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Includes images of the interior of the pub.

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Includes images of the interior of the pub.

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This old pub has experienced a whole host of supernatural activity from lighting problems, beer barrel moving around of their own accord, a mysterious mist and violently rattling doors.

Several years ago one of the licencees saw the figure of a man accompanied by a large dog in materialise his bedroom. He was alarmed at the presence, and at first thought that the visitor was a burglar and so he told him to , "Get out of here. Who are you?" At this both the figure and his phantom hound vanished.

During an overnight investigation from local paranormal research group, a peculiar flickering light was witnessed in the cellar and an unusual shadow was seen. Also the distressing sound of a baby crying was heard. Historical documents show that in 1892 Andrew McRae, a former owner, was sentenced to death for murdering his mistress and their infant child.

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This old pub has experienced a whole host of supernatural activity from lighting problems, beer barrel moving around of their own accord, a mysterious mist and violently rattling doors. Several years ago one of the licencees saw the figure of a man accompanied by a large dog in materialise his bedroom.

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Really cute illustrations of a ghost created simply with just sharpie. Very simple illustration of a ghost but it achieves a personality and expression.

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Oct 10, 2020 - Explore gemmacoffey's board "the black lion" on Pinterest.

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Old Black Lion Ghost Hunt S02E10 Scary Season Finale...

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includes methods and equipment used aswell as terminology.

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A ghost hunter taking a reading with an EMF meter

Ghost hunting is the process of investigating locations that are purportedly haunted by ghosts. Typically, a ghost-hunting team will attempt to collect evidence supporting the existence of paranormal activity.

Ghost hunting has been heavily criticized for its dismissal of the scientific method. No scientific study has ever been able to confirm the existence of ghosts. The practice is considered a pseudoscience by the vast majority of educators, academics, science writers and skeptics.

Ghost hunters use a variety of electronic devices, including EMF meters, digital thermometers, both handheld and static digital video cameras, including thermographic and night vision cameras, night vision goggles, and digital audio recorders. Other more traditional techniques are also used, such as conducting interviews and researching the history of allegedly haunted sites. Ghost hunters also refer to themselves as paranormal investigators. Science historian Brian Regal described ghost hunting as "an unorganized exercise in futility".

British psychic investigator Hereward Carrington with his "ululometer" ghost detector, in 1922.

Paranormal research dates back to the nineteenth century, with organizations such as the Society for Psychical Research investigating spiritual matters. Psychic researcher Harry Price published his Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter in 1936.

Ghost hunting was popularized in the 2000s by television series such as Most Haunted and Ghost Hunters, combined with the increasing availability of high-tech equipment. The Atlantic Paranormal Society reported a doubling in their membership in the late 2000s, attributing this to the television programs. Despite its lack of acceptance in academic circles, the popularity of ghost-hunting reality TV shows has influenced a number of individuals to take up the pursuit.

Small businesses offering ghost-hunting equipment and paranormal investigation services increased in the early 2000s. Many offer electromagnetic field (EMF) meters, infrared motion sensors and devices billed as "ghost detectors". The paranormal boom is such that some small ghost-hunting related businesses are enjoying increased profits through podcast and website advertising, books, DVDs, videos and other commercial enterprises.

One ghost-hunting group called "A Midwest Haunting" based in Macomb, Illinois, reported that the number of people taking its tours had tripled, jumping from about 600 in 2006 to 1,800 in 2008. Others, such as Marie Cuff of "Idaho Spirit Seekers" pointed to increased traffic on their websites and message boards as an indication that ghost hunting was becoming more accepted. Participants say that ghost hunting allows them to enjoy the friendship of like-minded people and actively pursue their interest in the paranormal. According to Jim Willis of "Ghosts of Ohio", his group's membership had doubled, growing to 30 members since it was founded in 1999 and includes both true believers and total skeptics. Willis says his group is "looking for answers, one way or another" and that skepticism is a prerequisite for those who desire to be "taken seriously in this field."

Author John Potts says that the present day pursuit of "amateur ghost hunting" can be traced back to the Spiritualist era and early organizations founded to investigate paranormal phenomena, like London's The Ghost Club and the Society for Psychical Research, but that modern investigations are unrelated to academic parapsychology. Potts writes that modern ghost hunting groups ignore the scientific method and instead follow a form of "techno- mysticism".

The popularity of ghost hunting has led to some injuries. Unaware that a "spooky home" in Worthington, Ohio was occupied, a group of teenagers stepped on the edge of the property to explore. The homeowner fired on the teenagers' automobile as they were leaving, seriously injuring one. A woman hunting for ghosts was killed in a fall from a University of Toronto building.

An offshoot of ghost hunting is the commercial ghost tour conducted by a local guide or tour operator who is often a member of a local ghost-hunting or paranormal investigation group. Since both the tour operators and owners of the reportedly haunted properties share profits of such enterprises (admissions vary depending on the location, length and other aspects of the tour), some believe the claims of hauntings are exaggerated or fabricated in order to increase attendance. The city of Savannah, Georgia, is said to be the American city with the most ghost tours, having more than 31 as of 2003.

Harry Price pictured with assorted pieces of his "ghost hunting" equipment

Harry Price (1881-1948) was a British parapsychologist, psychic researcher and author who gained public prominence for his investigations into psychical phenomena and his exposing of fraudulent spiritualist mediums. He is best known for his well-publicized investigation of the purportedly haunted Borley Rectory in Essex, England. Price's exploits were given wide exposure in a 1950 book, Harry Price: Biography of a Ghost Hunter by Paul Tabori. He was also a longstanding member of the Ghost Club based in London.

Price joined the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1920, and used his knowledge of stage magic to debunk fraudulent mediums. In 1922, he exposed the "spirit" photographer William Hope. In the same year he traveled to Germany with Eric Dingwall and investigated Willi Schneider at the home of Baron Albert von Schrenck-Notzing in Munich. In 1923, Price exposed the medium Jan Guzyk.

Price's "ghost hunting kit" included reflex and cinematograph cameras, tools for sealing doors and windows, apparatus for secret electrical controls, steel tape, drawing instruments, a bottle of mercury and powdered graphite for developing fingerprints

Price wrote that the photographs depicting the ectoplasm of the medium Eva Carrière taken with Schrenck-Notzing looked artificial and two-dimensional made from cardboard and newspaper portraits and that there were no scientific controls as both her hands were free. In 1920 Carrière was investigated by psychical researchers in London. An analysis of her ectoplasm revealed it to be made of chewed paper. She was also investigated in 1922 and the result of the tests were negative. In 1925, Price investigated Maria Silbert and caught her using her feet and toes to move objects in the séance room. He also investigated the "direct voice" mediumship of George Valiantine in London. In the séance Valiantine claimed to have contacted the "spirit" of the composer Luigi Arditi, speaking in Italian. Price wrote down every word that was attributed to Arditi and they were found to be word-for-word matches in an Italian phrase-book.

In 1926, Price formed the National Laboratory of Psychical Research as a rival to the SPR. Price made a formal offer to the University of London to equip and endow a Department of Psychical Research, and to loan the equipment of the National Laboratory and its library. The University of London Board of Studies in Psychology responded positively to this proposal.

Price had a number of public disputes with the SPR, most notably regarding professed medium Rudi Schneider. Price exposed Frederick Tansley Munnings, who claimed to produce the independent "spirit" voices of Julius Caesar, Dan Leno, Hawley Harvey Crippen and King Henry VIII. Price also invented and used a piece of apparatus known as a "voice control recorder" and proved that all the voices were those of Munnings. In 1928, Munnings admitted fraud and sold his confessions to a Sunday newspaper.

In 1933, Frank Decker was investigated by Price at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research. Under strict scientific controls that Price contrived, Decker failed to produce any phenomena at all. Price's psychical research continued with investigations into Karachi's Indian rope trick and the fire-walking abilities of Kuda Bux. In 1936, Price broadcast from a supposedly haunted manor house in Meopham, Kent for the BBC and published The Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter and The Haunting of Cashen's Gap. This year also saw the transfer of Price's library on permanent loan to the University of London (see external links), followed shortly by the laboratory and investigative equipment. In 1937, he conducted further televised experiments into fire-walking with Ahmed Hussain at Carshalton and Alexandra Palace, and also rented Borley Rectory for one year. The following year, Price re-established the Ghost Club, with himself as chairman, modernizing it and changing it from a spiritualist association to a group of more or less open-minded skeptics that gathered to discuss paranormal topics. He was also the first to admit women to the club. Price drafted a bill for the regulation of psychic practitioners, and in 1939, he organized a national telepathic test in the periodical John O'London's Weekly. During the 1940s, Price concentrated on writing and the works The Most Haunted House in England, Poltergeist Over England and The End of Borley Rectory were all published.

Price's friends included other debunkers of fraudulent mediums such as Harry Houdini and the journalist Ernest Palmer.

Edward Warren Miney (1926-2006) and Lorraine Rita Warren (née Moran, 1927-2019) were American paranormal investigators and authors associated with prominent reports of haunting from the 1950s to the present. Edward was a World War II United States Navy veteran who became a self-taught and self-professed demonologist, author, and lecturer. Lorraine professes to be clairvoyant and a light trance medium who worked closely with her husband. In 1952, the Warrens founded the New England Society for Psychic Research, the oldest ghost hunting group in New England. They authored numerous books about the paranormal and about their private investigations into various reports of paranormal activity. They claimed to have investigated over 1,000 cases during their career, and have been involved with various supernatural claims such as the Snedeker family haunting, the Enfield Poltergeist and the Smurl haunting, as well as claims of demonic possession in the Trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson.

The Warrens are best known for their involvement in the 1976 Amityville Horror case in which New York couple George and Kathy Lutz claimed that their house was haunted by a violent, demonic presence so intense that it eventually drove them out of their home. The Amityville Horror Conspiracy authors Stephen and Roxanne Kaplan characterized the case as a "hoax". Lorraine Warren told a reporter for The Express-Times newspaper that the Amityville Horror was not a hoax. The reported haunting was the basis for the 1977 book The Amityville Horror, which was adapted into the 1979 and 2005 movies of the same name, while also serving as inspiration for the film series that followed. The Warrens' version of events is partially adapted and portrayed in the opening sequence of The Conjuring 2 (2016). According to Benjamin Radford, the story was "refuted by eyewitnesses, investigations and forensic evidence". In 1979, lawyer William Weber reportedly stated that he, Jay Anson, and the occupants "invented" the horror story "over many bottles of wine".

General criticism of the Warrens include those by skeptics Perry DeAngelis and Steven Novella, who investigated the Warrens' evidence and described it as "blarney". Skeptical investigators Joe Nickell and Ben Radford also concluded that the more famous hauntings, such as Amityville and the Snedeker family haunting, did not happen and had been invented.

Stories of ghosts and hauntings popularized by the Warrens have been adapted as or have indirectly inspired dozens of films, television series and documentaries, including 17 films in the Amityville Horror series and six films in The Conjuring Universe including , Annabelle: Creation, and Annabelle Comes Home, spin-off prequels of The Conjuring.

