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Topic: The Velvet Vampire (Read 55 times) |
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demonik
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The Velvet Vampire
« Thread started on: Nov 28th, 2005, 6:24pm » |
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Forged out of the ashes of the Damned's Flashman Society, under Carole Bohanon's leadership the Vampyre Society managed ten chaotic, often inspired and yet, I guess, frequently traumatic years as argueably the UK's premier club for devotees of our fang-faced friends. At a time when the few English vampire outfits neither catered for, nor seemed particularly aware of the younger, punky-goth element, the group brought together countless disparate fellow enthusiasts, many of whom, taking Carole's lead, got up off their own backsides and set their own madcap schemes in motion.
The emphasis being on celebration - on fun, on dressing up and living out your own particular Anne Rice/ Hammer/ Lost Boys/ The Crow derived fantasies ensured, of course, that it all got taken way too seriously by the self-appointed moral guardians of the "scene" and gave them plenty to wring their pious hands about.
The Society's magazine, "The Velvet Vampire" was a classy effort, with contributions from Brian Stableford, D. F. Lewis and ex-Sisters' bassist Patricia Morrison, but my favourite issues were the early, ramshackle quarterlies when the mag was simply "Vampires." They were certainly endearing. There was Carole, on the 125th Anniversary of Highgate Cemetery, a fascinating series of letters from a (patently bogus) undead, John Vellutini, as close as that to smithereening the ludicrous Kirklees "Vampire" bandwagon before it had even lumbered out of its coffin, and some of the oddest fan fiction: "A Short Story" memorably introduces a protagonist who has the hots for the comely figurehead of a ... Vampire club.
The later, glossy "Velvet Vampire" certainly looked the part with an abundance of photo's and the occasional excellent written or illustrative contribution, but by then catering for the social side of things had become the raison d'etre of the caper, so most of the energy went into that.
Illustration copyright Chrissie Demant
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| « Last Edit: Feb 13th, 2006, 09:38am by demonik » |
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The inn sign ... was in the nature of a coffin supported by six headless bearers goose-stepping towards a white headstone, and underneath this somewhat forbidding daub with grim irony, the legend 'Ye Journey's End' - Guy Preston, The Inn.
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Killercrab
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Re: The Velvet Vampire
« Reply #1 on: Nov 28th, 2005, 6:49pm » |
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And a GREAT and little seen American vampire film from the 1970's - a very eurotrash vibe to VELVET VAMPIRE. 
ade
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demonik
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Re: The Velvet Vampire
« Reply #2 on: Feb 13th, 2006, 09:45am » |
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Just been leafing through a bundle of these: They certainly made a good go of the covers. Here's Pandora, later to go on to brief national celebrity when she got her waist-size down to about one inch diameter.
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| « Last Edit: Feb 13th, 2006, 09:49am by demonik » |
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The inn sign ... was in the nature of a coffin supported by six headless bearers goose-stepping towards a white headstone, and underneath this somewhat forbidding daub with grim irony, the legend 'Ye Journey's End' - Guy Preston, The Inn.
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demonik
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Re: The Velvet Vampire
« Reply #3 on: May 2nd, 2007, 03:45am » |
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Small world, and all that. Just dug out the Spring, 1993 issue, and a story by Des set off with an illustration by the bride of demonik! The print is feint in places, so I've taken the liberty of retyping it below. Hope you don't mind, Mr. Weirdmonger!
D. F. Lewis - Nightstokers
She had her back to Thomas - and dressed by darkness, or, rather, in darkness. Yet he knew who she was: the creature who had haunted his dreams - assuming it were not rude to call a lady a creature. Not only in his dreams but also in waking life, causing both to be infiltrated by the other: dream masquerading as waking life and vice versa: all shades and permutations of real and unreal reality, to such an extent that even Thomas had to doubt his own existence - which, he guessed, would end up his only way out.
