Bauhaus | |
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Background information | |
Also known as | Bauhaus 1919 |
Origin | Northampton, England |
Genres | |
Discography | Bauhaus discography |
Years active |
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Labels | |
Spinoffs | |
Past members |
Bauhaus were an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978. Known for their dark image and gloomy sound, Bauhaus are one of the pioneers of gothic rock, although they mixed many genres, including dub, glam rock, psychedelia, and funk. [3] The group consisted of Daniel Ash (guitar, saxophone), Peter Murphy (vocals, occasional instruments), Kevin Haskins (drums) and David J (bass).
The band formed under the name Bauhaus 1919, in reference to the first operating year of the German art school Bauhaus, but they shortened this name within a year of formation. Their 1979 debut single "Bela Lugosi's Dead" is considered one of the harbingers of gothic rock music and has been influential on contemporary goth culture. [4] Their debut album, In the Flat Field , is regarded as one of the first gothic rock records. [5] Their 1981 second album Mask expanded their sound by incorporating a wider variety of instruments—such as keyboards, saxophone and acoustic guitar—and experimenting with funk-inspired rhythms on tracks like "Kick in the Eye". [6] [7] Bauhaus went on to achieve mainstream success in the United Kingdom with their third album, The Sky's Gone Out , which peaked at No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart in 1982. [8] That same year, they also reached No. 15 on the Singles Chart with a standalone cover of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust", earning them an appearance on Top of the Pops . During recording sessions for their next album, Murphy fell ill and spent much of his time away from the studio, leaving the rest of the band to compensate for his absence. This created a rift between the singer and his bandmates, culminating in the group's dissolution on 5 July 1983, one week before Burning from the Inside was released. Featuring the Top 30 UK single "She's in Parties", it would be their final studio album composed entirely of new material for a quarter of a century.
After Bauhaus' breakup, Murphy formed Dalis Car with bassist Mick Karn before beginning a solo career later on, while Ash and Haskins continued as Tones on Tail and, later, reunited with David J to form Love and Rockets. Murphy's solo career enjoyed greater commercial success in the United States than Bauhaus, as did Love and Rockets. Bauhaus eventually reunited for a 1998 tour, again from 2005 to 2008, and in 2019 and 2022.
This section contains too many or overly lengthy quotations .(October 2024) |
Daniel Ash, his friend David J. Haskins and Haskins' younger brother Kevin had played together in various bands since childhood such as Jam and Jackplug & the Sockets, playing cover songs by the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. [9] Ash initially tried unsuccessfully to convince his school friend Peter Murphy to join him in a band. According to Ash: "Pete didn't think about it at all, it wasn't on his mind as such." [10] Ash's band the Craze performed several times around Northampton in 1978. When the Craze dissolved, Ash once again tried to convince Murphy to join him, simply because Ash thought that Murphy had the right look for a band. [9] Murphy, who was working in a printing factory, agreed to try it, although he had never written any lyrics or music. During their first rehearsal, Murphy cowrote the song "In the Flat Field". [11]
Ash's old bandmate Kevin Haskins joined as the drummer. Ash intentionally avoided inviting David J, the driving force in their previous bands, because he wanted a band that he could control. [12] Instead, Chris Barber was recruited to play bass, and together the four musicians formed the band S.R. However, within a few weeks, Ash relented and replaced Barber with David J, who suggested the new name of Bauhaus 1919. David J had already agreed to tour American airbases with another band but decided that joining his friends' group was "the right thing to do". With their lineup complete, the band played their first gig at the now demolished Cromwell pub in Wellingborough on New Year's Eve 1978. [13]
The band had chosen the name Bauhaus 1919, a reference to the German Bauhaus art movement of the 1920s, [14] because of its "stylistic implications and associations", according to David J. [15] The band also chose the same typeface used on the Bauhaus college building in Dessau, Germany, as well as the Bauhaus emblem, designed by Oskar Schlemmer. Bauhaus associate Graham Bentley said that the group was unlike any Northampton band of the time, most of whom played predominantly cover songs. [16] Bentley videotaped a performance by the group, which was sent to several record labels, in the hope of obtaining a contract. This approach was hindered partly because many record companies did not have home-video equipment, so the group opted to record a demo. [17]
"We'd been talking about the erotic quality of vampire movies, even if they were the Hammer horror type. There was this conversation about the sexuality and eroticism of Dracula. Danny talked about his fascination with this and the occult connotations. So, we carried on that conversation and made it into a song."
—Peter Murphy, on the origins of "Bela Lugosi's Dead" [18]
After only six weeks as a band, Bauhaus entered the studio for the first time, meeting at Beck Studios in Wellingborough to record a demo. [19] In rehearsal, the band experimented with echo and delay effects on the drums. The first of five tracks recorded during the session, "Bela Lugosi's Dead", exceeded nine minutes in length but was released as the group's debut single in August 1979 on Small Wonder Records. [20] The band was listed simply as Bauhaus, with the "1919" abandoned. [21] [22]
"Bela Lugosi's Dead" was strongly influenced by the band's interest in reggae and dub, styles in which the bass and the drums play prominent roles. The recording was completed on the first take. It was also the first time that Murphy had sung into a studio microphone, [23] although he was sick with a cold when he recorded the song. [23] Kevin Haskins' drumbeat was based on a bossa nova style. [23] Daniel Ash explained the inception of the song: "I was talking to David (J, bass) on the blower one night and told him I had this riff, using these trick chords that had a very haunting quality to it. He went: 'It's so weird you should say that because I've got these lyrics about Bela Lugosi, the actor who played a vampire.'" David J further elaborated: "There was a season of old horror films on radio, and I was telling Daniel about how much I loved them. The one that had been on the night before was Dracula [1931]. I was saying how Bela Lugosi was the quintessential Dracula, the elegant depiction of the character." Ash elaborated about the chords: "My riff has these mutant chords – they're not even minor chords – but it's rooted in an old Gary Glitter song, slowed right down. I didn't realize that when I was doing it." [23] Ash also explained how he was able to achieve the echo effects for the song: "...David had this old HH echo unit, which would crap out on you all the time. We hooked up the guitar and snare drum to this echo unit and I was just sliding the HH amp thing to trigger all these echoes as the song went through." [23] David J explained the song's recording process: "We didn't really talk about what we were doing. Daniel started scratching away on the guitar, Kevin started his rhythm and there was this atmosphere building. I came in with those descending chords and Peter was just prowling up and down, slowly, like a big cat." [23]
Murphy explained: "We'd been talking about the erotic quality of vampire movies, even if they were the Hammer horror type. There was this conversation about the sexuality and eroticism of Dracula. Danny talked about his fascination with this and the occult connotations. So, we carried on that conversation and made it into a song." [18] Murphy also elaborated: "There's an erotic, alluring element to the vampire. We didn't want to write an ode to Bela Lugosi, ostensibly. The kitsch element was his name because he was the biggest icon, yet he was the most unlikely vampire-looking person. So there was that Brit angle to it, but it wasn't at all negative. It was perfect. The idea of Bela Lugosi being dead or undead is classic." [23] The band was initially nervous about the song's excessive length, as it had caused several record labels to decline to issue the single. Haskins explained: "Danny took an acetate around all the big companies–Virgin, EMI and the rest–and they all said similar things: 'This is the sort of thing I listen to at home, but it's not commercial.' Or: 'It's way too long. Can you edit it down to three minutes?' Even Beggars Banquet turned us down, which is ironic because we ended up on that label." However, Peter Stennet of Small Wonder Records agreed to release the single, favorably comparing it to the Velvet Underground's single "Sister Ray". [24]
The single received a positive review in Sounds and stayed on the British independent charts for two years. It received crucial airplay on BBC Radio 1 and DJ John Peel's evening show. The band recorded a session for Peel's show, which was broadcast on 3 January 1980. [25] Murphy recalled the session: "We walked up to reception, passing Motörhead on their way out, and said, 'Hello, we're Bauhaus and we're friends of John Peel. We'd like to go up please.' Somehow, we were allowed up there and we put the record in front of him. After we'd all introduced ourselves, he said on air, 'We've got Bauhaus in the studio, they're from Northampton and they have a new single out called 'Bela Lugosi's Dead'. It's nine and a half minutes long and this will probably be the first and last time I'll play this.' Then we left and went down to listen to it in the car. Apparently, the BBC switchboard was jammed with listeners wanting him to play it again." [23] Of the additional tracks, Classic Rock wrote that, "The rest of the material finds a band fumbling for direction, even touching on ska." [26]
Despite the success of their signature song, the band left Small Wonder Records because of its lack of support for touring stemming from budget issues. Stennet stated: "The trouble is we just can't afford to send the bands on tour or anything like that, and a group needs that sort of support." [27] Signing with the 4AD label, Bauhaus released two more singles, "Dark Entries" in January 1980 and "Terror Couple Kill Colonel" in June 1980, before issuing their first album In the Flat Field in October 1980. The album's cover image, selected by David J, is a photograph titled Homage to Purvis de Chavannes by Duane Michals, an image of a naked man blowing a horn instrument. [28] NME reviewer Andy Gill described it as "Gothick-Romantick pseudo-decadence" and dismissed the band as "a hip Black Sabbath". [29] Despite negative reviews, In the Flat Field topped the indie charts and spent one week at No. 72 on the UK Albums Chart. [30] Although the band was satisfied with the album, they later admitted that it had failed to capture everything that they had wanted [28] and that its intensity level was too high, but it was "the purest statement of what [we] were like then". [31]
In August 1980, the band traveled to North America to play four dates in cities such as Toronto, Chicago and New York. [32] One of Bauhaus' first US shows was in a venue called Space Place in Chicago, Illinois in September 1980, booked by Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, the owners of the independent record label Wax Trax! Records. [33] [34] The band returned to England in October 1980 for a 20-date tour in England and in Europe to promote their first album. [35] In December 1980, Bauhaus released a cover version of "Telegram Sam", originally a hit by glam-rock pioneers T. Rex, as a single.
Bauhaus' growing success outstripped 4AD's resources, so the band moved to 4AD's parent label, Beggars Banquet Records. [36] Bauhaus released "Kick in the Eye" in March 1981 as its debut release on the label. The single reached No. 59 on the charts. [37] The following single, "The Passion of Lovers", peaked at No. 56 in July 1981. [38] Murphy said, "One of our loves is to make each single totally different from the last, not to be tied down by a style or sound." [37] Bauhaus released their second album, Mask , in October 1981. The band employed more keyboards, and a variety of other instruments, to add to the diversity of the record. The front and back cover of the album was an impressionistic drawing created by Ash. In an unconventional move, the group shot a video for the album's title track as a promotional tool for the band, rather than any specific song from the record, filmed in a hazardous and abandoned Victorian shoe factory in Northampton. [6] David J explained the techniques, effects and his reaction regarding the content of the title track: "I can still recall with crystal clarity overdubbing the echoed bass part and using a metal bottleneck to achieve the cascade effect that comes in at the point where Daniel's acoustic twelve-string part starts. Hearing these sounds in ultra-sharp coke-intensified focus through headphones produced an ecstatic heart-bursting emotion on the edge of orgasmic release." [39] The film crew consists of Chris Collins and Ken Lawrence of Standard Pictures. The video was made with a minuscule budget; the gear used in the video were powered off car batteries and roll film, and filmed in a hazardous and abandoned Victorian shoe factory in Northampton, which was just across the road from the main police station. David J explains how the band and film crew broke into the building to make the video: "We snuck into this place about three in the morning and the lights kept going down at crucial moments so we'd have to wait and sit around in complete darkness...the place was dripping wet although it all added to the atmosphere." [40] The video's imagery and lighting borrowed heavily from German Expressionism. David J commented on the content of the music video: "We improvised around the loose idea of a ritualistic resurrection, with Peter lain out like a corpse on a wooden slab. Each of us would administer some kind of shamanistic voodoo to assist in the raising of the dead. The place was freezing cold, dank, and dripping with filthy water. The lights kept going out, and we would be plunged into complete darkness until they were restored." [39] When the scenes of the factory were finished, the group went to another location for filming. David J explained: "Once we had filmed the scenes in the factory, we set off for a second location: the woods on the grounds of the Spencer family's country estate – another illegal situation, and a potential threat to the monarchy. We did have fun that night! The finished film looked great: a fog-cloaked atmospheric drama that was redolent of a German Expressionist silent horror flick." David J also mentioned that the music video was more of an art piece than a traditional music video and commented that Chris Collins "did a brilliant job of capturing the visual essence of the band." [39] Chris Collins commented on the motive of the video: "Foremost in our minds was to make something interesting, so somebody who'd never heard of Bauhaus before and suddenly saw that video might say, "God, that's really interesting, I want to know more about that". [41] Ken Lawrence also explained the film's intention: "Every film about a band should show the strengths of that artist. So of course "Mask" is a promo because hopefully, it's what Bauhaus are about. If you listen to their lyrics at all, if you know the way their music is structured – it's thought provoking, it evokes mood and it's very atmospheric music and that was our approach to making the film." [41] It made only one appearance on British TV.
Around the same time, "In keeping with our surrealist leaning...", the band also employed the "exquisite corpse" technique to an experimental film they made called "Consequences", where each member was given an amount of time to film whatever they wished. [39] It was shown on tour in place of a support band. [39] The band toured broadly to promote the album by playing a 16-date tour of England and 13 dates in Europe.
In July 1982, Bauhaus released the single "Spirit", produced by Hugh Jones. This was unusual for the band because they typically produced their own music and. Conflicts and compromises occurred in the studio. David J explained: "It took ages and ages. Usually we recorded very quickly–we'd do an album in three weeks from start to finish–but that took about nine days, which for us was absurd. There was so much agonising over it more from the producer than us." The song used an acoustic guitar with a bossa nova drumbeat. According to Shirley, the song was about "...a 'fifth member' of the band–a spirit they felt occupied the stage, lifting them to a higher plane when they were playing well." [42] The music video was originally intended to show a physical representation of the spirit, including "a single dancer with a white face mask and body paint who would come onto the stage whilst the band performed the song and literally 'lift' Peter and give him wings." [42] However, the producers changed the spirit to a spectral female figure "who would walk through the theatre along with a motley crew of clowns and jugglers." [42] When the band returned from their tour of the United States, they disliked the music video and wanted to redo it. The record label refused, unwilling to provide more money for it, but the band insisted on changing the video. David J explained: "So we raised the money ourselves out of our own bank balances and pooled our money and so we went in and re-edited it, trying to get it into some kind of shape. We did it. Delivered the master to Beggars Banquet. Next week–this was at the time of the video jukebox craze–we went into a pub and we see the original horrible version on the video. So we immediately rang Beggars Banquet and said; 'What's going on?' and they'd send out the wrong one and it had gone off to TV and everything." [43] The single was intended to break into the Top 30 but only reached No. 42. The band was displeased with the single and rerecorded it in 1982 for their third album, The Sky's Gone Out . [44] Nico made a guest appearance when the band played a gig in Salford University for a cover performance of the Velvet Underground song, "I'm Waiting for the Man". [39]
The band wanted to produce their third LP, The Sky's Gone Out, themselves, but arguments ensued in the studio among the band members over creative direction. [45] The band members realised that they needed an objective perspective on their music, and producer Derek Tompkins was hired. [45] Tompkins commented: "I was, however, quite willing to act as an engineer provided the resident engineer was responsible for the engineering and I was only responsible for interpreting what they wanted to him and helping a bit creatively myself." [46]
The band were booked into Rockfield Studios in Wales for one month to record the album but had little original material written beforehand. Murphy explained: "The third LP was one of those unwritten albums that was done on the spot. An album of experimentation which was enjoyable to us because we didn't have any songs and we didn't feel like writing stuff and we said, "OK that's fine. If we don't have any songs we'll make the songwriting environment the studio." [46] Although the sessions were successful, conflicts arose between the band and engineer, with Tompkins as the mediator. [46] Although Tompkins did not understand the album's music or lyrics, he "always used to ask them what the song was about so I knew what mood I was aiming for". [46] Some of the lyrics reflected the band's personal feelings and experiences, such as "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything". According to David J, the song "evokes nostalgic memories of a time of innocence and naive yearning." [39] David J praised Murphy's vocals on the song as "emoting the bittersweet sentiment so perfectly, every word ringing true." [39]
That same year, Bauhaus scored their greatest hit with a cover of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust", which was recorded during a BBC session. The song was chosen by the band in response to critics who had accused them of copying Bowie's sound. Ash explained: "[W]e thought we'd do the opposite of what they'd expect and promptly release 'Ziggy'." [47] The song reached No. 15 on the British charts and earned the band an appearance on the television show Top of the Pops . [48] The Sky's Gone Out also became the band's greatest album success, peaking at No. 3. [8] That same year, Bauhaus appeared in the horror film The Hunger , performing "Bela Lugosi's Dead" during the opening credits. The final cut of the scene focused on Murphy; this, coupled with his modelling work in a popular ad campaign for Maxell, caused resentment among his bandmates. [49]
Prior to the recording of their fourth album, Burning from the Inside (1983), Murphy was stricken with pneumonia, which prevented him from contributing much to the album. Ash and David assumed control of the album and performed lead vocals on several tracks. [50] The album's song "Who Killed Mister Moonlight" was described by David J as a "surrealistic ballad inspired in part by the murder of John Lennon". Also, the mysterious character of Mister Moonlight had a symbolic meaning, which was seen by the band "as being representative of the dreamy, poetic aspect of Bauhaus". [39] The album's lead single "She's in Parties" reached No. 26 on the charts and earned Bauhaus their third and final Top of the Pops appearance. [51] Bauhaus then embarked on an international promotional tour for the album, with dates in Europe and the Far East. [52] On the night before they were supposed to perform two shows at Hammersmith Palais in London, the group decided to disband.
