WE WANT REVOLUTION

Last week, I went to an all-day techno/goth festival gig in London called Elektrofest. Mainly for headliners Covenant - I didn't even recognise half of the other bands billed - but also because I haven't stepped in a goth club in nearly three years, and I wanted to see what 'the scene' was like these days.

And I looked upon the scene, and I saw that it was good.

There are a few things you should know before I move on with this. See, I used to be quite into the goth scene. Ever since I heard FIRST AND LAST AND ALWAYS back in 1985, it's shared a place in my heart (and ears) second only to heavy metal.

I'm 30 years old, which is 92 in goth years, leading me to suspect I'd probably be one of the oldest people at Elektrofest. And I was never the most outré of goths anyhow (a black hoodie and jeans were always more my style than frilly shirts and PVC trousers), so standing out like a sore thumb was also on the cards.

But like I said, I used to be quite into the scene. I knew a lot of people, helped organise a few events, did some design work for one of London's main goth promoters, sang in a few bands and used to regularly attend the then-nascent Whitby Goth Weekend. At a rough guess I probably know upwards of 200 goths around the UK, if not intimately then well enough to have a beer with. Most of these people are, by definition, the club and gig-going type. So I was also looking forward to catching up with old friends.

'In the late '90s, heavy metal and goth were practically dead on their feet.' (Goth in the UK is a very different beast than in the US, and American readers should probably know that it's never been the quasi-mainstream cult it is for you guys. A store chain like Hot Topic would close down within six months over here - there just aren't enough people to make it profitable.)

But? Well, well, well. How things have changed.

Of course, it would be very easy for me to come over all nostalgic, pining for the 'good old days' when an audience of 100 people at a Rosetta Stone gig sent people reaching for their iron lungs. But I've never been one for cliques, so bollocks to that. I like seeing capacity crowds at goth clubs and gigs.

I didn't recognise anyone at Elektrofest. Not one person. And the Mean Fiddler is hardly the largest venue in the world.

What I did see were kids - and at my age, I can call them that legitimately - hundreds upon hundreds of kids, most of them students at a guess, kitted out to the nines and absolutely loving it.

Make way for the new generation, grandad? Gladly, young 'uns.

And about that - a similar thing has happened recently in heavy metal, too. You have to understand, in the late '90s heavy metal and goth were both practically dead on their feet. On every dancefloor, in every moshpit, in every audience... The same old faces, again and again.

'There's a theory that sunspot activity is linked to a cycle of cultural changes.' Oh, there were new bands, sure, but the Great White Hope never came. There was a feel of rejuvenation in the early '90s. Ministry, Machine Head, Paradise Lost, Pantera, Rosetta Stone, Nine Inch Nails... innovative bands that gave their respective scenes hope, hope of cracking the mainstream and shouting to the world that hey, we're valid forms of art and expression, and what's more we're bloody good entertainment too.

(Sound familiar?)

But it didn't happen. Something went wrong along the way, and by the tail-end of the decade we were floundering, shedding 'veterans' left right and centre, while fewer and fewer newcomers were picking up the mantle.

(Sound familiar?)

And it was around this time - for different, career-related reasons - that I pretty much left the scene myself.

Then something happened, in 1999.

There's an oft-quoted theory that major sunspot activity, which occurs every eleven years, is somehow linked to a cycle of cultural changes on Earth. A rubicon effect, you might call it - events which bring profound changes in our society.

It may just be coincidence, but it's been borne out over the last few decades. 1966 saw Indira Ghandi become Prime Minister of India, Buzz Aldrin make his legendary two-hour spacewalk, miniskirts hit the streets and The Beatles' REVOLVER. In 1977 Elvis died, punk stormed fashion and music, and STAR WARS was released. 1988 saw the Gibraltar killings, McDonald's moving into Moscow and the birth of house music. All pretty good rubicon years.

In 1999, if you'll pardon the pun, goth became the new black.

'Since 1999, 'dark' fashion and culture has taken a hold of kids.' It's hard to pin down specific causes: Korn and Nine Inch Nails both achieved the mainstream commercial success they'd been working towards for many years, while Slipknot released their first seminal album, and Ozzfest became an institution. On the goth side, the gradual progression towards techno music made a quantum leap forward with bands like Apoptygma Berzerk, VNV Nation and Covenant dominating dancefloors goth and non-goth alike.

Whatever the reason, since 1999 'dark' fashion and culture has taken a hold of kids in a way unseen since the Seattle madness of the early '90s. Piercings, fetish/bondage gear, tattoos, huge boots, extreme make-up and a distinctly goth view of life - even some pop bands have adopted these trappings, so recently considered sad and freakish. Meanwhile, goth and metal have exchanged so many influences it's hard to tell one from the other any more. And no-one seems to think this shift was odd or unexpected.

Which brings me back to Elektrofest, and the legions of youngsters present.

It's an old saw - that in order to survive the next few years, the comics industry needs to attract new readers. An argument we've all heard countless times.

But nothing brought it home to me as much as standing at that gig, surrounded by an entirely new generation of goths who gave me hope for the scene's longevity, and realising the parallels between our situations.

Let's hope we don't have to wait till 2010 for comics to make a similar breakthrough.

CALL THE SHIPS TO PORT

Unsurprisingly, I've spent most of the last week listening to Covenant and remembering just how bloody good a band they are. I don't yet have a copy of their latest album NORTHERN LIGHT, but considering it made up half of the show they played at Elektrofest it sounds pretty darn good to me. Easily one of the best techno bands around today - eclectic, intelligent and terminally danceable. Highly recommended.

Antony Johnston is the author of JULIUS, SPOOKED and THE LONG HAUL. His new ongoing series WASTELAND begins in July 2006.

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