Cat People was new wave with some goth rock influences. ‘Put It On’ began as a few verses describing a vivid scene of collapsing firebombed buildings and firefighters rushing to the scene. It envisioned these poorly ventilated buildings, trapped victims breathing in...
The 100 greatest UK No 1s: No 14, Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights (Guardian, maybe subject to copyright) “Although The Goths happened to appear after the early-80s post-punk, we were always destined to be a sort of retro-fit to the genre”, Johnny Stowmarries says of his...
Studio album by The Alan Parsons Project. Johnny notes that when he wrote ‘Midnight’, at the very beginning of 1990, he was “back at a point of the original context, which was a part of the underground culture that was coming out in the 80’s, up through the 90’s”. “I...
On the morning of the 27th of January 1974, three days after the deluge of rain began. Johnny comes straight to the point, “‘Smashed’ is a ‘River Drama’”. “It’s unique among my songs because it’s come from a childhood memory”. “It was amongst the last songs I wrote...
Depicting ‘Tree’, an illustration for Edgar Allan Poe’s story The Premature Burial by Harry Clarke, published in 1919. “I wrote ‘Tree’ when The Goths were only one rehearsal away from going separate ways”. “‘Tree’ was the last song I wrote before we...
Johnny Stowmarries was the guitarist and main writer in the Brisbane duo The Goths, and it was his quirky, rather unique sound which first brought Johnny to the attention of record labels around the world. Johnny: “It was quite unlike anything that was around”. “With...
