Peter Martin Christopherson (27 February 1955 – 25 November 2010), also known as Sleazy, was an English musician, music video director, commercial artist, designer, and photographer. He was best known as a member of design agency Hipgnosis and a co-founder of the bands Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, and Coil. He also directed a number of music videos, prominently the Nine Inch Nails short musical horror film Broken (1993). After his relocation to Thailand in 2005, he embarked on a solo career under the name The Threshold HouseBoys Choir.
Peter Martin Christopherson was born in Leeds on 27 February 1955. His father, Derman Christopherson (1915–2000), was a professor of engineering who became master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. After school, Christopherson moved to Buffalo, New York to study computer programming, theatre design, and video at the University at Buffalo, where he developed an interest in performance art and the work of photographers such as Robert Mapplethorpe and Arthur Tress.
Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, and Coil
Christopherson was a founding member of the band Throbbing Gristle, who are credited with creating the industrial music genre. Following Throbbing Gristle's 1981 split, members Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti formed Chris & Cosey, while Christopherson and the band's other member Genesis P-Orridge formed Psychic TV.
John Balance met Christopherson as a Throbbing Gristle fan and the two became intimate partners. Christopherson worked on the first two Psychic TV albums, Force the Hand of Chance and Dreams Less Sweet, joined by Balance on the latter. The two performed live several times with Psychic TV prior to their departure to form Coil.
Coil consisted primarily of Christopherson and Balance, occasionally joined by personnel including Steven E. Thrower, Drew McDowall and Thighpaulsandra. Balance was the band's lyricist and primary vocalist, and also played the Chapman Stick and some keyboards.
Over two decades, Coil released myriad recordings, in addition to contributing to the work of other artists. They recorded parts of the album The New Backwards at Nothing Studios in New Orleans, owned by musician Trent Reznor at the time. In the liner notes of the 2008 CD release, Christopherson wrote: "Thanks to everyone there, especially Trent Reznor who made it all possible."
Despite Christopherson's long and extensive history as a musical artist, he only released two tracks under the name "Peter Christopherson". The first, "In My Head A Crystal Sphere of Heavy Fluid", appeared on the compilation Foxtrot, a benefit album for Balance's rehabilitation from alcohol dependence, while the second, "All Possible Numbers", appeared eleven years later on Autumn Blood (Constructions) released on Fourth Dimension Records.
In 2005, following Balance's death at the home he and Christopherson shared in Weston-super-Mare, Christopherson relocated from England to Bangkok, Thailand and founded the solo project The Threshold HouseBoys Choir. He also released the final Coil albums —The Remote Viewer, Black Antlers, ...And The Ambulance Died in His Arms and The New Backwards—on the band's own Threshold House label. In addition to the CD releases, Christopherson also released a 16-DVD box set following his relocation, entitled Colour Sound Oblivion, that was produced in a wooden box, in which a fifteen-page booklet, the program for Balance's funeral ceremony and a large collection of 6-inch × 4-inch postcards (mainly tour photographs) were also included.
Throbbing Gristle also reformed for a few concerts in 2004 and announced a new album called Part Two. The group announced several additional concerts in 2007 for the promotion of the album before disbanding again in 2010.
In 2007 Christopherson released the debut album of The Threshold HouseBoys Choir. The album, Form Grows Rampant, consists of five "parts" or songs, and includes a DVD of the album set to video footage of Thai rituals in Krabi, Thailand. One tour promoter who organized a Threshold HouseBoys Choir concert described it as "easily the most shocking thing I have ever experienced".
In 2008 Christopherson and Ivan Pavlov (aka CoH) started a new project called Soisong. The band officially premiered in Tokyo on 9 March 2008 and later performed several shows in Europe, having self-released their debut EP. As part of the tour, Soisong performed a live soundtrack to Derek Jarman's film Blue in Rovereto, Italy. In April of the same year, Christopherson and Pavlov, alongside David Tibet, Othon Mataragas and Ernesto Tomasini, also performed a live soundtrack for The Angelic Conversation in Turin, Italy.
In 2009 Soisong recorded their first full-length album xAj3z, the release of which was followed by a European Reunion Tour and a worldwide campaign in search of the band's missing virtual vocalists featured on the record. In 2010 Soisong declared a "Split Phase 2010", during which all of the members would concentrate on their personal work; however, two independently recorded solo EPs, both entitled Soisong, were scheduled for release. Christopherson never finalized his work for the release, but Soisong Split was eventually published in September 2012, nearly two years after Christopherson's death. The release consists of a CoH Soisong EP by Pavlov, originally recorded in 2010, and a collection of four unpublished sketches by Christopherson that were made available on the band's website.
In 2010 Christopherson started collaborating with Hirsute Pursuit, featuring Harley Phoenix and Bryin Dall, via email. They finished two songs together, "One Sleazy Night in Bangkok" and "One Sleazy Night in New Orleans", for the album Tighten That Muscle Ring. The album was signed to Cold Spring Records, but Christopherson died prior to its release. Writing for the Quietus online publication, Luke Turner claimed that the album was "the most sexy and perverted album of 2012".
Also in 2010, Christopherson was sent an iPad by musician Trent Reznor that contained music for a potential collaboration. Reznor had asked for his blessing to use the moniker "How to Destroy Angels" for a musical project that Reznor was creating with his wife (Christopherson had used the phrase in 1984, as the title of the first recording released by Coil). Christopherson responded amenably, suggesting that they could potentially collaborate as part of the project. Christopherson explained that Reznor was a "perfect gentleman" in regard to the way in which the matter was negotiated; however, Christopherson died before he was able to resend the iPad back to Reznor with his contribution.
The final music that was ever recorded by Christopherson occurred in Bangkok, Thailand with a project named "Electric Sewer Age" that also involved musician Danny Hyde. The original intention of the recordings was to complete a series of releases called "Moons Milk", but an album called In Final Phase was eventually released in 2013, with only 999 numbered CD copies made available. The CD is packaged in record sleeve-style thickened cardboard, and each copy is numbered from 1 to 999, while the insert sleeve displays a picture of Christopherson in his Bangkok studio that was taken at the moment that the recording was completed.
Prior to his musical projects, Christopherson was a commercial artist, designer, and photographer. He was one of the three partners of the album cover design group Hipgnosis, which was responsible for many notable album covers of the 1970s, such as those of Pink Floyd (Wish You Were Here) and Peter Gabriel (first three albums). He also designed the logo of UK fashion label BOY London.
As a freelance photographer, Christopherson shot the first promotional images of the Sex Pistols in 1976. He later provided design work for SEX, the fashion boutique owned by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood.