From Wayne: I received an email a few days ago from an iconic band-leader/singer/guitarist/songwriter, someone who I’ve never met before but one of the very few American musicians that I admire (not generally being a big fan of American rock music), who made positive comment on my guitar playing which gave me cause to go back and listen to some music that I’d been involved with through the years. Firstly, I listened to The Sisters Of Mercy’s First & Last & Always all the way through for the first time in almost 30 years and I must say, despite my reticence, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It still sounds pretty fresh to me and although there have since been a million imitators no one has ever really captured the true essence of that music, I feel, in the same way. It still sounds unique. There is an atmosphere, a space, a chime to it that I don’t hear with very many other records. And a lot of it has aged very well to my ears, like a good Bordeaux……..Maybe time and distance has given me an objectivity regarding FALAA that I’ve never really enjoyed before.
I also watched on YouTube our performance on the Old Grey Whistle Test which, again, was pretty unique, certainly for the time. I remember that it was being broadcast live and literally 30 seconds before the show started Gary Marx’s guitar cut out, stopped working, and it was he that was supposed to start the first song, First & Last & Always. With no time to stop and fix it as opening credits were rolling Craig and I improvised by me starting the song playing Gary’s guitar part, Craig coming in and playing mine and then reverting to the bass line when the song kicked in by which time Jez, our roadie, had managed to change Gary’s guitar lead and get him working again. A hairy scary moment but a mixture of youthful bravado and a few hefty lines of speed beforehand saw us through.
Another thing I watched again was this clip. Knocking On Heaven’s Door from The Royal Albert Hall. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dQV_8hhKZg
I’d been out the evening before the show in London with Ian Astbury and Lemmy. Craig and Andrew had stayed in the hotel and gone to bed early…apparently. Anyway, Ian, Lemmy, and I had gone to see Killing Joke at the Hammersmith Palais (sadly now long demolished and replaced by a shopping mall) and Lemmy had introduced me to Jimmy Page, one of MY guitar heroes and my first encounter with a Zeppelin. It’s fair to say that Jimmy was in an even worse state than I was, he being held up by the bar whilst I danced the stagger in front of him. Still, I shook the very hand that had come up with such great godly guitar riffs as Stairway To Heaven and Kashmir. I asked him if he’d produce our next album; he told me to ‘f**k off’. I liked him.
So, the day of the Sisters Royal Albert Hall show and I was so hungover. I couldn’t stand up without wanting to fall over and vomit. I remember Andrew being pissed off with me, nothing new there then, him thinking that I would let the side down come show time. He should’ve known better. A couple of white lines and a stiff drink saw me right and I was ready if not quite right as rain.
I am a huge Dylan fan (another of the very few Americans whose music I love) and I love his version of his own song but I have to say that of all the very many others that have covered this song I think this Sisters version is maybe the best version I have heard. From the monotony of the very simple drum machine, to the neanderthal quality of the bass, to the brooding malevolence of Andrew’s vocal, and to quite possibly my finest ever guitar solo - one of the very few times I actually played it well and thankfully the cameras were there to capture it. It’s such a simple song and so many bands play this and it becomes just hoary old pub rock. We’ve even played it with The m*****n a few times and never even come close to the magnificence of the Sisters version. The problem being, in my opinion, too many musicians playing too much. Bad musicians are afraid to leave silence and space, good ones keep it simple. This version is stripped right out and all the better for it. I’d like to think that Dylan himself has heard this version and given his nod of approval and I’m also pretty damn sure that Guns & Roses used our version as the starting point for theirs which ended up being pretty horrible, it has to be said. We were the antithesis of the pop pablum of the time just as we would be also today. Just as The m*****n has also been throughout our existence. Of that I am proud.
It’s been a good, therapeutic exercise listening to this stuff again. It’s been too easy for me to forget the music and just remember the dysfunctional inter-personal relationships that were a feature of my time in the Sisters. I know both Andrew and myself have bad mouthed each other many times through the years, nary a good word either of us has had to say about the other or even the music we made together. I know Andrew has dissed the First & Last & Always album probably even more than I have and most probably because of my involvement in the record but, hand on heart, it’s a good album and I believe one of the crucial factors in the making of the record that did make it so good was the tension between Andrew and myself.
I’m sure we both prefer to live without it and maybe our lives are easier because of it but, in all honesty, have either of us ever made a record as good since?
deigned to respond (or even acknowledged the existence of Wayne's fb page) what would he say?
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