If the only aspect of The Cult you’re familiar with is as the slightly famous stadium rock act churning out MTV crowd pleasers like “Firewoman”, this might be a good time to sit down, because you’re in for something of a shock. The Cult as we know them today is nothing at all like their original incarnation as Southern Death Cult.
The history of Southern Death Cult proper begins in 1981
with Ian Astbury joining an existent but dying punk band in Bradford known as
Violation. He persuaded them to change their name to Southern Death Cult, the
name both a Native American reference (an obsession of Astbury’s which would
recur many times throughout his career) and also a nod to the disparity of
power and influence between the Southern and Northern halves of the UK.
The band promptly went off and toured with both Bauhaus
and Theatre of Hate throughout 1982, providing them with massive exposure and
coverage in the alternative media, rapidly becoming very big on the Post Punk
scene despite lack of any significant amount of
released material.
During their extremely brief existence, the band released
just two pieces of vinyl, The Fatman 7” and the Moya 12” and each containing
both of the title tracks, although Moya includes a third song “The Girl”. Both
are interesting, not only musically, in the sense that the listener can easily
sense just how far the influence of this band would be felt, but also in their
political commentary, an element that would become increasingly rare as Goth
continued to develop as a genre away from Post Punk.
Southern Death Cult would disband after just 16 months in
February 1983. The explanation for breaking up that “expectations were just way
too high” has frankly never satisfied me, it seems a singularly silly reason to
disband. The explanation that Ian felt various elements of Southern Death Cult
were “working against each other” seems rather more reasonable.
Southern Death Cult; Fatman/Moya AA Side 7”
A. Fatman
AA.
Moya
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