BBC6 Interview???

[mockeldritch]

Hello.

Apologies as I'm sure this has been covered, but a great deal of searching on my part has failed to uncover any links to the oft-mentioned AE interview on Radio 6 recently. Has anyone got a copy they can send me?

Thanks.

Looking forward to seeing/meeting you all this evening

[Quiff Boy]

i'll bung it on a cd and bring it along if you want.... mp3 or audio cd?

[mockeldritch]

i'll bung it on a cd and bring it along if you want.... mp3 or audio cd?

Hey, thanks. Nice one. If you don't want to waste a CD you could e-mail it to me if you like, though. mp3 would do perfectly.

I'll PM you with my e-mail address if you want to do it that way.

[Quiff Boy]

i'll bung it on a cd and bring it along if you want.... mp3 or audio cd?

Hey, thanks. Nice one. If you don't want to waste a CD you could e-mail it to me if you like, though. mp3 would do perfectly.

I'll PM you with my e-mail address if you want to do it that way.

it's about 13 mb

i'll bring a cd

[mockeldritch]

i'll bung it on a cd and bring it along if you want.... mp3 or audio cd?

Hey, thanks. Nice one. If you don't want to waste a CD you could e-mail it to me if you like, though. mp3 would do perfectly.

I'll PM you with my e-mail address if you want to do it that way.

it's about 13 mb

i'll bring a cd

Thanks again. I'll be very interested to hear it.
Look forward to seeing you later.

[Ribbons75]

Please, someone has the interview in text format ? otherwise it makes reassuming me of the more important things that he says ?

Thanks and Bye !

[mockeldritch]

So, did the CD finally make it into Paddy's capable hands? Or am I just going to have to sit and spin?

[Quiff Boy]

So, did the CD finally make it into Paddy's capable hands? Or am I just going to have to sit and spin?

the last i heard richey got the hell out of dodge with it still in his grubby little mits!

oh and by the way: paul b. says hi

[mockeldritch]

So, did the CD finally make it into Paddy's capable hands? Or am I just going to have to sit and spin?

the last i heard richey got the hell out of dodge with it still in his grubby little mits!

oh and by the way: paul b. says hi

Ho hum. Big Si sent me a link to a download, so I've got a copy anyway, but I still want that CD!!!

Say hi to Paul from me.

[RicheyJames]

aaah, yes. sorry about that mockie but i was so wasted on sunday that i completey forgot to send said cd off on the first leg of it's perilous journey back to you... still, if it weren't for me it would have been snaffled by one of the great unwashed back in the royal park - they'll nick owt that isn't nailed down round there!

if you want it back pm me with your address and i'll stick it in a jiffy bag amd trust it to the royal mail's finest.

as soon as i receive the ransom of one million dollars that is... (damn, where's the dr evil smilie???)

[Erudite]

Hello.

Apologies as I'm sure this has been covered, but a great deal of searching on my part has failed to uncover any links to the oft-mentioned AE interview on Radio 6 recently. Has anyone got a copy they can send me?

Thanks.

Looking forward to seeing/meeting you all this evening

Evening Sid,
If you do get a copy would you mind bringing it up to Aberdeen next month so I can put it on my PC?
Either that or if some kind soul would like to make an MP3 available for download...

[Big Si]

Hi Erudite!

Please check your PM's



Big Si

[Gripper]

The 6 interview- there's definitely, definitely a link to it now at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/artists/

I notice it's also in with a (presumably dum-dum) bullet at number 9 in the list of 'top searches'. Ah! A top-ten hit at last!

[Gripper]

....and there's the following pen-portrait there too:

Ahem....

"A post-punk UK rock outfit whose flirtations with gothic imagery have dogged the public and media perception of them throughout an eclectic career. The Sisters Of Mercy formed in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, in 1980, when Leeds and Oxford University drop-out Andrew Eldritch (b. Andrew Taylor, 15 May 1959, England; vocals) teamed up with Gary Marx (b. Mark Pairman, England; guitar) and a drum machine. After releasing "The Damage Done" (on which Eldritch plays drums and guitar, and Marx sings) on their own Merciful Release label, the band expanded to include Ben Gunn (guitar) and Craig Adams (bass) for supports with Clash, Psychedelic Furs and the Birthday Party. A cult reputation in the north of England was augmented by excellent press, and further enhanced by the release of their third single "Alice". A magnificent gothic dance saga, together with the subsequent "Temple Of Love" (which reached number 2 on the UK singles chart), it hallmarked the band's early musical character.
In-between these two landmark 45s Gunn left to be replaced by That Guitarist (b. Jerry That Guitarist, 26 May 1958, Bristol, England). WEA Records picked up the distribution for Merciful Release as the band's reputation continued to grow throughout 1983 and 1984. Despite the release of their debut album, the following year brought a creative watershed."

