Following on the success of his 2017 memoir, Cured, Lol Tolhurst returns with what he calls a “memoir of a subculture.” Goth: A History is Tolhurst’s compendious exploration of the music, artwork, literature and trend that made up the darkish aspect of post-punk. The Cure—which he co-founded as drummer with Robert Smith and Michael Dempsey—is commonly seen as one of many instigators of the motion, alongside bands like Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Joy Division. Richly illustrated with flyers and pictures from Tolhurst’s personal assortment, Goth is a espresso desk guide for the discriminating vampire.
Goth was all the time greater than black eyeliner and black garments; in Tolhurst’s studying, it displays the awful social and political context of Margaret Thatcher’s England. As a philosophy, it suggests a melancholic viewpoint and a willingness to ponder obsessive love, insanity and demise. In Goth, Tolhurst catalogs the poets and artists whose work appeals to those that additionally love goth music. Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar was an enormous affect on Tolhurst, as had been the poets T.S. Eliot and Anne Sexton. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is clearly goth, as are the death- and madness-drenched poems of Charles Baudelaire. David Bowie, Alice Cooper and Marc Bolan of T. Rex every have goth components and had been additionally early influences on Tolhurst.
Inevitably, an excellent a part of this guide focuses on Tolhurst’s time with The Cure because the drummer and later keyboardist. (He left the band in 1989). He dwells on The Cure’s three early albums, culminating within the magisterial fourth, “Pornography,” as exemplary goth music. But he’s additionally beneficiant in his evaluation of different bands, tracing the continuation of goth music from the post-punk period in England to the Los Angeles goth scene and past. Structured as mini essays, Goth can really feel disjointed, and Tolhurst at instances is repetitive. But followers will discover themselves immersed. It’s a ravishing guide, filled with live performance pictures, portraits and band flyers. Tolhurst is a passionate storyteller and an elder goth statesman value listening to.
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