Wishful Thinking: In Remembrance of Peter Christopherson

Live Premiere of TG’s Desertshore album

Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson was best known as a founder member of Throbbing Gristle and Coil, a designer at Hipgnosis, and a videomaker for Greenback Films. In summer 2010, AV Festival commissioned him to compose a work for the 2012 spring Equinox, to be staged at Durham Cathedral, where his father was University Vice-Chancellor from 1960–1979.


Christopherson died in his sleep at home in Thailand on 24 November 2010 before completing the work. This music, film and performance event is a celebratory remembrance of his life and work.

It includes the premiere of three performance sketches with Christopherson‘s original collaborators for the commission: visual artist Alex Rose, sound recordist Chris Watson and vocalist Attila Csihar.

Special guests Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti premiere live remixes from Throbbing Gristle’s nascent, and final, studio album: a ‘cover’ of Nico’s Desertshore, preceded by a rare screening of Philippe Garrel’s The Inner Scar for which Desertshore was soundtrack and inspiration.

The evening comes to a poetic close with Derek Jarman’s The Angelic Conversation, with a soundtrack by Coil, Christopherson considered the film “truly, a timeless work of art”.

Commissioned by AV Festival with producer Paul Smith. World Premiere.

Part of Equinox Music Weekends