80s "goth"/ punk/ alternative

[KooKooKachu]

I was just wondering if any MNers were on the goth scene in the 80s? What did you call yourselves? Some groups called themselves goths, some called themselves psychobillies, a lot didnt attach a label to themselves.

I've been watching documentaries on youtube about The Batcave in London and I thought it looked ace. They had bands like The Cure and Bauhaus play there.

I was only born in 86, but I was on the rock/metal/goth scene of the early - mid noughties.

I wonder how much has changed since the 80s. I still listen to a lot of the music but my music tastes have definitely diversified. I wear a very average boring dress code now.

So, if any of you were on the trad goth scene of 80s what was it like and what were the clubs like? Did your appearance get met with 'disapproval' from people or did no one really bat an eye lid?

I wasn't a goth (though I got called it - black and purple wardrobe, military coats, black fedora with flowing scarves, zillions of bangles, and lots of eyeliner, naturally pale - I was a glam metal fan), but DH had a real thing for goth girls in his youth and used to go to parties where you'd get lots of women in vintage tatty wedding dresses and dead flower headdresses. He had beautiful curly hair all down his back, but never made a very convincing goth as he's 6'3 and big built. But in those days he wore an ankle length trench coat, skinny black jeans and purple shirts so not hardcore goth.
A lot of the goth scene now seems to visually cross over with SteamPunk, but theres certainly loads of goths at Download

I havent been to download in over a decade I used to be fun.

MN is my social life now.

Oh, my parents were useless as something to rebel against! My Mum used to make some of my clothes and taught me how to backcomb my hair - she said the principles were the same whether you were aiming for a Beehive or a Patricia Morrison.

That's another thing I feel so missing. People used to go to great lengths to put their own stamp on their clothes,make up, hair etc.

I don't see that level of commitment from anyone these days

DS being old enough to go to Download (when he was 12) was just brilliant, and he loved it - we stay in a hotel though. We have tickets for Rammstein next year which will be his first stadium gig (he'll be nearly 15, and is 6'2 already, so able to cope in the open area). Couldn't tell you the last time I went to a club, but this year should have been the one we could start going to gigs routinely with him and so get out ourselves without a massive faff.
He has a black tactical kilt, para boots, and Razorstorm t shirts, so looks great (biased mum).

My mum was brilliant too - she would reline my vintage shop finds, made me very short velvet dresses, and helped me henna my hair. You had to have commitment in the 80's to find stuff though - I lived in a small market town, and there was one alternative clothing shop in Reading (maybe called Magpie?), and otherwise it was sending off for things advertised in the back of Kerrang. The first time I went shopping in London, my head was totally blown with the choice as well as people who looked like I wanted to look

He sounds awesome CMOT! Really hope he enjoys Rammstein. Does make me feel ancient thinking that I watched them when I was 15 🙈
Cant wait til I can take my kids to stuff like that (I will probably be too embarrassing for them to hang out with though).

I was a goth in the late 80s early 90s. There was a goth/indie club where I went to uni which was fab. Everything was so inclusive though, literally anyone would go and no one would bat an eyelid at whatever you wore.
Still my favourite gig ever was Fields of the Nephilim I think it was at Manchester Apollo. So much dry ice you could hardly see the stage and lots of skinny goths throwing shapes. Bloody loved Carl McCoy.

I wish I was old enough in the 80s to enjoy the early stages of goth, post punk etc.
I love the styles, the music, all of it. Watching those youtube documentaries today, it was like watching another world. A cooler world. I wish I was there when it all began.

In Newcastle we called ourselves Crusties. Sort of Goth / New Age Traveller crossover.

I used to go to The Phono in Leeds back in the day. The goth scene is a lot more splintered now. In Europe and Scandinavia there are loads of goth influenced metal bands, but lots of British goths are snobby about the metal scene. Check out Wave Gotik Treffen online (Festival that happens in Leipzig every year - not this obviously)

Giggling away here at Crusties. Never heard that before

You've never heard of crusties??!

