The more
one studies the 1985 TSOM split, the more complex the situation becomes. In the
first two blog posts looking at the timescale and precise events leading up to
the split (here and here), by far and away the most revealing sources have been
contemporary fanzines both in the UK and abroad, and in this third post
examining the protagonists’ expressed views at the time, we are again going to
focus on the comments of the prime mover, Andrew Eldritch.
The
administrator of the wonderful Sisters wiki, Heartland Forum member Being645,
recently drew attention to an item which had appeared on Ebay, an American
publication entitled Rockpool from June 1985 which promised “Conversation with
The Sisters of Mercy”. Realising the significance of the magazine – the
in-house publication of Rockpool Promotions, the highly influential original
new wave promo company who had been responsible for the creation of the New Music Seminar showcase at which TSOM had played in NYC the previous year -
and its timing, I alerted well-known collector Phil Verne who subsequently
bought the item, which turned out to feature an extensive interview with an
on-form Andrew Eldritch and a typically taciturn Craig Adams (the garrulous
Wayne Hussey was not present).
From
comments made during the interview, it is clear that it took place on the
afternoon of Thursday 6th June, on the rest day between the shows
at Boston Channel Club on the 5th (still currently unlisted on
major gigographies) and the final date of the US tour on the 7th.
Somewhat surprisingly, both Eldritch and the interviewer seem excited looking
ahead to their (separate) visits that evening to see Madonna (!) live in NYC,
allowing us to date the interview with a degree of certainty. This would
therefore make it last known interview with Eldritch before the split, making
it a very significant addition to the overall collective TSOM archive.
Eldritch
is clearly delighted that the arduous UK, European and US tour (which started
three months earlier on 9th March) is coming to an end, but
seems more positive than in the Italian interview some three weeks previously,
although the presence of Adams may have had a limiting effect on his candour.
When asked, “So is this only LP you’ll make, FALAA?”, Eldritch replies “There’s still a chance. It’s certainly
the first and last LP by that particular configuration, which is important.
It’s definitely like a chapter”.
What’s
more, Eldritch clearly has plans for the continuation of the group in the
current three-piece line-up, which explains the events of the summer and autumn
when the aborted sessions for “Left On Mission and Revenge” took place. “Around
Christmas time we’ll do …a Far East tour”, he states, clearly referring to the
Jan 1986 shows in Japan which were scheduled (and subsequently cancelled – it
would be a further 25 years before an incarnation of TSOM finally performed in
Japan) for which posters have surfaced, whilst the band also clearly has more
immediate plans, with the singer stating “We did [tour a lot] but after
tomorrow things may change a lot. We’ve got one final date in Britain and it’ll
be Gary’s last. A sort of memorial day in more than one way. Then we’re gonna
rest up, write and recharge our batteries.” He is then asked about going back
into the studio soon and he replies “Yeah, we’ve gotta finish up ‘Emma’ and
stuff like that”.
Eldritch’s
“memorial day comment” is clearly a reference to the fact London’s Royal Albert
Hall is best known for hosting Great Britain’s annual national Festival of
Remembrance, hence the name of the gig (“Wake – a festival of remembrance”),
the silver paper dropped from the roof at the end of the gig like the
poppies during the minute’s silence at the normal Remembrance Day
commemorations in the RAH, the stark formal programme and the organ interlude
on the night – Eldritch had clearly planned this ‘live’ finale for some
time, and coming from a Forces family he would have been aware of the
significance of the venue. That it had now turned out to be likely to be Gary’s
final appearance clearly added to the experience in Eldritch’s opinion,
although ironically Marx didn’t ultimately appear at the show and it was in
fact the final appearance of both Hussey and (listening here) Adams, of course.
The
“’Emma’” and stuff like that” comment is arguably the most significant, as we
will examine in a future post on the split, but for now it is sufficient to
state that “stuff like that” refers in all likelihood to “Knocking on Heaven’s
Door”, the studio version of which (available along with a rough studio version
of Emma on the much sought-after “Sins and Secrets” bootleg 7”single) was
recorded by the three piece line-up in June 1985.
