Set List

1. Triple Sun Introduction
2. Snow Falls Into Military Temples
3. A Slip in the Marylebone Road
4. Triple Sons and the One You Bury
5. The Dreamer is Still Asleep – The Somnambulist in an Ambulance

This gig was first announced on July 25, 2002.

On March 31, 2003, Brainwashed reported: “According to the website of IBD, COIL’s primary booking agency, they will be making several festival appearances this Spring and Summer. Dates announced so far include the following:

April 6: All Tomorrows Parties – Camber, East Sussex, England
May 29: Mutek2003 – Montreal, Quebec, Canada
June 21: Casa da Música Festival – Porto, Portugal
July 12: Supersonic Festival – Birmingham, England”

Throughout the first half of the year, Coil announced and released the Live series, representative live recordings of each unique phase of their performances, counting down from four to one (most recent to earliest). Live Four contained a mix of the Prague and Vienna 2002 shows, Live Three Bologna 2002, Live Two Moscow 2001, and Live One both the first Royal Festival Hall and Sonar Festival 2000 shows on two separate discs. All these shows except RFH would eventually be released in DVD format on Colour Sound Oblivion (2010). Coil sold each CD together with Megalithomania! (and occasionally ANS) in the the Live Box, which itself received a limited edition of 23 called the Beast Box.

Feeling: Shrouded

Exclusive gig. Only performances of all songs except a loose version of “Snow Falls Into Military Temples” and “Triple Sons and the One You Bury.” Featuring the return of marimbaist Tom Edwards, who hadn’t played with Coil for about a year and a half at that point.

According to Greg Reason: “It’s worth pointing out that Autechre curated this festival…They performed a DJ set as Gescom which included ‘Dark River’. This has shown up incorrectly labelled as an Autechre remix of ‘Dark River’ but really it’s just Coil’s track snipped from out of the Gescom set.” Autechre handpicked Coil. John thanked Sean and Rob from the band while introducing “Amethyst Deceivers” at the Lódz 2002 show.

Other performers: Beefheart’s Magic Band, Bernard Parmegiani, zK, Public Enemy, Bola, O.S.T., LFO, etc.

Merchandise sold at this gig: ANS (Single-CD Edition) (2003).

According to Thighpaulsandra, he and Peter worried John wouldn’t show up to the gig, let alone improvise any lyrics. Fortunately, John turned up after all. His new partner Ian Johnstone gave him enough confidence to get onstage with a 19th century-style hand-made dress. Because they were playing all new material, John didn’t feel pressured to live up to any standard previously set by the more wild 2001 and 2002 shows, though he spent most of it wide-eyed, spaced out, and uncommonly talkative. Peter largely ignored John on and offstage, imposing a similar remoteness between the two as at the Megalithomania show.

The stage setup was unusual. From audience perspective, the projector screen stood offstage to the left and Tom Edwards’ marimba to the right. Thighpaulsandra and Peter played with their backs to each other. Because Thighpaulsandra’s Fenix synthesizer walled John out of part of the stage, he had to walk a ways to speak to Peter periodically.

Coil debuted three brand new backing video projections at this show which Peter recycled for most of the subsequent Coil concerts.

Triple Sun Introduction

This is a short instrumental based on “Triple Sons and the One You Bury.” The audience applauds as Peter walks onstage and starts the backing track, then again as the other members arrive.

Snow Falls Into Military Temples

John waits several minutes into the song before uttering esoteric, caveman-like noises. Eventually, he sings proper lyrics:

Snow/Slow falls [repeated]
Into military temples [repeated]

Snow falls into military temples
With the light pauses
We’re the light forces

Oh, no…
Temples, temples…

The phrase “military temples” later reappeared in “Sex with Sun Ra (Part One – Saturnalia).”

John (after the song): “We’re doing a quiet set, today. We’ve had too much…shouting over the last year.”
Audience member: “Louder!”
John: “You want it louder? I’m not doing louder, louder, louder,” referencing “Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil.”
Audience member: “Louder! Volume!”
John: “You want this whole louder in the, in the room?”
Matt Carthum: “Volume!”
John: “Yeah? Can we arrange to have more volume in the room, please?”
Matt Carthum: “Lots more!”
John: “Okay, l-let’s have lots more, if we can. Why not? Excess makes the heart grow fonder.”

