An Introduction…
Posted: 06 Feb 2025, 05:35
Hello and please forgive the long winded nature of this post in advance. I've been a lurker here for more years than I care to mention, so I feel I've got some lost ground to make up for, and thought I'd make a bit of an effort. So first off, you may call me Violet and I'm from Canada (I know that there are others from here as well, so hello neighbours). A bit about me and The Sisters…
So I too, like many here, was a teenage Sisters Of Mercy fan, and a very shy, introverted, bookish young lady. I loved music and reading from early on, and was naturally curious about many things. Once I turned 12-13, I slowly started making my way into a wider world of music, books, poetry, art, film, rock and roll culture, playing guitar... all the things that make life worth living of course when you're not one of the "cool kids". (As a side note, it would have been about this same time that I was also discovering Leonard Cohen, whom I'm also a huge fan of, hence the avatar.) In retrospect, this was the foundation that made it possible for The Sisters' music to reach me, which it did by the time I was 16 in 1992. One day as I was browsing through the cassettes at my local library, I came across one with an extremely distinctive cover: all black with a head and a star logo in white, surrounded by the words "Some Girls Wander By Mistake - Sisters". My curiosity was piqued. Without any hesitation, I checked it out, took it home, popped it into the tape deck, pressed play, sat back and listened. I still remember to this day how I felt when I first heard those opening bars of "Alice"; it was alien, both puzzling and intriguing, I’d never heard anything like it before, and the liner notes added to the allure, as I was charmed by the wit within. I kept listening over and over again. A friend of mine two years ahead of me in high school with whom I shared a love of music, was already a fan of the band and had seen them twice when they came to Toronto for the Vision Thing tour. When it came up in conversation that I had stumbled across this band and was curious about them, she lent me everything she had on cassette and filled me in on what she knew about them. I played those tapes again and again and again, and was completely hooked; The Sisters became not only one of my most favourite bands in high school, but for all time. The music seemed to be a gateway into another part of my personality that was not shy and introverted, and became a serious influence on me; that our Andrew was also literate, humourous and well read was a bonus. Sometime after this, I wound up with a bass guitar in my possession and started trying to figure out Craig Adams’ lines specifically, along with my friend playing guitar, on those early, early songs; it wasn’t perfect, but it was a lot of fun. I kept up as best as I could with where the band was after the mid 90s, but frustratingly, due to circumstances in my life, I never got to see them live until March 2006 when they played in Montreal, at the invitation of one of my best friends who lived there. I’ve seen them three times and this show remains my favourite of the three I’ve seen to date because the whole evening was just a trip, playing a mix of everything from every album and era, from Alice to Susanne, and I remember the bass literally rattling my rib cage and entire body, and the air being thick with dry ice and marijuana, very much the industrial groove machine I was expecting and still loved. Now, after being a fan for 33 years, as a gift to myself for a milestone birthday for me later this year, and after a 21 year absence from its shores, I’ll be heading over to the UK to see The Sisters play both nights at the Roundhouse, which is the other reason I’m posting here presently. It would be lovely to make the acquaintance of some more Sisters fans here leading up to May and during that weekend of course, so I’ll be posting a bit from here on in. And may I also say that it is really heartening to see that so many people still love this band so much and that TSOM are still here in spite of everything that the years and circumstances have thrown at them. When I saw the band in Toronto last October with that same friend from high school after a 16 year absence from these shores, I honestly didn’t know what to expect… I was extremely pleased to see the place was full as though no time had passed, as it should be.
I’ll stop there for now before I wear out my welcome. I do have one polite request though, as I notice when there are other hellos from new members, they are quite brief at times from both sides: if any of you lovely folk are so inclined, would I be able to get a couple of brief but formal introductions from yourselves as well, so that I might be slightly better acquainted with you? Thanks in advance, and thanks for reading this far.
So I too, like many here, was a teenage Sisters Of Mercy fan, and a very shy, introverted, bookish young lady. I loved music and reading from early on, and was naturally curious about many things. Once I turned 12-13, I slowly started making my way into a wider world of music, books, poetry, art, film, rock and roll culture, playing guitar... all the things that make life worth living of course when you're not one of the "cool kids". (As a side note, it would have been about this same time that I was also discovering Leonard Cohen, whom I'm also a huge fan of, hence the avatar.) In retrospect, this was the foundation that made it possible for The Sisters' music to reach me, which it did by the time I was 16 in 1992. One day as I was browsing through the cassettes at my local library, I came across one with an extremely distinctive cover: all black with a head and a star logo in white, surrounded by the words "Some Girls Wander By Mistake - Sisters". My curiosity was piqued. Without any hesitation, I checked it out, took it home, popped it into the tape deck, pressed play, sat back and listened. I still remember to this day how I felt when I first heard those opening bars of "Alice"; it was alien, both puzzling and intriguing, I’d never heard anything like it before, and the liner notes added to the allure, as I was charmed by the wit within. I kept listening over and over again. A friend of mine two years ahead of me in high school with whom I shared a love of music, was already a fan of the band and had seen them twice when they came to Toronto for the Vision Thing tour. When it came up in conversation that I had stumbled across this band and was curious about them, she lent me everything she had on cassette and filled me in on what she knew about them. I played those tapes again and again and again, and was completely hooked; The Sisters became not only one of my most favourite bands in high school, but for all time. The music seemed to be a gateway into another part of my personality that was not shy and introverted, and became a serious influence on me; that our Andrew was also literate, humourous and well read was a bonus. Sometime after this, I wound up with a bass guitar in my possession and started trying to figure out Craig Adams’ lines specifically, along with my friend playing guitar, on those early, early songs; it wasn’t perfect, but it was a lot of fun. I kept up as best as I could with where the band was after the mid 90s, but frustratingly, due to circumstances in my life, I never got to see them live until March 2006 when they played in Montreal, at the invitation of one of my best friends who lived there. I’ve seen them three times and this show remains my favourite of the three I’ve seen to date because the whole evening was just a trip, playing a mix of everything from every album and era, from Alice to Susanne, and I remember the bass literally rattling my rib cage and entire body, and the air being thick with dry ice and marijuana, very much the industrial groove machine I was expecting and still loved. Now, after being a fan for 33 years, as a gift to myself for a milestone birthday for me later this year, and after a 21 year absence from its shores, I’ll be heading over to the UK to see The Sisters play both nights at the Roundhouse, which is the other reason I’m posting here presently. It would be lovely to make the acquaintance of some more Sisters fans here leading up to May and during that weekend of course, so I’ll be posting a bit from here on in. And may I also say that it is really heartening to see that so many people still love this band so much and that TSOM are still here in spite of everything that the years and circumstances have thrown at them. When I saw the band in Toronto last October with that same friend from high school after a 16 year absence from these shores, I honestly didn’t know what to expect… I was extremely pleased to see the place was full as though no time had passed, as it should be.
I’ll stop there for now before I wear out my welcome. I do have one polite request though, as I notice when there are other hellos from new members, they are quite brief at times from both sides: if any of you lovely folk are so inclined, would I be able to get a couple of brief but formal introductions from yourselves as well, so that I might be slightly better acquainted with you? Thanks in advance, and thanks for reading this far.
