Heartland

Hi folks - first post on here.
What a great site. Looking forward to ploughing through all the Sisters-related chat.

I have a question which has probably been done to death already, but bear with me.

Who actually plays on Floodland? I've wondered since it came out, as the band seemed to consist of just Eldritch and Patricia at the time. I didn't recognise anyone listed on the sleeve, apart from a couple of names from (I think) an old Roxy Music album, who presumably are among those singing on This Corrosion.

Thanks.

Welcome onboard.

It's Eldritch for definite, Patricia is open for debate depending on what sources you believe, and most likely this fine gentleman and his merry minions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ray_(rock_musician)

mh wrote:Welcome onboard.

It's Eldritch for definite, Patricia is open for debate depending on what sources you believe, and most likely this fine gentleman and his merry minions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ray_(rock_musician)

yes, and not least on 'this corrosion' itself, where at times his vox are higher in the mix than Mr E's. Especially obvious on the remaster (rhino thingy)

Ah, right. I knew Mr Ray and co. were on the Gift album. Cheers.

Jim Steinman surely.

paint it black wrote:

mh wrote:Welcome onboard.

It's Eldritch for definite, Patricia is open for debate depending on what sources you believe, and most likely this fine gentleman and his merry minions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ray_(rock_musician)

yes, and not least on 'this corrosion' itself, where at times his vox are higher in the mix than Mr E's. Especially obvious on the remaster (rhino thingy)

Really? Which parts?

Also The New York Choral Society, Holly Sherwood, Curtis King, Brenda King, Tawatha Agee, Gina Taylor, Vaneese Thomas. All did bv on This Corrosion, with the choir on Dominion/Mother Russia too.

Who exactly were James Ray's minions at the time? This was the Performance era, right? A few years before Gangwar. Wasn't The Performance just James Ray and Carl Harrison? Did Harrison play all the instruments or were there others on Floodland? And who actually appeared on the Sisters' various TV performances at the time? If I remember, there were usually two keyboard players and two guitarists - not to mention the Dominion saxophonist.

Eddie Martinez played guitar, but again, if he played absolutely everything, or shared duties with Mr E is unknown...

Welcome aboard Nizzy!

peartree_productions wrote:Eddie Martinez played guitar, but again, if he played absolutely everything, or shared duties with Mr E is unknown...

A frequent collaborator of Jim Steinman's. Do we know if he played on everything or just This Corrosion and Dominion?

Ozpat wrote:Welcome aboard Nizzy!

Hanx, mate

peartree_productions wrote:Eddie Martinez played guitar, but again, if he played absolutely everything, or shared duties with Mr E is unknown...

I recall a passage in a UTR issue where Von states he played a lot of the Floodland guitars, and was a bit coy about it, since he acknowledged his playing wasn't as consistent as Hussbag/Marx's.

Nizzy wrote:Hi folks - first post on here.
What a great site. Looking forward to ploughing through all the Sisters-related chat.

Pleased to meet you - welcome to Bedlam!

Was checking out something else on UTR and bumped into the Von quote on Floodland guitars:

"With the exception of the solos on This Corrosion, I myself played all the guitars on Floodland, so there's tons and tons of them. I accept that they aren't overall as integral as usual, and I didn't mix them very loud."

- UTR #11


Eddie Martinez for the TC solos, Eldo for the rest?

Interesting. Thanks for clearing that one up.

So, did Carl Harrison (or any other of James ray's minions) play at all? Or were they just for TV appearances?

We've still got at least a saxophonist to identify and while Eldo presumably did most of the keyboards, was he a good enough pianist to play 1959?

And, of course, if Patricia didn't play bass (and I'm only saying if) then is Von claiming that he did that himself too?

Chairman Bux wrote:Patsy did play (albeit very very badly) on several of the tracks on gift (only a fool makes the same mistake twice).

