VA - The Bristol Goth Explosion-The 80's (2024) [Hi-Res]

Bristol Archive present an album of the cream of Bristol’s 1980s ‘Goth’ scene. With sleeve notes from Pete Webb; a member of one of Bristol’s earliest Goth bands; Necromancy, quotes from Jon Klein of Specimen and in beautiful trans red vinyl, this is another hugely valuable document of the music and scene in Bristol and the Southwest.

The Bristol Goth explosion was a key part of the growth of the whole scene in the UK in many ways. Two bands on this compilation were formed in 1981: Specimen and Necromancy. Specimen made the move to London in 1982 and started the Batcave club now synonymous with the Goth story. The other; Necromancy stayed in Bristol and played and partied at the Bastille Club, a similar club to the Batcave, but a hidden and less known transgressive den for the emerging Gothic Punk scene.

The Bastille was infamous; you saw Quentin Crisp partying there, Friar Tuck locked in a dancer’s cage, Stan the Man a guy in yellow speedos on roller skates gliding around the dance floor and a 70-year-old regular flashing her knickers whilst doing the Can-Can! Members of the Cure, Bauhaus and Echo and the Bunnymen passed through the club and Bristol’s beautifully preened punks waltzed to the Blue Danube by Strauss one minute and Bauhaus the next.

The Bastille run by David Darling was a meeting point, party scene and the one part of the musical glue that tied these bands together. This album features Specimen, Claytown Troupe, Fear of Darkness, Necromancy, Temple, Exit Stance and The Long March many of whom frequented the Bastille. It is an album that represents the darker side of Punk and Post Punk and then the scene that became known as Goth, but it represents the variety of musical influences and styles that were involved in those scenes.

The album is dedicated to the key people, clubs and venues that contributed to its flourishing; the Bastille and its founder David Darling, music journalist Dave Massey (NME, Sounds) who supported and wrote about this scene in the mainstream and local music press at the time, the members of these bands and the people who went to the gigs and the clubs and who travelled the country looking and dressing in an incredible way. Another project instigated by Mike Darby and the wonderful Bristol Archive Records.