Band History
The Sisters of Mercy, were founded some time in autum 1979 in Leeds. The name of the band was taken from a Leonard Cohen song of the same name which appeared in a certain film from 1971 ("because The Captains of Industry weren't as funny"), and was supposed to reflect the ambiguity of a rock'n'roll band - "half saints, half prostitutes". The band, originally, consisted of five members (including Gary Marx and Andrew Eldritch), but dissolved already again around Easter 1980.
Anyway, F-Club regulars Gary Marx and Andrew Eldritch would not give up on The Sisters of Mercy and were willing to satisfy their intent to hear themselves on the radio. Band T-shirts were made and a single with the three tracks The Damage Done / Watch / Home Of The Hit-Men was released on the Merciful Release label.
On the single (claimed by the band to have been played twice by John Peel) Gary Marx played guitar through a 3-Watt practice amplifier and Andrew Eldritch was on drums. The partners each wrote and sang on one song.
More, and first-hand information about the beginnings of the band and their very first single is on The Sisters of Mercy's very own website under the entries Rationale & Rhyme & Reason - Where and why the Sisters started in the first place and THE MAKiNG OF ...the first single.
Early Years (1981-1983)
The band regrouped with Craig Adams on bass (except for a short period with Jon Langford of the Mekons and the Three Johns playing live gigs in that role), while Andrew's drumming was replaced by a drum machine named Doktor Avalanche, leaving him to concentrate on vocals. The first gig with the new line-up was played on February 16, 1981, in Alquin College, York, England - this is considered the "proper" start of The Sisters of Mercy.
Later that year, Ben Gunn established himself as the second guitarist after several others like Dave Humphrey and Tom Ashton (afterwards a member of The March Violets came and went. The live performances featured many cover versions: among those, a medley consisting of Sister Ray (by Velvet Underground), Ghostrider (by Suicide) and Louie Louie (by Richard Berry) became a live staple.
Andrew Eldritch took over lyrics-writing, Doktor-programming, and record-producing duties, while sharing the music-writing with Gary Marx. Eldritch's melancholic baritone, Craig Adams's pulsating bass, Doktor Avalanche's beat and Gary Marx's flowing guitar led the band to early underground success. Ben Gunn did his best not to spoil the picture.
The band's singles were regularly featured in UK independent charts; some became single of the week in various UK indie magazines. John Ashton of Psychedelic Furs produced the early classic "Alice". "The Reptile House EP" is another example of early Sisters work and marks the maturing songwriter Eldritch (who wrote, produced and (reportedly) played all instruments on it).
In late 1983, following highly successful Temple Of Love single, the band signed a contract with major record label WEA.At the same time Ben Gunn left in an atmosphere of unanimous bitterness. Gunn stated that he did not agree with the direction Andrew Eldritch was taking the band - which, according to Gunn, started out as a joke on serious rock'n'roll outfits, but eventually became one. Gunn also mentioned personality conflicts with Andrew Eldritch as a reason for his departure.
A perfect description and enjoyable read on the early days and the origin of The Sisters of Mercy can be found in the Quietus feature of November 17th, 2016 by Mark Andrews titled Life Before Alice: Andrew Eldritch, Leeds & The Birth of The Sisters of Mercy.
We also recommend the most recent interview of August 30th, 2017 conducted by Mark Andrews for The Quietus with Gary Marx, Craig Adams and Wayne Hussey available under Shine Like Thunder: The First Golden Age of The Sisters of Mercy.
First And Last And Always Era (1984-1985)
After a few gigs with The March Violets' guitarist Tom Ashton standing in on guitar, the Sisters secured the services of Wayne Hussey to replace Ben Gunn, who, in addition to being a more-than-reasonable guitarist, also became the third song-composer, even though his personal views of what The Sisters should be like differed from those of other members of the band.[1]. His guitar skills did, however, tremendously improve the live side of the band.
The Black October UK tour (October-November 1984) confirmed the underground cult status of the band. However, the growing alienation between Eldritch and the rest of the group was getting out of hand during the recording of the début First And Last And Always album. Most of the music for the album was written and rehearsed by Marx, Hussey, and Adams. Eldritch stepped in at the latest stage to write lyrics and add vocals. See more about the album recording proceedings here in this Wiki.
Following the release of First And Last And Always, produced by Dave Allen (March 11, 1985), co-founder Gary Marx split from the band on April 1st, 1985 in the middle of a supporting tour. The rest of the group completed the tour as a three-piece act, and said farewell to the fans with the final gig in London's Royal Albert Hall on June 18, 1985. Video recordings of the last show (touted "the festival of remembrance") were later released as "Wake".