The volume does intensify, which might explain why SBD #1 peaks a bit in a few places from this point on.

A Slip in the Marylebone Road

Ra, bai, be, om, uyi, ucha, beyom, om [repeated]

A slip was made on Marylebone Road
A slit was made on the Marylebone Road
A slit was made on Marylebone Road
A slip was made in the middle of the road
I sat down in the middle of the road
My bags were too heavy
They were full of medication I didn’t wanna take
They were full of medication I didn’t wanna take
And I left them in the middle of the road
In the middle of the road, in the middle of the road

And a precious green notebook
And a precious green notebook
And a precious green notebook
In the middle of the road
A slit opened; I fell
And a palatable kiss from your angel
Your angel, your angel, an angel, an angel

And two people came up to me
Two people came up to me
And they asked, “Was I all right?”
And they asked me, “Was I all right?”
I said, “No, I was all wrong, and you were wrong for asking me”

Oh, and a slit opened, a slit opened
A chink, a chink opened, a whole slit
And I slipped inside of it
I slipped inside of it

And a slit opened on the Marylebone Road
The Marylebone Road, the marrowbone road
And a slit opened up the Marylebone Road
And I left my bags there
Slit, cut, slit, cut, open, cut, slit, slit, slit, slit

And somewhere, nowhere, in a hospital was a horse, ill
And somewhere, in a hospital was a horse that was ill
And I tried to find my way there
And I tried to find my way there
And somewhere, in a wood
There were two friends waiting, two friends waiting
And I tried to find my way there
In air…

And I got lost in the wood
And I got lost in the wood
So someone left a biscuit trail
No one left a biscuit trail
No one left a list of betrayals
Someone left a list of betrayals
Has someone left a list of betrayals?
Someone left a list of betrayals

And a fracture occurred in a fracture
A dislocation, a dislocation appeared, a fraction
A fraction of what I should have had happen to me
A fraction of what is in my handbag
A fraction of what should have happened to me
A fraction of what should have happened to me as I lost it
I was all tied up in a green valuable notebook
On the Marylebone Road

This song utilizes manipulated samples of Peter singing Tibetan Buddhist chants, later recycled on “Radio Weston / Wraiths and Strays.”

John’s trippy lyrics detail a true occasion where he and some of his friends were robbed on the Marylebone Road in London, where he lost a green notebook containing numerous lyrics and band ideas. He and Peter were devastated by the loss and even offered a reward for it on the Coil Mailing Lists, but it was never recovered.

The “Horse Hospital” is a famous arts exhibition venue in London. Ian exhibited there around the time of this gig.

Triple Sons and the One You Bury

Triple sons
Triple suns

Triple stones
As they skiff across the water
As they skiff across the water
As they skiff across the water
Triple stones

Necrodisiac, necrodisiac
Some are in love with the dead things in their lives
And you’re gonna bring them home
And you’re gonna bring them home
Ooh, are you gonna bring them home?
Are you gonna bring them home
With a triple son?
With a triple son?
With a triple son?

I look into whatever I look into
It just confuses the issues
The desert venom in a pool
In a black pool of desert venom

There’s triple sons [repeated]
Your triple sons
And how are you gonna bring them home?
And how are you gonna bring them home?
And how are you gonna bring them home?

In the shape of a melted gun
In the shape of a melted gun
In the shape of a melted gun!
Triple sons, triple suns [repeated]
Triple sons with a resonance to rub against the delinquent
With a resonance to rub against the delinquent
With a resonance to rub against the delinquents
Oh, those triple sons

The one you bury; the one bright red yew berry
If you’re gonna bury them, bring them home first
If you’re gonna bury it, bring it home first
If you’re gonna marry it, bring it home first

And we swallow each new red berry
And we swallow each red yew berry
And we swallow each dead you bury
And we swallow each red you buried
The one you bury, the one yew berry
The single one yew berry

And I drank a cup of mercury this morning [repeated]
I took a sip from a cup of mercury
And a sip from a cup of mercury
I took a sip from a cup of mercury [repeated]
I took a cup from a sip of mercury
I took a cup from a sip of mercury
And then I gave one to you
I took a sip from a cup of mercury [repeated]

