Sisters of Mercy - Classic or Dud

Classic? Yes, natch, etc.

I too saw them on the aborted tour with Public Enemy & Gang of Four at NYC's Radio City Music Hall. Finest moment was when Andrew came back out for the encore wearing a Public Enemy baseball jersey.

The best gig I was never at was the one in the early 1980s where the Sisters of Mercy were supported by an up-and-coming Smiths.

nostalgia - classic, in hindsight - dud

when i wasnt sleeping through the 80s i avoided becoming a goth by whistling 'Delia Sands' by the Brilliant Corners and skipping in my Starbrite pyjamas.

NO NO I MUST BE HARD CHARVER OVERLORD RUFFNECK RIPPINITUP.......

Oh yes, I'll admit, VISION THING was pretty lame but FLOODLAND was epic at its best. Love the bass line from "Lucretia".

ALICE! Don't - give it away!"

I love this band.

xpost

OWNZ

I struggle to forgive Eldritch for three shows now (one with Depeche Mode in 91, Reading Festival with Tony James 92? and one a couple of years ago in Glasgow) for very nearly making me not care about this band any more.

Be honest Alex - if you could stand the best Wayne song against even the worst Benn Gunn era song, who would win? Exactly. (It's also worth noting at least a few of those songs existed as rough versions before Wayne turned up - see also some Mission and Ghost Dance {the only one of the lot to embrace their Glam roots properly} songs having turned up at Sisters soudchecks.)

http://www.denis.co.uk/acatalog/dor-mi-wh-uu-l-0001.jpg

If I posted a note transcription instead, most would shrug. ;-)

that said, they do have some classic jamz.

ihttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/dalek.jpg

OTM re pre-Wayne era Sisters, though there are still a few good tracks to be found during and after Wayne. That version of 'Sugar Baby Love' I grabbed off your slsk roxorz, not so sure about 'He's got the whole world in his hands' though...

To be fair, Mr E does say before it that you'll all hate it.

OK, I may have overstated slightly the shiteness off the Wayne era and beyond, but decent tracks are few and far between. I've never rated Marian, btw.

Eldritch + Steinman should = genius, instead = quite good.

And is the SSV album that bad? I've never managed to find it anywhere.

http://www.thesistersofmercy.com/gen/ressv.htm

Yeah, I'm with Siegbran there -- there were a number of albums that Merciful Release put out in the early nineties that were non-SOM, but none of them seemed to be a guise for the man himself.

In regards to new material and you personally - the last thing I am aware of you ‘releasing’ was some remixes for Die Krupps in 1994. What are you up to lately? Anything new since then - or in the works? Rumour has it that you’ve produced a couple of techno albums under various pseudonyms - any truth to this?

You are very well-informed. That is a rumour I will not deny (although I prefer the description "ambient-pop-industrial-techno hybrid with tunes and intelligence"). Nor would I confirm it if it were true - because rumour has it that I actually performed the albums in question. My contract with East West prevents me from being a featured artist in any other arena, and East West are prepared to spend a lot of money in court to uphold their belief that the contract is still in force. Even if I had a pathological need to openly perform on records, I would need an awful lot of money to assert my freedom. I have neither, so it's not much of an issue.

Actually, East West are preparing to spend a lot of money in court to uphold their belief that I should be forced to make records for them. Most labels give up when the artist has been on strike for four years or so. East West are so desperate that they won't give up ...after seven years. That really is desperate.

That sounds like a "yes, it's true but I can't legally say so" to me.

o.g. temple of love forever

I'm glad Steinman never got his hands on "Floorshow, "Body Electric", "Anaconda", "Heartland" or "Body and Soul".
It kind of ruined "Temple of Love" and "Alice" when Andrew made them sound bigger in 92 and 93.

"marian" is so good. turn it up man!

thus proving my point re 'i prefer the earlier stuff' as i really love the '92 version

ahh ... but which version ?

― mark e, Thursday, April 22, 2021 10:23 AM (two minutes ago)

any version tbh

It's like Louie Louie ... when Temple of Love starts playing, you gotta go now (and hit the floor)

ha.
very true.
ooh to hear either version on a big club soundsystem again.
i doubt i will ever get to be in the right place at the right time.

Adrenochrome just keeps getting better with age.

― stirmonster, Thursday, April 22, 2021 9:39 AM (forty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

that’s not what I’ve heard

lol

I do think one positive thing about the Q Anon cult is that it made me revisit Some Girls Wander By Mistake and the great joy those songs bring me

also lol at the goth club DJ -- Temple of Love is what I consider a Goth Club banger

it used to drive people crazy, particularly as Sisters were thee band of that scene at that time. If people requested them he'd play Jamaican Dancehall instead but he was such a great DJ and it was by far the best place in town so all the frustrated goths kept coming back. He was taken from us right at the start of the pandemic. :(

that’s not what I’ve heard

Ha!