The band played their farewell show on 5 July 1983 at the Hammersmith Palais. Fans had been warned by the band's crew to not miss the show, without telling them it was the last. After a long encore, consisting of some of their early songs, David J left the stage with the words "rest in peace". [52] Burning from the Inside was released one week later. The album received largely positive reviews and reached No. 13 on the charts. [53] Bauhaus released the single "Sanity Assassin" in limited quantities as a farewell gift to their fan-club members. [54]
During the band's initial lifecycle, solo projects would be initiated at times. In 1981, while still a member of Bauhaus, David J started a solo project with Rene Halkett, an original student of the Bauhaus art school. [55] The origins of this correspondence was due to Halkett's younger neighbor telling him of hearing about a group called Bauhaus on the John Peel Show on BBC radio. [56] This intrigued Halkett and he soon wrote to Peel about getting in touch with the band. They eventually met, discussed poetry and decided to work with David by sending a cassette tape that contain Halkett orally citing two of his poems. After listening intensely on the tape, David decided to go a recording studio where he provided the backing music to the tape. This collaboration resulted as a single called "Armour/Nothing" which was released by 4AD. According to David J regarding the correspondence, "He wrote to John Peel when he was playing Bauhaus' first record, 'Bela Lugosi's Dead', and Rene was then in his 70s and was an avid listener to John Peel's show. He heard this and was intrigued that this band of young upstarts had usurped the name Bauhaus and he wrote to John Peel asking for more information. Peel sent me the letter and I was just amazed to be in contact with somebody from that time, so I wrote to Rene and we struck up this correspondence and in the end would meet up and I'd go down and visit him in his little cottage in Cornwall. We ended up making a record together, which was his poetry that I put to music. It was one of the first releases on 4AD. I would just go down and he would enthrall me with these stories of him appearing in these cabaret clubs in Weimar and dancing on the piano and letting off revolvers in the club and this whole sort of barbarous cabaret scene that he was intrinsically involved in. He met Bertolt Brecht and people like that, the surrealists came through and his teachers were Kandinsky and it was just amazing to have a friend from that time so that gave me a real insight, to actually be communicating with somebody that was there." [57] Halkett commented on his contribution to the single: "I felt that the two poems required something more than print because they depend on things which can only be expressed in musical signs... It (the single) falls between music and poetry and is not entirely either. With "Nothing", David has written a perfect arrangement for what is a quite concentrated philosophical idea and it becomes so much more than the words..." [58]
After Bauhaus disbanded, the members of the band began solo work. Murphy worked briefly with bassist Mick Karn of Japan in the band Dalis Car before embarking on a solo career with albums such as Should the World Fail to Fall Apart (1986), Love Hysteria (1988) and Deep (1989). Ash had already started Tones on Tail with Bauhaus roadie Glen Campling as a side project in 1982. After Bauhaus disbanded, Kevin Haskins joined the group and the trio released an album and several EPs but disbanded after a 1984 American tour. [59] During this time, David J released two solo albums and collaborated with other musicians, recording two albums with the Jazz Butcher, and also with comics writer/spoken-word artist Alan Moore in the short-lived band the Sinister Ducks.[ citation needed ]
The former members of Bauhaus planned to reform and arranged a rehearsal, but Murphy failed to appear on the scheduled day. However, the other three band members rehearsed and were inspired by the chemistry that they developed as a trio, leading to the formation of Love and Rockets in 1985. [60] Love and Rockets released several highly acclaimed albums and penetrated the American charts with "So Alive" in 1989. [61] The band dissolved in 1999, briefly reunited for a festival tour in 2009 and then reunited in 2023. [62] Both Ash and David J released solo albums during the Love and Rockets years, and Murphy contributed backing vocals to David J's 1992 single "Candy on the Cross".[ citation needed ]
Bauhaus reunited for the Resurrection Tour in 1998. Their stage show opened with Double Dare and Murphy singing to the audience on a television screen. [63] The tour featured a new song, "The Dog's a Vapour", which was also included in the Heavy Metal 2000 film soundtrack. A live album was recorded during the tour, Gotham , which was released the following year. It included a studio recording of Bauhaus' cover of the Dead Can Dance song "Severance". [64]
Bauhaus reunited again in 2005, playing the Coachella Festival in Indio, California. Their set opened with Murphy being lowered upside-down to the stage while singing "Bela Lugosi's Dead". [65] [66] [67] Following Murphy's 2005 tour, Bauhaus embarked on a full tour beginning in North America in Autumn 2005 and ending in Europe in February 2006. During the tour, Bauhaus covered Joy Division's "Transmission". [68] The band also mentioned that they hoped to record new music. In May, they performed as the opening act during Nine Inch Nails' American tour. [69]
In 2008, Bauhaus released their first new studio album since 1983, Go Away White , on the Cooking Vinyl label. However, it marked the band's end, and the album had no promotional tour. Haskins later said: "We were getting along really well, but there was an incident that occurred ... Some of us just felt that we didn't want to carry on as a working unit." [70] In early 2008, Murphy claimed that he "was most satisfied with the bonding on an emotional level. It was good to be working together and to put the past behind us and it was very positive. The result was coming out really fast, so it was exciting and it was very enjoyable", but in the end, "that rocky character worked and I think it was a bit right to finish it, really". [71] David J commented on the breakup: "You have a test tube, and you pour in one chemical, and you pour in another chemical, and something happens. It starts to bubble. Pour in another chemical, and it starts to bubble a bit more. You pour in a fourth chemical, and it bubbles really violently, and then explodes. That's my answer". [72]
In 2017, Ash and Haskins toured as Poptone with Haskins' daughter Diva Dompe on bass. [73] The group performed songs by Bauhaus, Tones on Tail and Love and Rockets, along with cover songs. A live album recorded at various stops on the tour was released through PledgeMusic. [74]
In 2018, Murphy and David J announced a tour of New Zealand, Australia and Europe to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Bauhaus, performing In the Flat Field in its entirety. [75]
In September 2019, after a 13-year hiatus, Bauhaus announced a show at the 4,000-seat Hollywood Palladium with all original members on 3 November. A second show was added for the following night after all tickets for the first show sold quickly. A third date at the same venue was confirmed for 1 December. [76]
In March 2022, Bauhaus released their first new song in 14 years with "Drink the New Wine", which was recorded separately by all four members during the COVID-19 lockdown. The recording process used the exquisite corpse method whereby each artist adds to the piece without hearing what the others have done. [77]
Bauhaus toured Europe and the West Coast of the United States in 2022. The band was due to tour the East Coast of the United States, but the tour was cancelled on 31 August as Murphy announced that he was entering rehab. [78] On 19 April 2023, Ash confirmed that the Bauhaus reunion had ended, and the remaining remembers reformed Love and Rockets. [79]
"Our influences were many. The obvious ones were glam rock and punk rock, but when we were recording, when we finished each day, we'd usually record in a residential studio so we would all stay together at night time. So when we'd wind down, we'd always play either dub reggae or late Beatles, like Sgt. Pepper. When I mention that to people they're kind of surprised. So we weren't listening to dark music, there were many influences."
Kevin Haskins, regarding the band's influences. [80]
"We were very influenced by reggae, especially dub. I mean, basically Bela was our interpretation of dub."
According to David J, the bands Bauhaus related to in the post-punk scene were Joy Division, Pere Ubu, Devo, Gang of Four, Cabaret Voltaire, and the Pop Group. [39] Among bands and singers who influenced Bauhaus, they cited Siouxsie and the Banshees, [82] David Bowie, T-Rex, Roxy Music, Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd, [83] New York Dolls, [84] Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, the Doors, [39] Alice Cooper, [39] MC5, [85] Ramones, [39] the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Residents, [86] Captain Beefheart, [87] Suicide, [39] Kraftwerk, [88] Neu!, [89] Can, [90] Faust, [89] [90] the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, [91] the Who, [92] Bob Dylan, [39] Tom Waits, [39] Serge Gainsbourg, [39] Lee Scratch Perry, [93] King Tubby, [93] Mikey Dread, [94] Kurt Weill, [57] Scott Walker, [95] and Jacques Brel. [96] [39] Specific recordings that were influential on the band include the compilation album Nuggets, Lou Reed's albums Berlin and Transformer, [39] the Bits and Pieces single by the Dave Clark Five and the Double Barrel single by Dave and Ansell Collins. [17] [97] [98]
In terms of early influences from childhood, David J said that he was interested in jazz and its musicians such as Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk. [99] He has also listed Television's Marquee Moon as one of his all-time favorite albums. [100] Peter Murphy cited Doris Day, Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles, the Everly Brothers and his experiences from Mass in Catholic school as highly influential to his singing. [101] He mentioned that the first 7-inch single he ever bought was "A Hard Day's Night" by the Beatles [102] and also listed Brian Eno's Music for Airports as one of his favorite albums. [103] Daniel Ash was interested in music at a young age, first being impressed by the stomping of the Dave Clark Five's "Bits and Pieces" song and later going through his older brother's music collection of records from the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Faces and the Kinks. [104] The first record he bought was Dave and Ansell Collins' "Double Barrel". [105] When Ash was asked about how he developed his playing style and guitar influences, he replied: "My style of playing comes from a mixture of extreme laziness to learn proper scales/chords and a burning desire to sound original and new. Although I am a huge fan of Hendrix and Mick Ronson, Robert Fripp on Bowie tracks is also fab, and what about Earl Slick!" [106] Ash also mentioned his appreciation of bands such as the Only Ones, the Damned, Television, Richard Hell and the Voidoids and said that the Stooges' Raw Power as one of his all-time favorite records. [107] Kevin Haskins at 14 years old went to see Led Zeppelin and the drummer's (John Bonham) drum solo impressed him and called it "amazing". [108] However at the same time, he was depressed as well due to feeling inadequate about his own musical abilities and never reaching the skill of Bonham. He even had thoughts of giving up music altogether. [108] However, the nascent punk scene and seeing bands such as the Sex Pistols and the Clash gave him the confidence he needed to pursue in music. [108]
Around 1970, David J's was intrigued by the ska music, Roots reggae and dub music coming out of Jamaica. He mentioned that reggae "...was the first music that I was seriously into." [39] It was from this exposure from these musical styles that made David J choose a bass guitar instead of a lead guitar. David explained: "I loved [Dub]. It was so exciting because it was my first exposure to this other world really. Something subterranean, dark, sexually charged, violent and compelling. This dark music was played in these dark places and was just captivating. I realised very quickly that what was powerful about this sound was the bass. I recalled that when we got guitars, no-one wanted to be the bass player – we had various bands just a bunch of friends who wanted to play pop music and they all wanted to play lead guitar – so I went; 'Well, I'll play the bass'. I retained my six string guitar and just played the bottom four strings and just used to play along with the records and work out the bass lines. I just got into it and found it really satisfying and saved up and bought a bass guitar." [105]
Given their mixture of reggae and punk rock, Murphy said that musically, they were "more aligned to the Clash than anything else that was going around." When asked about the influence of reggae on Bauhaus' music, Murphy stated that it was "massive. We were listening to toasting music all the time, and David brought in a lot of bass lines that were very lead riffs [...] those bass lines really formed the basis of the music" [109] [110] In particular, dub reggae was highly influential to the band, so far that David J mentioned that their signature song, "Bela Lugosi's Dead", was intended as dub. [3] [111] [39] [112] [80] [113]
