No. 5 - Made Glorious, The March Violets (2013)

(Over a series of twenty short posts – one per week for the remaining weeks of this decade – I am aiming to highlight in vaguely chronological order some of the most important and influential releases in the goth/post-punk/darkwave genre of the 2010’s).

Having examined artists from the first wave of post-punk who had undergone a renaissance in the early years of this decade in the last post, this week we turn our attention to some of the band who reformed having been away for over thirty years in one case. Until the digital age, bands from the past who reformed and wanted to release new material were faced not only with a sceptical music industry but also the reluctance of fans to try something other than the band’s own classics. However, the rise of crowdfunding initiatives in the 2000s and in particular the birth of Pledge Music in 2009 allowed bands “direct-to-fan” access without the need to raise vast amounts of capital from other external sources (eg record companies), with the added advantage of allowing bands to retain complete artistic control.

One post-punk band who took particular advantage of this opportunity were Leeds band The March Violets, early stablemates of The Sisters of Mercy who seemed to have a strong influence on Eldritch’s own ideas of how his band should be. The Violets have a “beauty and the beast” image of grizzled singer and vamp queen? Eldritch grows a beard and recruits Patricia Morrison. Si D moves on and forms an all-lads-together Detroit rock (Stooges, MC5) influenced dark biker rock ensemble (Batfish Boys)? Von gets in Tim B, Andreas B and Tony J and takes the black leather clad Sisters back out on the road. You get the idea. Whilst the refined versions always seemed to work for Eldritch, the Violets and Batfish boys enjoyed only cult success, and so there was a relatively muted response to the Violets’ initial reformation in 2007 when they played Leeds Metropolitan University, selling the Trinity EP of new songs to attendees.

By 2011, the band were ready to release an album-worth of new songs and chose Pledge Music as a way to crowd-fund the project, with the subsequent Made Glorious album released in 2013. This was a stunning return to form for the Violets who sported 3/4 of the original line-up, with Rosie Garland and Si returning to joint vocal duties and mercurial guitarist Tom Ashton fleshing the sound in his unique style, with new bassist Jo and a drum machine providing the usual varied background, from straight rock to punk funk.

Very much “ahead of their time” back in the twentieth century (to misquote the lyric), the lush video by Ash TV productions for understated lead track Dandelion King gave an excellent indication of  both the variety and quality of the sound of the eventual album, with Denbigh’s half-spoken lyric contrasting wonderfully with Garland’s strong contralto, with Ashton as usual providing as many ideas in a single song as many bands manage in an entire album.

Other songs captured the true spirit of the original 80’s incarnation from the band, from the melodious upbeat title track, through the dark and sinister Dress 4 U to the punkier and political London’s Burning, where in a series of memorable images (“King Canute in a business suit”, “there’s a wave of anger flowing through this land”) Denbigh rails against the greed and self-interest of the capital’s financial institutions in the wake of the Credit Crunch, a message which is still as strong today as when it was written at the beginning of the decade.

The Violets would go on to host another highly innovative Pledge project Mortality, revisiting many of their 80’s classics, but sadly this only exists as a digital download to subscribers following a serious health issue for one of the band just as the album reached fruition.

Many other seminal 1980’s bands reformed this decade and have issued high quality comeback albums. Of particular note is (only) the second album by one of the true post-punk originals, UK Decay, who managed to capture the thrills and dark energy of their debut on New Hope for the Dead, also crowdfunded via Pledge Music and released in 2013, and expertly produced by the late Chris Tsangerides. Despite the pace and power of lead track Shake ‘em Up, a call to arms for a new generation by original members Abbo and Spon, the track has been streamed on YouTube a mere four thousand times over the past six years, although Revolutionary Love Song, which has more of the tribal drumming and angular guitar slashes of the band’s earliest releases has enjoyed twice as many views, but this is still chicken-feed compared to the flimsiest contemporary electro-goth bleepathon. The Luton band continue to play European gothic festival circuit but the muted reception for what has been a riveting return to the scene must be hugely frustrating for them.

Another band whose comeback album was a critical success was Sweden’s Leather Nun, whose music intersected with many different 1980’s scenes (including punk, goth and post-punk) whilst remaining very much independent-minded musically as their career progressed. 2015’s Whatever brought together a series of songs which singer Jonas Almquist had originally recorded for his Godtherapy project the previous decade. Featuring songs in an eclectic mixture of styles, all topped off with Almquist’s honeyed croon, like Leather Nun releases in the past, the songs exude a certain louche after-midnight wrong-side-of-the-tracks swagger, and the sleazy decadent swagger of glam punk songs like Mainstream have surely been an influence on compatriots Then Comes Silence.

A fourth band deserving of a mention on this post about the best returning bands of the 1980’s is Shipley’s 1919, who released a trio of singles and an album in the early/mid-80’s whose bludgeoning attack was sonically compared to Killing Joke. Chief guitarist Mark Tighe and drummer Mick Reed reformed the band in the middle of the past decade and took the bold step of recruiting an outgoing young frontman Rio Goldhammer whose style is very different in every respect to that of original vocalist Ian Tilleard.

Whereas the original releases were a dark and challenging listen at times, the reformed band’s two albums to date, Bloodline and Futurecide add melody, subtlety (where appropriate) and a real confident swagger to the anger, power and drive of the earlier recordings, resulting in two impressive albums that have rightly raised the band’s position in the post-punk pecking order. Sadly, however, tragedy struck the band shortly before Bloodline’s release with the sudden passing of Mark Tighe, but Reed and the others have reinvigorated the project by bringing in excellent new guitarist Sam Evans whilst always respecting the late Tighe’s legacy.

Finally, The Danse Society re-emerged from the shadows with two separate versions of the band touring. Guitarist Paul Nash may have won the legal battle to the band’s name, but drummer Paul Gilmartin’s version (now known as simply “The Society” has been the interesting project creatively and musically, with the latest EP Night Ship the highlight to date, and with the recent recruitment of Grape and Wolfie from The Expelaires, this is definitely a project worth following.