Page 72 - Classic Rock (February 2020)

Goths at London’s
Looking more corpse than
goth: Alien Sex Fiend.
“We were the anthesis of everything that was
fashionable then: all that screaming-about-nothing
protest that was punk.” Peter Murphy, Bauhaus
Bauhaus. Formed in the comically un-gothic
environs of Northampton, they arrived
with theatrical flourish, all razor-sharp
cheekbones and crow’s-nest hair. The title
of their first single gave the game away: Bela
Lugosi’s Dead.
Peter Murphy (Bauhaus singer): We were the
anthesis of everything that was fashionable then:
all that screaming-about-nothing protest that
was punk.
Kevin Haskins (Bauhaus drummer): We were
the kids who didn’t fit in at school.
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David J (Bauhaus bassist): Our sound, and to
a degree our aesthetic, was stark and stripped-
down. Everything was honed as to exclude excess.
Which is ironic, as that’s the opposite of gothic. Blitz club – it was the people who couldn’t afford
Christian Riou (future Claytown Troupe
singer): In the autumn of 1979, I saw a copy of
Bauhaus’s Bela Lugosi’s Dead with the DW Griffiths
Sorrows Of Satan cover, and the title grabbed me.
I bought it, and heard music that seemed to pull
from everywhere and nowhere but was like
a soundtrack to a film I wanted to see.
Nik Fiend: Bela Lugosi’s Dead was the first time
Batcave club, 1984.
I heard anything that could be classed as ‘goth’,
most definitely.
David J: We were elated and excited that we were
capable of conjuring such a beautiful monster.
Peter Murphy: It’s very kitsch and tongue-in-
cheek, but very serious too. ‘Bela Lugosi’s dead!’ It’s
beautiful, isn’t it?
By the early 80s, the tendrils were starting to
coalesce into something recognisable. In
1982, soon-to-be-notorious Soho club The
Batcave was opened by members
of Specimen, a bunch of Bowie-
loving freaks recently relocated
from the provinces. The Batcave
swiftly became the haunt of choice
for the scene’s prime movers, from
Bauhaus and the Banshees to Alien
Sex Fiend, whose cadaverous
frontman Nik Fiend doubled as the
club’s unofficial mascot.
Olli Wisdom (Specimen singer, Batcave
co-founder): Specimen started doing a few shows
here and there, and we were constantly being shat
on, so we thought we’d establish this thing, which
turned out to be the Batcave. It cost us about six
hundred pounds to open.
Nik Fiend: Goth was New Romantic’s dark
cousin, and the Batcave was like the poor man’s
those posh outfits. It was a stinky place.
Olli Wisdom: It was in a strip club in Soho, on the
fourth floor of a building. It was a gorgeously tacky
place. Upstairs they had a little theater, and
downstairs was a total sleaze pit.
Nik Fiend: You had to go up in a lift that could
only carry two people at a time, then you’d walk
in through this coffin-shaped door. GETTY x2