[Gripper]

Hell.
There's also this too:

"Continuing rivalries between Marx and Eldritch forced the former to depart. This was only a stopgap treaty, with the band announcing a final split in July 1985 after a concert at the Royal Albert Hall (captured for posterity on the Wake video). The rest of the year witnessed extraordinary legal wrangles between Eldritch on one hand and Adams and Hussey on the other, each claiming use of the name Sisters Of Mercy. Eldritch went as far as releasing a record (Gift) under the title Sisterhood simply to prevent Adams and Hussey from adopting this halfway-house title. The duo eventually settled on the m*****n as their new home, while Eldritch moved to Germany.
Still operating under the Sisters Of Mercy title, Eldritch recruited Patricia Morrison (b. 14 January 1962; ex-Gun Club) and fashioned a more dance-orientated sound on hit singles "This Corrosion" (UK number 7) and "Dominion" (UK number 13), and the Top 10 album Floodland. A two-year spell of inactivity was broken in 1990 with the Top 20 single "More", showcasing another new line-up; Tony James (ex-Sigue Sigue Sputnik; bass), Tim Bricheno (b. 6 July 1963, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England; guitar, ex-All About Eve) and Andreas Bruhn (guitar). Vision Thing indulged Eldritch's penchant for deep-rooted, esoteric metaphor, which occasionally makes his lyrics futile and impenetrable.
They undertook a loss-making, aborted tour with Public Enemy in 1991, though this did little to dampen the confidence of the self-confessed "world's greatest lyricist". A remixed version of "Temple Of Love", recorded with Israeli singer Ofra Haza, propelled the band into the UK Top 5 the following summer. New guitarist Adam Pearson featured on the following year's single, "Under The Gun", released to promote a greatest hits set. Eldritch's prolonged wrangles with East West Records subsequently kept the band out of the recording studio, although their erstwhile frontman remained active as a remixer on the dance music scene. Supported by various musicians he has kept the Sisters Of Mercy active as a live outfit.
DISCOGRAPHY: First And Last And Always (Merciful Release/Elektra 1985)***, Floodland (Merciful Release/Elektra 1987)***, Vision Thing (Merciful Release/Elektra 1990)**.
COMPILATIONS: Some Girls Wander By Mistake (Merciful Release/East West 1992)**, A Slight Case Of Overbombing: Greatest Hits Volume One (Merciful Release/East West 1993)***.
VIDEOGRAPHY: Wake: In Concert At The Royal Albert Hall (PolyGram Music Video 1986), Shot (Warner Music Vision 1989), Shot Rev 2.0 (Warner Music Vision 1993).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sisters Of Mercy Discography: Heartland, Andrew James Pinell.

Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Copyright Muze UK Ltd. 1989 - 2002"

That's the lot.

[Gripper]

Sorry to spoil the surprise but this would excite some other people more by the minute- there are even links to the track listings and covers of each album, together with a sample from each song.

Anybody care to up the ante by starting a rumour that there's even details of Eldritch's home address/imprint of his retina scan etc. there too?

[Erudite]

The 6 interview- there's definitely, definitely a link to it now at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/artists/

I notice it's also in with a (presumably dum-dum) bullet at number 9 in the list of 'top searches'. Ah! A top-ten hit at last!

Anyone know how to download the entire file?
A right click save as target downloads a 1K file that connects to the interview as long as your on-line!

My love/hate relationship with technology continues.

[Big Si]

Please, someone has the interview in text format ? otherwise it makes reassuming me of the more important things that he says ?

Thanks and Bye !

I'll also send it to you by email!

Regards
Big Si

"Guy" is Andrew Collins (?).

Guy: Andrew Eldritch has arrived. Hello Andrew.
AE: Good afternoon.

G: Nice to have you here...
AE: Thank you.

G: on a lovely sunny day...
AE: It is nice, isn't it?

G: You're allowed to wear sunglasses on a day like this.
AE: I have to wear sunglasses all the time. It's mandatory.

G: I would be disappointed if you were wearing them, I must admit. We have a lot of fans of Sisters of Mercy out there because we got rid of the tickets so fast, they just went like hot cakes.
AE: I suppose that's because no one means to buy them.

G: Some of them said they couldn't afford them....
AE: I like the sound of that. I like to know they're expensive.

G: So we've got 5 sets of people in various parts of the country going to
the gigs over the next few days which is good news, and they're keen and
those who listen to the program will know that I'm keen as well...
AE: It's very lovely of you to say that.

G: I'll try to hide my love of the band, I'll try to be objective but yeah,
I've been a huge fan of yours for a long time and it's good to know that
there are listeners of yours, it's not just me isolated in my crazy taste.
You're playing live again. You've always played live...
AE: Yeah.

G:... though you don't have a record out for a long time, you've always
played live...
AE: Yeah... I don't know why.

G: Because people wanna see you, I presume...
AE: *inspires deeply* I don't really know what they want. We know what they want.

G: And what do they want?
AE: They'd probably like us to go away but we're not gonna.

G: They don't! Where are you getting this from?
AE: It's silly... (???????????????)

G: But they still turn up hundreds and thousands to see you...
AE: Hundreds and thousands?...

