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Showing posts with label Old School Goth Videos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Old School Goth Videos. Show all posts
Tuesday, 1 August 2017
Thursday, 9 June 2016
Goth Subculture - The Batcave takes over Danceteria on Friday the 13th, May 1983
The Batcave takes over Danceteria on Friday the 13th, May 1983
“We’re not trying to be nice” (host Oliver Wisdom),
“Fuck off, I don’t need your magazine” (Siouxsie),
“Give us 10p mate and you can take my photo” (guy in gents)
The queue slithered for miles, stud-linked vein of black, leathered and speared, bleached heads that shuttled relentlessly along Meard Street in the rain. All intent on reaching the buzzing electric glow that was the gateway to A Batcave. A scene casting shadows of Dante’s Inferno. But the long wait added to the awe of this dark dominion.
– excerpts from the Danceteria flyer for “The Batcave Club in NYC”
Danceteria’s 2-page Batcave flyer. From http://lundissimo.info/
Exactly 33 years ago to the day – and also a
Friday the 13th – London’s cesspool of glam-camp-androgynous-horror
type post-punk scene invaded NYC’s own 6-floor counterculture club,
Danceteria on 21st street. The Batcave, which was opened and operated by
Specimen singer Olli Wisdom in June of 1982, transformed the dark
movement in the late 70s and early 80s into a trashy, less-serious
version of Bauhaus’ and Siouxsie and the Banshees’ vampirish aesthetic.
The club was influential in that anyone could come to the
Batcave and have a great time – no one was rejected at the door (unlike
the exclusivity and pretensions of the Blitz Club). Weirdos and freaks
danced together without judgement in the spider web and fog machine
filled cavern. Because of its importance to the scene, the Batcave
eventually became its own musical style and ignited the first flickering
of early goth.
Danceteria was no different in its
influence with a burgeoning community of artists and musicians in New
York City who fed off each other’s energy and creativity. And in less
than a year of the Batcave’s opening, Olli Wisdom and Specimen brought
the party to NYC – a brilliant merging of two fashionable, experimental
and artistic scenes. And on Friday the 13th of May, Specimen shared the
bill with an oft overlooked and under appreciated band: Sexbeat.
Luckily, there is footage of Sexbeat’s concert, a 10 minute video of the
band performing the songs “Pump” and “Cheshire Cat” to an audience.
Sadly, there is little information on
Sexbeat – there’s even less video and photography to document the band’s
history in the early 80s. However, their track “Sexbeat”
became an anthem for the Batcave community and is also a standard at
most proper goth nights nowadays (it also inspired the title for my own
book, Some Wear Leather, Some Wear Lace). Found on the 1983 Batcave compilation release Young Limbs and Numb Hymns, “Sexbeat” is the takeaway track on the album – an energetic song about the diverse scene that still rings true today.
Sexbeat never made a penny off it.
Sexbeat singer and guitarist Hamish
MacDonald was also the Batcave’s resident DJ. During the Batcave’s
takeover of Danceteria, he shared the decks with one of NYC’s most
influential DJs, Anita Sarko (who sadly passed away just last year). I
was lucky enough to witness DJ Hamish’s set a couple years ago. It was a
skillful construction of early 80s post-punk and electronic music –
he’s a true talent with an endless catalogue of dance floor tracks. (One
can only imagine what it was like to hear his set in the original
Batcave.)
Below is the Danceteria footage of Sexbeat
33 years ago today with cameos from Specimen (hello, Johnny Slut!) in
the first minute of the video.
Accessed 9/6/2016 http://lethalamounts.com
http://lethalamounts.com/2016/05/13/batcave-danceteria/
Take a look at at the Fan page for nowthisisgothic.tumblr.com - A photoblog with a collection of 1980s goths, wavers and (post)punk.
Accessed 9/6/2016 http://lethalamounts.com
http://lethalamounts.com/2016/05/13/batcave-danceteria/
Take a look at at the Fan page for nowthisisgothic.tumblr.com - A photoblog with a collection of 1980s goths, wavers and (post)punk.
Wednesday, 6 April 2016
Goth Subculture - ‘Undead, undead, undead’: The evil, alien weirdness of Bauhaus
‘Undead, undead, undead’: The evil, alien weirdness of Bauhaus live at University of London, 1980
04.04.2016
Please believe me when I tell you that I am in no way pining for the era of the VHS videotape—I lived through it, folks and it wasn’t pretty.
You’ll hear no nostalgia for obsolete home entertainment formats coming
from me—but I do want to convey, for our “younger readers,” something
that has been lost, never to return, in this age of press play, always
on, instant streaming digital video pumped directly into your home 24/7
like water or gas.
