Type and hit ENTER

Commonly used tags...

Brighton Festival Brighton Fringe Brighton Pride British Sea Power Cinecity Lewes Psychedelic Festival Locally Sourced Lost & Found Love Supreme Festival Mutations Festival Nick Cave Poets Vs MCs Politics Rag'n'Bone Man Record Store Day Save Our Venues Six Of The Best Source Virgins Streets Of Brighton Street Source Tattoos The Great Escape Tru Thoughts Unsung Heroes
  • Home
  • News
  • Previews
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • Food
  • Tickets
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Advertise
  • Home
  • News
  • Previews
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • Food
  • Tickets
  • Contact
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Advertise
Bauhaus in Brighton SOURCE's best goth bands and songs
Bauhaus in Brighton SOURCE's best goth bands and songs
Features

Six Of The Best Old School Goth Records

Nov 5, 2010
-
Posted by Nick Coquet

If there was ever a music movement that was so definitely of its time, so unlikely to ever enjoy any kind of commercial or even underground resurgence, it’s goth. Yet wandering town after nightfall is a new generation of Horrors-fixated youth, skulking about beneath implausibly elevated hair through a mess of black eyeliner, and Brighton bands like The Gaa Gaa’s and Pink Narcissus continue to fly the flag. For those who still live the original dream and don’t venture outside during daylight hours, it’s a different world out there – these six essential albums from the first wave of goth are now available on something called ‘CD’.

BAUHAUS
‘Mask’
Unashamedly gloomy; their cheekbones cast doubt that a single square meal had ever passed a member’s lips. On ‘Mask’, their second album, they added surprising elements to the mix that saw standout tracks like ‘Kick In The Eye 2’ and ‘Dancing’ verge on funk rhythms, only to be dragged back down to earth (and then a good six feet under) for ‘Hollow Hills’ and ‘Of Lillies And Remains’. Bauhaus would go on to achieve mainstream prominence with their sooped-up covers of ‘Telegram Sam’ and ‘Ziggy Stardust’, but this, the sound of disaffected and depressed Northampton, would remain unsurpassed by them or any other.

THE SISTERS OF MERCY
‘First And Last And Always’
By the time these Leeds legends got around to releasing their first album proper, they were already longstanding stalwarts of the scene via a series of indispensable EPs like ‘Alice’, and theirs was the archetypal style to which all latecomers would aspire, their inherent darkness completely off the Dulux colour chart. From the intense gloom-laden strains of ‘Black Planet’ to the final dying embers of ‘Some Kind Of Stranger’, this was the sound of goth at the peak of its powers. The more commercial follow-up ‘Floodland’, saw them grace Top Of The Pops, their new overground status leaving their fanbase blinking painfully in the light. Alien Sex Fiend ‘Who’s Been Sleeping In My Brain?’

ALIEN SEX FIEND
‘Who’s Been Sleeping In My Brain?’
Apt to performing in a t-shirt proclaiming’I’M A FUCKING MANIAC’, Nik Fiend was the demented Dickensian rag-bag front man of Alien Sex Fiend, backed by his wife Mrs Fiend and the probably-not-Christened-that-way Yaxi Highriser and Johnnie Ha-Ha. Early stars of London’s Batcave club, ASF provided cranked-up, drum machine-backed rock’n’roll. Live, they were a fearsome proposition in the days of Ha-Ha’s percussive duel with the rockbox, and on record they came across like a black whirlwind of sound. More slasher horror than gothic in the Mary Shelley sense, they provided some light relief in the face of their more po-faced counterparts.

THE CURE
‘Pornography’
After fits and starts around vaguely breezy lo-fi new wave, ‘Pornography’ was a dramatic turning off of the lights, intoning ‘It doesn’t matter if we all die’ as the album’s opening salvo. From this moment the mood actually manages to drop, in a spectacularly miserable outing for Robert Smith and co. But the depth of the mood by no means detracts from the quality of work showcased here. Dark and turgid we can’t forgive, but this has a vitriol to it whose rhythmic anger shapes the bleak themes of songs like ‘The Hanging Garden’ to devastating effect. ‘The Love Cats’ it ain’t.

FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM
‘The Nephilim’
At first glance The Neph were blatant Sisters copyists, adding some Sergio Leone desert chic (ie covering themselves with flour to indicate a wild life of bakery shoot-outs) to the wide-brimmed hat look perfected by Eldritch. But they took a healthy development route from the independent charts into the top 40 proper with the single ‘Moonchild’, included here. The album’s dusty bluster is relentless throughout save for the more melancholic ‘Celebrate’, assuring them of rabid devotion – their stint at the top of goth’s tree would last until the original scene as a whole faded around the turn of the 90s.

THE VIRGIN PRUNES
‘Sons Find Devils’
Now here was a band to test the steely reserve of even the most seasoned goth. Their origins were as a group of weirdo Dublin art-schoolers who split into two bands – the Prunes and some rock combo called U2. Taking heavy doses of theatricality with them, their music was challenging and ambitious, but this live collection contains their most accessible and, at times, brilliant work, in ‘Pagan Love Song’, ‘Caucasian Walk’ and ‘A New Form Of Beauty’. Front man Gavin Friday would eventually tire of his art-shocking and retire gracefully to cabaret-style singing, at which he was surprisingly adept.

For our extended goth Spotify Playlist click here.

More Six Of The Best: Click Here6best

Six Of The Best
Nov 5, 2010
Email
Nick Coquet
Nick Coquet is the former Deputy Editor of SOURCE. He also DJs on the radio, designs websites and stands about in the nude for life drawing classes. He's shaken hands with Meat Loaf and bumped into Keith Richards, just so he could say he's touched him.
← PREVIOUS POST
ICW: Duke of York's
NEXT POST →
Secret Eater: Sunny
Mailing List

Recent Posts
  • Richard Hawley Review
    Oct 5, 2025

    As Coles Corner turns 20, Richard Hawley dazzled and delighted an up-for-it Worthing crowd with a 2 hour-plus set.

  • Brighton Psych Fest 2025 Review
    Sep 26, 2025

    The second Brighton Psych Fest was a beauty as we got down with Getdown Services as the evening sunlight glowed through the Concorde Stained Glass.

  • David Devant & His Spirit Wife, Friday 12th December
    Sep 23, 2025

    One of Brighton's greatest live bands returns for a pre-Xmas homecoming party.

  • Nick Cave To Play Exclusive Brighton Show Next Summer
    Sep 15, 2025

    Nick Cave returns to Brighton next Summer for an exclusive show with The Bad Seeds in Preston Park.

  • Death Comes to Pemberley Review
    Sep 3, 2025

    Set six years after the marriage of Elizabeth to Mr Darcy, a murder on their estate takes this story into thriller territory.

  • The Lightning Thief Review
    Sep 1, 2025

    A high octane modern musical coming of age adventure about demi-god teens, complete with committed performances, stunning voices, and brilliantly inventive staging.

  • Betty Boo, Sunday 23rd November
    Sep 1, 2025

    The legendary Betty Boo is going on her first ever solo UK tour and you can catch her at The Green Door Store in November.

  • Mutations Festival 2025 Line Up Announcement
    Aug 28, 2025

    FORM are treating us to a Bonfire Weekend full of warm goodness, bangers and fireworks!

Website developed in Brighton by Infobo
Copyright © Brighton Source 2009-2023
Six Of The Best Old School Goth Records - Brighton Source