Celebration of the Cult’s dark origins
Band will perform music from Death Cult era during live Irish shows this week
IF Goth Rock is synonymous with the 80s then its dark matters to many in the 21st century. Bands such as The Cure, The Mission, Sisters of Mercy and The Cult are still with us present and correct and in black naturally. Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy of The Cult celebrate 40 years since they first came together as Death Cult. That band had evolved from the Bradford outfit Southern Death Cult which Astbury had joined, transformed and as the name became more truncated, watched their fortunes improve.
As The Cult they would give us She Sells Sanctuary, one of the great rock anthems and other hits such as Rain, Lil’ Devil and Love Removal Machine. Their albums Love, Electric and Sonic Temple all made the top five and their most recent album 2022’s Under The Midnight Sun entered the top 20.
But it is the Death Cult iteration which brought them together and they will play songs from that era at live shows in Ireland this week.
In his early years Astbury lived in various parts of Britain, resided in Canada with his family for most of his teenage years and later even had a short sojourn in Belfast.
‘I was living in Liverpool, just hanging out at gigs, meeting all sorts of people from everywhere. Then some of them said, ‘come over and hang out with us in Belfast hi,’ He says affecting a credible Belfast accent.
‘I was there for three months in 1980. We used to live in a squat off the Newtownards Road. The Outcasts would come over and hang out with us. It was a good time to be there musically. I was at the Ulster Hall for that famous Good Vibrations concert. Terri Hooley and all that. I was 18 years old, running around Belfast with all these punk kids, no money in my pocket. I didn’t get the dole for about a month. I was homeless, just drifting. Then I moved back to England, went to Bradford and became a stagehand at first then fell into a band.’
The band Southern Death Cult were championed by John Peel among others and at first presented a voguish post-punk sound but with significant native American references inspired by Astbury’s time in Canada.
‘I grew up near the Six Nations Reserve in Hampton, Ontario. I went to school with indigenous kids,’ he explains. ‘I learned about their culture and felt very accepted. I fell in love with indigenous culture.’
Unaware of Astbury’s origins, some music press labelled him a fraud, others joking that the similarly-inspired but London born and bred Adam Ant had been and gone.
‘The media were brutal with us then, particularly with me,’ he says.
‘I remember one of them saying his mother must have been sniffing glue when she gave birth to him. My mother died on my 17th birthday at 42 years of age; Myself and Billy were blue collar kids. Our education was the school of life and we shared that journey.’
Pre-Death Cult, Duffy was very fleetingly in a band called the Nosebleeds with a pre-Smiths Morrissey. He was born in 1962 within two days and 45 miles of Astbury in Hulme Manchester, while Astbury was born in Heswall in neighbouring Cheshire.
‘We shared a passion for guitarbased music. Billy grew up listening to (the New York Dolls’) Johnny Thunders and (David Bowie’s guitarist) Mick Ronson. There was also a Celtic melodic thing to what we did. We are both of Celtic descent; Irish, Scottish and Welsh.’
Astbury is looking forward to getting back to Dublin, the home of their ‘shadow band’.
‘I always think If U2 had a shadow career they might have been like us,’ he says. ‘I still have great admiration and respect for the guys. I was a stagehand at a show U2 did in Leeds… really early days. I do have a confession to make; we nicked all their sandwiches. We were starving. We got paid ten quid for a full day’s work. Fast forward a couple of years to Southern Death Cult playing Heaven in London and all of U2 came with their agent. Fast forward again to ’85 and The Cult had just broken through and I’m backstage at Live Aid talking to Bono and Ali. It was surreal and it happened so quickly. Long may they continue the wonderful journey they’ve had and the wonderful journey that we’ve had, warts and all.’
While U2 light up Las Vegas, Death Cult will cast a slightly dark shadow over parts of Dublin and Belfast tomorrow and Tuesday. n Death Cult play the Telegraph, Belfast November 6 and 3Olympia, Dublin, November 7.
‘We lived in a squat in Belfast. The Outcasts would come over and hang out with us’
‘There was also a Celtic melodic thing to what we did. We are of Celtic descent’