https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/featur ... rite-songs"At one of the early gigs I remember going to The Smiths were supporting The Sisters of Mercy at The Brixton Ace - which to this day I still can’t make sense of - but me and Emma were massive Sisters of Mercy fans. The first time we travelled outside of London to go to gigs was seeing The Sisters and we got up to all sorts.
“I remember seeing them at Oxford Poly. We missed our train home and we had to sleep in the bus station but we got arrested and spent the night in the reception area of the police station. It was ridiculous, I remember thinking they could have left us at the bus station, because the police station was full of people off their tits all night and who didn’t stop harassing us. In the bus station it was nice and quiet, we had a bench each and would have got a decent night’s sleep but they thought we were runaways and they called Emma’s Mum.
“I went to see them in Leeds and I stayed at James Brown’s house, the guy who ended up doing Loaded magazine. He was quite sneery about them and said “Why are you seeing this f**king band?â€� I had a relationship with this guy who was at Leeds Poly at the same time as Andrew Eldritch and he f**king hated him! He hated the fact I liked The Sisters. I used to put their records on to wind him up and he’d go ‘This is just s**t€™, he thought it was hilarious.
“Everyone thought goths were awful and I kept trying to get it through to people that they didn’t understand, that it was tongue in cheek and really cool. It wasn’t violent at Sisters gigs, everyone was really nice to each other; people would crowd-surf or stagedive, there was a lot of movement going on but no one ever got hurt, everyone picked each other up and it was a really good atmosphere.
“Like with The Shangri-Las, there was a real theatre to The Sisters - there was dry ice and Andrew Eldritch with his baritone, looming through the darkness with his Sandeman hat on. It was totally over the top, even with the people in the crowd and the way they’d throw their arms up towards heaven, it was brilliant. We used to travel the length and breadth of the country to see them and it was worth every night in a s**t police station.
“’Alice’ was the obvious one. I know, I know how cheesy it sounds - the needling guitar like a mosquito trapped in the room and the panto evil of "I am Dracul", croaky delivery of lines about Alice in her party dress, crystals, Tarot and crushed petals, but it's actually saying how pathetic and delusional all that hokey stuff is. I can't hear this song without the live experience coming to mind and the euphoria of hearing that simple, splashy little drum machine intro when the crowd would surge in anticipation.
“Goth became a thing that was a bit ‘feel sorry for us’ but it wasn’t like that then, it was feisty and had a theatrical edge to it. It’s like when people slag off The Smiths and say it’s all about people in their bedrooms, feeling sorry for themselves and you think “Have you listened to those records? They’re hilarious, it’s the opposite to that." It’s “Yes, we’re alone, yes, we’re miserable, but we’re going to throw it out there into the world, celebrate it and dance to it and have a great f**king time.’�
Sisters spotting
Micki Berenyi from Lush / Piroshka talks about Alice in her nine favourite songs piece on The Line Of Best Fit: 8th February 2019
the only thing to fear is fear itself
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Alexey Fyodorovich
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Yes, The Smiths paired with The Sisters doesn't make much sense but apparently Johnny Marr and Eldritch got along very well (see my post earlier in this thread). Lush is another one of my favorites and I have nearly everything by them.
On the radio
This Corrosion features in The Independent's 'The 40 best song lyrics, from Beyonce to The Rolling Stones' article, 17 March 2019:
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ente ... 58411.html
There is a photo listed as:“On days like this/ In times like these/I feel an animal deep inside/ Heel to haunch on bended knees.�
Andrew Eldritch is the great forgotten lyricist of his generation. “Dominion/Mother Russia� was a rumination on the apocalypse and also a critique of efforts to meaningfully engage with the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.
Ever better, and from the same Floodlands album was “This Corrosion� – a track more epic than watching all three Lord of the Rings movies from the top of Mount Everest. Amid the choirs and the primordial guitars, what gives the nine-minute belter its real power are the lyrics – which may (or may not) allude to the not-at-all amicable departure from the Sisters of That Guitarist and Craig Adams.
Either way, Eldritch paints forceful pictures in the listener’s head, especially during the stream of consciousness outro, unspooling like an excerpt from HP Lovecraft’s The Necronomicon or the Book of Revelations: The Musical.
but I can't insert it inline without it appearing the size of Trump's ego and taking this whole thread over.The Sisters of Mercy at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago in 1991 (Rex)
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ente ... 58411.html
the only thing to fear is fear itself
Let me see if I can help thereDomConway wrote:
There is a photo listed as:but I can't insert it inline without it appearing the size of Trump's ego and taking this whole thread over.The Sisters of Mercy at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago in 1991 (Rex)
I was thinking more Samara from The Ringribbons69 wrote:He looks like Ian Astbury.
