For those of you who come to this site, see the word goth
and muse, "what's this goth thing all about?"
Here's a starter course for you. Particularly amusing to me are
the parallels to the swing scene that can be found here. - LP
From the American Music Press, July 1993
You may have seen them, fleetingly, out of the corner of your eye. Always after nightfall, dark, emaciated figures hurrying through the streets, their faces corpse-like and their hair sticking up in all directions. Are they unholy spectres conjured here from another dimention? No, they're goths, probably rushing to make last call at their favorite haunt, or scurrying home to play their latest Sisters of Mercy live in Botswana bootleg. You may ask, "How did this spookiness start?" Well, I'll tell ya.
By the end of the 70s, the British music scene was, once more, beginning to crumble into mediocrity. The explosion of new talent and energy infused by Punk Rock had started to ebb. The Sex Pistols had split up, and the majority of new bands were fourth-rate imitators of the original punk bands. Where punk had begun as fashion oriented art movement with strong ideals of nihilism and individuality, it had degenerated into a much more closed regimen frequently associated with violence. The highly creative, often hand-made clothing disappeared leaving the standard punk "uniform" of leather jacket, ripped jeans, Doc Martens boots, etc., and with the revival of ska and bluebeat and the resurgence of skinheads, many punks adopted a "bootboy" pose, often harboring neo-nazi sympathies. This would become known as "Oi." Others turned to the highly politically motivated Crass label bands who promoted vegetarianism, autonomy and peace. This was a much more positive offshoot of the punk movement but retained little of the original ideals of punk. Basically, if not dead, punk certainly was fragmented with the various factions often diametrically opposed in ideologies.
It was at this time that a number of bands who appeared who, once more, had their roots in art and fashion, the most prominent being Northhampton's Bauhaus; London's Psychedelic Furs, Killing Joke and Theater of Hate; Luton's UK Decay and John Lydon's newly formed Public Image Limited. They differed from the buzzsaw guitar-driven punk bands in that their songs were generally slower and were predominantly centered around bass and drums, with a repetitive lead guitar riff weaving in and out around the backline. These bands slowly began to gain popularity attracting people who were disillusioned with the stagnant punk scene. The crowds who attended their shows tended to be more flamboyantly dressed than the other punk factions: leather pants, buckle-boots, studded belts, make-up, and big hair often in day-glo colors were standards. Bi-sexuality was cool and amphetamine sulphate (speed) was the drug of choice, which seemed almost classy after the glue-sniffing and barbituates that had become the preferred high for hard-core punks and skins.
By 1981-2 there was a whole plethora of bands who had been influenced by this small core of post-punk groups, and ungodly sounds began to drift over to the British mainland from overseas. From America, Christian Death and 45 Grave brought their own brand of "death rock," whilst Germany offered X-Mal Deutschland, and Austlralia spawned the Seminal Birthday Party, who quickly relocated to England. It seemed that every week a new band would emerge. Bands such as Play Dead, The Sex Gang Children, Danse Society and the Southern Death Cult were selling out shows and receiving rave reviews. Old stalwarts of the punk scene such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure and The Damned had also picked up followings of the more progressive post-punk types.
Obviously there was some kind of movement occuring but, as yet, nobody had given it a name. In an attempt to be the first to recognize this new trend in youth culture, the British music paper New Musical Express as part of an article on the new bands Brigandage, Blood and Roses, and The Mob called the new movement "Positive Punk." In some ways "Positive Punk" was a reasonably apt description of the new music as it was certainly inspired by the punk movement but, as ant movement with its roots so firmly in nihilism must, punk had become extremely negative, promoting a kind of "I hate everything" attitude, whereas these new post-punk bands had returned to the ideals of art and fashion which had been such a large part of the original punk movement (remember, The Sex Pistols were formed in a clothing store!).
The only problem with the "positive punk" label was that nobody wanted anything to do with it. It just sounded daft. The poetess Joolz from Bradford had a line in one of her poems which asked sarcastically, "Are you a punk? Are you positive?" which pretty much summed it up. It just didn't sound cool. Everybody admitted that there was a new movement but nobody wanted to be labelled, maintaining that they were individuals. It just so happened that this collection of individuals dressed simularly and listened to the same type of music. Meanwhile, in an interview with Steve Keaton, Abbo, lead singer of UK Decay jokingly described the band's music by saying, "we're into this whole gothic thing." Unfortunately, as is traditional in the world of music journalism, Keaton took him seriously, and suddenly everyone was asking, "What's this gothic thing you're into?" The highly unpopular "positive punk" moniker was dropped, and the music press started talking about the new gothic movement. The "gothic" tag was every bit as unpopular as the "positve punk" label had been. I know of no bands, and only a few particularly silly individuals, who actually ever said, "yeah, we're goths." But somehow it stuck.