G: Yeah.
AE: Pretty little sprinklings of people.

G: But devoted people, they say... And they love you.
AE: (????????) We love the bikers the best. Because they're good and tough with it.

G: You still get bikers? That's good. Proper bikers?
AE: Yeah. On proper bikes.

G: That you could use of course as a security, like the Rolling Stones did.
(?)
AE: Last time I played (?????) That was a moment.

[When eldritch reminds of something, he speaks too quickly the bastard!]

G: You would have been really upset about it?
AE: Yeah, I was doing everything to stop them.

G: I've been enjoying your web site, which is the sisters-of-mercy.com with hyphens between the words...
AE: And without as well. But you can't forget the "the".

G: There you go. "The" Sisters of Mercy. Although some promoters do forget the "the" as you pointed out at some point.
AE: Yeah. One guy in Poland last week tried to forget to pay us. That was
interesting.

G: Forget the "the" and the money?
AE: Yes, so we suddenly forgot how to play. It all worked out for best in
the end.

G: I've got a feeling, reading the stuff on the website - it's a lot of
stuff on there; you must put a lot of time into it - is halfway between good
humour and deep deep bitterness. Would that be fair to say?
AE: Yes.

G: *laughs* The Frequently Asked Questions section, for instance. You've
taken the time and the grace to actually answer the questions that are
always asked of you. Like where did you get the name and that sort of stuff.
AE: Aren't asked anymore!

G: I know which questions not to ask you...
AE: Bless!

G: "Where did you get that crazy name?" I wouldn't, because I know where you got the crazy name...
AE: The government hands them out.

G: Do they?
AE: Yeah. It's a... Yeah. We were quite lucky. We could have been
(??????????).

G: Then people wouldn't ask you because they'd know where you got the name from.
AE: We could have a name like Wigfield, which damns (?) you to eternal
uselessness but lots of airplay.

G: Where is Wigfield now?
AE: Probably still on the radio, I don't know.

G: Possibly here. Where do you live now Andrew, btw?
AE: I couldn't tell you that. I'd have to kill you. But I could tell you
it's sunny. (???????)

G: The north of England is where the whole thing started, in Leeds.
AE: I still do spend a lot of time in Leeds. (?) On the office floor.

G: Because people always imagine you in South America or... You have lived in Germany for a while as well, haven't you?
AE: Yeah. Not anymore. (??????) in Holland recently.

G: I would imagine Wigfield is still big in Holland?
AE: If I listened to radio...

G: You don't listen to the radio...
AE: No.

G: If you had sessions like these one I'm sure you would.
AE: I used to listen to the world service (?) (????????????) but then I put
on the web so I don't have to anymore.

G: So you listen to the radio on the internet? Which a lot of our
sophisticated listeners do too.
AE: The comedy stuff is OK on (?????) but music is a bit heavy.

G: So what's the best place to live if you want to listen to music? This
won't matter anymore because we are all citizens of the world thanks to the internet, aren't we?
AE: *deep pause* I don't know... *mumble* I know where the best place to live is for sunshine and strange drinks.

G: People imagine you don't like sunshine but that's not true, is it?
AE: I like sunshine a lot. Not necessarily (?????)

G: I'm gonna play 3 Sisters of Mercy tracks which I have chosen, that you're entitled to comment on and criticise afterwards if you like.
AE: (???????) I'm quite used to criticising.

G: You can criticise Anaconda first. I'm gonna play Anaconda because it's
the first Sisters' song that I've bought. It was the third single. Then I
came back and bought Alice which came out before. So this is 1983, and it's the production you're not keen on, not the song.
AE: Yeah. Not the song itself. I'm going to play it tomorrow. But the stuff
(?) sounds like rubbish.

G: Well let's see if everything is rubbish. Doctor Avalanche in his first
incarnation.

[Anaconda]

AE: It's still rubbish.

G: You don't like the production. But the song is still in the set.
AE: We're gonna play it tomorrow and probably the day after tomorrow. We're playing it a lot far (?) and faster than that.

G: So it's just the tediousness of it, really?
AE: Yeah.

G: But at the time, when you made it, you must have thought it was rather marvellous...
AE: (?????????????) They were rubbish but they were rubbish in (????????). I always thought it was preferable than making records that sounded like everything else.

G: But it didn't sound like anything else. Doctor Avalanche, probably the
most famous drum machine ever - even more famous than Echo of Echo and the Bunnymen - is still with you but in a different form. He has changed, hasn't he?
AE: Yes, he's like Doctor Who. Up and including the good doctors, of course. (?) We get to have Sylvester McCoy on stand, but a really a bad idea...

G: *laugh* Playing rhythm, just doing human beat box...
AE: Of course, Eleanor Bron should have been the next Doctor Who; she would have been great.

G: There will be a woman Doctor Who, it will happen. Probably before there's a woman president of the United States. *long pause* Maybe not Eleanor Bron, though...
AE: Maybe not.

G: She's too old now I think, sadly.
AE: Nooooo...