And I swallowed one new red berry
And I swallowed the one you bury
And then I swallowed the one yew berry
Then I swallowed the one you bury
I swallowed the one you bury
I swallowed the one yew berry
Then I took a sip from a cup of mercury
I took a sip from a cup of mercury
And I swallowed the one you bury
I swallowed the one yew berry

The ending verse was later compressed and looped on the studio version of the song entitled “Triple Sun” on The Ape of Naples (2005). The “desert venom” and “with a resonance to rub against the delinquent” lyrics were later reincorporated into “Sex With Sun Ra (Part One – Saturnalia).”

John explains the meaning of the song after playing it: “Thank you. Oh, thank you. You know you can eat, uh, yew berries, but don’t do this unless you’re with an expert. You can eat the red bit, you know. It’s the only bit you can eat of the yew tree is the actually red bit around the berry. Victorian children used to make jam from it.”
Audience member: “There’s too much blood in my alcohol,” referencing the infamous lyric from the song “Heartworms” on the benfit compilation Foxtrot (1998).
John (not hearing them): “It’s a good trick if you want to make your friends think you just poisoned yourself.”
Audience member: “There’s too much blood in my alcohol.”
John: “There’s no alcohol in my blood at the moment at all.”
Audience member: “Liar!”
John (chuckling): “I’m not a liar. Well, I am a liar, but I’m not lying about that. I’ve got a diazepam up my bum.”
(Audience laughter)
John: “And I’ve got some horse tranquilizer for later. In fact, I’ve got a horse tranquilized for later. That’s a good thing about having a chalet, you can sneak a tranquilized horse in there.”
Audience member: “Liar!”

Funds raised from Foxtrot went toward John’s rehab, which he tried at least twice between 2000-2002, meaning his alcoholism was very well-known by Coil fans by this point.

The Dreamer is Still Asleep – The Somnambulist in an Ambulance

John: “Hush. This is a piece of musick to play in the dark: ‘The Dreamer is Still Asleep,’ or ‘The Dreamer is Still Dreaming,’ or ‘The Dreamer is Still Asleep.’ Now the dreamer is still dreaming. The dreamer is still asleep, the dreamer is still asleep. The dreamer is somnambulising [sic].”

This was the only time the track was performed live, and it’s notable for its first half where John repeatedly sings a new line, “The Somnambulist in an Ambulance,” hence the new subtitle to the song.

Somnambulist in an ambulance [repeated]

Pissed a somnambulist…
Pissed a somnambulist…
Kissed a somnambulist in an ambulance, in an ambulance
I kissed a somnambulist in an ambulance, in an ambulance…
I kissed an ambulance
I kissed an ambulance, I pissed an ambulance
I killed an ambulance, I killed an ambulance
I killed an ambulance, I killed an ambulance

Then I killed my doctor
I said, “Physician, heal thyself
You’re in no position to heal thyself
You’re no position to kill yourself”

The somnambulist in an ambulance [repeated]
I kissed and killed an ambulance
Somnambulist in an ambulance [repeated]

I, I, I, I…
I kissed and killed an ambulance [repeated]

Hush, may I ask you all for silence?
The dreamer is still asleep
May the goddess keep us from single visions
And beauty sleep

The dreamer is still asleep
The dreamer is still asleep
He’s inventing landscapes in their magnetic fields
Working out a means of escape
He says, “We’ll cut across the crop circles”
The seer says, “No
There’s not much time left for these escape attempts”
Look at it this way
In ten years’ time
Who’ll even remember? Who’ll care?
Who’ll even remember, or care?
One dies like that, deep within it
Almost inside it
It’s there for a reason

I’ll cut out my old address
Attack the little book
To tear and cut the paper
To care and touch the paper
The beginning is also the end
Time defines it
Time unwinds it
It will end
Like close friendships
Nothing could be further

We forget the space between people and places is empty
We forget, and don’t notice the loss
And don’t notice the loss [repeated]

Crossing into venerable degenerations
Such radiant pollution
The god with the silver hand surveys this vast,
Surveys these vast contaminations
In the heart of your heart
Your eye remains