She slowly turned toward him. Yet her front was no different from her back, except he discerned a slit-smile of darkness where he would have positioned her mouth, given a free hand. Yes, her mouth, with 10' lip-hooks that must have been so blindingly white their night spawned negative caused blackness that appeared dark red. Then, as his eyes became accustomed to waking, they locked to hers: and he wondered whether his were similarly tinged with a self-lit spirit of spiteful playfulness.
"You knew I would come in person, one day." The voice of seething honey bees moved the black mouth - with lips that began to glisten as Thomas tutored his eyes further in wakefulness. He nodded: a ludicrous action in the circumstances, until it dawned on his full consciousness that his subconscious must have known that she could see in the dark.
"Come nearer." She tried to mimic Thomas's voice: she knew it was unseemly for a lady to make all the running, hence this strangely transparent ploy. This time he shook his head: to clear it of waking-induced inhibitions or, perhaps, as a sign that whatever they had done during dreams, he would not now countenance a heavy handed dalliance, nor even grant an inconsequentially light petting of their various sensitive zones. Whatever the case, he dare not even dwell on the true nature of the creature. And in a saner world, the most acceptable outcome was he haunted himself.
Yet, as the creature's mouth moved away from its eyes by the space of a feasible torso, Thomas experienced the real relativity of sanity. He told the night-shaped formlessness that he not only doubted his own and the creature's existence.
Such doubts lasted until, empurpled enough to outdo the darkness, my single-hooked chimney mouth, one not unaccustomed to the moon-slow rhythm of blood-flow, yawned awake - them sucked them both up.
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| « Last Edit: May 2nd, 2007, 03:47am by demonik » |
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The inn sign ... was in the nature of a coffin supported by six headless bearers goose-stepping towards a white headstone, and underneath this somewhat forbidding daub with grim irony, the legend 'Ye Journey's End' - Guy Preston, The Inn.
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weirdmonger
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Re: The Velvet Vampire
« Reply #4 on: May 2nd, 2007, 03:55am » |
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No, don't mind at all, Rog. Thanks.
I think it's 'two' lip-hooks. And I note that the last sentence of the penultimate paragraph doesn't really make sense! Or does it? This story reads strange to me as if someone else wrote it!
I've now picked out my own copy of this VV. I note that Carole Bohanan (the editor) lived at South Croydon at the time - an area roughly where I used to live at the time! In fact, Mark Samuels and I (& others) used to meet in the Purley Arms for a fortnightly drink-up.
des
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demonik
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Re: The Velvet Vampire
« Reply #5 on: May 2nd, 2007, 04:13am » |
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I was wondering about the "lip-hooks" - so I can amend that, no problem. Is it in both instances, or just where it comes out in the original as "10'"? It's all Carole's fault anyway.
The bride and me had some wild times with Miss Fangy and her glamorous Vampyre Society, and, at the beginning they were a brilliant alternative to the Dracula Society who were so up their own pompous backsides by that point it had ceased to be hilarious.
Who the bloody hell is this 'Rog' character, and how comes everybody keeps accusing me of being him? 
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The inn sign ... was in the nature of a coffin supported by six headless bearers goose-stepping towards a white headstone, and underneath this somewhat forbidding daub with grim irony, the legend 'Ye Journey's End' - Guy Preston, The Inn.
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Calenture
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Re: The Velvet Vampire
« Reply #6 on: May 2nd, 2007, 04:55am » |
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on May 2nd, 2007, 04:13am, demonik wrote:| Who the bloody hell is this 'Rog' character, and how comes everybody keeps accusing me of being him? |
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I did notice that I'd been given credit for Dem's post, which was something I didn't mind at all.  Of course, with all of us using nicknames...
