Their journey could be said to encapsulate all aspects of what would become Goth, including a journey out of punk, a literate approach to their music, intense emotions and, ultimately, tragedy. Joy Division’s musical and literary influences are discussed, as is their approach to songwriting and recording with “ mad professor” Martin Hannett and, of course, their sad and untimely end. A history of goth and the context of how the music genre came about. How you feel about the book will probably depend on your interests in the individual artists as often the artist's connections to goth will be somewhat thin or denoting a very brief part of that artist's history. This leads to weird cases where Adam Ant (an artist I've never seen associated with goth) gets equal space to Bauhaus or Sisters of Mercy. After the latter the book sort of peters out, which is a shame. Joy Division may not be everyone’s idea of a Goth band, but it can’t reasonably be denied that their take on Post Punk was hugely influential. As Robb puts it “ There would be few bands in the future Goth scene that did not take something from the Joy Division sound – whether it was those melancholic melodic bass lines, that baritone vocal style or the death disco motorik rhythms of the drums.” A real labour of love (a decade in the making) Robb’s book takes as its jumping-off point the architecture, literature and philosophy that was deemed “Gothic”. There is an academic approach here, but never is it inaccessible. There is also, as Robb asserts, a socio-economic aspect to the goth scene, emerging as it did at the tail end of punk. Goth can be regarded as the more glamorous cousin to punk, but to dismiss it as decadent or frivolous is to miss the point. Of course, a crushed velvet, vintage aesthetic is one element, but goths always had something to say. Witness Jaz Coleman from Killing Joke, and his apocalyptic visions, many of which proved prescient. Or Siouxsie Sioux and Robert Smith writing about mental health issues, racism and alienation, when such issues still remained taboo in the 70s and 80s. The Cure – Robert Smith, Clifford Leon Anderson, Paul ‘Porl’ Thompson And Lol Tolhurst, Covent Garden – 1984

JOHN ROBB – THE ART OF DARKNESS – THE HISTORY OF GOTH JOHN ROBB – THE ART OF DARKNESS – THE HISTORY OF GOTH

The book is the first major and only complete comprehensive overview of Goth music and culture and its lasting legacy. Starting with a night out in a Goth club it then goes on a deep dive around the culture! The Art of Darkness takes a roughly chronological approach, certainly in its early chapters. The book starts by looking at the VisiGoths and the fall of the Roman Empire, so we can see that this is no lightweight look at the subject. Starting the book with the VisiGoths may seem more like etymology than musical study, but Robb seems determined to leave no stone unturned in his exploration of the roots of Goth culture.Gloriously knowledgeable and inclusive, rich with words like crystalline, lysergic, spectral, and stuffed with stories about the bands who changed your life as a teenager." Irish Independent I'm told there are sporadic factual errors: studio names, recording times, and so forth. Aside from a glaring reference to Alan Moore as a "famous comic book ARTIST," most those errors slid past me. In any case, the majority of this section draws from personal accounts, and so those errors may simply come from disparities between memory and records.

John Robb - The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth John Robb - The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth

Robb recalled how Bauhaus, who are considered to be the forefathers of British goth, saw Bowie perform ‘Starman’ on Top Of The Pops and described it as a “profound turning point in their lives.” “It’s simple,” Robb continued. “No Bowie, no scene.” READ MORE: The Cure photographer Paul Cox: “Robert Smith is a normal bloke – but he has a presence” Other parts of the book focus on highlighting the female artists who were central to the scene, and the importance of grassroots venues to the development of sub-cultures like goth. “Places like The Batcave in London and The Phono in Leeds were massive in bringing the goth movement together,” Robb said. In Art of Darkness, Robb writes: “The world is full of newer bands touched by the dark velvet hand of goth”, and Fontaines DC are a perfect example. Grian Chatten has spoken about the influence The Cure’s 2001 Greatest Hits had on him as a child, Conor Curley has described the Gun Club’s Mother of Earth as his favourite guitar riff of all time and the ghosts of Leonard Cohen and Lee Hazlewood (another of Unsworth’s Gothfathers) hover over the shimmering fairytales on Chatten’s beautiful solo album, Chaos For the Fly. The roots of The Cure’s Gothic résumé come in the shape of three albums: Seventeen Seconds, Faith, and Pornography,” Tolhurst writes. “The Cure needed a way out of the situation that we found ourselves in, but first we had to undergo a quest to fully understand who we were and where we came from.”

Whether it was their DJs playing The Sisters Of Mercy, Siouxsie or The Cramps, giving people a space to dress up without fear, or giving bands their first gigs…there would be no movement without those places. We must continue to protect them,” he said, at a time when live venues are still under threat post COVID and amid the cost-of-living-crisis. John Robb brilliantly illuminates the realm of imagination and dark beauty. Enter the other side of love. The kingdom of Goth is within you.'

John Robb on his massive new goth book: “It’s simple: no John Robb on his massive new goth book: “It’s simple: no

Another expert who spoke to Robb for his book was Johnny Marr. “He’s a musical encyclopaedia and a Bauhaus fan, so that helped a lot,” said Robb. youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjvvK-Rj0WI&w=560&h=315]Siouxsie And The Banshees – Spellbound (Official Music Video) – YouTube To do this Robb initially takes a different band for each chapter and goes in depth into their history and their relevance to Goth. With this we get what feel like extended essays on the likes of Joy Division, The Birthday Party, Bauhaus, The Cramps, Sisters Of Mercy and more…

Robb said that he hopes his book will do for goth what Jon Savage’s book, England’s Dreaming, did for punk in getting people to take it more seriously. “It’s a very artistic movement with its roots in great literature and architecture, from Edgar Allen Poe to the cathedrals of Gothenburg and beyond,” he said. Marr also recalled the time he managed a goth clothes shop in Manchester, helping Robb to chart the rise of goths visual identity. This textual Gormenghast starts out SO WELL. By the end, however, I wanted to throw it at Robb's head, the editor's head, and the head(s) of everyone who let it go to press in this condition. At this book's price point, this level of sloppiness is inexcusable.

The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth - John Robb - Google

Bowie has a whole chapter dedicated to his influence on the genre. “Goth was a kind of dark glam and Bowie helped to create that: he was important in creating the theatre of it all,” said Robb. “His lyrics and music took us into darker places; he gave goth the imaginative space it needed to exist.”John Robb, who writes in Art of Darkness: 'The world is full of newer bands touched by the dark velvet hand of goth' Robb also discovered that in the same month the review was published, Iggy Pop was also watching Morrison while still a student at university. “Iggy was heavily influenced by Morrison,” Robb says. “You could see that darkness running through his work from the beginning.” Siouxsie and the Banshees were to create more shimmering Goth classics such as Spellbound, Happy House and Arabian Knights, keeping their pole position for many years. Adam Ant may seem a surprising inclusion to some, but the influence of early Adam and the Ants spread out to the likes of Southern Death Cult and the tribal rhythms of what was initially dubbed the Positive Punk scene and the Ants followers were to become equally influential, with their fanzines, their fashions and their fanatical devotion to following the band around on tour, as detailed in Johna Johnson’s books. MyHome.ie (Opens in new window) • Top 1000 • The Gloss (Opens in new window) • Recruit Ireland (Opens in new window) • Irish Times Training (Opens in new window)