Aqualung

At Zephyr's request, here is the Featured Artist review on The Sisters Of Mercy: During the writing of this review, I got side tracked by wiki articles and read all about t-shirts.

Years Active:
1980-1993
1996-present

Genre:
Rock
Goth Rock

Line up:
Andrew Eldritch - Vocals, keyboards, guitars, Doktor Avalanche (Sisters of Mercy's drum machines) (1980-)
Chris May - Guitars, backing vocals (2005-)
Ben Christo - Guitars, backing vocals (2006-)

Past Members:
Gary Marx - Guitars, vocals (on one track) (1980-1985)
Craig Adams - Bass guitar (1981-1985)
Ben Gunn - Guitars (1981-1983)
Wayne Hussey - Guitars, backing vocals (1984-1985)
Patricia Morrison - Bass guitar (1985-1989)
Andreas Bruhn - Guitars (1989-1993)
Tony James - Bass guitar (1989-1991)
Tim Bricheno - Guitars (1990-1992)
Adam Pearson - Guitars, backing vocals, bass guitar (1993-2005)
Chris Sheehan - Guitars, backing vocals (1996; 2000-2003)
Mike Varjak - Guitars (1997-1999)
Dan Donovan - Keyboards (1990-1991)

Discography:
First And Last And Always - 1985
Floodland - 1987
Vision Thing - 1990
Some Girls Wander By Mistake - 1992 (singles compilation)
A Slight Case Of Overbombine - 1993 (best of compilation, including two new songs)

History:
The Sisters Of Mercy formed in 1980 in Leeds, England. Gary Marx and Andrew Eldritch frequented the same club and both had the dream of one day hearing themselves on the radio. So they formed a band. They produced a number of band t-shirts, and then released a single, The Damage Done, with B-Sides Watch and Home Of The Hitmen. Marx played guitar (through his practice amp) and Eldritch played drums, with singing and songwriting equally divided. The band claims that John Peel, a famous British DJ, played the single twice.

After this single was released, The Sisters Of Mercy added Craig Adams to their ranks, he being a bass player. Eldritch started focusing exclusively on vocals, replacing his drum set with a drum machine, which they named Doktor Avalanche. Eldritch wrote lyrics, programmed the drum machine, and produced the songs, and he and Marx wrote the music. Adams generally just played what he was told. This band played their first gig in ... well, nobody really knows where, or when. Instead, fans generally February 16th, 1981 as the "official birth of The Sister Of Mercy" date, even though this was truly their second gig.

After a number of transitory second guitarists, The Sisters of Mercy finally had an established guitarist, Ben Gunn. Through their combined efforts, The Sisters of Mercy managed to get quite a loyal underground following, and not a small one, either. In this time period, the band released seven more singles, most of which did well on UK independent charts, and some of which were featured in indie magazines. But how did they manage to release all these singles? It is said that Psychadelic Furs' guitarist John Ashton produced a number of the singles and Richard Butler, bassist for the Psychadelic Furs, even provided revenue to the band members so The Sisters Of Mercy could create their music.

In 1983, after the release of the single Temple Of Love (which was quite successful), The Sisters Of Mercy signed a deal with WEA records. Also at this time, Ben Gunn decided to leave The Sisters Of Mercy, and the other band members did nothing to dissuade him. Wayne Hussey took his spot as second guitarist. He had already spent some studio time with Dead or Alive, which was quite handy when The Sisters Of Mercy began to record their first full-length album, First and Last and Always. Although the recording process was helped by Hussey, it was somewhat tampered by the cooling relationship between Eldritch and the other band members. Eldritch was having physical and psychological problems, and provided little input in the early stages of writing and producing the songs. Eldritch only came in at the last moment to do lyrical work. The album is considered a must-have for any goth fans, even though Eldritch himself denied that it was a goth album. In the middle of the First and Last and Always promotional tour, Gary Marx left the band due to strains with Eldritch. After the final gig of the tour, the band said goodbye to their fans.

