THE place for your Sisters-related comments, questions and snippets of Sisters information. For those who do not know, The Sisters of Mercy are a rock'n'roll band. And a pop band. And an industrial groove machine. Or so they say. They make records. Lots of records, apparently. But not in your galaxy. They play concerts. Lots of concerts, actually. But you still cannot see them. So what's it all about, Alfie? This is one of the few tightly-moderated forums on Heartland, so please keep on-topic. All off-topic posts will either be moved or deleted. Chairman Bux is the editor and the editor's decision is final. Danke.
Vinny B wrote:We weren't Neo Rockabilly, we were cajun-tinged jiveabilly. The Sisters supported us in the Riley Smith Hall at Leeds University in July 1981. I couldn't take the Goth stuff seriously. It was just as pompous as Rush but with a rather unattractive vampire imagery. To me, punk was about pissing the hippies off. Doing jolly rockabilly songs amidst a sea of Goths was consciously subversive.
Well done, Vince ... ... ... and good luck at your gig ... ...
Btw, we have a Gigography in the SistersWiki, which is, hell, work in progress ... just as everything else in there ...
Do you find the gig you mentioned or was it one we have not yet listed?
Vinny B wrote:We weren't Neo Rockabilly, we were cajun-tinged jiveabilly. The Sisters supported us in the Riley Smith Hall at Leeds University in July 1981. I couldn't take the Goth stuff seriously. It was just as pompous as Rush but with a rather unattractive vampire imagery.
I don't think the Sisters or their followers were all that Goth in the early days, and there was always a black humour which helped to prick any pomposity. I suppose the Reptile House was the game changer.
That gig must have been at the time when Andy Kershaw was spending up the last of his Ents Sec budget at Leeds Uni. Interesting to read of the Expelaires connection, too, as it was through them that Ben Gunn joined the Sisters around that time. I sometimes think I was the only person in Leeds in the early 80s who wasn't a member of the Mekons at some time.
I went to the gig at the Riley Smith Hall. I was still at school but had been told about the Sisters by afore mentioned Jon Langford of the Mekons and 3Johns who had just released their first single on his CNT label. He gave me a copy for my fanzine. The sleeve had what looked like stone people going into a church yard i think. I've probably still got it in my singles box.
There was a small poster for the gig in the old Jumbo shop. with the logo. As we arrived at the Riley Smith Hall someone was loading t-shirts with the logo on out of a car.
The gig line-up was very strange. Expelaires, with Craig later of the m*****n in a beret. Pink Peg Slax singing Rocking Robin as Rotting Robin i think. And the Sisters. Andy had big hair and big black sunglasses. There were certainly no goths there. They hadn't been invented as such. People like Claire just looked punk still or very new york, all black clothes and bleached hair.
there were just the same clutch of people you'd see at gigs of unusual bands around Leeds. I remember going to school next day and writing Sisters of Mercy next to Monochrome Set on my canvas RAF bag. They were different to the other local bands.
Not long after Gary marx came round my dad's house in Kirkstall for an interview, that was in about issue four of Attack on Bzag. He was sitting in my tip of a bedroom saying I was a cheeky f**ker making him come round rather than go to the pub but I wasn't sure I'd get into the pub.
He had mistakenly assumed my mum might have some cake.
I went to see The Sisters again about five years ago in House of Blues, West Hollywood. My mate Clint Mansell from Pop Will eat Itself had tickets. I say see them. It was just dry ice all night. Maybe five minutes visibility.
Attack on Bzag wrote:
Not long after Gary marx came round my dad's house in Kirkstall for an interview, that was in about issue four of Attack on Bzag. He was sitting in my tip of a bedroom saying I was a cheeky f**ker making him come round rather than go to the pub but I wasn't sure I'd get into the pub.
He had mistakenly assumed my mum might have some cake.
I went to see The Sisters again about five years ago in House of Blues, West Hollywood. My mate Clint Mansell from Pop Will eat Itself had tickets. I say see them. It was just dry ice all night. Maybe five minutes visibility.
Issue 4 was the one with the pink cover with the Sisters article on the inside back cover - I still have a copy in my garage - but Marx must have been fairly taciturn as there aren't any quotes in it IIRC. Attack on Bzag had the old cut'n'paste fanzine style, and looking back I would never had guessed that its author would go on to launch Loaded and be hanging out with Clint Poppie in LA.
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