YOU HAD TO ASK.....
"We fall back into fields of rape...."
Fond memories of clubbing in the urban jungle, or the Gothscene in deepest
darkest Southern Africa.
According to Mick Mercer him of Hexfiles notoriety, South Africa's Goth scene merits just
11 whole lines, it has one representative band called The Wake, which does
not rate highly on his shit-hot-o'metre,and most SA goths are positively
overcome when Depeche Mode is played on the dancefloor. All hail the
almighty Mercer he's obviously in the know, right?
Well for the most part he
is correct as regards current SA Goth Music. Its decline and fall is
indicative of the entire alternative music scene over here which has always
delivered slim pickings to their largely indifferent followings. On the
other hand we SA goffs do know a thing or two about good import music and
would not patronize any club that played " Depeche Mode" so shove that one
up yer jumper Mick.
From about the mid Eighties there have been a few memorable South African
bands and some that like the Damned would just not lie down and bloody die.
Bands with names like Alice Strange( "SISTERS OF MERCY RULE"), Attic
Muse( Fronted by Saffron ,a short-lived but successful Siouxsie Clone), Black
Day (A very dark synthesiser experience cross between Joy Division and
Depache Mode), Cats Cradle "Iggy and the Stooges" meet" Akbar and Jeff")
,Celtic Rumours( Nephalimlike with added flour), The Gathering ( Mission
Men), King Ink( Stunning vocals very " And Also The Trees" sound, although
they swore blind they'd never heard them) , No Friends Of Harry( No bloody
friends at all we hope,This is the archetypal SA Goth Band with a Culty
sort've sound, they've been around for ever and still going strong, undead undead undead ), Not
Even The TV ( Very "Swans" sounding about the only SA goff band that I know
of to ever have been played by John Peel) Penguins in Bondage( Gothic
punkers w ith emphasis on the "P"), Petit Cheval( Pretty boys influenced by
Adam Ant and Cabaret Voltaire), The Psycho Reptiles (Boing Boing Black clad
Psycho billys now living in Devon, UK) ,The Dolly Rockers ( House Of Love has a
teaparty with invisble cookies and invites JAMC) to name the few that
survived until the vynil/CD release, this in itself a major thing as local
record companied exist to produce pap pop and sod all else.
Recently there has been an increase in local Industrial type groups like
Live Jimi Presley (Trainspotters to a man), Albino Tarbugz( the Sonic youth
influence is strong with this one) ,The Mud Ensemble (Sound like
Einsturzende Neubauten beating Diamanda to death live on stage ) and
Battery Nege ( This should be our finest Indy export ; wicked washing
machine beats and hard attack lyrics.)
The history of our Gothic Club Scene is a brief and bloody one, Arising from
the ashes of the Punk rock and new Romantic Movement, it grew rapidly
echoing the growth and enthusiasm of its British counterpart. This is due
partly to the large influx of British Middleclasser types and their
rebellious offspring in the early to mid Eighties.Alternative clubs rose and
fell in all mojor centres in South africa. However the scene was never
really big enough to support the Goth fraternity alone and thus clubs
catered to various subcultures including Punks, Skins, Cybers, Ravers and
even Metalheads on occasion.
In Johannesburg clubs passed like phantoms in
the night
Most Notorious being the last two great clubs namely Alcatraz and Sub-Zero.
Alcatraz was started by Roland Reicher, Goth band promoter, uncut diamond
dealer and scoundrel of note. During his reign as club owner, Alcatraz
became notorious for being a den of iniquity.
This mostly meant Goths
flopping about to Sisters looking depressed on too many ciders and too few
drugs. Dungeonlike t'was decorated with more badly welded scrap iron than
was neccesarily good for it and being situated beneath a used car
dealership kept patrons out of sight of the forces of law and order and
other parental figures.
However virginities were lost, overdoses experienced
and Skinheads thumped with surprising regularity by the club's overzealous
bouncers. This enthusiam spilled into bloodshed and attempted murder charges
were layed when one fateful evening a gang of around twenty skins was
repelled at the door with excessive force. Following the funeral and
subsequent court case Alcatraz changed its name to something a bit more
reassuring, namely Alice-D. Things went from bad to worse with reprisal raids
by irate skinheads and increase in interest by "The Authorities", well with
a name like that what can you expect? In its final death throws Alice became
Club Whiplash a sortve fetish/goth affair that basically died afore it was
born ."No loss" we cried as we were seduced by the lure of techno, trance and
"E".
We were jerked back to our senses with the advent of Sub-Zero in 1995, the
club to end all clubs, the first SA goth/ industrial club to have theme
nights, a dress code, video walls and the freshest import music. This may
seem all verra bland to you London clubber vamps but to us t'was a fresh
breeze amidst the dross. It had a shop inside the club that flogged
t-shirts, posters, Import Cd's and rubber wear, if only it did take-out , we
would never have had to leave the club ever.It also brought us a Skin-Two
fashion show which changed our up until then limited ideas on gothic fashion
and sexuality.
Unfortunately it ws still situated slap bang in the heart of
darkness. Johannesburg by night is not exactly safe, we hold the highest
murder statistics in the world. Where else outside of maybe Texas would one
see Goths checking their firearms in at the club entrance, on an average
Saturday night the club's safe would have anything upwards of 50 handguns in
it. With so much firepower on hand the inevitable had to occur, an attempted
mugging outside the club went sour, the aftermath causing bad press and bad
feelings. Lee , Sub's owner decided to call it a day and closed the club
down.What wailing and gnashing of tooths was heard throughout the land as
gothoids despaired more than they usually did and miseribly reached for
razorblades and sleeping pills in earnest.
This partial state of entropy could have remained had not a contingent
calling itself the Gothic Order actually decided to pull finger and start a
club of their own. The club when it gets going, should comprise two dance
floors, one gothic and the other Industrial.
Gothic Order maintains a website of current and up and coming events as well as sending
out newsletters and producing a ‘Zine called Absinthe, check out their
website for further info back on my main page.
I hope this has dispelled some of the notions you might have had regarding
the SA goth scene, if not why not come over and have a look for yourselves,
just wear anything in black and kevlar and you should have no worries.
