There were probably more people at Eleanor Rigby’s
funeral. Four lads (and a drum machine) who shook the alternative musical world
played their first gig in the self-proclaimed world music capital on March 24th
1983 – and nobody came ! Playing the role of Father Mackenzie that night at the
short-lived Club Fiasco at the equally short-lived Liverpool Warehouse venue
was Roger Hill, punk fanzine editor turned presenter of BBC Radio Merseyside’s
“Rockaround” alternative music programme, who recalled the night when he
interviewed Wayne and Mark (Gary) on his show immediately prior to the May 1984
date at Liverpool University’s Students Union.
Asked if remembered the show, Marx admitted “Yes,
it was the night New Order played – it was practically empty!” (As regular
readers of this blog will know, this was not an unusual occurrence for the band
outside their native West Yorkshire as late as Spring 1983, but Marx was indeed
correct in his recollection, as New Order did indeed play in the city that
night, at the State Ballroom on Dale St.)
Hill retorted, “Yes, it was practically empty.
There were more of what I thought were roadies but were probably your followers
than anybody else…there was a lot of ferocious sort of electrical dancing going
on that night.” Later in the same interview, when discussing the differences in
the band since the Warehouse gig (“fuller sound…better guitars and
amplification”), Hill stated that the concert was “one of the half dozen best
I’ve ever been to…It seemed like everyone in the band was off their head. I
don’t know if it was the music or anything else (!).Most of what I thought were
your roadies were going beserk but down in the body of the Warehouse there
wasn’t an awful lot else going on.”
Marx merely replied that “We’re not used to playing
at such volume, and when we do, there’s an electricity that runs through us.”
Listening to an excellent quality recording of the gig, it’s hard not to agree
that there might be another (more chemical ?) reason for the band’s unchained
performance. Von misses vocal cues in several songs having sung the memorable
couplet “I kissed the curtain, I climbed the carpet” in the set opener. His
performance in “Burn” would probably be euphemistically described by veteran
American Idol judge Randy Jackson as “pitchy”, whilst the final chorus of
“Jolene” is delivered in the voice usual reserved for the final “go go go go GO
!” of Floorshow.
Between songs Vons’s mogadon tones merely informed
the sparse audience of the age of the various songs “This is an old one. Not
that old. Not as old as some of them….This is fairly old” (Adrenochrome), “This
is a new one” (Burn) and very appropriately “The newest song of all” after set
newcomer “Heartland”. (click on the name of the song to hear this song from the gig, thanks to the generosity of Phil Verne).
After an incendiary “Body Electric”, the band leave
the stage briefly before returning for the encore, Craig admitting “It dern’t
tek much to gerr us back on”. Returning to the evening’s theme, Von introduces
“This is the oldest one of all. Someone else has put this one together, with
loads of nice, melodic bits and stuff that we don’t usually bother with much.
You get the gist.” The band launch into what turns out to be a somewhat shambolic
version of “Gimme Shelter”, Gary messing up one of his mini guitar solos
resulting in Von coming in for the second verse in the wrong key, and Craig
ending up doing an impromptu bass finale after the good Doktor and the rest of
the band have finished.
(photo shared by Marc Jones on FB)
Apart from the audio recording, there is no other
memorabilia from the gig (but if you have a ticket, flyer or poster, please
share!), although some of the bizarre “exercise book” style flyers for other
months of gigs at the Warehouse have seen the light of day, plus a few contemporary
photos of other bands on stage there (easily identifiable as “Liverpool
Warehouse” was written in big letters on the back wall of the stage). The
Warehouse, in common with other legendary Liverpool venues The Cavern and
Eric’s, was in a basement of a much older building, and since the closure of
Eric’s had become the major live music venue in the city. The venue, part of an
actual former warehouse (funnily enough), was gutted by fire a month after the
Sisters visit, but as a brick-built building survived, and by my reckoning is
now part of the Krazyhouse complex (judging by the address on the flier).
Roger Hill combined a career as a radio presenter
(“Rockaround” changed into “Pure Musical Sensations” the longest running
alternative radio show on BC local radio) with various other roles on the arts
scene and his film “Punk Snow” based on his diaries as a young punk in
Liverpool in the late 70’s is now available on YouTube. He also spent some time
as a lecturer at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA), just like
his erstwhile interviewee Mr Pearman.
As for TSOM, Eldritch developed a famous disdain
for the city, but was happy to use a photo of the Mersey as the backdrop for
the cover of the “Floodland” LP in 1987.
My thanks are once again due to Phil Verne for allowing me to access the
relevant parts of his massive TSOM audio archive. If anyone has old cassettes
of TSOM gathering dust, why not contact him at spiggytapes@free.fr
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