It was like stepping between two different worlds. December 1990, and the Sisters of Mercy had just headlined two nights at Wembley Arena to support their new album ‘Vision Thing’; The Mission were playing four nights at Brixton Academy; Fields of the Nephilim were headlining London’s Town & Country to promote their new album ‘Elysium’; New Model Army had a new album ‘Impurity’ and full UK tour; even Killing Joke were back on form with their formidable comeback ‘Extremities’. UK goth was undead and kicking, at the end of five years of unprecedented chart success. Then, just a year later, the dream was over. So, what the hell happened in 1991?

When we look back at UK goth history, we can see several distinct phases. First, the gothic prehistory of post-punk as Bauhaus, The Cure, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Damned, UK Decay, Killing Joke, and Joy Division all set the template for the future of the genre; then the era of building subcultural consciousness from 1981-85, as the Leeds and Batcave scenes consolidated their support. And then the golden era, as from 1985-1990 goth underwent it’s commercial zenith. The Sisters, The Mission, The Nephilim, The Cure, Killing Joke, All About Eve, NMA, The Cult, Gene Loves Jezebel, The Banshees, The Damned, Ghost Dance….all of them enjoyed chart hits and massive live support. The end of the Sister’s original band at the Royal Albert Hall merely opened the floodgates for the commercial heyday of goth. And one by one, from Smash Hits to Top of the Pops to the Tube to Reading Festival and beyond, the entire world of pop was at their feet. What could possibly go wrong?

Certainly, there were few signs of anything changing in those first few months of 1991. The Mission announced in the news pages of NME that they would not be splitting, and would work on a new album; the Sisters played two tenth-anniversary shows in Leeds which put the new rock-orientated quartet through their paces; NMA started the year performing at the Brit Awards and were soon doing a benefit gig for a jailed fan; the Nephs released a live album from their December shows; and Killing Joke’s spring dates at the height of the Gulf War were so good they undid 5 years of reputational damage in a week. There was certainly nothing to suggest all was not well on Planet Goth.

Ironically, the canary in the mine would turn out to be The Sisters. In July 1991 Eldritch & Co embarked on an ambitious US tour with hip-hop legends Public Enemy, supported by New York art-rockers Warrior Soul and Leeds post-punk legends Gang of Four – being both an attempt to challenge entrenched racial & political divides in the US music industry, and to make in-roads in the American market. However, the common ground between the Sisters and PE turned out to be purely conceptual, with the tour pulling in a fraction on the combined crowd for the headliners on previous tours, and soon – bedevilled by cancellations – the tour collapsed. The debacle was even more disappointing as the rival take on the alternative package tour (Lollapalooza) was doing great business at the same time, laying the foundation for the alternative rock scene throughout the ‘90s. Eldritch had survived everything until this point – the departures of Gunn, then Marx, then Hussey & Adams, then Patricia Morrison, and every high-wire comeback gig over a 7 year period – but with the Sisters returning home suitably humiliated, it appeared his luck had finally run out. He might have talked a good game when giving his account to the press, but even he must’ve known that this was his first genuine failure.

But probably an even harder fall awaited the Mission. Having had a successful, but torrid, 1990 – with the departure of Simon Hinkler, and several crew defections to the Sisters’ camp – the band were soon in rural Wales working on the follow-up to ‘Carved in Sand’. However, this was not the creative idyll of their 1989 recording retreat; it would later become clear that the album had originally been intended to be a Wayne Hussey solo album, only later being recommissioned as a Mission project. Ultimately, the sessions would be marked by a certain reluctance.

The only scheduled live date for the band was at Finsbury Park in June. It had become highly fashionable amongst alternative bands in the UK at the time to have their mini-festivals on the same basis as the Stone Roses at Spike Island in 1990 (albeit less chaotic); the mooted but ultimately cancelled ‘Day of Conscience’ being an example. The summer of 1991 also saw the Wonder Stuff at Walsall’s Bescot Stadium, and the Happy Mondays at Elland Road in Leeds, and the Mish hoped that a large high-profile summer event would fill in their fallow year nicely (the band having headlined Reading to great success between albums in 1989).

However, a cover story with Melody Maker in June would lift the lid on the band’s unease. Hussey revealed that the band were sick of being lumped in with the Nephs of the world, and having concluded that it was a matter of the band’s instrumentation that prevented them being in the same bracket as the Cure & the Stuffies decided to embellish their sound with acoustic & folk instruments and poppier production. The line-up for the big show would also be boosted by Anthony Thistlethwaite (ex-Waterboys) on saxophone, Maartin Alcock (ex-Fairport Convention & Jethro Tull) on keyboards, and the temporarily returning Hinkler; and with several new songs being premiered it was set to be a bold step forward for the Flab Three.

The line-up for the gig, however, did not meet Hussey’s tastes – the supporting order of New Model Army, Killing Joke, Rollins Band and indie newcomers Bleach was not the kind of optimistic bill the band were hoping for, and Hussey admitted the band were unhappy with it and had considered pulling out. Promoters Mean Fiddler reacted furiously by allegedly cancelling the band’s guest list, and the unlucky Hinkler – not even a full member of the band at this point – had to front it out on MTV.