The Split (1985-1986)
Shortly after the last gig Eldritch relocated to Hamburg, while Hussey and Adams announced their decision to split off to form their own group, citing artistic and personal differences with Eldritch.
During the highly publicised soap opera that followed, the new band started playing concerts under name of The Sisterhood, playing Hussey's songs originally written for the Sisters but vetoed by Eldritch.
Meanwhile Eldritch protested their usage of the Sisterhood name as too similar to The Sisters of Mercy, and in an attempt to stop that practice, he released the single Giving Ground by his own band, The Sisterhood. The single was later followed by the album Gift.
The other band eventually christened themselves The Mission amidst suspicions that the whole affair had been a PR stunt to jump-start The Mission's career. Anyway, with his releases Andrew Eldritch allegedly won over Hussey and Adams in the race for an £25,000 advance offered by the publishers to the first member of The Sisters of Mercy to release any output.
In 2007, Wayne Hussey remarked on this issue in an interview with Classic Rock: "We never recorded as The Sisterhood, we just went out and played some gigs. ... Andrew recorded as The Sisterhood, and since he released something prior to us he got to claim the name. ... To be terribly honest now, I think Andrew was right. I mean, two members of the band going off and trading on their old band? It's like two ex-members of The Mission going off and naming themselves as The Missionaries. It's a bit cheap."
Some very interesting read about "the split" and how it came to this can also be found in the most wonderful blog I Was A Teenage Sisters of Mercy Fan under The 1985 Split – The real truth is never spoken ?? and The 1985 split pt 2 - Did Gary jump or was he pushed? as well as The 1985 split - Von's final pre-split interview and The 1985 split, part IV - Victims of Circumstance.
There had been plans and demos recorded even for a second album, though. We deeply recommend the entries Second and Last and Always – Part 1, Second and Last and Always Pt 2 and Second And Last And Always Pt. 3 - Eldritch's Left On Mission And Revenge in the above mentioned I Was A Teenage Sisters of Mercy Fan to get a fully elaborated and wonderfully written overview of how things developed in that respect around and after the band split up.
Floodland Era (1987-1989)
Left to his own devices, Eldritch recorded the Floodland album (released on November 13, 1987), marking a shift away from guitars-based rock towards keyboard-oriented explorations as pioneered in Gift. The album was produced by Eldritch and Larry Alexander, with contributions from Jim Steinman on two songs. As the first single from the album This Corrosion was selected and released on September 18th, 1987, followed by Dominion (February 1988) and Lucretia, My Reflection (May 1988).
American singer and bass-player Patricia Morrison had been recruited earlier in 1986 already for The Sisterhood side project, where she contributed vocals to The Chorus Of Vengeance, while for The Sisters of Mercy's Floodland period she supposedly was not more than to maintain the illusion of a group during promotional appearances, a claim which Morrison contested. Factually, she does play a major role in most of the videos that were produced for This Corrosion, Sandstorm/Dominion, Lucretia, My Reflection and 1959 released on October 31st, 1988 as a compilation named Shot.
The band did not play live during this period, apart from various TV appearances between 1987/1988 starting with Top Of The Pops on October 1st, 1987 to promote the This Corrosion single.
Patricia Morrison left the group in December 1989 under rumours that monies were not paid as due from Eldritch. A quote of Patricia Morrison on these issues can be found here.
Vision Thing Era (1990-1993)
The next incarnation of The Sisters of Mercy featured an unknown German guitarist, Andreas Bruhn, whom Eldritch apparently discovered playing in a Hamburg pub; controversial bassist Tony James (ex-Sigue Sigue Sputnik and Generation X); and last-minute recruit Tim Bricheno, formerly of All About Eve, on guitars.
The new line-up kicked off with Vision Thing album, released October 22, 1990, produced by Eldritch (one song was a co-production with Jim Steinman). The album also featured session guitarist John Perry with backing vocals by Maggie Reilly. Designed as an assault on USA policies, it marked another change of direction, this time towards guitar-oriented rock.
The band launched a 1990-1991 world-tour to promote the album. In 1991 they organized a controversial double-headlining tour of North America with Public Enemy. The tour was booked into large suburban venues away from American inner-city neighbourhoods and under-advertised, mainly because of promoters' fears of clashes between (predominantly white) Sisters fans and (predominantly black) Public Enemy fans. The poor promotion and distant venues resulted in disappointing ticket sales, and the tour was cancelled halfway through. A sold-out arena tour of America could have catapulted The Sisters to the top ranks of American music sales; the cancellation thus resulted in the common perception that The Sisters' relative obscurity in the American marketplace after Vision Thing was at least partly due to the inherent racism of concert promoters.
