Culture 

Clubs

The Batcave opened in July 1982 at the Gargoyle in London's Soho and was the first and most famous Goth club night, helping to establish and define Goth as a distinct style. Decked out in cages and cobweb-like netting, the Batcave provided live music from bands such as Alien Sex Fiend, Sex Gang Children and Specimen, together with a dancefloor and projector screens on which were played 1930s horror films and 1950s b-movies. Attended by Punks, Psychobillies and New Romantics, the club was particularly important in spreading the style because it went 'on tour', bringing it's own in-house Goth style to provincial towns and cities, rather than maintaining a metropolitan exclusivity as the earlier New Romantic clubs had.

Brighton had its own early Goth club 'Subterfuge', that was held at The Apollo Hotel, (now the Engine Rooms). Described at the time by the club-hosts as being 'like the The Batcave with disco' it eventually moved to the Manhattan (now The Brighton Gloucester). Twenty years later, both venues still hold regular alternative rock and goth nights.

Music

Music has always played a central role in Goth identity; Bela Lugosi's Dead by Bauhaus, released in 1979, is recognized as the first Goth record, combining gloomy sound and Gothic subject matter, the song helped to define the subculture, cementing Goth interests in all things vampire-related. Siouxsie of Siouxsie and the Banshees had been one of the leading female role-models of punk and as their music changed, became the unwilling Queen of Goth style with her severe 'silent film-star' panstick make-up and crimped, back-combed hair.

In the 1980s Goth was often associated with Leeds and the Midlands cities, but Brighton had, and still has its own Goth bands. Bone Orchard were fronted by Chrissie, who in the early 1980s also co-hosted Brighton's only Goth/Alternative club Subterfuge.

Since the late 1990s, Goth has had a new icon in the form of the controversial US artist Marilyn Manson. With a heavier industrial sound, and extreme make-up, his look and his music are more futuristic then earlier Goth sounds and styles, whilst still making reference to past Goth style.

Goth Oral Histories

Brighton & Hove Museums' Renegade Collection contains oral history interviews with Goths who describe the scene in Brighton.

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