Heartland

Hey there - I've been watching the Wake video a lot recently - alongside FALAA it's probably my personal favourite Sisters document/release and was in fact the 1st thing I ever heard/saw by them and its what got me into the band back in the mid 80s....Going back in time 22 years (ouch!) I would be 14 and just getting into the M******* after seeing Serpents Kiss video on BBC2s Whistle Test. Does anyone remember this? Andy Kershaw mock singing '#1 in the Indie Charts' in a deep/baritone 'Goth' voice.... Happy days:)
I think some older slightly more clued in friends must have said - if you like the M****** then check this lot out - they used to be in them, they're much better blah blah blah.

Anyways.. sorry if this is going over old ground (and I've searched online a bit on this and other sites for info) but I was just after a bit more info on the RAH - Wake show....
Basically after a bit of historical context...
So this show was billed as a one off - came off the back of a week + of shows in USA.
Was that US tour done as a 3 piece? Was the RAH show the only 3 piece show in SOM history?
If so Marx must have walked pretty soon after returning from States - correct?
If so not a lot of rehearsal time then...
Watching the Whistle Tests performance of FALAA and Marian - I'm torn as to what I prefer... the 3 or 4 piece band...
Did anybody on this board go to the show? Any recollections/photos?
Did the 'split' post this show make the news at the time? That was a few months down the line I realise - but the 'Thank you, and goodbye' kiss off at the end seems pretty final.

As for a DVD of Wake - I'm asking around some 'industry sources' if there are any plans to re-release this officially through Cherry Red (or whoever) as they seem to be up for doing old PMV catalogue (as Wake is 'owned' by Universal - not Warners).

Will update if I find anything out....But if anyone can illuminate me on the historical context - that'd be nice:)!
I'm just watching Fix/Knocking On Heavens Door on a loop - Hussey's guitar solo is just amazing....wtf!

I think some older slightly more clued in friends must have said - if you like the M****** then check this lot out - they used to be in them, they're much better blah blah blah.

Heh, me too.

Anyway, IIRC Mark(x) left pretty much straight after the Whistle Test recording, some time April / May 1985. I'm not sure how many concerts they did as a three-piece, but Gary had certainly gone before the US shows (I think)

There's one or two people on here who went. Not me though.

There is an unofficial DVD of Wake kicking around somewhere (I think my VHS copy of Wake doesn't have copy-protection for some reason )

I went, but it was crap.

Marx walked before the Whistle Test as the band were about to embark on the European leg of the FALAA tour, and came back specially to do it - I think that's the story anyway

The late spring/early summer European tour was as a 3 piece too; basically all 85 shows after 1st April (Brighton Top Rank) were 3 piece shows - http://www.thesistersofmercy.com/gen/gigog/gigog.htm

Still little more than a week of rehearsal time!

I'm pretty certain that some of our old-timers (no offence!) who were at it have commented in the past that it was no secret at the time that RAH was the end.

Thanks to both - What in particukar made it crap? Bad sound? Bad vibes?
Too hot? Too big?
RAH can be a bit hit and miss for 'rock' shows....
cheers

too posts?

The bootleg DVD's Wake (not sure if it's silver or -R) and Floorshow (silver disc for sure) contain the RAH gig as performed on and copied from the official VHS.

Smallstone wrote:Thanks to both - What in particukar made it crap? Bad sound? Bad vibes?
Too hot? Too big?
RAH can be a bit hit and miss for 'rock' shows....
cheers

Bad sound and a trio playing music designed for a quartet. To be honest the RAH and The Sisters just weren't suited.

It was one of the most disappointing gigs I've ever been to and remember walking out and it was still daylight - not goth at all

Apologies for the dbl post - dunno what happened there!
I guess Wake possibly doesn't represent much what the show was actually like....Mike Mansfield going a bit OTT with the old effects and all. But I have a real soft spot for it as a concert film.
Still light when you left! Wow - it must have finished by 10pm!
Personally I like the sparseness of the 3 piece line up
I saw a DVD bootleg just t'other day in Selectadisc, London - if they do 'officially' re-release it I'm guessing it would be mastered from the original tapes and have some sort of digital treatment to clean up the sound/images. The tapes are sat in some Universal vault somewhere gathering dust. Doesn't make sense to me... band about to tour US and Europe. License it to Cherry Red and bobs ya uncle- easy money innit.

I was there. Didn't like them as a three piece, they sounded empty.
I'm happy that I was there as it was an "event" but I enjoyed other sisters gigs before that much more.
I prefered the 84 gigs to the 85 ones in general anyway.
I still have the t shirt from the gig somewhere.

I didn't go 'cos I had Geography homework to do. Probably

It's much cooler to put down a performance than to admit liking it...some people take it so far as to actually believe they feel the way they want to present themselves.

My advice? Don't trust anyone but yourself. Take into consideration what they say, and let them have their opinions, but don't believe that because someone who has the authority of having been at RAH he's honest to himself or to you about how it was (nor that he would have the same standards for judging the performance and the conditions as you). RAH is a beautiful concert and i've no reason to think i would've been anything but starstruck had i been there. There most certainly isn't anything wrong with Andy & co's performance, anyone with an effin ear can hear that...whether one likes that or not is another thing, too. Pavarotti could put up the noisiest performance of his career and i'd still say i walked out after 5 minutes.

i've never been to fantastic concerts of which some fuckheads haven't said they were garbage, the sound was bad and the band was better when the people talking still had some life in them.

