Elegant Decadence Presents 1919, Stompcrash and Down From Above

May sees the return of Elegant Decadence after our short break. Headliners this time are 1919, no stranger to a break themselves, but now back with a vengence. We've also got a rare chance to see Milan's Stompcrash in the UK and Down From Above get things started.


1919 formed in December 1980 in Bradford and set about recording heavy, melodic, intense dance music with no frills and pretentions. The band were an early contributor to what became the Goth genre. They had chart success with the singles Caged, Repulsion and Cry Wolf as well as the 1984 LP Machine, and recorded two Peel Sessions.

In 2014, founding guitarist Mark Tighe attempted to reform the band, recruiting Rio Goldhammer from the Leeds underground scene to perform vocals and (initially) bass. In 2015, original drummer Mick Reed returned to the fray, providing the final piece of the puzzle in the form of bassist Karl Donner. With the band's core reunited, the Madness Continues Sessions live-album quickly emerged, along with the self-released Death Note EP.

Two European tours and a host of festival appearances later, the band signed a deal with Westworld Recordings in 2016 to release a new album, Bloodline. The second studio album from 1919 is to be released in March 2017, 33 years after the first.

The Stompcrash was born in Milan in 2002 as a darkwave project inspired by the gothic stories of writers like Lovecraft, Poe, Kafka. Tales about love and death. The first album Requiem Rosa was released in 2007 for Nomadism Records as the result of researching melodies and atmospheres to give special emphasis to every story told. The aim of the band was to catch all the energies and emotions felt and put them in songs. Requiem Rosa contains some classic like Dorian, The London Fog and Like a Noise and achieved great reviews from all the gothic scene all over the world.

In February 2011 the new album Directions is released, The Stompcrash is back with a whole new sound, more fine and conscious, an album about love, sorrow, regret, about blood on the wheels of history, about how in life “behind each corner new directions lie in wait”.

2013 sees two Europeans festivals and a UK Tour in June. A new album released in April 2014 titled Love from Hell which contains collaborations with two great bands on two songs, The Last Cry from UK and Aeon Sable from Germany. As well as playing Dark Diamond Fest and at WGT 2014 Wave Gothic Treffen in Leipzig and adding Lexxy to the band as a new drummer

The latest album Swear by the Moon is out now.

DownFromAbove are a fusion of bittersweet melodies and menacing guitar riffs, juxtaposed with growling bass lines and underpinned by forceful, hard driving beats. Driven by the urge to be original, forward looking, and true to themselves, the band are bringing their unique melange of heavy soundscapes with trippy dark angelic vocals to the UK rock scene.