Hey now, hey now now

I mentioned in my New Year post that part of 2024 had been Interesting Times for me, with one of my magazines closing, and uncertainty as to whether I'd be losing my job. Well, during that time Mr Robot bought some gig tickets to cheer me up.

Go all the way back to 1988 and I was an odd sort of teenager; I'd never quite found 'my' thing. And then there was a song all over the radio called Tower Of Strength by a band called The Mission, and a band called The Sisters Of Mercy popped up on Top Of The Pops performing Lucretia My Reflection. I was absolutely hypnotised by bassist Patricia Morrison, with her backcombed hair and floppy cuffs. And thus began my love affair with goth music. I've dipped into all sorts, especially on the rock/metal side of things, and I'm not averse to a whole range of vintage music either, from 1920s jazz to 1950s rockabilly to classic 70s rock, but goth is my passion. Over the decades I've seen The Mission, but had never seen the Sisters – until last weekend.

We actually had two nights in London. The first day we just popped into the National Gallery to look at the Turner paintings, then went out for dinner/pub crawling, including The Flying Horse on Tottenham Court Road (Grade II listed; paintings by Felix de Jong, leading music hall decorator) and ending up in Bradley's Spanish Bar (small, characterful, odd). To backtrack a bit, London's biggest museums and galleries are mostly free to enter, so we've got into the habit of choosing what we want to see in advance and going straight to that. Otherwise we always get stuck on the same bit, whether that's the plaster casts in the V&A (don't ask me how, but I always end up at those) or the mummies in the British. It's free, and we'll be in London again in future, so why try to see everything? It's a much more enjoying way of experiencing those places. As well as the Turners we saw works by Monet and Van Gogh, Degas and Renoir. Turner's oils are better in reality than in photos, I think; they have a texture and a way of working in the light that isn't apparent when seen as a flat print.

The Arab Hall at Leighton House is really beautiful

The second day was the gig, but we had a whole day to get through, so we started with a visit to the Leighton House – the former home/studio of artist Sir Frederic Leighton, who hung out with the Pre-Raphaelites a bit. 'Flaming June' may be his most famous work. But really, I think his house was his masterpiece. It's got a fantastic tiled, Islamic-style reception room with a magnificent gilded dome. The flamboyance of the public rooms was a huge contrast with his very spartan bedroom.

Of course, going to 'see' the Sisters is a bit of a contradiction in terms – they're famous for fog

That evening we met up with a friend and one of his friends in Camden and had a pint or two before heading up to the venue, the Roundhouse. I'd wondered ahead of time what sort of audience it would attract, as the Sisters haven't officially released anything new since 1993, though they have written new music during the past three decades. Would it be all old farts of my generation? Even older, first-generation, farts? Young whippernappers who'd got the goth bug and wanted to hear one of the classic acts? Turns out it was all those, and we even spotted a dad who'd taken his young son on the way out, the child declaring it the best thing ever. Visually there was everything from basic shorts and hoodies to tradgoth to metallers. I wore the outfit in the picture at the top of the page, a Blythe dress from Disturbia bought for the event (I didn't have time to make anything, but didn't want to sweat like shrinkwrapped Spam in any of my winter black) and my me-made black devoré kimono. I stuck with my comfy hiking boots because we were going to be standing and I wasn't risking my crummy back giving up.

I really enjoyed the gig. Andrew Eldritch's voice could've been a bit more prominent in the mix, but he sounded decent enough. Possibly the only problem was that they did block out a large chunk of the set with their new stuff. As a bit of a nerd, I'd found bootlegs to listen to ahead of the gig, but it was clear from the peaks and dips in excitement that not all the audience had, and scattering a few older, well-loved songs in among the new material would've worked maintained the atmosphere better. Or, y'know, the band could actually put out an album with the new stuff on. A radical idea, I know. My friend, who was actually dropping out of the goth scene by the time the Sisters released their album Floodland in 1988 – he was proper first-generation – left early in disappointment. Which was a shame, as they saved their biggies for the encore.

Ah, there he is!

I don't know if I'd rush to see the Sisters again. Maybe if they put out an album and people had time to fall in love with the new stuff they way they have with the old - Don't Drive On Ice is a great song. But right now, it feels like once is enough. 

(I'll eat my words if they ever announce another Bristol date...)