The Immaculate Consumptive was a collaborative group featuring four stars of the no wave scene, that existed for three shows in 1983.Thompson, Dave (2000) ''Alternative Rock'', Miller Freeman, , p.425 Its members were

Marc Almond Peter Mark Sinclair "Marc" Almond, (born 9 July 1957) is an English singer. Almond first began performing and recording in the synthpop/ new wave duo Soft Cell where he became known for his distinctive soulful voice and androgynous image. ...

, Nick Cave,

Lydia Lunch Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Anne Koch; June 2, 1959)Martin Charles Strong. ''The Great Indie Discography''. 2003, page 85 is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no ...

and

Clint Ruin James George Thirlwell (born 29 January 1960), also known as Clint Ruin, Frank Want, and Foetus, among other names, is an Australian musician, composer, and record producer. He is known for juxtaposing a variety of different musical styles. ...

(aka J. G. Thirlwell). The group existed for three days, October 30–November 1, in 1983. It toured

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, performing solo pieces and collaborations. According to Cave, the group was Lunch's idea. Lunch and Cave had met on The Birthday Party's first US tour in 1981, while Cave knew Thirlwell from their days in Australia. Almond and Thirlwell had been working together for a year prior to the shows on a project that would eventually become

Flesh Volcano The Flesh Volcano was a side project of singer Marc Almond and Clint Ruin, also known as Foetus. Its sole release was the ''Slut'' EP, which was expanded to album length in a number of reissues. Almond and Ruin were formerly bandmates in the Imma ...

. The shows featured songs from each of the four members, joined together by a backing tape recorded by Blixa Bargeld,

Barry Adamson Barry Adamson (born 11 June 1958)Biography
. Barryadamson.com. is an English pop and rock music ...

, and

Mick Harvey Michael John Harvey (born 29 August 1958) is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter, composer, arranger and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist, he is best known for his long-term collaborations with Nick Cave, with whom he formed The ...

of the Bad Seeds, and Annie Hogan from

Marc and the Mambas Marc and the Mambas were a new wave group, formed by Marc Almond in 1982 as an offshoot project from Soft Cell. The band's line-up changed frequently, and included Matt Johnson from and Annie Hogan, with whom Almond worked later in his solo ...

. the shows culminated in a group performance of "Body Unknown", with Almond singing, Cave screaming, Thirlwell drumming, and Lunch playing guitar. The shows were not recorded other than by bootleggers. The performances were hindered by Thirlwell breaking the piano on the first night, and on the second, Cave halted his performance, bored with events, telling the audience "then it goes on like that for another five minutes".

References

External links

Immaculate Consumptive interview (1983)

archived at angelindevilsboots.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Immaculate Consumptive, The New wave groups No wave groups JG Thirlwell Rock music supergroups New wave supergroups