Facing the Other Way: The Story of 4AD

Thirty-four years on, ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’ remains Bauhaus’ signature classic; it hung around the new UK independent singles chart (launched two weeks after Axis) for two years. It also helped spawn a genre that proved to be as contentious for the band as it was for the future 4AD. It’s said that the term ‘gothic’ was used by Factory MD Tony Wilson to describe his own band Joy Division, but it was also applied to the ice queen drama of Siouxsie and the Banshees. Soon enough it would be shortened to ‘goth’, and wielded as a pejorative term, to describe an affected version of doom and angst.

The problem was, as Ash said, goth came to define bands with ‘too much make-up and no talent’. Bauhaus were undeniably talented, but Murphy had a habit of shining a torch under his chin as he prowled across the stage. This was fine by Kent: ‘I wanted more than people just standing there on stage, and Peter was already one of the best frontmen,’ he says. Murphy relishes the memory of a Small Wonder label night at London’s Camden Palace, ‘me in a black knitted curtain and jockstrap,’ he recalls. ‘We scared the fuck out of everyone that night, all these alternative über-hippies moaning about everything. After punk, everybody ran out of things to moan about.’

Actually, the opposite was true. Post-punk had plenty of targets to kick against in 1980 and its bristling monochrome was a suitable soundtrack to the economic and social depression of an era presided over by the hate figure of Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher: tax increases, budget cuts, worker strikes, nuclear paranoia, Cold War scare-mongering and record post-war levels of inflation (22 per cent) and unemployment (two million). But goth bands didn’t articulate social injustice or political turmoil. This version of disaffection and dread was more Cabaret, an escape from the gloom, with lots of black nail varnish. Bauhaus’ ‘Dark Entries’, for example, was inspired by the decadent anti-hero of Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. ‘A story of great narcissism and esoteric interior,’ says Murphy. ‘A rock star’s story.’

Axis’ founders didn’t appear driven by causes or campaigns either. Ivo didn’t favour political agitators such as The Clash or Gang of Four, but more the open-ended oblique strategies of Wire or the acid psychodrama of Liverpool’s Echo & The Bunnymen. In fact, Ivo felt that the name Axis had unwanted political connotations. ‘Peter [Kent] may have been thinking of Hendrix but, for me, Axis related to [Nazi] Germany, like Factory and Joy Division. It was a stupid name.’

It was a stroke of fortune that the label was forced into changing its name before the imprint, or the association, stuck. An existing Axis in, of all countries, Germany, read about the launch of the UK version in the trade paper Music Week; the owners allowed all the remaining stock on the UK label to be sold before they had to find a new name. ‘4AD was grasped out of the air in desperation,’ says Ivo.

A flyer that freelance designer Mark Robertson had laid out to promote the launch of Axis worked on the concept of a new decade and a new mission. In descending order down the page was written:

1980 FORWARD

1980 FWD

1984 AD

4AD

‘What I loved about 4AD was that it meant nothing,’ Ivo recalls. ‘No ideology, no polemic, no attitude. In other words, just music.’

1 After starting 4AD, Ivo did import copies of Chrome’s second album Half Lip Machine Moves before introducing the band to Beggars Banquet, which released the band’s next three albums, starting in 1980 with Red Exposure.

2 For all his protestations about ditching the past, in March 2013 Ash announced an event he called Truth Be Told, to be staged in Las Vegas over one weekend in May. Comprising music, Q&A sessions, parties, accommodation and food, with tickets starting at $2,000 to be sold by auction, the weekend included a private concert in a Las Vegas mansion, with material spanning Ash’s career, from Bauhaus and his Tones on Tail and Love and Rockets bands to solo material. This followed a similar twice-the-price Miracula Sessions in 2012. Maybe those spare bike parts are very expensive, though Ash planned to donate an unspecified amount of his proceeds towards creating a music rehearsal space for children in the Los Angeles area.

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