ON THIS DAY ... in 1980 - UK DECAY at the Moonlight club, West Hampstead
No UK DECAY, no Goth Scene? It's possible... (34 photos)
To people who weren’t actually there, which will be most of you, there is often an assumption that the Banshees, Cure and Joy Division were somehow part of the Goth scene, when instead they were bands off doing their own Punk/Post-Punk thing having already established themselves before the scene even started, and they rarely, if ever, intersected.
When the Goth sound started emerging, North and South it was in small bursts. Bauhaus were a t-shirts and feather boa band I first saw them support Gloria Mundi from whom they learnt a valuable sartorial lesson, subsequently adopting a sleek, dark look and becoming pretty much the perfect band. Being out on a limb in Northampton they too, understandably, did their own thing.
It was UK DECAY, already establishing a strong reputation through endless gigging, and bringing out ‘Black Cat’ and ‘For My Country/Unwind’ in 1980 who helped everything coalesce, and develop strongly through 1981/1982. They actively encouraged smaller bands of the noir variety to be their supports, relentlessly supported the fanzine network which threw a spotlight on bands that the music papers weren’t, and they gave bands something to look forward to and emulate, a truly active catalyst.
Bands were obviously popping up here and there and you could argue that all would have been strong and individual enough to have thrived, but this often happens ever few years, where stylistic similarities make it seem like a scene is developing, only for it to fizzle out and come to nothing.
UK DECAY being a forward thinking beacon in the scene, as well as creating so many fantastic records (rarely bettered), being so thrilling live, and openly accessible/encouraging, did more than any other band to ensure the Goth scene succeeded in establishing a solid foothold from which it could continue to develop.
And if the UK scene hadn’t then proved so dynamic and varied, and ultimately durable, would it have flourished in other countries?
Anyone into Goth owes this band a huge debt.
GOTH CLASSICS ON KINDLE » HERE
My GOTH PHOTOBOOKS » HERE
29 more UK DECAY photos follow for paid subscribers.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Mick Mercer's Panache to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.