GLASGOW’s goth scene of the 80s was a “real spectacle” according to a man who was there…

Chris Brickley’s photobook Heartlands is bound to strike a chord with anyone who ever hung about on the steps of Royal Exchange Square, or went to the Cathouse, or saw Bauhaus or Sisters of Mercy on stage in the city…

(Image: Graham MacIver)

“Going to clubs like Night Moves, aged 17, was a thrill,” says Chris.  “Some of the people were a real spectacle. Arty, expressive.

“I recall a guy with a half-shaved long mohican haircut, wearing two kids’ pistol holsters across-ways, with a banana in each instead of toy guns.

(Image: Chris Brickley)

“It also felt inclusive and accessible. Anyone could buy skinny black jeans, pointy boots, crimpers and start back-combing their hair.”

He adds: “It was a bit risky too, you could be a target. But I had never enjoyed general clubs or disco-type venues, so this appealed more. Likewise the bands."

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Chris was 12 when 2-Tone appeared, he says. “That was my thing,” he says.

“I was into mod/60s stuff at school but discovering punk, then Bauhaus in particular, coincided with the goth subculture of 1983/84/85. It felt more current.

“It was a good scene, democratic. The pals I had then are still my pals today.”

(Image: Newsquest)

Heartlands, which looks at the goth scene across the whole of Scotland, is Chris’s fifth photobook. His last, with photographer Martin McClenaghan, was called Post Punk City and featured Glasgow cityscapes, architecture, the Clyde, markets, portraits and more, from between 1979 and 1985.

(Image: Ailsa White)

"All of the photobooks I’ve done, to a greater or lesser degree, have live music and venues and street fashion as their focus,” says Chris.

“The main point is to ensure that the (mostly) unpublished photography and ephemera is captured in concrete form.

“It often has a real immediacy, conveying atmosphere in a way that one struggles to get across in words.”

He adds: “These archives are so easily damaged or lost.”

(Image: Chris Brickley)

The book includes testimonies from others who were there when bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure played the city.

“We bought tickets with school lunch money to see Depeche Mode, Echo and the Bunnymen and later The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Bauhaus,” says contributor Violet Anne.

(Image: Lesley Kavanagh)

“Dressing as Siouxsie versus the Flower Fairies and characters from Robert Smith’s favourite books, we loved days at the Necropolis, Starry Starry Night vintage clothes shop and the Botanic Gardens.”

Robert McKenzie recalls: “Nothing could be as scary as walking around in make-up, spiky hair and black clothes in Glasgow in the early 1980s. Battered, bruised and not a little ridiculed, post-punk 1980s Glasgow, I wouldn’t have missed you for the world.”

(Image: Ailsa White)

John Kilbride writes: “Glasgow was in the interim between a failing industrial centre and a partially revitalised and outward looking European city.

“But it wasn’t about political parties, more about causes.

"With institutionalised homophobia and AIDS hysteria, the goth scene also created a space where straight, gay and lesbian and queer could mix without any prejudice.

(Image: Graham MacIver)

"We were, at the end of the day, all outsiders together.”

Our archives also contain pictures of the Glasgow goth scene, from the 80s, 90s and Noughties, including Graham MacIver’s shots of the goths outside the Gallery of Modern Art and Ryan Mitchell’s images from the Cathouse.

Were you a Glasgow goth? Share your memories and photos with Times Past by emailing ann.fotheringham@glasgowtimes.co.uk or write to Ann Fotheringham, Glasgow Times, 125 Fullerton Drive, Glasgow G32 8FG.