The band members Daniel, David and Kevin once attended a Rastafarian event that became quite influential to their music. As David explained: "At the time, Northampton had a large Rastafarian population, centred around the Matta Fancanta Youth Movement, which had its base at the old Salvation Army Citadel on the corner of Sheep Street, just across from Derngate Bus Station. It was run by Trevor Hall, whose uncle had started the famed Count Shelly sound system, which Trevor inherited. They would hold monthly events featuring two outfits competing against each other, spinning dub plates—instrumental tracks direct from Jamaica—and blasting them over the huge speakers while their respective 'toasters' took turns freestyling over the top. They would really go to town, painting up the entire place in the red, green, and gold of the Ethiopian flag and wearing suits and outsized hats to match, while the women would dye their hair. There were quotations from Haile Selassie all around the walls, and the air was thick with ganja smoke and the gamey aroma of goat's head soup. It was a true 'temporary autonomous zone', to quote the anarchist writer and poet Hakim Bey, and the police would wisely keep their distance. Daniel, Kevin, and I would be the only white faces in the throng, but there was never any trouble—quite the opposite—and the amazing music that we heard in that place became a big influence on us, 'Bela Lugosi's Dead' being a good example." [39]
The band's other musical influences included various forms of rock (garage, glam, art, electronic, prog, psychedelic, heavy metal, folk, experimental, krautrock), as well as avant-garde music, ambient music, traditional pop, disco and funk. [114] [115] [116] [117] [39] [89] Outside of music, Bauhaus's influences were often artistic and literary and included William S. Burroughs, [118] Brion Gysin, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, [119] Bertolt Brecht, [57] Arthur Rimbaud, [39] Charles Baudelaire, Comte de Lautréamont, [120] Jean Cocteau, André Breton, Surrealism, [39] German Expressionism, Greek Mythology, [121] Ingmar Bergman, [39] David Lynch, Oscar Wilde, [122] Franz Kafka [39] and Antonin Artaud. [39] In regards to the influence of the original Bauhaus movement on the band, Murphy stated that "Bauhaus had no influence on Bauhaus (the band) except for being the sound, shape, energetic, and sensory birth name of our group." [123]
Bauhaus combined these influences to create a gloomy, earnest and introspective version of post-punk, [124] which appealed to many music fans who felt disillusioned in the wake of punk's collapse. [125] Its crucial elements included Murphy's deep and sonorous voice, Ash's jagged guitar playing and David J's dub-influenced bass. Their sound and gloomy style would eventually come to be known as gothic rock or simply "goth". [126] [127]
According to David J, the band were "...always keen not to be a traditional 'rock' band, and we would go to great pains to avoid that well-trodden road." [39] They experimented with various techniques and methods for song composition such as the Exquisite corpse on tracks such as "1. David Jay 2. Peter Murphy 3. Kevin Haskins 4. Daniel Ash" [39] along with the use of Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies cards. [128] To achieve some of the sound effects in their songs, various instruments were implemented such as bottlenecks, echo units and a Syndrum. [107]
In their second album Mask, expanded their sound with the addition of synthesizers, electronics and a saxophone to "add color and dynamics to each song." [129] The album was less structured and spontaneous compared to their first album. The song Of Lillies and Remains is an example of this method. According to Murphy: ""Of Lillies and Remains" is a song that was written as it happened. None of it was rehearsed, worked out or played beforehand. We simply told the engineer to turn on the tape. That was incredibly exciting. That said a lot for our confidence and courage and total absurdity; that it was possible to demonstrate that those ideas form an artistic point of view, come from another outside force – i.e. the collective creative thing." [31] In an interview with John Robb, Ash mentioned that he bought an EBow in 1981. [107]
In their first album and singles, Bauhaus' songs dealt with taboo subjects such as martyrdom, paranoia, madness, obsession and prostitution. For example, the song Stigmata Martyr was about (according to Shirley) "...a person whose religious obsession with Christ takes the form of a physical manifestation of the crucifixion; i.e. nail marks on the hands: "In a crucifixion, ecstacy, Lying cross checked in agony, Stigmata bleed continuously, Holes in head, hands, feet, and weep for me." When delivering these lyrics Peter became the stigmata." [130] Murphy also commented on the misconceptions of the lyrics of the song: "I don't think the other members of the band really got what I was writing about, and the collective intention suddenly became very anti-religious. And that song is not an anti-religious song at all. The message is, really, the dangers of obsession, of almost psychosomatic induction of that masochism. That alone can be an illusion. And it's way off the mark as to the actual source of the message of any religious God. God doesn't want you to be in pain and die. It wasn't anti-religious. It wasn't demonic. It was alluding to the manifestation. Is it truly a mark of the Holy Ghost or is it simply an obsession condition? That's all there is to it." [131] Another song, Dark Entries tells the story of title character Dorian Gray from Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray , which is Murphy's favorite novel. [103] Murphy explains: "It was the first book with real substance that I chose for myself. It's a story of great narcissism and esoteric interior, and brilliantly written. It's a window into this personality, this Oscar Wilde chap I'd heard about. The language is so opulent. It's a rock star's story, really." [132] The song A God In An Alcove was about "...the story of a fallen idol." [39] The title track's In the Flat Field was inspired by "...the quotidian mundaneness of life in Northampton, and the desire to escape that 'flat' existence." [39]
Other songs from later albums and singles, explored subjects such as nostalgia, desire, reflection, self-realization and hope. For example, the song All We Ever Wanted Was Everything was about the "...nostalgic memories of a time of innocence and naive yearning." [39] Also, some of the song titles came from literary sources. For example, the song title Kick in the Eye was based on a line from the novel Satori in Paris by Jack Kerouac. [39]
The construction of their lyrics were inspired by the Cut-up technique method. [118] An example of their approach to lyric structure is the amalgamation of individual lyrics from each member in the song Of Lillies and Remains, as Murphy explained: "I'd written a dream out on a piece of paper and Dave picked up this piece of paper at random and found a blank side and wrote out a lyric. He turned it over and asked what it was. I said, "It's a dream." And so he said: "Let's do this." So David went in to do his half – no rehearsal – and then I took it from where he left off. That was a typical way of working." [6]
In terms of live performances, Bauhaus' stage theatrics, specifically their lighting, was inspired by a Judas Priest concert that Murphy attended with Bauhaus' manager. [133] They predominantly used black and white lighting for their live shows. When they were asked why in early interviews, David J responded, "...coloured lights are for Christmas trees." [134] Their lighting was so minimal that sometimes the band would play in almost complete darkness where they were glimpsed rather than seen in their shows. [134] Their manager Graham Bentley helped with the lighting, "I started doing lights for Bauhaus – which obviously came about because I was the person who was there – I got into it very much from the start. I love the shadows. I used to call it a dark show rather than a light show. The essential emphasis was less light." [135] Bentley used industrial lights for the lighting and put the lights on the floor rather than the ceiling. [134] Also, a strobe light would be used for Murphy to hold on to his body and move around with it on stage. [134]
Bauhaus are frequently considered to be the inventors of goth; [136] however, the band rejected this label, preferring to describe their style as "dark glam". [137] [138] Peter Murphy said he felt their contemporaries had a larger hand in solidifying what became goth. [139] Likewise, Kevin Haskins felt that bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees were more influential to goth subculture than themselves and mentioned that Bauhaus were "...more three dimensional, more art rock". [140] Ash nevertheless admitted: "if you wear black and your first single is "Bela Lugosi's Dead", you've pretty much got a stamp on you. That's always been one of our strongest songs, so it's sort of undeniable". [141]
Various bands and artists with goth associations pointed to Bauhaus as an inspiration, including Type O Negative, [142] Alien Sex Fiend, [143] Zola Jesus, [144] Deine Lakaien, [145] AFI, [146] Buck-Tick, [147] [148] [149] Lycia, [150] Jaz Coleman (of Killing Joke), [151] the Cult, [152] Glenn Danzig (of Misfits), [153] Greg Mackintosh (of Paradise Lost), [154] She Wants Revenge, [155] the Dresden Dolls, [156] Soul Merchants, [157] She Past Away [158] and Wolfsheim. [159] The Mission's Wayne Hussey even sang with Murphy on stage in 2013. [160] Bauhaus were also influential upon many industrial rock groups and artists, like Ministry, [161] Marilyn Manson, [162] [163] Nine Inch Nails, [164] [165] Nitzer Ebb, [166] [167] and Skinny Puppy. [168]
In addition, Bauhaus were hailed by various alternative/indie rock performers and groups, including the Flaming Lips, [169] Steve Albini (of Big Black), [170] [171] Jehnny Beth of Savages, [172] [173] [174] Stephen Malkmus (of Pavement), [175] Alan Sparhawk (of Low), [176] Bradford Cox (of Deerhunter), [177] Mark Lanegan (of Screaming Trees), [178] Jesse Hughes (of the Eagles of Death Metal), [179] Courtney Taylor-Taylor (of the Dandy Warhols), [180] Jeff Ament (of Pearl Jam), [181] [182] Alex Henry Foster (of Your Favorite Enemies), [183] Nicholas Thorburn (of Islands), [184] Matt Noveskey (of Blue October), [185] Jane's Addiction, [186] [187] [188] [189] Soundgarden, [190] [191] [192] the Smashing Pumpkins, [193] A Neon Rome, [194] ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, [195] Hole, [196] whose lead singer Courtney Love admitted that a lot of her songs are "complete Bauhaus rip-offs", [197] Interpol, [198] My Chemical Romance, [199] the Twilight Sad, [200] Shearwater, [201] and Elliott Smith. [202] [203]
The group have been namechecked by several other prominent musical acts from other genres, including Jello Biafra (of the Dead Kennedys), [204] [205] Jonathan Davis (of Korn), [206] [207] [208] the extreme metal band Celtic Frost, [209] the lo-fi musician Ariel Pink, [210] Maynard James Keenan (from Tool), [211] [212] electronic act Carl Craig, [213] American record producer DJ Premier (of Gang Starr), [214] the American comedian/musician Reggie Watts, [215] [216] the Iranian musician Azam Ali, [217] the Japanese Visual kei musician Hide (of X Japan), [218] [219] [220] the Japanese post-rock Mono, [221] the Japanese heavy metal band Dir En Grey, [222] whose lead singer Kyo listed Press the Eject and Give Me the Tape as his top record he would take to a desert island, [223] the electronica act Moby, [224] the trip hop band Massive Attack, [225] the crust punk band Amebix, [226] the shoegaze band Drop Nineteens, [227] the psychedelic rock band White Hills, [228] the noise rock band Today Is the Day, [229] the nu metal band Coal Chamber, [230] the extreme metal band Behemoth, [231] the grindcore band Napalm Death, [232] Randy Blythe (of Lamb of God), [233] Fred Durst (of Limp Bizkit), [234] Serj Tankian (of System of a Down), [235] [236] Sean Yseult (of White Zombie), [237] Bilinda Butcher (of My Bloody Valentine), [238] Stuart Braithwaite (of Mogwai) [239] Blink-182 namedropped Bauhaus on their song "She's Out of Her Mind" on their California album. [240] Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses listed the Bauhaus compilation Bauhaus 1979–1983 in his 100 favorite albums list. [241]
Alternative Press included Bauhaus in their 1996 list of "100 underground inspirations of the past 20 years." [242]
The Bauhaus song "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything" (from The Sky's Gone Out) was covered by several artists and bands, including John Frusciante (guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers), [243] MGMT [244] and Xiu Xiu (who recorded it in 2006 for their Tu Mi Piaci EP). Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins sang T. Rex's "Telegram Sam" and "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything" live on stage with Bauhaus in 1998. [245] "Double Dare" was covered by the alternative rock band the God Machine. [246] "Hollow Hills" was covered by System of a Down. [247] [248] "Silent Hedges" (along with "Double Dare") was covered by the power metal band Nevermore. [249]
"Bela Lugosi's Dead", was covered by numerous acts, including Until December (1986), the Electric Hellfire Club (1996), Opera IX (on 2000 album The Black Opera: Symphoniæ Mysteriorum in Laudem Tenebrarum ), Sepultura (on 2001 album Nation ), Nouvelle Vague (on 2006 album Bande à part ), Chris Cornell (2007), [250] Nine Inch Nails (2009), [251] Trent Reznor with Murphy and TV on the Radio (2013), [252] Massive Attack (2013), [253] David J with Jill Tracy (2013), Chvrches (for the 2014 Vampire Academy soundtrack), [254] Dead Cross (on their 2017 debut album), [255] the Damned (2019). [256] and A Plague On Both your Houses (covering both "Bela Lugosi's Dead" and also a 2 part dub reggae version of "She's In Parties" in 2023).
