With 2018 looming over the horizon like a particularly angry storm, it’s time to reflect on 2017 and what I was up to as The Blogging Goth. At the start of the year, I looked at the bizarre new album from American indie artists Goats, entitled ‘Goths’ and leading with a single called ‘Andrew Eldritch is moving Back to Leeds’. Quite the peculiar artifact!

In April, there was the first of two Whitby Goth Weekends, and you can read my reviews of the Friday night and the Saturday night again! It immediately led into World Goth Day on May 22nd, and an added angle of weirdness when one of my articles ended up in an English secondary school (High School to my American readers) exam and a lot of confused teenagers got on Twitter to yell at me.

The real world saw the British government call for a General Election to secure their position and deliver ‘Brexit’ to those who voted for it. As always, I polled my readers to see if goth voting habits reflected the wider public trends. There were some surprises, but ultimately Red was the new Black for the goths of the UK!

Festival season was upon us again in September, and I was delighted to be offered press access to the long-running EBM/Industrial/Bleep Infest in Bradford. This packed-out event was so bursting with bands and events I had to split my reviews over a number of articles, so please click here to go to the Infest hashtag!

On a much grimmer note, the rising tide of awareness of sexual crimes against women in all facets of society led me to publish an article calling for securing the goth/alt scene and the safety of female and female-identifying participants. It was very difficult to research and write – but it is even more difficult for people to have a good time in a subculture that doesn’t police against abusers. So there is hope also.

Just prior to Winter’s Whitby Goth Weekend, the Live Theatre in my home of Newcastle put on a play about that most famous of UK goth events, and invited myself and Dr Claire Nally to speak on a panel after the performance about the scene. It was a lovely and well-researched production with an amusing and excellent cast!
It rolled neatly into the event itself, and you can find my review of Winter’s Whitby Goth Weekend here.

Throughout the year, I’ve also been promoting my club night Noircastle, and we held our first gig as well in November, with more to come. It’s been a challenging and exciting journey, becoming a promoter, and it is sure to take up even more of my limited time!

Finally, I look ahead to 2018, and the exciting prospects arising as a result of ongoing conversations with John Adrenochrome, a veteran goth from the Eighties and long-standing comrade in visiting Whitby, Leeds and running Noircastle. We’ll be launching our own YouTube channel On The Wire in early 2018 and adding our own voices to the chorus of discussion about the goth scene via vlogging.

Many thanks to all my followers across all my social media channels who have visited, read, liked, shared and communicated with me. I love being The Blogging Goth, and your support and feedback has been invaluable. Have a Spooky New Year and see you in 2018!