The year was 1983, and the kids were bored with political bullshit and non-starter revolutions. Who said punk’s dead? It was not, they revived as a new ‘positive’ form. As journalist Richard North stated in a February 1983 article in NME:
So here it is: the new positive punk, with no empty promises of revolution, either in the rock n’ roll sense or the wider political sphere. Here is only a chance of self awareness, of personal revolution, of colourful perception and galvanisation of the imagination that startles the slumbering mind and body from their sloth.
The ghouls and the night creatures dragged themselves out of the cave, and the so-called ‘positive punk’ (later known as ‘goth’) bands emerged: the likes of Bauhaus, Play Dead, Siouxsie and The Banshees, UK Decay, Blood and Roses, Ausgang and many others. Pale faces, big hair, all dressed in black: punk has never been as ghoulish as this. Check out a rad documentary, South of Watford, below about the positive punk movement (based on the NME article by Richard North), which features some killer old punk footage and performances, as well as interviews with Blood and Roses, Brigandage, Glen Matlock of Sex Pistols, Siouxsie Sioux and music journalist Jon Savage.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
“I think that our influence comes from the fact that there are so many negative bands around. We’re not – so away we go!” ~ Bob, guitarist of Blood And Roses
