715q78U-a9L._SL1070_Peter Murphy needs no introductions. The voice of the legendary Bauhaus, dubbed ‘Godfather of Goth’, has always released music which has the quality of a very powerful magnet. Especially during his live shows, Peter Murphy reveals his unique and mesmerizing way of creating a different ‘character’ for each song and each story of the lyrics. Whether through powerful facial expressions and very expressive gestures or through these long baritone screams that make you believe that he calls from the other end of the world, Peter Murphy offers a theatrical delivery of every piece of music he has released!

I have been fortunate to have seen Bauhaus perform live at a special one off gig in O2 Brixton Academy and have never missed a single solo show by Peter Murphy in London in the last 8 years. My impression is the same and is only becoming stronger; He never ‘betrays’ the stories of the lyrics and never compromises on the aesthetics of a live show. Maybe the term ‘Godfather of Goth’ is actually true (in a symbolic way) and if it wasn’t, then Peter Murphy wouldn’t have inspired Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean to design the character of Dream based on him, nor would he had inspired the design of Eric’s face on James O’ Barr’s comic book ‘The Crow’.

The collaborations

Following the disbandment of Bauhaus in 1983, Peter Murphy embarked on a solo career which culminated in releases of exceptional quality in terms of overall production.  Together with Mick Karn the bassist from Japan and Paul Vincent Lawford he has formed the band Dalis Car and released the album ‘The Walking Hour’. Peter Murphy has been joined by various musicians on stage and has collaborated with many artists. Paul Statham the founder of B-Movie, has been a long term collaborator and was assistant producer in the album ‘Unshattered’. In the albums ‘Love Hysteria‘, ‘Deep’, ‘Holy Smoke’ and ‘Cascade’ Paul Statham was playing keyboards and acoustic guitar and he has co-written songs with Peter Murphy. Pascal Gabriel, known from his career at the punk band The Razors and his remixes of songs from Marc Almond and Yello among others, was the producer of Peter Murphy’s album ‘Cascade’. Mercan Dede was the producer of ‘Dust’, played percussion and was responsible for the sound effects in this album. Finally let’s not forget that Peter Murphy was joined on stage by Tricky and Mark Thwaite (The Mission) on the guitar, Justin Bennett (Skinny Puppy) on drums and Jeff Schwartoff (Human Waste Project) on bass for the ‘Unshattered’ tour in Europe and the US. Mark Thwaite has also joined Peter Murphy at the beginning of his ‘Mr Moonlight tour’ that celebrates 35 years of Bauhaus which started in April 2013. Finally in 2009 Peter Murphy collaborated and appeared on stage with Nine Inch Nails and has also worked with Yoko Ono on a remix of ‘Beautiful Boy’.

Following the release of ‘Nine’, the album entitled ‘Lion’ was released in 2014 and was produced by Youth a.k.a Martin Glover, the bassist of Killing Joke. Youth has also created 7 remixes of songs from ‘Lion’, which were included in the album entitled ‘Remixes from Lion’ which was released in 2015.

The upcoming gig

You might find yourselves meditating with the eastern music inspired melodies of his rather experimental album ‘Dust’ or dancing to the electric rhythms and heavy rather rock rhythms of ‘Lion’. You might prefer the more melodic and slow songs such as ‘The Prince and Old Lady Shade’, those alluding to ‘Cuts You Up’ and ‘All Night Long’ or the heavier and darker ones, the more electronic and danceable ones (i.e. ‘I am My Own Name’) or the songs of ‘Nine’ which nodded to the music of Bauhaus. If you have seen Peter Murphy perform live then you already know that any previous disposition you might have towards one of his styles, doesn’t really matter because once on stage he colours everything with his own palette, heightening the meaning of the lyrics. Just like the pointillist painters who created an image out of the synthesis of millions of dots, Peter Murphy manages to communicate with his voice all the ‘colours’ that each word can represent.

So, right after the great gathering that Peter Murphy will do at Agra Hall in this year’s midnight special of the 25th Wave Gotik Treffen, he will make one stop in London , the day after most of us will have returned from Leipzig and we will not hesitate to go and see him perform live once more at O2 Academy Islington on Wednesday May 18th. Besides, what could be a better way to celebrate 35 years of Bauhaus than with a double gig by Peter Murphy?

You can buy tickets for this show from here

Blaue Rosen box

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