Who Are Bauhaus? The Northampton Band That Started Goth

If you know Bauhaus from a bat-winged sleeve, a nine-minute song or a face emblem on a black shirt, you already know a little. Here's the rest, for new fans and old ones.

Where are Bauhaus from?

Bauhaus are an English band formed in Northampton in 1978. They first played as S.R., then as Bauhaus 1919, a name bassist David J took from the year the German Bauhaus art school opened. By the time their first single came out, the "1919" was gone.

Who is in Bauhaus?

The line-up never changed: Peter Murphy on vocals, Daniel Ash on guitar and saxophone, David J on bass and Kevin Haskins on drums.

What made them famous?

Bela Lugosi's Dead. Their first single came out in August 1979 on Small Wonder Records. It runs over nine minutes, it was recorded in one take, and it stayed on the UK indie chart for two years. Many people call it the first goth record, although the band preferred to call their sound "dark glam".

Which albums should I start with?

• In the Flat Field (1980): the debut on 4AD, counted among the first gothic rock records.
• Mask (1981): with Kick in the Eye and The Passion of Lovers.
• The Sky's Gone Out (1982): their highest-charting album, No. 3 in the UK.
• Burning from the Inside (1983): with She's in Parties, released just after the band split.
• Go Away White (2008): the comeback album, a quarter of a century later.

For the live side, Gotham (1999) was recorded on the 1998 reunion tour.

Did they ever come back?

More than once. Bauhaus reunited in 1998, again from 2005 to 2008, and again from 2019, with shows in the US and Europe in 2022.

Why do fans love them?

Bauhaus mixed punk, glam, dub and a lot of theatre into something nobody had heard before. Their bats, shadows and stark black-and-white look still shape how dark music looks today.

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