“Fey? I don’t think so!”
Forget what you know about Goth. Rather than music to mope to, the original bands were politicised independent artists, who challenged the status quo and created safe spaces for like-minded souls
Photo: Mick Mercer
I think it’s fair to say that 2023 was the year of the Goth book. If you include Wayne Hussey’s second volume of memoirs, there were four Goth-adjacent tomes published, as well as many magazine features, newspaper op eds, and a huge Batcave box set compiled by Jonny Melton of OGs (original goths) Specimen.
As a consumer of the Dark Stuff, this was like all my Black Christmases coming at once. But as a writer who wanted to follow up his Some Bizzare book with a history of the Goth scene in a similar format, it was a little disheartening. The Goth Pound – or Dollar – may be strong (just look how much Death Cult were charging for tickets to their reunion tour), but there’s only so much of it to go around, and a fifth book may well have been a step too far.
But it’s 2024 now, The March Violets and The Cult are back out on the road, and there’s a new wave of Goth bands moving the scene forward, musically if not sartorially. So I’m happy to announce that I’ve signed a contract with new imprint Ruffian Books to tell the story of the world’s biggest sub-culture through the 500 key records that define the genre. The book will be out later in the year as a deluxe 7”x7” slipcase edition, and it will cover the entire history of Goth, from its musical DNA, through the post-punk progenitors, the imperial period of the ‘80s, the underground years, right up to its recent resurgence.
But all that’s to come. To whet your appetite, here’s an unedited version of a piece published in Record Collector back in 2021 (you can buy the issue, which includes more amazing images from Mick Mercer, here), where I charted the beginnings of the scene through the rarest and most valuable singles (bundled together on the handy playlist below).
Mention the word Goth to most people and it brings to mind doomy bands that appeal to morose teenagers hanging around the local war memorial, writing poetry. It’s a difficult association to shake, and one that has dogged the genre from the moment the UK music press started paying attention. No wonder most bands baulk at the association.
In actual fact, the 80s Goth progenitors operated on the margins of the mainstream, creating a support network of fanzines and gigs that brought like-minded people together to share ideas and have a good time. Goths, enjoying themselves? Whatever next?
Well for a start, nobody called themselves Goth back in the early 80s. “At the time it was all still punk,” says writer Mick Mercer, who chronicled the scene in a series of fanzines and books. “All those early bands were energetic, quixotic and different, and were replacing punk with their own version.”
Although London’s Batcave club is historically considered the focal point for what became known as Goth, the groundwork was being laid by bands from the far less glamourous locations of the South Midlands and Yorkshire.
One of those was UK Decay. “I can honestly say we never consciously sat down and discussed the sound of the band,” says singer Steve ‘Abbo’ Abbott. “The rawness and anger of Siouxsie and the Banshees was an influence and The Clash had a real impact musically, but we formed in Luton in 1978, so reggae dominated our younger years, and we took our politics from that.”
At the same time, Bauhaus were mining a similar dark seam just up the M1 in Northampton, and while Abbo sees no musical affinity from either side, he acknowledges both bands’ influence on what followed. “Between 1980 and 1982 our audience had swelled considerably,” he says, “And I saw bands like Southern Death Cult, Dance Society, Play Dead and Sex Gang Children start to emerge from it.”
One hundred and thirty miles away a similar scene was coalescing around the F-Club in Leeds, an alternative night run by concert promoter John Keenan. Located at different venues around the city, Keenan put on gigs by Joy Division, Gang of Four and The Cure, and was instrumental in promoting shows by new local bands, including The Sisters of Mercy, Salvation and Red Lorry Red Lorry. “There was a hardcore alternative scene,” says Paul James Berry, guitarist with Leeds’ The Rose of Avalanche. “It was brilliant, we would all hang around the Faversham pub and go to each other’s gigs. The March Violets even lent us their drum machine.”
As bands from both areas started to gig outside of their locale, they played on the same bills and formed connections. It was a revolutionary and uncompromising time according to, Andreas ‘Andi Sex Gang’ McElligott, founder member of Sex Gang Children. “The music and attitude was ambitious and art-driven,” he says “We were all mavericks and we were fearless. It wasn’t intellectualised, no-one sat around talking about how to construct the music. We just listened to the burning fire inside us and did it.”