And I’m actually wincing as I compose this because what I’m about to impart seems so… I dunno… parental or heaven forfend Republican. I don’t mean to come off like that but I’m gonna say it anyway:
You appreciate things more when you have to work for them.
(Runs away).
Okay, so what do I mean by this? When something must be hunted down, or is otherwise elusive, scarce, expensive or rare, you simply appreciate it more once you finally get your hands on it. A big part of what motivates any crate digger is the thrill of the hunt. It’s just not the same when you can easily download something or have Amazon deliver it to your doorstep the next day, or sooner. Today the distance between your desire and manifesting whatever that desire is, is but a short and uncomplicated path. The Internet took all of the joy out of record and book collecting for me. I haven’t had a “holy grail” that I’ve been looking for since forever ago, if you’ll forgive me my first world problem!
Another thing that’s gotten lost along the way is any sense of something being “underground” anymore. Nothing—at least entertainment-wise—is “rare” in a digital world. Look at the films of Kenneth Anger. Once upon a time, you’d have had to have gone to a gay porno theater in New York’s Times Square to see his short films “Fireworks” or “Scorpio Rising.” You’d have to have seen them projected on celluloid and most probably under fairly seedy conditions, if you were to see them at all. That also meant physically being in a big city when they were being screened. Esoteric entertainment of this sort did not come to you then, you went to it. In 2016 YouTube might host Jack Smith’s legendarily perverse underground classic Normal Love in HD, but it’s just not the same as seeing it in a sperm-stained Times Square fleapit that smells strongly of Pine-Sol when the NYPD’s vice squad arrives uninvited, now is it?
Kids today have it so easy! Back when I was a boy… Well, first of all even if you were an “early adopter” and owned a VCR in the early to mid-1980s, VHS tapes could cost upwards of $30, often much more. Rental stores weren’t much of a thing at the beginning and an “imported” videotape might run you a premium $59. But there still weren’t all that many retail places—even in New York City—to buy them even if you wanted to to pay top dollar for them. The ostensible (ahem) subject of this post is the Bauhaus video that you see embedded at the bottom. I bought this when it came out in the gigantic RKO Video store in Times Square. Now long gone, it was one of the first, best and biggest selections of video tapes for purchase as probably existed anywhere in North America at the time. A huge multi-level store, its selection dwarfed what even Tower Records and J&R Music World had on offer. (The day that I actually bit the bullet and ponied up my hard-earned $39.95 for the Bauhaus VHS, the members of Duran Duran were coming down the escalator as I went up. They had just done a fan signing and the debris from that was strewn all over the store. I remember thinking that they looked cool in their makeup and sharp suits, but also thinking that there was something a bit tragic about men wearing makeup during the day. In any case, I thought I’d throw that in there. Where else will I ever be able to use that?)
Bauhaus made a strong impression on movie audiences when they appeared onscreen during the opening credit sequence of Tony Scott’s ‘The Hunger’ with Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie in 1983. (Fun fact: The female victim in this scene is none other than Bongwater’s Ann Magnuson.)
The live Bauhaus VHS video I bought at RKO Video came packaged in a clamshell case with what was obviously a color Xerox for a cover. Not only was the cover art probably laid out by a human hand, it had also been wrapped in cellophane, clumsily, by hand. It wasn’t a bootleg, it had come from Target Video, but it looked like one. And forty bucks. I was probably making $8 an hour then, so this seemed like a fortune to me. But I had to have it. I was nuts about the first two Bauhaus albums, and after seeing them in action in The Hunger, I really wanted this video. Forty dollars was a lot of money to me then, but for whatever reason, this was something I perceived to be worth it. Once I spent that kinda dough, though, I wanted to get my “money’s worth” out of it with repeated plays. You are gonna watch this video—if you watch it at all—for free on YouTube and that will be that. But imagine if this was hard to get and came in a box for $40 and the only way you could see it was to go to NYC and buy it in one particular store and take it home. No Amazon, no iTunes store, no Pirate Bay… no Internet!. If you put that kind of effort into acquiring something, well, wouldn’t you want to “appreciate” it more than once? No one today would invite their friends over to watch such a thing, on YouTube, but back then, hey, that’s what you did.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not necessarily taking any (intentional) position on digital piracy or how people should pay for music or any of that stuff, I’m simply saying that having a barrier, in a sense, between you and the thing you desired to see ultimately made finally getting to see it all the more crucial and meaningful. I’m also not saying that this would be a good thing to return to—please no—but what I will ask you to do is imagine how incredibly ALIEN—even evil—this transmission, Bauhaus Live at London University, looked in the context of the time it came out and I pushed play on my VCR remote.
