The band who formed the Merciful Release label!

THE place for your Sisters-related comments, questions and snippets of Sisters information. For those who do not know, The Sisters of Mercy are a rock'n'roll band. And a pop band. And an industrial groove machine. Or so they say. They make records. Lots of records, apparently. But not in your galaxy. They play concerts. Lots of concerts, actually. But you still cannot see them. So what's it all about, Alfie? This is one of the few tightly-moderated forums on Heartland, so please keep on-topic. All off-topic posts will either be moved or deleted. Chairman Bux is the editor and the editor's decision is final. Danke.
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Black Shuck
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I was kinda bored today, and being rather sad and geekish I thought I'd do a very sad and geekish thing...
I remember reading, in an old issue of Record Collector, of a Leeds punk band called the Impossibles, who formed a record label called Merciful release in 1980 and released at least one single on it. This event was also mentioned by glasperienspiel in their history of the Sisters (http://www.gps.tsom.org/history.html). So I've had a good search around the net and found as much info as I could about this elusive band (which aint much); Here goes...

After forming at Exeter University in the late seventies (NOT Leeds, as RC and glasperienspiel claimed), the band (who consisted of three guys and a girl) changed their name from the Impossibles to the Impossible Dreamers and then formed the Merciful release label in 1980 to release the 'Books' EP (Merciful Release MR 1) which featured the tracks Books Books Books/ Not A Love Song/ Waiting For The Girl/
What Can You Do When You See Someone As Beautiful As You?/ Timing Problems
Image

The following year they released their first and only album under the interesting alias of 'The Merciful Release all-stars'. The Album was called 'Ready for the Rythm section' (Merciful release MR 2). the album was 'split' with a band called The Syndromes.

Later in 1981, a band called Sohep released the 7" single 'So Much Fun/ You could be so Nice, Dear' on the Merciful Release label, but I have been unable to find out the exact catalogue number.

The Impossible Dreamers released a single ('The House Built on Sand') on Ardadia records in 1984, and created enough of a buzz (here's a live review from NME: http://www.micksinclair.com/nme/imps.html) for RCA to sign them; they released a string of singles on RCA from 85-87, one of which, 'August Avenue', was produced by Johnny Marr!

Image


So there you go. At least this (partly) explains why the first ever Sisters record, Damage Done, was given the catalogue number or 'MR 07' instead of 'MR 01'.

there are still a few unanswered questions, though - Was there ever a link between the Sisters and the Impossible dreamers? and why on earth were the Sisters able to release 'The Damage Done' in 1980 using a label name that was already in use? and why did the IDs suddenly stop using the Merciful Release label in 1982, the year the Sisters released 'Alice' on the label? (perhaps the Sisters bought the label from the IDs.)
Last edited by Black Shuck on 07 Sep 2004, 22:41, edited 1 time in total.
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James Blast
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Nice work, Sir! :notworthy:
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I'm impressed. Top notch sleuthing skills! :notworthy:
I would have done something, but I was overwhelmed by a lack of concern.
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Black Shuck
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James Blast wrote:Nice work, Sir! :notworthy:
CtrlAltDelete wrote:I'm impressed. Top notch sleuthing skills! :notworthy:
Thanks people :D
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lazarus corporation
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OK, so who's anorak enough to buy the accounts and company information/history from Companies House? ;)

To start you off, The Sisters of Mercy Limited and The Reptile House Limited are both registered business names, but strangely Merciful Release Limited is not. However, the whole thing could be something like Andrew Taylor Limited with a bunch of "Trading as..." names which don't have to be registered.

I was bored, OK!
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Black Shuck wrote:...At least this (partly) explains why the first ever Sisters record, Damage Done, was given the catalogue number or 'MR 07' instead of 'MR 01'...
I'd guessed (before I knew about this "other" Merciful Release) that it was:
a) Von and Gary hadn't (initially) intended there to be any more Sisters releases:
von wrote:So we made a record with no money and no equipment, and we heard it on the radio [...] That should have been the end of it, but...
b) The Damage Done is a 7" single...
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christophe
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this may be a stupid question but where dous the MR logo come from?
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christophe wrote:this may be a stupid question but where dous the MR logo come from?
it's a dissection diagram of the human head from Grays Anatomy. Von just added the star in the background.
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it's a rotten drawing to
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christophe
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I heard about the dissection diagram and Von adding the star.
but I always figuerd there was a step missing.. maybe not maybe I'm to paranoid...... :D
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it was re-drawn after "the damage done" single - once they saw how thin the lines on the star look in print they re-did it, and touched up the dissection lines on the head.

