Monday 12 November 2012

Bauhaus bassist David J heads home to The Labour Club

Ask John Howard Payne, ask Patricia Garwood, even ask The Good Witch of The North. They'll all give you the exact same message: "There's no place like home." Unfortunately - being the highly sought after groundbreaking superstars that they are - Bauhaus rarely have the time nor the opportunity to perform in their hometown of Northampton these days. Rewind thirty three years and four dark, dramatic schoolfriends are in the process of founding a lugubrious post-punk subculture, the trailblazers for a brittle-boned and glam-infused genre known as... GOTHIC ROCK
 


Yes, that's right folks, this little town in the middle of England (hardly the metropolis of experimental music) down in the cultural history books forever - us!!! Even the opening of the Burton Latimer Weetabix Factory in 1932 would struggle for a par with that; however by the turn of their forth album Bauhaus had already dispersed, Daniel Ash and the Haskins brothers going on to achieve phenomenal stateside success as Tones on Tail and Love and Rockets whilst Murphy opted for a more solo orientated future career (still releasing music even to this day).

 
Yet through this all David J has never failed to inspire: whether it be as bassist for Love and Rockets, accompanied by Alan Moore or the seven albums released - to put it so eloquently - on his Jack Jones. "Dark-cabaret" he calls it, theatricals smothered in macabre gloom, his most recent record Not Long For This World lamenting the deaths of Hank Williams, Spalding Gray and Jeff Buckley beautifully morosely. No, Bauhaus never were the sort of band you'd invite over to play after winning the lottery (despite actually having quite a sense of humour) but their work has been exceptional nonetheless. And boy, David hasn't lost one drop of it!

 
On Friday 16th November, as part of the finale of his European tour, David J will be performing an extremely rare homecoming gig at Northampton's legendary Labour Club. Accompaniment will come from one of the town's all time greatest Pat Fish and local must have Liam Dullaghan, with tickets selling for £10 on the doors at 8pm or £7 in advance from Spiral Archive Records. Sheesh! It's exciting enough to resurrect Bela Lugosi himself!

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