Encyclopedia Gothica (23 page)

VAMP
1. A femme fatale type, the kind of woman who uses sex as a weapon. All female
VAMPIRES
are vamps but not all vamps are vampires. And not all Goths are either. Pretty much only used by boys who watch a lot of film noir. 2. Horror comedy from 1986 starring singer Grace Jones as the vampire queen Katrina, featuring one of the freakiest vamp dance sequences ever committed to celluloid.

VAMPIRA
American television personality created by actress Maila Nurmi (1922–2008), based on the Charles Addams cartoon character of
MORTICIA
. As the host of The Vampira Show in the 1950s, she set the template for campy, sexed-up femme fatales, with her look of skin-tight black dress, long black hair, exaggerated eyebrows, black fingernails, extremely corseted waist, trademark goofy graveyard puns and piercing scream. Some say she put a curse on her friend James Dean, but she was no witch, just a really great actress. Her horror hostess style was resurrected in the 1980s by Cassandra Peterson as
ELVIRA
, and although the two fought legal battles over the rights to that image, Goth Girls know the difference and love ’em both. Nurmi’s remains rest at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

VAMPIRE
Mythological bloodsuckers, the Goth’s favourite horror movie villain, standard
HALLOWEEN
costume, dream date. For those people who think they’re real, see
MODERN VAMPIRE
s.

VAMPIRE BATS
BAT
s that feed on blood, hunting unsuspecting mammals in the night. Biologists call them Desmodus rotundus, Diphylla ecaudata and Diaemus youngil; Goths dream of them transforming into a human
VAMPIRE
, like they do in books. If only.

VAMPIRE DISPATCHING KIT
Mythical antique object, also known as a
VAMPIRE
Killing Kit, allegedly made in the nineteenth-century to take care of the pesky
NOSFERATU
problem, now sold to rich Goths looking for a real piece of vampire history. Except they’re probably fake — a beautiful antique wooden box filled with dusty prayer books, holy water vials, daggers and
STAKE
s, now worth ten times its value for the fancy marketing. Better to buy a contemporary replica. Plus, if the real vampires attack, do you really want to depend on a used one?

VAMPIREFREAKS
Social networking site exclusively for Goth/
INDUSTRIAL
types (or other “tormented souls” and “beautiful
FREAK
s”) created by
RIVETHEAD
computer programmer Jethro Berelson in 1999, now boasting more than two million users. Like MySpace, LiveJournal, iTunes and Craiglist rolled into one, it’s a one-stop virtual shop for Goth living.
BABYBAT
s in particular have flocked to it to create profiles and make spooky love connections in an unfettered environment where they feel free to expresses their innermost pain. Problem is: nobody’s moderating or monitoring all these underagers, and the site has been tainted by several high profile, serious crimes by its members, including rape and murder. Most adult Goths find the site either ridiculous or disturbing or both.

VAMPIRE’S ANKH
See:
Ankh

VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE
Role-playing game developed by White Wolf Publishing. For those who really, really want to create their own
VAMPIRE
alter ego, join a clan and act out their fantasies in a safe, fun environment. Participation exploded in the 1990s, spinning off into books and even a short-lived TV series,
Kindred: The Embraced
.
See also:
LARP

VAMPYRE SOCIETY
British organization for
VAMPIRE
enthusiasts, active in the 1990s. Not the
MODERN VAMPIRE
s who believe they are undead; rather, people who like graveyard tea parties and Gothic horror novels (i.e., Goths). Turned into a similar group called Vampyre Connexions in 1998 but now seems to be defunct.

V & A
The Victorian and Albert Museum in London, home to 4.5 million objects of decorative arts and design. Admirers of
MEDIEVAL
,
VICTORIAN
, Elizabethan and Renaissance eras (i.e., % 90 of Goths) will swoon at its extensive collection of decadent textiles, furniture, jewels, sculpture and more. Yes, it has some of the world’s most famous stained glass,
CANDELABRA
s, reliquaries,
CORSET
s and the like, from such Gothic luminaries as Horace Walpole, William Morris and
VIVIENNE WESTWOOD
, but it’s the sum total, and the glorious building itself, all wrought iron and mosaic tiles, that make it site of Goth pilgrimage. The 2003 exhibition Gothic Art for
ENGLAND
can still be enjoyed in book form.