the missing step you never hear about was a young mr eldritch and mr marx sitting in leeds library pouring over typography books, looking for fonts to use for the logo ;)
Last edited by Quiff Boy on 09 Sep 2004, 16:05, edited 1 time in total.
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compare the size of the star and the dissection marks on the head here:

http://www.myheartland.co.uk/gallery/de ... age_id=232

with here:

http://www.myheartland.co.uk/gallery/de ... age_id=186

they re-drew the head by hand and made the star bigger and the lines thicker.
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christophe
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I know the picture pretty well :)
and i'll never forget it ... its kind of hard to when you see it every time you look your own arm ...

maybe another question.
once I saw a picture of the logo with a Sun around it. I don't remember if it was official, a backstage pass, a bootleg or maybe I dreamd about it. :? still I realy want it back .....
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I've just uploaded the original Grays Anatomy pic to the Image Gallery, for those of you who don't have books on human dissection in their collection.

Just waiting for QB to mod it into virtual existence...
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christophe wrote:I know the picture pretty well :)
and i'll never forget it ... its kind of hard to when you see it every time you look your own arm ...

maybe another question.
once I saw a picture of the logo with a Sun around it. I don't remember if it was official, a backstage pass, a bootleg or maybe I dreamd about it. :? still I realy want it back .....
The sun around the head may be the t-shirt from Summer 1998 festival tour.
I think it's rather cute. :)
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lazarus corporation wrote:I've just uploaded the original Grays Anatomy pic to the Image Gallery, for those of you who don't have books on human dissection in their collection.

Just waiting for QB to mod it into virtual existence...
http://www.myheartland.co.uk/gallery/de ... age_id=832

:von:
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Petseri
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They may not clear up matters, but the topic of the early MR releases has been discussed slightly in threads at http://www.myheartland.co.uk/viewtopic. ... e+merciful and http://www.myheartland.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=4483.

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christophe wrote:I heard about the dissection diagram and Von adding the star.
but I always figuerd there was a step missing.. maybe not maybe I'm to paranoid...... :D
--- Yeah, there was, but it came much later on. Gary's portrait on the inner sleeve of FALAA had him doing an impersonation of the Gray's Anatomy illustration.....
.... there is no semblance of rock 'n roll around here!
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christophe
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TheBoyNextDoor wrote:
christophe wrote:I know the picture pretty well :)
and i'll never forget it ... its kind of hard to when you see it every time you look your own arm ...

maybe another question.
once I saw a picture of the logo with a Sun around it. I don't remember if it was official, a backstage pass, a bootleg or maybe I dreamd about it. :? still I realy want it back .....
The sun around the head may be the t-shirt from Summer 1998 festival tour.
I think it's rather cute. :)
thank you :D
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christophe wrote:
TheBoyNextDoor wrote:
christophe wrote:I know the picture pretty well :)
and i'll never forget it ... its kind of hard to when you see it every time you look your own arm ...

maybe another question.
once I saw a picture of the logo with a Sun around it. I don't remember if it was official, a backstage pass, a bootleg or maybe I dreamd about it. :? still I realy want it back .....
The sun around the head may be the t-shirt from Summer 1998 festival tour.
I think it's rather cute. :)
thank you :D
is it one of these?

http://images.google.com/images?q=siste ... =&ie=UTF-8
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christophe
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actualy I don't see it :?
I don't have alot of time to search (again) but I'll try again tomorow. and if not I'll drow it myself ;)
see ya. ....
christophe
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is it one of these?

http://images.google.com/images?q=siste ... =&ie=UTF-8[/quote]

No it's not. I'm sorry, but I think I've lost mine.. don't seem to find it anyway.. If it turns up I might scan it.
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And what was - for example - MR 05?
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Dan
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pikkrong wrote:And what was - for example - MR 05?
MR5 was THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAMERS - 'Life On Earth' 12", released in 1982, nearly 2 years after the Sisters released MR7!
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Dan wrote:
pikkrong wrote:And what was - for example - MR 05?
MR5 was THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAMERS - 'Life On Earth' 12", released in 1982, nearly 2 years after the Sisters released MR7!
is there any explanation?
:eek:
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