Whitehouse (band)

Whitehouse
Whitehouse (William Bennett & Philip Best) live at Consumer Electronics Festival, 2006
Background information
Origin	United Kingdom
Genres	Power electronics, experimental, noise, avant-garde music, dark ambient
Years active	1980-2007
Labels	Come Organisation, Susan Lawly, Ramleh
Associated acts	Come, Sutcliffe Jügend, Cut Hands, Consumer Electronics, Ramleh
Past members	Philip Best Peter Sotos Kevin Tomkins Glenn Michael Wallis Peter McKay Paul Reuter John Murphy William Bennett

Whitehouse were a pioneering English power electronics band formed in 1980, largely credited for the founding of the power electronics subgenre of industrial music.

The name Whitehouse was chosen both in mock tribute to the British morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse, and in reference to a British pornographic magazine of the same name.

The group's founding member and sole constant was William Bennett. He began as a guitarist for Essential Logic. He wrote of those early years, "I often fantasised about creating a sound that could bludgeon an audience into submission." Bennett later recorded as Come (featuring contributions from the likes of Daniel Miller and J. G. Thirlwell) before forming Whitehouse in 1980. The group began performing live in 1982. In 2009, Bennett claimed that his pre-eminent inspiration was Yoko Ono: "Yoko's amazing music was by far the biggest influence on me, and Whitehouse, in the formative years (despite what some would have you believe)."

Philip Best joined the group in 1982 at the age of 14, after running away from home. He was a member on and off ever since.

The group was inactive for the second half of the 1980s. A "special biographical note" on the Susan Lawly website states, "All members of Whitehouse went to live outside London for varying reasons and pursued separate lives. There was a feeling in the group that all that could be achieved had been realised."

Eventually, Whitehouse re-emerged with a series of albums, recorded by the American audio engineer, Steve Albini, beginning with 1990s Thank Your Lucky Stars. Albini worked with the band until 1998, when Bennett took over all production duties.

Through the 1990s the most stable line-up was Bennett, Best, and the writer Peter Sotos, who was convicted of possession of child pornography. Sotos left in 2002, leaving the band as a two-piece.