Sister Ray

The highlight of any live Sisters show in the 80s was undoubtedly Sister Ray, played as the final encore at the end of particularly successful gigs. From the first gig in York in Feb 81 until the European festivals of 98 the format would always be the same, based on a legendary repeated drum loop from the good Doktor. The drum machine would often rattle on for a good minute before the rest of the band plugged in for the Velvets' classic, and would also continue for another minute after the last guitar had been dumped on the stage in a squeal of feedback as the band left the stage one by one. In between times, Von would have "sung" his way through several other songs with a similar beat to Sister Ray, usually "Louie, Louie" and "Ghostrider" in the early days, but snatches of anything he fancied were possible on a good night. The overall impression was always of a band on the top of their game enjoying jamming together, with Eldritch's impassioned vocal rising and reverberating hypnotically around the venue. This week's welcome news (via Chris Catalyst on Formspring) that the band sometimes end up jamming the song including Hawkwind's "Silver Machine" gives hope that on day soon this Sisters classic will soon be restored to its rightful place.