Bauhaus's fanbase extends beyond music; the American novelist Chuck Palahniuk was influenced by the Bauhaus song "Bela Lugosi's Dead" when writing his 2005 novel Haunted . [257] In James O'Barr's 1989 comic book The Crow , the facial features of Eric Draven were based on those of Peter Murphy. [258] [259] In Neil Gaiman's series The Sandman , Dream's face and appearance were also based on Murphy. [260] [261] [262] [263] [264] Additionally, comic book writer Alan Moore wrote the sleeve notes of Mask and contributed an anonymous Bauhaus review called "Phantoms of the Teenage Opera" to the UK music paper Sounds. [265] [266] [267]
The 1984 music video of the song "You're the Inspiration" from the American band Chicago featured lead singer Peter Cetera wearing a Bauhaus T-shirt. [268]
In an interview at the CBGB, Axl Rose from Guns N' Roses is seen wearing a Bauhaus T-shirt. [269] [270] In the Beavis and Butt-head season 3 episode "Meet God, Part II" (1993), they view and comment on a music video for Bauhaus' Bowie cover, "Ziggy Stardust". [271] [272] Susie Lewis, the co-creator of the American animated series Daria , is a fan of the band [273] and used their song "1. David Jay 2. Peter Murphy 3. Kevin Haskins 4. Daniel Ash" in the closing credits of episode 213, "Write Where it Hurts". [274] In the 2003 South Park episode "Raisins", Henrietta Biggle (one of the "goth kids") had a bedroom poster of "Blauhaus", a parody version of the band. [275]
In the 2015–2016 American Horror Story season "American Horror Story: Hotel", "Bela Lugosi's Dead" is used in the opening episode, in line with the underlying horror/vampire theme of the series. [276] In the 2017 The Americans episode "Darkroom", the Bauhaus song "Slice of Life" is played in the background of the red room scene. It was ranked #8 in Vulture's list of "The 10 Best Musical Moments in The Americans". [277] Saturday Night Live 's recurring "Goth Talk" skit used "Bela Lugosi's Dead" as its theme song. [278]
The 2016 single "She's Out of Her Mind" by American pop punk band Blink-182 describes a girl with "a black shirt, black skirt and Bauhaus stuck in her mind". [279]
Bauhaus' performance at Coachella in 2005 has been ranked #5 among LA Weekly as one of "The 20 Best Coachella Sets of All Time". [65]
Bauhaus' appearance in the Tony Scott film The Hunger has been ranked #20 by Rolling Stone as "The 30 Greatest Rock & Roll Movie Moments". [280] and #17 by Time Out as "The 50 Best Uses of Songs in Movies". [281]
Gothic rock is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, Bauhaus, and the Cure.
Tones on Tail were a British post-punk band formed in 1982, originally as a musical side project of Daniel Ash of the gothic rock group Bauhaus. Their music was described by one critic as "doom-and-dance-pop."
Deathrock is a rock music subgenre incorporating horror elements and gothic theatrics. It emerged from punk rock on the West Coast of the United States in the early 1980s and overlaps with the gothic rock and horror punk genres. Notable deathrock acts include Christian Death, Kommunity FK, 45 Grave, and Super Heroines.
Daniel Gaston Ash is an English musician, songwriter and singer. He became prominent in the late 1970s as the guitarist for the goth rock band Bauhaus, which spawned two related bands led by Ash: Tones on Tail and Love and Rockets. Recently, he reunited with bandmate Kevin Haskins to form Poptone, a retrospective of their respective careers, featuring Kevin's daughter Diva Dompe on bass. He has also recorded several solo albums. Several guitarists have listed Ash as an influence, including Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction, Kim Thayil of Soundgarden, Hide of X Japan and John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Kevin Michael Dompe, born and best-known as Kevin Michael Haskins, is an English drummer, best known from the British rock group Bauhaus. He was also a member of Tones on Tail and Love and Rockets.
Love and Rockets are an English rock band formed in 1985 by former Bauhaus members Daniel Ash, David J and Kevin Haskins after that group split in 1983. Ash and Haskins had recorded and performed in another band, Tones on Tail, between 1982 and 1984.
"Bela Lugosi's Dead" is the debut single by the English post-punk band Bauhaus, released in August 1979 on the Small Wonder label. It is often considered the first gothic rock record.
David John Haskins, better known as David J, is a British alternative rock musician, producer, and writer. He is the bassist for the gothic rock band Bauhaus and for Love and Rockets.
"Ziggy Stardust" is a song by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie from his 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Co-produced by Bowie and Ken Scott, he recorded it at Trident Studios in London in November 1971 with his backing band the Spiders from Mars—comprising Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey. Lyrically, the song is about Ziggy Stardust, a bisexual alien rock star who acts as a messenger for extraterrestrial beings. The character was influenced by English singer Vince Taylor, as well as the Legendary Stardust Cowboy and Kansai Yamamoto. Although Ziggy is introduced earlier on the album, this song is its centrepiece, presenting the rise and fall of the star in a very human-like manner. Musically, it is a glam rock song, like its parent album, and is based around a Ronson guitar riff.
In the Flat Field is the debut studio album by English gothic rock band Bauhaus. It was recorded between December 1979 and July 1980, and released on 3 November 1980 by record label 4AD, the first full-length release on that label. The cover artwork is a reproduction of Duane Michals' 1949 photograph, Homage to Puvis de Chavannes.
Mask is the second studio album by English gothic rock band Bauhaus. It was released on 16 October 1981 by record label Beggars Banquet.
Hot Trip to Heaven is the fifth studio album by British rock band Love and Rockets, released in 1994 on Beggars Banquet in the United Kingdom and American in the United States. Released after a five-year hiatus, the album saw the band drop their former gothic, alternative rock sound in favour of a hi-tech electronic, ambient direction, taking influences from ambient techno artists such as The Orb and Orbital, while retaining the band's psychedelic focus. The group were first intrigued in making electronic music at the start of the decade.
The Sky's Gone Out is the third studio album by English gothic rock band Bauhaus, released in 1982 by record label Beggars Banquet.
Burning from the Inside is the fourth studio album by English gothic rock band Bauhaus, released on 15 July 1983 by record label Beggars Banquet. It peaked at No. 13 on the UK Albums Chart. The single, "She's In Parties", which spawned from the album, reached No. 26 in the UK Singles Chart.
Peter John Joseph Murphy is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. He is the vocalist for the post-punk/goth rock band Bauhaus. After Bauhaus disbanded, Murphy formed Dalis Car with Japan's bassist Mick Karn and released one album, The Waking Hour (1984). He went on to release a number of solo albums, including Should the World Fail to Fall Apart (1986) and Love Hysteria (1988). In 1990, he achieved commercial success with his single "Cuts You Up", which reached the top 60 of the US Billboard Hot 100 which is for singles sales. His album Deep also reached No. 44 on the Billboard 200. In 1992, Murphy released Holy Smoke, which reached No. 108 on the Billboard 200 chart, featuring lead single "The Sweetest Drop". After the release of Holy Smoke, Peter moved from London to Turkey with his family and from there he released Cascade in 1995. Bauhaus then reunited briefly for the well-received Gotham tour in 1998. In 2002, Murphy released Dust with Turkish-Canadian composer and producer Mercan Dede, which utilizes traditional Turkish instrumentation and songwriting, abandoning Murphy's previous pop and rock incarnations, and juxtaposing elements from progressive rock, trance, classical music, and Middle Eastern music, coupled with Dede's trademark atmospheric electronics. He followed this up two years later with Unshattered (2004). The next several years would see a second reunion of Bauhaus from 2005-2007 during which they recorded their fifth and final album Go Away White, released in 2008 after they had broken up again. Peter then returned to his solo efforts, releasing Ninth in 2011. In 2014, he released Lion, produced by Killing Joke's Youth, which reached No. 173 on the Billboard 200.
Crackle is a greatest hits album by English goth-rock band Bauhaus. The album was released in 1998 by record label Beggars Banquet, during the band's Resurrection Tour. It includes remastered versions of some of their single hits and most popular songs.
Go Away White is the fifth and final studio album by English gothic rock band, Bauhaus and was internationally released on 3 March 2008 by record labels Cooking Vinyl in the UK and Bauhaus Music. It was the band's first album of new material since Burning from the Inside in 1983.
The discography of Bauhaus, a British gothic rock band, consists of five studio albums, four live albums, three compilation albums, four extended plays (EPs), eleven singles and three video albums. The band was formed in Northampton in 1978 by Daniel Ash (guitar), David J (bass), Kevin Haskins (drums) and Peter Murphy (vocals).
Bauhaus 1979–1983 is a compilation album by English post-punk band Bauhaus, released in 1985 by record label Beggars Banquet.
The Singles 1981–1983 is a greatest hits mini-album by English post-punk band Bauhaus. It was released in 1983 by record label Beggars Banquet.
Our influences were many. The obvious ones were glam rock and punk rock, but when we were recording, when we finished each day, we'd usually record in a residential studio so we would all stay together at night time. So when we'd wind down, we'd always play either dub reggae or late Beatles, like Sgt. Pepper . When I mention that to people they're kind of surprised. So we weren't listening to dark music, there were many influences.
At the time there were two drummers who had an influence on me namely, Steven Morris from Joy Division and Kenny Morris from Siouxsie and the Banshees. I liked how Steven played sixteenth notes on the hi hat and he used this wonderful electronic drum called The Synare drum which I ran out and bought immediately! With Kenny I loved how he would use the tom tom drums rather than hi hats and cymbals.
Whenever we were in London we would scour the independent record stores for obscure American treasures on imported vinyl: The MC5, the Stooges, the Flaming Groovies, Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers, the Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, the New York Dolls (whose exciting appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test was a key moment for us both).
Interviewer: "Your past music always seems to have a kind of deepness of sound. How did you get to this manner of playing ? As I know from Daniel you, as a musicians, were influenced by punk rock." David J: " Yes, using my previous words – it was a galvanizing movement. Seeing Sex Pistols and The Clash in '76. That was very seminal. Kevin and I formed a punk-band that night! It's actually a very familiar story when people would go to see The Pistols playing and then say "We can do this!". So it was the seed for all of us. Then the post-punk thing happened a couple of years after that and that's where Bauhaus started. But we were also influenced by a lot of other kinds of music. Like dub reggae, for instance. It was very influential on us. And of course glam-rock. T-Rex, Bowie, early-Roxy Music. Then there were the things like the Stooges, MC5, the Velvet Underground was huge influence. So all of that went into the mix."