On floodland the role was filled by Von himself, and an old friend who later became known as judas, but for various legal reasons I can't name him, but you figure it out

- On Dec 20, 2002


Tony James contributing Floodland bass?

copper wrote:

Chairman Bux wrote:Patsy did play (albeit very very badly) on several of the tracks on gift (only a fool makes the same mistake twice).

On floodland the role was filled by Von himself, and an old friend who later became known as judas, but for various legal reasons I can't name him, but you figure it out

- On Dec 20, 2002


Tony James contributing Floodland bass?

Guess we should just call Floodland "Far Charade"

-I'll grab my Colt and spurs and boogie.

Thanks for the replies and welcomes, folks.

I had no idea that AE had played anything at all on Floodland - I suppose it just never occurred to me, or that it wasn't even Patricia who was responsible for the big tasty bass sound on Lucretia.

Having not really sought out any Sisters info online before now, I was also delighted to discover that loads of UTRs are posted too - brilliant stuff. Thanks to those responsible. I think I only ever saw one issue, and that was about 15 years ago.

For the record I'm 42, male, live in Ayrshire, Scotland and got into the band around the time of Alice and The Reptile House, which were passed around a bunch of us at school. Good times, in fact. I suppose 83/84 was the era of Death Cult, Skeletal Family, March Violets, NMA, Rosetta Stone and god knows how many others, all getting played on Kid Jensen // Janice Long // Richard Skinner's show on Radio One at the time. There was even some decent stuff in the charts thanks to The Cure, New Order, etc etc. Ah, the good old days...

Welcome Nizzy.

Chairman Bux wrote:On floodland the role was filled by Von himself, and an old friend who later became known as judas, but for various legal reasons I can't name him, but you figure it out

How do we know about this old friend? I've seen the quotes from Von saying that he played and Patsy didn't but I don't remember him mentioning anyone else.

Why would there be legal problems in naming this person?

copper wrote:Tony James contributing Floodland bass?

Unlikely to be Tony James, surely? Hasn't he said that he'd only met Von once at a gig before he got the call to do Vision Thing? And wasn't his one of the few amicable splits from the band?

Can't be Craig either and Jon Langford has said that he only played with the Sisters a couple of times for those early live concerts when Craig was absent.

stufarq wrote:Unlikely to be Tony James, surely? Hasn't he said that he'd only met Von once at a gig before he got the call to do Vision Thing? And wasn't his one of the few amicable splits from the band?

True...although the Judas jokes were about him.

The Chairman needs to clear this one up, methinks, inasmuch as he started it...

7anthea7 wrote:

stufarq wrote:Unlikely to be Tony James, surely? Hasn't he said that he'd only met Von once at a gig before he got the call to do Vision Thing? And wasn't his one of the few amicable splits from the band?

True...although the Judas jokes were about him.

Were they? Ah well then.

Having rechecked, James said that they became friends after that first meeting so it could have been him after all. His account always sounds like they'd never worked together before VT but I suppose he could have been ordered to keep quiet.

stufarq wrote:

Chairman Bux wrote:On floodland the role was filled by Von himself, and an old friend who later became known as judas, but for various legal reasons I can't name him, but you figure it out

How do we know about this old friend? I've seen the quotes from Von saying that he played and Patsy didn't but I don't remember him mentioning anyone else.

Why would there be legal problems in naming this person?

copper wrote:Tony James contributing Floodland bass?

Unlikely to be Tony James, surely? Hasn't he said that he'd only met Von once at a gig before he got the call to do Vision Thing? And wasn't his one of the few amicable splits from the band?

Can't be Craig either and Jon Langford has said that he only played with the Sisters a couple of times for those early live concerts when Craig was absent.

Yes, Tony James, as i wrote about a month ago in the other thread

Interesting thread this has become

stufarq wrote:Why would there be legal problems in naming this person?

Presumably on account of the Patsy lawsuit; the whole thing may still be sub-judice (pun most definitely intended).