So at last all the bands emerging from the post-punk melee could neatly be pidgeon-holed and categorized under the all encompassing banner, "GOTH," which was actually quite rediculous considering the diversity of the music being played. Play Dead were playing punk/funk, Killing Joke were into heavy dance rhythms, The Birthday Party were torturing the blues, Specimen played Glam Pop, The Southern Death Cult and Skeletal Family had their whole red Indian (sorry, Native American) thing going on. The Virgin Prunes were just being weird, and The Sisters of Mercy were... okay, The Sisters of Mercy were being goths. But in general, "goth" was far too narrow a term to describe such a wide range of musical styles.
One of the major things that helped to define the schlock horror image of goth was the nightclub "The Batcave" opened in London's west end by campy glam rockers, Specimen. Ostensibly the Batcave was opened simply so that Specimen would have someplace to play, but soon it became a mecca for bands and punters alike. A zillion great bands were accociated with, or got their start at, the Batcave. Sultry goth temptress Danielle Dax played her first solo live show there, as did the heavily Alice Cooper-influenced Alien Sex Fiend (if you don't believe that Alice Cooper is the godfather of goth, listen to Black Juju on the Love it to Death album and it will dispel all your doubts). Flesh for Lulu and the short-lived Sex Beat played at the club regularly, and soon the Batcave became a scene within a scene, frequented by most of the up-and-coming bands on the London goth circuit. People dressed outrageously, but nobody took it too seriously.
By the start of 1983, goth was in full swing. It was a cool thing to be. Goth nightclubs abounded, and sales of extra-hold hairspray and black eyeliner skyrocketed. But it was short lived. As the year ended, everything started to deteriorate. Bauhaus, who were arguably the definitive goth band, split up, which left a void that was never really filled. There were possibly a couple of bands capable of stepping into Bauhaus' shoes, but unfortunately they split up too. Southern Death Cult called it a day, The Birthday Party went their separate ways, Theater of Hate changed their name to Spear of Destiny and got poppy, and the Psychedelic Furs didn't bother to change their name but got poppy anyway. Brigandage and Blood & Roses, once hailed as champions of the new movement, lasted about two weeks before they split, and everything fell apart. The Sisters of Mercy carried on for a couple of years before they got bored of playing their songs and asked Fields of Nephilim to perform them instead.
Many of the musicians involved with the goth scene went on to other projects with varying levels of success, but a few managed to harness the energy which the original outfits possessed. Peter Murphy, lead singer of Bauhaus, went on to have a reasonably successful solo career, whilst the rest of the band formed the dreamy T-Rex influenced Love and Rockets with Daniel Ash taking over vocals. The Sisters of Mercy split on bad terms and, after legal battles, Andrew Eldritch kept the band's name and went on to write rock operas. Meanwhile, Sisters guitarist Wayne Hussey formed wimpy, psychedelic goth outfit The Mission. Ian Astbury from Southern Death Cult teamed up with ex-Theater of Hate guitarist Peter Duffy and formed Death Cult, who later abbreviated the name still further to The Cult (and next year will be changing their name to "C" - ed.), and are currently living in L.A. and playing heavy metal. The Birthday Party's Nick Cave embarked on a solo career and has gone from strength to strength, and although his solo work is far removed from The Birthday Party, it is every bit as relevant, mixing Cave's literary bent with tunes culled from country and blues and then twisted into something much darker. Roland Howard, The Birthday Party's guitarist, did one good song, a cover of Nancy Sinatra's Some Velvet Morning with Lydia Lunch and was never heard from again. The Sex Gang Children got tired of making no money from their solo projects, reformed, and are currently playing middle-of-the-road rock songs and making no money doing that.
For a more in-depth look at the goth scene, I highly recommend Mick Mercer's book, Gothic Rock (Pegasus Publishing, now out of print), which gives the gothic scene the respect it deserves without taking it too seriously. It also lists some of the more obscure bands to come out of the scene (and strangely omits some of the more prominent ones) and gives detailed histories of the groups and people involved (it's worth buying just for the photo captions). If you want to experience the gothic scene for yourself, visit sfgoth.com for a list of current San Francisco goth clubs. - Marc Gander
(There's also a new book out called Goth Chic, which is very informative. - LP)