I was introduced to the music of The Cult in the mid eighties by the members of our then youth group ‘Focus’. As I researched their origins further it came as a surprise to find that they actually came from Bradford, a city to which we were translated in 2009. As Shakespeare put it: and thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges (Twelfth Night Act 5 Scene1). They were formed in 1983. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury’s previous band Southern Death Cult.
Southern Death Cult’s name was chosen with a double meaning, and was derived from the 14th-century Native American religion, from the Mississippi delta area, but it was also a stab at what the band viewed was the centralisation of power in Southern England; there has long been a perceived North- South divide based on social, historic and economic reasons. Astbury was joined by Buzz Burrows (guitar), Barry Jepson (bass) and Aki Nawaz Quershi (drums); they performed their first show at the Queen’s Hall in their hometown of Bradford on 29 October 1981. The band were at the forefront of an emerging style of music, in the form of post-punk and gothic rock, they achieved critical acclaim from the press and music fans.
In April 1983, Astbury teamed up with guitarist Billy Duffy and formed the band “Death Cult”. In April 1984, the band now known as The Cult released the single “Spiritwalker”, which reached No. 1 on the independent charts in the UK, and acted as a teaser for their forthcoming album Dreamtime. In May 1985, the Cult released their fourth single, “She Sells Sanctuary”, which peaked at No. 15 in the UK and spent 23 weeks in the Top 100. The song was recently voted No. 18 in VH1’s Indie 100.
The Cult then finished recording their second album, Love in July and August 1985. The band’s music and image shifted from their punk-oriented roots to 1960s psychedelia influences. Love was a chart success, peaking at No. 4 in the UK and selling 100,000 copies there toward a total of 500,000 copies throughout Europe, as well as 100,000 in Australia and 500,000 copies in the United States. Love reached number 20 on the charts in The Netherlands, where it remained for 32 weeks. To date, the record has sold over two and a half million copies worldwide.
Their third album, originally entitled ‘Peace’ was recorde in 1986. IThe first single, “Love Removal Machine”, was released in February 1987, and the new version of the album appeared in April that year, now renamed as ‘Electric’, reaching No. 4 and eventually outselling Love. Two more singles, “Lil Devil” and “Wild Flower”, were released during 1987.
It was after this that I began to lose track of them. They did produce another album “Ceremony” in 1991 but it was not critically well received.
