Psychic TV (sometimes spelled Psychick TV) or PTV,
is a video art and music group that primarily performs psychedelic,
punk, electronic and experimental music. The band was formed by
performance artist Genesis P-Orridge and video director Peter Christopherson (after the break up of Throbbing Gristle) with Alex Fergusson, musician and
producer (a key member of Alternative TV for whom P-Orridge had played percussion).
The band began publishing a monthly series of 23
live albums in 1986, but stopped without explanation after only 17. The
tenth, a picture disk most commonly referred to as Album 10,
could only be obtained by submitting tokens contained in each of the
previous nine releases. The band subsequently earned an entry in the Guinness Book
of World Records for most records released in one year.
Contributors to Psychic TV have included artists such as Coil,
Current
93, Hafler Trio, The Cult,
White Stains, Soft
Cell, Fred Giannelli, XKP, Master Musicians
of Jajouka, Matthew Best, Daniel
Simon Black, Bill Breeze, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Derek
Jarman, John Gosling, Timothy
Leary, Rose McDowall, Stephen Kent, Vagina
Dentata Organ, Andrew Weatherall, Larry Thrasher, Z'EV, Zef Noi$e, and
many others.
Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth
(aka T.O.P.Y.), was formed as an organisation at the same time as the
band. T.O.P.Y. was intended to be the philosophical wing of Psychic TV,
but also presented an image of being a cult-like fanclub for the group.
P-Orridge left it in 1991.
Psychic TV released early albums of acid
house music in (1988) as fake compilations, such as Jack The Tab and Tekno Acid Beat. After breaking up in 1999, Psychic TV
reformed as PTV3 with a new line-up in 2003. (read more at Wikipedia)