The ultimate choice...

[ryan]

I'll settle for anything that von lets me have

[Arrrgh!]

I would be surprised if there is a lot of material unplayed live. It seems obvious that Mr Eldritch hasn't seriously attempted to get a record deal for several years. Why write songs?

Only somebody who envisaged a future for themselves as a recording artist would bother writing material when there is no outlet in sight. Calling a spade a spade, The Sisters of Mercy have no future and I think that is by design. Von knows that and is happy to dust off the touring machine every now and again to make some cash. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but there is something fairly unpleasant about his unwillingness to clarify this situation with the band's fans.

He knows if he comes out and says - "there will be no records, only tours because I don't want to make a record/can't get a deal I like" then a large portion of the fanbase will rightly drift off. So instead we get a website that is never updated and we get the implication that there might be an album at some point in the future. Except, we've been thinking this since 1997. Ten years ago.

Now I don't feel particularly cheated in this, but I do know when I'm being misled.

[mh]

I would be surprised if there is a lot of material unplayed live. It seems obvious that Mr Eldritch hasn't seriously attempted to get a record deal for several years. Why write songs?

Aye, that sounds roundabout right. When a new song was needed this year, Still had to be written. There could of course be a whole ream of songs not suitable for playing live, but wouldn't one say the same about the likes of Flood 1?

[itnAklipse]

i see no reason whatsoever to assume he only writes for utilitarian reasons. That's just silly talk. He writes because he is a writer and songwriter. Whether or not we ever hear or read what he has written.

[markfiend]

i see no reason whatsoever to assume he only writes for utilitarian reasons. That's just silly talk. He writes because he is a writer and songwriter. Whether or not we ever hear or read what he has written.

Yes.

As well as this, I'm sure he has actually claimed to have several songs written, recorded and ready, that have never been played live.

[Norman Hunter]

Stick him in the Big Brother house I say. Or celebrity Fame Academy, see how long he lasts.

Spookily enough, I thought exactly the same back end of last year. Could end up with a Chantelle of his own

[Carpathian Psychonaut]

Stick him in the Big Brother house I say. Or celebrity Fame Academy, see how long he lasts.

Spookily enough, I thought exactly the same back end of last year. Could end up with a Chantelle of his own

I can just see it now if Endemol worked their normal way......

"Now, it's time to welcome into the house our second housemate....Patricia.....!"

[Badlander]

I would be surprised if there is a lot of material unplayed live.

Then be surprised because there is. Von himself said so.
Last year in Luxembourg, some well-informed HLer who'd had a chat with Von told me that Andie had at least "two shelves full of new songs". He just doesn't see the point in trying to release them.
I guess part of the problem might be that Von is old school and he wants a proper record deal, he's not interested in on-line music distribution. He's not a compromiser, and unless he starts mellowing just a bit, I'm afraid there can be no new record.
The scary thing is that somehow I think he's right. Even if the waiting kills me.

[aims]

Only somebody who envisaged a future for themselves as a recording artist would bother writing material when there is no outlet in sight.

Categorically false.

[Zuma]

I'm actually not voting here as I feel the ball is very much with Mr Von.

Album - of course I would buy it and probably appreciate it would be a mountain to climb to get it released, yet less the trauma of topping or competing with the other 3 (subjective of course). The longer time goes on the worse that pressure must get.

Tour - on the basis of the last few excursions, I might go for the people involved and the enjoyment of that, not much else I'm afraid on the last few performances...

Not grumpy and not expectant, just practical.

[Episkopos]

One last album released at the same time as the Silver Bullet tour would have been one hell of an auf wiedersehen from the old man. If anything else came out now, it'd just feel like the auld beast staggering on and on - the moment's passed.

I'd still like to see the "new" songs released in some "official" form, for closure's sake as much as anything, but I can't see it being a success after the dropping of the ball that's just occurred.

[robertzombie]

There are definitely more than 10 new songs. Eldritch himself has said that the "new" songs performed are the big special ones but there are others that aren't suitable for being performed live.

These could be slow ones, or lyrics with no music or music with no lyrics. And whose to say when Still was written! For all we know it could've been ready at the same time as Come Together!

I disagree that Von would only write songs if he thought there was an album in the works, or if he felt the "need" to add something new to the live act.

He is a writer, it's a hobby of his, and I'm sure after 14 years of silence he's probably got QUITE A FEW!

[_emma_]

And whose to say when Still was written!

PIB.

[James Blast]

I'm actually not voting here as I feel the ball is very much with Mr Von.