According to a survey conducted in October 2008 by the Associated Press and Ipsos, 34 percent of Americans say they believe in the existence of ghosts. Moreover, a Gallup poll conducted on June 6-8, 2005, showed that about one-third (32%) of Americans believe that ghosts exist, with belief declining with age. Having surveyed three countries (the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom), the poll also mentioned that more people believe in haunted houses than any of the other paranormal items tested, with 37% of Americans, 28% of Canadians, and 40% of Britons believing.

In 2002, the National Science Foundation identified haunted houses, ghosts, and communication with the dead among pseudoscientific beliefs.

Critics question ghost hunting's methodology, particularly its use of instrumentation, as there is no scientifically proven link between the existence of ghosts and cold spots or electromagnetic fields. According to skeptical investigator Joe Nickell, the typical ghost hunter is practicing pseudoscience. Nickell says that ghost hunters often arm themselves with EMF meters, thermometers that can identify cold spots, and wireless microphones that eliminate background noise, pointing out the equipment being used to try to detect ghosts is not designed for the job. "The least likely explanation for any given reading is it is a ghost," maintains Nickell. Orbs of light that show up on photos, he says, are often particles of dust or moisture. " Voices" picked up by tape recorders can be radio signals or noise from the recorder, EMF detectors can be set off by faulty wiring, microwave towers, iron, recording equipment, or cell phones, and heat sensors can pick up reflections off of mirrors or other metal surfaces. Nickell has also criticized the practice of searching only in the dark, saying that since some ghosts are described as "shadows or dark entities," he conducts searches in lighted rather than darkened conditions.

According to investigator Benjamin Radford, most ghost-hunting groups including The Atlantic Paranormal Society make many methodological mistakes. According to Radford, "[a]fter watching episodes of Ghost Hunters and other similar programs, it quickly becomes clear to anyone with a background in science that the methods used are both illogical and unscientific". Anyone can be a ghost investigator, "failing to consider alternative explanations for anomalous... phenomena", considering emotions and feelings as "evidence of ghostly encounters". "Improper and unscientific investigation methods" for example "using unproven tools and equipment", "sampling errors", "ineffectively using recording devices" and "focusing on the history of the location... and not the phenomena". In his article for Skeptical Inquirer Radford concludes that ghost hunters should care about doing a truly scientific investigation: "I believe that if ghosts exist, they are important and deserve to be taken seriously. Most of the efforts to investigate ghosts so far have been badly flawed and unscientific - and, not surprisingly, fruitless."

Although some ghost hunters believe orbs are of supernatural origin, skeptic Brian Dunning says that they are usually particles of dust that are reflected by light when a picture is taken, sometimes it may be bugs or water droplets. He contends that "there are no plausible hypotheses that describe the mechanism by which a person who dies will become a hovering ball of light that appears on film but is invisible to the eye." He does not believe there is any science behind these beliefs; if there were then there would be some kind of discussion of who, what and why this can happen. In his investigations he can not find any "plausible hypothesis" that orbs are anything paranormal.

Science writer Sharon Hill reviewed over 1,000 "amateur research and investigation groups" (ARIGs), writing that "879 identified with the category of 'ghosts'". Hill reports that many groups used the terms "science" or "scientific" when describing themselves; however they overwhelmingly display neither understanding of nor adherence to scientific norms. Hill writes:

ARIGs often promote their paranormalist viewpoint as scientifically based, especially in community presentations or lectures at educational facilities. While scientifically minded observers can readily spot the anemic and shoddy scholarship of popular paranormal investigation, the public, unaware of the fundamental errors ARIGs make, can be persuaded by jargon and "sciencey" symbols.

Hill sees the supernatural bias of such groups as an indication of how "far removed ARIG participants really are from the established scientific community".

In Hill's 2017 book Scientifical Americans reviewed by historian Brian Regal for Skeptical Inquirer magazine, Regal writes that this is a timely book as it comes during an era when many question science. Regal wonders why believers think that "untutored amateurs know more (and are more trustworthy) than professional scholars". He asks why there is little discussion on "philosophical and theological aspects of their work". For example, the theoretical questions such as "what is a ghost?" and "does one's religion in life determine if they can become a ghost in death?" Hill gives a historiography of the field of "modern paranormal interest: monsters, UFOs, and ghosts." Hill does not insult or ridicule the people she writes about, but explains their stories through case studies. Regal feels that this book will not deter believers in the paranormal, but it is an important part of a "growing literature on amateur paranormal research". Regal states that paranormal researchers are not engaging in scientific discovery but are engaging "blithely in confirmation bias, selective evidence compiling, and the backfire effect while all the time complaining that it is the other side doing it... They, like all of us, are ultimately not searching for ghosts... they are looking for themselves."

Kenny Biddle is the Chief Investigator for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and writes a column for Skeptical Inquirer called A Closer Look (2018-present), on his use of scientific skepticism to investigate paranormal claims, which include ghost photography, ghost hunting equipment and psychic ability. Biddle is a former ghost hunter turned scientific skeptic. In May 2018, Kenny Biddle, a skeptical investigator of paranormal claims, spent a night in the White Hill Mansion in Fieldsboro, New Jersey, along with a group of fellow skeptics. The mansion, built in 1757, has traditionally been visited by many ghost hunting teams who claim to have experienced paranormal activity and communicate with spirits via EVPs while there. According to Biddle, many of the ghost hunters claimed that the EVPs they obtained "were not just random responses; they were direct, intelligent responses to specific questions". To challenge these claims, Biddle's group conducted a controlled experiment: the group recorded audio while asking any spirits in the Mansion to help them in locating a small foam toy hidden somewhere on the premises by a third party. They asked direct questions, but no responses were detected during review of the audio. Biddle subsequently reset the experiment and has offered a prize to ghost hunters for proof of their claim that they can obtain direct answers from spirits via EVP.

Biddle has also criticized what he calls "paranormal gadgets" that are popular with ghost hunters, such as the Ovilus, a device designed to respond to electromagnetic field variations with words from a pre-programmed dictionary, which, according to Popular Mechanics resemble a "demonic Speak & Spell" whose "phrases often sound like they were cherry picked from a John Carpenter flick".

The colored LEDs of a Safe Range EMF meter

An Ovilus device, which plays recorded words from a pre-programmed dictionary in response to electromagnetic field variations.[50] It is branded as "For Entertainment Purposes Only".

A handheld infrared thermometer of the type used by some ghost hunters

Ghost hunters use a variety of techniques and tools to investigate alleged paranormal activity. While there is no universal acceptance among ghost hunters of the following methodologies, a number of these are commonly used by ghost hunting groups.

These may use digital, night vision, infrared, and even disposable cameras.

Used to detect possibly unexplained fluctuations in electromagnetic fields. The Safe Range EMF brand of meter, designed for use with power lines and household appliances, became popular after the Ghost Hunters television series claimed it to be "specially calibrated for paranormal investigators". The Atlantic attribute its popularity among ghost hunters to its brightly colored LED display and propensity for false positive readings.

Used to record data, audio, video and even environmental fluctuations such as electromagnetic fields.

Ambient temperature measurement

Using thermographic cameras, thermal imaging cameras, infrared thermometers, and other infrared temperature sensors. All of these methods only measure surface temperature and not ambient temperature.

Digital and analog audio recording

These are used to capture any unexplained noises and electronic voice phenomena (EVPs), which may be interpreted as disembodied voices.

Some ghost hunters use a compass to determine the location of paranormal spots, similar to EMFs.[citation needed ]

Geiger counter

Used to measure fluctuations in radiation.

Infrared and/or ultrasonic motion sensors

Used to detect possible anomalous movement within a given area, or to assist in creating a controlled environment where any human movement is detected.

Air quality monitoring equipment

This can assess the levels of gases such as carbon monoxide, which are thought to contribute to reports of paranormal activity.[citation needed ]

Infrasound monitoring equipment

Used to assess the level of sound vibrations.

Dowsing rods

These are usually constructed of brass and bent into an L-shape.

Ghost boxes

Radio devices which randomly scan AM and FM frequencies, presenting the audio as the words of spirits

Ouija board

Novelty items purportedly used to communicate with spirits.

Night vision

Both full spectrum video and photography are used by ghost hunters to visualize areas of the light spectrum unseen by the human eye including infrared and ultraviolet.

Trigger objects

These are props or tools that ghost hunters claim can be used to attract an entity to interact. According to ghost hunters, this could be any object which might bring emotion or connection such as a teddy bear, photo or a wedding band, and some pieces of equipment have been designed within a trigger object in order to help detect a presence around the object.[citation needed ]

Thermographic cameras

According to ghost hunters these are helpful in detecting and visualizing temperature changes during an investigation.

SLS or Kinect camera

This is a device that uses a pattern of infrared dots to detect objects in complete darkness. Analyzed by Kenny Biddle and found prone to spurious results when used as a non-stationary device.

Vibration Activated Light Spheres

Plastic balls which light up when detecting movement. These were not originally designed for paranormal investigations. Kenny Biddle found them to be very similar to commercial cat toys.

Ghost hunters may employ the assistance of psychics, mediums, or clairvoyants. Trance mediums and other " sensitive" individuals are thought to have the ability to identify and make contact with spiritual entities. Demonologists, exorcists, and clergy may be brought in to say prayers, give blessings, or perform rituals for the purpose of cleansing a location of alleged ghosts, demons, poltergeists, or " negative energy".

Hunters may also collect local testimony and accounts about alleged hauntings, and research the history behind the site being investigated.

According to ghost hunters, a cold spot is an area of localized coldness or a sudden decrease in ambient temperature. Temperature decreases claimed to be associated with cold spots range from a few degrees Fahrenheit to over 40 degrees. Many ghost hunters use digital thermometers or heat sensing devices to measure such temperature changes. Believers claim that cold spots are an indicator of paranormal or spirit activity in the area; however, there are many natural explanations for rapid temperature variations within structures, and there is no scientifically confirmed evidence that spirit entities exist or can affect air temperatures.

Some ghost hunters claim that circular artifacts appearing in photographs are spirits of the dead or other paranormal phenomena; however, such visual artifacts are a result of flash photography illuminating a mote of dust or other particle, and are especially common with modern compact and ultra-compact digital cameras.

Ghost Hunters features the activities of a Warwick, Rhode Island, ghost hunting group called The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS). Since 2004, the program has garnered some of the highest ratings of any Syfy network programming, presenting a mix of paranormal investigation and interpersonal drama. It has since been syndicated on NBCUniversal sister cable channel Oxygen and also airs on the Canadian cable network, OLN. In addition to their television venture, TAPS hosts a three-hour weekly radio show called Beyond Reality, operates a website where they share their stories, photographs, and ghost hunting videos with members. TAPS cast members also appear at lectures, conferences and public events.

Ghost Adventures premiered in 2008 on the Travel Channel. The TV series features ghost hunters Zak Bagans, Nick Groff (seasons 1-10), Aaron Goodwin, Billy Tolley, and Jay Wasley as they investigate reportedly haunted locations hoping to collect visual or auditory evidence of paranormal activity.