Is the hurt you? Is the blister you call loveless?
Your whole life is a cold slow shock
Your whole life is a cold slow shock
Take a, take a time
Take a little time to track the shabby shadow down
The pissy mists of history
Down the pissy mists of history
Take a little time to track the shabby shadows down
The pissy mists of history

The dreamer is still dreaming
The dreamer is still dreaming
Hush; may I ask you all for silence?
The dreamer is still asleep
May I ask you all for silence?
The dreamer is still dreaming [repeated]
The dreamer is still asleep

John’s closing words: “Thank you very much. Thank you very much, indeed. Indeed, we hope you enjoyed our quite, quite, quite, quite quiet musick. Thank you all for coming out to see us, and enjoy the rest of the day. Thank you, goodnight.”

This was John Balance’s only public performance in 2003. Debate persists regarding his mental state during this time, how his alcoholism impacted his productivity. We know for sure John contributed to two studio albums released that year: ANS and The Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in May.

John never formally moved out of Weston Super-Mare into Ian Johnstone’s home. Because Ian was often absent, Peter, by his own word, “babysat” John whenever he was home, at the expense of his own relaxation and music-making. All other times, Marilyn, their housekeeper, would care for John. According to Cosey Fanni Tutti, John would sometimes get so drunk he could barely stand, leading him to fall down the stairs a few times. On the worst occasion, he lay at the foot of the stairs for days, their dogs Pan and Moon standing over him waiting to be fed. Marilyn eventually found him, bandaged him up, and fed the dogs.

Cosey and Chris Carter visited Weston Super-Mare a few times over the course of the year to work on material in preparation for Throbbing Gristle’s ensuing reunion. Cosey remembers how Peter put Pan’s aggressive behavior and unwillingness to go upstairs down to John’s drunken binges. It’s unclear to what extent the duo visited with John, or whether he was even lucid enough to notice they were there. This didn’t stop them from having fun with Peter, though.

Rather than pull out of the three other scheduled Coil performances in 2003, risking substantial financial loss and difficulties in scheduling gigs henceforth, Peter and Thighpaulsandra worked the rest of April and through May to create a new set of live material which wouldn’t require John’s vocals, to be debuted in Montreal, Canada. Threshold House bore the official bad news on May 28, 2003: “Coil’s official mail order website, Threshold House, has been updated with the news that Jhon Balance will not be appearing at the upcoming live performances in Montreal (May 29th), Porto (June 21st) and Birmingham (July 12th). The shows will instead “feature a ‘leaner’ and largely instrumental line up with Peter Christopherson & Thighpaulsandra performing a more intimate set than the full-on 6 piece Coil performances of last year.” Following these three festival appearances, Coil have no further live dates planned, and it is unlikely that they will perform live again until Summer, 2004 at the earliest.”

Coil’s last official release of the year, the much-beloved Megalithomania!, came in July. Things went quiet until 2004.

John Balance – vocals
Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson – Ableton sequence, video projections, Clavia Nord Modular Synthesizer
Thighpaulsandra – Fenix Synthesizer, Kurzweil Synthesizer
Tom Edwards – marimba

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

Camber Sands
Old Lydd Rd
Camber
Rye TN31 7RH
UK

ATP is one of Coil’s shows fans want to see video footage of the most. Allegedly, three camera angles run by the event curators filmed the set (as they did with Throbbing Gristle’s the following year) and at least two audience members brought additional cameras. Photographic evidence definitively proves one person with long hair and a beanie filmed right in front of the stage. According to Antonio Delgado, they might be his ex-girlfriend, since he recognizes the beanie, and states that her camera was unfortunately stolen right after the show. Craig Earp also made a DV recording stage front.

