Moya

In a rehearsal room above Roots record shop In Bradford, Yorkshire, Southern Death Cult formed with a line-up of vocalist Ian Astbury, bassist Barry Jepson, guitarist David "Buzz" Burrows and drummer Haq Nawaz "Aky" Qureshi. The group's name derived from an old term for the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. The ceremonial complex represents a major part of the religion of the Mississippian people and Native American culture, but it also served as a critique of the imbalance of power in the English North-South divide. The first Southern Death Cult show took place on 29 October 1981 at the Queen's Hall in Bradford supporting Chelsea and Gene October got up on stage and said, Right this group is gonna be supporting us down the Marquee, for two days. The band's debut, the double A-side 7" single "Moya/Fatman", was released in December 1982 on the Situation Two label and hit No. 1 on the UK Indie Chart. The 12" version included a third track, "The Girl". The band toured heavily in the UK to promote the single, including slots opening for Theatre of Hate and Bauhaus towards the end of 1982. Finally Astbury disbanded the group after a show in Manchester on 26 February 1983.

Fatman

If the only aspect of The Cult you’re familiar with is as the slightly famous stadium rock act churning out MTV crowd pleasers like “Firewoman”, this might be a good time to sit down, because you’re in for something of a shock.  The Cult as we know them today is nothing at all like their original incarnation as Southern Death Cult.

The history of Southern Death Cult proper begins in 1981 with Ian Astbury joining an existent but dying punk band in Bradford known as Violation. He persuaded them to change their name to Southern Death Cult, the name both a Native American reference (an obsession of Astbury’s which would recur many times throughout his career) and also a nod to the disparity of power and influence between the Southern and Northern halves of the UK.

The band promptly went off and toured with both Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate throughout 1982, providing them with massive exposure and coverage in the alternative media, rapidly becoming very big on the Post Punk scene despite lack of any significant amount of  released material.

During their extremely brief existence, the band released just two pieces of vinyl, The Fatman 7” and the Moya 12” and each containing both of the title tracks, although Moya includes a third song “The Girl”. Both are interesting, not only musically, in the sense that the listener can easily sense just how far the influence of this band would be felt, but also in their political commentary, an element that would become increasingly rare as Goth continued to develop as a genre away from Post Punk.

Southern Death Cult would disband after just 16 months in February 1983. The explanation for breaking up that “expectations were just way too high” has frankly never satisfied me, it seems a singularly silly reason to disband. The explanation that Ian felt various elements of Southern Death Cult were “working against each other” seems rather more reasonable.