So, having skimmed a variety of recent LJ posts on the subject...

[mrph]

Today's question: Is the UK goth scene broken? And, if so, just what changes d'you think would be needed to fix it?

Yes, I know this is a can of worms. But I'm curious to see what people think. This is mostly sparked by Uncle Nem's excellent Leipzig piece and the LJ comments it triggered.

(Now that you've lured him to Leipzig, can we drag him to M'era Luna next year, chimera_s? I'd quite like to see a similar write-up on that, a very different kind of German festival...).

Comments

[ben-elr.livejournal.com]

i *think* you know what i think about this already. however, for our listeners at home...

it just strikes me that the UK goth scene is caving in on itself.
i agree with the comment aout the live scene -and particular in London- and obviously from first hand experience.

i think what the scene needs is a bit more open-mindedness on the whole- and this is talking about *the scene*, not necessarily individuals within it.

the more the scene panders to the same old bands, the same old attire, the same old attitudes, etc etc, NOTHING WILL CHANGE. simple. the longer the scene refuses to evolve, the more it will continue to cave in on itself.

i'm hardly a pro-goth activist, infact i'm not a fucking goth at all. however i have a lot of friends who are. my main observation is that the scene seems to be becoming increasingly redundant- the fact that flag insist on choking the life out of the london live scene just makes people sick and apathetic. like you said to me last weekend Morph- outside London people haven't seen bands for so long they've *forgotten what to do* when bands DO come to town. clubs like slimelight are monotonous- same playlists every week for months-years- full tilt has gone a bit commercial of late but then maybe that could be its saving grace- they're obviously well aware numbers were down so they had to branch out to keep the place afloat.

i'm in a weird position- a non-goth band on a non-goth label which nontheless relies heavily on the goth scene, while playing nothing but goth gigs- i AM amazed how well we actually go down with the goth crowd. i guess even on a superficial level, in that we don't stride onstage wearing transmuters, pvc catsuits, etc. last gig our guitarist just wore jeans and trainers.

obviously we had the dev fiasco whereby we weren't let in for not looking right- the elitist attitude that seems to be the goth scenes own worst enemy. how therefore can ELR and bands like us fit in?

i suppose what the goth scene needs is to go for a complete makeover- even drop the 'goth' tag. i know that outside the goth scene just the name 'goth' makes it a laughing stock- so how can the scene possibly attract the necessary crossover audience it needs to keep its clubs open and the gigs worthwhile?

one thing we're worried about in ELR is not getting too heavily associated with the goth scene- we're scared that being considered on 'the outside' as a 'goth band' will impair our chances of getting further and bigger and appeal to a wider audience. AND WHY IS THIS? this must say SOMETHING. and this is the danger of being constantly billed will people like Lupine and The Scary Bitches, 616 Abortions etc.

flag/frank needs to branch out if his gigs are going to survive and bring in more crossover bands, even just to broaden the audiences horizons. because at this rate there won't be an audience left to play to in the very near future... :/

[(Anonymous)]

"clubs like slimelight are monotonous- same playlists every week for months-years"

that's not true. Agreed, some songs get played a lot there, but there is also new material/bands coming through all the time as well. I think you also have to take into account what the people going to clubs tend to request week in week out too, and their attitude to new music... which leads us back to the "not going to see small bands" side of things...