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

Aleister, Mercury and Mephisto Walz

Mephisto Walz are/were (?) an interesting US band formed by Barry Galvin, a former Christian Death member, in 1985. We 'll talk extensively on them some other time.
In 2003 they released a single "Nightingale" as a forerunner of their 2004 album "Insidious" on Fossil Dungeon records.
The cd version of this release had printed in the inlay and on the cd itself this symbol.

This very one is a mixture of two well known glyphs in the world of symbolism.
The first is of course the symbol of planet Mercury but also of the element, an ancient symbol for what the alchemists refer to as First Matter. It has been very often been used in goth band imagery. See it here along other planetary glyphs.

The second is the unicursal hexagram, a symbol that represents "a high level of self-confidence and belief that one can achieve the highest of goals and become a divine figure".

It is one of the most used glyphs by Thelema, the spiritual philosophy -now turned official religion- that occult magician and philosopher Aleister Crowley, a very controversial personality indeed, created in the early 20th century...

To complete for today see the inlay spreads of Mephisto Walz's maxi cd and note the wonderful cover...

Stay tuned for more!

Press material and gig ads (part 4)

Here's some more clippings that may appeal to you:

Lets start with this 1981 two days festival in... Leeds of course!
Interesting to see less known gothic bands like Altered States figure here.
Note the presence of US bands like the mighty Wall of Voodoo.
Quite a mixture on this bill!

Same year and an odd bill with Talisman, psychobilly kings The Meteors and Jaz's gang...

This festival -associated with Amnesty International- remained to some peoples 
memories as one of the finest Killing Joke live moments...

And to close with for now get some color - a funny add for a Play Dead live in 1984.
It looks bizzare and awkward I think, how Peter Saville's unmistakable style 
for Manchester's Hacienda is used to promote a gothic band's concert...

The Danse Society logo (part VII)

Danse Society was curiously an underrated act. They started as a Bauhaus influenced band only to display soon an array of great, dreamy sound-scapes that turned into great and haunting songs....
I repeat - they were great, they should have been BIG!
They formed in Barnsley, England around 1980 and through their short spanned early life (as they' ve reformed lately), they bore a strange symbol, that of a crown of thorns.

The crown of thorns was worn by Jesus on his final moments and in christian iconography it is often represented with the three nails of the cross. 
Danse Society used it from 1982 to 1985. The members of the band who reformed around 2010 decided apparently that this symbol represents them so it is again to be seen in their current websites, shows and releases.

Their first release to bear it was the 12" of "Somewhere" in 1983.
It was also the main motif on the cover of their splendid LP "Heaven is Waiting in 1984.

I recently discovered an a christian children's colorbook with this very similar depiction of the crown!





















See how it's used today by the band on their website: http://www.thedansesociety.co.uk/

Gothic Rock forefathers pt.I (Black Sabbath)

I almost completed a new upload on Danse Society's logo...
I was planning to upload it today when suddenly yesterday night as I was with friends at a local band's gig I overheard a discussion of some youngsters who debated over the origin's of our genre...
I won't produce here their sayings and arguments but... come on people get to know where you "come" from...!
Now this blogpage is not about lengthy argumentations. The term gothic in itself exists since the 13th century...
How can one though claim he "knows" gothic rock without acknowledging that they've been some bands and artists especially in the '70s, who "prepared" mostly aesthetically the ground for the original gothic rock era of the '80s.
The almighty Mick Mercer sites some in his books, now it's summer read a little bit... 


One of them was definitely Black Sabbath, whether you like it or not.  
Their imagery had it all. Gothic attire, crosses, black letters, crows, odd black-clad figures, dark moods, isolation, silence, weird landscapes, allusions about sex and death and the lot.
Here are but a few pictorial examples as a token...

1970's self titled LP cover spread

1976's "We sold our soul to R'n'R" comp LP back cover

1973's "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" LP back cover

Anyone still believes that the Sisters and the Mission thought of cathedrals as perfect photo shooting scenery?

A remote island for Killing Joke

As known to older fans and mentioned also in the history page of KJ's official website, in 1982, Jaz Coleman under the influence of occultism and especially of the works of Aleister Crowley, got the idea that the Apocalypse was imminent. 
First him (on the day of the 3rd anniversary of Killing Joke's formation) and then other members of Killing Joke travelled to Iceland and remained there for several months.
The following press clippings depict the musical press reaction to this odd event...

Read more on this event by Jaz himself as he describes them in the Holland Park lectures:
http://www.killingjoke.org.uk/aid/odic/hp2.html


Thanks to S.Savage.G for the above clippings. 

Bauhaus clippings

Here are some Bauhaus magazine ad clippings I recently received from a friend.

The first is a magazine ad (Zig Zag?) concerning the release of their third single "Terror Couple Kill Colonel" from 1980. The song referred to Paul Bloomquist (a high ranking US Viet Veteran) who was killed by a bombing attack in Frankfurt in 1972.

Note at the bottom the 9 UK dates to promote the single.

The second is from their 1981's LP album "Mask". It reached no. 30 in the UK charts.

The illustrations on the cover were drawn by Daniel Ash. He later used this style also for purposes of "Tones on Tail" material. 

Check also here the live dates at the bottom and the vertical extract taken from the inner sleeve poem (first line) on the left.

The last one in colors that match their sixth single sleeve. As you can read initial 20.000 (!) copies contained a lyric sheet. 

This 7" reached no. 56 in the british charts back then. It's also notable that Nick Cave's band The Birthday Party were the opening act on the promotional tour...

"Dancing in catacombs

 dancing in Tuxedo drags..."

Ralph Gibson and the (proto) Goths

Hi folks I'm back again!
Hope you're all OK hiding your precious white skin from the sun...

Here we go again...

Ralph Gibson is an acclaimed American photographer, born in Los Angeles in 1939.
He became famous for his black & white surreal and often erotic photographies and his best known to our tribe (!), work is this picture from the "The Somnambulist" series, shot in 1970.

I'm sure you recognized it , especially if you are Joy Division fans as
it appeared in  the inner sleeve of  the "Unknown Pleasures" LP in 1979.

The sleeve was designed by a young then designer named Peter Saville, who started as
a clumsy collaborator of Tony Wilson's Factory only to become through his innovations
with record sleeves one of the most important and influential graphic designers of the 1980's.
The photographer is though not credited anywhere...

In 1983 this same picture was used as a processed faded image on the back sleeve
of the March Violets 12" "Crow Baby" (Rebirth RB1812) - but not on the 7"!

You can still see it on the (brilliant) March Violets actual website http://www.marchviolets.co.uk/imagegallery/
as a purple decorative detail on the right.
If you're in the mood for more of Ralph Gibson's work, visit his great site:
http://www.ralphgibson.com/

Stay tuned for more gothic curiosities...