Set List

1. The Gimp (Sometimes)
2. Sex With Sun Ra (Part One – Saturnalia)
3. Broccoli (Version 2)
4. All the Pretty Little Horses
5. (I Can’t Get a Word in) Edgeways
6. Tattooed Man (The Dark Age of Love)
7. Strange Birds (Interlude)/Teenage Lightning (10^th Birthday Version)
8. Wraiths and Strays
9. Black Antlers (Where’s Your Child?) (Bam Bam Cover)

Feeling: Shrouded

“Even an Evil Fatigue” tour, “Black Antlers” phase. The last “major” tour of Coil’s existence.

The program for the evening at Haus Leipzig ran as follows. Coil headlined and played the longest set:
EinlaB 17:00 – 18:00
Knifeladder 18:00 – 18:40
Scivias 19:00 – 19:40
Naevus 20:00 – 20:40
Forseti 21:00 – 22:00
Coil 22:30 – 23:40

Debut performance of “(I Can’t Get a Word in) Edgeways.” Thighpaulsandra said of the song, “[I]t was [a] patch I made in one of the Nord Modular synthesizers for my group. Geff and Sleazy really liked it and asked to use it so it became part of the Coil set. There were quite a few songs I wrote for Coil some of which appeared on MTPITD and also some of the live material which we never finished recording properly in the studio like “What Kind Of Animal Are You?” Sleazy didn’t like programing synths much (he was more into computers) but we both had Nord Modulars but with duplicate patches that I had built.”

With Mike permanently gone and Cliff taking this gig and the next off, the sound of these songs changed dramatically.

The “Black Antlers” shows fluctuate wildly in length. At this concert and 2004-07-25 Ocean, it’s clear the venue did not place any time constraints upon them, resulting in some fairly long renditions of these songs.

It wasn’t especially clear until AMT #2 surfaced that Peter dramatically mixed up the backing video/song combinations, more so than any other gig, as far as I can tell. He faltered a bit when during “Teenage Lightning,” he simply used the first still image from “The First Five Minutes After Death” video (though he played it normally during “Black Antlers”), but the most notable combo was the use of the video for “I Am Angie Bowie (Sine Waves)” during “Wraiths and Strays.” To my knowledge, this was the one and only time Peter revived an old backing video (specifically one set always set to a specific song) to another song, although it’s possible he did this at the 2004-07-25 Ocean gig as well.

—

Ian Johnstone assists Peter and Thighpaulsandra in putting on their shower curtains before the music begins.

The Gimp (Sometimes)

John (after the song): “Thank you. Can I have more vocals in, in the monitors? Oh, woah, woah. Oh, woah, woah, woah. Oh woah, woah, woah. Okay, we are Coil. Please switch off your mobile phones.”

Sex with Sun Ra (Part One – Saturnalia)

John: “This next song was written while we are, we’ve been away from home, so, which is why, which is why I have lyrics here, because I’ve always had to remember to jet (?).”

Sun Ra was here in his element
He invited me back for a ride
I smiled, agreed, and we left for the place
That is full of the reasons for time and space
He said he was leaving last tide

Sun Ra was here in his element
He invited me back for a ride
I smiled, agreed, and we left for the place
That is full for the reasons for time and for space
He said we were leaving last tide
On a spaceship powered by natural sounds

[Yelping]
Oh, ahhhow!

He said, “I dream of colour music
And the intricacies of the machine that make it possible”
I said, “You are nothing if not inconsistent”
He said, “I rely upon being insistent”
It’s almost never forever
It is almost never for now
It is almost never for now

He said, “I will be alright if you kiss me
It will be alright if you hold me
It’ll be alright if you kiss me
It’ll be alright if you hold me
It will, now, it’s time to relaunch the dream weapon
Oh, now, it’s time to relaunch the dream weapon
It’s always never for now”
I thought, “Priceless, bloody priceless”
I thought, “Priceless, bloody priceless”
It’s always never for now

In a basin with black Pan
I see acid free
Not an ideal homeland for you and me
Desert venom and military temple
Black wings flying out without management or plan
If liquids rub and resonators grub in darkness, slow