Album - of course I would buy it and probably appreciate it would be a mountain to climb to get it released, yet less the trauma of topping or competing with the other 3 (subjective of course). The longer time goes on the worse that pressure must get.

Tour - on the basis of the last few excursions, I might go for the people involved and the enjoyment of that, not much else I'm afraid on the last few performances...

Not grumpy and not expectant, just practical.

Wise words, mate.

[christophe]

Give me a Tour.

As I said before I would like a new album but it just isn’t realistic anymore.
He could treat us with new material and maybe get them released officially but the name The Sisters has no need of another album, it/they never did.
And besides, a tour would give us another chance to crawl out from beneath our rock.

[Dead_Rock]

There's a time and place for everything... Really enjoyed the show last year - my first one

But I'd rather prefer a new album after I bought everything I can afford I need a new fix

[Oliver]

It seems obvious that Mr Eldritch hasn't seriously attempted to get a record deal for several years.

Looking further in this direction, one could imagine that the impossibility of getting a "good deal" with a record company is more or less a pretext for not releasing any studio material.

Eldritch surely remains a sharp writer, but what's left of the musician ?

As far as one can judge by the concert versions, the "new" songs are declensions on Floodland/Vision Thing themes. And although some of them are really good and have a wide live potential, would they make it as a new record ?
On one hand there are (plenty of ?) new pleasant songs, but on the other hand, maybe Eldritch lacks the "sound" that would make them be more than repetitions of his former works.
And Eldritch surely knows that the release - all the more reason after many year of studio silence - of a kind of missing link between Floodland and Vision Thing with a slightly up-to-date production would depreciate the Sisters' cult status...lazy but definitly not crazy...

[itnAklipse]

You don't know the 'sound' the new songs would have on the new album. Even VT songs sound remarkably different on album soundwise than ever live.

[mh]

You don't know the 'sound' the new songs would have on the new album. Even VT songs sound remarkably different on album soundwise than ever live.

Absolutely.

We can even take a step further back in time, and compare the likes of Flood I and This Corrosion in their studio incarnations vs their live incarnations - very very different.

[Oliver]

You don't know the 'sound' the new songs would have on the new album. Even VT songs sound remarkably different on album soundwise than ever live.

Yes of course the live versions only give a very few indications of the studio recordings, but what I meant is maybe (and only maybe) Eldritch didn't manage to find a renewed sound that was satisfying him enough for a new release.
Saying that I am thinking of the self-depreciating comments he once made about the production of Vision Thing (and even for This Corrosion before, this is a long-term syndrom) : in these declarations what was the part of provocation, and the part of doubt hidden behind the provocation ?
In fact, that might be one important difference between Von and the poor old wayne who makes his come back every 2 or 3 years with his self-proclamed best album since the glory days : lucidity and exigency.

But...don't worry about it, this may be nothing but an ugly product of my twisted imagination.

[Maisey]

I'm going to go with tour.

A good gig seals my love for a band, its like consumating the relationship. You can love a band, you can love another human being, but nothing says it quite like physical contact.

My first gig was astoria 06, and it was cool, but not as epic as I would expect The Sisters of Mercy to be. 06 was like bad sex, I need a good night with the sisters before I'll be happy. And that means a tour.

Fix the sound, and play at least ONE track from FALAA. Then I might have some more peace. Preferabley play 2 or 3 tracks from falaa.

Thats part of the reason I am so desperate to see a Rosetta Stone reformation tour. I really really love their music, but its like there is something missing from my relationship with it.

[Oliver]

and play at least ONE track from FALAA. Then I might have some more peace. Preferabley play 2 or 3 tracks from falaa.

I can't help thinking that it wouldn't be such a good thing with this line-up : the 2006 tour was obviously Vision Thing oriented in the choice of song and in the sound either.
An interesting example is the title "Summer" that, in my opinion, lost most part of its subtlety because of the little unpleasant hard-FM riffs that appeared on it last year.
So I wonder how the FALAA title would suffer such a treatment.
...as a friend of mine said after seeing them in Paris, "they play guitar like woodcutters"...

[weebleswobble]

but nothing says it quite like physical contact.

Not at a Girls gig, spot the !

[James Blast]

eh... Glasgow Barrowlands ~ 03
exit stage left...

Next!

they were heinous, can I get a witness...

[robertzombie]

Ben's band performed Walk Away a few months back. I'm sure there's a video on youtube... I'd imagine Walk Away would sound pretty similar to the Night By Night version if played by the sisters.