Bauhaus Index

[Extract]

"Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow -
You are not wrong who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream."

Edgar Allan Poe

One component of the Bauhaus machine that I recommend with no hesitation is the live act. Peter Murphy, his face painted a bizarre mask of black and white flits around the stage like a possessed moth. And the light show is dynamic.

Peter Murphy "Our reactions are always very mixed."

STEVE KEATON - SOUNDS, 9th August 1980

Pete Murphy works a night shift that consists of donning on a black jump-suit, covering his face in deathly white powder and confronting a crowd of expectant onlookers. Like tired voyeurs they stand (or shift ungainly from foot to foot) and watch with vacant expressions that mask anticipation of excitement. Any flicker of interest might betray one's fear. We all fear the unknown.

At times, Pete feels almost totally alone - crowds have a paradoxical alienating effect on him. His friends number but three and stand close by, hiding. Unwilling to thrust themselves into the fray like their accomplice.

From the expansive waste, a demanding voice yells two words - "Dark Entries" . . . perhaps a secret ritualistic chant - or a mocking jibe? "You may buy the single," dead-pans Pete, and I smile to myself, impressed by his composure.

Suddenly a radio from years back crackles into action. Cranking out T. Rex's 'Telegram Sam' - now this I recognise and understand - but oddly I don't remember it being so raunchy and compelling.

They departed and the stage was bare again. My fellow watchers applauded and muttered platitudes like 'stunning' and 'brilliant' and 'weird'. I nodded silently, smiled softly again - and flew into the night.

JOHNNY WALLER - SOUNDS, 20th September 1980