A night of pulse-pounding goth from two generations of scene shapers!
Leeds’ music scene breaths grit. Warehouse raves, postpunk rebellions and goth nights have been its lifeblood for decades. The Warehouse walls, raw brick and dark paint, have hosted icons like The Sisters of Mercy, Soft Cell and New Order, each adding their bruised fingerprints to its aura. The venue oozes character—patrons packed tight on Tuesday 1st July, goths in leather, emos with midnight hair, punks with spikes. Many flaunted smiles for the camera, thrilled to be part of the snapshot.
The March Violets first played The Warehouse in 1983, before the goth stampede. Last year they played at Rebellion Punk Festival and tonight marks their first Leeds headline since 2013 as they drop by on their 13-venue tour of the UK, and their gothic/post punk roots feel alive again. Later in the year they’re heading over to tour the US – Trump permitting!
Formed in Leeds in 1981, The March Violets released cult classics like ‘Snake Dance’ (1984) and ‘Crow Baby’, driving darkwave’s rise. Core members: Tom Ashton on guitar, Rosie Garland and Simon Denbigh on vocals. Post1980s they drifted, regrouped in the 2000s, weathered tragedy in 2017 and came back leaner but still venomous. Following Simon’s stroke, Mat Thorpe stepped in on bass and vocals last year.
Vision Video, hailing from Athens, Georgia, formed in 2018 by Dusty Gannon (vocals, guitar) with recent additions Angelica Avila from Bakersfield, brought haunting tones and backup grit (keys, backing vocals), and Ryan Houchens from Savannah, ramped up the intensity since joining last year on drums. Dusty’s background as a war vet in Afghanistan and firefighter informs their stark themes and fires his emotions towards the current government back in the US which is unprintable here, but it seemed everyone in the audience had total empathy… sounds like the reaction at Glastonbury, when will the people in power get it?
Their debut EP ‘In My Side’ (2020) led to LPs ‘Inked in Red’ (2021), ‘Haunted Hours’ (2022), and ‘Modern Horror’ (2024), a raw dive into trauma, authority and apocalypse, produced by Ben Allen and mastered at Abbey Road. Vision Video open the evening as the venue chills into darkness before ‘Dead Gods’ hits, wide chords crash through raw brick. Next, ‘Sign of the Times’, ‘Normalized’, ‘Kandahar’, ‘Balaclava’, ‘Stay’, ‘Let’s Go’, ‘You Move Me’, ‘Sirens’, and ‘Inked’, finishing with ‘In My Side’. Each track gallops between menace and melody. Avila’s keys are icy spectres crackling under Gannon’s barked pleas. Houchens pounds like a heart breaking at the bottom of a well. This is modern goth reborn.
New songs from ‘Modern Horror’ blend terror and beauty, especially ‘Balaclava’s’ tense tumble and the emotional crash of ‘Stay’. The crowd was feral: movement and conversion, documented happily with snaps. The Warehouse’s history melted into their set, ghosts of legends looking on as the new blood claimed its moment.
The March Violets took over next: If there was ever doubt about their place in goth’s upper tier, this set kicked it into the grave. Leeds-born, forged in the furnace of 1981 alongside The Sisters and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, they’ve always sounded like a band too punk for goth, too goth for punk — and better for it. It’s been a year since their explosive return to the stage at Rebellion, and just a few months since they dropped their long-overdue LP ‘Crocodile Promises’ (April 2025). This gig was more than a homecoming; it was a reckoning.
The room was packed wall to wall, old guard in worn ‘80s tees shoulder-to-shoulder with teenagers in mesh and eyeliner, all in monochrome. You could feel it, generations crammed into a crucible of strobe, fog and expectation. When the opening bass of ‘Long Pig’ hit, it was like someone had dropped a match in a petrol can. The place blew up.
Rosie Garland owned the night with a presence that was equal parts witch, poet and punk frontwoman. Beautifully strange in every sense, all wide gestures, sharp stares, and a delivery that straddled cabaret and invocation. She had the crowd spellbound, lacing anecdotes between songs with raw humour and razor-sharp political digs at the state of the world , “This next one’s for all the meatheads in power,” she snarled, before diving into ‘Crocodile Teeth’. Every word from her mouth was devoured like scripture with everyone on board.
Mat Thorpe, cool and sinister, prowled the stage, his baritone vocals booming through ‘Hammer the Last Nail’ and ‘1 2 I Love You’ like a gothic sermon. Tom Ashton shredded through the set with snarling precision, his guitar lines twisting and contorting on ‘Grooving’ and ‘Kraken’ like snakes in a blender.
The newer material, drawn from ‘Crocodile Promises’, showed that the Violets aren’t stuck in the past. ‘Crocodile Teeth’, ‘Strangehead’, ‘Heading’, and ‘Kraken’ felt urgent, dangerous and totally in tune with the chaos of now. These weren’t nostalgia pieces, they were war cries from a band still fighting. The crowd, old punks and fresh blood alike, lapped it up, fists raised, voices screaming along, especially during the encore’s bludgeoning ‘Fodder’ and the inevitable closer ‘Snake’.
The March Violets don’t do sentiment. They do fury, beauty, and barbed-wire glamour. And Leeds? Leeds gave it right back. Two bands. Two eras. One night that showed goth’s roots aren’t graves, they’re foundations. Loved it!
Main Photo Credit / All Photos: PHIL THORNS
Vision Video (11 songs)
- ‘Dead Gods’ (2024, Modern Horror)
- ‘Sign of the Times’ (2024, Modern Horror)
- ‘Normalized’ (2024, Modern Horror)
- ‘Kandahar’ (2024, Modern Horror)
- ‘Balaclava’ (2024, Modern Horror)
- ‘Stay’ (2024, Modern Horror)
- ‘Let’s Go’ (2024, Modern Horror)
- ‘You Move Me’ (2024, Modern Horror)
- ‘Sirens’ (2024, Modern Horror)
- ‘Inked’ (2021–24, Inked in Red / Modern Horror)
- ‘In My Side’ (2020 EP / 2024 Modern Horror version)
The March Violets (15 songs)
- ‘Long Pig’ (1984, single)
- ‘Made Glorious’ (1984, single)
- ‘Crow Baby’ (1984, crow compilation/EP)
- ‘Hammer’ (1985, The Botanic Verses LP)
- ‘Grooving’ (1985, LP)
- ‘Steam’ (1986, LP)
- ‘Kraken’ (2024, new single)
- ‘Walk’ (1986, single)
- ‘1 2 I Love You’ (1986, LP)
- ‘This Way Out’ (1987, condo sessions)
- ‘Crocodile Teeth’ (2024, new single)
- ‘Strangehead’ (2024, new single)
- ‘Heading’ (2024, new single)
Encores: - ‘Fodder’ (1985, EP)
- ‘Snake’ (1984, single)
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