Typically, a legendary band’s first studio album in 25 years would be the cause of considerable fanfare, but that wasn’t the case with Bauhaus’ Go Away White.
Recorded in 2006 and released 15 years ago today, Bauhaus’ fifth (and supposedly final) album came and went without a tour or even an interview schedule to usher in its release. What should have been a triumphant sonic comeback was treated by its creators as a mere afterthought, as Bauhaus – singer Peter Murphy, guitarist Daniel Ash, bassist David J and drummer Kevin Haskins – had once again disbanded long before the sound of the T. Rex-y opening track, “Too Much 21st Century,” even met listeners’ ears for the first time.
Go Away White’s doomed release was an example of history repeating itself. Bauhaus’ other final album, 1983’s appropriately named Burning From The Inside, represented a splintered group inching towards the finish line with each passing note.
“The first two weeks we were in the studio [recording that album], the original idea was for us three to go in there and put some backing tracks down, because Pete got double pneumonia,” Ash recalled in a 2017 feature on this website. “The chemistry was completely different. We were originally just going to put backing tracks down, and then a couple of the tracks turned into fully finished ones – ‘Who Killed Mr. Moonlight?’ and ‘Slice Of Life.’ That was the beginning of the end for Bauhaus, because the chemistry had changed… I think it had started to fracture the whole Bauhaus thing. It was getting to that stage where it had gone as far as it was going to go.”
After a brief stint with bassist Glenn Campling as Tones on Tail, Ash and Haskins rejoined J to form Alternative powerhouse Love And Rockets, while Murphy embarked on an iconic solo career. Bauhaus rose from the dead in 1998 for a highly successful reunion tour and again reformed in 2005 for an extraordinary performance at the Coachella Festival in Indio, CA. (As Murphy shouted at the end of the set-closing “Dark Entries:” “You can say now that you were there!” I was and I have!)
The rousing success of the Coachella gig was followed by touring in 2005 and 2006. The band then entered the studio – without a single note of music written but with plenty of the old personality conflicts that fueled its initial breakup 23 years earlier.
“We went in with hardly any material – just some lyrics,” J remembered in a conversation with this writer last August. “It was kind of made up on the spot. There’s something very exciting about doing that – and something very immediate. We pulled something out of the hat there! Because it was done just prior to going out on the road – after coming off touring and going back out again – we didn’t have time to really contemplate it; we just did it. The idea was that we would do rough mixes and we would go back and mix it properly after the touring, but it became so fractious on the road that the idea of us being in a small room together was … (laughs).”
Considering the state of affairs within Bauhaus at the time (detailed at length in J’s must-read 2014 autobiography, Who Killed Mr. Moonlight? Bauhaus, Black Magick and Benediction), it’s a good thing that the band ultimately elected to release the rough mixes as they were – a decision initially made during its 2006 tour with Nine Inch Nails.
“Trent [Reznor] heard that we had recorded an album,” J explains. “We said, ‘Yeah, we have, but it’s just a rough mix.’ He said, ‘Can I hear it?’ On one plane flight, he listened to the whole album. He was waiting for us when he got off – he wasn’t in first class; he was in with the goats and chickens along with the rest of us! – but he was waiting there, and he was so enthused. He said, ‘I love this record! Guys, I don’t think you should go back in. There’s something really special about this; it sounds really vital and urgent; I think you should put it out like this.’ It gave us pause, and that’s exactly what we ended up doing. It was a relief, because we just thought, ‘Now we don’t have to go back into a studio together!’”
Going with the rough mixes was indeed the right move. Free from overthinking or overproducing, Go Away White is an energized, organic journey that showcases a freewheeling spirit and cheekiness common among bands just starting out in their smelly garages. The material is largely loose and, in some cases, decidedly unbaked: Gleeful whistling runs through entire sections of “Black Stone Heart” in lieu of actual lyrics, while in-studio conversations between the musicians – particularly on “Mirror Remains” – were left on the recording.
“[“Mirror Remans”] is one moment that I really love,” J says. “We were all playing together, and Peter says to Daniel, “Daniel, some kind of guitar solo here!’ And Daniel’s playing like a two-note thing and goes, very laconically, ‘This is the solo.’ And that is the solo! Peter goes, ‘Um, yeah! Alright. Great. Cool.’”
Of course, Go Away White was also a very serious listen in places. “Endless Summer Of The Damned,” “Adrenalin,” Saved” and the gloriously gloomy album closer “Zikir” were unmistakably Bauhaus, while the adventurousness of the aforementioned “Black Stone Heart” hinted at interesting things to come from the veteran act. Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be. With even diehard fans often unaware of the album’s existence, Go Away White is destined to wallow in obscurity – which seems to suit Ash just fine.
“I don’t ever listen to that album,” he revealed to me in 2017. “I personally have got bad memories of when it was recorded. We were in the studio for a grand total of three weeks; we wrote, recorded, produced and mixed everything in three weeks. I have to say the atmosphere was not good in the studio. We sort of all dissipated after those three weeks. I can’t comment on that album; I can’t listen to it. I’ve just got bad memories of making of it…I don’t know what the public perception is of that record; I just keep having to keep away from it. It’s all the way in the back on my mind. I don’t ever think about that record.”
Haskins was slightly more complimentary towards Bauhaus’ apparent swan song when he spoke with me about it six years ago.
“For some reason, just last week, I don’t know what I was doing, but I did listen to a couple of tracks,” he shared. “Maybe it was just in my car and they came on; I’m not sure – it was very random. I seriously haven’t listened to it in years, so I can listen to it more objectively [now]. It kind of surprised me; it didn’t really feel like, ‘This is a Bauhaus song,’ but it was good. It’s difficult to critique your own work. When we finished it, it didn’t really feel in a general sense like Bauhaus or the image of Bauhaus I have in my head. I think it holds up, but it sounds like a bit of a different band to me […] Although the early work had a certain kind of eclectic nature to each record, it has a strong identity. I think Go Away White has a strong identity, but it has a different one.”
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| My personal copy of Go Away White - colored in by Peter Murphy himself |
Bauhaus reconvened as a live act in 2019. Three years later, the band issued a new song, the brilliantly oddball “Drink The New Wine,” that was recorded by all four members separately during the COVID-19 lockdown. The group maintained an active touring schedule until it suddenly announced in August 2022 that it had canceled its remaining dates for the year and that Murphy had entered rehab. Two months ago, it was announced that a reformed Love And Rockets would perform at the Cruel World Festival in Pasadena, CA this May.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
(To be clear, Murphy’s absence from this feature was a matter of logistics, not politics. I have made several attempts to interview him over the years. Despite coming very close on a couple of occasions, my efforts were ultimately thwarted by conflicting schedules and (more than once) the man’s health and personal matters at the time. That said, he was as friendly and approachable as the rest of the lot when our paths crossed in Boston 10 years ago, and my door is always open to him. Until our next encounter takes place, I wish him the very best.)
Thirty years after Murphy first split with the trio that would become Love And Rockets, fans are again left to wonder if Bauhaus will roar again or if its narrative will ultimately end with a whimper. No matter what, Go Away White stands as a powerful – if unjustly overlooked – addition to a bulletproof discography.
“Listening back to it now, Trent was right,” J says. “It sounds really good!”