Heartland

1983 age 13. Hanging around in older mate's (age 14) bedroom listening to Southern Death Cult, The Cure, Killing Joke, Bauhaus etc and 12" Temple Of Love whilst playing Manic Miner on ZX Spectrum and reading back issues of Sounds, Melody Maker and Zig Zag.

Less than a year later Sisters come to town to play Liverpool Uni. First 'goth' gig. Everyone's in black and I've got blue jeans and Adidas kick trainers. Surprised they let me in. Blew me away that night. Set me on a course that has affected every aspect of my life.

Winter 1984. A friend at school played Gimme Shelter for me on a walkman. At that time Sisters was not well known in Sweden, I have never heard about them. In 1985 someone asked me if I wanted to go and the The Sisters Of Mercy live. I went along, did not know what expect, had not heard any live bootlegs, had not even seen a picture of them.... When they started to play I was blown away by the sound (much better, clearer, richer, louder and menace than todays disney-like sound at their shows) and the guys in stage was the coolest I have ever seen. A singer cool as Clint Eastwood, mysterious guitarist and an angry wild bassplayer.... That day changed my life forever.

27 years later, countless Sisters concerts all over Europe, lots of meetings, one of this countries largest Sisters collection including some mega rare things I must confess that The Sisters Of Mercy will remain on top ten list of most important things in my personal life. I must also, however, confess, that the most exciting with all concerts I have seen the past ten years is the ticket with the name "The Sisters Of Mercy" printed on it. The concerts are mostly crappy with even crappier sound and the same song played year after year - it is so sad to the them repeating themselves every year. But at least I can add another ticket to my collection with "The Sisters Of Mercy" printed.

Some Friday night in our youth club in 1985 i heard ToL the very first time and i fell in love with this special sound.

Some days later a schoolmate borrowed me his falaa record at school.
the rest is history......

cheers, Oliver

May 1984. Already being an addict to classic indie and goth music, a friend took me to a concert of an - at that time - unknown band to me in far away Detmold (c. 100km drive). A brillant gig later and remebering especially Floorshow forever I fell to the Sisters. The rest - including being at RAH 1985 - is history as well ...

I was in a nightclub called the Boom Boom room in Toronto that said what it did on the tin. This corrosion came on and the rest I don’t remember other than watching two black leather gothic girls dancing away.

I started to remain this a bit.

I'm new here at the forum but thought this would be a nice way to say hello to everyone around here and to tell about my passion for the Sisters.

I first saw them on tv with This Corrosion in 1992 and I was blown away from this song, the video and this absolutely unique voice of Andrew. So I bought all the CDs, tried to get all information I could get (how easy it is today wit the web...) and saw them live in 1993 and 2002. Still have my first car with the huge selfmade writings "Tune in... turn on... burn out" over the whole rear bumper... I still wasn't in the right mood to remove it over the last 20 years...
Well, still love their music, what else to say?

Bine wrote:I'm new here at the forum but thought this would be a nice way to say hello to everyone around here and to tell about my passion for the Sisters.

Hi and welcome. Leave your sanity at the door and walk on in.

I like the bumper-sticker. Hi Bine, welcome.

Welcome, Bine ... ... you've got a nice car ... ...

Mine looked like this for decades ... but I had to sell it recently ...
and the "new" one is not yet Sisters-primed ...

Thanks for the nice welcome
I have to be honest that my Manta is actually waiting in a garage for his rise like a phoenix from the ashes... he's sooo rusty. I have to do a lot of work then... But it will keep his rear bumper when it is back on the road . But I should finally change the cassette player against a mp3 I think, even if I like oldschool. The Sisters cassettes aren't working right after 20 years in my car...

Bine wrote:Thanks for the nice welcome
I have to be honest that my Manta is actually waiting in a garage for his rise like a phoenix from the ashes... he's sooo rusty. I have to do a lot of work then... But it will keep his rear bumper when it is back on the road . But I should finally change the cassette player against a mp3 I think, even if I like oldschool. The Sisters cassettes aren't working right after 20 years in my car...

... ... oh lucky you! There is a chance to save him!
I have at least been able to transfer my beloved car to some aficionados who are determined to keep it running ... ...
although even the tape player was broken ... However, no rust! This range is soo stable in this regard, unlike the first two builds ...
also, the nice people on that Passat Forum told me that, hell, if I should feel homesick, I'd know where to get one ... yeah. That's definitely an option I'm keeping in mind!
Anyway, it's nice but also funny for me that I can listen to music in the car again ... ...

However, the car I've got now is a coupé ... ... and from my seat I can hardly see where it ends ... ...

Therefore, I'm thinking about attaching a spoiler to the rear ... .... gotta check the difference regarding mileage though first...

However, I keep my fingers crossed for your "Phoenix" ... ...

On the lone and level sands stretch far away, about 1988.
A VHS recording of Top of the Pop made its way to an antique land.
Just south of Babel actually.
And on the tape this video appeared:
"Some day, Some day, Some day Dominion!"

Well living in the Middle East it spoke to me.

After the invasion I ended up studying pharmacology at Leeds Uni.

I still blame that video.

And 24 years later I am back in that same antique land.

On the lone and on the level...

Listening to Adrenochrome on a friend´s record player back in 84. Bought all singles (well except Damage Done and Body Electric, these came much later when I had more money ) in the next thwo months. Still my favourite band, found nothing yet that could match them. Would like to hear a studio recording of We Are The same Suzanne before I die... with Gary Marx on guitar

Suleiman wrote: A VHS recording of Top of the Pop made its way to an antique land.
Just south of Babel actually.
And on the tape this video appeared:
"Some day, Some day, Some day Dominion!"

