Heartland

Hello Everyone!

This is my first post, but I've been an off and on reader for a few years now.

I am 26 and a long time Sisters of Mercy fan, I love the music and I think Eldritch is a quality lyricist. Floodland-Vision Thing Era Sisters is a big influence on the music I make myself.

I even got to see the Sisters for the first time ever in Cleveland last week (and will post my views on that show in the concert forum tommorow)...but for now I have a few questions regarding the tech side of the Sisters...and my apologies if these questions have been asked and answered before.

My questions pertain mainly to Dr. Avalanche and bass and synth stuff, as I am very interested in synths and electronics.

So here goes...

1. In the current live set up, what exactly does Dr. Avalanche look like? I've heard that the Doktor is currently a huge bank of synths and sequencers midi'ed up....but at the Cleveland show I couldn't spot the Doktor. Does anyone have any photos of the Doktors current live set up?

2. What exactly does the Nurse to the Doktor do live these days. Does he merely start the sequenced drums and bass for each song from a laptop at the start of each song? Is he actually onstage with the band? Does he play any live keyboards at all?

These next questions pertain to older Sisters tours...

1. Have the Sisters of Mercy ever used live keyboard players for concert performances? I have heard rumours that for the 1991 Vision Thing tour and shows, that the Sisters had two women playing live keyboards and synths onstage with them, as well as doing backing vocals. Is this true? I've looked around on the net but never been able to figure out....

2. For the 93 dates...same question....did the Sisters use live synth/keyboard players or female backing vocalists for these shows?

My apologies if these questions seem absurd...I am very interested in the technical aspects of the live Sisters show so I have always wondered....

Lastly....does Von play all the fancy synth stuff on the Floodland album? Always wondered that as well.

Well, thats it. Any help would be appreciated, and thank you kindly for indulging my absurd fascination with these topics!

ZAS

Hi there,
No-one has answered yet, so I will give it a go.
I can't help much on your questions about the current Doktor incarnation as I have not been lucky enough to see them since 2001, but someone posted a cue sheet for the doktor on here recently which looks like each song is clicked on when it happens.
If you look on you tube there are a couple of shows where the smoke clears and you can actually see the Doktor and Nurse, it looks like quite a huge set up.
As for the past, on the Vision Thing tour initially Dan Donovan from Big Audio Dynamite played keyboards but then was replaced by a woman somewhere along the way and she did also sing backing vocals. These were a bit hit and miss as she always seemed to do something different each time.
I could be wrong here but I think her name was Susanne Josewicz (probably spelt wrong)
For the 93 Overbombing jaunt she was supplemented by another keyboardist whose name was Jovanke Wilsdorf. (Again probably spelt wrong)
Now I could be wrong on this and they may have joined in the opposite order. When I saw them in 93 there were definitely two keyboardists, but all we could see of them was the keyboards when the smoke cleared, but on the bootlegs you can definitely hear them.
Lastly, from what I can gather Eldritch claims to have played everything on Floodland apart from a guitar solo on This Corrosion.
I think I can recall seeing a picture of one of the keyboardists in Under the Rock on this site, from the show that they played in a fans living room.
Hope this helps, and if I am misguided (as I generally am) I'm sure somone round here will correct my errors!!

Cheers, hope you enjoyed the show.

welcome..

maybe check this for the doctor.. but i'm not sure upto what point it's up to date..
http://www.the-sisters-of-mercy.com/tech/tech-i.htm

in 92 they had 2 female keyboardplayers on stage, as far as i remeber they even had to actually play not only a few notes, and sounds were pretty decent

Didn't Dan Donovan (ex BAD) play keys with them at one point too?

Hello everyone! Thanks for your kind responses.

One of the things I had really thought when seeing the Sisters in Cleveland was..."This is great, but I really wish they had live keyboards".

As someone who loves to use electronics when playing live, I actually love that Eldritch has never used a live drummer, prefering the cold, clinical metronomic power and feel of the drum machine.....

But I think that so many Sisters songs have such great keyboard parts, I'd much rather hear them live than programmed. I guess Von doesn't use live keyboardists these days for economy reasons?

Anyways...really interesting to hear that in 91 and 93, that Von had two keyboardists on stage who also did backing vocals. Anyone have any photos of them playing? Where on the stage were they located?

More importantly....

Can anyone point me in the direction of where I may be able to hear some live Sisters performances with live keyboardists from 91 or 93? I imagine there may be a few on Dimeadozen, but I can never get an account on there, and I have no idea where to look!

Any help would be appreciated. I've always wondered what the Sisters would sound like live with keyboardists actually playing.



ZAS

ZacheryAllanStarkey wrote:Can anyone point me in the direction of where I may be able to hear some live Sisters performances with live keyboardists from 91 or 93? I imagine there may be a few on Dimeadozen, but I can never get an account on there, and I have no idea where to look!

http://myheartland.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=20

Should be able to find something here...

The Dark Christmas boot has great sound, female backing vocals and live keyboards (sounding especially nice in the Comfortabley numb SKOS medly)

Oh...and hello!

From memory of the 2006 tour (basically the last one before this), the Doktor was on the right hand side of the stage (from the band's point of view) and more or less filled the depth of the stage ie from front to back. Couldn't really see what the Nurse was doing but he was there all the time.

keep trying at dimeadozen..
it's pretty random on when it lets you in..
for some reason I can go there anytime and create a new account..

if you have no luck getting in, ANYONE can try

username - Carvin
password - fretless

it was a community account I set up..
not sure if it still works..
if the ratio goes below .25, then it gets disabled...

keep trying at dimeadozen..
it's pretty random on when it lets you in..
for some reason I can go there anytime and create a new account..

if you have no luck getting in, ANYONE can try

username - Carvin
password - fretless

it was a community account I set up..
not sure if it still works..
if the ratio goes below .25, then it gets disabled...

Cheers

This has all been really awesome! Thanks a lot for the kind and helpful responses, everyone. Especially since this was such a trainspottery sort of question.

I am going to try to go thru the gigis posted in the igi sharing forum....does anyone know if any gigs in particular are available in straight up mp3 form? Thats all my comp can actually play, mp3's.

Really interesting to know that they used to use live synths and backing vocals....wonder why they stopped? Cheaper to back it up?

So I read the equipment of thr Doktor page on the website but it seems slighly out of date...

Is the Doktor basically just a laptop now, or is a laptop that is hooked up to various sequencers running individual parts live? I know that then the Pet Shop Boys play live, they have a laptop that triggers a bunch of sequencers, and each bass line/drum part/hi hat pattern ect is on its own sequencer....therefore the machines are all "playing" live.....wonder if the Doktor is a similar set up?

Another question...the sax solo on Dominio...actual real sax playing...or synth sax playing? What do you think?

Looked like a variety of sequencers and possibly a synth as well to me. But it sure was smokey.

Can't remember if I've ever seen a credit for the sax (someone here will know) but it's always sounded real to me.