The increasingly egalitarian nature of the Internet and the surge in popularity of music sharing, whether it be via peer-to-peer applications or music blogs, has allowed the discerning Goth devotee to uncover both long lost classics, lovingly ripped from dusty old vinyl copies of obscure releases from forgotten bands, and modern gems from musicians keen to embrace the new medium and bypass the intransigence of the record industry and the scene-driven bias of the established music press.

THE.BIRTHDAY.PARTY.

LIVE!!!
“My baby is alright
She doesnt mind a bit of dirt”

One song that mentions ‘bats’ and ‘vampires’ doesn’t make you a Goth band but for some reason the label stuck. Once again, I think that is probably down to the open and inclusive nature of Post-Punk at the time. The Birthday Party were far more chaotic Blues Rock than one token label can give them credit for or, indeed, limit them to. A shambling mess of a sound with Nick Cave’s, often manic, vocals spewing out sex, religion and damnation through guttural growls and shrieks while bass and drums thunder along underneath Rowland S Howard’s loose guitar riffs.


SOUTHERN.DEATH.CULT.

CLASSIC.POSTIVE.PUNK/GOTH.

“The kids of the Coca-Cola nation are too doped up to realise
That time is running out”

SDC were edgy and original and (apparently) all about the inspirational live experience. Again the traits are there – punk inspiration, tribal drumming, stripped down guitar and correspondingly ramped-up bass – but quite how Ian Astbury went from berating “the kids of the Coca-Cola nation”, along with his Native Indian fixation, to all out Rawk ‘n’ Roll is a bit of a mystery to me.


I fall into the ‘dusty old’ category and so, for the purposes of this article, I would like to take a glimpse into the past and correlate the shift from the nihilistic anger of Punk to the gloomy introspection of Goth. Along the way I will testify as to some of the key records and bands who, whether they like it or not, heavily influenced or were considered Goth.

Picture the scene. It’s the early 1980’s. Britain’s industrial base is in terminal decline, unemployment is on the rise, the Winter of Discontent is still a recent memory and the threat of nuclear armageddon, via the Cold War, lies heavy across the land. The city landscape is one of boarded-up shops, high-rise dreams gone wrong and dole queues – urban regeneration has yet to be ‘invented’. Television existed across three channels – one of which broadcast the test card most of the time – and computers and the Internet were the preserve of universities and the military. Arpanet ring a bell with anyone? Didn’t think so. The nation’s safety, in the event of nuclear war, was taken care of with the woefully inadequate but highly terrifying ‘Protect And Survive’ series of Civil Defence films and literature. Looking back now they seem almost quaint but at the time it felt like the threat was all too real. (When The Wind Blows still has the power to bring me to tears).


PLAY.DEAD.

FROM.THE.PROMISEDLAND.
“As problems grow with every day
The silence plots its course”

Play Dead’s first release has a remarkably (almost) funky bass line, sparse but effective guitar, an underlying sense of singalong pop (seriously) and some very wordy lyrics - the influence of Ian Curtis is most definitely apparent throughout ‘Poison…’ which is no bad thing. As debuts go it is a strong one. Fresh Records roster also featured UK Decay (see earlier) and The Dark whose track ‘The Mask’ is a favourite of many a Goth compilation.


THE.CHAMELEONS.

SCRIPT.OF.THE.BRIDGE.

That The Chameleons did not ‘rule’ the 80’s, in a similar way to The Smiths perhaps, is still a matter of bewilderment and disappointment to the majority of their fans and, indeed, many people who have stumbled across them since. Guitar driven melancholy that, at times, explodes in rage, their influence can be heard everywhere – for instance, Radiohead’s ‘The Bends’ wouldn’t have happened without them and think how many times that appears on Top 50 lists.

On the music front the initial enthusiastic embracing of Punk, and the three-chord opportunities it inspired for DIY noise, has fractured. The fallout (nuclear pun intended) has given rise to New Wave (think Blondie and early Talking Heads), Post Punk (Magazine, Gang Of Four), Oi! (Cockney Rejects, Sham 69), Anarcho Punk (Crass, Flux of Pink Indians) and more besides.

Out of this kaleidoscope of Punk-derived scenes would emerge a section of bands who reflected the times - whether it be pure gloom, along the lines of Joy Division or Danse Society, or an attempt to escape the foreboding atmosphere and ‘glam’ things up a bit, the likes of Specimen and Alien Sex Fiend spring to mind. And where Punk did galvanise disaffected youth into forming their own bands almost as a political reaction to the muso-heavy indulgence of the 70’s, so these new bands would be typically apolitical. They wanted to inspire but quite what they wanted to inspire wasn’t as easily identified or expressed. Whether that was a result of disaffection at the hijacking of Punk by record labels and money-men or whether they expressed the futility of the times is even harder to quantify.


UK.DECAY.

FOR.MADMEN.ONLY.
“For madmen only
Know where contentment lies”

UK Decay were the punkier side of Goth in that the songs tended to be simpler in structure and they still retained an element of social commentary but that is not to detract from their influence. If anything, the retention of some Punk ideals tended to make them more inspirational and, in lead man Abbo, they had a great spokesperson for pissed-off youth.


DEATH.IN.JUNE.

CLASSIC.

And so the archetypal Goth would be introspective, sensitive and less than interested in politics. As generalisations go these are pretty wide-reaching but, and again this is my experience, they are ‘generally’ true. The vampire trappings, bad poetry and hanging about in graveyards would come later – unfortunately.

STORY.via.CACTUS.MOUTH.INFORMER.


THIS.WAS.GREAT.TIME.IN.SPACE.GLAD.I.WAS.THERE.2.LIVE.IT…