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
8. (Untitled)

This was Pierce Wyss’ first and Current 93 cellist John Contreras’ only show with Coil. Both came onstage during “Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil” naked and covered in fake blood holding flowers. Pierce would meet Massimo Villani on the set of an underground porn film in October 2001 and form Black Sun Productions with him, which would eventually collaborate with Coil in April-October 2002.

Contreras remembers: “We were friends[.] I met Geoff and Sleazy through Rose McDowall, as I played in her band in the late 90’s when I lived in London…[Leipzig] was the first time [C]oil had nude people covered in blood on stage. It was Pierce and myself, and we each held giant bouquets of flowers when we walked out on stage towards the end of the show, when the strobe lights were going…I remember Geoff’s instructions for us when we came out on stage was to shake and jerk like electrified newborns, or something along those lines. At one point he took my bouquet and starting smashing it and throwing parts of it out into the audience…I’m sure he put the instructions in much more poetic, esoteric terms, knowing Geoff, but that was the general feeling. He and Sleazy are sorely missed!”

John Contreras never performed live with Coil again, but he did see most, if not all their London shows and collaborated with John and Rose on the Rosa Mundi track “The Snow Man” (his cello treated to sound more like a trumpet).

Feeling: Glowing

“Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil” phase.

Markus Biener contests 2nd Gen (Wajid Yaseen) and Sorrow supported Coil: “2nd Gen and Sorrow didn‘t support Coil at this evening. They both played at the same festival, but surely in other venues (as I attended both concerts too). 2nd Gen played at Werk 2 and Rose played at Völkerschlachtdenkmal…don’t remember the exact dates, but surely they didn‘t support Coil. The band before them was Deine Lakaien (if I‘m not mistaken). And Coil was the main event at Agra Halle. But many of the Gothics in attendance were quite shocked and left in a hurry…quite funny to watch.”

A German announcer introduces Coil. Translated to English, he says something like: “Finally, it is time. You all waited a long time in front of the stage, and so many…Simply enjoy what’s happening on stage right now. Exclusively tonight…Coil.”

Something

John: “I dedicate this concert to the moon, to the art of lunacy and magick, to the stag of the cabbages. I dedicate this concert to the moon and to the Mad March Hare.” The “Mad March Hare” is an Alice in Wonderland character.

Higher Beings Command

Peter cuts the backing audio track short at the end of the song.

Amethyst Deceivers

John: “You don’t keep goats in poppa pagodas.”

What Kind of Animal Are You?

Blood from the Air

John: “This next song is called ‘Blood from the Air,’ from an album called Horse Rotorvator, from a long, long time ago.”

He skips the “His wandering mind” lyric:

A sleeping explorer
Crossed over the border
A mind like a cemetery
Where the corpses are turning
Where the bodies twist deep
In the frozen grip
Of a dreamless sleep

Best friends die
Worst enemies die
Places decay, destroy themselves
People destroy themselves
It sucks [?]
The world is in pain
And should be put down
Toe

Peter sings backing vocals.

I Am the Green Child

John: “I am the Green Child. I am the Green Child.”

Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil

John: “This next song’s dedicated to Rose and Robert and to my friend in Thailand Mr. Bee. ‘Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil.’” Rose is Rose McDowall and Robert was her then-husband Robert Lee. His band Sorrow, with Rose McDowall as a special guest, had played right before Coil at the festival.

Make it fucking LOUDER, LOUDER!
LOUDER, LOUDER, LOUDER!
LOUDER, LOUDER, LOUDER!
MAKE IT FUCKING LOUDER!

At some point, Pierce and Contreras stepped onstage holding bouquets. At some point, they threw them onto the floor and began spasming, as if being electrocuted.

John (after the song): “This was moon musick, this was magickal music. Thank you.”

Untitled

Thighpaulsandra continued with an apparently impromptu synth jam after the rest of the band left the stage, perhaps to finish the concert at over 60 minutes, as opposed to the era’s usual 55 minutes. It resembles “Beige, “Lowest Common Abominator,” and “Freebase Chakra” off of Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil.

