Founding dark music and lifestyle glossy Meltdown magazine in 1999, journalist, DJ and broadcaster Natasha Scharf has been on the UK Goth circuit's movers 'n' shakers list for more than a decade. Since moving on from Meltdown in 2003, she has kept up appearances on the scene by creating content for Total Rock radio and Rockworld TV, and magazines such as Metal Hammer, Terrorizer and Classic Rock, whilst also becoming a driving force for increasing Goth’s visibility in wider media, through contributions to programming for BBC TV and radio, ITV and Channel 4, This summer saw the release of her most ambitious project yet, debut book 'Worldwide Gothic - The Chronicle of a Tribe'. Mik Scarlet reviews and speaks to the author.
This latest addition to the number of books on the subject of Goth, Natasha Scharf’s ’Worldwide Gothic…’ is a fast paced journey through the history of the movement. It traces how Goth was born out of the ashes of the Punk scene and grew to become a worldwide phenomenon in a highly detailed and entertaining way. Focusing mainly on the musical side of Goth, it gives an in-depth chronology of the bands and musicians involved, as well as explaining how each generation influenced the next; from the dark fun days of Siouxsie and Bauhaus, through the pomp and histrionics of The Sisters and The Mission, to the myriad of modern off shoots of the Gothic scene all over the world. In fact to an original Goth like myself, who was there at the beginning and who saw Bauhaus support UK Decay at Luton Tech College and heard Andrew Eldridge's first demo while working at the Great Gear Market in the Kings Road, the most interesting features of this book were two fold.
Firstly, the charting of how Goth came into being was pretty damn accurate and really captured how it changed shape and form until the word "Goth" stopped being seen as insult to anyone of us "Alternatives" and became an label that most wore with pride. Secondly, the description of how this small group of lost souls from the post punk blank gave birth to a scene that truly does encompass the entire world was fascinating. To discover that there are Goths in Iran and Egypt blew me away.
I must admit that I have now reached that age where nightclubbing and gigging is not the oxygen I breathe, but I still download as much Gothic music as I can and to be given a potted history of how the bands I enjoy from today (really am sounding like an old duffer here!) came to be and are related to each other gave an new layer to what they do.
As well as all the words, (which Natasha Scharf managed to write in under two months - she must have been chained to her computer) the book is filled with great photos. From the early black and white snaps, to the very colourful modern photographs, the way this book is illustrated gives a flesh to the strong bones of the text.
Personally I am glad to have Worldwide Gothic in amongst my book collection. My only regret is that I didn't get a photograph or two to the publishers in time. By not doing so I have missed out on claiming my place in what is a superb history of the Goth Movement. Just before I received my review copy of Worldwide Gothic I met up with the Author, Natasha Scharf, for a chat.
Better known for her work as a journalist, writing for music publications like Terrorizer and Metal Hammer and editing Meltdown, and as a DJ, having worked on Total Rock and playing regular sets at the Electric Ballroom, Natasha arrived at my flat looking very much the Goth. I immediately knew that she had written this book because the whole scene was important to her, and so kind of knew it would be an honest look at a movement that tended to find itself misunderstood and the target of ridicule.
After looking at her new book, and seeing the way the pictures did change from gloomy black and white to super saturated colour it occurred to me that this was true of the way Goth evolved too.
"Yeah, you can't call them Black clad masses anymore"
So when did Natasha think Goth started?
"Well that's the big question. Especially as when Goth started it wasn't called Goth. When you write a book like this you have to have a beginning. So I decided to start the book in 1976, at the 100 Club during the Punk All Dayer, at the first Siouxsie and Banshees gig. While punk had been around before the Sex Pistols, it came into public awareness at this time. Siouxsie and the Banshees were doing something that was a little bit different, and little bit unusual and a little bit avant garde. A female vocalist, a strong image, and lots of black of course. If you start it there, then you can track it on to the post-punk bands. People might say they aren't Goth but they were doing something different from punk. Bands like Gloria Mundi, PIL and Killing Joke plus a whole load of bands. Then you get into the bands that in hindsight people do think of as fairly Gothic, like Bauhaus, Joy Division and whether they like to refer to it or not The Sisters of Mercy. I think you can trace it back to 1976, although I am sure that some people will say it started earlier than that. I mean The Doors were referred to as Gothic, as were the Velvet Underground"
Weren't they some of the acts that influenced the early Gothic music pioneers? I then had to chip in my feelings on the birth of Goth, and give the acclaim to Bauhaus. Mainly as they seemed to be the template that all early Gothic bands wanted to follow, especially male Goths who dreamt of being an thin as Pete Murphy (Mr Murphy has always been the bane of any Goth male - unless they were as painfully thin with superb cheek bones).
"Bauhaus released the first Gothic single of course"
And Bowie was a major influence of Bauhaus. I felt I had to ask... what exactly is Goth?
"I get asked that SO much." She pauses readying the standard answer to my unoriginal question... "My definition of Goth is a dark aesthetic. That's what I always say. You can't really put your finger on it. It means so many things to so many different people. Read the book, in it I explore where it came from." I have now, and it does. "Gothic has been part of our lexicon. People understand what it is. Style of architecture, of art work, but it doesn't really translate to what Goth is. The interesting thing is when I started doing the research for the book was speaking to people in other countries and understanding how it translated to them. The older Goths" (i.e. ME) "think of it as post punk. Then in the 80's horror comes into the mix, and in the 90's it changes again with Cybergoth, Gothic Lolita and Steampunk. By the time you reach the present day you find yourself asking what is Goth now? It's such a mish mash of different things and it means different things to so many different people. How do you put a finger on it?"
