Background information
Origin
England
Genre(s)
Gothic
rock
Years active
1981–1983
Label(s)
Beggars Banquet
Members
Ian
Astbury
David Burrows
Barry Jepson
Haq
Qureshi
Southern Death Cult was a gothic
rock band in the early 1980s. It is now primarily known for having
given its lead singer and parts of its name to the multi-platinum hard rock
band The
Cult. Despite the similarities in the names, "Southern Death
Cult" was distinct from "Death Cult"/"The Cult".
History
Southern Death Cult emerged from the ashes of Bradford punk
band Violation. In place at that time were Aki
Nawaz-drums, Barry Jepson-bass, Mick-guitar & Mick
Brady-vocals. Songs in their set included "Boys in Blue" &
"Assault & Battery". This line-up supported the
Clash at Bradford's St. Georges Hall in 1980.
In 1981, Ian Astbury had moved into a
new house in Bradford and reportedly discovered a band rehearsing in
the cellar. Ian Astbury (performing under the name "Ian Lindsay") sang
alongside guitarist
David Burrows, bassist
Barry Jepson and drummer
Haq Qureshi (a.k.a. Aki Nawaz). Astbury renamed the band Southern
Death Cult, after an obscure Indian tribe around the Mississippi
delta area in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Southern Death Cult's
first ever performance was at the Queen's Hall in Bradford,
England, on 29 October 1981. The setlist the band played was: "Crow",
"The Girl Apache", "Vivisection", (unknown song), "Moya", "The Crypt",
and there is a bootleg recording of that show in circulation. The fifth
song is sometimes referred to as "War Song", but its real title is
unknown, and the band never performed it again, nor was it ever
recorded by them in the studio.
The band toured heavily in the UK promoting its double A side single
"Moya/ Fatman/ The Girl", which had gone to #1 on the independent
charts, and peaked at number 88 in Top
100. The band toured with Theatre of Hate, and then succeeding
in getting a slot opening for Bauhaus, at the end of
1982, but Astbury disbanded the group after a show on 26 February 1983.
Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy
Duffy (of The Nosebleeds and Theatre
of Hate) came together later in April 1983 to form a different band,
with a similar name, first called "Death Cult" and then, after
releaseing a four song EP and a single, the band changed their name to
simply The
Cult. The other members of The Southern Death Cult formed Getting
the Fear. Later they changed their name to Into
A Circle. Qureshi went on to form the political, Islamic hip
hop group Fun-Da-Mental and to create the label Nation
Records.
Southern Death Cult's singles, demos, and some live recordings
were later collected onto a ten song compilation album by Beggars Banquet, entitled Southern
Death Cult. The vinyl version was released in a dozen
countries after The Cult's popularity grew in the
1980's. An early ten song CD version was released in 1987 in Japan. It
was issued on CD in 1988 with five bonus tracks, and then remastered
and reissued on CD again in 1996. The songwriting credits to "A Flower
in the Desert," off of The Cult's Dreamtime
album, are from the Southern Death Cult line up – a credit which is
sometimes omitted from the various different pressings of Dreamtime.
Discography
- Southern Death
Cult (1988)
External links
