SBD #2: “I guess due to heavy pre-processes dine on FM. You don’t wanna know what damage a machine like an Optimod can do to a well balanced mix. I was the only one recording the show.”

Find the pre-CD .wav files for Dutch Radio4 Supplement along with a Word Doc containing the special’s program information here.

Paradiso Amsterdam
Weteringschans 6-8,
1017 SG Amsterdam,
Netherlands

Kristen R. attended this show. She remembers: “I was here. The tinnitus in my right ear is from this show. Also met John Balance, who’d apparently just beat himself up, but was sweet as pie.”

Marcel de Cocq attended this gig and remembers: “I remember Balance kneeling down in front of the big super bright floor lights of the venue. These sort of flower color cannons. And while loudly singing looking with open eyes – I guess – in these super bright lights to kinda nuke his brains out or so. I can remember that it looked quite disturbing and really bad for his eyes… But it was totally cool at the same time 🙂 What is also super cool of this concert, is the alternative end of Blood From The Air. Where he sings: Best friends die, worse enemies die, pets, places change, decay, everyone is a complete disappointment, everyone is probably already dead, I’m dead inside, I’m trying to live, I’m trying to live, I’m trying to live.”

Maarten Schermer attended this gig and remembers: “from the paradiso gig, a few days later, which was a pretty intense gig, i seem to remember john at some point banging his head against a sheet of metal that was hanging on stage. can’t find any pics to confirm, though.”