Mysteriously, there is a posting on archive.org titled “Coil live at ATP, UK. 6th April 2003.” The page hosts a file called “CoilATP_part1” which is dated September 18, 2006. It’s unfortunately corrupted, but some sleuthing by Ben S. and some others leads us to believe it was a file that had a link to a video stream. The video stream is tragically long gone by now, but it’s an interesting thing to note nonetheless. Find the original post here: https://archive.org/details/Coil_live_at_ATP_6th_April_2003

Most fans for the longest time assumed Peter lacked footage of the show, since none appeared on Colour Sound Oblivion. However, according to Matt Carthum, “Peter did have a recording of ATP. Though, it didn’t turn out too great…[I]t wasn’t complete which is why it wasn’t in CSO…He emailed me and said he was going to send me the footage as a thank you (I’m credited for the cover pic of the ambulance album). However, he passed away before that could happen…So, it’s on some hard drive somewhere…I don’t know the details at all. I’ll dig up the email though. Happy to send you all the pics from ATP though…Fun fact. I’m the one shouting ‘lot’s more volume’ on the live recording. I’m still waiting for my royalties.” YouTube user schreineinAV attests to that fact and adds: “I recall reading somewhere sleazy saying he found the editing of ATP technically too difficult as he had sync issues….. he said no matter what he tried it didn’t look or feel right! Subsequently it was left out of CSO…..”

2019-06-06 UPDATE: Anthony Child gave his mostly complete own recording (which we have labeled AMT #2) to LCA for public sharing. This was the same footage considered for CSO. During “The Dreamer is Still Asleep,” you can see two more video cameras in the audience, as screenshot below.

Cosey Fanni Tutti of Throbbing Gristle, Chris & Cosey, and Carter Tutti wrote her recollections of this show in her memoir Art Sex Music, reproduced here to give further historical insight: “The date of the TG-curated ATP had been changed. Paul Smith, me, and Chris all went to check out Camber Sands for RE~TG and see Coil play there. It seemed well organised and we met up with Sleazy backstage after his soundcheck…which never materialized because the Magic Band seemed to think a soundcheck was as long as they felt like playing for. Geff was nowhere in sight and Sleazy was grateful for that small mercy. He said he wasn’t even sure Geff would turn up to go on stage and it could be the last Coil gig. He’d had enough, saying that nothing could compensate him for the grief he had to go through with Geff. He’d lightened up by the time we left him. Coil did an introspective and dark set, which was to be expected, interrupted at one point by Geff’s interesting audience banter. Someone accused him of being drunk…Meanwhile Sleazy and the other three band memebers played on. We went backstage afterwards and Sleazy’s face lit up when he saw us. With Geff on one side of the dressing room and Sleazy on the other, we didn’t know which way to go. Chris went to Sleazy and they had a big hug, and I went to Geff, then we both sat with Sleazy for his post-show wind-down.”

Jonathan Dean attended this gig and reviewed it for Brainwashed.com: “Jhon Balance came out wearing an 19th Century white flower-pattern dress, with his hair combed sharply to the side, and a big DH Lawrence beard which made him look like a Victorian madman in the throes of space dementia. As soon as I saw him I started laughing uncontrollable and the acid even made me shout “Oh, Mary…”. Jhon looked shocked that I though[t] his outfit amusing. Coil did a “quiet” set of material, basically three long improvisations. The first was a narrative and an invocation for the return of Jhon Balance’s green marbleized notebook of lyrics and notes, which was stolen somewhere near the Marlyebone tube station while he was under the influence of Rohypnal. At one point during the song, he made eye contact with me and I immediately vomited three times into the crowd. Then the acid finally kicked in. The second song was about snow falling in military winters, a wandering, buzzing, surround-sound melody with green light and green milky visuals on screen. The third song was a long version of “The Dreamer in Still Asleep” with Jhon recounting his recent breakdown “a somnambulist in an ambulance/I killed my doctor/I said ‘physician, heal thyself'”…creepy, disturbing, insane but altogether human, refined, amazing.”

Terv Terran attended this gig. He remembers: “All Tomorrow’s Parties at Camber Sands in 2003 was an absolute monster of a performance sat within a very special weekend. Coil’s internal strife was at fever pitch, just at the point where the pain can be channeled into Art to stultifying effect. Jhon wore a pretty dress and had an Oliver Reed beard going. The ambulance died in Jhon’s arms and his precious notebook was lost too.”

Pete Windle attended this gig and remembers: “I also caught the ATP Camber Sands performance which was stunning, although it had been quite a long weekend already and I was very very tired. Of course we also had tickets for the Seed Records Aldwych gig that never happened, and I got refunds on RE:TG because it wouldn’t have made any sense without COIL.”