It was around about this time the term Goth began to be applied to this loose collective in the press. Originating from a nickname given to McElligott by Southern Death Cult singer Ian Astbury, it soon became used in a derogatory fashion, equating the bands and their followers with morose, fey, self-obsessed adolescents. Abbo isn’t having any of that: “Fey? I don’t think so,” he says, “We regularly fought toe-to-toe with right wing groups outside of our concerts. We really believed our band existed to increase awareness in the fight against racism and the class system, and for sexual equality.”
The fact that women were just as present as men, in both the audience and the bands, bears this out. Julianne Regan, soon to be of Gene Loves Jezebel and eventually All About Eve, had moved from her home of Coventry to study in London, but soon found herself drawn towards the burgeoning scene.
“I think Goth’s immediate precursor may have sometimes been dour and downbeat,” she says, “But what excited me about these bands was the lyrical intelligence and the willingness to play around sonically. The music seemed to gain more colour (ironically!) with artists such as Dead Can Dance and Cocteau Twins – melody blossomed and a more obvious sense of beauty occurred.”
‘Melody’ and ‘beauty’ may not be words immediately associated with Goth in the public consciousness, but therein lies one of the biggest misnomers about the genre. “The music was incredibly uplifting,” says McElligott, “It may have been dark and angry, but it had a positive vibe.”
Towards the end of the 80s Goth was defiantly overground, but with many the originators having either split up or moved their attention to mainstream recognition, particularly in the US, it was up to a second generation of bands such as The Mission, All About Eve and The Fields of the Nephilim to bring a sense of celebration to the proceedings.
“Our gigs were largely joyous affairs, with swaying people raising their hands heavenwards on the shoulders of their mates,” says Regan. “There’s nothing depressive about dressing up, dying your hair and seeing how many cheap silver bangles you can squeeze onto one arm.”
After this commercial highpoint, the scene again went underground, and has stayed there ever since. And although the following selection of Goth singles focuses on that halcyon 80s period, there have been constant waves of new bands. “The Goth scene stays at one level and picks up new people and changes as time passes,” says Mercer. “Today it’s a vibrant mixture, and the quality of the music is fantastic. It’s the most open and varied time the genre has ever had.”
It would seem that, like the titular horror film icon Bauhaus’ sang about over four decades ago, Goth remains undead.
1. Bauhaus / Bel Lugosi’s Dead / (Small Wonder Records, TEENY 2, white vinyl 12”, Aug 1979)
Roundly regarded as the first goth record, this dub-influenced experiment in creeping dread was written a few weeks after the band formed. “It was as if we had been playing this strange song for years,“ recalls bassist David J in his book, Who Killed Mr Moonlight (Jawbone). “All the parts fitted perfectly into place, and all of a sudden we had a fully-formed nine-minute epic on our hands. Magic out of the blue!”
The magic continued to Beck Studios in Wellingborough, where the track was recorded in one take, vocals and all. After being rejected by several labels, the band struck a 50/50 deal with Walthamstow-based Small Wonder and Bela Lugosi’s Dead emerged as a 12” single, with the first 5,000 copies on white vinyl. Like so many of the bands of the era, patronage from John Peel followed and a genre was created, if not yet named.
2. UK Decay / The Black 45 EP/ (Plastic Records, PLAS 002, 7”, Jan 1980)
“Someone once said to me that this record is so stark it could have been recorded in Manchester!” says Abbo, “We used to get a day’s studio time to record our singles, so quality control was non-existent. Even ‘capturing a moment in time’ would be giving us too much credit.”
He may be being modest, but there’s no denying the influence this four-track EP had on a whole host of bands. “I was 19 and a bookworm,” recalls Abbo, “And I was gripped when I discovered The Complete Edgar Allen Poe. Black Cat from the EP is a simple paean to the great man, who sparked teenage imaginations far more than he is given credited for.”
The EP also showed the political side of the band, something that Goth isn’t known for, but was present, nonetheless. “A major theme among our audience was protecting the outliers of 1970’s society and influencing conversations about racism, homophobia and vegetarianism. We felt we had no voice in contradicting the messages from the overtly racist, classist media, so Message Distortion, as naive as it may seem now, was a cry of real frustration.”
3. The Cure / A Forest / (Fiction, Catalogue No, 12”, Apr 1980)
Despite releasing records as a trio since 1978, The Cure didn’t fully embrace the darkness until the epic six-minute single A Forest. Taken from their second album, 1980’s Seventeen Seconds, it featured the distinctive bass playing of Simon Gallup for the first time, as well as an increasing use of keyboards, both of which moved the band’s sound into more atmospheric territories.
