This site was born out of a need to document the missing heritage that is the story of Ghost Dance, and from 0ctober 2001 - June 2004 we managed to provide the main focus for Ghost Dance information. Ghost Dance resources on the web in this period were somewhat limited to say the least and the complete lack of reissued material had meant that an essential part of the history and legacy of the time had been lost. We hope that this site went some way to redressing that situation. The Official Ghost Dance Site was launched in June 2004 and carries the torch forward, and is an excllent and informative addition to the story.
Essentially, when Gary Marx left the Sisters in 1985 he took with him two essential ingredients, his song writing and his unique melodic guitar sound. This absence is blatantly recorded on the Sister's Albert Hall video.
In the aftermath of the break up of the classic Sisters line up, spawning Ghost Dance, The Mission, The Sisterhood and subsequent iterations of the Sisters, Gary Marx was the first with Ghost Dance to release a new recording in the shape of "The River of No Return" twelve inch.
The Ghost Dance story falls into three distinct chapters.
The founding line up of Anne-Marie, Gary Marx and Etch (and Pandora the drum machine) followed straight on from Marx penned Sisters classics producing a raw, melodic and archetypal goth sound. The first ever Ghost Dance gig took place on November 29th 1985 at The North East London Polytechnic Students Union. Pyramid building and arm raising was provided by the Spook Squad. Key tracks from this period include Celebrate, Last Train and A Deeper Blue. The word began to spread. Also, it is worth noting that concerts played by the band between the dates of 13.01.86 - 18.05.86 included Steve Smith (ex- Red Lorry Yellow Lorry) from Wakefield on guitar. He was starting his own band - Riprize - at this time when he helped Ghost Dance out. Recording wise, he can be heard on the Janice Long BBC Session and "The River of No Return" EP. After Steve Smith, another friend of the band, Paul Southern, also helped out on guitar, playing a few gigs with the band in June 1986.
Richard Steel joined permanently on second guitar and "The Grip of Love" single constituted Pandora's last stand, and the end of this phase of the bands career. With this augmented line up, plus John Grant on drums, the sound and feel of the band changed significantly, but remained true to the Goth roots. John's live debut with the band was on the 21.09.86 at Gemeenschaphuis ('The Flesh Temple'), in Wijnansrade, Holland.The "Word to the Wise" ep was recorded and contained reinterpretations of original line up songs, such as Fools Gold and Cruel Light. Live, the original energy of the band was enhanced by the fuller line up. The song writing developed strongly, with newer songs such as Walk in Your Shadow and Spin the Wheel providing highlights of the set.
At the end of the 1980s, like so many Goth bands of that period, Ghost Dance signed to a major label and made a conscious effort to drop their "Goth" image. The results both live and recorded were disappointing. The "Stop the World" album, whilst crammed with Marx penned classics, suffered from over production as the band sought a more pop/rock audience. The cleaned up live shows of the time started to lack the camaraderie of earlier times, not assisted by inappropriate support acts. Having lost their roots and undoubtedly having failed to meet Chrysalis' expectations, the band folded and the members scattered to the four winds.
After the Ghost Dance split, Anne-Marie was reported to have been working in a pub in the Lake District initially before undertaking a more regular job and raising a family. She performed occasional concerts in the environs, and carried on making various demo recordings, and she recently re-emerged briefly in the Skeletal Family reunion. Gary Marx has just released an album - 'Pretty Black Dots', and Etch was last seen playing with The Mission in the early 1990's before joining Loud and then decamping to Holland, and Richard Steel went on to play in Spacehog, and is currently playing in new New York based band Izler. The original Ghost Dance 12 inch singles have remained as collectors items and still sell in collector's magazines and on the web.
So, we hope this site has stirred a few memories. In return we ask if you have any photos, tapes, interviews or anything else leave your details on the guest book and we will get in touch. We will be happy to post links to any other Ghost Dance pages. We plan for this to be the definitive Ghost Dance resource on the web.
