Blood Money (bootleg)
One of the rarer 12" vinyl bootlegs featuring an incomplete recording of The Sisters of Mercy's famous final 1980ies gig at the Royal Albert Hall.
The album was released in two different versions - a first edition with a fully printed, glossy cover that has a quite professional appearance; and a later issue coming in a white generic cover with a black/white A4-xerox glued to it. The latter one has a text printed in Japanese characters in the lower left corner of the cover front and is therefore commonly known as "the Japanese Cover". It is also the more sought-after album of the two as it is much rarer. Nowadays, the "Japanese" cover version can achive high prices in online auctions reaching into the hundreds of Euros. More recently, a "Blood Money" copy appeared with the original cover motive printed in full black on sheets glued to some generic cover, see the pictures down below (scroll).
Release Notes
- Label: unknown
- Catalogue#: S.O.M. 666
- Format: 12" vinyl LP
- Released: 1985 / 1987
- According to the Reverberation Across The Nation booklet, the album was released in 1985 long before
- the official Wake video and subsequent unofficial releases. Other authors name 1987 as the release date.
- Place of release: England / France
- The Reverberation booklet states that this bootleg is an English product, while the "Japanese issue" was a second release manufactured in France. Other authors maintain the Blood Money bootleg were entirely a French release. Their opinion might derive from the logo of SACEM (Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique) on the labels, (see the pictures on the left side) - a French professional association "collecting payments of artists’ rights and distributing the rights to the original songwriters, composers, and music publishers".
Remarks
- Good sound quality
- The bootleg is focussed upon the final encore of the concert consisting of Train and the medley of Ghostrider / Louie Louie,
- which is omitted in the official concert video Wake. It gives the songs in a completely mixed up order, though, and lacks
- many important tracks from the gig, in particular First And Last And Always, Marian, No Time To Cry, Walk Away, Alice,
- Gimme Shelter and Fix.
- Both versions are pressed on black vinyl.
- The track information on both covers and labels are full of mistakes.
The Labels
- The labels of the two versions are identical and attempt to appear as an official French release.
- Label notes: bootleg title, catalogue#, erroneous track list with wrong track times.
- 33 tours, SIDE I/II, Stéréo, SACEMlogo; and printed in a circle around the label border:
- TOUS DROITS DU PRODUCTEUR DE L'OEUVRE PHONOGRAPHIQUE ET DU
- PROPRIÉTAIRE DE L'OEUVRE ENREGISTRÉE RÉSERVÉS, SAUF AUTORISATION,
- LA DUPLICATION, LA LOCATION, LE PRÊT, DU L'UTILISATION DE CE DISQUE POUR
- EXÉCUTION PUBLIQUE ET RADIODIFFUSION SONT INTERDITS. MADE IN FRANCE
Versions
The Standard Issue
- The cover front of this more widely spread issue shows an almost format-wide "burning" red pentagramm
- (in the style of old Western movies) on a darkbrown background surrounded by a traditional intarsia wood inlay.
- The pentagramm is bounded by an inlaid circle of lighter wood giving the band name and the bootleg title in,
- again, red capital letters.
- The reverse of the cover, too, simulates a wooden surface and gives only the erroneous track list inside a framed rectangle of the same darkbrown colour as used on the cover front. At the bottom of the cover reverse is another such darkbrown rectangle with the recording details. All the information is printed in a golden brown colour.
- A script typeface looking like a somewhat calligraphic handwriting is used for the information on the cover back,
- except for the song titles.
- The spine is blank and does not give any further information about this release.
The "Japanese"-cover Issue
- The cover consits of a generic white sleeve with a black and white copied A4 sheet glued to it.
- The image that was used for the cover art was used before on the famous Floorshow EP.
- It was originally published with an ELEKTRA biography and information pack in 1985.
- The photo itself is credited to Tom Sheehan 1985.
- The bootleg title is not mentioned on this cover.
- Cover notes beside the track list and the band's name are:
- "STEREO" in the upper right corner and
- a Japanese text field in the lower left corner.
- The cover back is plain white.
Source
- Recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall, London, 18th June 1985
For recent price developments see sistersbootlegs/Blood Money
or popsike/bloodmoney or, alternatively, rootsvinylguide/Sisters of Mercy - Blood Money.
Track List
| Real Titels | Writing on labels | Standard cover | Japanese cover | ||
| A1 A Rock And A Hard Place | 3'30 | A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE | 2'29 | A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE | A rock & a hard place |
| A2 Floorshow | 3'52 | FLOOR SHOW | 2'15 | FLOOR SHOW | Floor show |
| A3 Knockin' On Heaven's Door | 6'51 | KNOCKIN ON | 3'05 | KNOCKIN ON HEAVENS DOOR | Knockin on heaven's door |
| A4 Train | 2'39 | GHOST TRAIN | 2'08 | Omitted | Omitted |
| A5 Body And Soul | 3'35 | BODY AND SOUL | 3'27 | BODY AND SOUL | Body & soul |
| B1 Possession | 4'32 | POSSESSION | 2'46 | POSSESSION | Possession |
| B2 Emma | 6'18 | EMILY | 3'43 | EMILY | Emily |
| B3 Amphetamine Logic | 4'14 | AMPHETAMINE LOGIC | 2'36 | AMPHETAMINE LOGIC | Amphetamine logic |
| B4 Ghostrider | --- | Omitted | LOVIE LOVIE | Omitted | |
| B5 Louie Louie |
7'28 (Medley) |
LOUIE |
2'58 |
GHOST TRAIN |
Louie louie |
Additional Pictures
- Please click into files for larger views -
 ELEKTRA Biography and Information Pack 1985 - Andrew Eldritch Promo Photo |
Blood Money cover apparently with b/w print glued to both sides
