Yesterday I received shocking news of Paul Lanyon’s untimely death. With this the Uk goth scene has now lost one of its greatest champions and archivists. A man that deeply cared about goth, how it was portrayed and how it was chronicled. A meticulous collector of all things goth, and it’s most fierce and focused defender. He deeply cared how goth should be recorded and did not suffer notions of goth that he considered misleading or unsubstantiated. He clearly saw the overview of goth’s development and trajectory and was always happy to share what he knew with anyone. I first met Paul over 30 years ago and we both shared the Nottingham 80’s goth experience, and during many conversations we would refer back to times and events, even through we did not know each other until the early 90’s. Paul was an early supporter of Nightbreed Recordings and enthusiastically embraced the then new scene and was culturally active in distributing rare video footage of the emerging 90’s bands via his “Count Orlock’s Video Emporium”. During the early to mid 90’s Paul generously gave me many hours of vhs tapes of rare live footage and self produced promo videos of US, UK and European bands which he had painstakingly sourced and personally compiled. This was at a time when the internet was in its early stage, and goth material, especially new and cutting edge stuff was pretty much impossible to find. His cultural work did help to build the foundation of the post 80’s legacy goth scene as what he did was to share and promote the then new music to as many people as he could. As such, his contribution to the building of the Uk goth scene as it is today should be recorded and appreciated. My deepest regret is that we never got to work on the book that we planned on the Uk 90’s goth scene. We roughly planned what shape it would take and I sent him a chapter from my thesis regarding the history of Nightbreed Recordings as perhaps a foundation for our planned collaboration. He was happy with this and enthusiastic that we should ”set the record straight” as to what happened and who did what at that time. An intended counterpoint to the several legacy books on goth that have been heavily promoted in recent times that ignores the 90’s goth experience as best, or portrays the 90’s scene incorrectly at worst. The plan was to start work on this once I finished my PhD thesis, which is planned to be early summer this year. But so, so sadly this now will never happen. Sleep well mate, you and your work will not be forgotten.
-Trevor Bamford
I am very sad to hear of the passing of my friend, Paul Lanyon, who was one of the original generation of UK Goths. He was a great devotee for gothic culture and the preservation of gothic history. A sharp and witty fellow with a creative and whimsical side, he was obsessed with keeping records of everything and prided himself on being able to backup everything he said with documentation. He had great pride in being a part of the northern gothic movement in England. Rest in peace Paul.
-DJ Jason
Very beautiful tribute to Paul who was a lovely, wonderful and a beautiful soul. RIP Paul
He was a fantastic human being, I loved all the stuff he’d show me from book to cd to vinyl to tape. Paul had so much to share that were absolutely informative and it certainly gave me better understanding of Goth stuff back then. I’m so heart broken he passed away. I will always remember him. Rest in peace Paul.
A fantastic man, he will be greatly missed.
I meets Paul in a goth fb page, what a nice human, we miss him
A fantastic tribute.
Truly a great gentlemen, he will be missed.
RIP Paul
RIP Paul
I was very grateful to got to know Paul as a person he was such a kind hearted soul he always shared weather it be his collection of Goth shoes he had or just music he always taught me something weather it was something i knew or didn’t Paul will be missed very much rip my friend
A beautiful obituary to him. Thank you
I’m in shock, even though I never met him in person. He did so much to preserve our music subculture and this showed through the posts he would make on Facebook. I loved looking at those older pics as well. I was born 10 years too late so I experienced the original scene vicariously through Paul’s posts. He was passionate about the scene. He has left a void in his absence and will be missed by so many people
I miss him so much. He was a beautiful soul
He was one of a kind. Very clever. He will be missed by many. I miss our cheeky chats and his poetry. I said to him that he should have them published. A beautiful human being
May you be blessed with an auspicious rebirth Paul. Thank you for the tea in the tree house days.
Though we never met in person, we argued back and forth for a ten year period via social media over our past life in the Roman Era. He may not have realized it but he held great respect and admiration on my part as a fellow devotee of Gothic Culture spanning over 40 years. I was deeply saddened to hear of his passing. Many candle lit and drinks left out in his honor along with kind words for Mary Petal who was his companion in his final years. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t resolve our differences while he was alive but will always remember him as a true original Nox Eternal.