John Balance
John Balance
Background information
Also known as	Jhonn Balance Jhon Balance
Born	Geoffrey Laurence Burton (1962-02-16)16 February 1962 Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England
Died	13 November 2004(2004-11-13) (aged 42) Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England
Genres	Industrial post-industrial[1] ambient electronic acid house drone noise
Occupations	Musician poet
Instruments	Vocals synthesizer found objects keyboards bass guitar Chapman stick guitar violin egg slicer ('mini-harp')
Years active	1979–2004
Labels	Chalice Threshold House Eskaton

Geoffrey Nigel Laurence Rushton^[2] (16 February 1962 – 13 November 2004), better known under the pseudonymsJohn Balance or the later variationJhonn Balance, was an English^[3] musician, occultist, artist and poet.

He was best known as a co-founder of the experimental music groupCoil, in collaboration with his partnerPeter "Sleazy" Christopherson.^[4][5] Coil was active from 1982 to Balance's death in 2004. He was responsible for the majority of Coil's vocals, lyrics and chants, along with synthesizers and various other instruments both commonplace and esoteric.

Outside Coil he collaborated withCultural Amnesia (at the beginning of the 1980s),Nurse with Wound,Death in June,Psychic TV,Current 93,Chris & Cosey,^[6]Thighpaulsandra, and produced severalNine Inch Nails remixes.^[7]

Balance was bornGeoffrey Laurence Burton.^[8] He took the surname 'Rushton' from his stepfather.^[9] During his teens, Balance became acquainted with Christopherson as a fan of the latter's groupThrobbing Gristle. The duo were both members ofPsychic TV, Christopherson's next project after Throbbing Gristle. They eventually quit Psychic TV to form Coil.

Balance was extremely active as a youth and in his early twenties. Apart from his early musical releases and involvement in bands before Coil, he published seven issues of a fanzine,Stabmental,^[10] and was a tireless correspondent with members of the alternative musical and cultural scene in the UK and also abroad. He also released three compilation albums of music by bands and artists about which he was enthusiastic:Endzeit,Bethel andThe Men with the Deadly Dreams. The compilations are today collector's items and fetch high prices. Also from his youth, Balance was an avid occultist, maintaining a lifelong interest in the likes ofAleister Crowley andAustin Osman Spare.^[9]

On 13 November 2004, during a period of heavy drinking, Balance fell from a two-storeybalcony at his home and died that evening in the hospital.^[11] Peter Christopherson announced Balance's death on theThreshold House website, and provided details surrounding the accident. Balance's memorial service was held nearBristol on 23 November, and was attended by approximately 100 people.^[12] November 2014 saw the publication of a retrospective volume of his art called "Bright Lights and Cats with no Mouths" by Edition Timeless.^[13] Timeless published a further archival book of a collection of Balance's notebooks "The Cupboard under the Stars"^[14] edited by Claus Laufenburg in 2023.

Balance first recorded using the alias "Murderwerkers". The Murderwerkers track, "Blue Funk (Scars for E)", was included on theSterile Records cassette compilationStandard Response. Balance also published an undergroundzine,Stabmental,^[15] and released a track, "A Thin Veil of Blood", also using thenom de guerre Stabmental.^[16]: 194 "A Thin Veil of Blood" was included on the cassette compilationDeleted Funtime – Various Tunes for Various Loons. Balance then joined up with Peter Christopherson andBoyd Rice to recordNightmare Culture under themoniker "The Sickness of Snakes". Balance subsequently joinedPsychic TV and performed alongside Christopherson; however in 1984, Balance and Christopherson left the group to developCoil.^[17] A short collaboration withZos Kia produced the split tapeTransparent.^[18] Credit for the album was shared, and marked Coil's first release. The original Coil / Zos Kia tape,Transparent, was released as a "His-Storical" CDreissue in 1997.^[19]

During Coil's 23-year career, Balance collaborated with a number of his peers, includingJim Thirlwell/Clint Ruin (Foetus),Marc Almond,Thighpaulsandra,NON,Current 93, andCoH; appearing on many of these artists' albums.

• Dreams Less Sweet
• Just Drifting
• Berlin Atonal Vol. 2
• N.Y. Scum
• Mein-Goett-In-Gen

• Murderwerkers: "Blue Funk (Scars for E)" onSterile Records compilationStandard Response. (1979)
• Stabmental: "A Thin Veil of Blood" on compilationDeleted Funtime - Various Tunes for Various Loons. (1980)
• Sickness of Snakes:Nightmare Culture (1985)
• Rosa Mundi: "The Snow Man" on compilationsThe Final Solstice,The Final Solstice II and split albumGrief. (1999)

• 1962 births
• 2004 deaths
• 20th-century English LGBTQ people
• 20th-century English male singers
• 21st-century English LGBTQ people
• Accidental deaths from falls
• Accidental deaths in England
• Alcohol-related deaths in England
• British noise musicians
• Cassette culture 1970s–1990s
• Chaos magicians
• Chapman Stick players
• Coil (band) members
• English experimental musicians
• English gay musicians
• English industrial musicians
• English LGBTQ singers
• English LGBTQ songwriters
• English male songwriters
• English modern pagans
• Gay singers
• Gay songwriters
• People from Mansfield
• Rosa Mundi (group) members

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