VANIAN, DAVE
British singer (né David Lett, b. October 12, 1956), leader of
THE DAMNED
. Ex-gravedigger and horror film fan, he took his stage name to rhyme with Transylvanian, used
COFFIN
s as concert props, wore ghoulish make-up and streaked his hair black and white and generally indulged in macabre presentation well before
BATCAVE
and
GOTHIC ROCK
were ever born. So while
PETER MURPHY
may be the Godfather of Goth, Vanian is its actual dad. Also leads
PSYCHOBILLY
band David Vanian and the Phantom Chords and is married to
PATRICIA MORRISON
, ex–
SISTERS OF MERCY
.

VARNEY THE VAMPIRE
British horror serial about a cursed bloodsucker, Sir Francis Varney, written by James Malcolm Rymer and published as a series of cheap penny dreadfuls in the 1840s. Pure
VICTORIAN
Gothic
VAMPIRE
fiction, which established such well-known tropes as
FANGS
, hypnotism and superpowers.

VELVET
Fabric of kings and queens and
MEDIEVAL
times, soft yet heavy, luxurious to the touch; no
TRAD GOTH
wardrobe is complete without a velvet
CLOAK
or gown or
TOP HAT
.

VICIOUS, LIZ
American porn actress of a Goth persuasion. If you’re into that, just Google her.

VICTORIAN
The era of Alexandrina Victoria, Queen of
ENGLAND
(roughly 1837–1901), romanticized by the
ROMANTIGOTH
s and the
STEAMPUNKS
for its ornate architecture (indeed, the Gothic Revival starts here); its abundance of lace and fanciful dress,
CORSET
s and waistcoats; its perceived majesty of living.

VIRGIN PRUNES
Irish
POST-PUNK
group formed in 1977 that frankly, was
GOTHER THAN THOU
, or me, or most of the
BATCAVERS
of the 1980s. Not just for the unsettling, horror-drenched sounds on albums like . . . If I Die, I Die and songs like “Baby Turns Blue” but for the brazen theatricality of their live shows,
GRAND GUIGNOL
in miniature, with
PALE
white faces in cross-dress, enshrouded in fog, simulating sodomy and other acts of deviant decadence — in Ireland! In the 1970s! So sadly short lived, and never big in America. Look ’em up.

VISUAL KEI
Japanese music style associated with
GOTHIC LOLITA
scene. Like glam metal mating with cyberpunk in a historical
VICTORIAN
manga, visual kei artists flaunt
ANDROGYNY
, colour and frills in a way that no Western artist could ever get away with. Hence, most of us have never heard of it, but if you’re wondering where over-the-top creative costuming in pop music went, look to the East.
See also:
Mana

VODKA-CRAN
Vodka and cranberry, the Goth cocktail of choice.

VOLTAIRE
1. American musician, writer, animator and comic book artist (né Aurelio Voltaire Hernandez, b. January 25, 1967), best known for his graphic novel Oh My Goth! and the humourous and handy guidebooks What Is Goth? and Paint It Black: A Guide to Gothic Homemaking. He spins a fine goth folk song too, tongue always firmly in cheek, and has released several albums on
PROJEKT RECORDS
. In addition to singing in nightclubs, you can find it him in animated form in the game Adventure Quest World, at comic conventions plugging his Deady Bear line of gruesome toy collectibles or just enjoying a good laugh at his own expense. 2. Pen name for seventeenth-century French writer/philosopher François-Marie Arouet, who was really more of a punk than a Goth.

VON TEESE, DITA
American pin-up starlet, fetish model and burlesque dancer (née Heather Renée Sweet, b. September 28, 1972), known to the general public for marrying (and divorcing)
MARILYN MANSON
, but beloved by lovers of glamour girls as this generation’s
BETTIE PAGE
. The raven-haired beauty of the fake birthmark and red lips rocks the runway as well as the stripper pole and Playboy centerfold, often in the blackest, most decadent of dress, proving that you don’t need to look like a
Suicide Girl
to be a totally hot Goth.

