Photo: Jolene Siana
April 2025 • Volume 51, Number 7 • www. illinoisentertainer. com
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COVER STORY: PETER MURPHY s an Artist matures, amasses a tangible catalog of work, and inches— or even hurtles— toward their career’ s coda, many arrive at moments of insightful, illuminating wisdom that effectively encapsulate their achievements for posterity.
But this year, at a sage-like, well-seasoned 67, Istanbulbased British aesthete Peter Murphy has reviewed his 1979- launched persona fronting majestic glam-rock mainstay Bauhaus, plus a parallel solo-artist path veered onto in 1986 with his Should the World Fail to Fall Apart bow and continues through to his latest 11th outing, the Youth-overseen Silver Shade,( and his first studio set since since 2014’ s Lion) and reached his own logical motivational conclusions.“ Massive commercial success has a way of locking artists into a formula,” he has finally decided.“ You become a product, not a creator, and I’ ve never wanted that. So the freedom that I have now, to revisit my work, to reinterpret it, to keep moving forward, is far more valuable.”
Regrets? Like Elvis and Frank Sinatra, at the end of their legendary runs, Murphy confesses that he’ s had a few here and there. Including the close brush with high-profile notoriety that attended his surprise 1989 college radio hit“ Cuts You Up,” culled from his second disc Deep. Following up such overnight, near-breakthrough popularity proved difficult, even stressful.
All told, nice work if you can get it. And not a bad career for a former print shop worker and bookbinding specialist from Northampton in Britain, who had to not only be coaxed but practically cajoled into joining the band by his perpetually-guitar-fasciated school chum Daniel Ash, little trio he’ d formed with drummer Kevin Haskins and David J, then known as Bauhaus 1919, named after the rule-breaking art movement and the year it was founded. But, as Matisse once wisely said,“ Creativity takes courage.” Words that could not ring any more authentic than at this moment in climate-upheaval-battered world history, when Art remains of utmost importance in any and all social movements. And Murphy seems to have said courage in spades. IE’ s Tom Lanham spoke to the Godfather of Goth.
PAGE 20: PETER MURPHY
Spins
Bob Mould, Vintage Blonde, Whitechapel, Talking Heads.
CinemaScopes
Revenge of the Sith hits 20.
Media
Flipside Records Rewind.
Calendar
1600 shows and 3800 bands, it’ s IE’ s live music calendar.
Classifieds
Music services, musicians and more.
Record Store Day Guide 2025
Our annual RSD Guide: Listings, Previews, Chicagoland’ s best stores.
06 12 19 24 31 32
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