Gothic rock bands and art Vo.5 (the March Violets)

Teresa d'Avila was a 16th century Carmelite nun and a mystic who was canonised as a saint in 1622 by pope Gregory XV. She was famous for her mystic and meditation practices
through her books and  also for the reformation she brought to the Carmelite nuns order.

Of her many portraits here's one by french painter Francois Gerard. 

Santa Teresa as she became known, had ecstatic visions in which she felt what she referred to as "devotions of ecstasy" a state that she claimed brought her in direct unison with God. Around 1559 she had a strong vision of a seraphim visiting her. 

Here's the description in her own words:  

" I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it..."

Around 1650, the great Baroque architect and sculptor, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, made a monumental sculpture of the aforementioned episode in Santa Maria della Vittoria church in Rome. It was entitled: "The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa".

The piece was openly criticized from the very beginning since the overall body posture and facial expression of the saint, has strong allusions to sexual intercourse. Rivers of ink have since flown over the debate of Bernini's true intentions.

About 25 years later Bernini repeated the same posture and allusions on another sculpture, titled "Beata (blessed) Ludovica Albertoni" even more amplified !

The statue is in the Chapel of San Fransisco a Ripa also in Rome. Once more religious ecstasy resembles too much sexual climax.

And a detail of this very sculpture was used buy the March Violets to illustrate the cover of the , now highly collectible, 1983 single "Grooving in Green" on Merciful Release...

Remain in Light (new band)

Let's hear some new music with old references...
I decided, every now and then, to briefly introduce new bands I consider interesting.
Click on grey text to hear tracks from this new gothic rock band Remain in Light I just discovered...
They claim to be from... Somewhere!
http://www.facebook.com/RemainInLightband

Nice logo too!

Gothic bands and art, vol. 4 (Sisters of Mercy) - Bacon Electric!

I thought this was known stuff, but since you insist, Iet's see it.

The red image that decorates the Sisters 1982, 7" single "Body Electric/Adrenochrome" is a 
monochromatic image of a Francis Bacon painting.

This art piece is entitled "Head VI" and was painted by the great Irish-born British existentialist artist in 1948. It is a part of a series named "Heads in a room" and it is a grotesque pictorial comment on Velazquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X made in 1644.

That's it. Interesting...
Stories within stories...
Art was a serious reference point for many traditional goth bands artwork.

The Mission of Calligraphy

As I can't wait any longer to post it, I complete this while still in Amsterdam, my honorable readers...

Finally, who was responsible for the fantastic calligraphy on the Mission's "Carved in Sand" (+ singles) and "Grains of Sand" LP's, both out on 1990?

If you carefully look at the inner sleeve notes, it is accredited to DKB.
Behind this company name hides british graphic designer and now painter, Keith Breedan, born 1956.
Breeden along with Malcom Garret started working together in 1977 at Assorted Images design studio. 
As can be read in his website info, he formed DBK in 1984 which is also responsible for sleeves for other 80's bands and artists like ABC, Talk Talk, Duran Duran, Cockney Rejects, Spear of Destiny, Bryan Ferry e.a.

The -now turned painter- designer is actually a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in Britain.
The particular script  font that was used for the Mission purposes only, back then, was all exclusively handwritten with italian ink on paper.

There is no digital stock font version as far as I know yet and this endeavor remains to my eyes the finest typographic effort that gothic rock sleeves of the era, have ever provided us with. Fantastic stuff that the Mission have fortunately started using again! 

Worth checking his website: http://www.keithbreeden.com
He is surprisingly enough, also responsible for the sculptures seen on Pink Floyd's "The Division Bell" cover and inlays in 1994.

Off to XXX...

Hi everyone!
I'm still in Amsterdam for business and I 'll be back on the 20th...
Till then take a vintage picture to remember...

Gothic clubs of the 80's / The Joint

A new series has begun here!
Old original gothic clubs of the 80's from around the globe (well, back then they weren't everywhere...)
If you wish to send material and pics from such clubs please, be my guest!
We start with a clipping I found in an old Zig-Zag issue from 1984!
The Joint in Milton Keynes. Imagine or remember!
Interesting playlist too...