In late 1991, Tony James left the group for his solo career; bass duties were transferred to Doktor Avalanche.
The USA tour fiasco did not help the already strained relationship between Eldritch and the Sisters' new record company EastWest, a WEA subsidiary (the band was assigned to it 1989 following an internal shuffle in WEA). The conflicts with WEA led to a termination of the band's USA record distribution, so the following records of the group would be available in the USA as imports only.
However, under the insistence of the record company the band rerecorded their early single Temple of Love (with Ofra Haza on additional vocals) to promote the collection of their early independently released singles, entitled Some Girls Wander By Mistake (1992).
At the end of the year, Tim Bricheno left the band and was replaced in 1993 by Adam Pearson. Pearson was the only guitarist on the Under The Gun single, which also featured Terri Nunn on backing vocals. The single was recorded to promote the Best of compilation A Slight Case Of Overbombing (1993).
The single and the record releases turned out to be the last from the band until this day. Andreas Bruhn was reportedly out of the band in spirit by this time, but continued to tour with them until he finally left by the end of 1993 to concentrate on a projected solo career. Following the last concerts in December 1993, The Sisters of Mercy went into what Andrew Eldritch called a "strike against EastWest".
Strike Years (1994 - 1997)
While issues with EastWest were going on and a solution pending, a new band logo was introduced and first used by Merciful Release on the La Costa Rasa album Autopilot in 1994. In 1995, Andrew Eldritch also remixed two songs for the German group Die Krupps and appeared on the Sarah Brightman single "How Can Heaven Love Me".
Behind the scenes, Eldritch and Marx were in contact again, and Marx started work on some new Sisters songs. Marx sent these tracks to Eldritch, but after hearing nothing from Eldritch for years, he released the songs on a CD titled Nineteen Ninety Five And Nowhere. Eldritch commented this recently by noting that communications between the two about this effort had been conducted over a third person, rather than directly.
After a two-year touring sabbatical, The Sisters of Mercy played several festival gigs together with the Sex Pistols in summer 1996. Eldritch called this "my Saturday job". Nonetheless, from then on the band toured regularly again. The guitarist spot would - apart from Adam Pearson on guitars - rotate between Chris Sheehan and Mike Varjak.
The contract with EastWest was terminated in 1997 after the company agreed to accept material recorded under the SSV name instead of two albums for which the Sisters of Mercy had contractual obligations. EastWest agreed to accept the material (techno-like droning featuring mumbling vocals by Andrew Eldritch, without drums) without listening to it first. The recordings were never officially released and circulated only through pirate MP3s.
Touring Through (1998 - 2010)
The band fail to secure a new contract and refuse to release new material independently. According to rumours, Eldritch's starting negotiating position is $3 million USD for 3 albums. The new album is reportedly being recorded in no hurry, and, according to Eldritch, can be completed in a few months if such need arises.
The band keep touring Europe (Event Horizon, 1998; Sisters Trip The Light Fantastic, 2000; Exxile On Euphoria, 2001; Europe 2002; Smoke And Mirrors, 2003) and the US (Sisters To The Planet Edge, 1999) with regular additional appearances at various summer festivals. The live performances do not resemble any sort of an nostalgia act, to the disappointment of some audiences - anyway, the band play an increasing catalogue of new unreleased songs, obscure B-sides, and reworked old classics.
No live performances are played in 2004, but a 6-date tour of European festivals takes place in August 2005, with Chris Catalyst taking the place of then Chris Sheehan. In 2006 guitarist Adam Pearson calls it a day, and is replaced by Ben Christo. The band embark on a huge 25th anniversary tour entitled "Sisters Bite The Silver Bullet", taking in 57 dates (26 in the US, Canada, Mexico, and 31 in the UK and continental Europe) followed by 2 shows in South America and a further tour leg of Eastern Europe for another 12 gigs. With over 70 shows, this tour was the longest the band had undertaken in fifteen years.
Following that, 2007 saw a triple festival visit at Lorca, Spain, Geiselwind, Germany, and Zottegem, Belgium. 2008 brought another few summer festival appearances in preparation for a susbsequent autumn tour of the USA and Canada entitled Ocean To Ocean Tour and continued in 2009 with a large tour of 40 gigs all over Europe, the Middle East and South America called Mechanised. More or less a matter of consequence, The Sisters restricted touring to some restorative four gigs in 2010.
Photo by Mark Somai
Recent Events (2011 - ...)
