The Sisterhood was a musical project led by Andrew Eldritch. With guest musicians, the Sisterhood recorded songs he had originally intended for a second album by the Sisters of Mercy.
After the March 1985 release of the first Sisters of Mercy album First and Last and Always the band prepared themselves for a follow-up. Eldritch: "The next Sisters album was going to be called 'Left On Mission and Revenge'."[1]
Singer Andrew Eldritch saw the time ripe for a change of direction: "I always wanted to do something different, because whatever we did it all eventually sounded the same."[2] "I wanted to find out how to record songs without any rock structures and especially without guitars."[3]
Together with guitarist Wayne Hussey, Eldritch went to Hamburg-Bramfeld during August and September 1985[4] to compose new material. Wayne Hussey: "I went to Hamburg for a month with Andrew to try and write songs for the second Sisters album, and we came back with all my ideas rejected and Andrew's very skeletal."[5] "Andrew rejected all my songs and let me work on one single chord all the time: 'Here's my song – E minor!"[6]
Back in England the band came together for rehearsals in October 1985, but the musical differences had become irreconcilable. Wayne Hussey: "We got to doing the second album and Andrew said 'I'm not singing any of your songs.'" [7]
Eldritch: "Then they said 'Well, okay, what are we gonna do for new songs?' And I said 'How about this, this and this' and, unfortunately, the first 'this' I cited had too many chords per minute and Craig said 'If that's the guitar line, I'm not playing it' and walked out. That was really that."[8] "The others didn't want to play my new songs, such as 'Torch' for instance. [...] The song has some unusual chord changes. Craig thought it was crap, he said 'I'm not playing it, I'm going home.' And there he stayed."[9]
Hussey: "Craig walked out of rehearsal and a day later I did."[10]
The music press reported the break-up of the band on Saturday, 2 November 1985: "The Sisters of Mercy were down to singer Andrew Eldritch and his faithful drum machine Doktor Avalanche this week after guitarist Wayne Hussey and bassist Craig Adams left the band. Although this has scuppered recording plans for a new album this month, Andrew now intends to record the same album in the New Year and could well be using Wayne as a session guitarist. The split was described as 'friendly' by a Merciful Release spokesperson. 'The cliché of musical differences would not be inappropriate. Wayne and Craig were unable to comprehend the direction the band was going.' Andrew has also approached former Gun Club bassist Patricia Morrison – now in Fur Bible – to play on the album, but it's not yet known whether Andrew will continue with the name Sisters of Mercy. Wayne and Craig are now reported to be getting their own band together."[11]
Andrew Eldritch: "The people that are now the Mission and myself had an agreement, no one would use the name when the band went its separate ways."[12] "The band was good and successful, each of us could continue. The split came at a time when it wouldn't do us any damage."[2]
On the very same day Eldritch made a phone call to bassist Patricia Morrison, whose band Fur Bible was on a UK tour with Siouxsie and the Banshees at the time, and asked her to play on his planned album. Morrison: "The day they fell apart he called me and said 'Will you do it?' and I said yes. [...] We had some tours set up, so I waited until that was cleared, then left."[13]
Hussey and Adams, who like Eldritch remained under contract with WEA Records, booked studio time at Slaughterhouse Recording Studios in Driffield at the end of October 1985, recorded a four-song demo tape, and set up a new band. But the demo tape was rejected by the record company who were not convinced by Hussey's singing talents.[14]
Eldritch went into the studio at the tail end of 1985 to produce the debut single of James Ray and the Performance for his Merciful Release label.[15] James Ray: "The Sisterhood project arose during the recording of 'Mexico Sundown Blues'."[16]
While Eldritch was in the studio, Hussey and Adams, who had taken over the Sisters' roadcrew and equipment, announced their debut concert for 20 January 1986, which they were going to play under the new name the Sisterhood.
Eldritch was alarmed: "They began to claim rights to [the Sisters name], which patently had to be stopped. And when they wanted to be called the Sisterhood, there was nothing I could do but be the Sisterhood before them – the only way to kill that name was to use it, then kill it."[12] "Warners thought they could have two bands on the same label with pretty much the same name."[17]
Eldritch decided to secure the rights to the Sisterhood name as quickly as possible. He registered a company under the name[18] and prepared a record to be released on his own label.
