Thrill Kill Kult Vs Electric Hellfire Club

Since I’ll be seeing TKK tonight, I’m just wondering what the whole feud is about (if there even is one anymore). I know Thomas Thorn was a touring member back on the first couple tours and claims to have uncredited contributions on Confessions of a Knife, but maybe someone who’s more savvy on some trivia would know.

I think they’re in an eternal battle to see who sucks more. And, like in Highlander, in the end there can be only one.

I was once good friends with a lady who was friends with and had a massive crush on Thomas Thorn, and then had some breakdowns over unrequited love from the wily warlock. If ever I make contact with her again, she would certainly know his version of the story re: leaving TKK.

What’s more interesting to me, actually, is how TKK came to join forces with him in the first place. Prior to his stint with them, he was in a Whitehouse clone band called Slave State and published a local industrial kulture zine called U-Bahn (he’s repeatedly claimed that Godflesh got the Slavestate album title from his band, but I’ve never heard confirmation from Justin Broadrick.)

Anyway, Slave State made a name for themselves with actually pretty boring attempts at audio terrorism like “White Land, White Rule” and were on the Chicago label AWB, named for the South African apartheid folks led by Eugene Terre’Blanche.

With the glum resume Thorn had before joining up with Groovie and friends, I do wonder why they felt he was going to be a good fit. His whole “showing the true face of humanity to itself” shtick never seemed totally compatible with the more kitschy, John Waters-esque flavor of the rest of the band.

Yeah I may want the bit of trivia later. Anyways, good show tonight. Really drunk right now and can’t totally remember the set list off the top of my head, but they did new versions of “Swine & Roses” and “Sex On Wheelz” that were killer! I’ll post a pic with Mimi Star when I can get to a computer. Kinda crazy that TKK have become that band where there are certain people that I only see at their shows. My only gripe was the hot security guard not even letting me grab the last swig of my bottle that I sneaked in. I don’t usually sneak in booze like that, but they’re drinks are way overpriced.

It was also great to hang out with filthpig again! How bout that fuckin Katy Perry shit of an opener hahaha!

I don’t think he had very much creatively to do with TKK at all. It’s always been Buzz/Groovie and a rotating cast of characters.
I read an interview back in the '90s when someone asked Frankie about Thomas Thorn and the reply was something like “Who? Oh yeah, that guy! He played keyboard for us for a little while.”

I don’t think he had very much creatively to do with TKK at all. It’s always been Buzz/Groovie and a rotating cast of characters.
I read an interview back in the '90s when someone asked Frankie about Thomas Thorn and the reply was something like “Who? Oh yeah, that guy! He played keyboard for us for a little while.”

Seems highly plausible…T.T. did have the good luck to be one of the ‘rotating characters’ in the band at the time most listeners consider their best run of recordings. But being a part of the band doesn’t necessarily imply that he even contributed anything.

I do eat up Electric Hellfire Club stories like potato chips, if anyone else has them. During my time in Chicago they could always be counted on for unintentionally hilarious antics. Like Thorn seriously using “back off, man…I’m a SATANIST!” as a warning to an aggressive fellow at Neo club. Or EHC dancer ‘Sabrina Satana’ learning that a friend’s friend was gay, and - with all the subtlety of a the villain in an NBC after-school special - promising to “straighten him out” backstage at an EHC show.

Addenda to my previous post - Thorn was also involved with Sleep Chamber in some capacity. Which again is pretty vaguely defined…