At this point I began regaling poor Natasha with my own potted history of Goth, as if being there made me an expert. I won't bore you with it here, but if you want to laugh at seeing me show my age check out the video of our chat (address below). Suffice to say, it involved New Romantics discovering black and Marc Almond crimping his hair. After a short rant I put my journalist head back on and asked a question...
So how did Goth spread, from a little English thing to the whole world?
"Well people think of it being English, with Sex Pistols and Vivienne Westwood and it was very British, but there were punk scenes happening in other countries as well." I can feel it coming... "Look at America, the garage punk scene with the Stooges, the Ramones and the avant garde scene with Patti Smith and the whole New York scene which wasn't Goth per say" (or even punk... but that's my opinion - this rewriting of history that Punk started in the US took place in the mid 90's. Before then there was the US New York scene, that gave the influences to what became Punk. Oops, I've started again. I wonder was I the right person to cover this story?)
"There was elements of Gothic about... Take the Cramps, who were thought of a having something gothicy about them, although in hindsight we'd say 'No they were psychobilly'."
I chipped in (again) to comment that this was very fluid era, this Post Punk Blank
"Or Positive Punk, as the NME called it."
I must admit I didn't remember it as positive. In fact the battle cry of my teenage years was I'm So bored. So if there were all of these various music scenes all over the world, how did they all become Goth? If you said to the man in the street... what's Goth?... they would all kind of describe the same thing.
"Marilyn Manson" Natasha replies like a shot, causing much mirth. She goes on to answer a question I asked way back. (I am not excelling at this interview!)
"It reached all over the world due to touring bands. When bands like Siouxsie and The Banshees, The Cure, The Cult, The Sisters of Mercy and The Specimen started playing in other countries people looked at them and thought they have an interesting way of dressing and an interesting sound and they started translating that into their own thing. That's not to say to say there weren't people flirting around with that kind of thing prior to that, because there were things happening in France and as I mentioned in America. The Deathrock explosion that came out of the metal scene rather than the punk scene. There were things happening all over the place. Bands come over take a little bit of this and a little bit of that and then the band goes back again.
One of the interesting things I talk about in the book" (good girl, get back on track, you're here to plug a book) "where you have the influence between The Batcave and Deathrock. Where people from opposite ends of scenes and from very different countries trying to do a similar kind of thing. The Batcave, as The Specimen, goes over to America and takes a little bit of Deathrock and then Christian Death comes over to the Batcave and takes little bits of Goth and it all kind of cross pollinates. Same with Australia, with acts like Birthday Party and Dead Can Dance, who come over to London takes a little bit and then goes back. So it all went back and forth and influences each other"
So it was that influencing each other that led it become a worldwide movement. How has Goth influenced mainstream culture?
"The mainstream takes little bits and pieces. In the 80's Goth was very mainstream in the UK. When I think of the 80s I think of Goth. You could go into C&A and buy your gothicy kind of things. Nowadays the more people from our scene are in the public eye the more people take influences from them. There are even rap bands sampling Siouxsie and the Banshees, which is kind of WHAT?"
We both break out into a nervous laugh, as the idea is kind of as frightening as it is funny.
"TV soaps now even have Goth characters. The more popular it becomes the more it speaks to a younger generation, the more it comes into popular culture"
I think this question does highlight the only flaw in Natasha's book. It focuses almost entirely on the music scene and has very little on other types of art or culture. In a world of Twilight and True Blood, and South Park's Goth Kids surely the Gothic scene has had an effect on how people think that extends beyond what music they play?
I wondered what the future might hold for the Goth scene?
"I think it is just going to continue to evolve. I mean Goth has been going for so long already, let's say 35 years, possibly even longer if you include the Doors, the Velvet Underground and even to some extent the Beatnik Generation who were quite Gothic in a way, so I think it will continue to evolve. Whether it is still called Gothic or Goth remains to be seen. But there's new stuff happening all the while. There's new bands coming out of Shoreditch at the moment that have a very post punk sound. O'Children or Romance. If you listen to these their influences are Joy Division, The Sisters and The Cult but yet they don't identify with being Gothic and they don't look like Goths look. It's interesting as it's an evolution. I think things have to evolve in order to survive. It's natural selection if you like"
With the interview in the bag, and my own opinions on this important issue aired, I wanted to know what was next for Natasha?
"Well... lots of plugging for the book, lots of writing and I have some other books that I already been working on which I plan to tweak and get out there."
With that I thanked Natasha and we turned off the camera. Afterwards we chatted some more, I continued battering the poor woman with my own views on the history of Goth while she nodded politely and we had a cup of tea. After she left I found myself feeling the need to put on some old Goth hits, and some of the newer stuff I had found trawling the Internet. Now my wife and I are planning to go down the Slimelight again, after a few years away and a visit to the Electric Ballroom is on the cards too. I also look at the video and wonder where has the old Mik gone? Sitting there in jeans with my peroxide growing out, I don't even look like a ghost of the old Goth me. So it looks like meeting Natasha and reading her book has rekindled the Goth beating deep inside of me.
Worldwide Gothic - A Chronicle of a Tribe is available now via IMP Books