G: You got a thing about Eleanor Bron!
AE: She was great in "Bedazzled". She'd be great in everything. She would have been a great Doctor Who.

G: So, those old days, when you had just a very basic drum machine, that was the first line up of the band... There have been many line ups down the years and you're the constant; you're the nucleus of the band. It couldn't be the Sisters of Mercy without you, could it really?
AE: I did try find myself [?!] when we're having problems with Warner
Brothers... but they we're having a...

G: (????????) or walk away?...
AE: Errrrr... No, I would have been the one to stay and the rest of the band would have walked away. And I would have said "ok then".

G: We're gonna play Walk Away in a moment. People always thought Walk Away was a kind of coded message to the other members of the band. You were kind of falling out with them by the time the first album came out?...
AE: Yeah, one of them in particular but I find it irrelevant.

G: You don't need to go into the whole of that. We're going to play another rubbish song.
AE: This one is rubbish too, btw.

G: Great song, rubbishily recorded.
AE: (????????????)

G: Of course, we have to start by the beginning. We're talking back, in the old days, it was you and Gary Marx and Doctor Avalanche, then it was Craig Adams, then it was That Guitarist, then they kind of went away, then it was you and Patricia Morrison, then Tony James was involved as well...
AE: You know this stuff!!! How sad is that?!

G: Tim Bricheno, from All About Eve, he was in there for a while, so losing, losing members but you say on the website you've had a lot of guitarists but you've not had as many as Frank Sinatra. (????????)
AE: (???????????)

G: But people have always thought it was you that was the problem because you've had so many different members in the band, but maybe it was them. Was that what you were suggesting?
AE: Most of them just disappeared because they think "oooooh, hard work" and they measured it would be quite easy. So when I try to be Andrew... (???????????)

G: There was something too with the name, wasn't it? When the Sisterhood became sort of a hot potato.
AE: Who would have thought we could have two bands on the same label with pretty much the same name. They had to be dissuaded from that course of action.

G: The Sisterhood album which you put out is a great album but every track on it is seven or eight minutes long or I'd play a track of that next. So I'm going to play a track of First and Last and Always...
AE: I'll play that tomorrow.

G: Well, I could have played 3 eight minutes tracks and you wouldn't get to speak and people would be very upset.
AE: Fantastic. I'm learning sign language so I never would have to sing
again.

G: Are you really?
AE: Yeah.

G: But you know real spoken languages...
AE: Yeah. But I'm not very good at speaking. I don't like it.

G: Can you write very well German, French, these kind of languages?
AE: Yes.

G: What about Chinese?
AE: I've forgotten all the Chinese I learnt to write but that's quite
tricky.

G: I imagine it is. I know Clyde James learnt Japanese so he could read
Japanese poetry.
AE: (?????????)

G: That's what you were doing in Leeds university when you started the band, and so this kind of distracted you...
AE: Yes.

G: ... for the rest of your life.
AE: Sometimes I think I should go back and finish what I started. Not the
band I started! The academic stuff I started!

G: Let's play another track that you don't like, Walk Away, from F&L&A.

[Walk Away]

G: That sounds better than Anaconda but it's still not quite there.
AE: (????????)

G: You'll enjoy the last track which is from Vision Thing, which I assume
you approve production wise.
AE: Yes (????????) cause I made it. That time we actually learnt something.

G: There are people e-mailing saying "when's the next cd coming out that I can buy?", because it's been a while, Andrew.
AE: We keep offering stuff to record companies; they keep turning it down!

G: That's their fault?
AE: *inspires deeply* It's definitely their fault.

G: Is there a way you could get it out, on the internet or whatever?
AE: Ermmm... No, actually, cause my latest stuff is co-written with Adam. He won't let us release any of that for free. (????????) I'd have to sell it
through a major record label or it doesn't come out at all. (?????????)

G: [irrelevant] Are you playing in America again? One of our American
listeners asked. Got any plans?
AE: No, any plans at the moment. But I would imagine this summer we'll be playing beer (?) festivals again so America would have to wait till the
autumn and that's a long way so I don't know.

G: It is possible?
AE: It is possible, yeah.

G: You played one American tour... Public Enemy were on the bill, supporting gig. Do you like Public Enemy?
AE: Yes, very. It was a good show.

G: But wasn't it Detroit they wouldn't put it on because they thought it was
too incendiary to have a black and white artist on the same bill, is that
right?
AE: Detroit wouldn't give us permission to have any hall in the city limit,
so we had to go outside of Detroit for that one.

G: I suppose you can always do that. So you can beat the system?
AE: But then you're only playing to white kids with cars. [?!]

G: I saw you in the Lyceum Ballroom in '85, I'm glad I did...
AE: We're not playing the Lyceum. It was a bad... (???????)

G: It was just mainly smoke, dry ice. I couldn't really see you. I knew you were there cause I could hear you...
AE: It's still supposed to be like that but the lighting man on this tour is
not quite Smokey the bear, to be honest! *laugh*

G: I thought it was the most exciting thing on the world not to able to see
the band so that was fine with me...
AE: The most exciting thing in the world is not to be able to see the
audience, let me tell you.

