Laura - Being in a fairy tale

Laura in one of her beautiful dresses
Photo by Sky Apperley

Dressing up
When Laura listens to goth she feels melancholic, but at the same time it sooths her. She can express herself better through goth than any other music. Especially when she’s on the dance floor.

“It kind of transports you to somewhere different. It’s not really on the earth too much, it’s not too grounded goth is. It’s more like a fantasy world with dressing up in good costumes, pretending you are in a fairy tale.”

The dresses Laura wears are long and kind of old fashioned, like something out of the Medieval or Victorian times. Most of them are made of velvet or satin. She describes them as really romantic and feminine. In Brighton you can wear whatever you want, Laura thinks. But the dresses are too nice to wear round town in daylight.

“Nobody dresses up in the theatre any more so the best way to do it is in clubs.” she says.

When going out Laura puts on lots of make up and she makes her hair as big and as curly as she can. She never had any bad comments about her looks except from once; when she didn’t make any effort!

Nobody is normal
According to Laura goth is a unity between different elements.

“It’s a look and an art form and it’s about music and they all relate.”

Some of her favourite bands are Diary of Dreams, Fields of the Nephilim, Siouxsie & the Banshees and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. She likes the photographer J.K. Potter and enjoys reading horror books. Another thing that relates is that she’s working on a depressing novel.

“I’m quite happy really most of the time.” Laura explains. “But I must have some weird dark bit inside me that manifests itself in goth.”

A lot of the songs are about feeling sorry for yourself, but Laura doesn’t agree when she’s asked if all goths are depressed.

“Everybody who thinks that goths are freaks are totally wrong. The whole thing is about getting all you anger and melancholy and dreaminess out on the outside, whereas lots of people try to pretend they are normal when they are not actually. That’s where goth comes in because nobody’s normal.”

More closed in Weymouth
Laura has been in Brighton for more than five years and is a regular at Deadly Nightshade and Low Life, the two big goth clubs in town.

“I used to be into both metal and goth when I lived in Weymouth, but when I came to Brighton it was all separated and I realised that I liked goth better than metal. In Brighton you are exposed too so many different kinds of music, where in Weymouth it’s more closed.”

A lot of people who go to the clubs are in their late 30’s or early 40’s and used to be in the goth scene when it first started back in the 80’s. Laura herself is 27 this year and seeing older women makes her believe that she can keep going till she’s that age as well.

“New young goths are also nice” Laura admits. “But sometimes people dress as goths when they are into new metal and that isn’t right. Or if someone comes in and looks a townie I get a bit defensive”

Black is part of the fun
A part of Laura’s fun is to walk into a club and realise that everybody is dressed in black. Though there’s another way of dressing; like a Cyber goth with colourful dreadlocks and PVC clothes. In Laura’s opinion goths gear towards the feminine, because it’s meant to be more beautiful.

“If you are a man and wear a skirt nobody really cares.”

Laura has been very loyal to the goth clubs for years, but she wishes that the DJ’s could play more traditional stuff. At the moment they play a mixture of goth, industrial rock and electro trash dance. But she quites like the new goth style EBM, which stands for Electronic Body Music.

“It’s more of a dancy version of goth. It has got all the emotions in it and the sad lyrics and a bit of a sad tone, but a more dancy beat in the background.”

Occasionally Laura goes to indie clubs or drum n’ bass clubs. She’s got as many friends within the scene as outside the scene.

Comments about this page

  • Laura, you be what you want to be; my daughter is 15 and loves all that stuff like emo as well. Keep gothing my girl.

    By Bridget (23/11/2009)

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