There
were rumours of a covers EP being prepared for release, not least in German’s
usually well-informed Spex magazine, who covered their information (and
probably incorrect speculation) that it would include the band’s studio
rendition of short-lived 1984 live favourite “Gimme Gimme Gimme (a man after
midnight)” with two uses of the word “allegedly” ("vermeintlich") in this snippet featured on the German TSOM fansite poison-door.net and shared by the impressive "Ultimate Sisters Guide" archive :
Earlier
in the “Rockpool” interview, Eldritch has already confirmed Gary’s departure :
Interviewer
: I heard a rumour that somebody’s leaving the band
Eldritch
: Yeah, somebody already left. That was Gary
Interviewer
: Are you going to get another guitar player?
Eldritch
: No!
As those
lucky enough to attend (like I myself did) any of the April-June 1985 shows in
Europe and the USA , or who have heard bootleg recordings of those shows will
attest, the ‘live’ sound sounded fuller than one might have imagined with just
Wayne on guitar, so one can well imagine Eldritch feeling that a rhythm
guitarist was a potentially argumentative luxury that he could do without.
Curiously, the ”Rockpool” interview then immediately turns to an earlier
episode at the time of the New Music Seminar New York trip in August 1984, a
time when the singer and band’s well-publicised studio traumas reached their
height.
Interviewer
: I heard a rumour that you broke up.
Eldritch
: I quit last year here at the Ritz. I said we’d do the album and the tour and
that’s it.
This is
an amazing revelation, and very much the train of thought to which the singer
had returned in the two Italian interviews featured in the first of my blog
posts on the split. How had the interviewer heard of this? The source of the
rumour is sadly not touched upon, and Eldritch immediately makes a joke of
the issue :
Eldritch
: The others quit as well. We quit together.
Interviewer
: Then you could all form a band.
Eldritch
: Yeah, that’s pretty much how it turned out.
(incidentally, this is at odds with what Wayne had said in the "Day of the Ray Gun cometh" fanzine interview, remembering New York as "a week of excess, a week of not having to think about making records...we did a couple of gigs and then we had like three or four days off, it was good fun.")
(incidentally, this is at odds with what Wayne had said in the "Day of the Ray Gun cometh" fanzine interview, remembering New York as "a week of excess, a week of not having to think about making records...we did a couple of gigs and then we had like three or four days off, it was good fun.")
So with
this fascinating pre-RAH wide-ranging "Rockpool" interview, another piece of the jigsaw
emerges, and on the evidence of this chat it would appear that on the evidence
of the European and US tours he had started to believe that the three of them
(Eldritch, Hussey and Adams) could make a go of things, leading to the
subsequent attempts to make a start on the second album.
Tellingly,
things began to deteriorate very soon, however. Absence is said to make the
heart grow fonder, but a week apart from his remaining fellow Sisters
immediately after the “Rockpool” interview had the opposite effect on Eldritch,
as he recalled in a 1987 interview with MM “I thought it [the band] should
still have gone on but know it wasn’t going to. The last time we actually spent
any time together, at the end of the tour before the Albert Hall, we had some
time playing in America and then we had a week off in Los Angeles. I went to
Mexico for the day and the other two couldn’t think of anything better to do
than go to Disneyland. And when I got back from Mexico a WEEK later, having got
somewhat…uh…distracted, I thought, “God, what are these people whingeing about,
really?” They just got so feeble.”
So who
was to blame for the Sisters’ demise? Traditional explanations have included Gary’s
silent unhappy “linger”ing ruining the atmosphere, Eldritch’s machiavellian
masterplan allowing no place for democratic discussion or Hussey’s naked
commercial ambition tarnishing the rock’n’roll dream ? But according to Eldritch’s
comments, it turns out it was Walt Disney’s fault all along! Jesus may love The
Sisters, but it was Mickey Mouse who split them up!
My thanks for this post are due to Being645 for alerting us to the existence of this fanzine, to poison-door.net and the Ultimate Sisters Guide for their fantastic work in chronicling the band's past, and to Phil Verne of the 1980 1985 TSOM fan group for sharing the interview with me (and by extension, readers of this blog). More on the 1985 split soon !
No comments:
Post a Comment