The Pavilion of Love: Craig Adams and Spear of Destiny

Posted on November 6, 2015 by The Blogging Goth

Kirk Brandon’s iconic outfit Spear of Destiny headlined Saturday night at the Spa, the beating black heart of Whitby Goth Weekend. On bass, they had the legendary Craig Adams, member of more bands than you could shake a stick at – the Expelaires, the Cult, the Alabama 3, the Mission, and of course The Sisters of Mercy, which he was part of the first ‘official’ lineup with in 1981.

Adams, and the guitarist Wayne Hussey who joined in 1984, would eventually depart the Sisters in 1985 and go on to form The Mission. Before then, however, Adams contributed the bass line to that perennial floor-filler, the song that peaked at #1 in the independent chart in ’83, the song that still appears in the modern Sisters setlist – Temple of Love.

craig-adams-wgw2015So at the penultimate moment of Saturday’s gig, Adams suddenly appears centre stage. In front of him is a tiny, wizened crone clutching a tombstone that says RIP (you can draw your own implications here). The bombastic organ music slows to a halt, there is silence – and then guitars knock out that riff that is instantly recognizable to anyone who has visited a Goth club night in the last thirty years.

After the gig ended to tumultuous applause, we ventured backstage to catch

The Blogging Goth: Alright so, I’m sat here with Mr. Craig Adams, veteran bassist currently serving his time with Spear of Destiny. Craig, we’ve just seen you cover Temple of Love, from your old band-mates in The Sisters of Mercy. What on earth made you put that in the set?

<A long pause>

Craig Adams: (sarcastically) We’re at a Goth festival!

Take that, declarations of not being a Goth band!

wgwoct2015teaser-13

CA: That really is it. We started out saying we could do something funny, sort of… How did it start?

The rest of the band, enjoying their rider, shrug.

CA: I think we were talking about doing Bela Lugosi, and then we thought, hang on, why don’t we just do Temple of Love instead?

We laugh. The guitarist, Adrian Portas, joins in.

AP: We do Transmission normally, and we knew that would go down well with this audience, so Kirk sent us the set-list, it wasn’t actually on there, but we play it all the time. So we just said, why not throw it (Temple of Love) in as well?

TBG: So, it was just completely off the cuff, just throw it in there?

CA / AP: Yeah!

CA: The hardest part was learning the lyrics – I can play the bloody music no problem!

TBG: What do you think about the lyrics? Do you find them a bit… Goth to the max?

CA: Nah, they’ve obviously great lyrics, but the weird thing is, having never actually sung them before, the phrasing is so bizarre and I’ve never realized how weird he was before.
So, now, I have a little more respect for the Thin White Duck…

Laughter.

CA: Not that much, y’know…

TBG: Do you ever hear from him?

CA: (Immediately) We haven’t spoken since 1985.

TBG: There you go, of course, I wouldn’t expect otherwise.

CA: And I would say, that’s a good place to end that conversation.

Much more laughter.

TBG: In the same vein, Wayne’s going to be here next year – are we gonna see you with him, or is he doing his lone wolf act?

CA: I think he is doing a lone wolf thing, that’s all I know. We don’t really know what we’re doing next year, it is going to be busy, it’s our thirtieth anniversary, so we’re gonna do whatever we’re going to do.

Some of it is secret, some of it is… We don’t really know what we’re doing! Some bits we do know, some bits we don’t! It’s pretty chaotic, we’re trying to sort it out. It is hard though!

TBG: I appreciate that, we do appreciate in advance what we’re gonna get.

CA: I’ve got a lot of commitments, everyone’s busy in this band, everyone’s busy in all their other bands – we’re all in our late forties now…

Even more laughter. Craig’s wife leans over. “He’s really only twelve!”

CA: My wife says I’ve got the mental age of a twelve year old. (To her) Stop saying stuff like that! Right, turn it off, enough!

TBG: Craig Adams – thanks very much for your time!

