THE HEIGHT OF GOTH: 1984: A Night at the Xclusiv Nightclub: Batley, West Yorkshire UK

A blast from the past. Please note: this film has been rescued from an old mildewed-and-damaged VHS cassette tape so the quality in the first few minutes is pretty poor, but it settles down fine just in time for the action inside the club itself

The original video was commissioned by the couple who ran the club (Annie and Pete Swallow) and was distributed amongst family, friends and people who frequented it. I can't remember if there was a charge for it at the time [thanks to the commenter who told us it was £2], probably was. This is the complete full length video as originally presented

EDIT: Big thank you to everyone who has been helping date it - we're confident now it is 1984, and most likely September/October time. I know it's a massive long shot but if anyone knows the actual date that would be brilliant, for posterity and all that

And yes, I do have a personal reason for putting this online but, I'm not going to tell you what that is ;-)

Enjoy

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• goth
• Goth Subculture
• Goths
• Gothic
• exclusive
• xclusiv
• xclusive
• nightclub
• night
• club
• batley
• west yorkshire
• yorkshire
• punk
• Punk Rock
• Punk Fashion
• leeds
• post-punk
• new
• romantic
• 1980's
• 1984
• 1983
• 1982
• 1981
• 1980s
• 80s
• 80's
• wave
• music
• goth music
• punk music
• deathrockers
• scene
• dancing
• deathhawk
• teased
• hair
• crimped
• make
• up
• batcave
• british goth
• wavers
• killing
• joke
• pogo
• moshpit
• old
• skool

[MAXDARKZ]

or the song at about 1:37:13, directly after "walk into the sun"

[ILEGALTEAM]

@MAXDARKZ I think it's by 'Leitmotiv', song called 'Living In A Tin'. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong

[MAXDARKZ]

anyone knows the song about 1:08:00?

[ILEGALTEAM]

@MAXDARKZ It's 'Because The Night' by the Patti Smith Group. They used to always play it right at the end of the night usually

[stonespar]

Goodness this brings back memories ......I was the DJ.....and I remember hating having the lights on all night on that Sunday,,,,,,, just so they could film.......I never quite understood what the film was for..... but it makes a great social document 27 years later .........thanks so much for uploading this ........great times.

[todmorburgh]

I went to the 'X' most weekends and was there that night - just spotted my 20 year old self walking in at the beginning! Thanks for uploading this weird and wonderful document of a lost world.

[blastofo]

the ghost of Sid Vicious 0:53:48

[zombiemangrrr]

@wflack fair enough. sorry for being rude

[wflack]

@zombiemangrrr Don't get me wrong Zombie. I still listen to a lot of the stuff in the video a lot more than I listen to house and garage etc. The thing is though back in 1984 I always found it a bit daft trying to dance to Echo & The Bunnymen or the Cocteau Twins. I think that the dance scene that came later in the 80s made things better as the music that was actually meant to be danced to.

[zombiemangrrr]

@stonespar can ya tell me the song at 1:40 please

[zombiemangrrr]

@CupidStunt0001 do ya know the track at 1:40 please

[ladyfuzz1966]

magic

[zombiemangrrr]

@morgawayne do ya know the songs that start at 0:55 and 1:39:30 :D

[zombiemangrrr]

@wflack WHAT !!! ARE YOU HAVING A LAUGH. house music, garage blah blah is awful and its where things went wrong, lead the way for chav. i respect that people are entitled to their own opinion but seriously...........

[belablaskobela]

@CupidStunt0001

Thanks! Very haunting song.