Gloria Mundi - I, Individual LP (1977), The World Is Out LP (1979), Fight Back EP (1978)

Gloria Mundi was an early punk/gothic rock band. The name comes from the Latin meaning for "the glory of the world". This could be a reference to the phrase "Sic transit gloria mundi", meaning "this is how the glory of the world passes".

The members of Gloria Mundi included Eddie Maelov (real name Eddie Francis), their male vocalist, and Sunshine Patteson (now working as Sunshine Gray), their female vocalist and keyboard player, cc played tenor saxophone. A bassist known as Ice (real name Roland Oxland, a Dagenham native who had learned his craft in a band called 'Yours' (with Stevie Shears of Ultravox and Faith Global and John Clarke of Daddio Clarke and the Macon Wailers), played on the I Individual record. When he left to form a band with Stevie Shears, he was replaced later by bassist Nigel Ross Scott. The guitarist, known as 'Beethoven', was Pete Vas, who later had limited success as a solo artist on RCA. The drummer was Mike Nicholls. Following the departure of Pete Vas, guitarist Kirby (ex-Stretch), joined the band for a period and played on the second album The Word Is Out. Following Vas's solo venture, he then went into a musical collaboration with Alasdair Murray. Collectively they were known as Bete Noire[1] and produced an unreleased EP called Langham Street in 1981.



After Gloria Mundi disbanded, Eddie Maelov and Sunshine Patteson went on to produce music for Survival Records as Eddie and Sunshine. cc contributed a memorable saxophone solo to the Ultravox song "Hiroshima Mon Amour", and Nigel Ross Scott went on to play bass with Bruce Woolley and The Camera Club and achieved his first major success with Re-Flex, a 1980s new wave pop group.

It was noted that the gothic punk band Bauhaus completely changed their music and presentation after gigging with, hearing and watching Gloria Mundi. It was also known at the time that early Ultravox and Gloria Mundi had previous connections between John Foxx and Eddie Maelov; Maelov being the principal writer as well as lead vocalist for Gloria Mundi.



Generally thought by their fans to be way ahead of their time, Gloria Mundi's stage performance was regarded as revolutionary both in its visual imagery and underlying story-themes of isolation, individuality, sexuality, meaning and aggression.

Gloria Mundi archive