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Carl McCoy with
Fields Of The
Nephilim circa
1988.
a little drink and a talk, but it was
mainly me and Craig and Wayne.
Thanks to the growing success of
the Sisters and their contemporaries, the mid-
80s was the point where goth began to come
Gene Loves Jezebel into its own as a scene. The all-powerful
in the mid-80s. weekly music press celebrated and reviled
it in equal measure.
used to steam in and start thumping people. Like: was sat in a darkened room, curled up in an
“What the fuck are you doing?” armchair. I thought it was a little contrived, but Nik Fiend: Goth was a derogatory thing. When
then I’d known a lot of other contrived personas. we was first around, all the reviews were about
I’d probably contrived a bit of a persona for myself “these goth wankers”. ‘Goth’ basically meant ‘shit’.
by that point. I didn’t mind being called shit. At least you were
The key band in goth’s second wave were the being called something.”
Sisters Of Mercy, formed in Leeds in 1980 by Andrew Eldritch: I had to change my name
drummer-turned-singer Andrew Eldritch because of the dude in Duran Duran called Wayne Hussey: We didn’t christen it ‘goth’, it was
(né Taylor) and guitarist Gary Marx (born Andrew Taylor. you lot in the press.
Marc Pearman). By 1983, they included bassist
Craig Adams and guitarist Wayne Hussey, Wayne Hussey: He was already Eldritch by the Roger Nowell: Back in the day, everyone was like:
formerly of Liverpool goth-pop band Dead Or time I met him. I dunno, maybe I saw fleeting “We’re not a goth band.”
Alive. Few did as much to shape the sound and
look of the subsequent goth scene as the Kevin Mills (Specimen/Flesh For Lulu):
Sisters – to their frontman’s eternal chagrin. Everybody goes: “Oh yeah, Flesh For Lulu, goth
“I don’t like being a band.” But goth wasn’t really a look then. Flesh For
Andrew Eldritch: With the Sisters Of Mercy Lulu were really a rock’n’roll band with big hair.
there was no plan. We would certainly have done poster boy for something Loads of jewellery and make-up and stuff, but
it differently if it had been done properly. I would I wholeheartedly essentially a rock band with punk influences and
probably be like the person from The Darkness lots more – a lot of soul and country. All kinds.
or Freddie Mercury, and more confident and disagree with.”
more flamboyant. Carl McCoy (Fields Of The Nephilim): Goth
Andrew Eldritch, Sisters Of Mercy was architecture to me. The whole ‘goth rock’
Wayne Hussey: I was terribly ambitious. I always thing started in the late eighties. In fact it’s the fans
wanted to be a pop star. That was the prime glimpses, a momentary sensitivity that was out of that are categorised as goths. We’re a band, and
motivator for me from the very beginning. character. I’m putting that down to Taylor. And the we fit their idea of ‘goth’. We’re quite a diverse
speaking voice was very different to the singing band, but if we’re called a goth band, that’s alright.
Andrew Eldritch: We thought we belonged to voice. It reminded me of Rigsby from Rising Damp. Why deny it?
a bloodline that stretched back through glam to the
Stones to Gene Vincent. In our early interviews we Roger Nowell: We didn’t know the Sisters until Andrew Eldritch: I’ve got a dictionary with
name-checked the same people we’d name-check they asked us to support them on the Black a whole chunk ripped out around the letter ‘G’.
now: Motörhead, Hawkwind, Suicide, The Fall. October tour in 1984. I didn’t know Andrew before I don’t like being a poster boy for something
GETTY x3 Wayne Hussey: The first time I met Andrew, he and I didn’t know him afterwards. He kept himself I wholeheartedly disagree with – and, frankly,
something we did for one week.
to himself. One night where me and him had
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