80s Music Central News

Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV and Coil keyboardist Peter Martin Christopherson, 55, died in his sleep in his Bangkok, Thailand, home on Wednesday.  Affectionately known as Sleazy, Christopherson started his career as a commercial artist, designer and photographer with an artistic team called Hipgnosis -- who would create album covers for Pink Floyd, A Certain Ratio, Dave Ball and even Peter Gabriel's first 3 albums.  In 1976, he'd be involved in the creation of Throbbing Gristle and release albums with them until they split up in 1981.  Christopherson formed Psychic TV with Genesis P-Orridge and later created Coil with John Balance.  There were some early recordings with Psychic TV before he concentrated his attention on Coil which would release several singles including a haunting rendition of "Tainted Love" in 1985.  If that weren't enough, Christopherson was a highly respected music video director who work on videos for Coil, The Firm ("Radioactive"), Marc Almond, Erasure ("Chains Of Love," "A Little Respect" and "Stop"), Gavin Friday, Barry Gibb, Front 242, Paul McCartney, Ministry ("Over The Shoulder," "Just One Fix" and "N.W.O."), Nine Inch Nails, Robert Plant ("Tall Cool One"), The The ("Infected," "Heartland" and "The Mercy Beat"), Sepultura, Rollins Band, Van Halen ("Can't Stop Lovin' You" and "Don't Tell Me"), Yes ("Owner Of A Lonely Heart") and many others.