For those of you who still do not know, Rozz Williams, one of the most important founding fathers of the LA Death Rock and Goth movements, committed suicide on April 1 of this year. A few of his close friends held a wake for him the following Sunday in Los Angeles, and I was privileged enough to be among them, though not as close as many in attendance. I took away many things from the highly personal service not only about Rozz, but about myself as well. I was not aware of just how profoundly a person I had only known briefly could affect my life.
A few people spoke of how, in 1979, Rozz was already forming the groundwork for what would become Christian Death, and how his experiments in ‘performance art’ almost single-handedly created a new medium in LA. A lot of bands and artists copied Rozz’s ideas and expressions, and made LA of the early ‘80’s a great place to be, and a scene the way it was meant to be, without dividing lines. Only one or two of the speakers fit into the "goth" mold, that a lot of people (too many, in fact) attributed to Rozz. But Rozz was not willing to be limited to one form of expression, or one ‘scene.’ Even people who met him later in life were rather confused by the ‘goth’ labeling. Because he was FAR too original to be stuck in any one scene, and even at times seemed to resent the single-scene notion that a lot of goth followers wanted him to be. A lot of his later works upset die hard fans of Christian Death who never wanted Rozz to grow beyond "Only Theatre of Pain," but he would not work to please them over his own need to grow. But, I digress, because Rozz was eulogized far better by people who were closer to him that Sunday night.
What moved me the most, was the realisation of what a magical time LA was back in the ‘80’s. and I thought about why it wasn’t the case these days. There are still bands working to play clubs, bars, or wherever they can. There are still clubs, promoters, magazines, &c, working to make the scene a better place. So why is the scene in LA so stagnant and disappointing? The answer is simple: Apathy and arrogance. Because LA has so many thousands of goths, a lot of people are not concerned about making the scene better, because ‘someone else will do it.’ In Rozz’s day, everyone had to work to make the scene happen at all, including getting cooperation from people with similar ideals, like early punk rockers. Also, there was a strong Do It Yourself ethic that required people to put effort into the scene to keep it going.
I have talked to some people who have been trying to get the scene back together, but they say there’s a problem with arrogance. I have been to other cities, and arrogance seems to be unique to LA. San Francisco has a small problem with elitism, but nowhere near the scope of the LA scene. When I meet people who have been in the scene for a long time, like Rozz, I see a person who put his heart into the scene, and is NOT at all arrogant. A lot of the other people from the same ‘generation’ are also free of this attitude that so seems to permeate the younger scene. These same people are trying to band together in an effort to take back the scene from those who are ruining it. I hope they succeed. Rozz would have wanted it that way. It’s a shame that one so important and giving had to die to sound the wake up call for those who care about the scene to try to save it before it’s too late.
As a postscript, I see in myself some of the failings of the LA Goth scene, and I take Rozz’s death as a wakeup call to myself. I am making a challenge to myself, as well as anyone in the LA scene who sees fit, to work harder to improve the scene, instead of trying to be so divisive. I don’t know what this entails for everyone else, but for me, I will support local bands who play local clubs and shows as much as I am able, even if it just means showing up at the gig, so they know that people support them. Also note that is NOT to be taken as an indictment of ANY one person or group of people in or out of the scene. All I am suggesting is that if you wake up and realise that YOU are part of the problem, instead of waiting for someone else to fix it, make an effort to DO something about it, instead of coming up with excuses why not to. This applies just as much to me, if not more, since I was the one to open his big, fat mouth in the first place.