Accusations of being merely Joy Division-lite clearly rankled band leader Robert Smith, and he continued to push the band towards bleaker territory, culminating in 1982’s punishing Pornography, an album so intense it temporarily split the band. When they reformed the following year, The Cure had positioned themselves front and centre of UK alternative rock, and Smith’s teased hair and wonky make-up became a template for Goths worldwide.
4. Siouxsie and the Banshees / Israel / (Polydor, POSPX 205 12”, Nov 1980)
Despite their association with the Class of ’77, Siouxsie and the Banshees outlasted most of their punk contemporaries and were successful right up until their split in the ‘90s. This was in no small part to their ability to change and adapt, although for many Siouxsie Sioux is preserved in aspic from the period around their fourth album, to such an extent that her look from this time is still a touchstone for many Goths.
Taking their cue from the psychological unease of Alfred Hitchcock and Luis Buñel, the Banshees embraced elements of the supernatural and mystical, and found their punk audience was more than willing to go along with them.
Non-album single Israel was the first indication of their dalliance with dark pop, and pointed the way for the genre defining Juju in 1981.
5. Look Back in Anger / Caprice / Mannequin / (LBA, LBA 1, 7”, 1981)
A market town in Hampshire may not be the obvious place for a proto-goth band to emerge from, but Waterlooville’s Look Back In Anger were gigging from as early as 1979. Based around singer Mich Ebeling and guitarist Jim Newby, the band displayed all the musical signposts of the emerging genre, and regularly supported the likes of Sex Gang Children, Play Dead and The Danse Society. A 1983 tour with the newly named Death Cult resulted in guitarist Billy Duffy co-producing their 1984 Caprice mini-LP, although it didn’t feature the title track, which had appeared on this self-released on 7” three years earlier.
The association with Duffy didn’t end there, as Ebeling moved with the guitarist to LA when The Cult relocated to the city in 1987.
6. Xmal Deutschland / Schwarze Welt / (Zickzack, ZZ 31, 7”, Mar 1981)
Formed in Hamburg in 1980, Xmal are probably best known for their time with 4AD records and the albums Fetisch and Tocsin. Prior to this the band were an all-female five-piece with a rudimentary electro-punk sound, as displayed on the two releases they recorded for the German Zickzack label.
The second, a 12” of Incubus Succubus, would be rerecorded for 4AD and become something of a Goth-disco staple. However, their debut Schwarze Welt and attendant B-sides Die Wolken and Großstandtindianer have never appeared anywhere else, hence making this 7” single one of the more sought-after Goth rarities.
7. The Birthday Party / Mr Clarinet / (4AD, AD 114, 7”, Sept 1981)
In many ways, The Birthday Party were the antithesis of Goth. When Australian new-wavers The Boys Next Door changed their name and upped sticks from their native Melbourne to London, they expected to connect with kindred musical spirits. Instead, they found the haughty white faces of Bauhaus and their ilk, their reaction to which was to expunge any trace of European influence from their music in favour of a raw, blues-tinged howl. Singer Nick Cave also created a lyrical world of swampy Americana, evoking Old Testament imagery, which flew in the face of Goth’s obsession with the perils of organised religion, Christianity in particular.
Ironically in the UK their records were released on 4AD, a label perceived as the home of Goth. However, the music they produced couldn’t be further from the template; in fact, there’s an argument to be made that the only thing Goth about The Birthday Party was Cave’s impressive hair.
8. Sex Gang Children / Beasts / (Illuminated Records, ILL 1112, 12”, 1982)
Formed from the followings of bands such as UK Decay and Bauhaus, Sex Gang Children were a true one off. Combining the ever-present tribal elements with punk guitars and a hint of dub, all topped off with McElligott’s unique vocal, the band displayed a rare baroque fury that quickly found an audience of its own. “Throwing different things together that you identified with was what it was all about,” says McElligott. “From the offset we attracted a disaffected and disillusioned punk audience, and what later became known Goth formulated at those early shows.
“Britain was a drab and disheartened place at the time and the original subculture came from the streets. There was no one-stop shop to go to, that came later when Goth had become a sanitised uniform to pander to mass public taste.”
Still going strong today, Sex Gang Children released a new album OLIGARCH in 2021. “We still stand on our own ground and draw people in on our terms,” says McElligott, “The new album is a case in point: it was conceived in the heart and birthed from a revolutionary spirit.”
