(from the Guardian)
Sophie Lancaster was killed for being a grunger, or goth. Helen Pidd interviewed her mother and young goths who can’t understand the blows, rocks, bricks and abuse their appearance attracts.
(see interview here)
On the social networking site Bebo, there’s a group called grungers-should-die, which sets out its mission statement as follows: “Join this band if u think grungers / goth should die … tell us some story about u bashing some grungers.”
On the comment wall, a girl has obliged: “fuckin bashed a grunger the uva day innit.”
Over on Myspace, there is a profile for a group called SOPHIE, illustrated with a photograph of a smiling young woman with dreadlocks and facial piercings, wearing a vest with a skeleton on it.
She is Sophie Lancaster, the 20-year-old beaten to death by two teenage boys in a park in Lancashire last summer. Sophie died because of the way she looked. She was killed trying to protect her boyfriend, Robert Maltby, who had already been knocked unconscious by the boys.
She wasn’t into labels, but others described her as a goth, or a grunger. The girl who called 999 about the attack said the couple were “bashed” for being “moshers”. The site is a memorial to her short life, and aims “to work towards a more tolerant, less violent society”.
The MySpace page was set up by a friend of Sophie’s mum, Sylvia Lancaster, who is determined that something good come of her daughter’s senseless killing. At 11.30am tomorrow, Sylvia will walk up to the West Cliff in Whitby to join hundreds of strangers to pay tribute to Sophie’s life.
The walk is timed to coincide with the biannual Whitby Gothic Weekend, which opened today. The group will watch as a bench is dedicated to Sophie, with each person invited to lay a single flower in her memory.
The money for the bench was raised at the last Whitby festival, in October, two months after Sophie’s life support machine was turned off.
Martin Coles, more commonly known on the goth scene as DJ Martin Oldgoth, was the instigator. “When the news broke that Sophie had died from her injuries it shook the goth community to the core,” he said. “As a group of people we’re used to abuse from people, but this was just so shocking.
“A group of us decided that something had to be done in her memory and also to try to raise the awareness of the fact that these attacks, while not always so brutal, are reasonably common.”
Coles began an online campaign, and within a month £3,000 had been raised. Cash was donated through club nights held in Sophie’s memory, and through the selling of black ribbon roses. And it wasn’t just goths who chipped in: the people of Whitby, who are used to seeing eyeliner-smeared Sisters of Mercy fans traipsing around their town after 14 years hosting the festival, did their bit, donating raffle prizes and raising money themselves.
Coles says the goth community is misunderstood. “What people don’t understand is that the goth community is largely a peaceful one, full of intelligent people that have often been shunned by normal society and choose to keep company with other likeminded souls. In 22 years of running clubs I’ve not seen one fight, or indeed any trouble.”
Peacefulness is something you’ll hear time and again in relation to goths. “They’re the nicest people we have in here. Never any trouble at all,” said a member of staff last Saturday at Leeds University students’ union, which for the past 10 years has hosted the north of England’s biggest goth night, the Wendy House.
It’s true that despite the startling, occasionally terrifying appearance of some of the punters — one man was in a gas mask, another had a white stocking over his head — the atmosphere was sweetness and light, as 1,500-odd people stomped around to Rammstein and Depeche Mode and giggled in the corridors.
Art student Josphine Knowler, 20, from the Gipton area of Leeds, who was dressed as a sort of sinister geisha, said abuse came with the territory. “They usually throw stones at me where I live in Gipton,” she said. “Or bricks. Once I had a rock thrown at me and my head started bleeding.”
Talk to any goth and chances are, they are used to being on the receiving end of regular, occasionally physical abuse. “I’m the only goth where I live and it’s got to the point where I can’t even leave my house any more. I’ve got the whole estate against me,” said Daniel Barnes, 16, from the Middleton area of Leeds. “My area is mainly consisted of hoodies and obviously being a goth, you know, you get verbal abuse, you get physical abuse, they come over and beat you up and steal things.”
As if to demonstrate the point, while we are talking in Leeds city centre a group of alcohol-fuelled young men come over and shout abuse.
“It’s to be expected,” said Daniel with a sigh of resignation.
