It’s a curious fact that whilst those most associated with the goth genre (Andrew Eldritch, Siouxsie Sioux et al) are always at pains to distance themselves from the epithet, those to whom it was erroneously or extremely tangentially applied seem more than happy to don the mantle. Take The Rose of Avalanche for example. The recently reformed (2019) band were immediately labelled as goth for the simple reason that they played guitar-based music with an occasionally melancholy twinge and came from the city of Leeds on their emergence in the mid-1980’s despite their music embracing a whole range of styles on their early recordings, whether their own compositions or their choice of cover versions, from up-tempo gothabilly rock’n’roll (Rise To The Groove or Dizzy Miss Lizzy), psychedelic doom (A Thousand Landscapes or Waiting for the Sun) or straightforward eight-to-the-bar rockers (Goddess or Gimme Some Lovin’).
Since their return
to the scene after a near three-decade absence, T’Rose have again been embraced
by the elder goth fraternity, touring with The Mission as well as playing both
the Goth City Festival in Leeds and Tomorrow’s Ghosts in Whitby, delighting the
large crowd at the latter with a surprise cover version of The Sisters of
Mercy’s Alice. The Rose of Avalanche never really got the credit which they deserved the first time around, due to a combination of line-up changes, contractual difficulties, and the sudden decline of the genre in general in the late 1980's, and as a result to many they remain an unexplored by-road on the great map of goth.
Their current
short summer mini-tour opened with a show at Audio in Glasgow, affording me and
other Scottish goths the chance to see the band headline a show for the first time in over
thirty years, thanks to promoters Songs of Preys, who will have been a little
disappointed to have attracted only fifty punters (the usual names and faces of
the central belt elder goth gig circuit) to the show despite a generous and
inflation-busting ticket price of only twelve pounds. Audio is the perfect
venue for these shows, one of those dingy, spartan, under-the-railway-arches
dives with a decent stage, a small bar and a no-nonsense nowhere-to-hide rectangular empty
space for the audience to bunch up and create an atmosphere, as was the case at
The Rose of Avalanche’s gig.
Before the band
took to the stage, the appreciative audience were treated to an impressive set
from Heartbreak Noir, which is effectively an acoustic duo version of The Faces
of Sarah, the last great goth band of the ‘second generation’ of the genre,
according to this seminal and comprehensive four-hour YouTube retrospective ofgoth’s lost decade which has almost a million views, which features the band as
its final track.
The acoustic
backing, provided by Emma Newby on guitar (and backing vocals), showcases the
powerful and emotional vocals of Nick Schultz, who delivered an impassioned
performance in a set which was liberally sprinkled with classics from their
Faces of Sarah era, with the stripped back and more minimalist backing allowing
those present to better appreciate the complexity of the song structures of,
for example, Belief or the set—closer Misery Turns, which
originally featured supporting vocals by Inkubbus Sukkubus’ Candia. Introducing
the highlight of their short set, Nick
explained the reason for the duo’s recent cover of Joy Division’s New Dawn
Fades, which stemmed from seeing a young Costa Rican band enthusiastically
covering JD songs when playing in the country as guests of fellow trad goth act
Last Dusk, emphasising both the camaraderie and the global networking of the
current goth scene, which is also very much in stripped-back form these days.
Video from YouTube posted by Vonbat
After the now
traditional set-opener Dreamland from their wonderful 1989 album In Rock,
The Rose of Avalanche had a further Whitby-style surprise up their sleeve for
their second song of the night, an excellent if shortened cover of the goth
anthem par excellence, Bela Lugosi’s Dead, which delighted the crowd and
was also clearly enjoyed by the band themselves, a feature of their live
performances these days which was much discussed in Michelle Corns’ excellent
recent interview with the band for the Reflections of Darkness website.
My (admittedly fading) memories of seeing the band in a live setting in the 1980’s were of a rather dour group with a vocalist given to speaking in a fake mid-Atlantic drawl and whose relationship with the concept of pitch was something of a moveable feast, but mercifully the 2023 iteration of the Rose of Avalanche are very much an uplifting experience, with singer Phil Morris’ Leeds accent to the fore and his vocals significantly stronger than they were in the mid-80’s. His relaxed demeanour and confident vocal delivery were typical of a band on the top of their form, with fellow founder member and lead guitarist Glenn Schultz’s rock flourishes on crowd-pleasers like Too Many Castles In the Sky and Goddess giving the songs both a certain bite and a sense of authenticity. The recent integration of genuine goth guitar legend Dave “Wolfie” Wolfenden (ex-Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and The Mission amongst many others) on second guitar (drafted in to replace the genial Paul James Berry, who sadly left the project again last year) has not only helped to raise the band’s profile, but enhanced the overall sound, as at Audio he showcased an astonishing array of technical skills acquired in almost fifty years of honing his craft, whether imitating the eldritch (in its OED sense) scratchings of Daniel Ash on Bela Lugosi’s Dead or improvising Asheton-style howling feedback loops on the second encore of The Stooges’ Loose. Cowboy-hatted bassist Alan Davis, another original member and the band’s driving force these days, provided a solid bottom line to the melancholic slow-burning epics which were the group's real forte such as LA Rain, Never Another Sunset and the band’s signature tune, Velveteen, where Morris' lilting baritone is best highlighted, whilst efficient drummer Mark Thomson, another survivor from the 1980’s, enjoyed an unexpected moment in the spotlight at the beginning of first encore Alice when the teasing Wolfie repeatedly faked playing the opening guitar riff in what turned into an extended intro. The latter incident sums up the spirit of an evening which was enjoyed as much by the band as by the small but enthusiastic crowd, old goths enjoying themselves and revelling in some of the best music of the past forty years.
Whilst the band
only showcased the one recent composition, The Man, and seem in no rush
to release new material, they will surely be in demand from European festival
organisers and tour promoters looking for highly competent and professional first-generation goth acts with a stellar back catalogue happy to not only acknowledge their own roots but to pay their respects to
their more successful contemporaries.
Click here to access The Rose of Avalanche's website
Click here to access the Heartbreak Noir Bandcamp page
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