Dead Can Dance's Resurrection

DCD came back this year with an excellent LP titled "Anastasis"
Anastasis means "resurrection" in greek. It is quite striking how many things in this new LP
refer to Greece. Brendan plays bouzouki on the record and on stage and they cover an old greek "Rembetiko" song when live ("Ime prezakias" = "I'm a junkie").
Also "Kiko" is purely based on a  "Zeibekiko" (greek traditional male dance) rhythm.
Additionally 3 more tracks from the LP bear greek words as titles.
Agape = "Love"
Anabasis = "Ascension"
Amnesia 

Greece is on the charts again...!

Here's a shot from their recent concert in North Greece...

photo by Stef Diakaki

... and here's a handmade A4 poster from the summer of 1984 and a flyer for the same event...

Check the funny and enthusiastic comments for the upcoming Cabaret Voltaire gig on the poster's lower part...



Stay tuned!

The Southern/Death/Cult family tree

A very big thanks to you all my dear readers, as we've now passed the 10.000 hits threshold...
Cheers to that!

OK back to business!
We all know that gothic rock sprang from people who were into '77 punk or related to it.
While digging in my collection I fell upon a Cult promo-cd, in which I discovered this 
family tree folio.
It was compiled by a certain Pete Frame on the behalf of Beggars Banquet. 
It is of great interest as one can see -beyond Cult fans-, details about other artists past lives!
(double click on it to read better)

Yes it's him! A certain mr. Morrissey was a punk singing for awhile, for the Nosebleeds in 1978 along with Billy Duffy!!!  The legend goes that he was also one of the founding members of the legendary british Cramps fan club "Legions of the Cramped" !

Factory's -less known- solo artist Vini Reilly was also a Nosebleed punk guitarist!
He is the one in the scarlet dot...

Now for more hardcore S.D.Cult afficionados here's Theatre of Hate 's roster while it still
comprised Billy Duffy (far right) and Nigel Preston who after a short year in Sex Gang Children joined the Cult in 1983.

Ritual was the band that provided the Cult their first bassist (while a guitarist!)
photo by (probably!) Paul Rab John - am I right? 

This is In Excelsis. Check the chart to see what they were about!

Here's Getting The Fear = S.D.Cult - Ian Astbury!
The main offspring of S.D.C. except for the obvious Cult. 
Handsome aren't they here on the front cover of the notorious Zig-Zag mag back in May '84?
Thanks to Cactus Mouth Informer crew for that one! 

That's for all for now!
Stay tuned...

Gothic bands and art vol.3 (Christian Death)

We have talked about the great impression the Pre-raphaelites had on gothic rock imagery in previous posts.
Here's another example again on the same theme of Ophelia. 
In 1985 Christian Death released an EP titled "The Wind Kissed Pictures". 
On the cover a John Everett Millais painting against a dull red background. At least that's for the early vinyl pressings on the italian label Supporti Fonografici, as later the cover was changed...

The painting in question is indeed titled "Ophelia" and was painted between 1851-52 by one of the great artists of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, John Everett Millais. It's subject was taken by a description in the Shakespearean play "Hamlet". Ophelia's death has been praised as one of the most poetically written death scenes in literature.
As a model for the unfortunate daughter of Polonius, a girl named Elizabeth Siddal was used. The myth goes that another artist of the movement Dante Gabriel Rossetti was present when she posed in a hot bath at Millais studio for the purposes of this painting, and fell in love with her. She later became his muse and wife but her ill-health betrayed her soon...

The Pre-Raphaelites took their name due to their denial of the mature phase of Raphael works and their desire to depict nature in a more accurate way. That is obvious in this painting if you take a closer look at the vegetation details that surrounds the poor lady. 
Some suggest that through the plants a careful eye can discern a hidden skull...

In 1995 Nick Cave w/ Kylie Minogue were inspired by the painting also as it's so obvious in the video of "Where the Wild Roses Grow"...
Check video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDpnjE1LUvE