Heartland

Aazhyd wrote:

centurionofprix wrote:In terms of commercial success, though, I think it was in allowing the early 90's momentum to run out.

This. After Temple of Love and Under the Gun, the Sisters were on the brink of a major breakthrough. But he let it slip away.

Prescott wrote: He could have easily pulled all the same stunts without the SSV debacle and still received the same amount of attention.

Prescott wrote: That's why I think SSV was such a damned fool mistake.

10-E Rabid wrote:Gift has proven to be a decent album anyways, when compared to SSV.

markfiend wrote:Especially when considered alongside Gift.

SSV wasn't the first time has released a record to play silly buggers with a record deal. And frankly he was lucky to get away with it the first time.

sultan2075 wrote:

markfiend wrote:Especially when considered alongside Gift.

SSV wasn't the first time has released a record to play silly buggers with a record deal. And frankly he was lucky to get away with it the first time.

But with Gift he was just securing a publishing advance and naming rights, wasn't he? The SSV situation is a little different: he owed the label something (regardless of whether they had "exploited" him effectively)--a marketable TSOM record of some kind--and he gave them a piece of utterly unmarketable garbage the release of which would have cost them money. I applauded him at the time, because I was young and dumb and he was sticking it to "the man." Punk rock fundamentalism, as I alluded to elsewhere. But the truth is, all he was doing was shooting himself in the foot. A prudent man would have given them a cleaned-up soundboard recording or a b-side collection or a covers album or the like in order to satisfy the contract. SSV was imprudent.

Music is a business. It's also art. But a lot of people depend on the business-end of music to feed their families. Why would you risk getting stuck with SSV 2.0 by going into business with him?

Sita wrote: How can one suggest Gift was a mistake? It's a minimalist, mad masterpiece!

Another Dream wrote: * offered them a change from WEA/East West long before they parted, because it was obvious these two parties were no partners,
i.e. crucial interests of the band did not seem to be supported but undermined, rather, by the record company, such as the "Goth"
issue for example, and only for the sake of the next fast profit without looking at neither their own future interests nor those of the band. How silly.

* I'd have thought, this guy and his band would make some really great recordings, if you let them develop and give them the time and means they need.

* Watching their development in the early 1990ies would have convinced me the time has come and I'd have to have a talk with them ...
At first, not to really negotiate anything, but to check who one is actuallly going to deal with and how about their health and their actual condition and direction.

* Had that turned out more or less convincing, and to be a bit more on the safe side before suggesting a conclusive contract, I'd have gone to a few of their gigs ... but

Good Heavens! ... No!!!

If they find it necessary to live out that dashed hopes and frustrated expectations thing on stage in a dimension and a way as such
and, even worse, towards their own audience, instead of making something real of it - what would they think a record they would make?
Cool, great shock rock??? What audience were they looking for? Well, of course, there's always an idiot who might find their performance
of resentful aggression an adorable and desirable perspective, or some other who needed to let off that same sort of steam ...
... but wasn't that just too mean?
... very, very sorry, for these guys, and in many respects, but they obviously needed some more time to come down ...
... I'd keep an eye and hope to see them later ...

Remark: Of course, The Sisters' record company would not think that way, they were pretty pleased with that outcome and - to the contrary - support this "strategy", hoping and waiting for and - I guess - even demanding some fascistically kicking masterpiece from the band as politically times were high. Thanks. In the following years, The Sisters moved their headquarters form Hamburg to anywhere and finally, their relation with WEA/EastWest ended with SSV. The term "SSV" in German language stands for "Summer Clearance Sales" ... another lovely joke, since that's what The Sisters had got in effect from their record company (and other bases) over the years. And they did orderly return the outcome: a few lovely views of some nice trees, a freight train, a drugsar, two in the nose, some lesson prescriptions for highschool kids and little more apart from the noise it made.

markfiend wrote:I didn't mean to imply that Gift was a mistake. I'm sure it shifted a fair few "units".

On the other hand, I'm thinking dispassionately about this, look at the Sisters' history with WEA:

Within two years of signing the original WEA deal, the band imploded, leaving two factions squabbling over the wreckage. IIRC Gift was an independent release, and the Mish went off to Mercury, so as far as WEA were concerned, they were left with just F&L&A and a couple of singles to recoup whatever investment they'd made in the Sisters when signing them.

OK Eldritch came back to WEA for Floodland, but he resolutely refused to tour in support of the album; like people said up-thread, the Floodland singles had heavy airplay at the time; I really think if a touring version of the Sisters had gone to the States in '87 or '88 we would be looking at a very different band today.

By the time the Sisters did tour again, in support of a weaker album, (and come on, admit it, everyone was disappointed with Vision Thing when it was released) it was too late, the gap had been too long, and the momentum had been largely lost. And don't forget that Eldritch only reluctantly agreed to get a band back on the road at WEA's insistence; they wanted to recoup some money after the budget and schedule over-runs for VT, and needed a tour to promote the album.

And then the next release was a compilation album, with the single promoting it being a remake of an early single. And then the release after that was a compilation album, with the single promoting it being some weird half-cover-version... and on the B-side, a remake of an early single.

I don't know about you, but by this point, if I were working at WEA I'd be getting a little nervous.

Beside the recordings, there's all the nonsense with the Public Enemy tour, which must have looked like a total cluster-fcuk to WEA, costing them an absolute fortune.

And then of course, he went on strike.

From WEA's perspective, it must have looked at this point as though they were dealing with an artist intent on sabotaging his own career at every turn. To come back to them (after what, three years?) with SSV must have looked to them like a deliberate slap in the face.

OK all this is ancient history, SSV is what, 15 years old now? But memories are long, and people don't like being made a fool of. Word gets around. No-one in the industry would have touched the Sisters with a ten-foot pole at that point. And given the state of the industry now, no-one will again; why would any record label invest anything in a band with that track record?