John Robb - The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth

John Robb - The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth

Anyone took a punt on this weighty tome?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1526173204/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

Chris Packham's thoughts . . .

 

Just picked up a copy on a rainy day out at book shop in Piece Hall, Halifax. Sadly not a signed copy as John is at the book shop on a later date.

 

He is doing a talk at our local record shop. I am going with Gothy John who will probably go "gothed up".

I may find out why The Chameleons had so many goth fans.
Looking forward to it.

 

I forgot entirely about them, and how much I loved them.

Damnit, now the next hour will be spent looking through my records for What Does Anything Mean Basically.

 

The bass is high in the mix and lots of guitar arpeggios (+delay), a lot of angsty lyrics too ("In Shreds" or "Don't Fall").

All my gothy mates were Chameleons fans.

 

Coil (and Current 93) are two of my personal favs to this day. Sennheisers, a Laxman light/sound machine and a very particular, hmm, 'state of mind' and the angelic ice palace crackles into existence.

More goth friends seemed to prefer NWW, and while Stephen Stapleton's music is notable and fascinating, it didn't make me shiver. David Tibet's noise can occasionally make me cry, in the good way.

 

Wife # 1 and I were Goth/Punk for a few years. Sisters of Mercy, Virgin Prunes, Bauhaus etc, but we weren’t tied to the genre. ‘Alternative/Indie’ sums it up without the Goth tag. Punk would be my tag because it covered everything.
I had bleached hair, made my own clothes and wore eyeliner, black nail varnish from about 1980 on.
I might stick on a bit of eyeliner tomorrow as we are going out for a big night of music and booze. Delight the grandchildren, and horrify the kids: sounds fab.
I aim to wear a tuxedo with hand-tied dicky bow, so eyeliner will set it all off nicely.

 

You could always wear this T-Shirt, if the tux is too much effort.



https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...1503612&spm=a2g0o.ppclist.product.mainProduct

 

I must admit, tentatively dipping into bauhaus' recent oldfart-tour clips on youtube expecting the worst, that even with PM having a beergut & a baldy b'stard too.. it was confoundingly impressive. The menace still there, the drummer seemed actually better than 80's, & the other two straight out of a timewarp. Strange.

I'd be very interested to read this book, not knowing a huge ammount about the scene, after such a great appraisal by the excellent CPackham. Capt

 

On my list of fashion disasters are black T-shirts. And Robert Smith is a walking fashion disaster. I will stick with my trusty dinner jacket, black tie ensemble.

 

When casual, I'm very comfortable wearing a nicely ironed new plain black T-Shirt with a pair of jeans - always knew I was a fashion disaster

 

It’s a Real Man thing. (as in, you are a real man)

I am unable to carry that kind of look off very well.

 

His 'Oral History of Punk' book was very good, so I would have high hopes for this one.

 

Yesterday Gothy John was in town having come over from Dorch(ester). We met up after lunch (yes he was "gothed up"). We went to the record shop together for a mooch and both bought a few records. I introduced John to Roy, the owner who allowed us to look through his newly arrived, as yet unpriced albums (which included a near mint Can box set - I enquired about the price, the answer - too rich for me!) and showed John a few of his own really rare albums (sadly not for sale!).

We still had a few hours to kill, so on to my favourite local pub for a couple of beers and then across the road for a curry.

We returned to the record shop for the talk. John was the only one "gothed up", but he didn't care. John was at Leeds Uni from 80 to 83 and knew many of the bands there (e.g. Sisters of Mercy). As I said to him, I was never a Goth so it would have been fancy dress if I'd done the same.

John Robb is a very eloquent speaker and he had many stories to tell. The session was done in a pseudo interview style with another guy (whose name I have completely forgotten) asking/prompting Robb on topics covered in the book. Much name dropping went on as he had interviewed quite a few big names and appeared on the same stage as others. He did cover much more than the 80s Goth bands; The Doors, Bolan and Bowie, Joy Division, Siouxsie even VdGG! So it covers Gothic music too.

After the talk, he was open to questions from the audience.

Most people left clutching a signed copy of his book. A very enjoyable afternoon and evening. I am looking forward to reading the book.

 

I'm thinking of popping along to his Hull event next month. I'd sort of class myself as being a second wave goth (I was just 16 in 1985), so missed out on seeing Bauhaus & The Sisters but was madly into them. With Leeds just an hour away on the train, our teen goth group would go through to The Duchess & Warehouse to see the subsequent later 80s Leeds 'goth' bands of the time (Rose Of Avalanche, Red Lorry, Mission etc).

Goth for me and most others I hung around with felt like a very loose co-op of influences. Along with the typical Cult, Cure, Siouxsie stuff we loved The Cramps, B-52s, New Model Army, The Bunnymen, Nick Cave and Joy Division as well as Magazine, Chameleons, The Sound, Cocteau Twins, Psychedelic Furs and The Smiths.

I never really got on with the Alien Sex Fiend / Specimen / Sex Gang Children stuff though, it always felt like more of a Southern goth thing.

Through hearing cover versions or references in interviews it also lead to me discovering Suicide, The Doors, Velvets, Stooges, Love, Fairport Convention and much more.

So yeah, as gateway music scenes go, I've got a lot to thank my teen goth phase for.