G: *laugh* So what's the audience like now?
AE: (??????????)

G: We had an e-mail from Derek M., he said "I'll be the fat ex-goth with the Gautier (?) and no hair standing at the back". I'm sure you get a few of those, don't you?
AE: Sounds like our catering man...

G: The "G" word come up. I know it's your least favourite word...
AE: Guardian reader.

[what/who are they talking about?!]

G: People seem much more comfortable saying they're Guardian reader you ever did, about being called a Guardian reader's band.
AE: *mumble*

G: Does he still (????) or he moved on? (?)
AE: (?????????) greatest living Englishman.

G: That will do. Or intellectual love god. People always said that you hated
the music journalists, that you hated the press...
AE: Well, I slept with a couples. They can't be all bad...

G: Which ones were they? Must have been from "Sounds"?
AE: Errrrr... Well, here's a clue: one of them writes for the Observer now.

G: Really? That's very interesting.
AE: And the Times.

G: Ah! I think I know who you're talking about! Well, obviously we won't go into it but that's very interesting! But I thought you were loved by the
press in some way...
AE: I was always loved in that way. Thank you, yes. I thought you wanted to know the (??????) details...

G: No. But you were loved by some journalists. Some journalists thought you were great.
AE: Yeah. We got a few covers on the Melody Maker. Not so many in Sounds. We were always completely ignored by the NME.

G: But you're still going now, so who cares?
AE: We'll outlast the NME.

G: I'm sure you will. We're going to play Detonation Boulevard which is from Vision Thing and we're saying yes to the production...
AE: This is not rubbish!

G: ... Because you did it! It has been a great pleasure, Andrew. You can go outside now and light your fag.
AE: Oh, thank you

Dead Inside was it really you who sent this to dominion

[DerekR]

G: We had an e-mail from Derek M., he said "I'll be the fat ex-goth with the Gautier (?) and no hair standing at the back". I'm sure you get a few of those, don't you?
AE: Sounds like our catering man...

Wah! my moment of greatness spoiled. Derek M indeed. For 'Gautier' read 'goatee'.

Ah well, I was still mentioned in the company of greatness.

[dead stars]

Dead Inside was it really you who sent this to dominion

Yes. But then Dan Smith corrected it. Here:

