Scotch Goth -Twisted Nerve
Eyes You Can Drown In
From the A side of the 12'' Eyes You Can Drown In by Scottish Goth Rock band Twisted Nerve from 1983 on the Independent Criminal Damage Record Label with the song Medusa...
Dark, throbbing bass and pounding drums very goth sounding.
And from the B Side of the same 12" the song Gargoyle...
Again, another strong track with heavy drums and cool bass line, reminding me a little bit of Killing Joke.
Criminal Damage records also released other bands such as The Membranes and a band who have featured on this site before from Sheffield called The Stunt Kites.
Band, Formation & Early Releases
Twisted Nerve were:
- Craig Patterson - Vocals
- Colin Moxey - Guitar
- Norbert Bassbin - Bass
- Keith Hamilton - Drums
The band were from Edinburgh and evidently started out as a Punk outfit called the Insults in 1978 and were initially influenced by bands such as The Buzzcocks and The Stranglers, but their sound changed to a more Goth Rock feel by the '80's. Their name 'Twisted Nerve' was taken from a controversial 1968 Psychological Thriller which starred Hywell Bennet, Hayley Mills, Frank Finlay and Billie Whitelaw. The film's soundtrack composed by the king of thriller movie music Bernard Herrmann who had previously worked on Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho. Have a listen to the Twisted Nerve Film Score here, it starts off as a kind of 'cheerful whistling' and descends into a cacophony of dramatic thriller type music as one would expect from Mr Herrmann.
The band released their first official 7" single called 'Caught In Session' in 1982 on the independent Playlist Records label and another 7" single 'Five Minutes Of Fame' in 1983.
They managed to release one 12" mini album on the +1 Records Label called 'Séance' in 1984, but they also appeared on a Compilation E.P. released by the same label in 1980 called 'Mint Sauce For The Masses' with two songs; 'Neutral Zone' and 'Vertigo', you can catch the tracklisting at the link.
And The Split...
They called it a day in 1986 after a show at The Teachers College in Glasgow, evidently Craig Patterson walked off stage after the last song never to return. They finally re-united again, fast forward to 2007 at the Drop Dead Festival in Prague and a compliation of their material remixed and simply entitled 'Twisted Nerve' on their own self-financed label in the same year.
Interviews & Info
There is an interesting interview from 2019 with Craig Patterson describing further the band's formation and what kinds of music and bands influenced them at this site: elgarajedefrank.es
Never Say Goodbye (Archive vol 2) was released on the Secret Records label in 2020 with many of the tracks featured in this post you can check it out at Discogs at the link.
YouTube Video Thanks
Video Source Medusa: devilinthenewman
Video Source Gargoyle: J' WaVenK
Picture Source: Discogs
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash