Since when did John become a Goth?

I've not seen this CD before and for some strange reason it features "No One Driving".

Goth: 18 Classics From The Dark Side

http://www.tesco.com/Entertainment/product.aspx?R=651795

Many other questionable Goth credentials me thinks - lol

CD Tracklisting -
1.Pretty In Pink - with The Psychedelic Furs
2.Wasteland - with The Mission
3.Real Wild Child (Wild One) - with Iggy Pop
4.Black Sabbath - with Black Sabbath
5.Quiet Life - with Japan
6.Moonchild - with Fields Of The Nephilim
7.Love Song - with The Damned
8.Spirit In The Sky - with Norman Greenbaum
9.New Church - with Lords Of The New Church
10.Never Take Me Alive - with Spear Of Destiny
11.Duchess - with The Stranglers
12.Martha's Harbour - with All About Eve
13.Prime Mover - with Zodiac Mindwarp
14.No One Driving - with John Foxx
15.Fire! - with The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
16.Drowning In Berlin - with Mobiles
17.The Motion Of Love - with Gene Loves Jezebel
18.Away 2 - with The Bolshoi

Aargh, if only I could remember more about a book about popular music, aimed at teenagers that I flicked through in a library nine years ago while waiting for someone. Inside it mentioned Ultravox (pre-midge), and John Foxx as being a 'part' of the gothic music genre. I would say that, (not having the book in front of me), this can only be due to the themes and moods in their music and attitude, it seems about right to me, Metamatic: introspective?, quiet anger?

I'm still struggling with the idea of The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown following John!!

Maybe John can do a cover version of Fire!

Fire!

it should have been Burning Car

Funnily enough, I have seen several references to this before and I have the following take on it.

For whatever reason, Systems of Romance and to a lesser extent The Garden are regularly cited by Goth - especially 'darkwave' - bands as being sources of inspiration and influence. SoR in particular has featured in a number of 'All Time Best Goth' albums.
Tracks like No-one Driving and Underpass get the same references, and also the track Mr No, which I suspect had an influence on it being released as a single a few years ago.

Recently, the Australian tour dates and reviews thereof featured quite heavily in 'goth' media and websites.

As far as explaining this goes, I would agree with corememory and concur that its something to do with themes, romantic imagery and whatnot.
Thanks for posting this though - another 'release' for the discography. I wasn't aware of it before either

John did also appear on the Orphée (Projekt) darkwave compilation.

The Quiet Life ! That track does not fit on that cd at all.

Are these tracks on the wrong album then, or are some Foxx fans secret 'goths'. :rolleyes:

That whole era of music seems to appeal to the goth. I used to regularly attend a synth pop night in Sheffield, who play a lot of DM, Numan, THL, OMD etc alongside all your New Romantic stuff, and they nearly always get 'Underpas's or 'Europe' in. More recently they played 'From Trash' and 'A Million cars' - and there is always a heavy goth crowd there.

'Spirit In The Sky' goth :rolleyes:

Yes JF is regularly associated with the Goth scene over here too...
After the Venice gig there's a 'Gothic Industrial' party .. I'm wondering what will get played... :rolleyes:

Wonder if John will stay for that?

Nightporter, surely?

Marilyn Manson ? :rolleyes:

In the early 80s I was accused of being a Goth. Because I liked to think I had very expansive musical tastes, this got me into a bit of a snit. When I tried to defend myself I was told that of course I was a Goth because I listened to British and German music, smoked imported cigarettes, read pretentious literature, went to nightclubs where strobes were used, wore lots of black, dyed my hair, and was pale. Hey, if that's all it took, there must have been thousands of us out there who were Goths and had no idea!

Black is my favourite colour, I got loads of black stuff (iPod, CD player, turntable, drumkit). I wear black clothing, I prefer to dye my hair black, I collect dragon statues and from time to time I listen to music that has a dark feel like Soft Cell, Ultravox (SOR, RIE), John Foxx (first two solo albums) and to a certain extent A Flock Of Seagulls (some of their songs can be dark) but that doesn't mean I'm goth, or emo for that matter . I'm more interested in the Steampunk subculture.

I wouldn't have put "Drowning in Berlin" dpwn as goth material either, although the lead singer (was her name Anne Marie?) did have black spikey hair for the video (which was actually quite good for those days, and what must have been a very low budget).

Consider though, slowing down "Walk Away" and putting Wayne Hussey on vocals, and bring those guitars to the fore. It could pass as something "like" the Mission. Nah, I like it too much to do that to it.

Nevertheless, JF does possess the all important cheekbone structure! Just dyed black hair and a bit of eyeliner...

I just wear a lot of black because it hides my fat!

I'd have to wear a LOT of black to accomplish that!

Theres so many types of 'goth' these days, even 'white goths', it stands to reason were all some kind of goth by now. Even us middle grey ones.

Couldn't resist it. Had some free time today (minutes) in which to mess around. This was the result. Not impossible, huh?
JF the Goth?

His Metamatic album was a dark-electronic, like OMD's first three albums. But he (and OMD) aren't goth/post-punk.

Notice how the banner on the myspace site regularly promotes Goth forums etc

I noticed that too...

Even though he himself isn't goth, John is probably a bit of an influence on the Goths musically because of some of his albums (i.e. Metamatic) having a dark (or dark-ish) sound.

I agree. I don't see the Foxx = Goth connection at all. And even less for OMD.

I don't think this should be taken seriously. "No One Driving" is not a Goth "Classic." Tesco has lots of compilations listed on their website: Blues, Childrens, Classical, Country, Dance, etc. The person assigned to creating this compilation may only have a vague notion of what Goth music is. They also probably have to work within a strict budget for licensing songs for a £4.86 CD. There are also time constraints for putting it together.

The Sisters of Mercy may refuse to license their material for a Goth compilation or their management may not reply to requests in a timely fashion. John's name is out there more lately, Steve Malins is probably quick to reply to requests and is asking a reasonable fee for licensing John's songs. So this compilation is the best someone could come up with given time and budget constraints.