Welcome to the Batcave North Website

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To the Batcave North! Let’s GOth!

The Story Behind BatCave North

BatCave North didn’t start as a concept, it started on a dance floor.

My very first DJ set was at Club Zambukie, an underground Toronto venue on Yonge Street that opened its doors over Victoria Day weekend in May 1984. I played from 8pm Sunday straight through to noon the next day, a full marathon set, and that night became the beginning of everything. Zambukie was one of the venues that helped launch Toronto’s post-punk, new wave, and early gothic-rock scene, spinning import vinyl sourced from shops like the Record Peddler. It’s also where BatCave North itself began.

From there I carried that sound through clubs like Twilight Zone, The Catwalk, The Diamond Club, Oz, Nuts & Bolts, The Silver Crown, and Club Magic, to name a few, always chasing that same underground energy. In 1985, Darlene Weswaldi hired me to play at Klub Domino, where I spun a mix of rock, punk, ska, electrobeat, industrial, new wave, and more, multiple nights a week. BatCave North moved with me to Domino’s Wednesday nights, until a change in management partway through led us to rename the night Batstrack for the remaining Wednesdays there. Once things settled, we brought the BatCave North name back, and it stuck. Those Wednesdays became a home for the Batcavers, the crowd that lived for what we now call goth music alongside the industrial sound of the time, bands like Alien Sex Fiend, Specimen, Virgin Prunes, Cassandra Complex, Front 242, Sex Gang Children, and Death in June. We used to shred garbage bags and hang them from the ceiling, rip up cheesecloth, and turn the whole club into a cave. People would show up early just to help decorate for free admission.

There’s something fitting about where BatCave North lives now. The Wych has that same raw, underground feeling those rooms had back then, and stepping into it feels less like starting something new and more like coming back to where it all began.

Toronto’s goth scene is very much alive today, with a great community of DJs and events keeping it thriving. BatCave North is simply my contribution to that, my own personal style shaped by 42 years behind the decks, bringing together the old classics that started it all with newer tracks that keep the sound moving forward.

The scene has changed and transformed in so many ways since those early Wednesdays, and there are so many great new DJs keeping the dream alive today. I’m happy and honoured to return to my old roots and bring my own flavour back to the community. Here’s to sharing more love for the music, and the positive energy it brings.

Join us at The Wych, and come be part of the night.

In-Joy 🦇

To the Batcave North! Let’s GOth!