Alex Fergusson (musician)

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Alex Fergusson (born December 16, 1952 in Glasgow ) is a Scottish guitarist and music producer.

Fergusson has been playing guitar since 1969. In 1973 he performed live for the first time with another guitarist as a folk duo and recorded his own songs with an accompanying band in the studio. In 1976 he founded the group The Bold Bucks , with which he also made studio recordings. At the beginning of 1977 he left Scotland with a musician friend. The ways separate and Fergusson founded the punk band Alternative TV together with Mark Perry , which rehearsed temporarily in the studio of Throbbing Gristle (TG). After a short time, Fergusson left Alternative TV , wrote his own pieces and worked temporarily with Chris Carter from TG . It was also TG who brought Fergusson to work on a film by Fred & Judy Vermorel in 1978, which was followed by a film music contract in Los Angeles. Back in London, Vermorels and Fergusson form the band The Cash Pussies , who present two singles at the height of the punk wave, of which 99% is shit sold over 10,000 times.

In 1979 Fergusson signed a three-year contract as a musician, producer and composer with Southern Studios, where he produced groups like Orange Juice and The Go-Betweens . In 1980 he worked again with the musicians from Throbbing Gristle , who were involved in two single releases (Peter Christopherson as cover artist, G. P-Orridge as lyricist), and on whose label Industrial Records Fergusson released one of the singles. At the same time, in 1981 he formed a short-term new edition of Alternative TV with members of the Cash Pussies , which, however, was unsuccessful.

In 1981 he founded the industrial band Psychic TV with Genesis P-Orridge and wrote most of the pieces until he left in 1987. Fergusson had an enormous influence on the sound of the band in this era and the tension between the industrial sounds of Orridge and Christopherson on the one hand and Fergusson's ballad-like compositions on the other contributed a lot to the popularity of the studio albums of the time. He also wrote the entire live repertoire of the band, which differed significantly from the studio albums. Fergusson was on several tours with Psychic TV in Great Britain, Germany, USA and Scandinavia, most recently on a world tour in 1986 and can be heard on at least 20 albums of the band.

Even after leaving, he sporadically participated in individual concerts or side projects of former band members of Alternative TV and Psychic TV: In 1990 he played with Psychic TV at the Reading Festival , in 1991 he produced an album for the Popguns with Genesis P-Orridge , in 1994 and in 1995 he performed live with Alternative TV and in 1999 another guest appearance at the farewell concert "Time's up" by Psychic TV.

As a music producer, Fergusson initially looked after the Gaye Bykers on Acid after his time at Psychic TV . In 1993 he released an untitled solo LP, followed by the album Perverse Ballads in 1996, The Essence in 2001 and The Castle in 2006 .

Fergusson has worked several times in recent years with Rose McDowall (ex- Strawberry Switchblade ), with whom he was also seen at the 2002 Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig.

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