First And Last And Always



After the tour, Eldritch moved to Hamburg, Germany, and Hussey and Adams decided to split off from Eldritch to form their own band. Their band, The Sisterhood, played gigs containing material that Hussey had originally written for The Sisters Of Mercy, but which Eldritch refused to do. Eldritch thought the name "The Sisterhood" was too similar to "The Sisters Of Mercy", and protested its use because of the way it applied to The Sisters Of Mercy fans. Therefore, Eldritch created his own band and also dubbed it The Sisterhood, and released the single Giving Ground, and later The Gift. Therefore, the original Sisterhood decided to change their name to The Mission. Eldritch states he won 25,000 pounds in Civil Court over the use of the name The Sisterhood, but the Mission manager states that this suit never went to court at all.

Eldritch then produced the album Floodland, released in 1987. This Sisters Of Mercy album was not as guitar driven as the previous album, but saw more of a reliance on synthesizers. It contains many recurring themes, such as tidal floods after a nuclear war. This album like the previous, was hailed a gothic masterpeice while Eldritch objective. Alternative Press named it one of the top ten goth albums of all time. Some consider Floodland the album that changed the entire goth rock genre from guitar driven to synth diven songs. For this album, Eldritch hired Patricia Morrison from The Gun Club, who had previously toured with The Sisters Of Mercy. Eldritch claims that Morrison's only job was to create an illusion that The Sisters Of Mercy was a band, not a solo act, but Morrison denies this claim.

Floodland



The Sisters Of Mercy then took on yet another line up, this time with Eldritch, guitarist Andreas Bruhn, bassist Tony James (who played for Billy Idol's band Generation X), and Tim Bricheno as a second guitarist. In 1990, this line up released Vision Thing, with the help of a couple of studio musicians, John Perry and Maggie Reilly. This album was again more guitar oriented, and is more pure rock than goth rock. Most of the songs are attacks of US politics. They scheduled a promotional tour, and for the American leg of the tour played with Public Enemy, a hip hop band with a largely black following. A number of US cities thought the white fans of The Sisters of Mercy might riot with the black fans of PE, so many shows were cancelled, and The Sisters Of Mercy later cancelled the last half of their tour. Later, Tony James left the band and Doktor Avalance took on bass duties.

Vision Thing



The Sisters of Mercy released and rereleased a number of singles and compilations. In 1997, in an effort to get out of contractual obligation with EastWest records (a WEA subsidiary who had refused to sell Sisters of Mercy records in the US), Eldritch created the band SSV-NSMABAAOTWMODAACOTIATW and created some techno/dance music, sans drums, under that name. The band name is probably an abbreviation for "Screw Shareholder Value - Not So Much A Band As Another Opportunity To Waste Money On Drugs And Ammunition courtesy Of The Idiots At Time Warner". EastWest accepted the product and ended their contract with The Sisters Of Mercy. These albums were never released.

After this, the band could not secure another record contract, and Eldritch didn't want to release albums independently. The Sisters Of Mercy made occaisional appearances in various tours, where the band generally plays new or unreleased material. They are currently working on a new album, but are in no hurry whatsoever to finish it.

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Here we go. Mushu cereal for breakfast with duck sauce.

 

ChrisP

I love a patient band!... as long as they don't make another 10,000 days.

Nice Review Jethro

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Insanity admitted...

MusicMan

Good stuff Aqua! I don't think I've ever heard any of their stuff before.

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Rules! A definite must-read

The Music Showcase is the best place to share your music here, you can even embed Youtube videos.

Send me a PM if you need any help with anything.

Kameraad Pannekoek

You should. Floodland was a pretty good cd.

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Cleo

Great review! I gonna see ´m in july on stage...so im pretty curious now as i didnt listen to any of their songs yet.

Aqualung

Wow, you sure get to go to a lot of concerts. you'll definitely have to let us know how that concert goes.

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Here we go. Mushu cereal for breakfast with duck sauce.