I will be alright if you kiss me
I will be alright if you hold me
I will be alright if you kiss me
In Harry Smith’s room in the Chelsea Hotel
In Harry Smith’s room in the Chelsea Hotel

I will be alright if you kiss me
I will be alright if you hold me
I will be alright if you kiss me
In Harry Smith’s room in the Chelsea Hotel
Harry Smith’s room in the Chelsea Hotel
Now is the time to relaunch the dream weapon

Sun Ra was here in his element
He invited me back for a ride
In a spaceship powered by natural sounds
That is full of the reasons for time and space
He said we were leaving last tide
He said he was leaving last tide
He said we were leaving last tide

Tom Edwards plays a particularly diverse and driving marimba line during this performance of the song, which would sadly be diminished in future performances, for whatever reason.

John (after the song): “Thank you, thank you. Oh, it’s hot, here, how hot it is.”

Broccoli

John: “Drink more water, drink more water. Drink more water. Which reminds me, I have to find my mother someday. I haven’t spoken to her for at least two years, perhaps three years, perhaps four years. She could have died, for all I know. My stepfather wouldn’t’ve been bothered to call me and tell me if it happened. That’s the thing with, uh, relations. It goes further back up your antlers, the male side and the female side of your black antlers to the ancestors and how you let them back in just as easily as wash them away, or turn off the telephone, and then you remember all your ancestors or relatives that you liked, like your grandfather, and how he taught you always to eat, always to eat your greens, and how a celebration [of] some sort of comfort can be found in a vegetable, especially broccoli.”

All the Pretty Little Horses

John: “Some of you probably know this next one from somewhere else, but it’s originally from somewhere else again, so don’t jump to any conclusions.”

John (after the song): “Thank you.”

(I Can’t Get a Word in) Edgeways

John: “Oh, oh, oh. Oh! Oh.”

I can’t get a word in [repeated]
I can’t get a word in edgeways [repeated]
With all these formalities
All the maladies
All these formalities
All the maladies

Tattooed Man (The Dark Age of Love)

John: “They’ll teach, they’ll teach somebody something soon. This is the dark age of love.”
Audience member: “Yes, John!”
John: “This is the dark age of love. This is all about relationships that sink, relationships that float on stormy seas.”

There’s a man lying down in a grave somewhere
With the same tattoos as me
And I love him, I love him, I love him, I love him
There’s a man lying down in a bed somewhere
With a different set of sex aspects
And I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate him

This is me, here now
Whining like a dog
Oh, pining like a dog in a thick harbour fog
Waiting for a ship, for a ship that’ll make him sick
And when his ship comes in
Then his troubles will begin

There’s a man
There’s a man lying down in a bed somewhere
With a different set of sex aspects
And I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate him
There’s a man lying down in a grave somewhere
With the same tattoos as me
And I love him, I love him, I love him, I love him, I love him

Oh, and the church bells chime the colour of wine
And the angels and the devil fight to snatch back stolen time

Oh, there’s a man lying down in a grave somewhere
With the same tattoos as me
And I love him, I love him, I love him, I love him
There’s a man lying down in a bed somewhere
With a different set of sex aspects
And I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate him

This is me, here now
Pining like a dog
I’m whining like a dog in a thick harbour fog
And he’s waiting for a ship that’ll make me sick
And when my ship comes in
Oh, then my troubles will begin
And the church bells chimes
They’re the colour of wine
And the angels and the devils fight to snatch back stolen time

And I love him, I love him, I love him, I love him, I love him, I love him…
Ehhh, ahhow!

This is the dark age of love [repeated]

Peter started mixing pre-recorded hurdy-gurdy riffs Cliff had previously recorded into the backing track, whether Cliff was present at a show or not.

Strange Birds (Interlude)/Teenage Lightning (10th Birthday Version)

John: “All that messed up thing called love. One day, your eggs are gonna hatch, and some very strange birds are going to emerge. We worship at the shrine of the thylacine, we worship at the shrine of the thylacine, we worship at the shrine of the thylacine, we worship at the shrine of the thylacine.”

