John Robb on his massive new goth book: “It’s simple: no Bowie, no scene”
nme.comMembranes frontman and journalist John Robb has spoken to NME about his new book detailing the origins and rise of goth.The monolithic book has taken 10 years to write and looks at artists including Bauhaus, Nick Cave and The Cure and their place in building one of music’s most important scenes.“I’ve read a lot of books about the post-punk period and goth is always just dismissively kicked away,” Robb told NME. “It’s always really annoyed me that people have been quite sniffy about bands like Bauhaus or Killing Joke, despite them being some of the best art rock bands this country has produced.
They were often looked down upon, all because they had a dark side and dressed up a bit.”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.After carrying out a “huge dredge” of the internet, Robb said he found the first known use of “goth” to describe an artist.“The Doors were the first band to be described as ‘gothic’ in October 1967, at a gig in New York,” he explained. “Jim Morrison had the baritone voice, wore the black leather, had a fixation on the Romantic poets.
He was a quintessential 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.
Read more on nme.com