In only five days Eldritch recorded a song called "Giving Ground," which he co-wrote with Merciful Release manager Boyd Steemson and co-produced with Lucas Fox. Fox and Eldritch had met in the spring of 1985, when Fox was the stand-in drummer for Australian support band the Scientists on the Sisters of Mercy's UK tour. Eldritch recorded all instruments himself (guitar, bass, synthesizers and drum programming), while Fox programmed some additional percussion tracks.[19]
The single contained two different mixes of the song, Eldritch's original instrumental "Giving Ground (AV)" (5:45 min) on the b-side and the vocal remix "Giving Ground (RSV)" (4:50 min) on the a-side. 'AV' and 'RSV' are explained on the official Sisters of Mercy website this way: "The 'Authorised Version' of 'Giving Ground' is Andrew's original version, and the 'Revised Standard Version' is the version developed by colleagues at Merciful Release and subsequently adopted as the standard version. 'AV' and 'RSV' are well-known versions of the Bible."[20]
Because Eldritch, as an artist, was under contract to WEA Records, he could not sing on the record, otherwise WEA would have had an option on the recording. James Ray: "He asked me and I did the vocals, as easy as that".[21]
Merciful Release announced the single's release with a press statement: "From among the forces allied to Merciful Release we bring you the Sisterhood. capturing (in this instance) the musical bile of Andrew Eldritch, and introducing James Ray and the Performance ... of whom more soon."
The single was released as planned on 20 January 1986, the same day that Hussey and Adams played their debut concert in London as the Sisterhood. The press hype about the two conflicting parties made the single enter the UK Indie Chart on 8 February, where it got to no. 1 on 15 February 1986. The reviews in the music press were unanimously negative, and even James Ray later declared: "It's a terrible track."[22]
Hussey and Adams had to give up the Sisterhood name. A radio session for the Janice Long Evening Show on BBC Radio 1 on 10 February was broadcast under the provisional name of the Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams Band, and at the end of February 1986 the new name the Mission was announced.
Another Eldritch press release commented: "We assume that their choice of name is entirely unconnected with the forthcoming Andrew Eldritch album that for some months has had the working title Left on Mission and Revenge."
On 2 March 1986 the Mission played in Birmingham. Wayne Hussey: "The majority of the songs we've been doing in the set so far are my songs that Andrew rejected for the Sisters' second album. It's ironic cos he saw us at Birmingham and told us how good he thought the songs were."[23]
"This Corrosion" 12 inch EP (spring 1986, unreleased)
Sounds magazine reported on 20 February 1986 that "a new 12-inch EP called 'This Corrosion' will soon be in the shops, featuring the same line-up but with the addition of a mysterious and so far undisclosed American vocalist."[24] This 12inch single even appeared in German music paper adverts as "available soon".[25]
James Ray: "So during the recording of ['Mexico Sundown Blues'] we made and released 'Giving Ground'. We then spent weeks on what was to be the Sisterhood's second single, 'This Corrosion', but Eldritch decided he was going to use it to kickstart the Sisters Mk II."[26]
Recording took place at Fairview Studios[27] near Hull with in-house engineer John Spence. American vocalist Alan Vega, who had made friends with the Sisters of Mercy in 1983,[28] and undertook a solo tour through the UK and Europe during February and March 1986, recorded one version of the song, other vocal takes featuring James Ray and Andrew Eldritch are in existence as well.
The projected 12inch EP remained unreleased, instead the song "This Corrosion" in 1987 became the Sisters of Mercy's comeback single.
In March 1986, the Mission began negotiations with Phonogram Ltd. as WEA Records refused to release any material. So the band released the October 1985 demo tape in slightly re-recorded form as an independent single on 9 May 1986. The single (its b-side was titled "Wake (RSV)" as a nod to "Giving Ground (RSV)") promptly entered the UK Indie Chart at no. 1. WEA Records had to release the Mission from their contract.
Both Andrew Eldritch and the Mission still had a publishing contract with RCA Records from their days in the Sisters of Mercy. A sum of £25,000 for one studio album was payable for the year of 1986 in an Advance against royalties deal, so RCA decided to split up the money to the two concerned parties.[29]
Eldritch decided to claim the whole sum for himself by being first to compose, produce and release a studio album, much in the same way as he did with the "Giving Ground" single. Again he didn't appear as a vocalist, so he could release the album on his own label without having to offer it to WEA Records: "They thought it was great that I called myself the Sisterhood while they still had the Sisters of Mercy, so they didn't have to back me at all. I had to put out the album on Merciful Release, but it gave me free rein."[30]
Eldritch and Lucas Fox returned to Fairview Studios. Merciful Release office manager Boyd Steemson: "Basically, we had some extra tracks around, so Andrew quickly put some songs together."[31]
James Ray: "I wasn't involved too much with the album, as it was taking ages for Eldritch to formulate any concrete ideas, and I wanted to be writing my own stuff. I personally think the album transpired to cash in on the sales of the single."[26]
"Giving Ground" was included as an extended remix on the album, the only track featuring James Ray.
