You get glimpses of what might have been and also an insight into how good at editing their own ideas Coil were. John Balance might have been canonised as the archetypal wide-eyed soul-in-flames, but here we can see the amount of revision he put into his work. Drugs and drink may have been a part of his stream of consciousness, but there’s more lucidity in here than you’d expect and a lot better editing. He’s more James Joyce than William S Burroughs.
John Balance
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Timeless Editions are publishing The Universe Is A Haunted House: COIL through their art and archives, a new 400-page full colour hardback book compiled from the personal archives of John Balance and Peter Christopherson. Conceived not only as a showcase of Coil’s much-admired album artwork, but also to offer a […]
Infinity Land Press John Balance dies and becomes a kind of saint. This is a hagiography of sorts, though it doesn’t attempt to smooth edges or unwrinkle ravages; it’s clear in these beautifully-presented pages that he was a complex, maybe difficult man. It’s also clear that he was a flame […]