Coming soon, our full review of both nights at Whitby Goth Weekend! Keep us bookmarked…

 

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Whitby Divided: A Festival of Two Halves and #OurWGW

Posted on October 29, 2015 by The Blogging Goth

Tomorrow I’ll be schlepping down to Whitby, North Yorkshire, for the biannual Goth Weekend – the second of their 21st anniversary year.

A lot can change in 21 years of course, and certainly the crowds that flock to the UK’s premier Goth festival have changed a great deal in that time. Conveniently, a video has been posted by Matthew North, a musician who has played at the Spa many times over WGW’s life, and his video from 1996.

Nowadays, as well as the crimped hair and effortless eye makeup, are the jolly-faced older generation in brass and brown leather, patrons of the newest ‘old’ subculture, Steampunk. Soon, I’ll pen an article defining this peculiar and popular alternative faction – but suffice to say, although they started out a subgenre of Goth, they now stand notably apart. A line has been drawn down the middle of Whitby, neatly following the river…

On one side, the pubs and nightclubs and Pavilion, home of the bands and the gigs which are a ticketed event. On the other, Whitby Old Town, the tourist shops and the Abbey which are swamped with photographers, and St. Mary’s Churchyard,an ongoing controversial location.

The Goths and the gig-goers complain, saying the Old Town Guard don’t even bother with the gigs, choosing instead to mass book all the accommodation and swan around the town, posing for the flocks of ‘togs’ – they simply ‘holiday’ in our subculture a couple of weekends a year and then shove it in a cupboard until next Whitby.
They perceive the miscellany of non-attendees over the river, as garnering the majority of media attention at the cost of the events at the Spa, and put across a skewed view of the Goth subculture to the mainstream press – who aren’t known for their accuracy at the best of times!WGWOf course, there are a range of defences against this. There is no such thing as the ‘Goth police’, po-faced judges of all that is ‘approved’. In a subculture founded on rebellion and dislike of authority, that would be laughably contradictory. Indeed, Goths would be the first to protest their exclusion from an event due to their cultural allegiances.

WGW generates over £1.1m every year for the weekend, and the town clearly reaps a major benefit from the festival, regardless of who does or does not go to the Pavilion for bands. Tourism is the lifeblood of this rather isolated town, even if the pressures on its infrastructure are starting to get out of control; I recommend reading the comments on this article for commentary on the ‘True’ Goths vs. Newcomers disgruntlement.

This disagreement has been bubbling under for years. It seems to have come to something of a head online – the hashtag #OurWGW has started on Twitter, in an effort to demonstrate to the media there is more to the weekend than the staff photographers from Getty Images tends to cover. BBC Breakfast are rumoured to be covering the festival with still images so staunch WGW attendees are tweeting pictures of themselves, the bands, even the popular charity football match, to show all the aspects of this weekend that have so far been overlooked by the press.

The great democracy of the internet means this is a very fair way to demonstrate precisely what ‘your’ Whitby Goth Weekend is. We’ll be retweeting frequently from the hashtag #OurWGW so this is your opportunity to let the world know what you think about the festival and your favourite parts of it.

As for me, well… I strive to be an impartial journalist and hear from both sides equally. But considering it is Halloween, what exactly does a Goth wear for fancy dress…?

scarf

 

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Manchester Gothic Conference 2015: “What Lies Beneath”

Posted on October 26, 2015 by The Blogging Goth

We’re back from the third annual Manchester Gothic conference, a meeting of many darkly-inclined academics giving papers on the entirety of Gothic culture, beyond merely the subculture. We’ve touched on theatre, literature, cinema, theology, psychogeography and dinner to name a few…

WordPress, who host theblogginggoth.com, fails to display Storify properly, so please follow this link and enjoy our curated social media tale of the day!

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Crimson Peak – Guillermo del Toro, Tom Hiddleston and Mia Wasikowska

Posted on October 19, 2015 by The Blogging Goth


It’s hard to say who comes off as the most charismatic in Guillermo del Toro’s new Gothic Horror (and it is very Gothic) Crimson Peak.