Haunted Collector features a team of paranormal investigators led by demonologist John Zaffis who investigate allegedly haunted locations in hopes of identifying and removing objects they believe can trigger supernatural activity. The objects are transported for eventual display in Zaffis's museum. The series premiered in 2011 on the Syfy cable television channel and was cancelled in 2013.

Poltergeist is the original film in the Poltergeist trilogy, directed by Tobe Hooper, co-written by Steven Spielberg and released on June 4, 1982. The story focuses on the Freeling family, which consists of Steven ( Craig T. Nelson), Diane ( JoBeth Williams), Dana ( Dominique Dunne), Robbie ( Oliver Robins), and Carol Anne ( Heather O'Rourke), who live in a California housing development called Cuesta Verde, which comes to be haunted by ghosts. The film depicts a group of paranormal investigators, parapsychologists, and a spiritual medium named Tangina Barrons ( Zelda Rubinstein) in their efforts to assist the family. A reboot of the series, Poltergeist, was directed by Gil Kenan and released on May 22, 2015, that features the host of a paranormal-themed TV show who comes to the aid of the family.

Ghostbusters is a 1984 American fantasy comedy film produced and directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd and Ramis as Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler, eccentric parapsychologists who start a ghost-catching business in New York City. Ghostbusters was released in the United States on June 8, 1984, and grossed 242 million USD in the United States and more than 295 million USD worldwide, making it the highest-grossing comedy film of its time. It launched a media franchise, which includes two sequels (Ghostbusters II and Ghostbusters: Afterlife), two animated television series (The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters), video games, and a 2016 reboot. The Ghostbusters concept was inspired by Aykroyd's fascination with the paranormal.

The Conjuring is a 2013 American supernatural horror film directed by James Wan and written by Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes. It is the inaugural film in The Conjuring Universe franchise, in which Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga star as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. Their purportedly real-life exploits inspired The Amityville Horror story and film franchise. In The Conjuring, the Warrens come to the assistance of the Perron family, who experience increasingly disturbing events in their farmhouse in Rhode Island in 1971. The Conjuring was released in the United States and Canada on July 19, 2013, and grossed over 319 million USD worldwide. A sequel, The Conjuring 2, was released on June 10, 2016, and a prequel, Annabelle, directed by John R. Leonetti, written by Gary Dauberman and produced by Peter Safran and James Wan was released in 2014.

Kinetic Games's indie survival horror game sees the player(s) take on the role of ghost hunters contracted to explore various premises for ghosts. The game received a large influx of popularity after its September 2020 release due to many well-known Twitch streamers and YouTubers playing it, mainly for the Halloween season.

The American entertainment web series BuzzFeed Unsolved included BuzzFeed Unsolved Supernatural episodes where hosts Shane Madej and Ryan Bergara discussed alleged ghosts, hauntings and demons, often seeking evidence of their existence. In 2019, Bergara and Madej left Buzzfeed to host a web series similar to Buzzfeed Unsolved Supernatural called Ghost Files in 2022, documenting their attempts to find evidence of supernatural beings and occurrences.

Interest in ghost hunting has driven tourism to historical sites and locations claimed to be haunted. A study published in the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly in 2020 stated that "haunted tourism has allowed attractions like historic house museums as well as abandoned hospitals, schools and prisons 'to remain intact' or bring in the money needed to make necessary improvements". According to architectural historian Jen Levstik, revenues from haunted tourism can help fund historic preservation, "so long as the tours are also providing historically accurate information related to the property [and] the humanity of the people at those properties, and not just the salacious things that can't be backed up beyond hearsay or rumor."

1. Regal, Brian. (2009). Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia. Greenwood. pp. 43, 75-77. ISBN 978-0-313-35507-3

2. ^ Dr Olu Jenzen; Professor Sally R Munt (2014). The Ashgate Research Companion to Paranormal Cultures. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 197-. ISBN 978-1-4724-0612-5.

3. Hill, Sharon. "Amateur Paranormal Research and Investigation Groups Doing 'Sciencey' Things". Csicop.org. Skeptical Inquirer - Volume 36.2 March/April 2012.

4. Radford, Benjamin. "Ghost-hunting mistakes: science and pseudoscience in ghost investigations". Skeptical Inquirer. Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Archived from the original on 4 October 2015.

5. ^ Cohen, Howard (September 19, 2009). "Ghost hunters say Deering Estate is ground zero for lost spirits". The Miami Herald. Archived from the original on October 10, 2010.

6. ^ Peterson, Skip (2008-05-31). "Ghost-hunting groups enjoy surge in popularity". USA Today. Associated Press.

7. ^ "Ghost-hunting woman dies at U of Toronto". United Press International. September 10, 2009.

8. ^ Howard, Philip (December 18, 2006). "Confessions of a Ghost Tour Guide and Skeptic". The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

9. ^ Lewis Spence. (1991). Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology. Gale Research Company. p. 1522

10. ^ Harry Houdini. (2011 reprint edition). Originally published in 1924. A Magician Among the Spirits. Cambridge University Press. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-108-02748-9

11. Radford, Benjamin (15 April 2005). "The Amityville Horror". Urban Legends Reference Pages. Snopes.com.

12. ^ Associated Press (July 27, 1979). "'Amityville Horror 'amplified over bottles of wine, - lawyer". Lakeland Ledger.

13. ^ Patrick, Mike (October 24, 1997). "Truth or Scare? Ghost hunters' stories fail to rattle skeptics". No. Vol 6. Connecticut Post. pp. Front Page, A14.

14. ^ Ettkin, Brian (October 27, 2008). "Skeptic: Ghost hunters practice 'pseudoscience'". Albany Times-Union. Archived from the original on October 11, 2009. Alt URL

15. ^ Tung, Christen (September 7, 2016). "Ghost Hunting Equipment: Tools To Get Rid Of Demons by Amy Bruni". maggwire.com. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022.

16. ^ "IR Thermography Primer Answers to the Common Questions People Ask about IR Thermography". ITC Infrared Training Center. 2010-08-21. Archived from the original on 2006-10-16.

17. ^ Biddle, Kenny. "Ghost Gadgets: The Xbox Kinect with Kenny Biddle". YouTube. Center for Inquiry. Archived from the original on 2021-11-17.

18. Cynthia Baron. ^ Adobe Photoshop Forensics: Sleuths, Truths, and Fauxtography. Cengage Learning; 2008. ISBN 1-59863-643-X. p. 310.

19. Joe Nickell. ^ Camera Clues: A Handbook for Photographic Investigation. University Press of Kentucky; 12 September 2010. ISBN 0-8131-2691-6. p. 159.

20. ^ Anantharaman, Maitreyi (February 5, 2019). "'Buzzfeed: Unsolved' a spooky salve for a lonely generation". The Michigan Daily.

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Ghost hunting is the process of investigating locations that are purportedly haunted by ghosts. Typically, a ghost-hunting team will attempt to collect evidence supporting the existence of paranormal activity. Ghost hunting has been heavily criticized for its dismissal of the scientific method. No scientific study has ever been able to confirm the existence of ghosts.

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a playful and comedic illustration of a group of ghosts hanging out in a mundane setting.

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a graphic novel focusing on one room and documenting the events throughout history that took place there.
https://medium.com/@warrenbisch/a-deeper-look-at-our-generations-greatest-graphic-novel-here-96b33494aa7b

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reporting artist - his work is all about drawing people at certain locations - very interesting word including text and lots of detail to really capture the setting and the people that dwell there.

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More reporting artists with interesting styles that could be inspiring if I decided to go for a more reporting style when illustrating the pub and the events.

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From travel illustrations to graphic journalism, our scribe, Sara Gelfgren shares her top five reportage illustrators that have inspired her approach to visual thinking.

Visual storytelling is a thing we talk about a lot round here. But when it comes to the serious job of reporting the world around us, photographs and the printed word have done the lion's share of the work since the invention of the camera.

But reportage illustration has an advantage. Not only can it combine image and the written word, it can also capture the less tangible aspects of a moment - the mood, for instance - and can connect ideas and experiences on the page of a sketchbook, that would not necessarily share space within the viewfinder of a camera. Two things, in fact, that it has in common with scribing.

So, perhaps it was our scribe, Sara Gelfgren's, appreciation for the art of reportage that led her to our studio door. Here, she shares with us her top five reportage illustrators.

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Top five: Reportage illustrators - Scriberia

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Visual storytelling is a thing we talk about a lot round here. But when it comes to the serious job of reporting the world around us, photographs and the printed word have done the lion's share of the work since the invention of the camera. But reportage illustration has an advantage.

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In the early 1980's, in the small town of Rugby in the centre of England, three teenagers began melding early blues with feedback, one chord drones, booming drums, smashing cymbals, gospel, Turkish saz and two note melodies. Natty Brooker, Pete Kember and Jason Pierce were Spacemen 3. On 3 August, 1985, they played a gig in the backroom of the Black Lion pub on St Giles Street in Northampton. It was the best gig I ever went to. And, it was the gig that led directly to their first ever record deal. Today marks the 30th anniversary of that performance.

As a teenager growing up in Rugby I saw Spacemen 3 play many pub backrooms. They were and remain an incredible band. Earlier in 2015, it occurred to me that, not only was this particular gig important historically, it was also the earliest Spacemen 3 gig for which a recording and photos still exist. Finally, after 30 years, and in one place for the first time are; the photographs from the gig, the unedited cassette recording of the entire performance, the memories of those who were there and related ephemera.

A very early Spacemen 3 Rugby gig poster taken from issue 2 of the Outer Limits fanzine.

I tracked down members of Spacemen 3, the Jazz Butcher, who saw the band for the first time at this gig, and old friends in the small audience who, like me, paid £1 to enter that backroom in 1985. Very few people went to this gig. If you were one of the many who weren't there, this is as close as you'll get to being there now.

Spacemen 3 formed in 1982. The early 80's was an impossible era to be a one chord, gospel, feedback band from anywhere, let alone one from Rugby.

Neil Taylor, author of (to be released) C86 & All That: Indie 1983-86 explained it well, "It is hard now to explain just how dire the mainstream music scene was back in 1983. When synth-pop drivel flooded the charts. The biggest-selling acts of the year included Kajagoogoo, The Flying Pickets and Phil Collins."

Things were not much better in 'Indie music'. By the summer of 1985, the UK independent music scene was experiencing something of a lull. Punk, post-punk, gothic and the Postcard pop scene of Glasgow were all long over. The Smiths had broken into the mainstream. The Jesus and Mary Chain had not long screeched to everyone's attention. However, for the most part, the scene was dominated by stalwarts; The Fall, Cocteau Twins, The Cult, New Order and The Pogues. It was "A Scene In Between" as the 80's indie archivist and author Sam Knee later called it.

Spacemen 3 barely figured on the Rugby radar and were complete unknowns nationally. The Rugby scene of early 1985 consisted of; a sixties garage band called The Push, Total Contempt, who were a punk band, a ska effort called Russian Jazz, a sub-goth band and a few blues and folk efforts. Spacemen 3 were the runts of the litter. And, because of educational commitments and an ever-changing line-up, of all the bands in Rugby at that time, Spacemen 3 also played the least gigs.

