Goth!

[glampunk]

Mick Mercer - Gothic Rock (Pegasus, 1991)

"Cheer up mate, it might never happen!"

That was what was so top about goth. Everyone knew it already had! What that geezer out of Doll By Doll (non-goth) had said about the spiritual equivalent of the atomic bomb having been dropped without us noticing was spot on, and loads of us decided that we'd commit gothicide and unlive through the aftermath dressed up like we were the f**kin' Adamms Family, thank you very much!

Being a fan of Peter 'Edgar Allan' Hammill, Mr. Birthday Party and Laughing Leonard Cohen, I was pretty much prepared for every exercise in morbidity that the world could throw my way - or so I thought! How heartening it was to hear Nosferatu exhort us to embrace our depression because it was the best thing we had going for us! Or Lestat on Endparty! Made Joy Division sound like Scootch. Ah, those joyous nights of murmuring along with Andrew Eldricht (" ... and she looked great in ribbons ... love is a many splintered thing/ don't be afraid now - just walk on in ...) and, later, arguing the toss over whether or not Daisy Chainsaw qualified as 'Goth' for no other reason than I wanted 'em to be because just about everything else I heard circa 91 was soulless (with usual noble exceptions of the Fall & Co)!Then there was the sneering reaction of hip music press who'd been extolling the virtues of New Romantic. Ho Ho, mr and mrs rock critic: backed a wrong one there, I'll venture!

I mixed with a fair few goth-lit people at the time who so despised "Goth Rock" I couldn't help but love it even more than I already did! The Birthday party, my favourite band EVER, hated being spoken of in the same breath as "Goth", but they unwittingly provided some of the highlights - dress sense, hair-styles, supernatural skinniness, the astonishing punk-blues triumphs of the Junkyard album and the Bad Seed and Mutiny! eps, the Bolan to the Mission's' Showaddywaddy. The BP nailed the Sisters Of Mercy as a pile of poo too, but they didn't reckon with miracle ingredient Andrew Eldricht! This revelation will upset at least one person on here, but the true facts (!!!) remain that SOM at their peak were tops!

Anyhow, a top guide to all things Goth is Mr. Mercer's hugely entertaining Gothic Rock which includes just about everyone and everything good from the obvious - Sisters, Bauhaus, Christian Death, Specimen, Nephilm, Nosferatu, Sex Gang Children, Mission, Skeletal Family, etc. - to several faces you'd not expect on the roll of shame including Martian Dance and the inspirational Adam & The Ants. Mick doesn't accept that the Birthday Party or the Damned are Goth so there's far less coverage of Vanian and Cave than you might expect. But there are stacks and stacks of photo's and the fans steal the show.


The book is long out of print, but you can buy it on CD and there's a free sample PDF you can download from:

www.mickmercer.com/gothicrock.html

R.I.P. Sophie Lancaster, 20, brutally murdered just for being a Goth.

[sean]

I think I read this years back.

Saw The Sisters of Mercy live on two occasions, and Fields of the Nephilim was the first gig I ever went to!

[carolinec]

Apr 5, 2008 9:11:27 GMT glampunk said:

R.I.P. Sophie Lancaster, 20, brutally murdered just for being a Goth.

My sentiments too, Dem - a dreadful thing to happen, particularly as she was trying to protect her boyfriend, and they were both too nice to fight back when those thugs attacked them. Very sad. RIP

[coral]

Three teenage boys in tracksuits started hurling abuse at my grown up son and myself yesterday on a trip to Llandudno, simply because we looked a little different, I wonder why children are no longer taught to never judge a book by it's cover!!! Most people in this small town conform to a particular ideal of appearance, which we have never bothered to do, so we get this quite a bit, and it can be quite alarming at times. I worry for my son when he's out by himself, for despite being tall and strong, he's a gentle soul at heart.
I feel very bad for the poor chap who was left alive after his beloved was killed

[phantomrider]

Saw most of the original Bat Cave bands supporting the Cramps way back when, with the exception of Alien Sex Fiend unfortunately, who were my pick of the bunch. Goth and psychobilly overlapped quite a bit as psychobilly evolved beyond the rockabilly scene. Saw Lords of the New Church shortly after they released Like A Virgin because the Guana Batz were supporting. The Batz song 'The Cave' pretty much sums up the era for me but the 12" version Morbid Silence by Sunglasses After Dark is my vote for the ultimate Goth record.

Spent most of my youth dodging Skins, Mods and Teddy Boys but the worst you could expect from the general public was a chorus of Rockabilly Rebel - it scares me that something like recent events can still happen in a way it never did when I was younger.

[Craig Herbertson]

www.myspace.com/inmemoryofsophie

Really sad.

Sometimes I stop at the wee kebab cafe in Bochum Langendreer coming home from gigs at 3am. Its a haunt for the Goths who go 'clubbing' next door. Sometimes me and the band are dressed in in 1740's Jackobite costume. They're the nicest people.