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Mothra
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Mark Burgess of The Chameleons has an autobiography out. I've just got to the bit where they play the York Festival in 1984:
'On arriving at the venue we pulled into the parking area, where the only other vehicle present was a shiny black van with heavily tinted that wouldn't have looked out of place in an episode of Scooby Doo. We drew alongside it and began gathering our bags and jackets, when the side of the black van slid open. In my imagination I heard a whoosh of air and saw a cloud of dry ice emerge from the interior, but instead a mad-haired, lanky figure, dressed completely from head to foot in black, emerged from the van and slowly encircled our bus. The door of the black van was still open and I could see that the interior had been carpeted in what looked like black sheepskin. As the shadowy figure continued his inspection, we remained in our seats and watched him. Having now completely circled the van, he approached the driver's side and Tony rolled down the window. "Nice van, man," said the figure.
"Thanks!", said Tony, grinning.
After a moments thought, the figure added: "It'd be better if it was black though," and walked off. That was our first and only encounter with Andrew Eldritch of The Sisters of Mercy.'
The credibility of this account can be questioned by his description of Andrew as 'lanky'. But it's a great book (at £17 for Kindle edition it should be). It's also very, very long (over 500 pages), so hats off to Mark, as typing out the above took me about 10 minutes and it's not even one page.
'On arriving at the venue we pulled into the parking area, where the only other vehicle present was a shiny black van with heavily tinted that wouldn't have looked out of place in an episode of Scooby Doo. We drew alongside it and began gathering our bags and jackets, when the side of the black van slid open. In my imagination I heard a whoosh of air and saw a cloud of dry ice emerge from the interior, but instead a mad-haired, lanky figure, dressed completely from head to foot in black, emerged from the van and slowly encircled our bus. The door of the black van was still open and I could see that the interior had been carpeted in what looked like black sheepskin. As the shadowy figure continued his inspection, we remained in our seats and watched him. Having now completely circled the van, he approached the driver's side and Tony rolled down the window. "Nice van, man," said the figure.
"Thanks!", said Tony, grinning.
After a moments thought, the figure added: "It'd be better if it was black though," and walked off. That was our first and only encounter with Andrew Eldritch of The Sisters of Mercy.'
The credibility of this account can be questioned by his description of Andrew as 'lanky'. But it's a great book (at £17 for Kindle edition it should be). It's also very, very long (over 500 pages), so hats off to Mark, as typing out the above took me about 10 minutes and it's not even one page.
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Alexey Fyodorovich
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Two of the photos in this article feature Patricia in her pre-Sisters days (one of which even has Sid in the foreground):
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/05 ... index.html
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/05 ... index.html
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DasPerltAber
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Mothra wrote:Patricia on Top of the Pops miming vocals for PWEI!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dtIdeu9cKc
This is from 1990, but I only spotted it today.
Now there is a link I never should have clicked on...pffff
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eastmidswhizzkid
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*bootleg*m1ckey wrote:
Pete "Damien" Marshall
(Guitar/Bass Samhain / Iggy Pop´s band)
Well I was handsome and I was strong
And I knew the words to every song.
"Did my singing please you?"
"No! The words you sang were wrong!"
And I knew the words to every song.
"Did my singing please you?"
"No! The words you sang were wrong!"
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markfiend
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Oh yeah - I meant to mention at the time. Blimey but that episode of TOTP was bleak. Erasure was the only other act worth even half a listen (unless there was something that redeemed it in the last few minutes - I gave up when Derek B came on).Charlie wrote:BBC4 tonight 7.30pm BST
The original complete Top Of The Pops from 3rd March 1988 featuring The Sisters Of Mercy performing Dominion.
Edit to add: no, nothing redeemed it in the last few minutes.
According to this playlist was:
Coldcut featuring Yazz & The Plastic Population – Doctorin’ The House
Rick Astley – Together Forever
The Sisters Of Mercy – Dominion
Erasure – Ship Of Fools
Derek B – Goodgroove
Kylie Minogue – I Should Be So Lucky
Mel & Kim – That’s The Way It Is
Bloody hell the late 80s was dire.
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
—Bertrand Russell
—Bertrand Russell
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maggieloveshopey
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The main man of French blackgaze band Alcest appears to have excellent taste (third photo down)
https://blackmetallurgy.wordpress.com/2 ... t-paul-mn/
https://blackmetallurgy.wordpress.com/2 ... t-paul-mn/
Nice. I’ve actually been listening to them lately and they have now gone up even further in my estimationsmaggieloveshopey wrote:The main man of French blackgaze band Alcest appears to have excellent taste (third photo down)
https://blackmetallurgy.wordpress.com/2 ... t-paul-mn/
the only thing to fear is fear itself
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Gaijin
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Dominion is played on ep1 of Sy-Fy's 'Deadly Class'.
In fact there's The Holy Hour, Melody Lee, Night Time, The Killing Moon, Holiday in Cambodia and a few others used in the series - non of which get trotted out for TV shows that often, if at all.
Edit: Also Tones on Tail, Love & Rockets! and Bauhaus tracks.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5924572/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
In fact there's The Holy Hour, Melody Lee, Night Time, The Killing Moon, Holiday in Cambodia and a few others used in the series - non of which get trotted out for TV shows that often, if at all.
Edit: Also Tones on Tail, Love & Rockets! and Bauhaus tracks.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5924572/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
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sultan2075
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Great show. I’m the one in the white t-shirt and blue jeans. Stuck out like a sore thumb in that crowd.
--
The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside.
The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside.