The Zine UK

“…embracing goth's extended history from the fall of Rome, European folk lakes, romantic poets, dark artists and architecture before coalescing in the post-punk period…”

Available everywhere, 'The Art Of Darkness - the History of Goth' is the new book by the human energy-source that is John Robb.

The most informed and lived of books on the arts and culture of a post punk community who existed, from the 1980s, beyond shallow Addams Family cliches to influence the now and next in 2023. Read the biographical info on the book and post-hearted author, while grabbing one at Bandcamp or scroll down for more ways to get yours.
https://membranes.bandcamp.com/merch/the-art-of-darkness-the-history-of-goth-john-robb

Musician, creator, journalist, spokesman, broadcaster, multi published author, environmentalist, mentor, TV presenter - the bass player of The Membranes is a work of art in his own right, our (correctly titled in our tapestry) Minister of Counter Culture, a golden thread through TheZineUK documentary.

This month, as we celebrate our own ninth anniversary, it feels fitting that the gothic tinted world we are living through has got particularly dystopian and Gotham City natured, especially over the last few years. In other words, you don’t have to be a Goth to get where The Art Of Darkness… is coming from.

What timing. This book is a dark romantic first that sold out of (many!) signed copies in advance and at time of writing) is nudging Bono of U2 for the best seller spot! Huge. 650 Pages of the ultimate, in depth guide plus definitive interviews, photography and illustrations.

Ahead of the popular music culture game, as ever (Lol Tolhurst of The Cure is releasing a Goth History book in September), John Robb is living proof of how much alternative music and it’s culture of self expressed human beings (as we were born) mean to the uniqulture of an evolving society. Can we celebrate our differences now, yet, please?

With so many musical threads to The Never Dull World Of John Robb, we wondered what inspired ‘The Art Of Darkness - The History Of Goth’

I felt it was time that there was a pop culture book about goth like Jon Savage had done with punk with Englands Dreaming. A book that explained the art in the darkness, put the cult into culture, deep dived into the core of the darker end of post-punk and explained how every generation deals with its blues by embracing goth's extended history from the fall of Rome, European folk lakes, romantic poets, dark artists and architecture before coalescing int he post-punk period... (John Robb)

Deeply researched, ‘The Art Of Darkness - the History of Goth’ is available at all good bookshops and record stores and to order on line via http://linktr.ee/artofdarkness

Image created by **Iman Kakai-Lazell** for this book release.

I couldn’t stand history at school, so on a personal level, hooray, at last, something for the educational curriculum that I’d actually WANT to study!