A light in the dark

SOPHIE Lancaster was beaten so badly that those who came to her aid could not tell what sex she was. Horrified paramedics discovered the 20-year-old had been kicked so hard that the pattern on the sole of one of her assailants' boot was clearly visible on her face.

Witnesses say the gentle art student was kicked in the head "like a football" during the brutal, sustained assault in a Lancashire skate park. She fell into a coma and died in hospital 13 days later.

Her crime? Sophie looked different.

Her killers, Ryan Herbert, 16, and Brendan Harris, 15, had no motive other than Sophie was a goth. To them, she was a black-clad weirdo who needed to be taught a lesson. Her boyfriend Robert Maltby, another goth, was also knocked unconscious by the drunken thugs.

If Herbert and Harris thought they were helping eradicate a sub-culture which they despised, they were wrong; Sophie's funeral became a gothic celebration of her short life. Robert proudly wore black bat wings throughout the ceremony. Mourners sang her favourite goth songs and walked behind the hearse waving red flags.

It was, said Sophie's friends, an appropriate celebration of her life – and just what she would have wanted; to most observers from outside the subculture, frankly, it was hard to understand.

So who are these people, whose appearance is so frightening but who have been described as "this generation's hippies"? Where did they come from? What makes them what they are? And what do they do when – if – they grow out of being a goth?

The stereotypical view of a goth is a mournful misfit with jet-black hair, sooty eyes and a complexion like Casper the friendly ghost. Over the years, parents have looked on in horror as their smiley, well-adjusted offspring have donned fishnets and studded collars and started listening to American shock-rocker Marilyn Manson.

But the world's foremost expert on goth culture insists that, in fact, most youngsters who embrace the lifestyle are actually less likely to go off the rails than their more conventionally dressed peers. They also often end up being among society's highest achievers.

Far from being the sinister product of nihilism it appears, Dr Dunja Brill insists goth is a rich and diverse subculture which has been part of British life for nearly 30 years. The author of Goth Culture: Gender, Sexuality And Style says: "They might not like me saying it, but goth values are actually very middle-class and high-brow.

"It is the only major subculture that has emerged from post-war Britain that has not stemmed from kids from working-class backgrounds. The gothic subculture revolves around interests in poetry, music, literature, the arts and history. If you get into the scene as a teen you are more likely to be encouraged to pick up a book than pick a fight.

"Goths value education, knowledge and profound thought – whereas those things are often ridiculed in mainstream youth culture. Youngsters who wear black may look scary, but it is difficult to get into trouble when you spend your time translating Latin epitaphs from gravestones." Goths, in fact, are universally annoyed at the perception that the youths who carried out the Columbine school massacre in the US came from among their ranks. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold didn't, though they did wear long leather coats.

As well as listening to music by Bauhaus, the Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees, many goths like to read dark tales by the likes of Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley. The poetry of Emily Dickinson is popular, as are macabre comedy films like Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and the cerebral fantasy flick Donnie Darko.

In Scotland, the Bedlam goth night at Glasgow University's Queen Margaret Union attracts hundreds of people every month, while even St Andrews University, a bastion of academic conservatism, boasts a thriving goth society. The twice-yearly Whitby Goth Weekend, held in the Yorkshire port which was a fictional setting for Bram Stoker's Dracula, attracts huge crowds from around the globe.

Brill, like millions of people across the UK, was profoundly shocked by the manner of Sophie's death. "It is pretty common in smaller, more conservative communities that goths are harassed because of how they look. But I have never come across anything involving this level of savagery. It reminds me of foreigners being beaten in German cities by right-wing youths simply because they look different."

The goth movement is thought to have originated in London in the late Seventies, just as Margaret Thatcher's radical politics were about to divide the nation. Despite this, it is arguable the unlikely grandfather of goth was actually the late rocker-turned-politician Screaming Lord Sutch, whose act saw him being carried on to the stage inside a coffin by top-hatted pall bearers.

Brill, a German academic who fronted a goth band in her youth and spent a year in Edinburgh analysing the subculture in Scotland, says: "It will surprise some people but one of the first proto-goth bands were Joy Division. Pop historians say goth developed out of punk at a London club called the Bat Cave."

But where the Sex Pistols and their ilk wanted to smash the system and launched tirades against the establishment, the more passive and thoughtful goths wore crushed velvet capes, watched screenings of vintage Bela Lugosi horror movies and wrote angst-ridden poetry while nursing pints of cider and blackcurrant.