After I'd stopped thinking about Des's story, of course I "got it". Or I think so. I've just been browsing Thomas Ligotti Online which of course left me with feelings of mental exhaustion and inadequacy. I'll blame my slowness on that.
on May 2nd, 2007, 03:55am, weirdmonger wrote:| And I note that the last sentence of the penultimate paragraph doesn't really make sense! Or does it? This story reads strange to me as if someone else wrote it! |
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I did think that there still seemed something missing about this story. It looks like it's been written specifically with Velvet Vampire readers in mind, with a hint of William Sansom thrown in. The switch from third- to first-person at the end confused me. But I'm sure Dem's right when he says
Quote:| t's all Carole's fault anyway. |
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Yeah, we'll blame it on her.
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| « Last Edit: May 2nd, 2007, 06:15am by Calenture » |
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weirdmonger
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Re: The Velvet Vampire
« Reply #7 on: May 2nd, 2007, 10:22am » |
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Apologies to Demonik for nemonymising him Rog!
I am confused about some of the site's logistics and nomenclature, but more DELIGHTED than I am confused.
des
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demonik
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Re: The Velvet Vampire
« Reply #8 on: May 2nd, 2007, 12:48pm » |
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on May 2nd, 2007, 10:22am, weirdmonger wrote:I am confused about some of the site's logistics and nomenclature
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Join the club. 
Did you ever go to any of the Vampyre Soc London meetings, Des?
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The inn sign ... was in the nature of a coffin supported by six headless bearers goose-stepping towards a white headstone, and underneath this somewhat forbidding daub with grim irony, the legend 'Ye Journey's End' - Guy Preston, The Inn.
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weirdmonger
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Re: The Velvet Vampire
« Reply #9 on: May 2nd, 2007, 1:14pm » |
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No, I wasn't really ever a vampire. But I did once enjoy writing about them and had many stories in American vampire magazines in the early nineties.
I vaguely recall in the sixties owning a vampire book edited (?) by Roger Vadim (whose staked vampire on the cover I can see in my mind's eye even today) which had a major effect on an impressionable desilu. I think this was the first time I was introduced to the amazing 'The Horla' by Guy de Maupassant. (I wote a novel in 2005 called 'The Hawler', but it wasn't a vampire plot, I don't think).
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demonik
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Re: The Velvet Vampire
« Reply #10 on: May 2nd, 2007, 2:58pm » |
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on May 2nd, 2007, 1:14pm, weirdmonger wrote:| I vaguely recall in the sixties owning a vampire book edited (?) by Roger Vadim (whose staked vampire on the cover I can see in my mind's eye even today) which had a major effect on an impressionable desilu. I think this was the first time I was introduced to the amazing 'The Horla' by Guy de Maupassant. (I wote a novel in 2005 called 'The Hawler', but it wasn't a vampire plot, I don't think). |
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Is THIS the one? 
I think I probably have quite a number of your vampire stories from the US 'zines, but it's a case of digging them out and going through them. I found you in Vampyre's Crypt, but ... Necropolis, Nocturnal Ecstacy, Coven Journal, Realm Of The Vampire, Onyx, S. o. u.n. d., Miss Lucy Westenra Society Of The Undead, Screem In The Dark, Vampire Archives, Shadowdance, Vamp ring any bells?
Used to love the fangzines, me.
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The inn sign ... was in the nature of a coffin supported by six headless bearers goose-stepping towards a white headstone, and underneath this somewhat forbidding daub with grim irony, the legend 'Ye Journey's End' - Guy Preston, The Inn.
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weirdmonger
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Re: The Velvet Vampire
« Reply #11 on: May 2nd, 2007, 3:39pm » |
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I was in 'The Vampire's Crypt' a lot. Also 'Vampires Anonymous' and 'Vampire Junction'. These ring a bell from your list:
Necropolis, Realm Of The Vampire, Onyx, Shadowdance,
and others I've forgotten.
oh, yes, a Hawaiian mag, I think, 'Blooddreams'.
And 'Not Dead, But Dreaming', oh I don't know there were loads and loads.
Strange life I've led.
PS: Yes, that was the Vadim Vampirebook. The cover on the left! Really brings back memories. Thanks, Gor.
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| « Last Edit: May 2nd, 2007, 3:47pm by weirdmonger » |
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