Don’t be afraid
It will not harm you
It’s only lightning, teenage lightning

Don’t be alarmed
Don’t be afraid
It’s only lightning
It will not harm you
It’s only lightning, teenage lightning

It will not harm you
It’s only lightning, teenage lightning

Don’t be afraid
It will not harm you
It will not harm you
It’s only lightning
Teenage lightning
Rrreh, ow!

The “eggs” line is the lyric from the song “Strange Birds,” the fifth track off of 1999’s Musick to Play in the Dark.

John (after the song): “That’s a very old song, a very old song redone.”

Wraiths and Strays

John: “This is a very new song, a very new song done. A silent night’s swimming inside silent you. Look at a backdoor and everything’s coming towards you, men at the door with hammers.”

I will follow…and shoot!
I will follow and shoot!
Aah, shoot!
And shoot!
And shoot!

Black Antlers (Where’s Your Child?)

John: “Silent night, holy night. Feed the birds, tuppence a bag, tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag. Feed the birds. Tuppence a bag, tuppence, tuppence a bag.”

Feed the birds
Do you know how to feed the birds?
Do you know how to feed the birds?
Do you know how to feed the birds?
Do you know, do you know where the trees are?
Do you know where the disease is, trees is,
Do you know where the trees are?
Do you feed the birds, like Mary Poppins?
Do you feed the birds, do you feel the birds, or do you fear the birds?

Do you feed the birds, or do you fear the birds?
Do you feed the birds, or do you fear the birds?
Uh, do you fear the birds, or do you feed the birds?
Do you fear the birds, or do you feed the birds?

Do you feed the birds, [or] do you fear the birds? [repeated]

Where’s your child?
Where’s your child?
Do you know where they are?
Do you know where they are?
Where’s your child?
Where’s your child?
Do you know where they are?
Do you know where’s your child?
Do you know where’s your child?
Do you know where’s your child?
Do you know?
Do you know where they are?
Could you/Can you?/Curfew [repeated]

Can you feed the birds?
Can you feed the birds?
Do you feed the birds, or do you fear the birds?
Do you know where the trees are?
They’re in the trees
They’re in the trees
They’re in the trees!
They’re in the trees!
Do you know where they are?
Do you know? [repeated]
Do you know where’s your child?
Where’s your child? Where’s your child?
Could you/Can you?/Curfew [repeated]

Where’s your child? [repeated]
Do you know? [repeated]
Do you know where your child is?
No one wants to be left alone
No one wants to be on their own
Especially when they don’t know wrong from right
No one wants to be left alone
No one wants to be left alone
Where’s your child? Where’s your child?
Oh, where’s your child?
Where’s your child?

Wrong, right [repeated]
Right, right, right, right, right, right, right
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong

[Peter on the Speak & Spell variously throughout]: G, Y, K, W, 6, 7, O

The gig concludes with no closing words from the band.

John Balance – vocals, egg cutter/mini-harp on “The Gimp (Sometimes)”.
Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson – Ableton sequence, video projections, Clavia Nord Modular Synthesizer, Speak & Spell on “Black Antlers (Where’s Your Child?)”
Thighpaulsandra – Fenix Synthesizer, Clavia Nord Modular Synthesizer, Kurzweil Synthesizer, Nord Modular patch on “(I Can’t Get a Word In) Edgeways”
Tom Edwards – marimba

Please contact us if you have any ticket stubs from this event: info@live-coil-archive.com

Wave Gotik Treffen Festival
Haus Leipzig
Leipzig De, SN
Germany

The following is a short review of the concert translated from German to English using Google Translate, the original article which you can find here:

After the end of the Forsetti set a loud addition was needed. After a brief time the [Forsetti] musicians entered the stage again, to be called back by the stagecrew, as “Coil” was to play next and the event had to remain on schedule – which gave the audience some misunderstandings, expressed by whistles. Coil knew that they had to convince the remaining guests with their usual “crazy” show. Thus, the singer is quickly put into a sort of “straightjacket” and packed the keyboardists into a white and a black oversized mosquito net each.

