Various Artists – Young Limbs Rise Again ( The Story Of The Bat Cave Nightclub 1982-1985) 2LP

Various Artists – Young Limbs Rise Again ( The Story Of The Bat Cave Nightclub 1982-1985) 

London 1982. As the new romantic youthquake of 1981/1982 faded, and after what felt like a lifetime since punk’s last gasp, a tiny nightclub opened its doors in London’s Soho. Drawing to it a new generation of misfits and miscreants with a penchant for polysexual hedonism, for dressing up and showing out, The Batcave became the dark heart of alternative club culture, just like The Roxy and The Blitz before it.

Art school students, ex-punks and psychobillys, boys and girls, gays, straights, don’t-knows and don’t-cares, Camden and Kensington Market stallholders, professional squatters, kids on the dole, kids in bands, nocturnal music journalists, edgy fashionistas, androgynous randoms and even a smattering of bona fide popstars – from Nick Cave to Siouxsie Sioux, Marc Almond, Robert Smith, Killing Joke and Sigue Sigue Sputnik. All were welcome to pile in, gawp at the hair, ripped, torn, bleached and rubberised fashions, and death-mask make-up and take in the dancefloor’s heady musical mix of beats-heavy post-punk pioneers, outsider icons like Wayne County and The Cramps, and a teetering pile of lusty glam rock singles from the likes of T. Rex and The Sweet.

The club even had its own house band, Specimen, fronted by charismatic and ghoulishly handsome frontman Olli Wisdom (RIP) as well as playing host to a slew of first-wave bands of what came to be known as “goth”. And it is with Specimen’s Jon Klein (later, a Banshee, too) and keyboardist Jonny Slut (later founder of legendary club night Nag Nag Nag) along with Sophie Chery from another stalwart Batcave band, Sexbeat, who’ve worked with Demon in putting together this deluxe and definitive musical and visual accompaniment to a moment that sparked a global youth cult.

Tracklist:
A1 Specimen– Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 4:53
A2 The Sisters Of Mercy– Alice 3:34
A3 Virgin Prunes– Pagan Love Song ( Vibeakimbo ) 6:49
A4 Sexbeat– Sexbeat 3:35
A5 The Birthday Party– Release the bats 2:30

B1 Alien Sex Fiend– Ignore The Machine 6:42
B2 Killing Joke– Follow The Leaders 4:06
B3 The Cramps– Human Fly 2:12
B4 The Cure– Lets Go To Bed 3:34
B5 Siouxsie & The Banshees– Slowdive 4:18

C1 The Cult– Resurrection Joe ( Long Version) 6:09
C2 Christian Death– Deathwish 2:13
C3 Theatre Of Hate– The Hop 2:48
C4 Soft Cell– Soul Inside 4:31
C5 Wasted Youth– I Wish I Was A Girl 5:43

D1 Flesh For Lulu– Roman Candle (12" Version) 10:18
D2 X Mal Deutschland– Incubus Succubus II 4:43
D3 Play Dead– Propaganda 3:11
D4 Gene Loves Jezebel– Punch Drunk 2:23
D5 The Meteors– My Daddy Is A Vampire 3:39

Label: Demon Records
Released: 2023