“Jhonn Balance (aka John Balance and Geff Rushton) died at home on November 13 in a fall, leaving the music world and the wider world of magick without one of its most gifted and vivid voices.”
The news was shocking to many people interested in “industrial” and “experimental” music. Personally I was surprised at John Balance’s (as I knew him) relatively young age – 42. Not because it is such an unusual fact dying from an accident at that age – for accidents any age will do. But my mind would zoom back to late 1986 when I was exchanging letters with him for the purpose of an interview I was conducting for a zine I was doing at the time. This was a time before the internet and emails – it was hand-written pages that were sent back and forth. I was 20 then but a large gap seemingly separated me from the somewhat admired 24 year old.
I had come to music relatively late and had entered a rapid development in my late teens. The Coil album “Scatology” was a very special discovery for me: With a black and white cover filled with text and literary references it caught my attention by chance in a local record store, and when I listened to it I was blown away. Co-produced by Clint Ruin a.k.a. Jim Foetus, the sound is still astonishing now, a tough to-the-point production. This was a debut album by a then new formation, but of course the story didn’t start there. [Read more →]