Kids these days, they just want to hit play on their smartypants phones… Back when I was a boy, the video below was an unholy grail. “Undead, undead, undead…”
Posted by Richard MetzgerAnd I’m actually wincing as I compose this because what I’m about to impart seems so… I dunno… parental or heaven forfend Republican. I don’t mean to come off like that but I’m gonna say it anyway:
You appreciate things more when you have to work for them.
(Runs away).
Okay, so what do I mean by this? When something must be hunted down, or is otherwise elusive, scarce, expensive or rare, you simply appreciate it more once you finally get your hands on it. A big part of what motivates any crate digger is the thrill of the hunt. It’s just not the same when you can easily download something or have Amazon deliver it to your doorstep the next day, or sooner. Today the distance between your desire and manifesting whatever that desire is, is but a short and uncomplicated path. The Internet took all of the joy out of record and book collecting for me. I haven’t had a “holy grail” that I’ve been looking for since forever ago, if you’ll forgive me my first world problem!
Another thing that’s gotten lost along the way is any sense of something being “underground” anymore. Nothing—at least entertainment-wise—is “rare” in a digital world. Look at the films of Kenneth Anger. Once upon a time, you’d have had to have gone to a gay porno theater in New York’s Times Square to see his short films “Fireworks” or “Scorpio Rising.” You’d have to have seen them projected on celluloid and most probably under fairly seedy conditions, if you were to see them at all. That also meant physically being in a big city when they were being screened. Esoteric entertainment of this sort did not come to you then, you went to it. In 2016 YouTube might host Jack Smith’s legendarily perverse underground classic Normal Love in HD, but it’s just not the same as seeing it in a sperm-stained Times Square fleapit that smells strongly of Pine-Sol when the NYPD’s vice squad arrives uninvited, now is it?
Kids today have it so easy! Back when I was a boy… Well, first of all even if you were an “early adopter” and owned a VCR in the early to mid-1980s, VHS tapes could cost upwards of $30, often much more. Rental stores weren’t much of a thing at the beginning and an “imported” videotape might run you a premium $59. But there still weren’t all that many retail places—even in New York City—to buy them even if you wanted to to pay top dollar for them. The ostensible (ahem) subject of this post is the Bauhaus video that you see embedded at the bottom. I bought this when it came out in the gigantic RKO Video store in Times Square. Now long gone, it was one of the first, best and biggest selections of video tapes for purchase as probably existed anywhere in North America at the time. A huge multi-level store, its selection dwarfed what even Tower Records and J&R Music World had on offer. (The day that I actually bit the bullet and ponied up my hard-earned $39.95 for the Bauhaus VHS, the members of Duran Duran were coming down the escalator as I went up. They had just done a fan signing and the debris from that was strewn all over the store. I remember thinking that they looked cool in their makeup and sharp suits, but also thinking that there was something a bit tragic about men wearing makeup during the day. In any case, I thought I’d throw that in there. Where else will I ever be able to use that?)
Bauhaus made a strong impression on movie audiences when they appeared onscreen during the opening credit sequence of Tony Scott’s ‘The Hunger’ with Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie in 1983. (Fun fact: The female victim in this scene is none other than Bongwater’s Ann Magnuson.)
The live Bauhaus VHS video I bought at RKO Video came packaged in a clamshell case with what was obviously a color Xerox for a cover. Not only was the cover art probably laid out by a human hand, it had also been wrapped in cellophane, clumsily, by hand. It wasn’t a bootleg, it had come from Target Video, but it looked like one. And forty bucks. I was probably making $8 an hour then, so this seemed like a fortune to me. But I had to have it. I was nuts about the first two Bauhaus albums, and after seeing them in action in The Hunger, I really wanted this video. Forty dollars was a lot of money to me then, but for whatever reason, this was something I perceived to be worth it. Once I spent that kinda dough, though, I wanted to get my “money’s worth” out of it with repeated plays. You are gonna watch this video—if you watch it at all—for free on YouTube and that will be that. But imagine if this was hard to get and came in a box for $40 and the only way you could see it was to go to NYC and buy it in one particular store and take it home. No Amazon, no iTunes store, no Pirate Bay… no Internet!. If you put that kind of effort into acquiring something, well, wouldn’t you want to “appreciate” it more than once? No one today would invite their friends over to watch such a thing, on YouTube, but back then, hey, that’s what you did.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not necessarily taking any (intentional) position on digital piracy or how people should pay for music or any of that stuff, I’m simply saying that having a barrier, in a sense, between you and the thing you desired to see ultimately made finally getting to see it all the more crucial and meaningful. I’m also not saying that this would be a good thing to return to—please no—but what I will ask you to do is imagine how incredibly ALIEN—even evil—this transmission, Bauhaus Live at London University, looked in the context of the time it came out and I pushed play on my VCR remote.
