Throbbing Gristle - Very Friendly

Transposed below is the spoken-word of Genesis P-Orridge. This is one of the first recordings (circa 1975) of the first industrial band, originally self-released and distributed to friends. These recordings were later compiled in a collection entitled The First Annual Report of Throbbing Gristle and released in 2001 on the Thirsty Ear label. Macabre, grotesque, but with wonderful vocal intonation, Genesis P-Orridge recounts the murder of Edward Evans in Manchester.





It was just an ordinary day in Manchester.
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, drinking German wine.

Her mother had gone to bed upstairs. She slept very well.
They used to give her three Seconal every night with her cocoa.
And Ian Brady put on his best clothes, and his blue seude shoes, and he decided to go out with Myra Hindley, as it was six months, on one of those special days. So, Myra Hindley put on a dark wig and drove Ian Brady to the Mainline station, and while she stayed in the car, Ian Brady went cruising on the platform.

That night Edwards Evans was also getting dressed in his best...
And his mother, who didn't know that he was a little bit...inclined to the young men, wished him well as he slicked his hair and put on his winkle pickers, and he went down to the Mainline station.

He waited for about an hour and he was beginning to think there wasn't gonna be any train that night. And then somebody came towards him wearing blue seude shoes and it was Ian Brady. And he introduced himself and he said, "Hi, my name's Ian. I saw you, uh, down at The Viking last week. Why don't you come back to my place and we can, uh, drink some German wine. I've got a car around the corner. My sister's there, she'll drive us back. It's only in Hyde, it's not too far. If it gets late, you can always stay the night."

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley
Very friendly

So Edward Evans and Ian Brady went to the car and Myra Hindley drove them back to the little council house, said hello to the dog when they went in the front door, and her mother was still asleep upstairs. And she made some excuses and switched on the TV set. And it was "This Is Your Life" with Eamonn Andrews interviewing a Stanley Matthews. And she went into the kitchen, said she wanted to make some sandwiches for work tomorrow. And Ian Brady and Edward Evans sat on the sofa, and Ian Brady started to play with Edward Evans' fly. And he got a muddle, a couple glasses, and right underneath the photograph of Myra Hindley's mother they started to drink, drinking German wine.

And Myra Hindley went over, up the road, to see David Smith and Maureen Pobo, her sister. But David Smith didn't have his shirt on and he was drinking tea with his wife. They had the TV set on, too. "It's all in the Game"...'s only information. And she said to David Smith, "Why don't you come back to our place, David? We've got something rather special to show you." And he said, "Ok, let me just, uh, put on my jacket." And they both set off, walking through the night, walking through Hyde to their little house. On one side of the house looking...looking out onto the porch. And he knocked on the door. But he was used to that, because Ian Brady had some funny habits.

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley
Very friendly


And when he got inside the house he heard some funny noises in the front room over Eamonn Andrews' voice. And Myra Hindley said, "Why don't you go in there David? You might like what you see." So he opened the door while Myra went into the kitchen to get some more German wine. When he went inside he looked up at the sofa and there was Ian Brady chopping at Edward Evans' head with an ax. And he was chopping, and chopping, and the ax was going into the back of his neck and there was blood skirting over the Church of England prayer book. A few drops landed on the TV screen and ran down Eamonn Andrews' cheek, and some bits of bone and white brain landed onto the hearth, just near the brass brush that they used to sweep the chimney. And there was lino on the floor, which was lucky. And it took quite a few hits before Edward Evans gargled. Ian Brady asked David Smith for some rope which he had a stick he used to play with his dog. And they put it around Edward Evans' neck and they pulled it tight till he strangled, and he made a strange noise.....
[noises]
and then he died! And he was just a lump of stuff, just a bit more information!

Ian Brady and Myra fucking Hindley
very very friendly

And when David Smith could...up to help him wrap up the body in polythene and take it upstairs, he make excuses, and left, worried, frightened. Very friendly. And he went home to his wife, Maureen Pobo, and he told her what had happened, and they agreed that they should have to tell the police. But they were very frightened, so they stayed awake all night holding one of their knives from the kitchen and hoping that Ian Brady wouldn't come around and say anything else. And then eventually it was morning. And they went out of the house at about 8 o'clock. And outside into the street, they didn't know who it was gonna be. It was Mrs. Bradley walking her dog, a little white poodle, and Mrs. Martin going to Lloyds Bank to clean the waste-paper baskets. And they went quickly up the road till they got to the red telephone box. and when they got to the telephone box, David Smith gave Pobo the knife and said, "You wait behind here while I ring them," and he went inside the phone box and he dialed 9-9-9...

And in the police station, a rather fat police sergeant who was trying to finish checking his football pool heard the phone ring and he said, "Oh shit!" And he put down his mug of tea which had a coronation picture of the Queen on it, and he picked up the phone. And when David Smith heard the policeman answer and say, "Yes, what do you want?" He told him, and he said, "There's been a m-m-m-m-m-murder..."