------------
I listened to it and added the bits you missed.
Dan

> "Guy" is Andrew Collins (?).
>
> Guy: Andrew Eldritch has arrived. Hello Andrew.
> AE: Good afternoon.
>
> [Finally Eldritch's voice sounds like the records, despite what some
people
> said. I have an interview from Floodland era and his voice seemed so
feeble
> I was amazed. Voices get thicker with age.]
>
> G: Nice to have you here...
> AE: Thank you.
>
> G: on a lovely sunny day...
> AE: It is nice, isn't it?
>
> G: You're allowed to wear sunglasses on a day like this.
> AE: I have to wear sunglasses all the time. It's mandatory.
>
> G: I would be disappointed if you weren't wearing them, I must admit.
We
have a
> lot of fans of Sisters of Mercy out there because we got rid of the
tickets
> so fast, they just went like hot cakes.
> AE: I suppose that's because nobody's been buying them.
>
> G: Some people said they couldn't afford them....
> AE: I like the sound of that. I like to know they're expensive.
>
> G: So we've got 5 sets of people in various parts of the country
going to
> the gigs over the next few days which is good news, and they're keen
and
> those who listen to the program will know that I'm keen as well...
> AE: It's very lovely of you to say so.
>
> G: I'll try to hide my love of the band, I'll try to be objective but
yeah,
> I've been a huge fan of yours for a long time and it's good to know
that
> there are listeners of yours, it's not just me isolated in my crazy
taste.
> You're playing live again. You've always played live...
> AE: Yeah.
>
> G:... though you don't have a record out for a long time, you've
always
> played live...
> AE: Yeah... I don't know why.
>
> G: Because people wanna see you, I presume...
> AE: *inspires deeply* I don't really know what they want. We know
what
they
> want.
>
> G: And what do they want?
> AE: They'd probably like us to go away but we're not gonna.
>
> G: They don't! Where are you getting this from?
> AE: It's certainly our job to tell 'em what they need and not their
job to
tell us.
>
> G: But they still turn up hundreds and thousands to see you...
> AE: Hundreds and thousands?...
>
> G: Yeah.
> AE: Pretty little sprinklings of people.
>
> G: But devoted people, they say... And they love you.
> AE: No they are good. We love the bikers the best. Because they're
good
and rough
> with it.
>
> G: You still get bikers? That's good. Proper bikers?
> AE: Yeah. On proper bikes.
>
> G: That you could use of course as a security, like the Rolling
Stones
did.
> (?)
> AE: Last time we played at the Albert Hall they almost beat up the
head of
our record company on our behalf. That was a moment.
>
> [When eldritch reminds of something, he speaks too quickly the
bastard!]
>
> G: You would have been really upset about it?
> AE: Yeah, I was doing everything to stop them.
>
> G: I've been enjoying your web site, which is the
sisters-of-mercy.com
with
> hyphens between the words...
> AE: And without as well. But you can't forget the "the".
>
> G: There you go. "The" Sisters of Mercy. Although some promoters do
forget
> the "the" as you pointed out at one point.
> AE: Yeah. One guy in Poland last week tried to forget to pay us. That
was
> interesting.
>
> G: Forget the "the" and the money?
> AE: Yes, so we suddenly forgot how to play. It all worked out for
best in
> the end.
>
> G: I've got a feeling, reading the stuff on the website - it's a lot
of
> stuff on there; you must put a lot of time into it - is halfway
between
good
> humour and deep deep bitterness. Would that be fair to say?
> AE: Yes.
>
> G: *laughs* The Frequently Asked Questions section, for instance.
You've
> taken the time and the grace to actually answer the questions that
are
> always asked of you. Like where did you get the name and all that
sort of
stuff.
> AE: Aren't asked anymore!
>
> G: I know which questions not to ask you...
> AE: Bless!
>
> G: "Where did you get that crazy name?" I wouldn't, because I know
where
you
> got the crazy name...
> AE: The government hands them out.
>
> G: Do they?
> AE: Yeah. It's a... Yeah. We were quite lucky. We could have been
> Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich.
>
> G: Then people wouldn't ask you because they'd know where you got the
name
> from.
> AE: We could have a name like Whigfield, which damns you to eternal
> uselessness but lots of airplay.
>
> G: Where is Whigfield now?
> AE: Probably still on the radio, I don't know.
>
> G: Possibly here. Where do you live now Andrew, btw?
> AE: I couldn't tell you that. I'd have to kill you. But I could tell
you
> it's sunny. So that rules out Bradford.
>
> G: The north of England is where the whole thing started, in Leeds.
> AE: I still do spend a lot of time in Leeds. On the office floor.
>
> G: Because people always imagine you in South America or... You have
lived
> in Germany for a while as well, haven't you?
> AE: Yeah. Not anymore. Notably in Holland recently.
>
> G: I would imagine Whigfield is still big in Holland?
> AE: If I listened to radio...
>
> G: You don't listen to the radio...
> AE: No.
>
> G: If you had sessions like these one I'm sure you would.
> AE: I used to listen to the world service so I could hear "I'm Sorry
I
haven't a clue" and "Just a minute" but then they put
> on the web so I don't have to anymore.
>
> G: So you listen to the radio on the internet? Which a lot of our
sensible
and
> sophisticated listeners do too.
> AE: The comedy stuff is OK on dial-up but music is a bit iffy.
>
> G: So what's the best place to live if you want to listen to music?
This
> won't matter anymore because we are all citizens of the world thanks
to
the
> internet, aren't we?
> AE: *deep pause* I don't know where the best place...*mumble* I know
where
the best place to
> live is for sunshine and strange drinks.
>
> G: People imagine you don't like sunshine but that's not true, is it?
> AE: I like sunshine a lot. Not necessarily have to be out in it but I
like
to see it through the window.
>
> G: I'm gonna play 3 Sisters of Mercy tracks which I have chosen, that
