On The Wire - Hyde Park Circus Tent, Osnabruck, 15th November 1984

Of all the weird and wonderful venues visited by The Sisters of Mercy during their 1981-1985 ‘live’ heyday, the sight that awaited the tour-bus as it arrived in Osnabruck on 15^th November 1984 on their West German tour that followed the Black October UK jaunt was probably the most bizarre.

As can be seen on the ticket reproduced above, the gig really was held in a circus big top (formerly belonging to the Althoff travelling circus), the temporary home of Osnabruck’s “Hyde Park” club. The Hyde Park had originally been set up in 1976 in an old riverside restaurant, the picturesque “Schweizerhaus”, but as the years passed the venue gained a reputation for alleged drug dealing, and by July 1983 the exasperated authorities had decided to close it down. Local punks had other ideas, leading to a riot where a thousand protestors took on the police. An uneasy stand-off followed, with further sporadic outbreaks of violence, and a temporary solution was found in the shape of the circus tent which was pitched on an industrial estate near a sprawling cement works and therefore much further from prying eyes.

However, the owners continued to have problems with local inhabitants, as the sound from discos and concerts easily traversed the canvas walls of the big top leading to complaints. Heating the tent in the winter months and surviving storms were also problems for the owners, and the tent closed for the final time on 30^th November 1984, just two weeks after the Sisters visited. A new, more permanent structure based on a tent shape finally opened in 1985, and the current Hyde Park is the fourth incarnation of the venue, opened at the turn of the millennium.

Great photo of the tent in the snow, from the Hyde Park memories FB page

The Sisters’ own concert at the tent was very successful, despite there being no wall or ceiling sound insulation to help create the necessary reverberation, and the dry ice rising unfettered to the top of the big top. Legendary collector Phil Verne has never heard a top quality sound recording of the gig, as all suffer from the relatively poor acoustics, but the best available shows the band in typically slick form at this stage, having played almost exactly the same set for the past two months. Like all 1984 gigs, the show opens with the mid-paced pair of “Burn” and “Heartland”, the sound crew working wonders to provide decent balance from the start, and Eldritch coping admirably with his vocal digressions towards the end of the opener. The only spanner in the works is some antagonism between Eldritch and a member of the audience, who is told to “F--- off” in the pause between the opening two tracks. Eldritch says little between tracks, with the exception of the occasional “Danke schön”, and a fine concert, clearly well appreciated by a large audience who “hoi-hoi-hoi” along with the opening of their favourite tracks (such as “Alice”) in true European style and are treated (as are we, thanks to Phil having uploaded this to Soundcloud) to a truly magnificent ten minute medley of “Ghost Rider” and “Sister Ray”, with the former possibly the best version that I have heard. This takes the overall gig past the eighty minute mark, one of the longer shows of that era, an impressive fact towards the end of a gruelling tour that would bring the singer to physical and mental exhaustion.

After the gig’s conclusion, a female announcer tries to placate the enthusiastic crowd, although it would have been plain to anyone following the tour that TSOM had no more songs left to play anyway! Neverthess, she apologises to the crowd, stating that the police have been called by neighbours and that there will be no further encores.

However, the only contemporary review of the gig which I have found (from a German fanzine) is withering in its criticism of the band, rueing the changes which had taken place over the past twelve months, the writer presumably having seen the band in nearby Munster in autumn 1983 or early 1984. (Like Munster, and Bielefeld, Osnabruck was home to a very large British military base in the 1980’s, and it is highly likely that there was a strong “squaddie” presence at the gig, as British bands gigs were always well attended in this region – Detmold was also in this compact geographical area).

Starting “Let’s get to the worst concert of Autumn”, the author soon vents his spleen on the “embarrassing” spectacle which followed, as the Sisters “must have spent their entire WEA advance on military-grade fog grenades”, complaining that “dry ice fog was stupidly blown into the circus dome throughout the band’s set.” The reviewer also turns his vitriol on the music, stating that it was “muffled, boring and droning…everything sounded the same, the Sisters parodying the Sisters,” with accusations of “stealing riffs from early Banshees and Cure”, with even Gimme Shelter and an “over-cooked” Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door failing to rise above the mire. In a final put-down, the writer concludes “Grobschnitt fans, watch out. This band is for you from now on.”

Unlike his contemporary readers, I had never heard of symphonic comedy psychedelic pop band Grobschnitt, but a mere glance at this photo of the ensemble in their, erm, heyday, should suffice to indicate that the comparison was not intended as a compliment. According to Wikipedia, the band were famous “for live performances which included pyrotechnics and German comedic sketches” (the mind boggles), with performances “frequently exceeding three hours” and “utilising humour in the form of unexpected noises and silly lyrics” (in addition, presumably to the costumes). So perhaps not so far-fetched a comparison after all.

The Sisters have successfully played in marquees on many further occasions, usually on the Festival circuit (at Sonisphere for example), but this initial attempt was probably the least successful gig of that time since the September outdoor festival appearances.

My thanks for this post are due to the wonderful German punk archive site Tape Attack for the fanzine review, to Phil Verne of the 1980-85 The Sisters of Mercy Facebook Fan Page for the audio clip posted on Soundcloud, Ollie Cornaculix for the translation of the German and all others who have contributed, willingly or unwittingly.