This link shows a email chain/forum thread where the following concert was announced on July 16, 2001. The first post is as follows:

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
Pierce Wyss – nude performer on “Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil”
John Contreras – nude performer on “Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil”

If you have stub from this event, please contact us on: info@live-coil-archive.com

Wave Gotik Treffen Festival
Agra Hall
Leipzig De, SN
Germany

This video consists mostly of interviews with concert attendees, as well as brief clips of performers. LCA reached out to Crazy Clip TV to see if they recorded any of Coil’s set, but unfortunately, they did not.

The following is a review of the show translated from French-to-English by Google Translate (original found here):

Sorrow arrives on time with their light melodies to warm the atmosphere. Nothing spectacular, but always a pleasure to see Rose Mc Dowall and Robert Lee on stage, and there, their performance will be much more successful than that given to Parkbühne two years ago. It must be said that it is John Murphy who deals with the percussion, giving more dynamics to the music of Sorrow essentially melancholy and ethereal. But always a pleasure to see Rose Mc Dowall and Robert Lee on stage, and there, their performance will be much more successful than that given to Parkbühne two years ago. It must be said that it is John Murphy who deals with the percussion, giving more dynamics to the music of Sorrow essentially melancholy and ethereal. But always a pleasure to see Rose Mc Dowall and Robert Lee on stage, and there, their performance will be much more successful than that given to Parkbühne two years ago. It must be said that it is John Murphy who deals with the percussion, giving more dynamics to the music of Sorrow essentially melancholy and ethereal. After Rose’s lovely concert, it’s a very folk-rock version that Backwold offers , accompanied throughout the concert by Robert Lee on the electric guitar, as well as a bass player and a drummer. An excellent performance, crowned by the arrival of Rose Mc Dowell for a duet with the fabulous title “The Devil’s Plaything”. Backworld will feature many excerpts from the latest album as well as classics like “Seasons of Sacrifice”, “Leaves of Autumn” or “Leaving the Isles of the Blest”. Great!

Time to recover, to meet, to organize, and we are on our way to Agra, a monstrous exhibition hangar, with the biggest stage and the most kitsch public of all the festival, real fair Of the appearance, carnival of the Gothic … and this is where Coil will occur , right after Front 242 ?!? What was hard to imagine is quite achievable, Coil proving to more than ten thousand people (five miles will leave the room after the second title … imagine the Germans fleeing the Russian advance in Pomerania during 1945 …) that they are still one of the most avant-garde bands in the world !!! A spectacular show, An industrial and electro-acoustic music where the sounds of a giant xylophone with microphones that will make each note more psychedelic one with the others, with over the voice of madman John Balance, the members of the group – four – dressed in straitjacket of an immaculate white. On a quasi-organic end, Coil will leave the stage with the final sentence: ” This is Nu-Music – This is Magickal Music! “. YES, I HAVE SEEN COIL !!! There are no words to express the sensations produced by this concert, I can only advise you to see them if you have the opportunity!

A small index of pictures can be found here. The photographer recalls: “In 2001, I went to the German festival Wave-Gothic-Treffen and saw Coil. I had a new 1.2 megapixel point and shoot camera which was state of the art at the time. It was dark so I took a few flash photos and as I could check the photos right after taking them, realized that the band was wearing relfective suits that did weird things in the flash. I switched to existing light photography and felt sorry for all the photographers in front of me shooting roll after roll of flash photography.”

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More non-English reviews of this concert include:

http://www.kleinertod.de/begegnungen/wgt-2001.html

http://www.rockmetal.pl/relacje/wave.gotik.treffen-koncerty.01.html

http://old.gothic.ru/music/events/wgt10.htm#brains

http://www.gothic.at/artikel/liveberichte/wave-gotik-treffen-2001.html,479

Markus Biener attended this gig and remembers: “I attended 3 gigs (2x Leipzig, 1x Glauchau). In fact Sorrow didn’t open for Coil at the Agra-Halle in 2001. They played another venue, I’m not even sure if it was on another day. Probably they played the Völkerschlachtdenkmal. Before Coil one of those gruesome Gothic-Acts from Germany were on stage, maybe Deine Lakaien. But there also was a gap from around 45 Min to 60 Min. I remember that, because it was interesting to see, how fast many of the Gothics left the venue as soon as Coil went ont stage. Definetely not a sound they enjoyed. ;-)”