Ken Thomas R.I.P.

Ok I'm very late to this news  having just found out today.

Ken  after working on recordings by the likes of Queen, Bowie and PIL as engineer went on to produce some of my very favourite bands from back in the day including 23 Skidoo, PsychicTV, The Au Pairs, Wire, Test Dept and Clock DVA and then producing amongst others Sigur Rós, Gavin Friday and M83 later 

I remember going up to Manchester to see PTV's second gig and the first with a full band: Genesis P'Orridge, Peter Christopherson, Paula P'Orridge, Alex Ferguson, Jonh Balance (Coil) and Jon Gosling (Mekon) 

Originally it was supposed to have been held at Prestwich Mental Hospital but council complaints meant it was transferred to The Ritz 

The debut line up had been just GPO and Sleazy as part of the Burroughs' Final Academy in Brixton just over a year before

At the Manchester gig Sleazy's set up malfunctioned and to be honest if it wasn't for Ken's mixing that night I think it would have been a complete shambles. 

At the end of the night I was chatting to some girl and it turned out she reviewed the gig for Sounds (I think it was). Now if anyone should have a clipping of that...

You can watch the film of the performance below 

'Don't forget Ken, make it hurt'

(ASIDE] I bought a tee shirt with a brilliant design of heretics burning at the stake with the words 'Nice People These Burn Again Christians'  at that show. I had it for a long time until someone stole it off my washing line here in Melbourne years later. I'd already cut the design out and sewn it on to new tees twice as that one got a lot of wear back in the day

Beat The Light