Anthony Child recorded AMT #2 and remembers: “I saw Coil’s performance at Camber Sands in 2003. It was a really strange and sad show. I’d met Jhon and Sleazy a few times while touring with Autechre, but hadn’t seen them for a year or 2 and I knew Jhon was in a bad way. I assumed that they were going to perform without him and didn’t even realise that was him until he spoke on the microphone. He walked past me backstage and I didn’t recognise him at all, his appearance had changed so much since I’d last met him. It was really shocking. Sleazy gave me permission to film their performance from the side of the stage with a DV camera. Almost the whole concert was recorded, only missing first song ‘Triple Sun Introduction’ and the beginning of ‘A Slip In The Marylebone Road.’ I sent a copy to Sleazy…”

Ben Waddington remembers: “I managed to miss Coil’s first UK live performances (after their long break) in 2000 and 2002. It all seemed rather late for my own trajectory as a Coil fan, though I would still buy their later releases as a dutiful reflex. ‘Why now?’ was my response to the late-period live dates, but the embers of my teenage fandom were dull but still glowing and I was pleased to discover that Coil were set to play the Autechre-curated All Tomorrow’s Parties. It was a festival I already avidly endorsed. In the lead up to that spring, I would reflect how the first time I would see Coil would be in a space surrounded by Pizza Hut outlets, Slush Puppy churners and cheery music emitting amusement arcades, but that kind of discrepancy came as standard with the ATP parcel. But not what I expected my first Coil show to look like.

My TG-obsessed friend Dick announced he had seen Sleazy strolling around the holiday camp with an ‘acolyte’, and thereby became the first of us to see Peter Christopherson in the flesh since we had independently become TG—and later Coil—fans in the mid 80s. All of my 20s had rolled by without any live or public-facing PC moments to attend, and I would have jumped had there been the chance. At a certain point around 1996, that hope had ebbed as Coil appeared to disappear into their own void. That long unresolved desire gave the show when it actually happened a mythical quality, one that scarcely seemed possible. I remember how in the joyful first surge of alcohol-inspired giddiness, we would approach festival revellers with the opening conversational gambit: ‘so…who are you most looking forward to seeing?’ Many of those obliging strangers would quickly reply ‘Coil’! A cultural barometer of sorts, but later I realised they probably just saw Dick’s Scatology T-shirt.

Before the gig started and even while it was happening, I felt lucky to catch Coil performing as the original expanded duo. Rumours had reached us about the enduring romantic partners’ split and Balance’s deteriorating health, but once they took to the stage he sounded quietly assured and far more robust than I imagined he would. I had hoped for the fluffy suits but was glad to be outwitted by his floral dress. There was a unity to the whole room throughout the set, the audience seemed happy to accept a low-key mood. The stage lighting provided mirrorballs…and shiny things. Balance had a ready wit and lucid responses to the occasionally taunting festival crowd.

I vividly remember hearing this bit more than I remember the music, which was then all new to me:

‘You can eat the red bit of yew berries, but don’t do this unless you’re with an expert.’ This impish trick appealed to me, confounding everything we had been taught about wild berries by our parents. The dangerous subtext being: ‘sometimes poisons can be trusted’.

After this revelation, Balance seemed to enter a trance that was rather uneasy to watch, with the mantra-like The Somnambulist In An Ambulance. Permutations of the title were repeated over 100 times (at this point I’m referring back to the later album of this gig). Was this song about the yew berry eater’s fate? Looking back, this chant was Balance at his most prophetic.

It wasn’t long before I was able to put the yew berry claim to the test while out on a woodland walk with friends. Remembering the devious caper suggested by Balance, I chomped a few arils, being careful to spit out the pips. ‘What’s the one thing we all know about yew trees?’ It was a curious test to put my trust in the now-departed John, with him being both an enduring influence in my life but also truly an edge dweller, known self-harmer and an unlikely voice of reason. Nonetheless I walked away safely, having amused and alarmed my woodland pals. Years later, an expert ecologist recalled her own version of the trick on her kids in which she managed to severely poison herself with the berries, having not eaten at all that day. Turns out that the berries’ flesh contains micro amounts of the yew toxin, which is made that bit more effective by dining on the berries with an empty stomach, and her sons buried her alive in the park.”