9. The Sisters of Mercy / Body Electric / Adrenochrome / (CNT/Merciful Release, CNT 002, 7”, Apr 1982)
The Sisters’ debut single Damage Done is a bit of false start. Recorded by guitarist Gary Marx and singing drummer Andrew ‘soon to be Eldritch’ Taylor, it bears scant relation to what they later became known for, although it was the first record to come out on the bands’ Merciful Release imprint.
Rather it’s second single Body Electric/Adrenochrome that gives the first indication of what The Sisters of Mercy would be capable of. With the addition of bassist Craig Adams and a Roland TR606 drum machine called Doktor Avalanche, the Sisters became a proper, functioning band. Compared to their later works, Body Electric/Adrenochrome is still a scratchy, spindly thing, but its Stooges-meets-Suicide groove found favour with Melody Maker, where it was made Single of the Week. It was the first of a run of independently-released singles that built the band’s reputation as purveyors of dark rock’n’roll, and were collected on the Some Girls Wander By Mistake album.
About the Sisters’ early records, Eldritch writes in the compilation sleeve notes: “They may not sound like anybody else’s, they may not even sound like records. But we loved them. For what it’s worth.”
10. Gene Loves Jezebel / Shaving My Neck / (Situation 2, SIT 18T, 12”, May 1982)
Formed in Wales around twin brothers Jay and Michael Aston, the band differentiated themselves by leaning more towards glam rock than their contemporaries. One of their early bassists was a pre-All About Eve Julianne Regan. “I’d interviewed them for ZigZag magazine and Jay asked me if I could play bass,” she says. “I couldn’t, but I borrowed one, spent a weekend playing along to PiL records and joined the band. I was as surprised as anyone.” With Reagan in the fold, GLJ recorded a BBC Radio 1 session and were soon signed by Situation 2, another Goth-centric label. “We weren’t aware of the term ‘gothic’ in relation to music,” Regan says, “And would have considered ourselves to be post-punk. It’s a fine line.”
Regan soon moved on and Gene Loves Jezebel weathered many line-up changes over the years. Following the tradition of brothers in bands, they now exist in two iterations, each fronted by one of the warring Astons.
11. The March Violets / Religious As Hell EP / (Merciful Release, MR 013, 7”, Aug 1982)
It must have been tough finding work as a drummer in Leeds in the early 80s, such was the prevalence of bands using drum machines. The March Violets were another group hailing from the city who, like The Sisters, preferred a digital timekeeper to a breathing one. They were also signed to Merciful Release and Eldritch produced their two releases for the label as well as managed their press.
They were also, initially, more successful than their benefactors; the Violets’ girl-boy vocals and commercial approach making them more palatable than The Sisters. However, an unstable line-up and acrimonious departure from Merciful Release meant they struggled to build on that interest and split in 1987.
The band have reformed sporadically over the years with Rosie Garland taking on sole vocal duties after co-singer Simon Denbigh retired due to ill health. A new album, Crocodile Promises was released in 2024.
12. Red Lorry Yellow Lorry / Beating My Head/I’m Still Waiting / (Red Rhino, RED 20, 7”, 1982)
Another Leeds band who adhered to the guitar and drum machine template (although augmented by stand-up percussion) were Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. Initially signed to York’s Red Rhino on the strength of their demo tape (from which both sides of this debut single are taken unchanged), their intense guitar attack and stentorian vocals put them in the same bracket as The Sisters and March Violets, although the Lorries refuted this, saying the only thing they had in common was they all used frequent the F-Club, a local haunt for Leeds bands and a focal point for the scene.
13. Southern Death Cult / Moya/Fatman / (Situation 2, SIT 19, 7”, Dec 1982)
Having had a peripatetic childhood – including a spell in Canada that opened his eyes to the plight of indigenous Americans – Ian Astbury was still a teen when he formed Southern Death Cult in Bradford in 1981. “Joy Division were incredibly important,” he told Record Collector back in 2007, “Ian Curtis was such an icon for us. If you listen to bands in the early 80s, a lot of singers were going for that baritone, Jim Morrison/Ian Curtis vocal style. And then the energy of punk rock fused with that.”
Although credited with being partially responsible for the term Goth, Astbury, like most musicians associated with the genre, preferred to keep it at arms’ length. “I used to wear World’s End [gear],” he claims, “I was more into the tribal end of Goth, American Indian imagery.”
Southern Death Cult only lasted until early 1983 when Astbury, wary they were becoming too big too soon, split the band, leaving one single and a posthumous album to their name. All members went on to other bands with varying degrees of success, although in 2011 there were rumours of a reunion attempt, although it came to nought.