Crimson-Peak-Tom-Hiddleston-Thomas-posterCould it be the Tom Hiddleston, challenger to Benedict Cumberbatch’s throne as the connoisseur’s choice for charismatic British leading man?

The ‘Sherlock’ star was originally to play the lead before dropping out, and yet Hiddleston delivers an appropriately tortured and brooding Byronic figure in the form of Sir Thomas Sharpe.

 

 

Crimson-Peak-Mia-Wasikowska-Edith-posterCould it be Mia Wasikowska, persistently delivering superb performances as an otherwordly creature, appearing here as society-defying aspiring writer Edith Cushing?

The darling of definitive counterculture directors, she appeared as unruly vampire Ava in Jim Jarmusch’s quiet classic Only Lovers Left Alive – again, with Tom Hiddleston, cementing their place in contemporary Gothic cinema.

 

 

Crimson-Peak-Jessica-Chastain-Lucille-posterCould it be Jessica Chastain, fresh from del Toro’s Spanish cerebral thriller Mama and again enmeshed in a chilling tale involving ghosts, butterflies and moths?

A striking figure in scarlet dresses and crazed scowling, she relishes her role as the far more mysterious Sharpe sibling, Lady Lucille – smouldering pouts one minute, and shrill homicide the next.

 

Let’s be realistic. The real star of the film has to be the beautiful and incomparable Allerdale Hall – monument to del Toro’s mindbending grasp of the scary and surreal, and the Gothic mansion to which all other Gothic mansions, in all other fiction, must aspire!

9553799_origBeing a film by del Toro, spectacle is all. Reportedly, the iconoclastic director spent seven months alone erecting the dark, decaying mansion set and outfitting it to his exacting standards. The script, however, probably enjoyed less and comes across as more of a knowing nod towards all the classic Gothic tropes.

Edith Cushing – acknowledging the heavy work Hammer Horror has done – is basically an upgraded Catherine Morland. In a twist on Austen’s creation, Edith does not believe in ghosts, and her own novel is simply ‘a story with a ghost in it, a metaphor’ – yet she soon finds herself unarguably trapped within a genuine haunted house.

The horrible truth lurking within the rotten heart of English aristocracy is another trait shared by so many definitive Gothic creations, as is the wasting illness that has Edith coughing up blood, echoing so many fragile heroines beset by tuberculosis.
The true heart of this movie is set entirely within the – seemingly bleeding – walls of Allerdale Hall, and that acknowledges slightly more recent thriller conventions like The Shining.

The ghosts in del Toro’s script are little more than the metaphors of Edith Cushing’s novel, and differ crucially from the diffuse and truly frightening shapes of more contemporary horror movies. In letting us see the spectres rendered gorily visible, they actually lose much of their emotional impact when contrasted with the half-glimpsed shadows of Paranormal Activity for example.

It’s all intentional of course, as del Toro says:

“I think people are getting used to horror subjects done as found footage or B-value budgets. I wanted this to feel like a throwback.”

Crimson Peak is a Gothic love story tinged with elements of supernatural horror. It shouldn’t be considered in the same category as all-American scare-fests, but more a natural product of Guillermo del Toro’s beautiful, bizarre and deeply unsettling imagination, even if it fails to live up to the mind-bending splendour of Pan’s Labyrinth or the spine-tingling chill of The Orphanage.

Nevertheless, it is an enjoyable and eerie film that makes a welcome break for viewers inundated with the vindictive spirits of Sinister and their ilk. Thrill along with this natural evolution of a genre pioneered by Shelley and Walpole.

wasikowska-1

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Whitby Gothic Weekend: Halloween 2015

Posted on October 5, 2015 by The Blogging Goth

WGWIt’s finally October, and we hope all your Halloween plans are coming together! Especially if you’re heading for North Yorkshire, to help the Whitby Gothic Weekend celebrate its second 21st Birthday. There will be enough traders to make even the bravest bank account tremble, enough old friends and new faces to carouse with, and of course the stand-out nights of live bands at the Spa…

The UK’s Queen of alternative festivals is back down to two nights after their incredible four-night band extravaganza earlier this year, but don’t think for a second there’s any less excitement to be had!

