Goth Flash Mob! Nuit Blanche Video!

Well here we are official video from the night! Enjoy the memories of our very special open air goth club!

It's a Goth/Industrial DJ's Life

So this pic sourced from Imgur has been circulating amongst my friends for the last few days. but is totally hilarious enough to share again. Folks this is what it's like being a DJ, it's true. Personally I like that the request maker is very specific about which Front 242 song will get their Wiccan life partner moving, but any Nitzer Ebb will do - though you as a successful Goth Industrial DJ know they want to hear Join in The Chant amiright? 

So there you have it: "Headhunter" THE Wiccan dance floor anthem

Some Love From The Last Pogo

Our plaque for the Beverley Tavern was featured today on local filmmaker Colin Brunton's Blog The Last Pogo, a site that features images and documents of Toronto's Punk Past.

You can check out what he and Martha & The Muffins' Mark Gane has to say about our project and a plaque on the Beverley site here: http://www.thelastpogo.net/the-bev-gets-a-plaque/ and find out about the theatrical premier of his film The Last Pogo Jumps Again taking place Nov. 1st at The Big Picture Cinema at 1035 Gerrard.

Your Very Own Goth Heritage Plaque!

We've had a few requests from folks wanting their own copies of the plaques I created as part of the walking tour. As a result I've decide to offer limited runs of each of the 15 plaques created for the project.

Plaques will retail for $75.00 CDN + Shipping and proceeds will go directly to supporting the continuation of the Toronto Goth Heritage Project.

Plaques are made of museum quality, high gloss finish GatorBoard, and will feature a certificate of authenticity affixed to the back hand-signed and numbered by the artist (that's me)!

Purchasers from Toronto can also make arrangements for hand delivery of their plaques.

As a heads up I'll also be starting an IndieGogo campaign to keep the project alive, as well as looking into making T-Shirts featuring the Goth Heritage logo (pricing soon) and hosting a new fundraising focused event soon.

Let's keep the spirit of Toronto's Goth scene undead!

To order please email: torontogothheritage[at]gmail[dot]com

Blasts from the Past

Just so you know i have some Goth street cred,  here are some pics of me circa 1994/5  Photos were taken at Holy Name of Mary Roman Catholic Church on McEwan Avenue in Windsor, Ontario, by Andrea Slavik, a life long friend who I have often collaborated with under the name AndrewandAndrea. Click the image for more swoontastic Goth pics.

Process, Plaques and Partytime!

More pics from No Blue Jeans, No Nice Sweaters, No Big Bop Rejects, this time from Lady Berg and myself, documenting more of the process involved in getting me back in black so to speak, the beginnings of the flash mob and our heritage plaques, some of which that as of this writing are still up on local business along the route. The plaques are made on museum quality, high gloss GatorBoard and affixed with 3M Scotch Outdoor Mounting Tape.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

Photos from No Blue Jeans, No Nice Sweaters, No Big Bop Rejects 's Goth Flash Mob, and DJ Performance. Plus documentation of my personal goth metamorphosis courtesy of Chanel Croker and Trevor Ordho of  Day/Night Salon (with Glamourshots)! Just click the pics!

All Photos by Angela Ready

Welcome to Toronto Goth Heritage

Welcome to Toronto Goth Heritage! The following is a project description/artist's statement concerning
No Blue Jeans, No Nice Sweaters, No Big Bop Rejects a community engaged multi-disciplinary performance and intervention project I began in 2013 focusing on Toronto's Queen Street West commercial district's significant Goth scene. The work was exhibited as part of Out of Site, an independent project of the Queen St. West BIA, curated by Earl Miller as part of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2013. 

I hope it helps anyone interested in this project to understand my motivations behind undertaking this project and why I have decided to continue on with it. This blog will continue to be updated with information regarding the Toronto Goth Heritage Project - including documentation of the initial project, interactive maps, fundraising initiatives, performances, gallery shows and the like.- Andrew Lochhead

No Blue Jeans, No Nice Sweaters, No Big Bop Rejects
In 2013 Hell's Belles, one of the last remaining vestiges of Queen West's once vibrant Goth scene and accompanying, alternative retail sector shuttered to make way for a hamburger joint. The closure, as noted by the Toronto Star, marks what some see as "the final nail in the coffin for alternative fashion on Queen St. W." It also marks the end to a visibly Goth commercial presence on Queen West.

Drawing on Queen West's rich history as a major retail and commercial area for alternative music culture, in this case specifically Goth and Industrial music, "No Blue Jeans, No Nice Sweaters, No Big Bop Rejects", seeks to render visible and audible- through a performance of Goth/Industrial music -- the look and sound of this now disappeared subcultural presence that included night clubs such as Sanctuary, Savage Garden and retail spaces such as Siren and The House of Ill Repute all of which were located on, or near, Queen West and many of which were frequented by the artist in his youth on annual shopping trips from his hometown of Windsor, Ontario.

Growing up in Windsor, Ontario Andrew Lochhead had a passionate interest in Goth music and fashion eventually becoming a popular DJ at local Goth club nights in the late 1990s and early 00s.

Visiting Toronto, specifically Queen West’s shops and clubs, the latter often illegally, represented a massively important aspect of my formative years. The experience of Toronto at this particular time offered me both solace and comfort as a Goth teen growing up in a small city. 

This was the nascent era of E-commerce, so these once or twice yearly trips to places such as Siren were a small town Goths opportunity to check out the latest fashions, buy new records and CDs and other products not readily available back in Windsor.

Though my musical interests and fashion sense have since changed, I remember these trips fondly and hope through this work to acknowledge the importance of Queen West’s Goth community both to Toronto’s subcultural history and to my own personal growth.

 The work serves as to not only commemorate and celebrate Toronto's Goth subculture but also functions as a meditation on the changing nature of Queen West itself.

The title of the work refers to a large poster that once informed patrons of Sanctuary Vampire Sex Bar of the club's strict Goth dress code.

In addition to a DJ performance by the artist, Goth heritage sites along Queen West will be marked by a QR coded plaque, where viewers can read about the site and through their QR Reader enabled smartphone, watch video oral histories featuring local Goths, Goth Business Owners, DJs & even local Goth historians.

This iteration represents Phase 1 of a larger mapping program of Toronto's Goth Heritage