Meeting John Balance / At Home With Coil, is a new book by Matthew Levi Stevens and Locke Fitzroy being published by Hanged Man Press.
Ever wonder what it would have been like to be John Balance’s close friend and confidant? What really went on behind the scenes of the Coil duo’s lives? Who had the biggest record collection? And how did they decorate their house?
MEETING JOHN BALANCE / AT HOME WITH COIL, put together by Matthew Levi Stevens + Locke Fitzroy, is the first publication by the newly launched Hanged Man Press. Across 60 pages, this full-colour A5 chapbook recounts in candid, colourful, and often humourous detail the teenage lightning sparked between Balance & Stevens, that gave the latter a ringside seat to the wierd & wonderful world of Coil.
Based on material featured in three sold out talks in London in 2025, the chapbook is structured into the following main parts:
FROM GEFF TO BALANCE, A CHRONOLOGY: highlighting key dates & events in Geff’s younger life
MEETING GEFF RUSHTON: an essay-length portrait of Geff before he moved to London to be with Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson, and joined Psychic TV
AT HOME WITH COIL: a detailed guided tour of the first Threshold House, illustrated with anecdotes drawn from an intimate ten-year friendship.
Two shorter pieces are also featured: BETWEEN EROS & THANATOS is an up-close-and-personal consideration of the impact of HIV / AIDS on the outlook of the duo, set against a backdrop of their discovery of the delights of Ecstasy and after-hours Acid House clubs. The final chapter examines their answers to the question, WHAT IS MAGICK IN YOUR LIVES?
MEETING JOHN BALANCE / AT HOME WITH COIL is equal parts funny, sensitive, and tragic – a rare and personal glimpse of what it was like not only to know Balance & Christopherson as the celebrated musicians, occultists, and Queer icons they became, but also as friends, from the very beginning.
Arrange purchase via Direct Message: https://www.facebook.com/matthewlevi.stevens?comment_id=Y29tbWVudDozMDAzNjczMjYwOTMwNTcwMV8xNDM5MzM1NjQ0MDg2NTg3
