Various Artists - Young Limbs Rise Again – The Story Of The Batcave Nightclub 1982 – 1985 (140g Black Vinyl) [2LP]

Demon Records Curated Compilation

£41.38

Format: 2 x LP
Catalogue No.: DEMREC1062
Barcode: 5014797908031
Release Date: 24 Feb 2022
Genre: Punk

London 1982. As the new romantic youthquake of 1981/1982 faded, and after what felt like a lifetime since punk’s last gasp, a tiny nightclub opened its doors in London’s Soho. Drawing to it a new generation of misfits and miscreants with a penchant for polysexual hedonism, for dressing up and showing out, The Batcave became the dark heart of alternative club culture, just like The Roxy and The Blitz before it.

Art school students, ex-punks and psychobillys, boys and girls, gays, straights, don’t-knows and don’t-cares, Camden
and Kensington Market stallholders, professional squatters, kids on the dole, kids in bands, nocturnal music journalists,
edgy fashionistas, androgynous randoms and even a smattering of bona fide popstars – from Nick Cave to Siouxsie
Sioux, Marc Almond, Robert Smith, Killing Joke and Sigue Sigue Sputnik. All were welcome to pile in, gawp at the hair,
ripped, torn, bleached and rubberised fashions, and death-mask make-up and take in the dancefloor’s heady musical
mix of beats-heavy post-punk pioneers, outsider icons like Wayne County and The Cramps, and a teetering pile of lusty
glam rock singles from the likes of T. Rex and The Sweet.

The club even had its own house band, Specimen, fronted by charismatic and ghoulishly handsome frontman Olli
Wisdom (RIP) as well as playing host to a slew of first-wave bands of what came to be known as “goth”. And it is with
Specimen’s Jon Klein (later, a Banshee, too) and keyboardist Jonny Slut (later founder of legendary club night Nag Nag
Nag) along with Sophie Chery from another stalwart Batcave band, Sexbeat, who’ve worked with Demon in putting
together this deluxe and definitive musical and visual accompaniment to a moment that sparked a global youth cult.

This 20-track 2LP cut down is the first of its kind. It captures both the fun and freedom of The Batcave and a
revolutionary moment in time. It’s also the first to reflect the musical influences on the scene and how that scene
pointed forwards. Above everything else, it’s a fascinating evocation of what you’d have actually heard had you
stumbled into that sweaty, energetic dive between ’82 and ’84. With its very strong tracklisting, Young Limbs Rise
Again includes music from just about everybody that mattered – from The Cure to The Sisters Of Mercy to The
Birthday Party.

The Batcave’s liberating air of anything-goes creativity spawned, encouraged and hosted a new generation of bands
while its fashion aesthetic – fishnets, rubber, leather, diamante, piercings, jewellery, and absolutely *anything* in
black – seeped first into the wider alternative scene and then the mainstream in Britain before spreading its tentacles
literally all around the world. From Sydney to Mexico City to Paris to Brazil to Berlin - what came to be known as goth
here in early-80s London, is arguably one of the UK’s greatest cultural exports. The goth aesthetic forged in those tiny
west end dives has gone on to inform generation after generation of bands from Nine Inch Nails to Yungblud as well
as walking fashion runways for Burberry, McQueen and Galiano and giving Hollywood a whole new dark palette to
work with - from Tim Burton’s weird cinematic adventures to TV shows as diverse as Buffy The Vampire Slayer and
American Horror Story. That thing the kids still like? It all started HERE.

As Specimen’s Jonny Slut says - "It was a light bulb for all the freaks and people like myself who were from the sticks
and wanted a bit more from life. Freaks, weirdos, sexual deviants ... There's people around who'll always be attracted
by something shiny, glittering, exciting...It was more Gotham City than Aleister Crowley.”

LP1: SEXBEAT : A NIGHT ON THE DANCEFLOOR
1. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (12” Version) – Specimen 4.53
2. Alice – The Sisters Of Mercy 3.34
3. Pagan Lovesong (Vibeakimbo) - Virgin Prunes 6.49
4. Sexbeat - Sexbeat 3.35
5. Release The Bats - The Birthday Party 2.35
6. Ignore The Machine - Alien Sex Fiend 6.47
7. Follow The Leaders - Killing Joke 5.35
8. Human Fly – The Cramps 2.12
9. Let’s Go To Bed – The Cure 3.34
10. Slowdive - Siouxsie and the Banshees 4.18

LP2: THE HOP : A NIGHT ON THE DANCEFLOOR 2
1. Resurrection Joe (Long Version) - The Cult 6.04
2. Deathwish - Christian Death 2.13
3. The Hop - Theatre Of Hate 2.57
4. Soul Inside - Soft Cell 4.31
5. I Wish I Was A Girl - Wasted Youth 5.43
6. Roman Candle (12” Version) - Flesh For Lulu 10.18
7. Incubus Succubus II - Xmal Deutschland 4.43
8. Propaganda - Play Dead 3.15
9. Punch Drunk - Gene Loves Jezebel 2.23
10. My Daddy Is A Vampire - The Meteors 3.32