In the end, only 20,000 people turned up on a wet Saturday in June for a very muted event. The uneasy coalition of the Mish’s Eskimos and NMA’s Following (two rival fanbases who hated each other) did little to brighten the mood, nor did NMA’s pointed version of The Animals’ ‘We Gotta Get Out of This Place’; and neither did the Mission’s set go down entirely well, with the fans reacting with bafflement to the T-Rex sax on ‘Trail of Scarlet’, the Poguesy drinking song ‘She Conjures Me Wings’, and to the Springsteen-esque big band version of ‘Butterfly on a Wheel’. The day was a dour and joyless affair, which probably caused more rancour between the band and their fans than anything else, and compared to the generation-defining parties that happened at Elland Road and the Bescot it was a bitter disappointment – not to mention the fact that the Sisters were headlining Reading a few months later. No one could have known what it meant at the time, but that was the end of the Mish’s commercial peak. They would not play in the UK again for another two years.

Then, the deluge; as the weekly music press dropped bombshell after gothic bombshell.

First, the Nephs split. In a shock move that would take the music press by surprise, the band went out on a high and with their entire fanbase intact, but with singer Carl McCoy bored of the limitations of the band’s sound. McCoy would keep the name, and the rest of the band formed a new act (Rubicon), but for now the Nephs were kaput. One down.

Second, Killing Joke. Always a combustible outfit, it was no secret that drummer Martin Atkins was sick of the chaotic business affairs of the group and was set to quit, but it was a shock that the entire line-up of the band – and former drummer ‘Big’ Paul Ferguson – were quitting with him to form a new industrial supergroup, Murder Inc. Singer Jaz Coleman accepted the coup with good grace, telling Melody Maker that he expected them to all meet again for a drink soon; the reply from the splinter camp, from bassist Paul Raven, was rather less gracious – “The only thing I want to drink is the little faggot’s blood”. Killing Joke were over, again. Two down.

Third, The Sisters themselves. Tony James seized a quiet news day following the band’s Reading appearance to announce his departure from the band, and their subsequent split. This was quickly rebuked by Eldritch the following week – “The Sisters flag still flutters merrily” – but it was still a blow; the ill-fitting corporate merger designed to spring them into the big league was over. It was probably the last time any departure from the Sisters would merit a press release, and it marked the beginning of the band’s slow decline. Three down.

And then, fourth (and most shockingly) – All About Eve were dropped by Parlophone after their third album, ‘Touched By Jesus’. Reeling from the loss of founding member Tim Bricheno (and his subsequent defection to the Sisters), and suddenly marooned on changing musical tides, the band were left adrift just four years after the runaway success of their eponymous debut. If a band as musically blessed as AAE could fail, what hope for anyone else? Four down. It was truly The End of the Gothic World.

The following years would not be kind to the scene. The Mission’s follow-up in 1992, ‘Masque’, yielded two further hits but without a tour to support it the album flopped, leading to the band being dropped and bassist Craig Adams being sacrificed – and after two independent albums, the original version of the band folded in 1996. The Sisters would have big hits with ‘Temple of Love ‘92’ and ‘Under the Gun’, but would never release a new album again. Carl McCoy’s Nefilim made one worthy, but commercially unsuccessful, album. NMA had their biggest hit with ‘Here Comes The War’ in 1993, but were ultimately dropped. The Banshees split following 1994’s ‘The Rapture’. Killing Joke reformed for two very successful albums before splitting again in 1996. Ghost Dance split after a disastrous tour with the Ramones in 1990. All About Eve’s fourth album failed to resurrect their profile, and the band split. And the Cult fell out for good, again, on a US tour in 1994 and also split. This was the Gothapocalypse, made flesh.

So, why did it all unravel so quickly? Well, it could be several reasons. Changing demographics is one – the generation that grew up through ‘80s goth entered a new decade in their thirties, with children and mortgages. Following bands around the UK in a van for months may no longer have been feasible. Not to mention the effect of the 1991-era recession on the northern heartlands of the scene.

Changing musical styles also played a part. It’s tempting to say that acid house & Madchester was a factor, but goth more than held it’s own during the scene’s heyday of 1989-90. By 1991 many of those bands (including the Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, and Inspiral Carpets) were in decline. Grunge, however, was more damaging – taking much of goth’s nihilistic attitude and fashion, but with a much more aggressive sound and on a commercially huge basis. From 1991 onwards commercially successful alternative rock acts had a much harder edge than those of the more intellectual, romantic goths. Every attempt made to match this – and the Mission, the Cult, and the Nefilim all tried – failed to bridge the gap. Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, Pantera, and many others all destroyed the middle ground where commercial goth acts had been happily two-stepping for years.

The bands, perhaps, were also getting sick of themselves. The Mission certainly suffered from the hangover only a five-year bender can bring; damaged relationships, and jaded appetites. The joke may have begun to wear thin for Eldritch by the end of 1991 too. Carl McCoy was sick of his band, and Jaz Coleman’s band were certainly sick of him. People change, grow, and grow apart.

But the most important factor was probably the changing music industry. Goth was struggling to break out of arenas and into stadiums, and to follow the Cure, U2, and Simple Minds into global superstar territory; but grunge was making alternative bands successful on a far bigger scale. The big corporates could make these bands internationally massive, but considered virtually all UK alternative rock at the time to be hopeless, and soon everyone from The Stuffies to Ned’s Atomic Dustbin to PWEI to the Mondays were defunct. Only those select UK acts that were already superstars – The Cure, Depeche Mode, New Order – survived.

Did goth survive? Yes, it certainly did – going underground to rebuild anew. But more of that next time….