Come to think of it, no good trusting one's self too much, either.

PS: And the european 3 piece leg of the -85 tour kicks ass. Almost as much as the 3 piece tours of this century

itnAklipse wrote:some people take it so far as to actually believe they feel the way they want to present themselves.

...and some people think they can read minds.

markfiend wrote:

itnAklipse wrote:some people take it so far as to actually believe they feel the way they want to present themselves.

...and some people think they can read minds.

...And bend spoons.

Smallstone wrote: Still light when you left! Wow - it must have finished by 10pm!

Isn't it the case that when a show is advertised at the Albert Hall and the like, the time on the ticket/poster is actually the start of the show rather than the doors opening.

So with no support on the night, The Sisters would have been on stage not long after 7.30pm, hence the early finish. Even allowing for the late encore, the whole thing would have been over before 9.30pm.

I remember another thread saying that people were arriving to the show as those that had attended were leaving.

I wasn't there either. Too young to even be set homework in them days

I was there, i thought it was brilliant. And i was one of the ones who was on the way out when they came back on for Sister ray!

that good, huh?

James Blast wrote:that good, huh?

They took ages to come back on for the encore, alot of folks thought it was over and started to leave. Thought it was fairly well known about it.

I've heard those stories - Lemmy sticking 'em back out on stage (yeah?), cameras packed up hence the only footage being bootleg stuff (that side of the stage footage that does the rounds).
But no support? Damn - hardly seems like ya got ya moneys worth - RAH is an expensive place to see a show.....well it is now.
For folks who went - and didn't like it - did Wake make you re-appraise?
Mike Mansfield must have had carte blanche from AE to fiddle with the visuals as it were... the fact that it got a release Von must have dug it somewhat. Love to see a cleaned up DVD release anyways....

First-support was provided by an extended organ solo, including a rendition of Freebird,
The build-up to the gig was ace, with ice in the cider at the Albert Memorial, Astbury in a big hat, and a good chance to show the way that young people dress- mush apprecieted by many Americans who found these things SO fascinating.
The entry to the AH, with a proper programme printed for free (have you still go yours?) and butlers (or were they bouncers?) on hand to deal with your every whim. Mine was to transfer our balcony seats to the floor. Our request was met with a 'Why, certainly Sir' and escort to the relevant door. Pretty lucky as the alternative plan hatched involved theatre seat, lots of gravity and the chance to be injured in a comical way.
The gig itself was great- pin-sharp sound, some good lighting, sound and smoke effects, and most of the songs you wanted to hear, with a few omissions. Wayne did a commendable job of rounding out the guitar siound while Craig and Andrew performed as they usually do. The sound too was glassy and nailed-on and meant the acoustics made a distint difference after the low-ceilinged shoeboxes of some previous venues.
As the gig rolled on it felt...well, not the BEST I've ever seen the band....and it did feel rather flat at the end, despite the silver and red shiny striops which fell from the ceiling (have you still got yours?).
Of course, what happened next goes down in history, (next to Hendrix setting the guitar on fire, the L7 'feminine product lauchings' at Reading, and the guy who picked up said product and hurled it back onto the stage) and I can dine out on the story any time I choose to take a cheese sandwich into the garden and speak to myself. What can only be described as a mass dying-fly event took part in front of the stage. If only Tiswas had been there, though I believe Tarrant was on a TV backstage.
You can't beat 200 goths on their backs waving their arms and legs in the sir, while later denying all knowledge, AND accompanied by one of the biggest ballsiest song the Sisters ever covered.

itnAklipse wrote:It's much cooler to put down a performance than to admit liking it...some people take it so far as to actually believe they feel the way they want to present themselves.

Or maybe I just didn't like it. Believe me, I wanted to.

Mothra wrote:

Smallstone wrote: Still light when you left! Wow - it must have finished by 10pm!

Isn't it the case that when a show is advertised at the Albert Hall and the like, the time on the ticket/poster is actually the start of the show rather than the doors opening.

So with no support on the night, The Sisters would have been on stage not long after 7.30pm, hence the early finish. Even allowing for the late encore, the whole thing would have been over before 9.30pm.

Yep, it started really early. We only made it on time because we had no money to spend on booze.

I remember another thread saying that people were arriving to the show as those that had attended were leaving.

Yes, they were even more pissed off than the people who saw the show

Gripper wrote:I can dine out on the story any time I choose to take a cheese sandwich into the garden and speak to myself.

Genius

Ozpat wrote:The bootleg DVD's Wake (not sure if it's silver or -R) and Floorshow (silver disc for sure) contain the RAH gig as performed on and copied from the official VHS.

An Auzzie bootleg dealer on ebay is selling silver disc versions of the dvd

deadagain wrote:

Ozpat wrote:The bootleg DVD's Wake (not sure if it's silver or -R) and Floorshow (silver disc for sure) contain the RAH gig as performed on and copied from the official VHS.

An Auzzie bootleg dealer on ebay is selling silver disc versions of the dvd

Yep, I've got it... nothing specially brilliant, I think it's a japanese print. It's obviously just a transfer, and not from a brilliantly conserved tape in my opinion. I

n fact some other guy did another couple of DVD-bootlegs with all the videos and the RAH in the first and some TV stuff and a 2005 (or so) gig in the second one, but those were DVD-R

James Blast wrote:that good, huh?

Indeed