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

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/