Bauhaus: A visual journey

UNDEAD RECKONING: Former Bauhaus drummer Kevin Haskins has created the ultimate Bauhaus coffee table book.Mitch Jenkins

As the drummer for Bauhaus, Tones on Tail, and Love and Rockets, Kevin Haskins led a career steeped in the U.K.’s late ’70s glam rock and post-punk scenes. Haskins, along with singer Peter Murphy, bass player David J, and guitarist Daniel Ash gave rise to a black-clad musical legacy. With a new book, titled BAUHAUS — UNDEAD: The Visual History and Legacy of Bauhaus, Haskins offers a personal look at the Northampton foursome’s story through memorabilia. Show fliers, posters, buttons, drawings, countless unseen photographs, and Haskins’ own writings resurrect the noirsh — and often candid — energy the group created. Here, the physical artifacts left behind offer a comprehensive visual history of the group, from its beginnings in 1979 through its reformation in 1998.

Two versions of the book are in production: a mammoth 13-pound coffee table book, and a smaller, compact edition. Both editions are available for pre orders now. While preparing for the book’s release, Haskins took a few minutes to talk about Bauhaus’ legacy and how the book came together.

Why did you put this book together?

A friend of mine suggested I do it. I had no plans on putting a book together. He had seen my collection of memorabilia and said it would be great to share that with my fans. It came about in an arbitrary way. I’ve enjoyed the process, and have learned so much about many things. Hopefully I’ve learned how to write well. Everyone who’s been involved has been passionate, which is really great.

Once I’d set out on the path I decided to self-publish and have control. I kept running into this guy at gigs, called Jeff Anderson, and we struck up a friendship. We would see each other and have a chat. After the fourth time he asked “What are you doing these days?” I said I’m making a book. He said “That’s what I do.” He has a company called Artists In Residence, and he’s released all of these box sets for Sigur Rós and Roger Waters, Beck, Nine Inch Nails, the Pixies. He asked if I wanted to see his work. So I went to his house a few days later, and I was blown away by the quality of his work. He uses the best printers and manufacturers, and the work is very creative, and very high-end. I looked at all of this stuff and thought, this is a no-brainer. We have to work together. He’s been guiding me through the process. He brought in a design team — Donny Phillips and Kaylee Carrington — their company is KIHL. Kaylee has been an archivist at the Getty, so she has organized everything. Donnie did the layout. I gave him a little direction, but everything he turned in I loved. I told him to keep it simple. I didn’t want it to look like a cliched rock ’n’ roll book. I wanted it to look like an art book — a little bit sterile, if you like.

A few fans got involved along the way. Andrew Brooksbank: Andrew put out a coffee table book called Beneath the Mask. He also created a Bauhaus timeline which he only shared with me and David [J]. I have referred to that timeline so many times. He had every show, every TV performance, every studio session. It’s amazing.

And there is Vincent Forrest, and a chap named Gabor. They’re diehard fans who have huge collections themselves. Whenever I couldn’t find something — something I’d written about and couldn’t find an image to go with it — I’d reach out to them. Sometimes they would say “Yeah, I’ve got that,” and they’d send it to me an hour later. Other times they’d say I think I have that in my attic. They would search for over a week, trying to find this one missing piece. They put in so much work to find certain items, and contributed a lot of great stuff, some of which I had no recollection of it existing, like drawings we did. It’s been an enjoyable process, but also a lot of hard work. It started about a year-and-a-half ago.

There is a massive collection of buttons in the book! Did the band make all of those?

They came from Vincent. I had two or three of them. One day he said “I have loads of buttons. Maybe 50.” Then he scanned a few and sent them. Maybe 15 of them are official, but the rest are bootlegs. I was surprised by how many of them there are as well. It’s one of my favorite spreads in the book. It’s kind of like a work of art really. If you look closely you can see a lot of detail in the buttons.

Sometimes Andrew or Vincent or Gabor would say I have something, but it’s kind of messed up. I would say “Yes! That’s what I like!” I like the stuff that has age to it. When you got it into a really beautiful box, you get that contrast of the really good printing and the paper — it could be a setlist or button or whatever — and you have this sense of age.

Do Tones on Tail and Love and Rockets make their way into the book, or do you stay focused on Bauhaus?

Well I set out from the beginning with the intention for this to be a book purely on Bauhaus. There’s a few reasons but mainly that I view each group as having such a strong identity of their own that it would be sort of overwhelming to combine them.

It’s a much different book than what David J put together put together with his book, Who Killed Mister Moonlight?: Bauhaus Black Magick and Benediction.

With this book, I set out to focus on the positive moments — make it a celebration of the band, and just to have that vibe about it. I was remembering how we first started and how we were a brotherhood. We all have a love for each other. We faced a lot of adversity, especially with the press. The British music press seemed to despise us, and they wrote these really evil things. But that brought us closer together. I was thinking about those times. I’d rather people look through the book, read the stories, and close the book with a smile on their face.

