Batcave (club)
The Batcave was a nightclub in Soho , London , which existed from 1982 to 1985 and was the hub of the British Gothic scene.
background
The beginnings: opening and celebrities
The Batcave opened on July 21, 1982 at 69 Dean Street in the Gargoyle Club building complex . The club was created by the glam goth band Specimen , which also performed live on the opening night; Nick Wade alias Nik Fiend, singer of the group Alien Sex Fiend, was one of the co-creators . In the early days, it mainly focused on post-punk , avant-garde and glam rock and was conceived as a meeting place for artists from different cultural areas, but the club soon developed into an important center for the gothic rock environment. In addition to Specimen and Alien Sex Fiend, the Virgin Prunes , Sex Gang Children and Test Dept. and thereby increased their level of awareness. Alien Sex Fiend were also the first band to emerge directly from the Batcave.
The batcave was on the fourth floor; A coffin-shaped passage led into a small room adorned with leather, lace and horror film accessories, which "seemed to be a cinema, cabaret, theater, discotheque and live club at the same time" . There, among other things, “Gothic Fiction” film classics and B-movies were shown or appearances by bands and cabaret artists .
“ The basis was the crazy idea that many, many people - photographers, fashion designers, musicians or painters, all kinds of characters from all possible walks of life - would come together to support one another. The people we knew in the early days of the Batcave were a very diverse group. The media just excluded that because they didn't want to hear about it. For them Gothic should only be one thing: Gothic. But the Batcave exploded into thousands, millions of tiny fragments. "
Other prominent guests and live bands were Siouxsie Sioux , Steve Severin , Robert Smith , Marc Almond (Marc & The Mambas), Ultravox , Nick Cave (The Birthday Party), JG Thirlwell (Foetus), Lydia Lunch , Ian Astbury , Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode), Boy George , Danielle Dax , The Damned , The Bollock Brothers , Jimmy Pursey ( Sham 69 ), Wayne County, Gary Glitter , Robert Pereno (as barman) and the later Sigue Sigue Sputnik . The resident DJs were Hamish McDonald (from Sexbeat) and Annie Hogan (band member of Marc & The Mambas).
“ Originally the English music press reacted very well to our plans, had reported about us in advance, and when we opened the shop was full. On our first evening the line in front of the door was about two hundred meters long and from now on this line was an integral part of the scene. "
However, not all visitors were completely enthusiastic about the club evenings:
“ We went because we got in for free; there was also a good atmosphere and the people were very nice. But the music was horrible! All this romanticization of death! Anyone who has ever been confronted with death knows that there is nothing romantic about it at all. "
Ironically, The Cure's “Pornography” album was one of the most played albums at the Batcave at the time. In October 1982 a BBC ( BBC 2 ) film team entered the club and made recordings for the Halloween edition of the program "Riverside".
Flowering time: The Batcave is traveling
By the end of 1982, the Batcave had become so popular that it had to move to a new location. It then moved to the top floor of the Subway Club in Leicester Square (West End of London) . Here, too, there was soon a lack of space, so it was three more times, first in Foubert's nightclub on Foubert's Place , then in Heaven in Trafalgar Square and shortly afterwards in the Cellar Bar near the underground station “ Charing Cross ” in the London borough Westminster , moved. During this period, “Gothic” was fully developed as a new, homogeneous youth scene.
“ We were from Dublin, so we felt a bit out of the way of everything that was going on in London with the Batcave. But I can remember being there often, with people like Marc Almond. There was something like the beginning of a new movement in the air in terms of clothes and music. I don't think we ever really understood ourselves as part of it, but we did notice that there was a very abrupt change in the way the people who came to our concerts were dressed. We started in 1979/1980 and back then it was a pretty normal audience, I think. But from around 1982 people came in Gothic style. "
In 1983 a club-own compilation was released on London Records under the title "Batcave: Young Limbs and Numb Hymns" , for artists such as Alien Sex Fiend, Specimen, Sexbeat and Test Dept. contributed some tracks. Another compilation, which was put together by Dave Roberts (Sex Gang Children), appeared simultaneously under the name "The Whip" on Camera Records and presented bands like Play Dead , Blood & Roses , Sex Gang Children as well as artists like Dave Vanian , Marc Almond and Andi Sexgang (the latter two in a duet). This compilation reached # 3 on the British independent charts in May 1983.
