Sisters of Mercy - Classic or Dud

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.

I just can't get into any of the studio albums thereafter... although, yeah, I do like "This Corrosion" for its goth campiness, and can't get it out of my head, because it was my first exposure to the band, via that video...(oooh yeah, shore more pits, Patricia.. "Sing!", girl)

Unfortunately, the promoters pulled the entire tour -- probably due to poor ticket sales -- but I remember Eldritch saying something about how promoters were afraid to take risks on line-ups that would cross-pollinate audiences from very different musical territories, etc..

and then a year or so later, along came the first Lollapalooza.

(Not saying a Sisters/Public Enemy tour would be the first atypical tour, but I thought it was a cool gesture on both bands' parts to try it.)

...with Gang of Four as openers.I saw it roll through Radio City Music Hall. Andy came out for the encore wearing a PE baseball jersey, which was dead cool, i thought.

I just can't summon up a desire to listen to them now, although that Sisterhood record was extraordinary and I wouldn't mind hearing that again at all.

The Reptile House record was my favourite, if I recall correctly, although Temple of Love 12" really blew my mind when I first heard it.

DOMINION!

classic, obv

Does anyone remember James Ray & The Performance?

For me, when the Sisters ceased being a "band" per se and just became Andrew and whomever else he happened to have recently befriended, I sort've lost interest a bit. Once Wayne and Craig left, they took much of the mystique with them (only to squander it in a very silly fashion in the Mission who, I must confess, I was a rather large fan of for a while).

Most of what James Ray did was sub-Sisters piss but Texas is a fine single and is pretty much everything you should ever own by him (says the guy with Gangwar albums stagnating around here somewhere).

I went to see them a Bath Moles around 1991/2 just to convince myself James Ray wasn't just a guise under which Eldritch could release any crap he wanted. 16 people turned up, it was shite.

I stand by what I said upthread though, it was all downhill after Adrenochrome.

"For me, when the Sisters ceased being a "band" per se and just became Andrew and whomever else he happened to have recently befriended, I sort've lost interest a bit."

Actually, that's when I start loving them.

I the fake-rock Steinman stuff and only like the I'm-too-gloomy-for-my-leathers gothy stuff.

I didn't see the video until way after the fact.....and it's embarassing (though not as embarassing as the Mission's clip for "Stay with Me", which -- I believe -- was intended to be silly and over the top). Not sure if "This Corrosion" is supposed to be taken seriousy or not as a video, but it was dire.

Their version of "Gimme Shelter" is beyond outstanding.

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