Kids these days, they just want to hit play on their smartypants phones… Back when I was a boy, the video below was an unholy grail. “Undead, undead, undead…”
Accessed 6/4/16 http://dangerousminds.net
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/undead_undead_undead_the_evil_alien_weirdness_of_bauhaus_live_at_university
Take a look at at the Fan page for nowthisisgothic.tumblr.com - A photoblog with a collection of 1980s goths, wavers and (post)punk.
Wednesday, 25 November 2015
Goth Subculture - Christian Death - The Decomposition of Violets Live at The Berwin Arts Entertainment Center 1984
Catastrophe Ballet | A rare concert video of Christian Death from 1984
Christian Death, the alpha and omega of all Deathrock bands are here performing in 1984 Hollywood California—at the beginning of their Mark II lineup which integrated members of Pompei 99 (Valor Kand, David Glass, and Gitane Demone). This amazing show was filmed by Louis Elovitz, and the quality is better than what you get on most Iphones these days. This truly is the best Deathrock video I have seen in a very long time.
Courtesy of Post-Punk.com
Published on 7 Nov 2015
00:00 - 01. Awake at the Wall
03:02 - 02. Sleepwalk
08:45 - 03. The Drowning
12:28 - 04. Theatre Of Pain
17:43 - 05. Cavity
21:43 - 06. The Blue Hour
26:29 - 07. Androgynous Noise Hand Permeates
28:38 - 08. Electra Descending
32:46 - 09. As Evening Falls
36:05 - 10. Face
39:40 - 11. Cervix Couch
44:18 - 12. This Glass House
45:53 - 13. Romeo's Distress
50:10 - 14. Dogs
53:34 - video outro / Rozz amongst crowd
a film by Video Louis Elovitz
lapunk13@gmail.com
lapunk13.com
03:02 - 02. Sleepwalk
08:45 - 03. The Drowning
12:28 - 04. Theatre Of Pain
17:43 - 05. Cavity
21:43 - 06. The Blue Hour
26:29 - 07. Androgynous Noise Hand Permeates
28:38 - 08. Electra Descending
32:46 - 09. As Evening Falls
36:05 - 10. Face
39:40 - 11. Cervix Couch
44:18 - 12. This Glass House
45:53 - 13. Romeo's Distress
50:10 - 14. Dogs
53:34 - video outro / Rozz amongst crowd
a film by Video Louis Elovitz
lapunk13@gmail.com
lapunk13.com
Thursday, 14 August 2014
Goth Subculture - Siouxsie and the Banshees
Edit: 2016: Images courtesy Graf Von Grosswurst
Take a look at at the Fan page for nowthisisgothic.tumblr.com - A photoblog with a collection of 1980s goths, wavers and (post)punk.
Tuesday, 5 November 2013
Goth Subculture - Children Of The Night: three films about early 80s Goth nightlife in the UK
Children Of The Night: three films about early 80s Goth nightlife in the UK
04.10.2013
Ah, if only time machines had been invented already. We would each be
free to zip back and visit the desired nightclub/live venue/social scene
of our choice, to revel in a world we can now only read, or dream,
about. I’ve thought about this before, of course, and most of my
preferred time travel destinations were located in and around New York
City in the 70s and the 80s.But there will be many for whom the bright, shiny lights of NYC hold no attraction, and who would rather set the dials for the dark heart of Northern Britain in the early 1980s. These people will wear anything as long as it is black, enjoy nothing more than swaying to the heart-chilling sounds of The Cure, Joy Division or Bauhaus (possibly accompanied by nice pint of cider & blackcurrant juice) and can sometimes be spotted hanging out in mist-shrouded graveyards. Yes, you guessed it, these people are Goths, and if you are one of them, then here’s a treat for you: three films chronicling the early 80s British Goth club scene while it was in its infancy.
The received wisdom in the UK is that clubbing didn’t really exist here until after the acid house explosion in 1987/1988, with the notable exception of Northern Soul venues like The Mecca in Blackpool and the Twisted Wheel in Manchester. Well, these videos tell a very different story, displaying a flourishing alternative club scene that existed years before acid. Offering (mostly) untampered footage shot directly from the dance floors and stages of the best known Goth hangouts of the era, these films have the aura of gold dust about them. If that’s too bright and shiny for you, consider them excellent cultural curios that give a rare peek into a then-emerging subculture. These films, which vary in length from 8 minutes to over two hours, popped up on my Facebook feed this evening, so I decided to do the decent thing and group them all in a post for Dangerous Minds.
