Alan Vega
Alan Vega (born 1948) is the vocalist for 1970s and 80s punk/post punk duo Suicide.
Alan Vega's vocals are said to be influenced by Elvis Presley and Rockabilly.
Vega was born in Brooklyn, New York and began his career as a visual artist, gaining notoriety
for his "light sculptures". Eventually he opened his own lower Manhattan gallery space, which he
called The Project of Living Artists. The Project served as a stomping grounds for the likes of the
New York Dolls, Television and Blondie, as well as the 15-piece jazz group Reverend B.,
which featured a musician named Martin Rev on electric piano. Soon, Vega and Rev formed
Suicide, whose minimalist, aggressive music — a fusion of Rev's ominous, repetitive keyboards
and Vega's rockabilly snarl — helped pave the way for the electronic artists of the future. Suicide disbanded in 1980, and both Vega and Rev
undertook solo careers. Vega's self-titled 1980 debut and his 1981 album, Collision Drive, continued to explore the fractured rockabilly identity
he had established in his earlier work. 1983's Saturn Strip, produced by longtime fan Ric Ocasek, marked Vega's debut for Elektra Records; but his relationship with them
soured during production for 1985's Just a Million Dreams, and at one point the label even attempted to remove the singer from his own studio sessions.
For more information about Alan Vega's musical career see also his Discography @discogs
and the page referring to him @wikipedia.
Andrew Eldritch met Alan Vega in the early 1980s in New York.
From early 1983 on The Sisters of Mercy regularly covered the Suicide track Ghostrider
- mostly in medleys with Sister Ray and/or Louie Louie, which was also performed during
the final gig of the First And Last And Always line-up at Royal Albert Hall.
The last time The Sisters of Mercy played Ghostrider was in another medley
within their final encores on 26 January 1998 at Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium.
In 1986, Andrew Eldritch approached Alan Vega to collaborate with The Sisterhood on their
album Gift, where Vega featured as a virtual member of the The Chorus Of Vengeance, at the least.
In an interview with The Quietus in November 2011, Andrew Eldritch was asked about that issue as well:
Alan Vega is credited on the sleeve of Gift, but what was his actual involvement with the record?
AE: Andrew went back to Vega's apartment with a DAT recorder, played him the tracks and explained the scenario.
Andrew has a permanent visa to Planet Vega, because the two of them get on very well. Nobody else talks to Vega
like Eldritch talks to Vega.
For more information about developments around The Sisterhood project, see also The Sistershood @wikipedia.
