Goth-rocker revisits Bauhaus' gloriously gloomy past

BAUHAUS SINGER Peter Murphy has rebranded himself "Mr Moonlight" for a sell-out tour that will bring him to Hong Kong for the first time in 20 years.

During his previous visit, however, he almost fulfilled the title of the eerie track Who Killed Mr Moonlight. "I went out shopping because you can get cheap electronics and I asked if the bloke could do us a deal," Murphy says from his home in Istanbul, Turkey. "He refused and I said, 'Don't be an idiot, we're buying loads of stuff'. He screamed, 'Don't call me an idiot!' And suddenly five crazies ran out with knives saying they were going to kill us. We ran out."

That was in the early 1990s - almost a decade after calling time on Bauhaus, the influential black-clad four-piece whose gloomy take on rock'n'roll bridged the gap between glam and punk, and helped to pioneer the genre now known as goth.

Named after the austere German design movement of the inter-war years, Bauhaus' sound was equally stark: wailing guitars, brooding bass lines and brutal drums provided a backdrop for Murphy's pained lyrics, delivered in a vocal range that spanned falsetto to baritone.

Over four albums released between 1980 and 1983, the British band became revered, spawning minor hits and cult classics such as Bela Lugosi's Dead and She's in Parties. Their biggest success in the singles charts came in 1982 with a searing cover of their hero David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust.

Murphy's striking good looks, razor-sharp cheekbones, piercing eyes and crazed Iggy Pop-like stage persona made him a pin-up and in-demand fashion model. To the wider public of the early '80s, he was probably best known as the gaunt figure blown out of his armchair in the then-famous Maxell cassette tape television advert. The rest of the band were equally photogenic; guitarist Daniel Ash was known for his gravity-defying cockatiel hairstyle.