Sunday 1st May
I arrived at the Riverside in Newcastle at 4.00pm. I was expecting to see lots of young goths and was ready to stand out from the crowd. I paid my money, entered the venue and made my way to the bar. The glances I received from the bar staff, convinced me that my 70's style print dress was not in keeping with the other punters in the room. Basically, I stood out like a sore thumb! I had already missed the first band and as I glanced around the room I was reminded of the 'Titty Twister' vampire bar from the film 'Dusk Til Dawn'. From what I could see of the crowd, there wasn't anyone who looked under the age of 25. This immediately made me feel at ease, oddly enough. It was then time for the next band, THELASTCRY, to take to the stage. These guys, a three piece Gothic rock band from Brighton, were not what I was expecting. They had a similar kind of sound to Thirty Seconds to Mars, which I liked. Heavy sounds of synths and drums, without either of these instruments appearing on stage, strangely. The last song they played was the title track to their album and could have very much been a Depeche Mode song, as vocalist, Birchs' voice sounded so like Dave Gahan's. Birch was also interesting to watch, clutching at his head in a dramatic, tormented way, reminiscent of the singer from Linkin Park. I really enjoyed this band and I was now looking forward to see what was in store from some of the other acts playing.
Next on stage was the reason I was here in the first place. My husbands' cousin from Essex, a member of the five piece goth band, 'The Scary Bitches'. They opened up with the title track from one of their albums, 'Lesbian Vampires From Outer Space'. By now there was quite a crowd and they were starting to move forwards. This track went down really well, and it was obvious that they were popular with the audience. This band have a really fun element going on and don't take themselves too seriously, although they are by no means a novelty band. The next song was the title track to their new album 'Island of the Damned'. Most of the women in this band are of a certain age, with the exception of the younger drummer, and have great names such as Alma Geddon, Deadri Ranslid and Bet the Lincher. All taken from Coronation Street characters! Although mostly dressed in black, the singer was sporting a Victorian style dress and a red top hat and military style jacket. The next track, 'The Woman who Killed Jack the Ripper', started with the bassist quoting from a letter by the Ripper himself and told the tale of a potential victim turning out to be a vampire. You can guess the rest! By this time, the younger members of the crowd were dancing around and really enjoying themselves. They played one of their old favourites, 'Piss all over your Grave'. Written about the person who ran off with the singers lover ("we're best friends now!"). As I looked around I thought that some of the people there wouldn't have looked out of place in a Tim Burton film. They finished with another favourite, 'You'll end up Looking Like the Scary Bitches', their theme tune. Very entertaining!
The next band on stage - 'Death Boy', a four piece industrial band from London, were definitely not like any of the other bands that had played so far. They were a heavy guitar based band and unfortunately didn't appear to hold the attention of the crowd, as many took this opportunity to go outside for a cigarette (some, quite literally, turning to ash in the sunlight I imagined!) The second track started off with a bit of an oriental style sound to it, and there was very few members of the crowd watching. There was nothing gothic or punk like about this band. In fact I just couldn't find anything interesting about them.
The final band that I was able to stay and watch was 'Luxury Stranger', a three piece alternative, post punk band from Nottingham. When they started to play, the crowds started to wander back into the venue. Looking at their appearance, they reminded me of the Cure, as the singer had the same sort of look as Robert Smith. However, when he started to sing it was clear that he wasn't inspired musically by them. The bass player had a look of local musician, Trev Cairns, from Newcastle based Viva City! By the time they played their second track, 'Paradise Untouched', it was obvious that their image did not reflect their music at all as they had a sort of punk/electro image but sounded more 'pub rock'. We were told that the next song 'Empty Man' is to be their next single and the vocals on this track reminded me of a heavy metal come rock style tune.
Out of the bands that I watched I most definitely would like to hear more of Scary Bitches and TheLastCry. Although two very different bands, they were both very entertaining in their own way.
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