I didn't actually intend to go this April, owing to a severe lack of time and money, but then some nice people offered me free[1] lifts and accommodation, so I could hardly refuse...

Last Whitby wasn't much fun for me owing to Personal Problems, but this time the person responsible for all that wasn't around and I had my Furby[2] instead, so I was at last able to experience Whitby as it should be experienced.

And it was great fun- it's like Goth Christmas, I didn't want it to end and was thinking "Why can't it be Whitby all year round?"[3]

Anyway... Thursday night was a bit of a mad panic, as I was DJing, then had to finish designing a flyer despite my scanner having died, then I had to pack for Whitby. So I didn't bother with sleep, but went straight up to Oxford where I got a lift up with Lin and Mike from the rather excellent Passion Play[4].

Barring a slight Furby panic when the batteries died, all went smoothly, and we arrived at Passion Play Whitby HQ, charmingly named "Kipper Cottage"[5], in plenty of time for the Friday event. The cottage was lovely, but seemed to have been designed by the same people responsible for Scandals- one doorway was so low that even I banged my head on it! Justin[6], at about 6'6", had to bend double just to get through it...

Despite not having slept, I lasted out the first night surprisingly well, though I can't really remember very much about the bands except that what I saw of them was pretty good.

Similarly, I can't remember a great deal about the DJing Friday night, owing to a combination of tiredness, inebriation and being in the foyer half the time, but what I can remember was also pretty good.

Of course, one of the great things about going to Whitby is you get to meet loads of people you either (a) know but don't get to see very often or (b) know from the net but have never actually met before. As well as meeting completely new people- though it was surprising how often I sparked up conversations with people who then turned out to be net.goths (though not as surprising as when I met two separate people from London who'd been born in the same Portsmouth hospital as me).

The Furby was being pretty sociable too, if not a downright tart, as can be seen from the photos! Once again, the Furby had a definite effect on certain people, mainly women- apologies to Mike from Manuskript, who's now going to have to buy Sarah a Furby...

Anyway, much jollity was had, then much sleep was had- unlike most people, I'd done my sleep deprivation *before* Whitby, and was determined to catch up.

So I was actually awake in the Elsinore the next day, which was something of a novel experience.

Saturday night is thus a bit clearer, at least at the start. Star 80 were definitely interesting, though I didn't catch enough of their set to make a clear decision- whilst hiding in the toilets I was informed they sounded like Puressence, but I managed to miss that part of their set, and the CD definitely tends towards the bleepy end of things.

Manuskript surprised me- I hadn't been impressed with their set at the Camden Monarch, but here they were almost a completely different band. I don't know if it was the clearer sound, the Whitby atmosphere and/or Manuskript themselves, but they were far punchier and I thought it was an excellent set. Similarly, Switchblade outdid themselves, excelling even their London gig.

And the DJing was good too, although typically I managed to miss all the songs I'd requested

And then the end came- the bar closed, and even Manuskript's rider had breathed its last[7].

All was not lost though- it was time to go to the Abbey. This involved finding a wall, thinking "hey, this looks easy enough to climb"[8] and then discovering a vertiginous drop on the other side. Which, amazingly, I managed to negotiate without damaging either bones or trousers.

And so it happened that at 6.00am I was still standing around the Abbey with a bunch of goths thinking "Shouldn't all these people be asleep?". Then I realised that most of them were Slime regulars, for whom sleep on a Saturday night is unnatural.

At which point someone said "Are the tubes open yet?" and it was time to go. So Alexander found a wall, wrestled it into submission and then we stood talking at the bottom of the steps until someone told us to shut up and go home.

And so it was Sunday, and once more to the Elsinore, where I met up with Natasha Scharf, who was due to interview me about the Early History of Goth. Or, as it happened, just to point the microphone in my general direction and let me ramble on till the tape[9] ran out.

I had a cunning plan for Sunday night. Since my friends were evenly distributed between Laughtons and the Metropole, I was going to go to Laughtons until such time as the appalling 80s pop drove me out and then on to the Metropole.

Unfortunately, the pound a pint kinda interfered with this plan...

Laughtons was bizarre. It was like stepping back in time to an 80s club, complete with crap 80s music- except all the trendies had been replaced by goths. It's like some sort of strange dream I might have had from the 80s, with all these goths going "Play Dead? Who are they? We like Culture Club!". Except it was actually happening...

F*cking weird.

A brief conversation with Fross confirmed my suspicions that anything actually alternative[10] from the 80s would (a) not fit in and (b) go down like a lead balloon, and fair enough, the cheese was working fine and there was a really good atmosphere.

Anyway, I can't complain, as I could have escaped to the Metropole but didn't- essentially, the music was most definitely Not Pete Friendly, but the atmosphere was, so I had a good time regardless. And I only spent a token amount of time with Hirez, Hatty and co chanting "We didn't fight the Goth Wars for this, you know!" (someone said 3 goth nights in a row was too much, and I replied that if I had to have something different I'd like a punk night- or more to the point a punk/new wave/alt 80s night. Unfortunately, only about a dozen people would turn up, and most of them would be over 30...)

Anyway, after Laughtons it was time to gatecrash Marge, shout "Alcohol!", get served a pint of wine in a jug and then wibble incoherently at her until such time as I was able to find the door.

After about 3 hours sleep, I woke up with a raging hangover, managed to get locked out and wake Justin up, then it was time to go back to Portsmouth with Andy "Earl Grey" Suter[11] and Tanith[12], which involved getting stuck behind a manure truck and discovering how long we could hold our breath.

At one point we must have unwittingly joined a Goth Convoy, as net.goth after net.goth piled into the service station until it started to look like the Whitby Overspill Event. We even had the DJs for it...

So it was one last Whitby reminder until it was time to part once more and return to the real world... and sleep...

Thanks again to Justin, Lin, Mike, Ruth and Andy for sorting me out with lifts and accomodation at such short notice!

[1] Though I did bung them a little bit of money, as I'd have felt guilty otherwise...

[2] Well, it's Tiff's furby really, I just seem to have adopted it...

[3] Because I'd have no money, but that's not really the point...

[4] Have I mentioned how good they are recently? The "Name No Names" EP is still available, and there's an album in the pipeline...

[5] Aidan, are you getting places named after you now?

[6] Lead singer from Passion Play and all round Top Bloke

[7] According to Roo, who'd kindly offered to raid it for me

[8] Unless you're Alexander of course. In which case you just go through it.

[9] Or minidisc

[10] Not meaning goth here...

[11] Captain, Southampton Goth Commandoes

[12] Navigator, ditto.