James Ray: "Lucas Fox done the spoken word stuff."[26] "If I remember correctly I advised Andrew on how Lucas Fox should approach his vocals and that was quite enough for me."[16]
Lucas Fox does the vocal parts on "Colours", "Finland Red, Egypt White" and "Rain from Heaven". The text of "Finland Red, Egypt White" comes from an arms dealer's catalogue for the AK-47 rifle, while the title cites the country code for blank cartridges. James Ray remembers Norman Cook (AKA Fatboy Slim), then bassist of local band the Housemartins, having done a mix of the track that remains unreleased.[16] "Rain from Heaven" with its choral singing seems to have been one of the tracks Eldritch intended for the Left on Mission and Revenge album, as he later mentioned how "Wayne and Craig had said those choral singings were insane."[9]
Patricia Morrison got her first opportunity to collaborate with Eldritch, but her only verified contribution to the album is one spoken passage on the opening track "Jihad". Eldritch: "So I asked Patricia to come to the studio and told her: 'Speak this – Two-Five-Zero-Zero-Zero'. It took the Mission two months to realise the meaning of those words. Two months!" i.e. £25,000.[30]
Alan Vega gets a credit on the album cover but it remains unknown whether he made any contributions to the recording. He was possibly part of the "Chorus of Vengeance" on the track "Rain from Heaven".
In July 1986 Eldritch put the album out on his Merciful Release label to unanimously negative press reactions. The album did not accomplish its purpose, as RCA Records dissolved the publishing contract with Eldritch[29] and decided to keep the Mission instead.
Tony Perrin, the Mission's manager: "I think Eldritch perpetuated it longer than anyone else bothered. We'd still get letters from his lawyers ages after but nothing would ever come of it. The whole thing cost us legal bills and that's all, the rumours about big losses by us were all rubbish, it was never going to court."[32]
Andrew Eldritch later said about the album: "The Sisterhood album was a weapon in this corporate war. That's why I called it Gift. [in German: poison] [...] But I still like the record. It's weird but it's fine."[30] "I see it as a techno record. Or what I thought to be techno at the time."[33]
The official Sisters of Mercy website comments: "The Sisterhood album has become a classic; it parallelled the New Beat of the Continental avant-garde that eventually spawned Techno."[29]
Album track list
All tracks are written by Andrew Eldritch
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Jihad"
8:16
2.
"Colours"
8:02
3.
"Giving Ground"
7:30
4.
"Finland Red, Egypt White"
8:16
5.
"Rain From Heaven"
6:42
Total length:
38:46
Album CD releases
On 1 August 1989 Gift was released on CD for the first time.
On 16 May 1994 the Gift CD was re-released in Germany.
Album trivia
The final episode of BBC drama Spooks' seventh series references this album. The Russian code broadcast on a Cold War number station is "2.5.0.0.2.5. Finland Red, Egypt White. It is twice blest. It is twice blest. Rain from Heaven". This code activates a Russian sleeper agent in Faversham (also a reference to the Sisters of Mercy as the Faversham is a pub in Leeds that "was where goth's dark lords, the Sisters of Mercy, would hold court"),[33] Kent to collect a hidden portable nuclear weapon to be taken to Grosvenor Square in London and detonated at 15:00hrs. Also, while trying to get to London Bridge through an unused underground tube tunnel, Lucas North says the sentence "What is lost can never be found"; a line from the "Giving Ground" track.
The 2009 song "Soothsayer" by The Gray Kid samples the main riff from "Giving Ground"[34][35] and was featured in the 2012 film The Brass Teapot.[36][37]
Related Research Articles
The Sisters of Mercy are an English rock band formed in Leeds in 1980. After achieving early underground fame, the band experienced a commercial breakthrough in the mid-1980s, sustaining their success until the early 1990s, when they halted the release of new records in protest against their record company, WEA. Currently, although the band operates primarily as a touring outfit, they continue to perform new and unreleased music live.
Andrew Eldritch is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He is the lead vocalist and only remaining original member of the Sisters of Mercy, a band that emerged from the British post-punk scene, transformed into a gothic rock band, and, in later years, flirted with hard rock.
Floodland is the second studio album by the English gothic rock band the Sisters of Mercy. It was released on 16 November 1987, through Merciful Release internationally and distributed by WEA, with Elektra Records handling the United States release. After the release of the band's debut studio album, First and Last and Always (1985), members Craig Adams and Wayne Hussey left to form the Mission, causing the dissolution of the Sisters of Mercy. As a result, band frontman Andrew Eldritch formed a side project known as the Sisterhood. After the first Sisterhood album was received negatively overall, Eldritch restarted the Sisters of Mercy and hired the Sisterhood member Patricia Morrison for the recording of a new album.
First and Last and Always is the debut studio album by English gothic rock band the Sisters of Mercy, first released on 11 March 1985 through the band's Merciful Release label. Prior to recording sessions for a debut album, the band started off by releasing multiple extended plays and singles from 1980 through 1984. Guitarist Ben Gunn departed the band in October 1983 and was subsequently replaced by Dead or Alive member Wayne Hussey. This created one of the band's most iconic line-ups, comprising Hussey with frontman Andrew Eldritch, guitarist Gary Marx, and bassist Craig Adams.