Well living in the Middle East it spoke to me.

After the invasion I ended up studying pharmacology at Leeds Uni.

I still blame that video.

And 24 years later I am back in that same antique land.

On the lone and on the level...

Are you saying you live in Iraq? Interesting
or I'm just over-interpreting as mostly...

Anyway, when I was 18 something, in august 1991 a friend of mine introduced me to some very cool music, it was This Corrosion and Vision Thing. He said it was Sisters of Mercy (yes without "the") and I almost got a bit upset, because they had recently played the middle of nowhere, namely where we lived, just a few months earlier and I had thought they were a simple pop band because I had that tune "sister of mercy" by Thompson Twins in my head...
I have since regretted many times that I didn't discover them a few months earlier...it would take until 97 til I saw them live.

euphoria wrote:
Are you saying you live in Iraq? Interesting
or I'm just over-interpreting as mostly...

Close.

Kuwait.

Suleiman wrote:

euphoria wrote:
Are you saying you live in Iraq? Interesting
or I'm just over-interpreting as mostly...

Close.

Kuwait.

Ah. That's what I thought, given what you said. I turned down a job teaching philosophy at a college in Doha, Qatar last summer. I have regretted it on occasion. But not all that often, and not lately.

sultan2075 wrote:

Suleiman wrote:

euphoria wrote:
Are you saying you live in Iraq? Interesting
or I'm just over-interpreting as mostly...

Close.

Kuwait.

Ah. That's what I thought, given what you said. I turned down a job teaching philosophy at a college in Doha, Qatar last summer. I have regretted it on occasion. But not all that often, and not lately.

By some strange twist of fate I teach pharmacology here (Kuwait). As with everything there are pros and cons.

Front seat tickets to Armageddon anyone?

Suleiman wrote:

sultan2075 wrote:

Suleiman wrote: Close.

Kuwait.

Ah. That's what I thought, given what you said. I turned down a job teaching philosophy at a college in Doha, Qatar last summer. I have regretted it on occasion. But not all that often, and not lately.

By some strange twist of fate I teach pharmacology here (Kuwait). As with everything there are pros and cons.

Front seat tickets to Armageddon anyone?

Yes, things are getting interesting in that neck of the woods. Good luck with all that. I turned the job down because I decided they weren't offering me enough money to make it worth leaving my wife for a year, and because I thought it wasn't enough money for the course load they wanted me to teach.

If I remember rightly, my first experience of The Sisters was my first day at boarding school: one of the sixth formers was playing Dominion/Mother Russia. At the time, of course, I had no idea what this was (and fresh-faced third formers didn't ask): I just knew that it sounded awesome. This would have been late 1987.

So life went on for a while. My pitiful music collection steadily grew, but mostly in Iron Maidenwards directions. Such was life for a while until one of the other boys finally took it upon himself to augment his mockery of my taste with examples of better things. I don't think I'll ever enjoy listening to Napalm Death, and Mudhoney didn't really do it for me either; but he lent me a C90 with Floodland on one side (`Ahh, that's what that awesome sound was') and First and Last and Always on the other. I can no longer remember this boy's name, alas.

Of course, I had to get my own copies of these (on good old vinyl, and not so cheap either for a schoolboy), and my own C90 spent a lot of time in my walkman. I snapped up a copy of the Reptile House EP and failed to make out most of the lyrics; and eventually also No Time to Cry, and Body and Soul. When I heard that a new album was coming out, I ordered it immediately, and collected my copy of Vision Thing on the day of release.

I managed to indoktrinate a couple of the other boys (Andy and Jon); Andy later supplied me with a particularly treasured tape containing the Disguised in Black bootleg and most of Victims of Circumstance, though the latter had the first bit of Jessica's Crime (by Salvation, labelled Crime), truncated by the end of the tape.

It's strange how bits of music get attached to things. For example, Xandria's unreasonably awesome `The Nomad's Crown' is inextricably assoicated with a hamster in my mind. More relevantly, `Some Kind of Stranger' become the soundtrack to my utterly unsuccessful pursuit of a girl. My words were second-hand and useless; rhyme and reason paled beside a single kiss; I could wait a long, long time before I heard another love song; and I thought she was beautiful. She called me after we left school, and I can't remember why I never followed up on that. In the unlikely event that you're reading, Amy, I'll never forget you.

Some Girls and Overbombing turned up since, but no more albums. Repurchasing all of the vinyl on CD kept me occupied for a bit. And of course there were actual concerts. Which were also awesome. Must try to actually turn up to another one of these days.

Well, that's my introduction. Hi.

Awesome first post. Hi and welcome

This...

mdw wrote:`Some Kind of Stranger' become the soundtrack to my utterly unsuccessful pursuit of a girl. My words were second-hand and useless; rhyme and reason paled beside a single kiss; I could wait a long, long time before I heard another love song; and I thought she was beautiful.

...yeah.

but that was in another country / And besides, the wench is dead.

markfiend wrote:Awesome first post. Hi and welcome

seconded.

welcome mdw

markfiend wrote:but that was in another country / And besides, the wench is dead.

I know this is decidedly off topic but it had never occurred to me until I saw your quote here that the final line of the novel Casino Royale may hint at a surprisingly literary side to Ian Fleming. Yes, I know he would have been educated in the classics but he always comes across as having little time for literature or the arts beyond boys own stuff and it now occurs to me for the first time that "the bitch is dead" might be a reference to Marlowe. Anyone else?

Sorry to derail the thread but - no, hang on, that's what we do around here, isn't it?