There’s always something really authentic and deeply satisfying about going to a goth gig at Nice n Sleazy in Glasgow – perhaps it’s the steep staircase, reminiscent of that of the legendary Phono in Leeds, leading down to the dingy gig room, it could be the timeless, simple layout of the venue itself, a rectangular low-roofed space with a very low stage at one end and a small bar at the other, or maybe it’s the wall of sound that emerges when you open the sound-proofed door.
Descending that staircase on Tuesday evening, I could still
easily make out (through the opaque glass in the entrance door to the dimly-lit
room) the instantly recognisable monochrome figure of Joel Heyes, sole member of
headliner Byronic Sex and Exile, hunched over a desk containing the
paraphernalia of the modern gigging goth artiste; presale list and highlighter
pen – check; handstamp for pass-outs (on this occasion bearing the legend “Goth
City, Leeds U.K” in, what else black ink – in my teenage years I would have
avoided washing my hands for a week to try to prolong any vicarious cool which
evidence of my attendance at a particular gig may have afforded) – check;
copies of CDs and t-shirts for sale, the best chance for the artist to make any
money from the show – check; credit card-reader – check; candelabra (well, this
is BS&E)– check. Such is the glamorous life of the modern-day gothic-rock
troubadour. I don’t remember the likes of Andrew Eldritch or Peter Murphy
having to work on the door or sell their own merch in their band’s early days,
but this is the norm in 2023 for even the scene’s leading lights. For this gig,
Joel has left his trusty (or rather, untrustworthy) hearse at home and
travelled four hours by train along with his Bronte hero/villain Victorian
dandy stage garb, his guitar, the afore-mentioned items on the entrance desk
and his other stage props, all lugged from station to hotel to venue.
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| Gothzilla |
Looking towards the other end of the room, I could see Scottish goth duo Gothzilla starting their set to no more than a dozen punters, which included the members of the opening act who had already performed, It (made up of two-thirds of the former members of 90’s eclectro-goth stalwarts Libitina). But rather than bemoaning the lack of attendees, Gothzilla mainman Tim Jarvis seemed to positively revel in the situation, demanding audience participation which in the circumstances it would have been extremely churlish to refuse, and he and guitarist Mike (who replaced long-serving Stuart Harbut and rejoined the band earlier this year from The Dead Seasons, whom ironically they had replaced at this gig due to a last-minute covid-related issue) treated the few of us present a storming set of classic drum-machine driven upbeat goth rock from their multi-album career, but much more energetic and powerful than their studio releases. Jarvis is an excellent vocalist and usually bills the band as “for fans of The Sisters of Mercy” to give an indication of their main influence, and the pair’s tight renditions of the highlights of their back catalogue certainly went down well, in front of their “Goth and Proud” stage banner. Ending their all-too-brief set as usual with a barnstorming rendition of goth club classic The Temple Of Sound, they left what passes for a stage with a reminder that they will be back in Glasgow in the spring, supporting 1919 (although they are playing a gig in Aberdeen before the end of the year), another double bill not to be missed.
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| Stage Fright |
Equally unperturbed by the poor turnout was Joel Heyes, a gothic national treasure if ever there was one, joining the ranks of the likes of Mick Mercer, Trevor Bamford and other keepers of the UK gothic flame. Label boss, festival organiser, charity fundraiser and uber-prolific one-man band, Heyes unbelievably also has a day job and still finds the time to maintain a strong social media presence, creating a strong brand that occasionally sees him pigeonholed as Leeds’ "Mr Goth" in the same way as others begrudgingly carve out a career for example as a “professional Northerner”. A Byronic Sex and Exile show is as much an event as a gig, and Heyes took to the stage carrying his now-lit candelabra, lurching from the back of the hall towards. and peering at, the small gaggles of attendees like a latter-day graveyard-bothering Wee Willie Winkie as he prepared for the performance ahead. Not since The Virgin Prunes' infamous Channel 4 TV performance of 1982 has someone pulled off such a dramatic candle-related start to a gig, no mean feat when the audience barely reaches into double figures. Launching into Grave Is In The Heart (from the equally puntastically-titled but wonderful current album Everything But The Ghoul), Heyes puts on a typically impassioned one-man show, strumming frantically at his guitar over the pre-recorded backing, eyes closed as he strained for the lower reaches of his lugubrious Yorkshire baritone, with the show enhanced by the usual props - his famous sword during Death and Joy and the Hamlet-inspired skull to whom he addressed the opening of the more jaunty Damned-influenced Monster Man. The centre of the set was the typical Tombstone World, again from the new album, building slowly from a simple four-chord motif like many past BS&E classics. With the venue curfew approaching, Heyes ended with two bangers from his previous album, Your Name On The Wind and Leviathan, all Floodland guitar and anthemic chorus.
Taking a counter-intuitively positive take on the distinct lack of last-minute walk up customers – “quality, not quantity” - (probably due to this gig being sandwiched by expensive shows by Death Cult and The Sisters of Mercy and in the same week as local gigs by Sex Gang Children and Kirk Brandon), Heyes felt that the current tour is nevertheless a success having already broken even financially, and told me that variations in attendance are to be expected at his level (the previous night had seen a larger-than-predicted audience in Nottingham for example), but his (and Tim Jarvis’) indefatigability is what has kept the scene alive - or at least undead - during (no pun intended) dark days.
The current scene is arguably more deserving of your support than the afore-mentioned heritage/nostalgia acts trying to re-create past glories, and the newer band scene is certainly more democratic and unified, with the acts supporting each other to try to make ends meet. Whilst pairing older and newer acts on multi-band bills gives more recent acts at least the opportunity to prise open the closed minds of the elder goth community, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that like many current acts, Heyes was born twenty (or is it two hundred?) years too late, and, realistically, barring an unlikely mainstream goth revival, his impressive series of releases and live shows will never reach the size of audience they deserve.