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A Slight Case of Overbombing is a greatest hits album by English gothic rock band the Sisters of Mercy. It was released on 23 August 1993 on the band's own label, Merciful Release, under distribution contract with East West Records. All the tracks featured on this compilation album are in reverse chronological order of release. A Slight Case of Overbombing contains mostly remixes and edited versions of songs that the Sisters of Mercy had released by 1993, as well as two never-before released tracks: a re-recorded version of "Temple of Love" from 1992, and one new track, "Under the Gun", which was released as a single to promote this compilation album and is also the band's most recent single as of 2024.
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Merciful Release is a record label started by Andrew Eldritch, frontman with Leeds band the Sisters of Mercy. As Eldritch stated in an early interview, he wanted to hear himself on the radio. He and Gary Marx played and recorded on the Sisters of Mercy's initial single "Damage Done" and pressed one thousand copies. This record was something of a collector's item.
Lucas Fox is an English drummer who was a founding member of British rock band Motörhead and London punk rock band Warsaw Pakt.
Jerry Wayne Hussey is an English musician who was born in Bristol, England. He is best known as the lead singer of the Mission, and as the guitarist of the Sisters of Mercy.
"Lucretia My Reflection" is a song by the English rock band the Sisters of Mercy. Released as the third and final single from their second studio album, Floodland, in June 1988, it reached number 20 on the UK Singles Chart.
"This Corrosion" is a song by the English rock band the Sisters of Mercy, released as the lead single from their second studio album, Floodland (1987), in September 1987. The song peaked at number 6 in Ireland, number 7 in the UK, and number 17 in Germany.
James Ray is a rock singer and band-leader, best known as a member of Andrew Eldritch's side-project The Sisterhood and for his own band James Ray's Gangwar.
"Under the Gun" is a song by the English rock band the Sisters of Mercy released as the single from their album A Slight Case of Overbombing: Greatest Hits Vol. 1. It is a duet featuring Terri Nunn on vocals, and was accompanied by a music video with Andrew Eldritch and Nunn. It is the only new song on a greatest hits compilation released in 1993 by Merciful Release on EastWest Records, a UK Warner Music Group label. This is the band's most recent single as of 2024.
The Mission are an English gothic rock band formed in 1986. Initially known as the Sisterhood, the band was started by frontman Wayne Hussey and bassist Craig Adams, soon adding drummer Mick Brown and guitarist Simon Hinkler. Aside from Hussey, the lineup has changed several times during the years and the band has been on hiatus twice.
The discography of the English rock band the Sisters of Mercy consists of three studio albums, two compilation albums, two extended plays (EPs), and sixteen singles. The Sisters of Mercy were formed in Leeds in 1980 by Andrew Eldritch and Gary Marx (guitar) and released their debut single, "The Damage Done", the same year on their own independent record label, Merciful Release. In early 1981, Craig Adams (bass) joined the band and they started to use a drum machine, which was christened Doktor Avalanche. Ben Gunn joined the band as a second guitarist by the end of 1981 and this line-up recorded four more singles and two EPs during 1982 and 1983. Guitarist Wayne Hussey replaced Gunn in early 1984 and, after building up their live reputation, The Sisters signed with WEA, who distribute the band's releases on Merciful Release in the United Kingdom and on Elektra Records in the United States. The band's next single, 1984's "Body and Soul", became their first charting effort in the UK when it reached number 46. Three more singles were released before the band reached number 14 on the UK Albums Chart with their debut album, First and Last and Always, which was released in March 1985. Following the album's release, Marx left the band, before the rest of the group disbanded in mid-1985.
The Reptile House E.P. is the second independent EP by the Sisters of Mercy, released on 12" vinyl in May 1983 on the band's own label, Merciful Release. The EP was never released as a stand-alone CD, but was included on the Some Girls Wander by Mistake collection.
"Alice" is a song by the British rock band the Sisters of Mercy, written by vocalist Andrew Eldritch. The song was released as a non-album single by the band's own label by Merciful Release, on 21 November 1982. It was re-released in March 1983 as a 12" EP.
Body and Soul is the third EP by the Sisters of Mercy, recorded in March 1984. It was the first release under a distribution contract with WEA, issued on 12" vinyl on 4 June 1984 by Merciful Release, the band's label. The EP was never released on CD, but the title track was included on the A Slight Case of Overbombing collection. All songs are credited to Andrew Eldritch, but according to Wayne Hussey's book Salad Daze, the music to the song Body and Soul was written by Hussey who for contractual reasons didn't get a credit.
References
↑ Andrew Eldritch TV interview (SkyTrax programme on Sky Channel late 1987)
1 2 [permanent dead link] Markus Hartmann: "...and the wind blows wild again..." (Zillo November 1990, page 12)
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