you're
> entitled to comment on and criticise afterwards if you like.
> AE: Yeah, I have to get the criticism in first before...*mumble* I'm
quite used to criticising.
>
> G: You can criticise Anaconda first. I'm gonna play Anaconda because
it's
> the first Sisters' song that I've bought. It was the third single.
Then I
> came back and bought Alice which came out before. So this is 1983,
and
it's
> the production you're not keen on, not the song.
> AE: Yeah. The song itself is in our current set at the moment. We'll
be
playing it tomorrow. But this does
> sounds like rubbish doesn't it.
>
> G: Well let's see if everything is rubbish. Doctor Avalanche in his
first
> incarnation.
>
> [Anaconda]
>
> AE: It's still rubbish.
>
> G: You don't like the production. But the song is still in the set.
> AE: We're gonna play it tomorrow and probably the day after tomorrow.
We're
> playing it a lot fatter and faster than that.
>
> G: So it's just the tinnyness of it, really?
> AE: Yeah.
>
> G: But at the time, when you made it, you must have thought it was
rather
> marvellous...
> AE: Well we thought it had a certain charm, we thought all our
records at
the time had a certain charm, and they certainly sounded like us.
They
were rubbish but they were rubbish in a nice kind of way. I
> always thought it was preferable than making records that sounded
like
> everything else.
>
> G: But it didn't sound like anything else. Doctor Avalanche, probably
the
> most famous drum machine ever - even more famous than Echo of Echo
and the
> Bunnymen - is still with you but in a different form. He has changed,
hasn't
> he?
> AE: Yes, he's like Doctor Who. Up and including the good doctors, of
course.
> We've yet to have Sylvester McCoy on stage, that'd be a really bad
idea.
>
> G: *laugh* Playing rhythm, just doing human beat box...
> AE: Of course, Eleanor Bron should have been the next Doctor Who; she
would
> have been great.
>
> G: There will be a woman Doctor Who, it will happen. Probably before
there's
> a woman president of the United States. *long pause* Maybe not
Eleanor
Bron,
> though...
> AE: Maybe not.
>
> G: She's too old now I think, sadly.
> AE: Nooooo...
>
> G: You got a thing about Eleanor Bron!
> AE: She was great in "Bedazzled". She'd be great in everything. She
would
> have been a great Doctor Who.
>
> G: So, those old days, when you had just a very basic drum machine,
that
was
> the first line up of the band... There have been many line ups down
the
> years and you're the constant; you're the nucleus of the band. It
couldn't
> be the Sisters of Mercy without you, could it really?
> AE: I did try and fire myself when we're having problems with Warner
> Brothers... but they we'rent having it.
>
> G: Just so you could walk away?
> AE: Errrrr... No, I would have been the one to stay and the rest of
the
band
> would have walked away. And I would have said "ok then".
>
> G: We're gonna play Walk Away in a moment. People always thought Walk
Away
> was a kind of coded message to the other members of the band. You
were
kind
> of falling out with them by the time the first album came out?...
> AE: Yeah, I thought one of them in particular might have found it a
bit
relevant.
>
> G: You don't need to go into the whole of that. We're going to play
another
> rubbish song.
> AE: This one is rubbish too, btw.
>
> G: Great song, rubbishily recorded.
> AE: Folks, it gets better, bear with us. Andrew started from the
back
end.
>
> G: Of course, we have to start by the beginning. We're talking back,
in
the
> old days, it was you and Gary Marx and Doctor Avalanche, then it was
Craig
> Adams, then it was That Guitarist, then they kind of went away, then it
was
> you and Patricia Morrison, then Tony James was involved as well...
> AE: You know this stuff!!! How sad is that?!
>
> G: Tim Bricheno, from All About Eve, he was in there for a while, so
loads
and
> loads of members but you say on the website you've had a lot of
guitarists
but
> you've not had as many as Frank Sinatra had, which I think is quite
poignant.
> AE: None of them have ended up under flyovers either....(long
pause).....sadly.
>
> G: But people have always thought it was you that was the problem
because
> you've had so many different members in the band, but maybe it was
them.
Was
> that what you were suggesting?
> AE: Most of them just disappeared because they think "oooooh, hard
work"
this one isn't it.
> Andrew makes it look quite easy. So why don't I try and be Andrew,
> and I go off and do my own Andrew thing.
>
> G: There was a bit of trouble too with the name, wasn't there for a
while
as well? When the Sisterhood
> became sort of a hot potato.
> AE: Yeah a little local difficulty.
G: To quote Harold MacMillan.
AE: Warners thought they could have two bands on the same label with
> pretty much the same name. They had to be dissuaded from that course
of
> action.
>
> G: The Sisterhood album which you put out is a great album but every
track
> on it is seven or eight minutes long or I'd play a track of that
next. So
> I'm going to play a track off First and Last and Always...
> AE: I'll be back tomorrow.
>
> G: Well, I could have played 3 eight minutes tracks and you wouldn't
get
to
> speak and people would be very upset.
> AE: Fantastic. I'm learning sign language so I never have to sing
> again.
>
> G: Are you really?
> AE: Yeah.
>
> G: But you know real spoken languages...
> AE: Yeah. But I'm not very good at speaking. I don't like it.
>
> G: Can you write very well German, French, these kind of languages?
> AE: Yes.
>
> G: What about Chinese?
> AE: I've forgotten all the Chinese I learnt to write but that's quite
> tricky.
>
> G: I imagine it is. I know Clive James learnt Japanese so he could
read
> Japanese poetry.
> AE: It's tricky too. Gramattically Japanese is harder, but easier to
write.
>
> G: That's what you were doing in Leeds university when you started
the
band,
> and the this kind of distracted you slightly...
> AE: Yes.
>
