In October last year, The Blogging Goth attended some of the sessions of the inaugural Gothic Manchester Festival. This was convened to celebrate the launch of the academic Centre for Gothic Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Staff at MMU have now released a retrospective video of the Festival, including a brief appearence by Tim Sinister of The Blogging Goth. You can see the video below, and browse the festival pages here!
Another busy Whitby Goth Weekend has come to a finish, and whilst there we learned from Twitter that a new parody video was in the works. We at The Blogging Goth were very interested, as we helped on the technical side with 2012’s Whitby Gothic Style parody song, and we know Goths have the best sense of humour and often the best technology too! So check out the WGW #Selfie video, hot from the Alternative Model Contest 2014!
After cringing and laughing knowingly a bit, we got in touch with the Alt Model Contest organisers to find out more! Their statement said:
All this talk of ‘Selfies’ lately from Hollywood Celebrities to anyone hoping to get a few likes on their Facebook page, had the team at the “Alternative Model of the Year” Competition thinking – and what they come up with was a goth style and rather tongue in cheek parody of the famous #Selfie track by the Chainsmokers, working alongside Cogwheel Films who produced and filmed the video.
This is our way of having a little fun, [and] showing that Goths aren’t all doom and gloom, and like to have a little fun… and of course in a light-hearted way [we’re] making fun of mainstream pop culture.The Whitby Goth Weekend is sponsoring this year’s 2014 national auditions and this is our way to cross promote – we hope this video shows a younger side to the festival, the next generation of alternative subcultures.
The song featured also made comedic references to the amount of photographers congregating during the weekend, in part the video is an ironic take on this.
There definitely was no shortage of photographers on the day wanting to snap a photo of the model featured, whilst filming that section of footage, all the photographers were really helpful and great to work with and we were delighted to include them in the video.Of course, if we may mention: the main reason of the video is to show a younger funkier Whitby and to show this music festival to all ages and isn’t restricted to the older fans of the bands, along with the festival being open to a wide range of subcultures.
We did also film people in Whitby on the day. The response from those participating was great, as everyone seemed really enthusiastic and up for being part of it.… the Selfies, which people later submitted via email as the number of pictures coming through was overwhelming. Over 250 selfies submitted and 180 featured, [but] unfortunately not all could make the edit.
As stubborn opponents of most conventional social fads, we’re only vaguely familiar with the Selfie itself, so we asked for a bit of clarification from Anne Burns, PhD candidate at Loughborough University and academic researcher into the world of photography online. She’s been looking at the Selfie mania in particular, so she had the following to say on the Chainsmokers original first:It’s oddly self-loathing, as well as selfie-loathing, as it’s both celebrating and condemning the figure of the selfie-taker. You have alongside the t-shirts of ‘Fuck Your #Selfie’, and the intentionally vapid and mean character of the lead female, there’s the curious presence of scores of genuine selfies – all of which act to contest the message the song itself is promoting.
[It’s] a much gentler affair – even though the lead female is still seen as vapid, talking of modelling and bitching about someone’s shoes, the content is a nod to Goth cliches, which is done with fondness, rather than disdain as in the original. The comment on “cobble and stilettos – are they trying to kill me?” will bring a smile to anyone’s face who has been to Whitby.Likewise, the dilemma over two black eyeliners and a corset that might be ‘mainstream’ are gentle parodies of Goth culture, rather than outright mockery.The selfie also plays less of a role here, as a symbol of negative ideas about identity – partly because other people are depicted doing it, so it’s not just her own flawed practice, but she’s also a much more likeable and amusing character, so what kind of photos she takes doesn’t immediately equate to being vapid.
Last week, Tim Sinister attended some sessions of Manchester Metropolitan University’s ‘Gothic Manchester Festival’.
It had been arranged to promote the launch of the dedicated Centre for Gothic Studies, an exciting and ambitious academic group which intends to;
“promote the study of the Gothic both nationally and internationally and to work across age ranges and levels of study”
Organisers of the most popular UK Goth Festival going have been in touch to advise us about next year’s dates – some of the most sought-after information in the Goth calendar. The festival’s founder and ongoing manager Jo Hampshire has also tantalised festival attendees by hinting at extended celebrations for the Twentieth Anniversary, which will fall on Halloween 2014!
Jo and her staff have hinted at a three to four night extravaganza with possible appearences by some of the most popular acts to have graced the little seaside town in years gone by. Falling on the weekend of 31st October 2014, nights of live bands and clubbing typically stretch from the Thursday to the Monday around the core two nights at the Pavilion Spa, although it’s rumoured this may be extended to accomodate even more bands!
We’ll be holding out for confirmation and more details, and of course we’ll break the news here. To register your interest, visit the Whitby Gothic Weekend facebook page and pitch in with the bands you’ve most enjoyed seeing. You might just hear them returning…
So the infamous Blood and Icecream trilogy has come to an end with The World’s End, another quintessentially British comedy from Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg.
The theme running through all these films has usually been about responsibility – avoiding it and then learning to embrace it. This time it’s Pegg who starts out as a teenager in the Eighties – rebellion, drinking, and a strong love for rock-dirge merchants The Sisters of Mercy.
Flash forward thirty years and “Gary King” explodes back into his former schoolfriend’s lives utterly unchanged from those irresponsible adolescent days – still sporting the same head-and-star t-shirt from the Sisters back cataloguge, dyed-black hair and aviator shades.
King is a man-child, unable and unwilling to let go of his childhood when he was literally King of the Scene, and his love for a band from that time is part of the visual cue that tells us he’s trapped in a time-warp and needs to grow up!
That’s obviously the part that impacts Goths so specifically. Despite Sisters policy, and Eldritch’s firm denials, Goths make up a vast quantity of the band’s fan-base – so to be accused of being somehow ‘immature’ or ‘irresponsible’ for still loving this band stings somewhat.
Tim Sinister IS Gary King!
Well, it does at least for me. I’m in a peculiar middle-ground though – the same year The Sisters of Mercy performed their legendary Albert Hall gig, at the height of their power, I was joining the world in Eldritch’s ancestral stamping ground of Yorkshire. Not being in late-middle-age, I have no hesitation about broadcasting my love of the Sisters – hell, I started a tribute band to them!
That isn’t to suggest the band isn’t still active themselves – the Sisters routinely tour the world to sell-out venues, but is this movie suggesting every audience member is hanging on to an illusion of youth?
The fans themselves have definitely given the film a pale pair of thumbs up. Discussion on My Heartland, the premier Sisters message board, has been positive although a few contributors have expressed concern that they’re being portrayed as rather sad cases who haven’t moved on with their lives!
I asked Markfiend, the Heartland Chief Administrator, what he made of The World’s End take on being a Sisters fan.
It seems like Mark has the measure of the mood. Sisters fans might find the mocking tone slightly rankling, but probably only because it strikes a little too close to home! In reality, of course, there’s nothing wrong with loving the Sisters decades after you first discovered them.
We think Gary King is utterly justified in what he thinks – but maybe he needs to address his wardrobe first? Let us know in the comments below!
I’ll leave you with these two tweets that made our day when we read them…
@simonpegg You should have said, we would have sent you the actual suit.
— Chris Catalyst (@ChrisCatalyst) August 22, 2013
The Blogging Goth 