With the success of both compilations, the Batcave went on tour in England in June 1983. The resident formations Specimen and Alien Sex Fiend went out with the entire club facility and held parties in several cities across the country. Almost every evening a different nightclub was opened up and completely redecorated to match the atmosphere of the Batcave Club.
“ It was a sensational performance, as even the most savvy promoters had to admit, and it lured the most fascinating goths you've ever seen out of their tombs. […] They were no longer the depraved children of an evil Dave Vanian, they were no longer the stupid descendants of the Addams and the Munsters. In 1983 Gothic was a wild glorification of fantasy and magic, of beauty and elegance, and few who came into contact with the scene during that time were unaffected by the experience. "
On April 5, 1984, the group Christian Death set foot on British soil for the first time with a performance in the Batcave.
The decline: descent and closure
In the years that followed, the Batcave became a tourist attraction. Because of this change and as a result of the regression of the Gothic Rock movement, the audience stayed away more and more often. In 1985, the number of visitors dropped so much that the club moved back to its original location at 69 Dean Street . The Batcave had to close its doors in the middle of the same year. The resident formation Specimen separated a short time afterwards.
“ In the mid-1980s, the Gothic scene was in ruins. The Batcave was a thing of the past, and with it all the bands that had once been on the front lines were gone. "
A brief competitor to the Batcave Club was the Kit Kat nightclub in Notting Hill, opened by Simon Hobart in the mid-1980s .
Top 10, 1983
The club charts from 1983–1984. During these years the Batcave Club and the early Gothic movement experienced a cultural heyday.
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Current usage
In the meantime, the term “Batcave” is used as a synonym for early Gothic Rock (cf. Gothic Punk ), as well as for a subculture of the Gothic movement with an active network with the American Death Rock scene.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Dave Thompson / Kirsten Borchardt Shadow World Heroes and Legends of Gothic Rock Page 182 2004 ISBN 3-85445-236-5
- ↑ a b Dave Thompson / Kirsten Borchardt Shadow World Heroes and Legends of Gothic Rock Page 189 2004 ISBN 3-85445-236-5
- ↑ a b Dave Thompson / Kirsten Borchardt Shadow World Heroes and Legends of Gothic Rock Page 180 2004 ISBN 3-85445-236-5
- ↑ Dave Thompson / Kirsten Borchardt · Shadow World · Heroes and Legends of Gothic Rock · Page 178 · 2004 · ISBN 3-85445-236-5
- ↑ a b c Dave Thompson / Kirsten Borchardt · Shadow World · Heroes and Legends of Gothic Rock · Page 187 · 2004 · ISBN 3-85445-236-5
- ↑ Mick Mercer · Zillo Music Magazine · Issue No. 9/95 Zillo Report Gothic History Part 3 Page 74 September 1995
- ↑ Dave Thompson / Kirsten Borchardt · Shadow World · Heroes and Legends of Gothic Rock · Page 205 · 2004 · ISBN 3-85445-236-5
- ↑ Dave Thompson / Kirsten Borchardt · Shadow World · Heroes and Legends of Gothic Rock · Page 206 · 2004 · ISBN 3-85445-236-5
- ↑ a b Dave Thompson / Kirsten Borchardt Shadow World Heroes and Legends of Gothic Rock Page 207 2004 ISBN 3-85445-236-5
- ^ The Blue Hour Christian Death Rozz Williams' Chronological Live Performances http://thebluehour.free.fr/rozzlive.htm
- ↑ Dave Thompson / Kirsten Borchardt · Shadow World · Heroes and Legends of Gothic Rock · Page 238 · 2004 · ISBN 3-85445-236-5
- ↑ Dave Thompson / Kirsten Borchardt · Shadow World · Heroes and Legends of Gothic Rock · Page 244 · 2004 · ISBN 3-85445-236-5
- ↑ Scathe Demon · A History of Goth · Batcave · The Face Magazine · Online Article Part 1 ( Memento of March 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) / Online Article Part 2 ( Memento of March 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