> G: ... for the rest of your life.
> AE: Sometimes I think I should go back and finish what I started. Not
the
> band I started! The academic stuff I started!
>
> G: Let's play another track that you don't like, Walk Away, from
F&L&A.
>
> [Walk Away]
>
> G: That sounds better than Anaconda but it's still not quite there.
> AE: Yeah, close but no cigar.
>
> G: You'll enjoy the last track which is from Vision Thing, which I
assume
> you approve production wise.
> AE: Yes I think the 2nd and 3rd albums sound very good cause I made
'em.
At the time when I've actually learnt something.
>
> G: There are people e-mailing saying "when's the next cd coming out
that I
> can buy?", because it's been a while, Andrew.
> AE: We keep offering stuff to record companies; they keep turning it
down!
>
> G: That's their fault?
> AE: *inspires deeply* It's definitely their fault.
>
> G: Is there a way you could get it out, on the internet or whatever?
> AE: Ermmm... No, actually, cause my latest stuff is co-written with
Adam.
He
> won't let us release any of that for free. We won't let us use any
of
that for promo purposes. I'd have to sell that
> to a major record label or it doesn't come out at all. So at the
moment
we're recording all the other things and we have actually started
putting
things on the net. Bits and bobs.
>
> G: [irrelevant] Are you playing in America again? One of our American
> listeners asked. Got any plans?
> AE: No, there are no plans at the moment. But I would imagine this
summer
we'll be
> playing Euro festivals again so America would have to wait till the
> autumn and that's a long way off so I don't know.
>
> G: Well, it's possible.
> AE: It is possible, yeah.
>
> G: You played one American tour... Public Enemy were on the bill,
supporting
> gig. Do you like Public Enemy?
> AE: Yes, very. It was a good show.
>
> G: But wasn't it Detroit they wouldn't put it on because they thought
it
was
> too incendiary to have black and white artists on the same bill, is
that
> right?
> AE: Detroit wouldn't give us permission to have any hall in the city
limit,
> so we had to go outside of Detroit for that one.
>
> G: I suppose you can always do that. So you can beat the system?
> AE: But then you're only playing to white kids with cars.
>
> G: I saw you in the Lyceum Ballroom in '85, I'm glad I did...
> AE: We love playing the Lyceum. It wasn't a bad show there.
>
> G: It was just mainly smoke, dry ice. I couldn't really see you. I
knew
you
> were there cause I could hear you...
> AE: It's still supposed to be like that but the lighting man on this
tour
is
> not quite Smokey the bear, to be honest! *laugh*
>
> G: I thought it was the most exciting thing on the world not to able
to
see
> the band so that was fine with me...
> AE: The most exciting thing in the world is not to be able to see the
> audience, let me tell you.
>
> G: *laugh* So what's the audience like now?
> AE: Well they cough and splutter a lot obviously.
>
> G: We had an e-mail from Derek Redpath, he said "I'll be the fat
ex-goth
with the
> goatee and no hair standing at the back". I'm sure you get a few of
> those, don't you?
> AE: Sounds like our catering man...
>
> G: The "G" word come up. I know it's your least favourite word...
> AE: Guardian reader.
>
> [what/who are they talking about?!]
>
> G: People seem much more comfortable saying they're Guardian reader
you
ever
> did, about being called a Guardian reader's band.
> AE: *Ha Ha* (Dracula-type laugh)
>
> G: Does it still irk you or have you moved on?
> AE: I've now settled for greatest living Englishman.
>
> G: That will do. Or intellectual love god...
AE: ......*both talking at once*....at the end that's not all (????) is
it.
And just God on it's own, I don't know, that's pushing the point a bit.
G: People always said that you hated
> music journalists, that you hated the press...
> AE: Well, I slept with a couple. They weren't all bad...
>
> G: Which ones were they? Must have been from "Sounds"?
> AE: Errrrr... Well, here's a clue: one of them writes for the
Observer
now.
>
> G: Really? That's very interesting.
> AE: And the Times.
>
> G: Ah! I think I know who you're talking about! Well, obviously we
won't
go
> into it but that's very interesting! But I thought you were loved by
the
> press in some way...
> AE: I was loved in that way. Thank you, yes. I thought you didn't
want to
know the squishy details.
>
> G: No. But you were loved by some journalists. Some journalists
thought
you
> were great.
> AE: Yeah. We got a few covers on the Melody Maker. Not so many in
Sounds.
We
> were always completely ignored by the NME.
>
> G: But you're still going now, so who cares?
> AE: We'll outlast the NME.
>
> G: I'm sure you will. We're going to play Detonation Boulevard which
is
from
> Vision Thing and we're saying yes to the production...
> AE: This is not rubbish!
>
> G: ... Because you did it! It has been a great pleasure, Andrew. You
can
go
> outside now and light your fag.
> AE: Oh, thank you!



Great guy!

[dead stars]

G: We had an e-mail from Derek M., he said "I'll be the fat ex-goth with the Gautier (?) and no hair standing at the back". I'm sure you get a few of those, don't you?
AE: Sounds like our catering man...

Wah! my moment of greatness spoiled. Derek M indeed. For 'Gautier' read 'goatee'.

Ah well, I was still mentioned in the company of greatness.

It was you?
Well, I imagined this person was here or Dominion so I cut the surname on purpose. I didn't even try to understand it.
As for the "Gautier", yes!, I found it a bit odd (and expensive for a gig... ) but maybe you were trying to say you are now a successful ex-goth businessman...

What's a goatee, btw?

[Black Shuck]

Yay! thanks Big Si, thanks Dead inside.

slightly dull interview, though, don't you think?

[pikkrong]

Dead Inside, may I call you Goddess?
And of course, thanks to Dan Smith and Big Si

[dead stars]

Dead Inside, may I call you Goddess?

Please, don't!

[paint it black]

What's a goatee, btw?

it's a beard

a lil' under the chin one