The first film is a BBC promo for the infamous London haunt The Batcave, which was originally broadcast on Halloween, 1983. Ok, the Vincent Price/William Castle inserts are cheesy as hell, but there’s some great footage of Alien Sex Fiend performing live to make up for it. The video was uploaded by the Batcave’s original DJ Hamish (aka h808) who says:
Oh yes, 1983, when the media were all trying to figure out what came after punk…. Remember that the Batcave was born of punks and glam rockers, trannies, psychos and people turned away from other clubs - we let anyone in, trainers or no trainers, businessmen and dustmen, strippers and nuns….
The second film is the newest of the bunch (in terms of upload date) and covers a night out at Manchester’s Devilles in 1983. Uploader Debra Allen says:
30 years on and I’ve finally managed to get this video on YouTube (thanks to Dave Booth and Alan Maskell for the original copy back in the day). Devilles was my first real regular club night, I loved it there. I even had my own reserved table and if someone ignored the reserved sign as often happened, one word to the manager and he got the bouncers to move them LOL. Oh and if it was very hot in the club, he would bring over a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket…
And finally, the vid that kicked off this mini-odyssey for me tonight, the excellent The Height Of Goth, subtitled A Night at the Xclusiv nightclub, Batley, West Yorkshire. This is a rare treat for fans of both Goth culture and also Northern English culture in general. You gotta love those Yorkshire accents, and if you lived in a town called “Batley”, wouldn’t YOU consider opening a Goth club? At two hours and ten minutes The Height Of Goth is a bit of a slog, but there are some good interviews to keep you entertained. Uploader Ilegalteam states that:
...this film has been rescued from an old mildewed-and-damaged VHS cassette tape so the quality in the first few minutes is pretty poor, but it settles down fine just in time for the action inside the club.
The original video was commissioned by the couple who ran the club (Annie and Pete Swallow) and was distributed amongst family, friends and regulars. We’ve managed to nail down, it cost £2 at the time. This is the complete full length video as originally presented.
Goth culture is as British as warm beer and soggy rain, as quintessential as Heathcliffe on his merry moors, and it’s fantastic to see its beginnings documented so lovingly in these films. If The League of Gentlemen gang ever get a chance to check these clips out, they should kick themselves at never giving Royston Vasey its very own Goth club!
H/T Rod Connolly
Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
Accessed 5 Nov 2013 dangerousminds.net
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/children_of_the_night_3_films_about_early_80s_british_goth_clubs
Take a look at at the Fan page for nowthisisgothic.tumblr.com - A photoblog with a collection of 1980s goths, wavers and (post)punk.
Thursday, 29 August 2013
Goth Subculture - Documentary about the Batcave Club in London and the band Specimen
A small and rare video about the Batcave club in London and the band Specimen with interview
Dancing Goths 1984
Take a look at at the Fan page for nowthisisgothic.tumblr.com - A photoblog with a collection of 1980s goths, wavers and (post)punk.
Dancing Goths 1984
Take a look at at the Fan page for nowthisisgothic.tumblr.com - A photoblog with a collection of 1980s goths, wavers and (post)punk.
Saturday, 2 March 2013
Goth Subculture - Sex Gang Children
Take a look at at the Fan page for nowthisisgothic.tumblr.com - A photoblog with a collection of 1980s goths, wavers and (post)punk.
Sunday, 23 December 2012
Goth Subculture - Alternative 80's club videos
Take a look at at the Fan page for nowthisisgothic.tumblr.com - A photoblog with a collection of 1980s goths, wavers and (post)punk.
Monday, 19 November 2012
Goth Subculture - The Damned
Take a look at at the Fan page for nowthisisgothic.tumblr.com - A photoblog with a collection of 1980s goths, wavers and (post)punk.
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
Goth Subculture - The Batcave 1983 Remix
Take a look at at the Fan page for nowthisisgothic.tumblr.com - A photoblog with a collection of 1980s goths, wavers and (post)punk.
Friday, 25 November 2011
Goth Subculture - The Batcave 1983 & The Gothics 1987
A short piece from Reporting London, by London Weekend Television, from 1983.
London Plus - The Gothics 1987. The Marionettes, Dave Vanian and others talking about the Gothic Scene in 1987.
Thursday, 15 September 2011
Goth Subculture - Specimen
Take a look at at the Fan page for nowthisisgothic.tumblr.com - A photoblog with a collection of 1980s goths, wavers and (post)punk.
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