"The kind of rebellion that being a goth stands for is nothing like being aggressive towards society like punks. Most goths are well educated, hardly ever drop out of school and are often the best pupils," says Brill. "A lot go on to become high achievers in society."

In time-honoured fashion, Brill's parents were outraged by her decision to embrace gothic culture. "Their initial fear was I would get drawn into some sort of dangerous sect and start taking drugs. Later when they found out more they stopped worrying and become more supportive."

Kit, an 18-year-old Glaswegian goth, believes prejudice against the youth tribe is widespread. "Everywhere we go there are always people who don't like us," she says. "When I sit on a bus people will stare and shout things at me just because I'm dressed in black.

"I have friends who have been cornered and threatened because people don't like how they were dressed. Because of the area I live and people's hostile reaction I have to tone down what I wear.

"It makes absolutely no sense because we are not a threat to anyone."

The articulate teenager, who wears a skull necklace, was one of dozens of goths who were angered when Glasgow City Council recently barred them from their favourite hangout at Royal Exchange Square. Steps between Borders bookshop and the Gallery of Modern Art were cordoned off and security guards brought in. A council spokesman said large gatherings of teenagers were intimidating visitors to a "premier shopping location".

Fiona, a goth in her thirties, is more circumspect about the idea that goths are a persecuted minority in modern-day Britain. "It has been actually become quite trendy to become a goth," she says. "Kids decide it is for them because they feel they have such a hard life and their parents don't understand them.

"In reality it doesn't matter whether you are dressed top-to-toe in black or wearing a hoodie. Teenagers always think they are getting a hard time and that is always how it will be. For me it was always more about the music then any kind of contrived angst."

Carol Kay provides the answer to what happens to goths when teenage rebellion is no longer an option. The 40-something is the owner of Cyber, Scotland's biggest supplier of goth and alternative clothing.

"People always assume that this is a new thing when it is nothing of the sort," she says.

"At school in the mid-Seventies my friends and I were known as 'the undertakers' because of the way we dressed. I guess we were the original goths.

"Later when I worked for the NHS people used to stand and stare at me because I had pink hair. Eventually I decided to conform and dye it black and was promoted soon after. Being a goth is hugely attractive because I think everyone, at some point in their lives, wants to be different and stand out from the herd."

The Glasgow business owner adds: "A lot of our customers are high-flying professionals like doctors and lawyers. Recently we have noticed a trend for corporate goths – who wear suits during the week and only dress alternatively at weekends.

"For others goth is a lifelong lifestyle, while some people – who were often the most enthusiastic goths in the Seventies and Eighties – have donned the pinstriped suits for good and strongly deny any knowledge of their previous life."

Standing in front of displays of fairy wings, corsets, studded wristbands and ceramic dragons, Kay strongly rejects the suggestion that goth is a fad that will go the way of the beatnik, the mod or the hippy.

"Scotland, and Glasgow in particular, has one of the biggest alternative and goth scenes in the whole of Europe," she says. "Goth is huge and is rapidly becoming mainstream."

From her office in Berlin, Brill has a reassuring message for parents who fear their child may have been lost to the dark side.

"If your kid comes home all dressed in black and starts listening to sombre music don't worry. It's not all graveyards and depression. Goths are normal, sane people – and some of us even have a good sense of humour."

A guide to today's other youth subcultures.

INDIE KIDS

These super-skinny youngsters wear tight jeans and sport fluffy haircuts that have taken hours of sculpting to get the "just woken-up look". Retro t-shirts are very popular, along with ancient battered converse trainers, in black or blue. Indie Girls normally have wavy hair that looks bedraggled, and dress not a million miles away from the boys.

THE NEDS

This is the most popular Scottish name for the urban tribe known elsewhere as chavs, scallies and townies. Typically they wear day-glo tracksuits and plenty of jewellery. Neds are often spotted wearing checked baseball caps, sometimes with tracksuit bottoms tucked into their socks.

THE MOSHER

The Mosher or heavy-metal rocker is rarely seen without a battered guitar strapped to his or her back. Male moshers often sport facial hair, flowing locks, piercings and tattoos. Studded belts are de rigeur as are T-shirts proclaiming devotion to classic rockers such as Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Motörhead and Nirvana.

THE WANNABE WAGS

When they are not emptying the shelves of Harvey Nichols, wannabe WAGs wear Paris Hilton-style sunglasses and live for the day when they can marry a highly paid footballer.

THE GEEKS

These invariably bespectacled youngsters spend every given moment indoors playing interactive online computer games and updating their blogs. When they do venture outdoors it is usually to attend Star Trek conventions or to pick up the latest Terry Pratchett paperback.