The original Batcave ran for five months every Wednesday from 21 July 1982 at the
Gargoyle Club at 69
Dean Street,
Soho, moving out when the upper floors were sold off that December. Originally specialising in
new wave and
glam rock, it later focused on
gothic rock.
Olli Wisdom, the lead singer in the house band
Specimen, ran the night with Specimen's guitarist
Jon Klein as art director, and initially with the assistance of production manager Hugh Jones. Regulars included musicians and singers such as
Nick Cave,
Robert Smith of
the Cure,
Siouxsie Sioux,
Steven Severin, the members of
Bauhaus,
Marc Almond and the members of
Foetus. In an interview for Mick Mercer's
Gothic Rock, Jonny (Slut) Melton said of the Batcave: It was a light bulb for all the freaks and people like myself who were from the sticks and wanted a bit more from life. Freaks, weirdos, sexual deviants ... There's people around who'll always be attracted by something shiny, glittering, exciting. At the time the Batcave wasn't a doomy, Gothy, droney grungey sort of place... It was more Gotham City than Aleister Crowley. ==Legacy==