David did his book, you’re working on this book. Peter Murphy did a 35th anniversary tour playing Bauhaus songs, and Daniel Ash — I guess he only did one Bauhaus song on his Stripped album. It seems like Bauhaus is on your minds. Is there a chance of Bauhaus playing together again? Maybe for the 40th anniversary?

I have learned to never say never, but it’s extremely unlikely. You never know what’s down the road. I won’t say it’s never going to happen, but it seems unlikely.

Did any of the other band members have input as you were putting the book together, or is this strictly your project?

It’s my project. I got their blessings, and they’re getting compensated a bit. I thought that was only fair because I couldn’t do the book if it wasn’t for them. I have been asked to make clear that it is my book. It’s not a Bauhaus official release. Me and Daniel [Ash] are very good friends, and we talk a lot. I picked his brain a few times about certain events.

SOIRÉE VAMPIRES.Phillip GraybillDo you have a favorite object, or a favorite part of the book?

There’s a poster that was made for a gig we did at a club called Plan K in Belgium. Joy Division played there, and the iconic photograph of Ian Curtis was taken there. There’s a recording of that show. It’s sort of an old refinery. And these kids just ran it and everything they put on was an event. You could walk around this old factory, and you’re walking across gangplanks, just exploring the place. They put a gig on, they called it Soirée Vampires I always loved the poster. It’s kind of crude, but I just love the aesthetics of it. I actually framed that on my office wall.

The handmade and the photocopied aesthetic really played a role in how music of the era was presented.

It wasn’t until I did this book that I realized how many photographs I took and how many flyers I made. I made most of them. David made a few. We would use paper, glue, scissors, and something called Letraset which we used at art school. Basically it was letters, different fonts, different types. So you’d have to position these letters really carefully. It’s like transfers. You could kind of wet them and put them on and rub them down. Similar process, but you didn’t wet it. You don’t see that anymore because everything’s been digitized and Photoshopped. They don’t use glue anymore. There’s a definite aesthetic and an innocence and a bit of a root quality, and I think we find that charming now.

While we’re on the subject of digitizing, it occurred to me: Are people going to buy a book? People read everything off iPads now. Especially a coffee table book. You can digitize it, but the point of it is to have this unique, tactile thing that you hold and you feel the weight of the paper. That’s why I made the book so big. It’s similar to vinyl records. There is the whole process involved in interacting with vinyl and books. I think it still holds an appeal.

The internet is an absolutely remarkable thing. It’s fascinating to live through this time, especially having experienced the first 25, 30 years of my life without the internet. It’s very interesting now to experience both things, and appreciate the amount that — just doing the book — I was Googling so many times and finding this and that, and somebody who did a comic strip. In many ways it’s remarkable. But it has also devalued music, and it has seriously impacted revenue for musicians whether they’re coming out now, or the likes of us who are middle aged. So obviously that’s the negative. But that’s the yin and yang of it.

I should point out that, I’m having a pre-sale to make the book, like a Kickstarter. So the book doesn’t exist yet. I may send a digital preview, but I wish people could actually see the book, and I wish I could see them hold it. Because it’s going to be such a beautiful book.

There are two different versions: the 13-pound book and a smaller, more economical version, but they both feature the same content?

Yeah, the smaller one doesn’t have a slip case. It’s exactly the same content, it’s just smaller. I’ve been looking at all my social media and keeping an eye on feedback, and I was finding that some people felt like they couldn’t afford the big book. I thought it wasn’t right to have some people feel ostracized because of the price. So I did some research, went to different bookstores, and looked up the sizes and prices of books. That’s how we came up with the smaller one.

When you look back on the whole Bauhaus experience, do you feel a sense of pride? Is there a lesson to be learned from Bauhaus?

I feel quite an immense sense of pride. You just triggered a memory of when we reformed? I think I can say this for all the members of the group, I don’t think any of us would listen to the music all that often. Then we had to revisit everything. First of all, I was very taken with the impression that I got that the music stood up and sounded fresh still. I was very at ease about that. We all felt the same. When we did a warm up show, before we played the Palladium here in LA, when I got on stage, I felt invincible. When I sat down at my drums, I was so excited to share music with people who were too young the first time around, and also people who were there the first time around just to let them wallow in the nostalgia of it all. I just felt this feeling of invincibility. So much confidence. Everyone’s going to be blown away. That’s how I was feeling on stage. I’m not an arrogant person by nature, but I felt really confident. I feel so blessed to be part of all those bands. Not many people get to play in one successful band, but I was part of three, and I just feel extremely lucky. I feel very fortunate to know all the guys in the bands. Without that chemistry it wouldn’t exist.

BAUHAUS: Peter Murphy (from left), David J, Daniel Ash, and Kevin Haskins.Jean Ramsey