The Screaming Target visits The British Music Experience to catch John Robb talk about his new book, The Art of Darkness, and hear tales of Liverpool “Goff culture”.

By Rob Harrison
Photograph by Tracey Dunn

Thursday night finds us at the The British Music experience. We are here for a discussion of “The Art of Darkness” by John Robb, a new history of Goth culture in both literature and music.

To add suitable atmosphere to the proceedings some gothic attire sits on the stage. Maybe dry ice would be good as well, but perhaps that would be stretching the budget a little too far, or maybe just a bit of Spinal Tap.

Flashed up on the screen at the back of the stage are old photographs from the Liverpool Goth club Planet X. Many of the pictures appear to have been collected from various different sources such as club members and friends’ photographs.

Some are of a high quality. Many though, as you would expect, were probably snapped drunk. But, whatever, life lived and all that. Quality aside, I’m excitedly trying to spot some people I might know, I’ve noticed a few. Ah, nostalgia.

One thing that they have in common is glamour. Well, most of them.They seem to all fit into the category of pretty boys and pretty girls. With the occasional ugly bloke thrown in for good measure, but these appear to be few and far between in the sea of desirables on show.

While I’m scanning the pictures looking for friends, John Robb enters stage left, to the strains of “Bela Lugosi’s dead” by Bauhaus. Unlike the count, John Robb looks extremely healthy, and not ghostly pale as one would imagine.

My imagination begins to run wild with the idea of him having been encased away in a castle on a remote island in Scotland, typing away at his manuscript that he has now unleashed upon the world (it’s alive). But, probably in reality beavering away in a flat in Leeds somewhere. Less romantic but functional.

I had come to the talk hoping to get a flavour of the new book as I’m actually interested in the gothic movement, bands or otherwise. But, instead the host, former Planet X DJ Marc Jones seems to be intent on turning the event into a Planet X reunion party. We were then, courtesy of Mr Jones, treated to various trips down memory lane

Perhaps in retrospect, this could have been a strategy created by John Robb as a way of personalising the different events as he made his way across the country promoting the book.

In defence of making the evening basically a Planet X reunion the club stands alone as being the only proper Goth club outside of the Batcave in London. Which was the original inspiration to Doreen the founder and club owner.

As the nostalgia trip rolled on the host Mark Jones, with rose tinted glasses now firmly in place, appeared to be on a mission to try to erase as many facts as possible from one of the most turbulent periods in the history of the city. Like so many things associated with music in Liverpool, it has become a romantic interlude, seen through the perspective of this rose tinted past.

It could be said that Planet X was quite a decadent space during one of the worst recessions Liverpool has known in its history. But, politics aside, some amazing music was created and played there. And credit to Doreen who always operated an open door policy. So, pretty well anybody could get in, and nobody was pushed out.

So it was much to John Robb’s credit, he managed to stop the nostalgia train a few times along the way and interject with some interesting facts, and also talk at length about his favourite Gothic bands. Through this he detailed his own personal Liverpool experience.

That being a little punk rocker from Blackpool, who would regularly commute to Liverpool in search of fun.

Liverpool had become a magnet for so many disaffected young people from small towns in the punk years and beyond. The agenda would be to come and hang around Probe records and check out local gigs. It must be seen that Liverpool as a catchment area covered a wide base from Lancashire to Wales, to the Wirral and Chester and beyond. They came to hang out and check out the scene, but many, like Robb, formed bands.

Similarly Gothic rock as a genre covers a wide base. It is quite easily identified as the subject matter is (dark). Having within its ranks such bands as The Birthday Party, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and the aforementioned Bauhaus,

At the same time it’s also quite ironic that the most influential bands and leaders of what is known as Gothic rock, The Banshees and The Birthday Party, surprisingly hate the tag and refuse to be identified as such within the genre seeing themselves more as post punk pioneers rather than goths.

But as a musical subculture Goth or Gothic Rock touches base with many different musical settings, and finds itself within the confines of groups people wouldn’t normally associate with goth rock.

An example of this strange disparity would be the Bowie album, “The man who sold the world”, along with Black Sabbath’s first album, it could be seen as one of the first gothic rock albums. Both were created in 1970.

The original idea within the Bowie camp was the creation of a progressive rock album as well. But what we got ultimately, was an early indie goth prototype with its themes of madness and sexual transgressions.

We can also name the Halfelson incarnation of Sparks in “Woofer in tweeter’s clothing”, this resplendent slice of “American Gothic” comes complete with church organs and tales of strange mutations created by modern science.

Finally, “Trout mask replica” by Captain Beefheart. Another helping of “American gothic”, this could be described as goth in its strange unworldly musical attributes.

So all in all a fun time was had by all I’m sure. Unfortunately Doreen Allen, the founder of “The Planet” as we used to call it, couldn’t make it tonight, due to illness. Let’s hope she makes a speedy recovery. John Robb’s book looks like a good read, I recommend you put it on your reading list.