Features
Voice of Bauhaus
The gloomy fun starts at the Coachella festival, where Bauhaus will perform for the first time since their reunion tour of 1998.
From there, Peter Murphy, lead vocalist for Bauhaus, will head out on his own tour, placing his theatrical voice in front of American audiences for the first time in three years. The tour kicks off at the House of Blues at Lake Buena Vista, Fla. on May 12.
He’ll then head North to hit Atlanta, Washington, and New York, and then move on Westward for shows in Cleveland, Chicago, and Denver. The tour will finish up with a string of dates on the West coast – the last being played in Anaheim, Calif. on May 28.
Bauhaus began in 1978. Their Ziggy-Stardust-meets-Count-Dracula look initially got them dismissed as a glam-rock knock-off by the British media. But, after releasing their first single – “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” – in 1979, the group developed a major cult following that continues to grow even today.
The band became a driving force of what was shortly thereafter dubbed goth-rock. As their musical sophistication and popularity grew, internal disputes began to fracture the band and they announced their break-up in 1983.
Murphy, for his part, began a solo career writing music that often broke beyond the goth aesthetic of his early days. He scored hits in the early 90’s with “Cuts You Up” and “The Sweetest Drop.”
Murphy’s latest tour comes in support of his newest album, Unshattered. This is his eighth studio LP and it was recorded in a number of cities, including London, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Istanbul.
Murphy also enlisted the aid of Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins, Murphy’s writing partner Paul Statham and producer Gardner Cole. The album also contains music written by Murphy and Bauhaus drummer Kevin Haskins.
A future tour featuring just Bauhaus tunes is a possibility for Murphy, as well. “I’ve never played Bauhaus songs, because there’s a distinction: that’s the band,” he said. “Of course, there’s an audience there. And, well, within the next several years I might just do a Bauhaus cover tour – make it a real event.”