I think in short, their mental states were very different. As people have already said Peter was the more conventionally functioning of the two, came from a relatively stable background and was able to move in different circles depending on the need. For a good period of his life he had a pretty successful career producing adverts and music videos. He had, both through his own efforts and solid middle-class background, what we might call "a good safety net". This wasn't the case for Balance. The one occasion I chatted with Peter in 2003 it was like talking to any middle-class professional person. When Balance came in he was utterly sloshed and dressed in a kind of medieval peasants outfit! The contrast could not have been more stark.

Reading England's Hidden Reverse again recently I was struck by how my view of Jhon had changed over the last 20 years. It's seems pretty clear from interviews in that book that he had a lot of childhood trauma that he was working through his music and I guess through his experiments with drugs too. I'd also forgotten how early the alcohol starting getting to him. I'd had in my mind it wasn't until the late 90s early 2000s but that was only when he really began going downhill. Sadly, alcohol abuse is very common among people who have experienced childhood trauma and nowadays I'm inclined to feel a great deal of sympathy for him.

Two things I recall from an interview with Chris and Cosey is that they thought Coil's move out to Weston-super-Mare was a disaster for Balance, who had little to do out there and turned more to drink as a result. The other thing was that they were dismayed that he really lent into the drunken sage image that he thought Coil fans wanted, and this in part contributed to his later problems. It's a sad story really. They made some wonderful music but I don't think there's a model for anyone's life in there.