Northampton was the nearest, most vibrant city to Rugby. Bauhaus formed there in 1978. When they split in 1983, the bass player, David J, joined fellow Northamptonians, The Jazz Butcher Group. The Jazz Butcher, otherwise known as Pat Fish, recorded for Glass Records. Pat was well-known locally and, at that time, was becoming renowned nationally and internationally.

Dave Barker, founder of Glass Records, signed a lot of bands from Northampton and the surrounding area in the early eighties. He included two of them, Where's Lisse? and Religious Overdose, on the Northampton Under Glass compilation tape in 1981. All bands in the town gravitated towards the backroom at the Black Lion. It was only a matter of time before bands from Rugby discovered it too.

In 1985, Adam Gillison, his brother Chris and I regularly went to gigs together. We all grew up in Rugby. We went to different schools. But we had the same keen interest in punk, post-punk and indie music. We heard about gigs in local newspapers, on the radio, in the national music press, by word of mouth and from flyers and posters in Rugby record shops. Adam, Chris, Sean Cook, who would later play bass in Spiritualized, and myself got the train from Rugby on the evening of August 3 and made our way over to Northampton. A journey of twenty minutes or so.

"I probably heard about the Spacemen 3 gig that night via Convergence, a record shop in Rugby," said Adam, who was seventeen years old in 1985 and studying for his 'A' Levels at Lawrence Sheriff Grammar School for Boys in Rugby. The same school that Jason Pierce and Will Carruthers, a future Spacemen 3 bass player, went to.

"There were three independent record shops at this time in Rugby," said Adam. " Convergence on Regent Street being the one I visited most because of the wealth of independent, post-punk stuff they had, as well as the fact that they were so supportive of the local band scene. They probably had a poster up for the gig, or maybe Simon who ran the shop told us about it."

Adam, Chris, myself and another friend produced a local fanzine called 'Ear to the Ground'. In it, Adam had reviewed Spacemen 3's first demo tape. It was Spacemen 3's first review anywhere. "We used to review most stuff we went to see. And we'd already reviewed Spacemen 3's demo tape. We covered lots of local stuff, as well as bands from further afield who came to our area."

Spacemen 3' first ever review in Ear to the Ground fanzine by Adam Gillison. The first demo tape 'For All The Fucked Up Children Of This World We Give You Spacemen 3' was a four track tape and came with a blue A4 lyric booklet, sold together in a plastic bag for £1.00. The recording was eventually released by Space Age Recordings in 2005. However, the vocal track on the final track, 'TV Catastrophe', was removed. The bluesy version of 'Things'll never be the same', which appears on the 2005 release did not appear on the original cassette.

"I have to say, I wasn't entirely convinced by the demo tape," said Adam's brother, and future Art student, Chris. We were the same age. We had just finished our 'O' Levels. It was the summer before sixth form. The summer of the first Live Aid, of Phil Collins hopping from Wembley to JFK on Concorde, of 'Frankie Says' t-shirts, of Madonna ruling the charts, TV and airwaves.

"It was kind of a 'swampy' thing - kind of bluesy rock 'n' roll," said Chris. "But, it wasn't completely as if Spacemen 3 had dropped from the sky. There was quite a bit of rock 'n' roll/rockabilly tinged stuff around at that time. The Cramps had always been there, but you had the likes of Folk Devils, psychobilly stuff like The Meteors and Guana Batz, The Janitors, James King & The Lonewolves, even the Sid Presley Experience. They probably wouldn't thank me for comparing them to those bands, and they were a lot looser and swampier than that. Around that time it felt like an increasing number of bands were looking back to the 50s and 60s for inspiration. Even the Jesus and Mary Chain, who were pretty big news around that time, had a very 60s inspired sound."

In fact, Pete Kember (aka Sonic Boom) was a fan of some of those bands, but was calling on other less immediately obvious influences. As Pat Fish ( The Jazz Butcher) recalls.

"I know that Pete was, and is, very fond of the Cramps and the Folk Devils," said Pat. "I was very into the Folk Devils myself at the time. But I didn't really perceive the band along those lines. I think I got caught into a sort of Velvets/Mary Chain sort of thing, which, of course, left me wondering at the time why they didn't play faster... Of course, when I spent time with them later, often in the front bar of the Black Lion, it was explained to me that, although they liked the Velvets, they were more drawing from a common well; Bo Diddley, Gospel, the Blues, than they were trying to ape the Velvets themselves."

The Black Lion was a typical working men's pub. It had character, but it would never have won any beauty awards. The backroom was bare bones. Underfoot, the blotchy red carpet felt like a damp bloody sponge. A claw of leathery nicotine stretched across the ceiling. The air was a jelly of spilt beer, weak dope and stale smoke. I'd been going to the Black Lion fairly regularly for about a year, having heard of the venue on BBC Radio Northampton's Sunday music show, 'The Pulse'. As a thirteen year old, I was a massive Bauhaus fan. Upon spotting David J in the backroom of the Black Lion one night in 1984 and, apparently calling upon my most fledgling journalistic instincts, I tried to collar the bassist for an interview. I failed.

Having been to very few gigs by my 15th and 16th birthdays, I had very little to compare the place to. Nonetheless, the Black Lion had quickly become my favourite gig venue. I'd often visit at the weekends on the off-chance of seeing a band, any band, play live. It was only a matter of time before Adam and Chris came with me.

"The Black Lion was a great place to see bands," said Adam. "I think this was only the second time I'd been, having previously seen the Jazz Butcher there just a couple of weeks before. It felt like quite an important place for local bands, by which I mean bands from Rugby as well as Northampton."

Spacemen 3 had only recently started playing at the venue. Pete Kember remembers how it used to work back then.

"It was the first place I remember us playing outside Rugby," said Pete. "Not the easiest threshold to cross. As a label-less, unknown band. My memory is that Jason was booking all the shows at that point and that the landlord requested a demo tape, and for whatever reason gave us a show date. I suspect he might have been a Hawkwind fan , which was a point of reference people used to make back then."

Pat Fish remembers the then owner of the Black Lion as a colourful, if rather unfortunate character.

"The landlord, Dave Turvey, was a lovely, peaceful chap," said Pat. "He got very unlucky over the summer of 1986. Various unsavoury types from out of town would appear at the pub of a weekend. At times the pub would be swamped with out-of-town - and very indiscreet - dope pedlars. They didn't just upset the regulars and their local connections, they were so boisterous about the whole affair that they attracted the attention of Old Bill as well."

"I was away on tour in America when the inevitable police raid came. They turned the place over, searched Turvey's flat for drugs (even though he didn't use them) and generally acted malevolent about making an example of the nasty, scary hippie pub. They threw the book at Turvey and he did time in Bedford Prison, just like John Bunyan."

"After the restoration of the monarch, when the freedom of nonconformists was curtailed, Bunyan was arrested and spent the next twelve years in gaol as he refused to undertake to give up preaching. During this time he wrote a spiritual autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, and began work on his most famous book, The Pilgrim's Progress, which was not published until some years after his release." Wikipedia. John Bunyan. Image from Wiki Commons.

"The phrase "Turvey is innocent" can probably still be seen sprayed on walls in Northampton today," added Pat. "And it can be heard in Curtis E. Johnson's rather lovely song 'Improbably Northampton'. There wasn't another venue in England like the Black Lion at the time."

Turvey is Innocent gig poster taken from Glycon LiveJournal.

Local Northamptonshire musician, Mark Refoy, was also in the audience that night. This was to be his first ever encounter with Spacemen 3. It was an important evening for him. Mark played guitar and sang in a band called The Tell Tale Hearts. They went on to play on the same bill as Spacemen 3 many times. In 1989, Mark joined Spacemen 3 as a guitarist. He played on the Recurring album and was part of the first Spiritualized line-up.

"I heard about the gig from a guy called John Lucibello, a local musician," said Mark. "He said he'd seen them at the Black Lion sometime previously. He said they were kids from out of town playing drone type psychedelic music and that I should check them out. I'd never heard of or seen Spacemen 3 before. The Black Lion at the time was THE place for bands to play in Northampton. It had been a venue for maverick types to come and and plug in and play for years, with sympathetic landlords and bar staff. Earlier on that year, the Old Grey Whistle Test had done a short film about the scene going down there."

Watch the original report, broadcast on April 26, 1985, on BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test above. John Lucibello, whom Mark Refoy mentioned, is interviewed in the film. Presenter Mark Ellen shows you the tiny, elevated stage in the backroom of the town centre pub. The [awful] mural you can see in the photos throughout this feature was painted upon the back wall soon after this BBC report was filmed. To get into the backroom, you had to pass through an ancient, dank, brick alleyway that ran along one side of the building. Mark remembers it well.

"You would enter from an alley at the side of the pub which led to the backroom," said Mark. "You'd normally have someone on the door taking money and giving you a stamp. In the case of Spacemen 3, I think Pete was on the door that night. I can't remember how much it was, a pound maybe? The bar in the live room was on one of the sides, you could go to the main bar out front also which had a good time spit and sawdust atmosphere."

Pat Fish recalls a rather night and day life for the backroom. It appears that a very different crowd stalked the floor on band nights.

"When I started playing the Lion I was new in town and I really didn't know anybody," said Pat. "I barely dared speak to Turvey. I think Dave Barker from Glass probably sorted our first few appearances there. In nuts and bolts terms, I really can't remember how gigs used even to come to take place there, but somehow they did. Some gigs, like those by Mark Refoy's then band Syndromes, would be absolutely heaving with young, fashionable kids. Very odd when one bears in mind that the backroom of the Lion spent most of the week as the preserve of scary, older blokes who chain-smoked reefer while they played pool. Many of whom I can now, after all these years, count as friends."

The bar was little more than a hole in the wall on the right hand side as you faced the stage. Not that we had a huge amount of use for it at our age, as Adam points out.

"As for the bar, I don't remember it much," said Adam. "We wouldn't have been old enough to be drinking in pubs, and so probably kept a low profile. We probably had some tins of Special Brew or Merrydown cider for the train or walk through town."

Spacemen 3 did not hang out at the Black Lion much themselves. A visit to the Northampton pub was more about playing gigs.

"[We only visited the Black Lion ] when we were playing in all honesty," said Pete. "None if us were big drinkers at the time. I used to hang with Pat & Alex from the Jazz Butcher Conspiracy a bunch, but it was more about smoking."

Dinginess was part of its appeal. No matter where you stood in the audience, you were always very close to the band.

"At the risk of offending the then proprietor," added Chris. "The Black Lion was a bit of a dive really, or at least the backroom was - I don't think I ever went in the bar. I think it might've been a bit of a biker joint. The backroom had some slightly bizarre Egon Schiele-esque, vaguely soft porn murals of ladies with very few clothes on behind the stage. It was dark, smelly, pretty much your average pub backroom where unknown bands played. Decently high stage and low ceiling though, so the sound was okay, and you could see the bands - even if they were sitting down, as Spacemen 3 were a lot of the time."