VNV NATION
English electronic music group founded in 1990 by singer Ronan Harris. The Gothiest thing about them is probably Harris’s voice, with its icy detachment yet clean, mellifluous delivery. Initially, he paired that with straight-up
EBM
rhythms ripped from the Nitzer Ebb handbook, then evolved the project into happier, bouncier
SYNTHPOP
that has crossed over to the masses, at least in Europe. The soundtrack to
CYBERGOTH
life, much to the dismay of some old-school
RIVETHEAD
s and
DEATH ROCKER
s. Essential tracks: “Further,” “Chrome.”

WAVE-GOTIK-TREFFEN
The world’s biggest Goth festival, also known as
WGT
(pronounced Ve Ge Te) or simply Leipzig Fest, for the German city which has hosted it annually since 1992. Up to 200 bands of every conceivable gothy variety perform, while all-night dancing, all-day shopping (at what is probably the world’s biggest Goth market) and other dark themed events (
ABSINTHE
brunch!) keep as many as 20,000 Goths busy for four days. Primarily attended by Germans (who are the most
ÜBER
of all, after all) and other Europeans, it does attract a significant number of North American Goths on pilgrimage. Amazingly, there is camping.

WAX TRAX!
Chicago-based independent record label founded by Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher in 1978, originally as an import record shop that became the very influential home of
INDUSTRIAL
music in North America throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. It brought bands like Ministry, Front 242, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult and KMFDM to the masses at a time when their heavy, often sleazy, electronic stomp was still underground, releasing such classic club tracks as 242’s “Headhunter,” Coil’s “Tainted Love” and 1000 Homo DJ’s “Supernaut,” all while maintaining the retail shop as gathering place for bands and fans in the scene. While many of their acts jumped ship to major labels, Wax Trax! remained synonymous with the genre even after its bankruptcy and subsequent buy-out by TVT. The 1994 box set collection,
The Black Box
, compiles its greatest moments, of which there were many.

WEDNESDAY
1. Wednesday Addams, fictional child in the
Addams Family
comic/TV/film series whose
PALE
skin, pigtail braids and prim attire (not to mention, never smiling) have made her a Goth style icon. Played to wonderfully morose effect by Christina Ricci in the 1991 film. 2. Wednesday 13, American musician (né Joseph Poole, b. August 12, 1976) who took his stage name from the Addams girl and has fronted several
HORROR PUNK
bands, including Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13 and Murderdolls, as well as releasing music as a solo artist. 3. Wednesday Mourning (née Jennifer Lee Smallwood, b. October 28, 1978), American self-identified Goth model, she of the waist-long black hair with perfect bangs, as seen in ads for
KAMBRIEL
. 4. Wednesday’s Child, character in the English folk poem “Monday’s Child,” who is said to be full of woe and has obviously inspired quite a few woeful
CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT
.

WESTENRA, LUCY
Fictional character in
BRAM STOKER
’s novel
DRACULA
; beautiful, sweet, gregarious best friend to Mina Harker, she is pursued by three suitors, plus one Count Dracula, who transforms her into his
VAMPIRE
bride until she is staked by the hunter Van Helsing. In the 1992 film version by Francis Ford Coppola, she is portrayed as a seductress by Sadie Frost.

WESTGATE GALLERY
Website dedicated to the art, literature and culture of Death personified, run by noted necrophile author/artist Leilah Wendell. Originating as a small press in New York City in the 1970s, made famous as the Westgate Museum of Necromancy in New Orleans (a.k.a. “The House of Death”) in the 1990s until its closure in 2005, Wendell’s ongoing Azrael project now lives online where one can find out everything you ever needed to know about Death. (And get your Gothic Tarot cards read while you’re at it.)

WEST MEMPHIS THREE
Name given to Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr., convicted of the murder of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, in 1993. The case has received considerable media attention and was the subject of two documentaries and the book
Devil’s Knot
, in which supporters of the WM3 argue they were not given a fair trial. Many questions surround the actions of the police, who bungled evidence gathering and targeted Echols, the town misfit, because he was rumoured to be a Satanist. Various “Free the West Memphis Three” campaigns have been spearheaded by activists and artists, with benefit CDs, concerts, art shows and the like helping to fund their legal defense. Whether the three are guilty remains to be convincingly proven or disproven, but the fact that Echols sits on death row awaiting lethal injection primarily for being a strange, depressed kid who wore black, listened to Goth and metal music and read
STEPHEN KING
books should be of particular concern for anyone who cares that dressing like a
FREAK
should not be confused for a crime.

