Heartland

How many copies of Sisters records have been sold?

FALAA?
Floodland?
etc.

Anyone knows? I saw the cliping about "100.000 copies of the 1983 Temple of Love has been sold over the years" and that got me wondering.

Well... i bought one of each

Paddy.

Perhaps we should put it to a poll?

I've actually owned FALAA and Floodland on MC, Vinyl and CD, plus a mate bought me a copy of the gatefold version of FALAA.
Vision Thing, SGWBM and ASCOB were bought of CD only, sign of then record buying habits.

I've just read that back and, Jesus, I'm a sad b*stard!

We're all sad bastards

FALAA on MC, Vinyl and CD (Although I don't remember ever buying it on casette, I must have because it's there...)
Floodland on all three formats too.
Vision Thang just vinyl and CD.
SGWBM vinyl and CD.

Although I don't own ASCOOB at all. Call it an allergy to "Greatest Hits" albums.

I am trying to remember the name of a famous rock star who earnestly admitted he doesn't have a clue how many records he has ever sold. Plus, with the Sisters, there's all the bootlegs, and, of course, the diabolically countless number of variations of the singles from Floodland.

Black Biscuit wrote:I am trying to remember the name of a famous rock star who earnestly admitted he doesn't have a clue how many records he has ever sold.

Not Ozzy Osbourne by any chance?

I seem to remember a discussion of this a while back - I think the conclusion was something like three to five million albums, but I can't remember what that was based on. Sorry, this is of little help.

MrChris wrote:I seem to remember a discussion of this a while back - I think the conclusion was something like three to five million albums, but I can't remember what that was based on. Sorry, this is of little help.

PROFESSOR SHUCK'S DEFINITIVE ANSWER

Ive heard the figure of 5 million mentioned several times ovcer the years (that's TOTAL worldwide album sales), and that figure certainly seems about right.

In Britain, an artist must sell 60,000 albums for a silver award, 100,000 for a gold award, and 300,000 for a platinum award.

I'm not 100% sure on this, but I seem to remember reading on some official record company website that FALAA, Floodland and SGWBM all went gold in the UK, while VT and ASCOB went silver; we can make an educated guess that the Sisters total UK album sales are between 700,000 and 800,000.

Since they're also quite big across Europe, and have a cult following in the US/Canada and Japan (and have at least one fan in South Africa!), the figure of five million seems pretty reasonable. I don't think it's possible to know exactly how many records a band has sold (I bet Von doesn't even know for sure).

So, 5 million (5,000025 after the new album is released) albums sold. five million punters buying a work of art that you've created... That must feel pretty cool.

I remember Von saying his market was divided equally between Britain, Germany and everywhere else. Based on 800,000 x 3, this would give a much smaller figure. But then again, Sisters albums have a very long shelf life compared to some (and coincidentally finally turn in a profit YEARS after release), and these figures may well be higher now. So I think the higher figure is probably solid. Dunno about singles, but Temple must account for a lot of them when you add both versions!

Looking around on the web, all I can find is millions of sites declaring that The Mession have sold over 3 million albums. Ugh! They should keep that stuff off the net!

Black Shuck wrote:

MrChris wrote:I seem to remember a discussion of this a while back - I think the conclusion was something like three to five million albums, but I can't remember what that was based on. Sorry, this is of little help.

PROFESSOR SHUCK'S DEFINITIVE ANSWER

Ive heard the figure of 5 million mentioned several times ovcer the years (that's TOTAL worldwide album sales), and that figure certainly seems about right.

In Britain, an artist must sell 60,000 albums for a silver award, 100,000 for a gold award, and 300,000 for a platinum award.

I'm not 100% sure on this, but I seem to remember reading on some official record company website that FALAA, Floodland and SGWBM all went gold in the UK, while VT and ASCOB went silver; we can make an educated guess that the Sisters total UK album sales are between 700,000 and 800,000.

Since they're also quite big across Europe, and have a cult following in the US/Canada and Japan (and have at least one fan in South Africa!), the figure of five million seems pretty reasonable. I don't think it's possible to know exactly how many records a band has sold (I bet Von doesn't even know for sure).

So, 5 million (5,000025 after the new album is released) albums sold. five million punters buying a work of art that you've created... That must feel pretty cool.

From GB at least

SISTERS OF MERCY , FIRST AND LAST AND ALWAYS , Silver , Fri Oct 30 1987

SISTERS OF MERCY , FLOODLAND , Silver , Mon Nov 16 1987

SISTERS OF MERCY , FLOODLAND , Gold , Fri Mar 11 1988

SISTERS OF MERCY , FIRST AND LAST AND ALWAYS , Gold , Mon May 8 1989

SISTERS OF MERCY , VISION THING , Silver , Tue Nov 6 1990

SISTERS OF MERCY , SOME GIRLS WANDER BY MISTAKE , Silver , Mon Mar 1 1993

SISTERS OF MERCY , A SLIGHT CASE OF OVERBOMBING , Silver , Sat Jul 1 1995

Francis wrote:

Black Biscuit wrote:I am trying to remember the name of a famous rock star who earnestly admitted he doesn't have a clue how many records he has ever sold.

Not Ozzy Osbourne by any chance?

--- Not Osborne. Not Ace Frehley, either (who you might expect it from), but it was his 'boss', Paul Stanley of Kiss.

Ace supposedly got his 'Ace' nickname due to his ability with the girls as a teenager. Supposedly, that is - until a book came out, written by Ace's ex-best friend, whose initials (can't remember the full name) are GGGG.

Anyway, this G to the power of four guy came up with a considerably different explanation for the nickname, which I can't remember right now either. But there was a (sounds like....) very noted ice hockey player in the early-mid 1900s called Ace Bailey, which may be where the inspiration came from. Somehow.

How many records sold? Not enough to get Norris McWhirter interested.

I actually have the tally for all albums, according to SoundScan, at home. I'll have to find it later.

(OK, I'm new here but been a Sisters fan since about the age of 14 - 14 long year's ago... go figure..)

Regarding sales, I remember Eldritch in an interview quite correctly pointing out that you don't find Sister's albums in the bargain bin at Woolworths. Hence as some of you have rightly said before they are slow and consistent sellers these days.. I mean, imagine every kid that gets into goth (yuck!), industrial or alternative and comes across the band and goes out to buy a CD?? That's a considerable number per annum! Though I reckon file sharing may have made a dent in sales by now...

As for the markets, I heard its split between the UK, Germany and Brazil for some reason...

Black Biscuit wrote:Ace supposedly got his 'Ace' nickname due to his ability with the girls as a teenager. Supposedly, that is - until a book came out, written by Ace's ex-best friend, whose initials (can't remember the full name) are GGGG.

Anyway, this G to the power of four guy came up with a considerably different explanation for the nickname, which I can't remember right now either. But there was a (sounds like....) very noted ice hockey player in the early-mid 1900s called Ace Bailey, which may be where the inspiration came from. Somehow.

Nothinginsomethingparticular?
The Associates - Sulk

shivarising wrote:I actually have the tally for all albums, according to SoundScan, at home. I'll have to find it later.

Did you find it?
Im curious.