"Northampton had some good bands at the time ," added Chris. "The Tell Tale Hearts, Jazz Butcher, Marabar Caves - all who played the Black Lion - and there was a bit of symbiosis going on between Rugby and Northampton bands. Northampton bands would play Rugby and vice versa."

The Sir Colin Campbell pub on Gosford Street, Coventry is now called The Phoenix and is part of the Coventry University campus. Photo by Elliot Brown. Licensed under Creative Commons.

Some members of the audience had seen the band before. "I had seen Spacemen 3 once before, at the Pilgrim Club in the Sir Colin Campbell, Coventry," said Adam referring to the upstairs club that ran once per week in the mid-eighties at the city centre pub, fourteen miles west of Rugby.

"That was a mid-week, psychedelic type club above the pub there," added Adam. "There were photocopies of Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe plastered on the wall."

"I don't know if that was the band or the club who did that," said Adam. "But it definitely shared an aesthetic with the Reverberation Club that Spacemen 3 and the Cogs Of Tyme had in Rugby.

"I thought they were great," said Adam. "I remember they played Bob Dylan's 'Like A Rolling Stone', and we were Bob Dylan nuts at the time."

The Cogs of Tyme were another local Rugby band. They regularly played with Spacemen 3 in Rugby and further afield. Above is a recording of a song called 'Cry Girl' from a Cogs of Tyme gig supporting Spacemen 3 at the Black Lion on 25 October, 1985.

At the time, The Cogs of Tyme were more popular than Spacemen 3. The drummer, Tim Morris, had also been Spacemen 3's first ever drummer.

Chris also remembers seeing Spacemen 3 live once before. All be it, through a pub window in Rugby. "There'd been a bit of a buzz about Spacemen 3 in Rugby in 1984," said Chris. "Or at least that's when we heard about them. I think the first time I saw Spacemen 3 play was at a pub in Rugby called the Black Swan - that could even have been in 1984, I'm not sure."

The Black Swan Public House, and next door the shop which is possibly the oldest building in the town.
Date take: 3 July 2007

The Black Swan was known locally as "The Dirty Duck". It was popular with young people in the mid-eighties. It had two rooms; a main bar area - all old wooden beams and nicotine stains - and a smaller, quieter lounge bar with sofas.

"We were watching them from outside through the window," said Chris. "Possibly because I probably wouldn't have got served in the pub anyway as I was 15/16 in 84/85. I just remember that the swampy bluesy sound had been replaced by distortion and feedback, they were sitting down, and basically playing one chord for about half an hour - I think it was 'T.V. Catastrophe' - later to become 'O.D. Catastrophe'."

"I remember thinking, "Whaaaaattt????" said Chris. "You can't do that. Bands stand up to play. Only one chord????! It's an outrage!!" Basically, perfect for a typical fifteen year old 'know-it-all' who took his music very seriously. It really felt like it was kicking against the pricks. We tried to see them as often as we could after that. Twice a week if we could"

Another Rugby band, called In the Outback, supported Spacemen 3 at the Black Lion on August 3. Bizarrely, for a support band, they ended up playing for far longer than Spacemen 3. None of us teenagers liked them.

"In the Outback were a slightly more gothically inclined band from what I remember," said Adam. "Maybe a little like The Cult. They were quite popular in Rugby and probably went down the better of the two bands on the night. I think quite a few people had come principally to see them."

"[In the Outback] were friends," said Pete. "Jason had been in the band as lead guitarist before we formed Spacemen 3. They were patently a very different deal, but there wasn't a lot of bands in the same vein & I suspect maybe The Push were unable to play. [The Push split up the previous month]. It might also have been down to equipment, but they were friends."

The main memory I have of the support band was the drum kit. It was huge. So big, you couldn't even see the drummer. It took an age to take down. So long to dismantle that we were worried we would miss most of the Spacemen 3 set. We'd have to leave soon after 11PM to get to catch the last train back to Rugby. And the train station was a good fifteen minute sprint away.

The difference between the support band's hi-hats, tom-toms, cowbells, cymbals, snares, branded drumsticks and Natty's sparse, stapled together kit said it all. Spacemen 3 had only what they needed. Nothing more.

"I think we were just happy to be out of Rugby," said Pete. "Our shows in Rugby pre-Black Lion were a strange affair. We weren't over-loved in Rugby at that point."

As for the scene in Northampton at the time. Spacemen 3 were aware of it, but didn't feel a part of it.

"The local scene?" added Pete. "We knew about the Jazz Butcher by name, and of course it was Bauhaus territory - it was pretty much what you'd expect for a smaller city at that time."

Whilst In The Outback played far longer than any of us desired to listen, they did at least have the courtesy to introduce Spacemen 3 before the concluding song of their mammoth set. You can hear that introduction by clicking the file above.

I remember how the atmosphere changed as soon as the support band finished. Spacemen 3 put on their own mixtape. I was feeling a bit embarrassed. I had recently interviewed Pat Fish, a musician whom Adam, Chris and myself admired greatly, for our fanzine and I had encouraged him to come to the gig that night. Only now, we had collectively suffered an hour of new wave, goth nonsense. He must have been expecting the worst from this band I had talked up. The mixtape may have helped relieve any worries.

"I recall that the support act was tiresome," said Pat. "Very attention-seeking new-wave twaddle with a rickety rhythm section is about the entirety of my recollection. My expectations for the Spacemen were high. I had been told they would blow my mind. I guess I expected something psychedelic but beyond that I didn't really have any idea."

I pressed record on the Sony Walkman TCM-12 as Suicide's Rocket USA came on. I'd never heard it before, but I liked how it sounded. Then, there was No Fun by The Stooges, which we had already heard. I was in the habit of recording these snippets at gigs. At the time, it was a way of learning about music I didn't know.

I used a cheap external Tandy microphone. I plugged it into the Walkman. The recorder sat in the inside pocket of my jacket. The microphone wire looped through the arm of my jacket and came out at the sleeve. In that way, I could hold the mic unobtrusively in the palm of my hand, point it at the stage and record. Or, if it was too hot to wear a jacket, I'd hold the jacket in front of me, the Walkman in a pocket, with the microphone poking out of the sleeve and still I was able to record.

From a 2015 perspective, this may sound rather paranoid behaviour, especially considering these were unknown bands at the time. But, some local bands did get upset about having their gigs recorded. However, Spacemen 3 were different in that regard. Quite the opposite, in fact. They even sought out our recordings. They seemed quite happy to have their gigs recorded and shared.

But, back to the mixtapes bands would play at gigs. The music before the band even started.

Mixtapes at gigs were important in the mid-eighties. The music was a message for the audience, "This is where we're coming from. This is the music we listen to. This is our benchmark. If you like this music, you might like us. Or, if you like us, you might like the music on this mixtape."

Dream Baby Dream by Suicide. Released in 1979.

I learned a lot about music from Spacemen 3 mixtapes. The first time I ever heard Dream baby Dream by Suicide was before a Spacemen 3 gig in Rugby. I could immediately hear the connection between the two bands. Not in the sound necessarily, but in the feeling of the music. Same goes for Sad Song by Lou Reed which I first heard at another Spacemen 3 gig in 1985.

Regardless of the support band, we were pleased Pat Fish had heeded our young ears and turned up for the gig on this night. I vaguely remember telling him at a Jazz Butcher gig at the Black Lion some weeks before that Spacemen 3 were a bit like the Jesus and Mary Chain with the feedback thing. To which he responded that there was a glut of 'feedback bands' in the wake of the Reid brothers. I tried to explain that Spacemen 3 had different feedback. That they had Spacemen Feedback. And they were much more intense than the Mary Chain. Less pop, more blues, more out there. Not that I knew what 'out there' meant.

Back then, anything with feedback in it sounded great to me. And that first Spacemen 3 demo tape had one ten minute long song full of feedback on it. We'd discovered the Velvet Underground, the Jesus and Mary Chain and the like during the previous school year. It was incredible to think a band that sounded similar to these bands could come from our tiny, little town.

The backroom was not full by any standards, but there was an atmosphere remembers Adam.

"There must have been a decent number of Northampton people there," said Adam. "And there were a few from Rugby too. There were enough people there to give it a bit of atmosphere, definitely. The Black Lion usually just had a little bit of edge to it that you can't define, really - something that lifted it above the average."

Pat Fish had also heard about the band from Pete Bain, the on-off-on-again-off-again bass player with Spacemen 3, at a gig by his recently deceased band The Push.

"I'd been introduced to the Sound of Rugby Town about a month before by The Push," said Pat. "With a gum-chewing Pete Bain playing a sparkly bass guitar and barking "Baby! Baby! Baby!" in a very authentically garage sort of way. I suppose if I had expectations of the Spacemen, they might have been shaped a little bit by that. But these were times when things were coming through that did strike us young 'uns as genuinely new. It was two or three years, for example, before it was explained to me that the Jesus and Mary Chain was in fact like listening to The Byrds with the hairdryer on. So I was ready for something I hadn't seen or heard before."

"I think the audience consisted mainly of curious people like myself who'd come by word of mouth," said Mark.

"There wasn't many there, some Rugby people came too who I didn't know at the time. The atmosphere was quite heavy due to the nature of the music and the attitude of Spacemen 3. They were amazing," Mark added.

They began playing without any introductions. Spacemen 3 rarely spoke to the audience, especially in the very early days. They just set up and played. I knew the first song that night. It was '2:35', from the demo tape. I didn't know the second one. [It was 'These things have got to be'. This song was later renamed as 'Ode to Street Hassle' on The Perfect Prescription album]. Unlike the album version, Jason Pierce sang it live. In fact, he always sang it live, even though Pete Kember wrote the song. I knew nothing about how to play a guitar at the time and I was utterly astonished at the racket their guitars made on both of those songs.

I clearly remember watching Pete Kember moving one finger between chord changes as he played 'These things have got to be'. Just one. I can remember being astounded that such a tiny movement was all it took to make that incredible wall of sound. It was not too long after this gig that I bought a guitar and formed a band with Adam and Chris.

Kember smoked the whole way through that second song. He had his eyes closed. Whenever the chord changed, I noticed he would lift his head up as if he was in some kind of ecstatic state. The two photos here capture that movement. In truth, the Spacemen looked a bit out of it. I seem to remember Kember standing up after they played this song. He appeared completely shocked at how the world looked while standing on two feet. And he promptly sat back down again.

"The other strong, immediate impression was that they looked so insanely young," said Pat. "Sonic, in particular, looked so neat and tidy. How could we have known? When I wrote a short piece on the band for ZigZag Magazine, I opened it along the lines of "Here come your girlfriend's little brothers mates...""

During these early gigs, Spacemen 3 would break strings. A lot of strings. And there were long periods spent tuning up. This gig was no different.

"The other memory of Spacemen 3 gigs around this time was the incredible amount of time they would leave between songs," said Chris. "Christ knows what they were doing. Part of it was tuning up, but we're talking upwards of five minutes here. No attempt to engage the audience, or apologise for the intermission, or explain the hold up, you know, like other bands might do to try and look like a 'professional' outfit. Nothing. Of course, this just added to the feeling of 'no compromise' The whirring of the optokinetic light-show during these 'breaks' is a sound I'll take to my grave."

