ELEKTRA
ELEKTRA Records - an American record company ... and part of WEA Records - Warner Bros. Records - Elektra Records - Atlantic Records, a former incarnation of Warner Music Group.
As such, ELEKTRA were responsible for, err, organising the production, marketing and distribution of The Sisters of Mercy's albums in America, while the band was signed to WEA and later on to EastWest. For this reason, Sisters releases exist (mostly) in several versions regarding the print on covers, labels, catalogue numbers and further identifiers, while the actual music on them is often - but not always - identical. For details about differences in the tracks that were used see:
- the individual pages on each release along our Discography
- for example this thread @Heartland Forums
- as well as The Sisters of Mercy Discography @disogs
Allegedly, The Sisters of Mercy lost their distribution contract following the "debacle" of the 1991 Tune In... Turn On... Load Out... Tour with Public Enemy (and their support act Young Black Teenagers, Gang of Four and Warrior Soul, so that the last singles of the band were available in the US as imports only.
First of all, it is at least questionable, whether The Sisters could be blamed for the cancellation of the last third of that tour, see - as one example - the article Bands Struggle Through Dry Season - Tours' Summer Of Thin Crowds, Dropped Dates Called Worst Ever of August 18, 1991 by ROGER CATLIN.
Secondly, the singles compilations Some Girls Wander By Mistake and A Slight Case Of Overbombing were released in CD and cassette formats by ELEKTRA for the US-market.
Insofar, ELEKTRA's withdrawal from vinyl distributions in the US might well be due to the fact, that vinyl had widely lost its importance as the main means of music publication for the masses in general at that time. Also, ELEKTRA released all post-1991 Sisters singles with the exception of Temple Of Love (1992) in the US as promos at least.
