Tom Ashton fell in love with Athens in the fall of 1991, only after falling in love with his wife Rachel during his first trip to the Classic City.
As the story goes, Ashton’s goth and post-punk band the March Violets had called it quits shortly after landing a scene in the John Hughes-penned 1987 film, Some Kind of Wonderful. The formerly Leeds, U.K.-based group can be seen in the film performing the song “Turn to the Sky” while actors Eric Stoltz and Mary Stuart Masterson get into a spat.
“By that point, the band had become a bit like the Pretenders or something similar, more rock and roll than anything else,” Ashton says. “We still played some of the older songs, but things were petering out.”
An album was recorded, but it was never released. It was an unceremonious end for a group that was a contemporary of the Sisters of Mercy, and even released a few singles on the Sisters’ label, Merciful Release. Songs such as “Crow Baby,” “Snake Dance” and “Walk Into the Sun” solidified the March Violets’ status as ‘80s gothic rock pioneers.
Four years after splitting up, Ashton landed a gig playing guitar in the Dutch band Xymox (sometimes called Clan of Xymox), who were kicking off a tour supporting the 1991 album, Phoenix, at the 40 Watt Club.
“We wrapped rehearsals and were sitting at the Globe, and I saw Rachel and her friend walk by the front window,” Ashton recalls. “I said, let’s go to another bar, and we walked down to the Georgia Bar where we met.”
After spending a decade together living in London, Tom and Rachel moved back to the States to raise a family, settling into a house on the rural outskirts of Winterville, where Ashton established his home recording facility, SubVon Studio. Over the years, he has recorded material there by artists such as Tears for the Dying, T.T. Mahony and Hip To Death. Ashton also worked on parts of Pylon Reenactment Society’s most recent album, Magnet Factory, as well as Vision Video’s first two full-lengths, 2021’s Inked In Red and 2022’s Haunted Hours.
“I was a big fan of the March Violets for a while before realizing he lived here and subsequently meeting and becoming friends,” says Vision Video’s singer and guitar player Dusty Gannon. “Tom’s guitar playing is the thing that stands out to me the most with the March Violets. It’s punk as hell, but has this dark menacing nature to it that commands the songs and is the epitome of great goth-rock tone.”
Ashton became an occasional member of Vision Video, before reconvening with March Violets singer Rosie Garland and bass player Mat Thorpe to record a new album that arrived this year, titled Crocodile Promises.
This latest offering comes as the group’s first release since 2013’s brief reunion to record the album titled Made Glorious, followed by 2015’s digital-only release of an album, titled Mortality. The latter release was driven primarily by former vocalist Simon Denbigh. In many ways, though, Crocodile Promises is more closely connected to the Violets’ early days. There’s a deliberate nod to the past with the song “Virgin Sheep,” written in 1982, standing as a vital bridge between eras. Crocodile Promises is a bold reassertion of a band that’s still burning with purpose.
The album is a homecoming of sorts, produced by Ashton at SubVon. His production is marked by what he calls “naive” instincts. He doesn’t push the band toward any preconceived notions; instead, he listens, letting the music shape itself. It’s a method that has served him well, not just with the Violets, but with others who’ve recorded there.
Ashton is a producer that Vision Video’s Gannon says is, “technically skilled, yet highly experimental. He tackles songs from directions that you may not have considered, but you come to realize the method to his madness as it takes shape and you find yourself thinking ‘Oh damn! That’s so much cooler than how I would have approached that.’”
Ashton adds, “It’s particularly difficult producing an album that you’re so closely connected with,” he says while discussing Crocodile Promises. “It’s difficult to get space and perspective.”
With Crocodile Promises, Thorpe (also of the band Isolation Division), Ashton and Garland rekindle the spark that made the March Violets’ earlier work stand out, while pushing the band into new sonic terrain. The brooding “Hammer the Last Nail” lays the groundwork, with cascading guitar riffs and Garland’s enigmatic voice drawing the listener into the album’s dense atmosphere. The production, while understated, hones in on a balance of heaviness, sweeping melodies and shadows.
There’s a sharp edge to songs like “Bite the Hand” and “This Way Out,” capturing punk intensity, while the slow burn of “Kraken Awakes” and “Mortality” show off a band that’s still crafting songs brimming with themes of revenge, deceit, darkness and triumph. At the album’s core lies its title track, “Crocodile Promises,” a potent allegory for modern-day deception, which Ashton likens to modern Americans falling for the deceptions emanating from former President Trump’s current run for the Whitehouse, and the media’s shallow perceptions.
“There’s a tale of a crocodile inviting someone to jump on his back to get across a river,” Ashton says. “The guy says ‘Nope! I don’t trust you. Are you gonna bite me?’ The crocodile says, ‘No, don’t worry mate. I’m not gonna bite you. I’ll get you to the other side.’ Halfway across the river, the crocodile turns around and bites him and kills him. Because that’s what crocodiles do.”
Throughout the album, Ashton’s subtle yet layered production allows each track to breathe, fostering an atmosphere where Garland’s haunting voice takes center stage, bolstered by dark, hypnotic grooves.
On the closing number, “This Way Out,” pulsating rhythms carry Garland’s lyrics into a climactic surge, where the urgency of the music speaks to these intensities and uncertainties of the modern world.
“With Crocodile Promises, it was all about setting the record straight after the Mortality album, which was more like one person’s personal project,” Ashton says. “I don’t think any of us felt particularly involved in it.”
On Friday, Oct. 25, the group is headlining the first night of the second annual Southern Gothic Festival. It’s a long overdue homecoming, as it also marks the first time the March Violets have ever played a show in Athens.
For those who have followed the Violets from the beginning, Crocodile Promises offers a powerful connection to its roots while demonstrating just how far the band has evolved. And for those who are discovering them for the first time, Crocodile Promises is a gateway to the Violets’ enigmatic world that’s brimming with fire and intent.
WHO: March Violets, Korine, Tears for the Dying, House of Harm, Vincas, Panic Priest, Miss Cherry Delight
WHEN: Friday, Oct. 25, 7 p.m. (doors)
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
HOW MUCH: $45, $70 (two-day festival pass)
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