WESTWOOD, VIVIENNE
British fashion designer (née Vivienne Isabel Swire, b. April 8, 1941) and grand dame of punk rock style. (Also, as of 1992, an actual Dame.) An art school drop-out and former teacher, she met future Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren in 1965 and together they changed youth counter-culture forever with the opening of their clothing shop at 430 King’s Road in London, known under various names over the years but none as infamous as
SEX
. Westwood combined her anglomania and love of classic tailoring with shocking style ripped from fetish wear to create the torn, tartan bondage look the world has come to associate with U.K. punks. Since then she has used everything from pirates,
Blade Runner
and Tudors for inspiration, and has been celebrated with an exhibit at the
V & A MUSEUM
. Despite her associations with
ADAM ANT
,
SIOUXSIE SIOUX
and the like, there’s nothing specifically Goth about her designs, with the wild colours and the political slogans. But for her outrageousness and extreme take on fashion, she is definitely a household name and much beloved.

WHITBY GOTHIC WEEKEND
U.K. Goth festival held twice annually in the seaside town of Whitby, North Yorkshire (site of
DRACULA
’s abbey, no coincidence), and sometimes referred to as WGW or simply Whitby. Founded in 1994, and still organized by Jo Hampshire, it boasts top-notch musical acts, DJs, shopping and some more unconventional events, such as a charity soccer match. A more
TRAD GOTH
experience than, say,
WAVE-GOTIK-TREFFEN
, its FAQ requests “taste and decency” when it comes to dress code, and participants do tend to sport elaborate
VICTORIAN
ballgowns. You might want to pack a
PARASOL
.

WICCA
A Neopagan religion of modern witchcraft whose worshippers are often mistaken for Goths (or worse, Satanists), probably because of their fondness for pentagrams,
CLOAKS
, magic, candles and the like. Some Goths do indeed practice wicca and some wiccans are in fact Goth, but they are not interchangeable.

WIG
Abbreviation for “What is Goth?,” truly the philosophical question of our time.

WILLIAMS, ROZZ
American musician (né Roger Alan Painter, 1963–1998) and Goth Martyr. In 1979, founded L.A. band
CHRISTIAN DEATH
, architect of California
DEATH ROCK
sound; the band’s 1982 debut
Only Theatre of Pain
remains an underground classic. When he left the band and it continued under the leadership of member
VALOR KAND
, the battlelines were drawn: Goths are vehemently loyal to one singer or the other. Williams also recorded as performance art project Premature Ejaculation and straight-up Goth act Shadow Project (with wife Eva O.). None of these made him rich, but his legacy was eternally secured on April 1, 1998, when he hung himself in his Hollywood apartment. Ashes rest at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Los Angeles.

WILSON, TONY
The man who brought
JOY DIVISION
to the world (1950–2007). For a dramatized account of his life as a TV personality and co-founder of
FACTORY RECORDS
, see the film
24 Hour Party People
. Buried at Southern Cemetery, Cholton-cum-Hardy, Lancashire.

WINKLE PICKERS
Shoe or boot with smooth, flat heel and an extremely, illogically pointed toe, sometimes referred to as “pikes.” First seen on male rock ’n’ rollers in the 1950s, developed into a stiletto heel for ladies in the 1960s and popularized by Goths of both genders in the 1980s with the addition of straps and buckles often featuring skulls or
BAT
s. A
TRAD GOTH
wardrobe staple, despite the difficulty posed in climbing steps while wearing them. This term is primarily used in the U.K.
See also:
Buckle boots

WORLD GOTH DAY
May 22, 2010, was declared a day for an organized celebration of Gothdom spearheaded by
NIGHTBREED RADIO
in the U.K. Proposed activities included requesting Goth songs on the radio, hosting special events, baking evil cupcakes, etc. In 2011, added World Goth Day Awards, an online vote honouring best musicians, clubs, shops, and more.

WUMPSKATE
Goth/
INDUSTRIAL
roller skating night, open to all ages and held monthly in Los Angeles. Yes, that says roller skating. Name is a pun on the
GERMANY
electro/industrial band :wumpscut:.