[franklinmarsh]

You have to think of that odd time as the 1970s merged into the 1980s and virtually every British youth cult, past, present and future, stalked the land. It seemed at times as if the weirdies would outnumber the straights.
Teds, punks, hippies, skinheads, suedeheads, mods, two-tone rude boys,bikers,rockers.new romantics, futurists, long mac'ers, heavy metal mayhem merchants, rockabillies, psychobillies and (yay!) goths.
Seems to me that modern-day goths are more metal orientated whereas yer actual 80s version had come out of punk.
Siouxsie and the Banshees must have had some kind of influence. Their first album, The Scream, seems suitably discordant and morbid.
UK Decay were definitely punks at first - their first EP shared with Pneumania depicts Abbo in de rigeur tartan bondage trousers.
Their later records moved away from traditional punk thrash and moan and they seemed to be goth before goths. (Strangely, in one or two episodes of Only Fools And Horses, Rodney Trotter (Nicholas Lyndhurst) could be glimpsed wearing a UK Decay (Unexpected Guest?) T-shirt. I don't remember the character having any goth preferences so perhaps Mr Lyndhurst was a fan)
Bauhaus! The first review of the 'haus that I read started 'Bauhaus are a punk band.' I'd dispute that although I heard tales of them being covered in spit in their early days. They had glam roots too - the first record of theirs I obtained was the cover of Telegram Sam, and caught up with them live around the time of their Ziggy Stardust success. They'd come on stage to an ear-splitting recording of Gustav Holst's 'Mars' from the Planets Suite and more dry ice than a Hammer season, launching into their version of Eno's Third Uncle. Frontman Peter Murphy just looked Gothic, and the Maxell ad was tops.
The Sisters Of Mercy! Having seen some of their singles in Our Price and cracked up at their name, my brother and I got smashed one Sunday lunchtime, and having a little money headed for London and a five band bill at the Lyceum. The Sisters were somewhere in the middle, and their act seemed to consist of primary colours projected onto the back on the stage, with a cigarette smoking Eldritch emerging from the obligatory dry ice to intone sepulchural songs, enlivened by the occasional cover (Hot Chocolate's Emma had the audience going beserk)
I had to pick up as many of their singles as possible after this. Their three albums are all quite different, but all contain great stuff. The last time saw them was supporting Depeche Mode at the Crystal Palace NSA. A mate of mine, who was not a great gig goer, was amazed by the hordes pouring back from the stage area after the HM Sisters had performed. 'They like black, don't they?' he said in awe - this being a blazing hot day.
I can't help loving Alien Sex Fiend - although I never saw them - the only Goth band to release a comedy Christmas single - Stuff The Turkey? Did see Nik Fiend's previous lot Demon Preacher.
The best Goth experience I had was seeing The Damned circa Phantasmagoria. After the gig, Kentish Town tube was packed with vampires, the living dead etc, and the look on the passengers faces as the next train pulled in was priceless.

[dem]

And, of course, indirectly or otherwise, the Damned were primarily responsible for the big Goth-Vampire crossover, the Vampyre Society having been formed by members of Vanian & Co's fan club, the Flashman Society.

Lovely post, that, FM!

[phantomrider]

Saw UK Decay with the M3T3ORS supporting one of Kirk Brandon's bands in 81 I think (think it was Spear of Destiny by then). Never did see the Damned (did like Eloise and their cover of Beat Girl on the b-side) but do have a copy of Johnny Remember Me by the Phantom Chords on single somewhere.

[Craig Herbertson]

Just came up on yahoo news:

two teenagers have been jailed for life for brutally murdering a young woman in a park because she was dressed as a Goth

[dem]

Misery! Gloom! Death! : Christian Death go Poppy!

Valor invents being Marilyn Manson, Gitane rushes to gig straight from appearing in a Benny Hill Show sketch, there's an evil bishop with a box of Black Magic on his head, a snogging nun and an epic, drop dead catchy "wo-oh-oh-oh-oahhh!" singalong bit.

This is the stuff! This is most definitely the stuff!

Church Of No Return

[sean]

I never went over-the-top on Christian Death, but I used to know quite a few people who did. They had some nifty tunes, probably my favourite was 'Romeo's Distress' which is here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8TTVAQU4oA

The only record I have by them now is 'Sex and Drugs and Jesus Christ' - mainly kept for the ridiculous cover showing a Jesus (complete with thorny headgear) shooting up...

All very commonplace these days, I suppose.

[Craig Herbertson]

Those guys that killed Sophie Lancaster are appealing their sentence

uk.news.yahoo.com/pressass/20081007/tuk-goth-attackers-appeal-against-terms-6323e80.html

[David A. Riley]

I don't like to get political on this board, but if it was up to me their appeals would fall on deaf ears. They're lucky there isn't a death penalty still in existence in this country, because if anyone deserved it, it was those mindless, savage brutes.

I can't see their appeals getting far. At least I hope not. If anything, they should have their sentences doubled for having the gall to appeal against them. And for not being able to see that they already got less than what they deserved for what they did.

David

[carolinec]

Couldn't have put it better, David. That's sickening that they're appealing. Just think of what they're putting her poor family and friends through once again.