Hoodlum Priest

Named after a 1960s movie, Hoodlum Priest was led by Derek Thompson, his self-chosen moniker for his work as a producer and engineer, using hip-hop, industrial, and techno influences as the source of material for his sounds. While Thompson had done a brief stint with The Cure, his major musical background through the late 1970s and 1980s was with avant-garde industrialists SPK, which he co-founded in 1978. He continued with the band through the end of the '80s, departing after newer member Graeme Revell took the group to what Thompson felt was too commercial of a direction.

His initial goal with Hoodlum Priest, one of several musical projects he explored during the 1990s and beyond, was to draw in both film influences on his work -- primarily via dialogue but also musically -- and hip-hop with a specific goal of recruiting a London-based MC. He was introduced to one, Sevier, at a club performance in 1989, and the two worked together for awhile, but Sevier's strong Christian background and Thompson's more free-thinking philosophy and darker musical approach eventually led to the MC's departure.

Thompson continued on his own, interspersing his background work (notably with Apollo 440, and remixing a tune for Pop Will Eat Itself) with occasional album releases such as 1994's Beneath the Pavement (produced by Raymond Watts of KMFDM fame.) and 1998's Hoodlum Priest, which featured former Gaye Bykers On Acid frontman and Pigface/Apollo 440 bandmember Mary Byker on vocals.

Recently, Derek became a member of Brighton's experimental music collective Spirit of Gravity and is currently gigging as Komuso.


Edited from the wikipedia entry.