The Sisters of Mercy gigs in Bradford area 1982/83 update

Inevitably, with more and more information and memories about 1980’s gigs being posted on the internet, new facts about concerts played by The Sisters of Mercy in the early 1980’s continue to emerge, so much so in the case of three gigs in the Bradford area in 1982/1983 that I have decided to pen this separate update to the previous blog posts on the gigs in question.

Whilst researching the show at Leeds Warehouse on 6th May 1982 where TSOM had allegedly supported The Birthday Party, I looked in more detail at the website of The March Violets, who had actually opened the gig as confirmed in the subsequently posted article of this blog, including the image gallery which has been uploaded there. This contains some flyers from early Violets gigs, including one which took place at Caesar’s in Bradford in November 1982. The buzz around the Violets was considerable at this particular time, with Grooving In Green just having been released to rave reviews, and they feature prominently on the advert on the flyer for their support slot at Caesar’s, a “new showcase venue for Yorkshire” according to John Keenan, who was behind this new venture. The Violets gig was one of the first of these promotions by Keenan in the cavernous Bradford venue, supporting none other than Dead Or Alive, who of course featured one Wayne Hussey on guitar at that time.

This gig took place just three days before The Sisters’ own support slot at Caesar’s, opening for legendary chanteuse Nico, the subject of a recent post on this blog.Looking carefully at the flyer, it soon became clear why no evidence of this gig had ever emerged apart from a pristine ticket, as Keenan had scrawled “is in hospital – concert postponed” after Nico’s name. So another 1982 gig will now have to be removed from The Sisters of Mercy’s gigography, thanks to the discovery of this new information. Although marked as “postponed” on the flyer, there is no evidence that the gig was ever rescheduled, at least according to online gigographies devoted to the 60’s singer.

Knowing his loyal Leeds-based following well, promoter Keenan had taken the wise precaution of listing the times of the last train and bus back to Leeds from Bradford, a city well provided for in terms of gigs by up-and-coming act by Nick Toczek, former author of the Wool City Rocker fanzine. Toczek promoted headlining gigs by The Sisters of Mercy twice around this time, and both of these concerts (March 1982 and January 1983) have already been covered in this blog.

Research for the afore-mentioned Birthday Party post had confirmed my published supposition that the gig at the Funhouse venue in Keighley on 29^th March 1982 was in fact the first ever concert played by The March Violets as support to the Sisters, and this week further information has come to light, as Nick Toczek continues to add information and memorabilia regarding gigs which he promoted in this era on his fantastic new website, initially launched in July 2018.

Toczek reveals that he had the support of local music journalist John Liddle of The Keighley News, who helpfully published articles on forthcoming shows. The Sisters of Mercy’s show was only the second which Nick had promoted, but he tells me that he had been impressed by a demo which he had heard by the band, who had also impressed Steven “Seething” Wells, punk performance poet and NME journalist, who was also on the bill that night. Toczek had reviewed the Sisters' disastrous (from a technical perspective) support slot to Altered Images the previous March, the band’s Leeds debut and third ever gig, and described them in The Keighley News as “modernistic, experimental pop”! He was presumably less familiar with The March Violets, who was simply listed as “an exciting new band”. 

extract from a larger cutting on the Nick Toczek website 

On his new website, which is well worth a lengthy perusal, promoter Toczek reveals that he paid just “eighty quid” for the services of both bands, and that The Sisters were “the loudest band I’d ever heard”, some accolade from a man who had spent much of the previous five years trailing round every West Yorkshire venue selling copies of the Wool City Rocker.

(Another extract from the Toczek website)

 Toczek notes that the venue was “full”, which, along with the considerable success and wider publicity afforded by the Alice/Floorshow single, was presumably why he booked the band to open a series of gigs at another new venue for him, the Manhattan Club, in January 1983. On his website, Toczek provides an affectionate tribute to the club’s late owner, known to all as “Bibi”, a West Indian migrant who ran the club and whose multi-cultural, all-inclusive door policy is still sadly far from being the norm over three decades later. To my personal delight, the new website features a scan of the flyer for Toczek’s new ventures for 1983, which I referred to from memory in my blog post on The Sisters’ Manhattan show. As well as the “Fatal Shocks” series of gigs at the Manhattan, Toczek also operated a new club night at Leeds Warehouse called 1984 (which switched to Brannigan’s after only six, poorly-attended shows) and had had thousands of flyers printed for these, one of which I must have picked up in Jumbo Records in very early January 1983, but frustratingly just a couple of days after the gig had taken place. As previously recalled, the flyer was however, for me at least, the first indication of the forthcoming new single Anaconda/Phantom,and is final evidence that 3rd January 1983 is the correct date fro this gig..

Discussing the Sisters’ Manhattan slot on his website, Toczek reveals that Seething Wells was again the support act, and that (contrary to my expressed expectations) “the new club was impressively full”. He also mentions that he was “on good terms with Andrew Eldritch”, although The Sisters were soon to move on to a different circuit, and this was therefore the last time that Toczek would promote the band.

With Toczek’s new website and this week’s Anniversary Concert to celebrate 41 years since the founding of John Keenan’s F Club, it’s great to see these two figures who took risks to promote exciting new talent in West Yorkshire in the early 1980’s (and up to this day in Keenan’s case; Toczek’s promotions lasted for four years) getting recognition for their key role in allowing the unique pool of talent in the area at the time (Southern Death Cult, New Model Army, The Sisters of Mercy, Skeletal Family, The March Violets, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, The Three Johns and others) to access their natural audience. Having subsequently lived in cities lacking promoters with drive and an eye for talent, I for one am most grateful to these two gents for their key role in the musical education of myself and countless others in West Yorkshire.