I was instantly transported to a very weird and delightful parallel dimension! I had never heard anything like it. I was hooked!" My friend David J [Tape Op #106] from Bauhaus recently shared this story of hearing their first album in 1977. "I would seek out any Residents information and records that I could get my hands on. Their influence seeped into Bauhaus for sure.
Murphy speaks for himself when he talks about the influences he brought to the band. "Kraftwerk were among my influences, very early on," he says,
The gaping maw of the cement mixer used onstage last night by legendary 'Krautrock' ensemble, Faust. I discovered this band in 1973 when I was 16. I was in a used vinyl store in Northampton & the Bridget Riley op-art design featured on the cover caught my eye & I purchased it on the strength of this alone as I was not familiar with the band. The weird avant-garde 'kosmische musik' blew my teenage mind! It was the gateway into other great German bands of the era such as Can, Neu!, Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Temple & Amon Duul etc I felt so privileged to witness them live at the Empire Control Room in Austin last night. They were amazing! Big thanks to Jurgen Engler for sorting it & also introducing me to the band post inspired set!
In the opening sequence of the epic Mosaic, David eloquently pays a homage of sorts to John 'The Ox' Entwistle, the legendary Who bass player who passed away, amidst a fatal mix of groupie and white lines, in room 658 at The Hard Rock Hotel, Las Vegas in 2002. ...Entwistle's bass lines were a huge influence on the young Haskins, having witnessed The Who live at Charlton Athletic Football Ground back in 1976 with Brother Kevin and then bandmate Dave Exton…. "we exchanged a secret handshake on that day"
Mention to Haskins the dub reggae vibe of "Bela Lugosi's Dead," "She's in Parties," and elements of Bauhaus' first album In the Flat Fields, and he perks up to his time in the 1970s as a teenager. "There was quite a big ska scene in England when we were growing up, and there are quite a lot of hit records in the charts such as "Liquidator," "Monkey Man" and "It Mek." So I think that we were we were all influenced by that. And when punk exploded there was just one club in London where Don Letts DJ'd. Because there were only a handful of punk records released, so he used to play a lot of dub reggae, and so that became part of the scene. We were already naturally into this type of music with Mikey Dread, King Tubby and Lee Scratch Perry being some of our favorites."
Daniel Ash and Kevin Haskins started the post-punk gothic band Bauhaus in 1978. Their musical influences ranged from the Velvet Underground to Joy Division. "Our influences were the Velvet Underground, Roxy Music, Bowie, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Mikey Dread, Lee Scratch Perry, the Beatles, the Stooges, Marc Bolan, Joy Division. The list goes on and on," Kevin Haskins stated.
Apart from the Trojan Records reggae roster, Daniel and I were into artists like Scott Walker and Jacques Brel, both of whom had been brought to our attention by Bowie, who spoke glowingly about them in interviews.
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ignored (help)Another big record for us was Nuggets, Lenny Kaye's great compilation of 60s garage rock. These hard-to-find platters were like tablets from the mountain, and back in our candlelit teenage bedrooms we would pore over their grooves and bask in revelation.
So I'd really been listening to music from being a baby, from 1st World War and 2nd World War songs through to Doris Day, then Simon and Garfunkel, Rolling Stones, The Beatles, to all the early Reggae stuff. It was a very musical family in terms of listening and singing, there was lots of music in the house and then in 1966 The Beatles explode and the radio is everywhere. Everywhere you go there's music but on reflection now what's happening is that there's just this generic mush everywhere, you know what I mean? ...But I love to listen to vocal harmonies so there's The Beatles and the Everly Brothers, and voices… Plus there was a very strong influence from Mass, you know the Catholic Mass at school where hymns were always really choral, and that was inspiring even from the first day when I was five. School itself was in this lovely little old building with this high ambient ceiling, a very 'reverb' place a where we sang 'Ave Maria' with this Spanish Teacher who was so inspired to get us to sing. So all this was going on in my head and I didn't have any other context other than loving it, and I would sing all the time.
Peter Murphy: I was the youngest in the family, and we ran the gamut from Doris Day to Second World War songs, through to Irish folk songs, and then from rockabilly to the Rolling Stones. The Beatles exploded when I was six or something, and that made England very happy. There was a resonance about them that had some joy in it, and we needed that. But I was only six. Then my brother, who was 18 months older, was into northern soul and reggae and stuff. The first 7" vinyl I bought when I was seven was "A Hard Day's Night."
Interviewer: "How big an influence was reggae on the development of Bauhaus's music?""
Peter Murphy: "Massive. We were listening to toasting music all the time, and David brought in a lot of bass lines that were very lead riffs. You can see how those basslines really formed the basis of the music, especially on Mask. We were more aligned to The Clash than anything else that was going around. The Cure and those people really solidified what became goth, I suppose. We had no idea how to play reggae, but that was to our advantage because we expanded on that. It was successful on a very cult, underground level and that was very appropriate because our music was never going to be mainstream. It was seminal music. It was brilliant in its originality."
Interviewer: "You attended one of the early Sex Pistols gigs – was that a 'Road to Damascus' type moment?"
Kevin Haskins: "To a certain degree, it definitely was a revelation. Several months before the Sex Pistols gig I went to see Led Zeppelin at a Earls Court, a huge venue in London. They were in their prime, and it was a marvellous rock show. John Bonham played a blistering half hour drum solo. I left the show with a mixture of elation and depression. I knew that I could never be as technically good as Bonham, and a feeling of dejection enveloped me! Fast forward to the 100 Club. I had just left high school, dressed in flared denims and long hair, and immediately felt very out of place amongst the punks who consisted of Siouxsie, Sue Catwoman and Sid Vicious. The Clash took to the stage and it was like being hit by an express train! Their style and sound blew me away, and I instantly thought, "I can do this!" – such a cliche. The Pistols followed and I was converted. The next day I went to the barbers and had my long locks cut short and took my pyjamas in to the garage and splattered them with emulsion paint, Jackson Pollock style. That show gave me the confidence to use what little chops I possessed to great effect."
The group quickly arrived on a darkly driving post-punk sound that combined elements of glam rock, punk, dub, art-rock, heavy metal and the starkness of such other post-punk outfits as Joy Division and Public Image Limited.
He can speak only for his influences, however, and notes the magic among the four souls of Bauhaus comes from an almost surreal level of trust among them. 'Once we got in [the studio], we were inspired by each other,' he says. 'We dropped everything. We left everything out. You don't walk in there with any baggage. You walk in with each other. You inspire each other, viscerally. You do it as you play, not with words. Less talking, more creating.'
David J: "We were very influenced by reggae, especially dub. I mean, basically "Bela [Lugosi's Dead]" was our interpretation of dub."
Bauhaus are the founding fathers of goth rock, creating a minimalistic, overbearingly gloomy style of post-punk rock driven by jagged guitar chords and cold, distant synthesizers. Throughout their brief career, the band explored all the variations on their bleak musical ideas, adding elements of glam rock, experimental electronic rock, funk, and heavy metal.
At the time, despite pulling from influences as diverse as ambient music, Krautrock, prog, and glam rock, Bauhaus was lumped in with all the other DIY music culture out of England: punk rock.
Post-Punk: What did you listen to when you were growing up? DA: What really got me obsessed with music was a strict diet of early Bowie, T.Rex, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and nothing else. Peter and myself grew up in the same school, we knew each other from about twelve years old and were really crazy about those bands I just mentioned. Particularly Bowie and Roxy Music as well. That whole glam thing from the early 70s. There's a film called Velvet Goldmine which you've probably heard of. That pretty much summed up our youth at that school. I thought that was pretty accurate, that film. Before that, when I was really young, I used to see stuff about The Beatles and The Dave Clark Five. That was another one. I was fascinated by the drum sound that that guy would get in the Dave Clark Five because there was all this echo. A massive drum sound. Apparently my mum told me my face used to be about four inches away from the TV screen with the volume up full, listening to the Dave Clark Five's "Bits and Pieces." So I suppose that was the first thing that really got me interested in music from about eight or so.
In the beginning, he [David J] sculpted haunting, lo-fi moods steeped in post-punk cadences and lyrics written using William S. Burroughs' cut-up technique – randomly selecting words and placing them together. 'It introduces the element of chance which makes for certain juxtapositions of words and lines which you could never come up with in any other way,' he says.
The atmosphere for the rest of the trip was dark and heavy. I buried my nose in a book: Satori in Paris by Jack Kerouac. 'Satori' is a concept in Zen Buddhism that describes a moment of sudden spiritual illumination. In his book, Kerouac applies this to his own ecstatic experience in the French capital, describing the revelation as the 'kick in the eye'. This phrase would inspire the title of our next single, and the funk-driven track would point the way to the next evolutionary stage of the band.
Presiding over the madness that ensued was the spirit of the nineteenth century symbolist poète maudit Isidore Ducasse, aka le Comte de Lautréamont. Peter and I had been consumed by his brilliant prose poems, which told of fantastic savage acts and a desire for burning transcendence at any cost. (We were both twenty-four years old, after all.) On the inner runoff tracks of the vinyl copy of the album is a punning riddle. 'When is a door not a door?' Flip it over to read the answer: 'When it's Ducasse!' We were held in thrall to the evil comte throughout the sessions, and one time he had us getting drunk on whisky in the wee small hours, which inspired us to rouse the understandably grumpy assistant engineer, Ted Sharp, so that the three of us could all traipse down the hill to the studio to record 'The Three Shadows, Part III', which featured Murphy sawing away on a cello and me on a violin—neither of which were instruments we could play. Ducasse also had us smoking copious amounts of opiated black tar hashish and drinking champagne at all hours so as to induce a Rimbaudian systematic derangement of the senses.
The album's title track was a sprawling epic inspired- if that's the word- by the quotidian mundaneness of life in Northampton, and the desire to escape that 'flat' existence. Peter's interesting lyric drew on Greek mythology, referencing Theseus and the labyrinth, but there was another mythic figure with whom we would soon feel an affinity: the androgynous god of wine, excess, and ecstatic madness, Dionysus.
Bauhaus was always much enamoured of the glorious style of Mr Oscar Wilde, and the spirit of this perennial hero still resides over today's reincarnation.
Interviewer: "What other avant-garde composition techniques have the band employed?" Ash: ""We've used Eno Cards [also known as Oblique Strategies]. I know David had those first, and then I actually went and bought a pack."