—

The following is a review from Autarkeia, the original of which you can find here:

Just after the show of FORSETI, I reserved a place right by the stage in the very middle in order to see the psychedelic theater of COIL well enough. COIL’s preparations were twice as long as of any other project. There was awfully hot in the hall and I experienced great discomfort feeling sweat flowing down my body. Only guys from COIL’s filming group made my waiting seem shorter. Their exotic clothing, tattoos, paunee combs on their heads left no doubts about their sexual orientation. The third member of the COIL’s crew, preparing the stage for the concert, reinforced the impression. The hands blue with tattoos, a cap that was popular among gangsters in fifties on a bald head, a white scarf waving from a pocket almost to the ground – everything pointed that they are PEDERASTS. Pederasts with the first capital letter, that are naturally as they are, that belong to that specific subculture and boldly demonstrate attributes of that different culture. An acquaitance of mine standing by me gave a very accurate notice that they are the heroes of J.Genet and it is impossible to confuse their dependence. Those creatures deserve respect for being real. They are not bisexuals inspired by fashion of the times, career, disappointment in female sex, and other reasons. They are another kind of people, marked with another kind of nature. After a long break, having brought mountains of electronic equipment, powerful “Apple” notebooks, and other exotic instruments, COIL started with the themes from the album “Music to Play in the Dark”. A video installation was showed using three projectors, two of them imitated snow on the side walls of the hall, and the third one demonstrated kaleidoscopic ornaments, that are characteristic only to the aesthetics of COIL, obviously symbolizing reality distorted by LSD. Both P.Cristopherson and a member of THIGPAULSANDRA, whose name I don’t remember, perfectly accompanied each other with various effects, and a guy in the middle of the hall was playing perhaps the most exotic instrument at the festival – a huge electronic xylophone. COIL’s vocalist J.Balance came up the stage the last. Dressed in a very strange suit, with long hair and mustache (I couldn’t identify, if their were affixed or his own), dancing without coordination as a mad king, J.Balance started singing. Madman John’s dances followed every song. Sometimes they were like of a ballet dancer, and sometimes like of a mental patient, whose limbs suddenly refuse to obey him. He was drawing threads out of his worn-out white suit, reminding of a straitjacket, and playing with them. Sometimes J.Balance fell on the ground and was convulsing and panting unintelligible words. But the truth was coming from the lips of a madman. One of the tracks, that made some “neo-folk” fans dressed in military uniforms evacuate from the hall, sounded something like: “I am a pederastic boy”. J.Balance accompanied himself with miniature stringed instrument, the sound of which suited insanity emanating from his eyes very well. A burst of applause followed the track from the repertoire of the well known CURRENT 93 called “All the Pretty Horses”. Astonishing psychedelic videos supplemented cold electronic compositions. In Leipzig, as well as in Köningsberg, COIL placed the main stress in the last track of the show. The last track was the longest, the most aggressive, expressing insane and merciless truth of  “ignorance”. J.Balance was screaming to the audience about children. The text was something like: “Do you know what is your children??? Do you know what do they need???” I don’t remember the text in detail, but the track was laced with crushing spirit of agnosticism, and when it was finished, the audience showered COIL with applause not for their professionalism, that was beyond doubt whether or no, but for the end of the attack of existential horror. “Neo-folk” concert finished with gloomy psychedelic visions. The audience invited COIL for a bis, but they didn’t show up the stage.

Lloyd James attended this gig and remembers: “I had the good fortune to play at the same concert as Coil in 2004, at the WGT. I remember we were jealous of Coil’s backstage spread compared to our (relatively) meagre provision. Spoke very briefly with John Balance. He spent a bit of time catching up with John Murphy (who was a member of my band at the time) and was very happy to see him.”

Marcel de Cocq attended this gig and remembers: “Leipzig was nice. In and old theatre, having nice snow projections all over the place. That was with the teenage lightening etc.. shows. Was very gripping.”