In part, the need to tune up was down to the playing style. In part, it was down to the equipment.

"[The Burns guitar] was kind of a beautiful looking thing," said Pete. "but tuning wise, it was a hindrance for sure. But, until I could stretch to something better it was a sweet thing."

"It was a good set, really good," said Adam recalling the gig before having a chance to listen back to the tape thirty years later. "I think they played a fair while, with probably not that many songs, as most of their songs were fairly long, especially in these early stages."

I also asked Pat to try and remember what they played before listening back to the tape.

"I've not heard a recording of the show since that night. I think I can remember them playing 2:35, Losing Touch With My Mind, Mary-Anne and possibly Rollercoaster," he said. "Pete's probably still got the bloody set list..." Pete Kember later gained a certain reputation for saving a lot of the band's ephemera.

"The Spacemen 3 audience at that time was, I guess you'd say, the 'usual suspects'," said Chris. "Spacemen 3 and Cogs of Tyme ran a night called the Reverberation Club at The Blitz in Rugby, a pub just around the corner from where I lived. I remember going there with my brother and a couple of other mates and being slightly daunted by the whole thing - that crowd were a few years older than us, and listening to 'strange' music I'd not really heard before."

"The people who went to the Spacemen gigs tended to be the same people, and I didn't really know them," continued Chris. "Being in Northampton, The Black Lion was slightly different. There was quite a lot of apathy and laziness in Rugby, so surprise, surprise, Spacemen 3 gigs at the Black Lion (or anywhere outside Rugby for that matter) tended to be considerably less well populated than those in Rugby, and this gig was no exception. So I think pretty much anyone who was there was from Rugby. As I said, I seem to remember The Black Lion was an old biker joint, so you used to get the odd guy with a knotted beard, barely able to stand hovering by the exit door, and then one or two other locals who were drinking in the bar wandering in, curious as to what the hell was going on. A first encounter with Spacemen 3 at that time tended to result in a certain amount of bemusement."

It was just before a rather shambolic run through of The Stooges Little Doll that Spacemen 3 realised that their psychedelic optokinetic light show wasn't visible. It was Kember who asked the barman to turn all of the lights out. You can hear the guitarist on the tape telling him "And that one" to turn the last of the lights out.

To which the barman replied, kind of shocked, "AND that one?" only to realise that when he did flick the switch off just how brilliant the backroom looked filled with the golds, purples, greens, blues of the light-show. You can hear the barman saying "Very pretty". It's a shame that those lights never came out in the photos. It definitely added to the atmosphere at the gig.

"They were different from other bands on stage as they were often seated, and their look was quite out-of-kilter and like a gang," said Adam.

Everyone I interviewed who was at the gig remembered the band sitting down to play, but not all of the band did. As can been seen in the photographs, Jason Pierce stood up for much of the night at this gig. I must have seen Spacemen 3 play fifty times or more between 1985 and 1989. However, this is the only time I ever saw him stand up to play at a gig.

During the latter third of the eighties I was a student in London. I was on the tube one day. I had a white and black Spacemen 3 badge pinned to my jacket. Someone, who was sat opposite to me on the tube noticed it and, unusually for people on the tube in London, leaned forward to talk to me. His opening question, "Is it true that Spacemen 3 sit down when they play?"

"This early lineup was a little older than we were and I suppose I found them a bit intimidating to start with, even though they were a local band," added Adam. "They were just a 3-piece at this stage as well, with no bass. We thought they were great - obviously something really different but which also had references to some of the bands that we were into like Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, some of the '60s punk stuff. Despite this, I remember thinking that they were unlikely to get anywhere - it seemed too far out, and I didn't imagine they would have the necessary ambition. I'm glad I was wrong."

"My most vivid memory is that Natty's drum kit gradually disintegrated," said Adam. "I think it started with a tear in the bass drum, but slowly imploded. Not in an overtly rock'n'roll, smash-up-your-kit way, just in a way that becomes inevitable if you keep pounding away at something that is broken. It was quite funny, in fact."

"Natty really didn't have a snare drum that night? I don't remember that!" said Pat after being reminded of the fact. "He was obviously not your regular rock drummer, that was instantly clear. He didn't quite have the Mo Tucker thing going on, though, either. I think I might have settled on Angus Maclise."

"What struck me hard was that there was no bass player. That night there really were but Spacemen Three: Natty, Jason and Pete," added Pat. "Of course, over the years we've seen a few no-bass combos make a brief name for themselves but back then it seemed extraordinary. I'm still not sure if that was a deliberate policy decision on the band's behalf, or whether it was just a case of no one being available at the time. Remarkable, also, that they were sitting down. When I got to know them, Pete and Jason both made the very reasonable remark that it's much easier to play guitar sitting down. These days, I play guitar sitting down."

These three people on the stage in front of us looked completely normal. Even square. The fact that they were capable of making that utterly outrageous sound. Without the need for bad hair. Or bad clothes. In the back of a Northampton pub no less, was very inspiring to us teenagers. They seemed completely out of place and out of time. As a result, they were utterly mesmerising.

Natty Brooker playing drums at the Black Lion in Northampton on October 25, 1985. Via @johnnyp_p on Twitter. "Another poorly composed on cheap Kodak Spacemen 3 shot. Natty Brooker at The Black Lion Northampton."

I can remember being stunned by how Natty drummed. How he had his drumsticks the wrong way around (or, the right way around for the Spacemen sound). And how he smashed at the cymbals. It was so simple, but so brilliant. Such an exotic sound. Like the great big crashing gong of an imagined house band playing an Ashram on the Great Silk Road... or... something... While Kember and Pierce were the monks with electric prayer wheels... and a lawnmower... or something. Natty Brooker was an exceptional artist as well as a pure musician. Arguably, he was the most creative of all the Spacemen. He was the one to introduce blues and gospel to Kember and Pierce. His work adorned Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized records and posters.

"We all thought Natty was the bomb," remembered Pete. "He had an idiosyncratic way of doing everything. He did have a very cool take on drumming. The band were all pretty tuned to the same non-musician 'do it our way ' kind of vibe. Except Jason, who was already a fairly natural and talented guitarist. But, we sort of did what we could and put the effort in where we knew it worked."

Years later, I was sitting in a garden in Rugby with Natty. We ended up talking about band names. I said I thought Ho Chi Minh And The Revolution would be a great band name. Natty said he'd always wanted to have a band called Genghis Khan And The Flower Children.

Sometimes, I try to imagine what someone from America would make of this odd little band, from this odd little town and the odd music they created, based largely upon odd aspects of American music, but germinated, fertilised and matured in Merry Olde England. How could it possibly work? The truth is, without the likes of Natty, it would never have worked.

It was Natty who came up with the question: "Are your dreams at night 3 sizes too big?"

Natty, more than anyone I got to know in Rugby bands around that time, remained true to his own, free raggletaggle spirit. A spirit that Will Carruthers captured so well in his 2014 obituary to Natty.

"Considering the size of the crowd, the reception for both bands was pretty good," said Chris. "I guess we were 'the converted' - people who were interested enough in the bands to travel to Northampton to see them. Plus, when gigs aren't very well attended you tend to get an exaggerated response from those that are there, so there was plenty of cheering and shouting. The only other thing I remember is a couple of hippy girls in front of us dancing to Little Doll - hunched forwards with their arms wrapped round each others' shoulders like a conjoined version of Rumpelstiltskin." After an extensive search in various fan's Spacemen 3 archives, no photos of the conjoined hippies are known to exist.

One thing we were all agreed upon was that this gig was something special. Something none of us had experienced before. Yes, we were young, but even so. It was a sound we'd end up chasing around the English Midlands and the rest of country for the remains of the decade.

From more gigs in more pubs in 1985, and getting booed off at a biker's party in the backroom of the Imperial Hotel on Oxford Street, Rugby in early 1986.

In reality, most of the audience weren't booing at all. They wanted the band to play on, but the 'bikers' at the back of the room won out. One sole punter, clearly a Spacemen 3 fan, can be heard on the tape recording telling the bikers to 'Shut up and fucking listen you fascist bunch of fucking no-brain bastards'. However, the Biker party DJ was less than impressed by the insult and offered to take the chap 'outside'. This was followed by a very embarrassed and very British silence and one last song - a rapid blast through 'Walkin' with Jesus'.

The band were then asked to leave the premises... But, they'd be back. Three years later, to be precise. To play a free 'practice' gig in the same back room. The second time around, it was standing room only, no 'bikers' were present and the booing was replaced by rapturous applause. This free gig - Freebie 3 - was just a few days before the band headed south to London to play their first, and last, headliner at the Kentish Town & Country Club.

Six singles, four studio albums, a live album and several European tours later... the band came a long way in the years that followed the gig at the Black Lion in 1985.

Spacemen 3 gig at the Kentish Town & Country Club in London July, 1989 reviewed in Melody Maker.

"This was obviously something different," said Adam. "Even from stuff like the Jesus & Mary Chain, who shared some musical common ground but were already quite big. There were different influences, used in a different way. Also, they were from Rugby. Bands from small towns grow up in a greater degree of isolation than bands from big cities."

"I remember being very impressed by the way they sounded and looked," said Mark. Like Adam and Pat, I asked Mark to recall the gig without listening back to the tape beforehand. "It was very simple but powerful too. I think I remember them playing 2.35, Mary Anne and Things'll Never Be The Same. I don't know how many songs they played, maybe they played for 45 minutes - an hour? They looked like ordinary guys, concentrating hard on what they were playing. They sat down which was weird and they didn't have a bass player. And they exuded an air of supreme confidence which they were right to have because they were brilliant. Some jealous people subsequently mistook this for mindless arrogance. The only reaction of anyone else I remember was Pat Fish. He was blown away, as I was too."

The Jazz Butcher stands alone at the very front of the Black Lion stage on August 3, 1985 transfixed by Spacemen 3. Original photo was lost. This scan is from 'Spacemen 3 & the birth of Spiritualized' by Erik Morse.

Pete Kember remembers the meeting with the Jazz Butcher as a very important early connection for the band.

"Yes, it was an important meeting for us," said Pete. "Mostly down to having another 'musician' be very taken by what we were doing. A lot of our friends were in bands in Rugby, and the attitude to us was mostly disappointment or maybe fear."

"Pat Fish had had some hook up with The Cogs of Tyme who might've been still called The Push at that point, whom Pete Bain had left Spacemen 3 to join for a period around there."

The Jazz Butcher played vastly different music to Spacemen 3, but his enthusiasm was decisive in building the band's self-belief.

"It was very much a spur for us," added Pete. "As he was relatively successful in getting his music & band heard, both in Europe and in the USA, so it gave us a lot of hope. He did a number of things for us early on that really made the difference I think. You might say, no Jazz Butcher no Spacemen 3."