From the 29th October until 1st November, you’ll be able to catch all of these classic and breaking new bands on stage at the Spa. Let’s take a look at the exhausting audio extravagances we will be enjoying…

Friday 30th October 2015

Chasing DragonsChasing Dragons
Incendiary, powerful melodic hard rock from God’s own country of Leeds, West Yorkshire. Post-hardcore bursts, thunderous vocals and overflowing alt metal – one of the first groups to play at Leeds pride, and growing ever since, Chasing Dragons are the perfect collision between passion and power on the alt-rock scene.

Bad PollyannaBad Pollyanna
One of the fastest rising stars in alternative music. Beauty and darkness in tandem, the group have built an explosively expansive following, and have found themselves in heavy demand for their charity work in particular. Passionate, talkative – and stunning. This year, especially for WGW, they’ll be performing their new album, The Broken Toys for the first time, and advance physical copies will be on sale ahead of worldwide release on 1st Dec.

Fearless Vampire KillersFearless Vampire Killers
Death pop? Theatrical rock? Nobody knows for sure – but the Fearless Vampire Killers and their radical, conceptual music have a legendary stake in the Goth, Scene and Rock movements. This year they’ll be performing some of their latest material – from their latest mini album, Bruises.

Altered Images

Clare Grogan and her Altered Images are headlining Friday, harking back to the days when she was studying for her A Levels – and touring with Siouxsie and the Banshees. With three top ten albums to her name and numerous film, television and stage roles under her belt, the multi-talented Clare and Altered Images are still exciting their adoring fanbase, more than thirty years since they first appeared in the evolving New Wave scene.

Saturday 31st October 2015

in ISOLATION
In IsolationA collaboration between musicians and songwriters who helped represent the Goth scene from the 1980s to the present day, this exciting outfit intends to look both backwards and forwards – presenting the new contemporary and the old classics in equal doses. They’ll be releasing their latest single to you at the Spa this year!

Vince RipperVince Ripper & The Rodent Show
Welcome to the boneyard! Ratfink, unleashed from his service in Alien Sex Fiend, brings his DJ friend Vince Ripper for a series of alternative DJ sets and remixes, with 3D glasses, horror movie clips, excessive props and theatrics befitting of the great Alice Cooper. Ripper and The Rodent Show will be bringing all the twisted tricks of their trade to the stage!

The Last CryThe Last Cry
Only the finest darkwave for Whitby Goth Weekend’s 21st year – the band boast one of the most dedicated fan followings the alternative has ever seen, and they’re here for you. The Last Cry continue to rise through the ranks – and spots on the WGW setlist  – year after year. Soulful, passionate, and impossible to ignore.

Spear Of DestinySpear of Destiny
Kirk Brandon has been leading Spear of Destiny to constant applause for over thirty years, and they will bring Whitby Goth Weekend to a clamorous summit on Saturday. Now boasting a line up with musical talent from such groups as New Model Army and The Mission, the group’s live shows now harks back to decades of full flight rock and roll. It’s all there, and it’s bound to satisfy anyone who has heard their vinyls from as far back as 1983.

Something there for every spirit and mournful soul that will be turning out. Now, we’ll put the thumbscrews on and ask you to answer, on pain of pain, which one single band you are most looking forward to seeing!
Vote in our poll below, but remember – you can only vote once!

For those damned sorts who can’t make it to Whitby in October, we’ll be blogging live, and you can follow us on all our social media channels. Tune in, comment on, share out!

tbg-twitter tbg-instagram tbg-facebook

 

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