Peter Murphy

As the lead singer of Bauhaus, Peter Murphy was one of the first stars of the Goth movement, and arguably its walking embodiment. His deep baritone voice was suitably spectral, and he easily looked the part, with his rail-thin figure, piercing stare and dark black hair over pale white skin. Bauhaus was in fact Northampton, England native Murphy's first band. He's previously studied art and worked in a printing factory, before school friend and guitarist Daniel Ash drafted him into the group he was forming. Joined by brothers David J (bass) and Kevin Haskins (drums), they took the name Bauhaus 1919 to reference the German art movement. Dropping the date from their name, they debuted in 1979 with "Bela Lugosi's Dead," a dark and alluring track that later was prominent in the cult vampire film "The Hunger" (1982). Upfront about its influences, Bauhaus released singles of T. Rex's "Telegram Sam" and David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust," the latter their biggest U.K. hit. Murphy was temporarily sidelined with pneumonia in 1983 and the band split up that year, following a show at London's Hammersmith Palais. Murphy's first move was to form Dali's Car with respected bassist/composer Mick Karn, late of Japan. However the two didn't get along and worked largely separately on their one album, never performing behind it. Murphy then found his footing as a solo artist, debuting in 1986 with Should the World Fail to Fall Apart. From the start his solo music was a more upbeat, less doomy variation on the Bauhaus sound, with his musical influences still on proud display. His second album Love Hysteria scored an alternative radio hit with the Bowie-esque "Indigo Eyes." The next album Deep was Murphy's most pop-friendly to date and also his biggest hit, with the single "Cuts You Up" topping Billboard's Modern Rock chart-ironically taking the place of "So Alive," by Murphy's former Bauhaus bandmates Love and Rockets. Murphy remained prolific in decades to come, both solo and in an on-off Bauhaus reunion that lasted from 1998-2008. He even revived Dali's Car with Karn in 2010, though that project was cut short (and released as an EP instead of an album) due to Karn's losing his battle with cancer. Another notable collaboration came in 2008, when he and Trent Reznor covered the Normal's techno-pop classic "Warm Leatherette" and released it online. In October 2013 Murphy was arrested for hit-and-run after rear-ending a car in Glendale, CA; he was found with methamphetamine and given three years' probation and obligatory drug treatment. He continued touring after completing the program, and in 2014 embraced a harder industrial sound with the Lion album. 2015-16 found him touring the U.S. once again in stripped-down acoustic format.