Graham Bentley: "We both (Peter and Graham) went to a Judas Priest gig sometime before we ever met and we were both influenced by whoever it was who did their lights. They had this thing worked out, the lighting bloke and Rob Halford (the lead singer), which worked together really well. They used some floor lighting and he'd know just where to stick his face and it was really effective and very well worked out."
We were more aligned to the Clash than anything else that was going around. The Cure and those people really solidified what became goth, I suppose.
I've always felt though that the Banshees, who came before us, were more of an influence on the Goth movement. We chose to wear black, and our first single was vampire themed and the press tagged us. I can relate to it to a certain degree, but I feel that Bauhaus were more three dimensional, more art rock.
It is Type O Negative's gothically tinged metal, reared on a steady diet of Bauhaus and Sisters Of Mercy, which never takes itself too seriously, that has garnered them critical and commercial success.
Ja, auch ein Einfluß. Ich denke bei Ernst warens hauptsächlich die spätsiebziger Elektronikpioniere, die frühen Ultravox, natürlich Kraftwerk. Und bei mir waren es doch eher die Bands, die mehr so aus der Bad Cave Ecke kamen, Post-Punkt auch viele Gitarren-Bands von Virginbruns bis Bauhaus, Joy Division, was es so alles gab.
Mask by Bauhaus – Atsushi listened to this a lot during the start of Buck-Tick, he loved Peter Murphy's voice. When asked what was the one album that changed your life, Atsushi declared it was this album.
Bauhaus in particular, were huge influences to Buck-Tick.
NOISEY: What was the initial inspiration for Lycia? Mike VanPortfleet: The roots of what became Lycia actually go all the way back to 1981, but it wasn't until 1988 that I really gave it a serious push. My initial inspiration was to imitate the post-punk bands I was listening to at the time – early Psychedelic Furs, Echo & the Bunnymen, Bauhaus, Killing Joke, and in particular Joy Division. But that naturally didn't lead to anything because there was a lack of original creative focus. In 1988, I got a four-track cassette recorder, and that really opened the door. Very soon after the style and writing became influenced more and more by earlier recorded Lycia material, and that just fed on itself, and led to what became our unique sound.
Q: "What or who else influenced the Cult?" Astbury: "The Cult grew out of a lot of post-punk influences, Joy Division and Bauhaus."
The Soul Merchants were Denver's first Goth band, pulling their influences from Bauhaus, and the Sisters of Mercy.
Idris: "Big names that have inspired us: Bauhaus, Clan of Xymox, The Cure, French band Asylum Party, lots of bands, you'll probably see it during the concert."
Keyboarder Markus Reinhardt und Sänger Peter Heppner fangen 1987 an, gemeinsam Musik zu machen. Beide verbindet eine tiefe Bewunderung für Kraftwerk und Bauhaus und bald sind auch eigene Kompositionen auf Demo-Tape gebannt und verkaufsfertig.
Manson: Bauhaus is one of our absolute favorite bands.
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ignored (help)Marilyn Manson – 'Bauhaus was like a hard cock in a dimly lit room filled with vampires. This book is told firsthand by one of the reckless few that created such an important and unusual genre of music. Their odd, witchy songs snaked themselves all the way from whence they came into my temporal lobe and impacted on what I ended up becoming as an artist.'
Bauhaus has been a major influence of mine over the years. Their sound, look and style made me want to start a band. One of the first tours we were on was with Peter Murphy – a hero of mine. To share the stage with these guys now is truly an honor.
The other important thing that happened when I went to college was I finally had access to college radio. I never realized how much shit was out there. I discovered Bauhaus after they'd broken up and Joy Division and Throbbing Gristle and tons of shit that I just didn't know existed. You know that feeling where you find a new band you haven't heard of, then you discover them and you realize they have like three albums out? To me that's a great feeling because you can't wait to digest and absorb them. Well, that was happening with, like, 30 bands to me in college. It felt very inspiring to be a music fan.
Having discovered the industrial-grade thumping and noise terrorism of UK bands such as Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire, and the moodiness of Bauhaus, Joy Division, early New Order and Depeche Mode, Key and Ogre set about creating their own brand of electronic attack.
Their first EP from 1984, self-released and pressed in a run of 1,000 vinyl copies, was influenced by darker UK rock on the goth end of the spectrum, bands like Bauhaus and Echo and the Bunnymen.
Steve Albini: "They [Bauhaus] are a fantastic band. …Yeah, they were an inspirational great band. I saw a show of theirs, they played a rehearsal space in Chicago called the Space Place and Naked Raygun opened the show and yeah it was an absolutely astonishing show. I love their early singles and their first album, I think it's fantastic. I think that first album is a masterpiece and I think their singles are incredible."
Bauhaus – All We Ever Wanted Was Everything Tout est dans ce morceau : les rêves adolescents, l'envie de partir et la musique qui nous sauve... je veux que ce soit ce titre-là que l'on joue à mon enterrement. (Everything is in this song: teenage dreams, the desire to leave and the music that saves us ... I want this title to be played at my funeral)
Besides early punk like the Clash, the Edge (U2) was a big influence on me early on. I liked his simplicity, choppy rhythm, & delay effects. Pink Floyd had a huge early impact on me, too, & I still love Gilmore's work. He's so soulful & grand. I can never play like him, but the emotion & reaching he always has really resonates with me. Then, by college, I'd found Husker Du, the Cure, Joy Division, Bauhaus, REM, Replacements, Swans, & Jesus & Mary Chain, who all had influence on me & led me back to stuff like Velvet Underground, Sabbath, the Stooges, & Neil Young. Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, & the Pixies were yet a new level – an exciting time for guitars.
JH: "Love And Rockets and [their predecessors] Bauhaus are both among my favourite bands and I've always loved that song because I loved the way a band could go from being goth-punk into mainstream."
Courtney: 'Listen to the first Bauhaus album and you'll instantly get it. Bauhaus were massive for me – they changed my life like no other band, other than Devo.'
A little under a year ago, the three members of RNDM – Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament, singer/songwriter Joseph Arthur and drummer Richard Stuverud – got together to begin sketching out ideas for their new LP, Ghost Riding (out March 4th), a follow-up to their 2012 debut Acts. 'We said to each other, "What is the spirit album for this record?"' says Ament. 'We started throwing out experimental albums back and forth that we love, like Laughing Stock by Talk Talk, David Sylvian's Brilliant Trees and Gone to Earth, some of the most experimental Bowie albums, Bauhaus and the first couple of Peter Gabriel records.'
There are artists that I find just mesmerizing in the way they capture my imagination, whatever I might be doing when some of their songs are randomly played, and Bauhaus is one of those bands.
As far as music I listened to growing up, I was all about the Motown stuff. Otis Redding, Al Green, etc. I also listened to Dead Kennedys, Joy Division, Bauhaus, Fishbone, and Jane's Addiction.
Dave [Navarro] & I [Stephen Perkins] met those cats. They [Perry Farrell and Eric Avery] were more into Echo & The Bunnymen, Joy Division, Siouxsie & the Banshees and Bauhaus. I think that was the sound of Jane's Addiction
"We had really bizarre influences," Navarro reflects. "The Velvet Underground, Led Zeppelin, Bauhaus, Van Halen and Rush were all part of our sound.
Eric Avery: "When you sit down to write about a band like Bauhaus you are handcuffed by the fact that all the perfect descriptions for Bauhaus have been overused to describe lesser bands. They were a dark, sexual theatrical band that made music that is timeless. Music that didn't sound like 1983, back then, any more than it sounds like 2016 now. It's the flicker of a film projector. It's the shout down the cone of a carnival barker. It's the slither of a leather constraint. It is music that stands outside of time. It is a beautiful, surprising and singular as it ever was (and will continue to be for the same reason). There has truly, to me, quite literally, never been a band like Bauhaus."
Perry Farrell: "Bauhaus roared across a musical moment in time that too few people were fortunate enough to be part of. For those who embraced the darkness, they were innovators of the morose in the league of Edgar Allan Poe. Using sound the way others use the colour spectrum, leaving us permanently dyed with their brave recordings. David J. Haskins shines a penetrating light on a missing link in music history with stories of band dysfunction and genius songwriting; allowing us in on the dismantling of goth's most legendary freakshow."
'The first Bauhaus record I bought was a live record [Press the Eject and Give Me the Tape],' he remembered. 'Peter Murphy's hiding his face behind a cymbal – which is removed from the drum kit, which I liked – and he's singing. Something about that just spoke to me, like, "I don't know what this is, but this has to be great." They became one of my favorite bands.'
As a band, I think we really sprang from two things: this sort of British, moody, goth-y, bass riff-oriented music like Gang of Four, Joy Division, Bauhaus, Killing Joke, and then this guitar-oriented, post-hardcore thing in America, like the Meat Puppets and Hüsker Dü and the Butthole Surfers," he said. "I think those were two things that were really playing into what Soundgarden was about collectively when we formed, you know, in '84.
'Our music is as much influenced by British bands like Killing Joke and Bauhaus as it is by heavy metal.' – [Kim Thayil]
'We were trying for something a little weirder,' Borra says. 'I was listening to hardcore, but we were more influenced by the British side of things – PiL, Bauhaus. By 1984 when A Neon Rome started, punk was considered dead.'
[We're] using some keyboards that are sort of synth-y and '80s-sounding and bringing that into the mix of our noisy guitar rock – not doing it in a New Wave fashion but that darker pop. I love Echo & The Bunnymen and Bauhaus and all of that music, and there's definitely British influence to our music.
A lot of the songs are complete Bauhaus rip-offs.
By the age of 19 he still hadn't found a band to solo in, and had grown bored with the headbanging genre. "I lost the whole 'f--- society, f--- authority' thing that was driving it from the beginning, so I just stopped playing music in general, and my tastes shifted," he says. He started listening to music that he wasn't immediately inspired to play himself, like Wagner and Beethoven, or gothic groups such as Bauhaus and Sisters of Mercy.
So where has this style come from? It seems to have been influenced by many things, though two stand out. Firstly, the influence of guitarist and chief songwriter Andy MacFarlane: "He's been going back to listen to old records as he doesn't like a lot of new music. He's always listened to the bands that have influenced his writing on this album but I think these bands have came to the forefront, Siouxsie And The Banshees, Can, PiL, Fad Gadget, Cabaret Voltaire, Wire, Bauhaus, Magazine, D.A.F. etc."