14. Skeletal Family / Trees / (Luggage Label, RRP 00724, 7”, 1983)
Taking their name from the closing track on Bowie’s Diamond Dogs, Skeletal Family joined the ranks of West Yorkshire bands who took punk in a darker, more theatrical direction. Their self-released debut single Trees is a horror b-movie in microcosm, with creeping bass and jagged guitar framing singer Anne Marie’s desperate exhortations to, ‘Don’t go in the trees!”
Signing to Red Rhino, the band built up a loyal following and released two albums. They supported the original line-up of The Sisters of Mercy on their Black October tour, after which Anne Marie left and formed Ghost Dance with ex-Sister Gary Marx in 1985. Skeletal Family carried on with another vocalist, something they continued to do, on-and-off, to this day.
15. Specimen / Returning From a Journey / (London, LONPD 24, bat-shaped 7”, 1983)
Originally hailing from Bristol, Specimen went hand-in-hand with The Batcave, the London club that gathered all the disparate elements of the emerging Goth scene. Based at the aptly named Gargoyle Club in Soho, it not only gave Specimen a stage to play on, but also one for up-and-coming bands such as Sex Gang Children, Alien Sex Fiend and Test Dept. Decorated with cobwebs and mutilated dummies, and with horror films projected on the walls, the club became a hang-out for popstars of a darker bent such as Nick Cave, Siouxsie Sioux and Marc Almond (who premiered his Mambas project there).
Specimen themselves were more of a glam band than a punk one, with an emphasis on theatricality, and were soon signed to London Records who rush-released their debut single Returning From a Journey initially on VHS video.
In 1983 the band took The Batcave on the road, exposing the provinces to the ‘blasphemy, lechery and blood’ offered by the club and solidifying Goth as a bone fide youth movement. The Specimen’s fortunes however didn’t follow suite, as they split following another couple of singles. Even an incongruous appearance on Saturday morning kids’ TV show No.73 couldn’t save them.
Photo: Mick Mercer
16. Death Cult / Brothers Grimm / (Situation Two, SIT 23 T, 12”, July 1983)
After splitting Southern Death Cult in February 1983, Astbury immediately joined forces with former-Theatre of Hate guitarist Billy Duffy and, along with the rhythm section from London band Ritual, formed Death Cult.
Within weeks they were on the cover of the NME and had an EP in the shops by summer. Picking up where Southern Death Cult had left off but with Duffy’s ear for melody firmly to the fore, it became obvious the name Death Cult would hinder rather than help their commercial ambitions, particularly in the US. And so, after a second single in October, it was announced, live on The Tube, that the band were now known as simply The Cult. The arenas beckoned.
17. Alien Sex Fiend / Ignore the Machine/ (Anagram Records, 12 Ana 11, 12”, Aug 1983)
Many bands appeared at The Batcave, but Alien Sex Fiend were born there. Featuring real-life couple Nik and Christine Wade, the Fiends played their first ever gig at the club in 1982 and, incredibly, have been going ever since.
Set apart from the usual goth fare with their use of sequencers, synths and dance rhythms, they have been quietly influential on the US industrial scene (particularly acts on Chicago’s Wax Trax label), but their theatrical performances and scatological obsessions has stopped them getting the serious plaudits they deserve. Not that it bothers the Fiends one bit, as Shit’s Coming Down from their most recent album Possessed suggests.
18. Salvation / Girl Soul / (Merciful Release, MRX 025, 12”, Oct 1983)
Another one of Eldritch’s pet projects was Salvation, a band consisting of his flatmate and various Sisters’ roadies. Eldritch signed them to Merciful Release and with Doktor Avalanche in tow, produced the three tracks that make up this single.
Rumour has it, the recordings were paid for in amphetamines, which were put to good use over the three late-night sessions it took to record the songs. And is that Eldritch’s backing vocals on the lead track? No one is saying.
19. Fields of the Nephilim / Burning the Fields EP / (Tower, N 1, 12”, 1985)
By 1985, with most of the originators either split or focusing the US market, the Goth audience were left looking for bands to fill the void. Initially dismissed as Sisters’ clones, Stevenage’s Fields of the Nephilim paid their dues by playing constantly and self-releasing their debut EP Burning the Fields. By the time they signed to Situation 2 and released their debut album Dawnrazor, they were a force to be reckoned with, particularly live, and their following, The Bonanzas, were one of the most devoted.