I do think one positive thing about the Q Anon cult is that it made me revisit Some Girls Wander By Mistake and the great joy those songs bring me

???

please do elaborate.

i generally think The Mission are piss poor but i would go see them for 6 mins and 40 seconds of Marian

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pgjCWtMS4E

xp stirmonster -- see the Andrenochrome joke

i know an older post-punk fan who went to see the sisters of mercy live and afterwards told me in earnest that there was so much fog he "couldn't see the drummer"

Since we were talking about books earlier I feel I must inform you all that Wayne's autobiog Salad Daze is one of the most Accidentally Partridge things I've ever read, especially

Physical education, or PE as we knew it, I only ever really liked football and cross-country running. I regularly came second in the school cross-country runs, beaten by Graham bloody McIntyre every time. And he also went out with Barbara Salter for a while, a girl on whom I had a huge crush for ages and who didn't even know I existed. Anyway, I became a rock star, what happened to Graham bloody McIntyre, eh?

omg ... those are so good ... what do you think about their cover of Hot Chocolate's "Emma"?

IT IS SO GOOD

i know an older post-punk fan who went to see the sisters of mercy live and afterwards told me in earnest that there was so much fog he "couldn't see the drummer"

thought i had told this on ILM, but maybe not.
i got to to see SoM in the 00's in Bristol for free.
after 45 mins of their set i had literally not seen anything other than the top part of Andrews head.
walked out and went home.
most boring gig ever.

latterday Sisters: sounds great in the club
early Sisters: sounds great in the car

otm.

I am glad Brad understands the greatness. Now time to chase live bootlegs.

(Reading '91:

Crowd: "You fat bastard!" a la Carter USM

Eldritch: "...I don't think so.")

omg ... those are so good ... what do you think about their cover of Hot Chocolate's "Emma"?

IT IS SO GOOD

― 80's hair metal , and good praise music ! (DJP), Thursday, April 22, 2021 10:56 AM (forty-eight minutes ago)

THIS IS THE OTM OPINION BTW

last time I heard vision thing it was much better than it had seemed to me when it was new -- I remember buying it then and listening and thinking, well, I guess I've grown out of this band or something but these lyrics are nowhere near as clever as they used to be and this doesn't feel like much of an improvement on the last one. older ears more forgiving but I'm still with Team Early Years here; those records are special.

at exactly 3:38 of this clip there's a young fellow who looks incredibly familiar to me because I've been seeing his face in the mirror all my life. not the head banging guy at 3:37 though within a couple of years I would metamorphose into more that dude than the pensive goth dude

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL8vWgOIG7E

I remember when you had to buy They Shall Not Pass, the CNT compilation, to get hold of it (which wasn't that much of a hardship since it had other good stuff on it including Pink Headed Bug)

Not heard their version of Pink Headed Bug! I guess that Jon Langford brought it into the band

re jon : well i never.

i mean, i knew of the connections, but not to this level :

https://clrvynt.com/jon-langford-interview/

if only i had got to leeds a couple of years earlier.
i got there in oct'86, and the three johns were still a force to be reckoned with (SO SO good live), but the whole SoM thing had faded away.

Ha, great interview - thanks for the link! Also I think I got the wrong end of the stick about Pink Headed Bug, apols

Yeah CNT was a Langford heavy label so this is 3 Johns version but the Langford/Sisters link is underrated

I love that in that interview Langford leans on Eldritch showing him b&w Doctor Who.

mark e, i nearly moved to leeds in october '86 but followed love and went to glasgow instead. i wonder if i had if our paths would have crossed, perhaps at a 3 johns gig?

i did get to leeds a couple of years earlier though to visit my sister who was living there and saw SoM at leeds uni.

mark e, i nearly moved to leeds in october '86 but followed love and went to glasgow instead. i wonder if i had if our paths would have crossed, perhaps at a 3 johns gig?

first time i saw them was at their 'free johnnies with the three johnnies' gig that they put on for the AIDS charity in the basement of a leeds university bar.
they were of course brilliant, and such sonic insanity made me become a fan for life.
and then my memory is fazed as i may have seen them elsewhere prior to their final 3 gigs at the 'pub with no name' aka the duchess of york.
but booze and excess etc.

i.e. i think i went to see them at a venue on the outskirts of leeds, a ballroom type of venue.
but i cant recall the name, or the reason why i was there.
but i am pretty sure i was there.
whereas their supposed three final gigs at the duchess i most certainly was.
they were so so so good live.

I want to say this was Hyde Park somewhere?

actually, i think it was the Astoria (Harehills, and a very ballroom type of place), it could have been the gig that was recorded for Death Of Everything
in fact, i do remember going, cos i went with friends.

Dylan sacked on stage on Saturday. Lots of speculation that the end is imminent, and they may not even see out the currently booked shows.

source??

read about the two Roundhouse gigs here - https://www.myheartland.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=37

(specifically, starting on page 6 of the 22nd September show)

thanks!

Dylan's not been seen since Saturday. Sunday & today (forum members are live posting during the Amsterdam show): Ben (guitar & vocals), Chris (nurse/keyboard/drum machine), Andrew (croaking)

Bauhaus::Sisters of Mercy
Frank Sinatra::Nancy Sinatra

Uh, I think you’re going to need to expand a little on that analogy.

I thought it was pretty well self-contained.

So like, Bauhaus are the Sisters' dad, but the Sisters are more underrated and do great duets? Is Terri Nunn Lee Hazlewood?

Damn, now i really want to hear Frank Sinatra singing Bela Lugosi

The Sisters had a fruitful collaboration with Jim Steinman, so maybe the analogy works?

I want to be a part of it, undead undead

Hahaha!

I can imagine Andrew Eldritch singing "Some Velvet Morning" but only the Lee Hazlewood parts