But today they stopped by The A.V. Club armed with a smoke machine and fluorescent lighting and covered Bauhaus' 1981 hit 'Kick In The Eye' and David Bowie's Lodger in its entirety. The band revealed they are actually huge fans of Bauhaus, and their bassist plays fret-less a la Bauhaus' David J. They are also working on another record that is heavily inspired by the late '70s and early '80s and both Bauhaus and Bowie are among the biggest influences.
I started to follow the topicality, in particular the English groups. [The] Clash fascinated me and the dark songs of Bauhaus intrigued me enormously, they directly brought me to [the] Velvet Underground.
Jello Biafra – 'In many ways, Bauhaus were the darkest and deadliest of Britain's post-punk pioneers. Seeing them live in London the week "In The Flat Field" came out is an experience I'll never forget. Instead of overkill, they were the masters of underkill and spine-tingling tension. Then they got famous. Now, David J. Haskins reflects on both personal and collective evolution and how to rise from the ashes the right way when a truly great band breaks up. And to think it all started in a vacuum, far away from the lights of London, in a sleepy market town in the Midlands. It's amazing how far people can go when they're not afraid of their own intelligence, curiosity, and new ideas. I don't think he's done, either.'
Interviewer: 'Who else influenced you?' Jello Biafra: '...When I wrote Plastic Surgery Disasters, the main stuff I was listening to was Bauhaus, Les Baxture and The Groundhogs.'
Still, in those days, it wasn't easy being Jonathan Davis. ..."I was into Bauhaus, Ministry, Depeche Mode..."
'I don't remember writing it,' says Davis, discussing 'Basic Needs' from the studio chair. 'It just kind of came about. It's definitely got the dark world-music/gothic vibe, but that's just for me, what I'm inspired by. I love bands like Bauhaus, I love Peter Murphy, I love Dead Can Dance ... I loved all of these different kinds of band when I was growing up, and that's just what [came] out of me.'
All the same, Celtic Frost were clearly also utilizing a much wider spectrum of influence, including that of gothic rock acts such as Bauhaus and Christian Death, and were already beginning to demonstrate the decidedly innovative approach to songwriting (evident in the restrained but notable use of violin and female vocals) that would increasingly earn them the "avant-garde metal" tag.
'As contradictory as this may seem, Bauhaus being, in my opinion, the Godfathers of Goth: they were a bright artistic light in a vast wasteland of crappy pop darkness. They showed me the way.' – Maynard James Keenan
Born in 1969 and brought up in Detroit's middle-class West Side, Craig took Detroit's Europhile tendencies even further than his mentor Derrick May. As a sensitive teenager, he was into bands like The Cure, Bauhaus and The Smiths.
Supporting Bauhaus is apropos for Ali, given the aforementioned inspiration for Phantoms, which she feels came out at the right time to prepare her for this show. 'If this had happened last year, I wouldn't have known what music to play opening for Bauhaus,' she says. 'But the fact that I did all the work to arrive to this point – that now I get to take the stage right before one of my biggest influences and perform the music that, in many ways, is a tribute to the legacy that so many of these bands launched – is incredible. You want to speak about how things come full circle. There's a map out there where everything is connected.'
'Bauhaus were complicated, at times earnest, at times distant and ironic, at times delicate, at times vicious …I could never put my finger on them or what they did and that made me love them more.' – Moby
The footage, streaming below, is filmed by Massive Attack biographer, Melissa Chemam, and the writer offers some insight into the band's history with the track. Writing on YouTube Chemam states that Massive Attack first introduced this cut to their set in 2013; for their first show with Adam Curtis doing visuals. She is referring to the gig at The Park Avenue Armory in New York on 30 September that year. Chemam describes the cut as one of Robert (3D) Del Naja's favourites and explains that Bauhuaus are a big influence on Massive Attack.
Yeah, we were developing all these influences from people like Bauhaus and Joy Division....
He [Motohiro] met up with the band after moving into his Boston apartment next to the group's leader, Greg Ackell. Upon noting their shared musical influences, including the Smiths, Bauhaus, and the Cure...
JM: "There seems to be more of a European sensibility to your music than any American roots. Do you find yourself gazing across the Atlantic more for inspiration?" DW: "When I kind of really got into music it was all about British music for me. I was always reading the British rags and seeing who was new and what was out and buying any import I could gobble up. When I was very young I had a friend who had some older brothers and that was the first time I heard Motorhead and Sex Pistols and that was like nothing I'd heard before that. As a young kid I was all about San Francisco hippy bands but the biggest record that gave me my first proper mindfuck as a kid was P.I.L.'s Metal Box and that really set me off on the tangent. I then got into Juju-era Siouxsie And The Banshees and Bauhaus and that whole kinda thing. Then I got into bands like The Telescopes and Thee Hypnotics, Loop, Spacemen 3 and that whole era. I was gobbling up everything that I could."
...I think there's this generation now of not only 15-to-17-year-olds but even [people who are between] 20 and 30, why they go back to that music and listen to it, or why they would even wanna listen to a new Coal Chamber record is they know it's gonna be something different. And that's what was beautiful about that time and era and that music – there was so many different influences to that music. You know, Coal Chamber has this metal influence along with this Bauhaus and goth kind of thing with us.
Nergal: "While I started growing my interest in gothic and post-punk music, stuff like The Sisters Of Mercy and Fields Of The Nephilim, at some point The Cure must have come out for me as one of the core originators of the genre. It was a group of bands with Bauhaus and Peter Murphy and a few others that I found. I'm not really immersed in the genre but some of those bands are absolutely groundbreaking. I listen to more than just metal; there are certain dark atmospheres in different kinds of music that appeal to me and I'll just go for that."
According to Durst, he endured childhood ridicule over his taste in music. "I loved the Cure and Bauhaus and the Smiths," he says.
I liked goth and new wave in the 80s – Depeche Mode, Sisters Of Mercy, Bauhaus…"
From Depeche Mode to Radiohead, Tankian's tastes and influences on Perplex Cities venture into areas far removed from his heavy metal roots." Serj Tankian: "Yeah, definitely, I was into Depeche Mode and New Order and a lot of the kind of goth bands, goth pop type of bands as well Bauhaus. It definitely has all those elements that I like, and even Radiohead."
HEAVIÖSITY: 'Yeah, White Zombie was a difficult band to categorize.' Yseult: It was kind of a gradual process. A lot of people were like, 'Oh, all of a sudden you're on Geffen and you're metal.' No, if you listen to the transition on all of these records we put out ourselves, up through Caroline Records, you can hear it. It was happening for years before we got on Geffen. You know, we both loved a lot of punk, like The Cramps and Gun Club. Even Bauhaus.'
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ignored (help)They played a wide range of covers that tied in to varying degrees with the agitprop documentary taking place onscreen. Some, like The Jesus and Mary Chain's "Just Like Honey" and Bauhaus' "Bela Lugosi's Dead", seemed chosen more for mood.
Last night The Damned played the "Gathering of the Vampires," where they tried to host the largest vampire event ever. During the show, the band covered Bauhaus' "Bela Lugosi's dead." Also, singer Dave Vanian was in a dead ringer Nosferatu costume.
It is not only these literary traditions that have informed and inspired Palahniuk's fiction; there are significant cinematic and musical influences as well. ... When it comes to music, Palahniuk has said that 'the punk esthetic shaped my work: Start loud, run short, end abruptly.' 93 Punk, industrial rock, and other edgy, confrontational styles tend to be the major influences.... ....To get into the right mood to create his damaged and sometimes dangerous characters, Palahniuk will often listen to the same song on repeat while he is writing. These have included Radiohead's 'Creep' for Choke, Depeche Mode's 'Little 15' for Diary, and Bauhaus's 'Bela Lugosi's Dead' for Haunted.
The physical appearance of Eric Draven was based heavily on the face of Peter Murphy of the band Bauhaus, who O'Barr also saw while in Germany, and the body of rock icon Iggy Pop.
Q: How did the Crow character of Eric come to you? O'Barr: Basically, I was just playing around with the makeup on the face. I was in England. On the side of a building was painted the three faces of the English theater, which were Pain, Irony and Despair. The smiling face was Irony. So that's basically where the makeup came from. Physically, Eric is kind of a mixture of Iggy Pop and Peter Murphy.
The Sandman image was inspired by Peter Murphy, the ex-Bauhaus singer and Maxell tape model, because when artist Mike Dringenberg saw the original sketches for the character he said "He looks like Peter Murphy from Bauhaus."
['Sandman' artist Kelly Jones talks about the inspiration behind Dream's appearance] I know Neil always said [the Sandman] was based on Robert Smith of the Cure, but I just hated the Cure. I didn't want to hear that. I was really into Peter Murphy at that time, the guy from Bauhaus. I didn't like Bauhaus, but I liked him on his own, and he had a song called "Cut You Up" or something; it was on the radio at the time. I bought the CD, and I said, 'You know, with that big poufy hair, he looks like that guy.' At that time, Murphy was very gestural. I don't think the guy ever had a picture taken of him that wasn't angled and in deep lighting. So I took that, too. I said, 'Whenever I do him, I'm gonna do that kind of thing. And get into his face, don't just keep him in deep shadow all the time. He will be in deep shadow all the time, but I want to put across a guy who's clueless. Not stupid, but he's not understanding things.' Because he's an immortal guy who...
The original idea-model for Morpheus was Peter Murphy from Bauhaus.
If I remember correctly Dave based the face on the cover of Sandman #1 on an image of Peter Murphy.
Sandman inker Mike Dringenberg observed, '"Hey, [he] looks like Peter Murphy from Bauhaus.'" Cover artist Dave McKean and Gaiman 'got some Bauhaus videos and immediately saw that Mike was right; and Dave ended up making the central image on the cover of Sandman [number one] a Peter Murphy-like face.
...Mask by Bauhaus in the issue dated 26 February 1981 (Moore also wrote the sleeve notes for that album, as Brilburn Logue) ... Moore wrote the programme for Bauhaus: Burning the Inside Tour (1983).
"Phantoms of the Teenage Opera" half-page article on the group Bauhaus. uncredited but unmlstakeably by Moore, later confirmed on the letters page of the November 29. 1980 issue (p.62): in the course of replying to a reader's letter the editor remarks,...
The show used all sorts of different songs, although, primarily, they stuck with the alternative sound that hewed closely to the ethos of the show. 'Since so much of me was part of Daria and Jane, I decided they would like the same kind of music that I liked,' said Lewis, who lists Nine Inch Nails, Bauhaus, and Love and Rockets as some of her favorite bands.