Despite increasing success, the band, in particular singer Carl McCoy, seemed disinterested in mainstream approval and at the height of their popularity they split. McCoy took the name and still plays occasional shows, usually headlining one of the many European Goth festivals, but has produced scant new material.
This first release was recorded when they still had a saxophonist in their line-up and Glam rather than Goth is the main influence, but if you’re lucky enough to have a copy with McCoy’s illustration in red, then you’re in possession of a proper Goth rarity.
20. All About Eve / D for Desire / (Eden, 1 Eden, 12”, July 1985)
For those only familiar with All About Eve’s flowery late 80s phase, their debut single may come as a bit of a surprise. “I loved the 4AD sonic aesthetic ,” says Regan, “And D For Desire was an attempt to hybridise Siouxsie and The Banshees and Cocteau Twins.”
At this time, the band was all about chorus, delay and flanger; “The sonic holy trinity of Goth,” says Regan. “D For Desire was a statement of intent that we reneged on. Once signed to a major label, although we kept some of the sonics, we had to dilute them to an extent. I stopped borrowing Siouxsie’s voice and found my own, which of course had to happen.” They also got hold of an acoustic guitar and a new, gentler phase for Goth was ushered in.
21. The Rose of Avalanche / LA Rain / (Leeds Independent Label, 12 LiL 01, 12”, 1985)
Sticking with Leeds’ tradition, The Rose of Avalanche started as a three-piece with a drum machine, but similarities to other local bands ended there. “We were into 60s rock’n’roll and the new wave of US bands like Rain Parade and REM,” says guitarist Paul James Berry, “Which gave us a totally different angle.”
The band were still in their teens when they were offered studio time to record some tracks for a compilation of Leeds bands. “We hadn’t even played a gig yet,” says Berry. The album, Park Side Shivers, found its way to John Peel and he played the 8-minute LA Rain on his show. Such was the response it was released as a standalone 12” single. Only then did the band step onto a stage. “There was always an element of us not paying our dues,” says Berry, “Because we’d never done gigs with only four people and a dog in front of us.”
Despite touring constantly, record company wrangles lost them momentum and they were never able to capitalise on their early success. But with the 2024 release of their BBC sessions, the band are once again taking their psychedelic-tinged Goth out on the road.
22. The Mission / Serpents Kiss / (Chapter 22, CHAP 6, 12”, May 1986)
Following their debut album, 1985’s First and Last and Always, The Sisters of Mercy disintegrated, the band splitting into three factions. Guitarist Gary Marx formed Ghost Dance with Skeletal Family’s Anne Marie and Andrew Eldritch retreated to Hamburg with Doktor Avalanche to tinker with keyboards and drones.
However, it was the boys-least-likely-to, Craig Adams and Wayne Hussey who, initially at least, made the biggest impression commercially. Built upon the demos Hussey had recorded for the projected second Sisters’ album, The Mission’s early singles injected a sense of fun and celebration into the Goth template and success quickly followed. Alongside The Cult, The Cure and, eventually, a reconfigured Sisters, The Mission took their black-hearted anthems into the arenas of the world and by the beginning of the 90s, Goth wasn’t only overground, it was global.
Thanks to Mick Mercer for the images and, as always, his Goth guidance. You can subscribe to Mick’s Substack here, where you can find links to his excellent photo books and writings from the era, or visit mickmercer.com.
Opera House Music
The Quietus very kindly despatched me to see Pet Shop Boys at the Royal Opera House a couple of weeks ago. They’re one of my wife’s favourite bands (I’m more of a first-four-albums-kind-of-fan, although I loved 2016’s Super), so she was over the moon.
You can read my write up of it here, although one detail I didn’t put in the review was the fact that sitting in a row directly in front of us was none other than Siouxsie Sioux. Coincidentally, I’d just filed a piece on Juju for Record Collector a few days before, so I had my opening gambit. It seemed rude to interrupt her grooving away to the PSB’s non-stop hit machine, so we waited until the house lights came up to make our move. Of course, she was immediately swamped, and not wanting add to the throng, we left her alone. But, I have to say, she looked fabulous.
On the way home, we excitedly sent a sneaky pic we took of her to our kids.
“Look who we’ve just seen!” we texted excitedly.
“Who’s that?” came the reply. “Cruella De Vil?”
For those who read to the end…
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Skeletal Family supported the Sisters on 1984's Black October tour, not the 1985 tour (that was the Scientists).
Really enjoyed this trip back. I went to see The Cult’s tour last year paying the high ticket price and it was marvellous.
I also enjoyed PSB tour too.