"We went on to organise a few swap gigs with Spacemen in Rugby and Northampton," added Mark. "And several times Jason would call and ask me to book a date at the Black Lion for them. I think it's fair to say that if I hadn't gone to that gig that night then I might not have ended up playing with Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized."

"The gig was pretty incomparable," said Chris. "We'd had the goth thing - Bauhaus, Sex Gang Children, Sisters of Mercy - that petered out and there wasn't really any particular musical 'movement' around 1985. As I said, there did seem to be an emergence of bands who sounded to be coming more from a 50s or 60s standpoint, but they were conventional bands. Spacemen 3 were a revelation. It felt like returning to Ground Zero. Everything revolved around one chord, the 'hypno-monotony' as they called it, they sat down, they didn't talk, they didn't have a bassist (for this gig, and for a while around this time), they didn't even have a snare drum I don't think. Natty played with a floor tom, a hi-hat with a tambourine on it, a crash symbol and a bass drum. That was the kit. Oh, and he played the odd bit of maracas. The lyrics had vaguely religious or spiritual connotations, and at the risk of sounding like an old hippy, it did feel extremely parred down, pure and spiritual, like they'd completely gone back to basics and meditated upon those basic things. And I'd certainly never seen anyone playing feedback as an 'instrument' as Pete Kember was doing, and doing to great effect. So yeah, one guitar, one feedback, one voice, and one very basic drum kit. For the mid 80s that was pretty different."

Some weeks after this gig I heard that Spacemen 3 had sent their original demo tape to Elektra, home of The Stooges, and to some other big record labels that were home to bands they admired.

I can remember thinking at the time that this was immensely naive, but also such an obvious and brilliant move too. It was only with the passage of time that it became clear that they were right all along. They had that confidence in their songs and their sound. However unformed their ideas were in 1984, they knew precisely where they slotted in to rock's lineage; Garage. Gospel. Blues. Stooges. Velvets. Stones. In hindsight, that teenage conviction was borne out.

The last song they played at the Black Lion that night was 'Somewhere in our hearts things won't be the same' [Later called just 'Things'll never be the same']. It's still one of my favorite Spacemen 3 songs.

We all thought it was a sitar Pete Kember was playing during this song on this night in Northampton. It was a few weeks later when someone told us it was an electric Turkish instrument called a saz. I only ever saw them play with the saz twice. It was stolen from a gig they played in the backroom of the Caldecott Arms pub in Long Lawford village at the end of August, 1985. "I still have one Saz," said Kember. "But the electric saz was stolen at the Lawford show. I know who has it..."

The best version of 'Things'll never be the same' I ever heard Spacemen 3 play was soon after Jason Pierce acquired a wah-wah pedal [and soon after my tape recorder stopped working]. They played a gig with The Shamen, long before that band became massively popular, upstairs at the Peacock pub on Newbold Road in Rugby in January, 1987.

The only thing I can remember about The Shamen that night is that they all sat rapt at one side of the room near the stage watching Spacemen 3 and when they started their own set they played something that sounded like The Magic Roundabout.

It was the most electric blues I ever heard Spacemen 3 play. It was also the first time they played 'Take me to the other side' live. Before they'd given the song a title, or even had lyrics for it. They played it as an instrumental that night. It sounded like the early demo, minus the words.

Peacock Public House, Newbold Road, Rugby.
Date 17 January 2006.

However, the perfect version of 'Things'll never be the same', to my mind, was never recorded. If it had been, it would have been a cross between the Black Lion rendition embedded later in this feature, with Sonic Boom's saz drone running through it, and this Perfect Prescription era demo.

When asked whether the music came first in 1985, or the words, Pete said, "It varied. Sometimes [words and music] were pretty simultaneous, but often they were written separately and put together afterwards. Jason wrote those lyrics [to 'Things'll never be the same'] I dont think they're about drugs particularly. Jason wrote some amazing lyrics."

Sometime in 1986, I remember hearing a rumour that the band intended to put a version of 'Things'll never be the same' on every album they would ever record. Such a brilliant idea. It's a shame that they never followed through with it.

"Spacemen 3 was always a bunch of strong personalities," said Kember. "Our music was based partly on that, I believe. But, we were pretty in sync at that juncture."

On the tape, as the band finished playing and the final tremulous notes rang out of Kember's saz, you can just make out an excited Mark Refoy asking Adam, Chris, Sean and myself if we were from Rugby and telling us that he thought Spacemen 3 were "fuckin' brilliant." He was so enthused, he talked to the band after the gig. He would later write about the gig on his Facebook page as part of a "most memorable rock shows" list. It sums the gig up very well.
"I'm about to sip a beer and Big Tim Sansom is saying something in my ear that I can't remember........... the beer doesn't get to my lips because Spacemen 3 have just started playing and I'm totally and utterly transfixed....... I think they started with 2.35........ Tim is still trying to tell me something, he obviously isn't under the spell.......an electric sitar type drone starts up and Spacemen 3 are relentless.....there's only 3 of them and they look about 17........Pat Fish has stumbled to the front of the stage and is looking up in awe.......the drummer is pounding a rolling tribal tom tom and staring out in front......the guitarists are sitting down(!) staring at their guitars playing one note forever.........These lot aren't pissing about.....They're hooked, and so am I..........."
"I approached Pete and spoke to him after the gig," remembered Mark. "I wanted to get to know them, see what made them tick. I said something like 'you're the best band I've seen in town since Bauhaus' But he wasn't impressed by that and shrugged his shoulders and said he wasn't really a fan of them. But we did swap numbers and I went on to put them in touch with a studio where they did a lot of recording."

When I asked Pat Fish what he thought of the band, as Adam, Chris, Sean and myself got ready to make a speedy exit to the train station, he turned to me, with a slightly glazed, maybe shocked, look and said, "You know what I think." I felt like he wasn't really sure he knew what he'd seen, but whatever it was he knew it was very important. He'd been affected enough by the band to spend much of the gig stood alone at the front of that stage he knew so well. He leaned on the monitors, gazed up at the band and occasionally shook his head in disbelief. It was true what he said, I did know what he thought. Spacemen 3 were amazing.

I can remember bumping into Kember and Pierce in Rugby the weekend after the gig. I was sitting with Chris on the benches at the clock tower in the centre of town. We were probably talking about music.

I didn't know any of Spacemen 3 at that time. However, they knew I had some photographs from the gig the previous weekend. The two of them walked over and asked about the photographs. I happened to have the black and white negatives that appear in this feature in my bag at that very moment. I showed them to Kember and Pierce.

I told them that I thought the gig the previous week was fantastic. I asked if they thought they might get a support slot with The Jazz Butcher as a result of their impressive performance. At that time, a support slot, was the obvious 'next step' for a band from a small town like Rugby. I remember Pierce smiled and replied, "I think he might be the one supporting us."

That statement might have sounded arrogant to me at the time. But, like Mark Refoy mentioned earlier on, Spacemen 3 were simply very, very confident in their music, their words and their sound. And they didn't care if it came across as arrogant or otherwise. They knew what they were doing.

At the very end of the tape recording, as Adam, Chris, Sean and myself exited the ancient, damp, brick walled, Black Lion tunnel and we reached the air of St Giles Street pavement, you can hear the 16 year old me say,

"One of the best concerts I've ever..."

And it still is. I never went to a better gig. Sure, you listen to the recording and it's ropey. 'Little Doll', a song I never liked anyway, is a bit of a mess. 'Things'll never be the same' is crude and raw, but that's all part of why this gig was so powerful. It was rough and pure, free of ego, ramshackle and utterly brilliant. It's a combination you cannot fake. And there was nothing fake about Spacemen 3. I pressed the big, black STOP button on the Walkman. The four of us raced through the Northampton streets to the railway station where we just managed to catch that last train back to Rugby.

Listen to the unedited recording of the gig below. It begins with the pre-gig mixtape playing. It also includes long gaps, some tuning up, teenage muttering and good music.

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A-side: Are Your Dreams At Night 1985 Sizes Too Big?

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In the early 1980's, in the small town of Rugby in the centre of England, three teenagers began melding early blues with feedback, one chord drones, booming drums, smashing cymbals, gospel, Turkish saz and two note melodies. Natty Brooker, Pete Kember and Jason Pierce were Spacemen 3.

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helpful to show what we identify as ghosts and how they might look.

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Ghosts, the paranormal and the supernatural have always been debated. Do they exist?

Many people have reported sightings before, but without any real proof, they're usually disregarded as merely stories. Being able to take photos of spirits obviously helps the cause, but are all of them real or have some been doctored?

Here is a round-up of 24 of the most famous "ghost" photos of all-time. Some have been faked no doubt, but they look so good on first inspection they could definitely convert some non-believers.

William Mumbler

William Mumbler is credited with creating the first photo to show a ghost in the 1860s. But it wasn't a ghost at all, it was simply an accidental case of double exposing a negative while taking photograph of himself. The entrepreneur in him turned this into a business, where members of the public would have their portrait exposed with an image of a dead relative.

Sybell Corbett

This image taken of the library at Combermere Abbey in Cheshire, England by Sybell Corbett clearly shows a figure sitting in the chair on the left. It's believed to be the ghost of Lord Combermere, a British cavalry commander in the 1800s.

Sir Victor Goddard

This image was taken by Sir Victor Goddard, of his squadron in 1919. The ghostly image behind the fourth sailor from the left, at the top, is believed to be of Freddy Jackson. Jackson died a few days before the photo was taken by walking into a moving propeller.

Keith Tracy

This image taken from the SS Watertown shows the faces of two crewmen, James Courtney and Michael Meehan in the water. The two men died while onboard the ship and were given a burial at sea.

Other crew members on the ship saw the faces in the water but didn't initially take photos, they went back to a similar spot and saw them again. Five of the six photos showed nothing, but this was the sixth and clearly shows the faces of two men.

Captain Hubert C. Provand

This photo of "The Brown Lady" is considered by many to be actual photographic evidence of ghosts. It was taken at Raynham Hall in Norfolk, England in 1936. There had allegedly been many sightings of the figure before this photo and it's said to be the ghost of Lady Townshend. She was locked in a room in the hall by her husband when he found out about her infidelity and left there to die.

Mrs. Andrews

This photo of a child appearing over a grave was taken by Mrs Andrews in 1947. She noticed the ghost when she had the film developed, but said it wasn't her daughter in the picture. Despite there being some graves for children nearby, the child in the picture has never been identified.

ligotti

This image, taken at some point in the 1950s shows a small family sitting at a table. Two boys sit happily on their mother's laps but a pretty terrifying and unexpected guest has also dropped in. Hanging disturbingly from the rafters.

R.S. Blance

Nobody knows who the ghostly figure in this photo is, but it was taken in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia in 1959. Some people think it's just a case of a double exposure, while others think it could be a spirit watching us, or something else, because it looks like they're holding binoculars.

Mabel Chinnery

This photo was taken by Mabel Chinnery in 1959. It shows her husband in his car with, allegedly, her dead mother-in-law on the back seat. While paranormalists believe it to be real, others have debunked it as being another case of double exposure.

