The Sisters of Mercy Forum
also:Planet X - A look back at our history
Liverpool 1983 - A very different city to what everyone now knows (and loves?)as Liverpool! A city that had been at the forefront of the 1977 punk rock explosion. Liverpool had been the home to the legendary 'Eric's Nightclub' located in Mathew Street, in the heart of what is now known as 'The Cavern Quarter'
'Eric's' had hosted all of the early punk bands from The Sex Pistols, Clash, The Slits, The Damned, Adam & The Ants, Siouxsie, before being basically closed down by the city Police for licencing offences.
From the start to the very end of Eric's there was always one constant - the ever present Doreen Allen. Not sure what her actual job title was, but she was the lady on the door, the lady who took your money, the lady you tried to sneak past!
After the closure of 'Eric's' a number of other venues sprang up including another of Doreens ventures (The Warehouse), but all were fairly short lived. That all changed in June 1983 when Doreen and her then partner Kenny Dorick (ex DJ, member of Ex-Post Facto) opened 'Planet X' in a club that carried the regular name of 'Macmillans' in Concert Square - And so the adventure began...
The name 'Planet X' was dreamt up by Paul Rutherford (Frankie Goes To Hollywood) who had long links with 'Eric's' and would continue to forge a friendship with 'Planet X'.
The club was at the forefront of what I suppose was later termed 'goth' but to be honest that catch-all certainly didn't fit very comfortably. 'The Planet' as it was known by all did have similarities to the soon to become more famous 'Batcave' in London - However the main difference being walking the streets of Liverpool looking like most of the regulars did was very different to walking the streets of London; In Liverpool you were more likely to get attacked by the local scallies than accosted by the fashion photographers of Fleet Street!.
The club was tastefully decorated/desecrated each Friday with 'altered' showroom dummies kindly donated by The Everyman Theatre (We are eternally grateful)and then we waited for the crowds to arrive. The club was an instant success, drawing people from across Merseyside, Nth Wales, Lancashire and Manchester - We also attracted visiting band members when they were playing in town - John Lydon, Killing Joke, various Sisters Of Mercy, PWEI, Mick Jones, The Wonderstuff, Morrisey etc
We were friendly with 'The Batcave' and had a 'Batcave' night when they literally transported the club from London and took over for the night, complete with live performances from both Specimen and Flesh For Lulu.
We liked the idea of a moveable venue, so for Halloween 1983 we upped sticks; well coffins!, and decamped to The Hacienda, Manchester. Little did we know this moving idea would soon become a reality.
Within a year we had moved venue, and celebrated our first Birthday Party at 'Brady's' in Mathew Street - A bit of a return to home for Doreen, this once being the location of 'Eric's'. The club continued to draw crowds from far and wide and was now picking up a a fair bit of its own press attention. We were featured in both 'The Face' and 'I.D Magazine', though as a venue Brady's was more suited to live gigs and at this point we increased the number of bands playing. However the venue just lacked that level of intimacy we had previously enjoyed so we upped sticks once more.
In early 1985 we landed with a new theme; 'The Pink Place @ Planet X' - I suppose this was appropriate as we were now in the basement of legendary gay venue Jody's on Stanley Street. Upstairs it was often full-on leather clad, 'poppers; fuelled hedonism, whilst downstairs it was all the stuff you loved about Planet X, but based in an oven!! Remember the tag line 'Too hot for clothes?' - s**t; was that ever true!! The club continued to thrive, and in this guise also received a great deal of press comment and attention.
However the 'moving' demon struck again when the then owner of Jody's decedied to refurbish the venue and we had to move on to pastures new; This suited however as the physical space at Jody's did not allow us to put on live gigs.
Kenny & Doreen scoured Liverpool for a suitable venue, a place they could make home - They found it in Temple Steet and opened the doors in early 1987. The venue now occupied two floors, with the main dance floor and stage being downstairs.
The venue was ideal for live bands and rapidly secured an excellent name for itself on the small venue circuit - This reputation was secured when That Guitarist and The m*****n chose The Planet to host their fan-club only gig there; for those lucky enough to get in, it was a night never to be forgotten!
And here we stayed for just on two years, welcoming guests from near and far - until in August 1989 as a precursor for Liverpools 'Big-Dig' we were told to move as the venue was being demolished to make way for a multi-storey car park!
So the rag bag of staff, decorations and urchins upped sticks once more, this time landing in September 1989 on Hannover Street. We tried to keep the same feel for the new venue but widen the musical range, plus we switched to two nights a week. Fridays for live bands and club night, and Saturdays remaining the full on club night.
Initially the club went from strength to strength, along with our partner promoters we put on a huge list of bands -Just look at the Photo album; loads of original flyers etc
We began to draw a new crowd of slightly younger gig goers who's music tastes were more hardcore based, and this was reflected in the tracks that the DJ's would play.
By now we had created a venue with a name known both nationally and internationally - Carcass released a live album recorded at Planet X, we drew bands from across the globe who were always met with an eager crowd.
We carried on in this vein for a good two and a half years, and then things began to change. To be honest we had lost some of our regulars from the earlier venues, they had got older, new relationships, moved away etc Some just didn't like the music anymore!
Other venues had sprung up, and then music itself altered, people were going to raves, festivals etc and this was reflected in the gradually falling numbers coming to the Planet.
In the end, and for lots of reasons we closed. Doreen and Kenny had given 10yrs to the venue, whilst being involved in other music based projects and frankly needed a break. So that was it.
Or so we thought!!
Over the years many people had mentioned to Doreen about re-opening Planet X, but she had resisted, until in late 2007 when the clamour just became too damn loud. I saw her at the annual Bunnymen L'Pool X-Mas gig and discussed it with her - I offerred to do the web side of things, so Planet X would have a public face once more and promised to speak to her after New Year. Come mid Jan 2008 I was suddenly contacted and told "Planet X is back"
A few of us gathered together, decided on a venue, fixed a date and well - You lot turned up!!
The 25th Reunion was held on the 25th May 2008 at Le Bateau, Duke Street; It was a sell out! We just want to thank everyone for coming, we hope you all had a great time, I know we did
But that in itself left us with a problem - Could we just leave it like that? The answer from everyone who came was a definite no. So after a further hurried meeting we decided to run ad-hoc Planet X 'events' a couple of times a year; that way each one will be something special. The first of these was Planet X-Mas which was held once more at Le Bateau on the 28th Dec 2008 - Another success! And once more the demand from you was that we need more of these events.
So thats where we are are now - But we can now reveal that Planet X is from February 2009 going to be a monthly event - We have teamed up with those top people at Evol to bring you Planet X Vs Evol or is it Evol Vs Planet X?
First event is Thursday 5th February 2009.
that'll teach me not to keep an eye on the forum 
