Ghost Dance - Stop the World

by Anthony Strutt

published: 14 / 12 / 2013

Anthony Strutt reflects on Gothic super group Ghost Dance's only studio album 'Stop the World', which has recently been re-released in a double CD edition

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Ghost Dance were possibly the first ever Gothic super group, and were formed in 1985 by Anne Marie Hurst, who had been the vocalist in the Skeletal Family, and Gary Marx, who was the guitarist in the first line-up of the Sisters of Mercy. ‘Stop the World’, which has just been released in a double CD edition and came out in 1989, was the band's only studio album, and follows on from their first album ‘Gathering Dust’, which was an early singles compilation. The band split up soon after this release, and after playing a tour with the Ramones. The new deluxe version of ‘Stop the World’ collects together all the B sides of the singles from this period, and puts them all onto one collection. As the Goth genre took off in the mid-1980s, several Gothic bands signed to major labels, and the music suffered as a result. It developed all the worst production values of the 1980s. The guitars also became louder, the vocals got bigger, the hair became more styled, whereas the original Gothic movement, like punk, had been cheap and alternative. The songs here are solid enough, and exactly what you would expect big time Goth to be - big leather jackets, colourful sleeves, upbeat and smiling, whereas the Goth movement had been originally coloured black and very moody. At its best this collection gives you Goth's best loudest songs, well delivered but full of 1980’s polish and glamour. Sadly underneath it all the band suffered. Fights and disagreements with the label ended their career, but this album still has some fine moments and is a good way to remember the band.