Reverend K. F. Lord

Some analysts think this photo taken at Newby Church in North Yorkshire, England is a fake because the character looks to be posing too much. However, Reverend KF Lord insists there was nothing visible to the naked eye when he took the photo, and photo experts say it hasn't been double exposed.

Rev. Ralph Hardy

This photo taken inside the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, clearly shows a ghostly figure holding the handrail of the Tulip Staircase. Photo experts have all agreed that it hasn't been tampered with, so is considered a genuine example of ghosts' existence.

Robert A. Ferguson

Because this photo was taken on a Polaroid, it's been deemed by many to be legitimate. It shows Robert A Ferguson giving a speech, with the ghost of his deceased brother Walter peering over him.

Peter Berthelot

Peter Berthelot took this picture of his wife, Diane, sitting on a pew at the Worstead Church in Norfolk, England in 1975. When they had the film developed, they noticed a ghost sitting on the pew behind Diane. A man allegedly stayed in the church all night sometime in 1830 to try and disprove the theory of ghosts, but he claimed the following morning he had in fact seen the white lady seen in this picture.

Ed and Lorraine Warren

This photo, taken by Ed and Lorraine Warren, claims to show the ghost of nine-year-old John DeFeo. DeFeo, along with his other brother, two sisters and parents, were killed by his older brother Ronald at their house in Amityville.

Ed and Lorraine Warren were paranormal experts who entered the house and captured this image using a camera that consistently took infrared photos during the night.

The DeFeo murders were the inspiration for The Amityville Horror books and films.

Bill Tidwell

The Toys 'R' Us store in Sunnyvale, California is allegedly haunted by the ghost of Johnny Johnson, and this image shows a silhouette leaning up against the shelves. The same figure wasn't there when the photo was taken.

The story goes that Johnny had a thing for a girl named Elizabeth, the daughter of a plantation owner - the plantation used to be on the Toys 'R' Us site. Johnny bled to death after cutting himself chopping wood, and now roams the aisles of the store searching for her. Or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Chris Brackley

If you look carefully in the upper right-hand corner of this photo, you can just make out a translucent figure. It was taken at St Boltoph's Church in 1982 and, at the time, there were only three people in the building. A builder later contacted Chris Brackley, who took the photo, to tell him he recognised the face as being the same as someone he'd previously seen in a coffin in the church.

Fortean Picture Library

At first glance, you'd think there's nothing wrong with this photo. But look again, and you'll see a tall, dark figure wearing what could be a monk's frock, with a hood, in the top left. This is a photo of the Coventry Freeman society showing everyone at the event, including the mysterious figure, bowing their heads. Nobody at the event was seen wearing that style of clothing.

The Society of Psychical Research

In 1987, Mrs Sayer was visiting air airfield in England with her friend. She thought it would fun to take a photo of her sitting in the cockpit.

When the image was developed, there was a man sitting in the pilot's seat who hadn't been there when the photo was taken. A long lost pilot? No one is sure.

Sharon Boo

The white figure in this photo is believed to be some sort of angel, overlooking Rose Benvenuto, who was involved in the car crash. She said it could only have taken a miracle for her to survive the crash, and lo and behold, there's an angel-like figure in attending firefighter Sharon Boo's photo.

Ghost Research Society of America

The Ghost Research Society of America took this photo at Bachelor's Cemetery in Illinois, after it noticed strange readings on its equipment. Researchers didn't see anything at the time, but when this image was exposed, it showed a woman in white clothing sitting on one of the graves.

Tony O'Rahilly

Although Tony O'Rahilly's photo appears to show the ghost of a young girl in the doorway to a burning down Wem Town Hall, it was later deemed to be a fake. The girl in question apparently appears on a postcard that appeared in the local paper.

Terry Ike Clanton

Only Ike Canton's friend was seen when this photo was taken, The mysterious man wearing a hat behind him wasn't. Canton later looked more closely at the photo and decided the figure was, in fact, holding a knife, with the point ending just above his collar.

Denise Russell

Denise Russell took this photo of her grandma, who lived alone at the time, on 17 August 1997. Even though the photo had been developed, copied and given to other family members, nobody noticed the male figure standing over her until Christmas Day 2000. The Russell family say it's a spitting image of their grandpa who died in 1984.

From Brad Steiger's Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits and Haunted Places

This picture at Sefton Church in Liverpool, England, clearly shows a man wearing a black uniform, believed to be the old church minister. There were allegedly only two photographers in the church on the day it was taken, and neither of them recall seeing a physical being standing there when the photo was taken.

Ghost Research Society

The two girls in this photo, taken in Manila, Philippines, didn't report seeing anyone or feeling any presence when this photo was taken. It was also taken on a digital camera, so it can't have been the result of double exposure.

waverlyhillslouisville

This image was snapped in an abandoned tuberculosis hospital in Louisville, Kentucky in 2006. As you can imagine, in its heyday, the hospital saw an incredible amount of sickness and death - leading many to believe in the possibility that it could be haunted.

In recent years, it has become one of America's most popular destinations for ghost-hunters.

This eerie image apparently depicts Mary Lee, a nurse who hung herself in the hospital. The story goes that this poor woman was impregnated by a doctor who worked in the hospital but later wanted nothing to do with her.

Neil Sandbach

Neil Sandwich took this photo of a farmhouse where his friends were getting married. When he put the photo into Photoshop and adjusted the exposure, he noticed a mysterious white figure on the right-hand side, appearing to be peering out of a doorway. Cleaners at the farmhouse had apparently seen the ghost of a young boy wearing white clothes before, too.

Andy and Debi Chesney

Years ago, sometime in the 1930s, it's said that a school bus full of children broke down near a railway crossing in San Antonio, Texas. Tragically, a speeding train hit the bus, killing several children and the bus driver.

This photo taken by Andy and Debi Chesney appears to show some ghostly apparitions that people have suggested look like ghosts of the children. Like any of these images, there is some debate about whether they're real and even if the history itself is true, but they're still spooky.

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The most famous ghost photographs ever taken

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Ghosts, the paranormal and the supernatural have always been debated. Do they exist? Many people have reported sightings before, but without any real proof, they're usually disregarded as merely stories. Being able to take photos of spirits obviously helps the cause, but are all of them real or have some been doctored?

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The Old Black Lion

Black Lion Hill, Northampton.

On arriving in Northampton and leaving the train station, visitors may be forgiven in passing the Old Black Lion Public House without so much as a second glance, turning their heads to the more attractive St Peter's Church next door. But this 17th Century stone-built, two storey, Welsh slated grade II listed Inn hides a few sinister secrets!
Situated next to St Peter's Church and opposite the remains of Northampton's Castle 'Postern Gate', this haunted location has had many paranormal disturbances over the years, from lights switching on and off, banging doors, voices and footsteps and beer barrels moving mysteriously to strange shadowy figures appearing upstairs and in the bar. This is just some of the phenomena reported at the Old Black Lion.
The Pub was once known as 'The Plasterers' Arms' until it burnt down in 1675; after it was rebuilt it was re-named The Black Lion in 1720. The Pub also housed workers building the nearby railway station. The Black Lion became 'The Railway Tavern' but soon reverted to The Black Lion. There is also talk about tunnels beneath the Pub, leading from the cellar to St Peter's Church and to the Castle opposite. There is certainly a strange and malevolent atmosphere in the vaulted stone cellar and indications of a blocked passageway.
In 1892, a former owner of the Black Lion named Andrew George McRae, born in 1855, was sentenced to death at the Sessions House for murdering his mistress Anne Pritchard and their young child. McRae was the last murderer to be hanged at Northampton on 10th January 1893, at the age of thirty-six. He cut her body into pieces and the torso was found in a bag with the name of his brother's firm on it and it wasn't long before he was arrested for the crime.
Knowing a little of its history and having a strange unknown fascination for the place every time I passed from the station, I took part in a 'Ghost Hunt' with a fellow investigator on Saturday 30th October [Halloween] at 8 PM. The event proved popular and was hosted by the Milton Keynes Ghost Busters.
An infra-red camera was set up in the cellar and viewed from the bar area upstairs. The profusion of orbs on the screen signalled a spectacular night ahead! Meeting in the function room upstairs as the lights flickered, we were split into two groups and our group with the MKGB's medium Hayley went to investigate the cellar. On entering a door behind the bar and down a flight of stairs into a room where the barrels were situated, we went through another door and down the stairs into the dark vaulted stone cellar. The atmosphere seemed very oppressive and the group sat in the centre with the medium conversing with the spirit through the use of an EMF (electro-magnetic field) meter and then the ouija board. The EMF meter was used to indicate the presence of a spirit and also as a simple 'yes' and 'no' answering device where the green light would rise through orange and to red.
I sat in a corner by the supposed tunnel entrance, now blocked and almost immediately felt a strange sensation in my feet and legs. It seemed to rise upwards through my feet like an electric current until it felt as if my feet had melted into the floor below, and my legs disappeared. This increased in intensity and as the others were busy angering and provoking some French entity into manifesting, I heard a deep and long sigh next to my left ear, but of course there was nobody there! The area around the entrance to the cellar was also very active and lots of bangs seemed to emanate from the doorway. During all this time I heard things fall all around, especially in the corners of the cellar and at one time something fell on my left shoulder. My fellow investigator who has mediumistic abilities said that the French spirit was bored and not interested in 'playing the game tonight'.
I stood at the centre of the back wall and put my hand into the little hole in the stone of the blocked passageway and stood there for a time. I sensed a great rushing towards me from the passage as if to push me away, but that was all I sensed. From the pictures I saw after the event the room was filled by orbs and I recall seeing something white fall from the cellar roof in front of my eyes which I cannot explain. We next tried our hands at the ouija board with little success, the spirit was well and truly tired of being pestered and could only muster the odd chain of knocks on demand. Yet we were told following the sitting that a member of the MKGB Team was scratched on the arm and I did see the scratch (he did go out of his way to antagonise the French spirit though).
After a short break investigations resumed outside, in the outbuildings attached to the site. These buildings still held the negative energy from the terrble events that happened there in the past and although no definite phenomena, except taps on demand, the feelings within those buildings were certainly dark and oppressive.
The investigations then moved inside, to the area situated at the right of the bar which in the past served as the butchers' shop. Almost immediately the door to the street outside gave a great rattle as if 'something' wanted to get out, or come in! Strange sounds continued and the EMF meter shot into the red on demand. Investigations terminated upstairs where it began, in the function room with a short ouija board session which again produced no results. The night ended around 1.30 AM and the streets were filled with Halloween monsters, vampires and ghosts, but my fellow investigator and I had our own Halloween encounter to remember at The Old Black Lion and I would conclude that there is a strange 'otherworldly' atmosphere there, particulary in the cellar and the outbuildings and something wicked this way definitely comes!

See also the Milton Keynes Ghost Busters for further details of investigations:

mkghostbusters.com

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The Old Black Lion Black Lion Hill, Northampton. On arriving in Northampton and leaving the train station, visitors may be forgiven in passing the Old Black Lion Public House without so much as a second glance, turning their heads to the more attractive St Peter's Church next door.