[quote KooKooKachu]@Ihopeyourcakeisshit - I'm guessing there was no local club where you lived?

Tectonic - it warms my little black heart to hear there is still a scene.[/quote]
Only the Golf club

I've never thought of Crusties as a spin off of goth. They were always more of a Levellers/ New Model Army group I might see at rock night, but more likely at Indie night

@Ghostlyglow

You've never heard of crusties??!

Nah. Wasn't a word round my way.

I was a goth, or alternative as we were also called in the early 80’s when I was 17. I remember refusing to sit in the sun on a family holiday I was forced to join as I didn’t want a tan. I was very pale, black eyes and very red and occasionally black lips. There was a small group of us, we didn’t have much money so used to make our hair spikey with soap and managed to find a very cheap lipstick in the market (I think it was called Constance carrol) that stained our hair. There weren’t many coloured hair dyes available then. All black clothes of course, and studded belts etc that often had to be removed before we were allowed to enter ‘straight’ pubs. Used to occasionally go to the Phonigraphique in Leeds when finances allowed. Listened to Bauhaus, Siouxsie, Damned, Gina X. Didn’t see any live sadly. I remember buying very elegant black gloves that reached the top of my arms In Lewis’s in Leeds and the very snooty assistant almost hissing ‘we sell lots of these to people like you’. Also shopped in X Clothes and another shop that I think was called alternatives, but can’t quite remember now. I’m also hoping due to the very sad recession and potential depression the music and look will return. Also punk. I was a bit too young for that scene but love it now.

@CMOTDibbler, was it Phyl's Magpie's Nest in the indoor market? I loved that place.

I used to go to Planet X in Liverpool, that was punk/goth/whatever. It was rough really, I saw some very unsavoury sights in there.

@Hangingbasketofdoom

In my hometown we didn't have a separate club but the regular club would have a really short indie/goth section at the start, where we would shuffle around to the stone roses and throw ourselves about a bit more to the Sisters of Mercy. Then retire to the bar and drink purple nasties for the rest of the evening

This was my teenage life too! I still wear mostly black, have dark hair with an undercut and am as pale as ever - although I couldn't be bothered with the effort of the make up and the backcombing. I gave up snake bite and black when I was expecting my first child and never really found a replacement drink.

My proudest goth moment was one windy day in about 1988 - it was a market day in my small college town. Wearing lots of black lace, eye sockets fully blacked with my new black eyeliner, I was walking up a hill when a gust of wind blew my hair straight up so it looked like a foot high on top of my head. A passing farmer was so distracted, he crashed his car!!! Made my day!!

Constance Carroll makeup! Soooo greasy! Sooooo cheap!
I saved up to go to the Leichner stand in a department store when I could afford it, but it was good old CC when I couldn’t.

I think I morphed into a crusty then as I loved New Model Army and added some para boots to my docs collection Very wholly jumpers I remember too, though I never had the dog-on-a-string sadly.
@Thebearsbunny I remember using "straight" in that sense too - as in, he's nice but he's too straight for me - would sound very odd nowadays!

Constance Carroll make up. My mum and sis had loads of that lying around.

We called ourselves new wave

I was a goth in the late 80’s - early 90’s. There wasn’t many of us, just a gang of 5th form boys and me. I loved The Mission and The Sisters of Mercy, I still do. I used to buy my clothes from Carnaby Street, mainly tie dye tassel skirts and black denim (could not afford leather) and trademark neon nails with black polka dots. My girl friends were pretty normal but after the fifth former boys left I got bullied at school for having coloured hair or some old bollocks. There was always a local goth pub and most of the older teenagers went there and drank snakebite but I was a bit too young and by the time I was old enough to legally drink they started to morph into gastro pubs. I saw The Mission a couple of years ago and they were better than ever. They do the best gigs, them and Suede (showing my indie side here).