Born 27 February 1955. In Leeds, Yorkshire, England.
Coil co-founder, writer, producer, video director, remixer, Psychic TV co-founder,
Throbbing Gristle co-founder, artist, member of Hipgnosis design team, Sleazy the
eighth dwarf (?).
"Trying to hold back the revision of history is always a good thing."
Genesis P-Orridge of Psychic TV and former TG member blames Christopherson's video
(produced for Channel 4 in the UK) and his governmental ties for his exhile from
England.
John Balance says "It's true that Peter's father is a so-called Knight Of The Realm,
but this is an honoury title that he was awarded in the 60's for his achedemic work
in Engineering. It is non-hereditory (ie is not passed on to Peter), and
has got nothing to do with wealth or political power. Peter's family have
never been rich or landed gentry. Incidentally his mother died in 1988 and
his dad who is now 82, is in a Hospice suffering from Altzheimer's Disease. The
suggestion that they somehow manipulated the political situation
against Gen is absurd.
"Peter was a very creative partner in the Hipgnosis design team in the
70's, and he was paid well it at the time. In fact, he paid for many of
the early TG records himself."
In reference to his own history of sampling, Peter says
"The mellotron employed sets of pre-recorded 1/4" tapes looped around large
frames, each one containing a recording of an instrument playing a single
note, which was brought into contact with a playback head when a key was
pressed.
These tape sets were very difficult to change and did not lend themselves
to customisation. I believe the company claimed to offer a service of
recording and producing custom sets for Mellotron owners but I never heard
of any one who had it done. Maybe someone out there has?
Chris Carter of TG made a small keyboard to my specification which would
switch on and off, and also sequence the multiple inputs from a number of
car cassette decks, each modified to produce four tracks simultaneously,
and running at varying speeds and capable of instantly reversing
direction. Technically this is not sampling since the sound was on tape
(though it was more flexible because you could use any cassette).
I began using an Apple 2 computer which did have a bone-fide sample
program (although it was designed for speech reproduction) with samples
triggered by the computer keyboard, on stage."