UK Decay

25 years later · Joined: 22 Jan 2005 Posts: 4

Great site. Was into UK Decay from early on (For my Country) along with all the other greats of this era. Southern Death Cult, TOH, Ants, etc... Saw lots of these bands numerous times in London at the time.

Been wondering for a while now: Whatever happened to the musicians in Southern Death Cult? I saw the dodgy "Getting the fear" who fizzled out pretty quickly. Anyone know where the others are now? They were actually a pretty tight outfit in SDC and seems strange they did not go on to enjoy the success that Ian enjoyed in the Cult.

paulrabjohn · Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:57 am Post subject:

i also saw getting the fear , you're right they were pretty lame. the singer and bassist then formed into a circle who were much better. after they folded the bassist had a short lived act called "joy"

the drummer aki ended up as the singer with fun-da-mental , who've done loads of stuff.

sure there's more , but that's al i know.

shame how the cult ended up , because death cult looked promising for a bit. i saw a really superb gig at the b'ham tin can club , but it went very wrong later. p

25 years later · Joined: 22 Jan 2005 Posts: 4

Yup, you've got that right about the Death Cult thing. The sad thing is they could have probably done just as well, if not better if they'd stuck to their original path. No reason they could have not progressed into being a U2 or Radiohead. Instead they will go down in history as being nothing but a 3rd rate AC/DC Led Zep cover band. Still remember seeing the video for Love Removal for the first time and the feeling sinking in "wow, it really is one thousand percent finished..." The same feeling as witnessed with Adam and Prince charming, Kirk Brandon with the awful second SOD line up, amongst others...

So anyone know what the SDC musicians are actually doing today? Cab drivers?

paulrabjohn · Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2005 4:13 pm Post subject:

i don't think astbury did it for the cash , i just think he fancied himself as a heavy rocker. interesting to know what jamie made of it all as it sure ended up a long way from ritual....

i suppose with adam you've gotta say he went for it and got what he was aiming for. whereas kirk just faded away for lack of a good tune then made a prat of himslef sueing the ex-boyfriend. never thought much of SOD , but TOH stuff still stands up.

not sure if fun=da=mental are still going. astbury was singing with the doors last i heard. buzz didn't seem to do much after SDC , barry i think gave up after Joy flopped. as a recommendation , try the "assassin" album by into a circle ; i was really impressed with that one. p

25 years later · Joined: 22 Jan 2005 Posts: 4

Don't know what Jamie made of it bit know he wasn't into the "rock n roll" lifestyle. Last I heard he had totally retired from the band thing and was residing near where I am currently located in Toronto, Canada. Met him here about 8 years back as I knew his cousin who is(?) / was a local producer over here. Seemed a nice enough guy but it's all a blurry memory.... Wink

paulrabjohn · Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2005 1:48 pm Post subject:

must've been tough for jamie , not even allowed in the photos etc etc

a few months back somebody told me that ian and billy were "an item" and the cult ended when they split up. now i'd not thought of it that way at all , but then it occurred to me that billy's 2 previous singers were kirk brandon and morrissey. hmmmmmm. bet there's some stories to be told about this lot......

p

Pantherin · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 4 Location: Germany

The peculiar thing is that Astbury had a spell of mentioning their Post punk heritage in interviews at the onset of the ninetees. I think that was around the time when they did the Witch.... Would have been great if he had done mor than just remember.

I haven't heardd anything off their recent "between good and evil" album. Suspect it wil be rock and rawl as ever...

mh · Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 9:47 am Post subject:

I believe it was.

Astbury & the post-punk heritage thing was likely a sad attempt to cash in on the whole Nirvana fever. Like "hey kids, we were there too!"

Danse Society · Joined: 01 Dec 2005 Posts: 4

Yep you gort that right mh!

D, · Guest

I could understand changing the name from Southern Death Cult, given that the line-up of the band had changed, but didn't they then change the name from Death Cult to The Cult because the record company thought the "death" word was too nagative and therefore bad for sales.

On the one hand it simplified things in the same way the Pogues had to change their original name - they were know as the Pogues anyway. Whereas with The Cult it seemed an unnecessary cop out.

I don't know about youse but from the time I saw them as Death Cult (Leeds Futurama) supportinig Killing Joke, to what I saw of them in later years, something more than the name had changed and they'd gone a bit more Guns&Roses or WTF they're called.