2011 was marked by The Sisters' 30th Stage Anniversary Tour SISTERS XXX higlighted by the first appearcance of the band at a festival in the UK in 20 years and a long envisaged visit to Japan. Concerts in New Zealand and Australia were rescheduled by the promoters to early 2012. Summer 2012 saw two festival gigs at Belgrade Calling Festival, Serbia and Amphi Festival, Cologne, Germany, after which the band took a well-deserved break from touring until 2014. The following Ever Forward Tour had The Sisters play 17 gigs in May and July all over Europe again. Next, October 2015 brought a short but brilliant tourof the UK and Europe, which unfortunately found an end in the whole band suffering from a heavy viral laryngitis. Anyway, the three missing shows were made up leeway in December 2015 (Athens) and Spring 2016 (Cologne and Berlin), the latter also marking the start of the Europe Spring Tour of 2016. In Summer 2016, various festival and club gigs all over Europe and a trip to Latin America, including among others Mexico, Peru and - for the first time - Chile saw The Sisters please their fans worldwide. The touring year ended with another trip of the UK (and a festival headline slot in Belgium) in November 2016 and saw Near Meth Experience at one of their rare gigs playing Leeds Brudenell Social Club on the occasion of a benefit event for former Doktor's nurse Si Denbigh. 2017 brought a series of 22 concerts from August to October and saw The Sisters of Mercy play festivals and venues in Switzerland, Britain, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Austria, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Israel. Also part of this tour were three long yearned for concerts in Sweden. 2018 remained silent. The next concert is so far announced for August 2019 in Hamburg, Germany
Keep an eye on our Current Events page for all details of upcoming tour dates and events.
Sisters Biographies
Paint My Name In Black And Gold
A long-awaited Sisters biography written by Mark Andrews is in its final stages for release in the form of a pledge campaign since 2019.
The book concentrates on the first five years of The Sisters of Mercy and will be published by Unbound. It will also be available in ebook format.
All details about the pledge campaign, the book and some further information are available @The Heartland Forums
here.
Quotes from the author
Paint My Name In Black And Gold is the story of the first five years of The Sisters of Mercy.
In that time The Sisters rose from being local heroes in Leeds, to one of the premier alternative bands in the UK and Europe, before blowing apart on the verge of major rock stardom. Their path was strewn with brilliant singles, exceptional EPs, extraordinary album tracks and legendary live shows...
To make the book happen, Sisters fans and the Sisters-curious need to pledge. There are different ways to do that. When the minimum amount of advance funding reaches the magic “100%”, the result will be a beautiful book charting the first five years of the band. So I really need your help to share The Sisters’ story. When you pledge, your name will be printed in the book and there are all sorts of rewards for you to enjoy too.
If we don’t reach that level, the reality is that there will be no book.
So there's plenty reason you really shouldn't miss this wonderful project!!!
Join the pledge campaign at Unbound/The Sisters of Mercy/Paint My Name In Black And Gold.
Waiting For Another War
Pending the above and by October 2020 not yet fully materialised release, Trevor Ristow surprised the fanbase in May 2020 with his book titled
Waiting For Another War - A History of The Sisters Of Mercy - Vol. I: 1980-1985.
The edition was first meant to be a hardback issue of 200 copies only for die-hard collectors and fans in one of the Facebook groups,
but soon the news would spread beyond the borders of the cage and induce some additional demand. Thankfully, a second edition,
fully reviewed and on paperback has now been produced and is available here.
Quotes from the author
The thrash of Motörhead. The mechanized anxiety
of Suicide. The poignancy of Leonard Cohen. The
arrogance of Bowie. The Sisters Of Mercy combined
it all to create an unforgettable noise.
From 1980 to 1985 lead singer and master strategist
Andrew Eldritch maneuvered The Sisters Of Mercy
from the grimy pubs and student unions of Northern
England to London’s storied Royal Albert Hall. Then
the whole thing fell apart.
Based on original research and a thorough reading
of hundreds of interviews, articles and reviews,
Waiting For Another War is a chronicle of The
Sisters Of Mercy’s brilliant years from ‘The Damage
Done’ to First And Last And Always.
Click here to read an excerpt from the Introduction.
Paperback finely printed on heavy 70 lb. paper
with a matte laminated card stock cover.
270 pages, 50 illustrations, about half in color
5.5 x 8.5 inches
ISBN 9781734 479300
Check also this thread @The Heartland Forums for some further information.
Additional Links
- The Sisters of Mercy: A Short History - a Merciful Release/WEA press release from September 1987
- The Sisters of Mercy - A brief(ish) history - an article in Glasperlenspiel from April 1999
- Off To Never Land: The Sisters Of Mercy Interviewed - an interview including a part on history (2011)
- INTERVIEW: The Sisters Of Mercy by Mark Andrews , September 6th, 2016
- The Sisters of Mercy's official booking agents @Primary Talent.
