Thirty-six
years ago tonight, I was one of several hundred expectant fans queuing in the
narrow entrance corridor to the Riley Smith Hall, just through the main doors
of Leeds University Union building on the left hand side, waiting to see the
Furs for a free Fresher’s gig, the first time that I would see The Sisters of
Mercy who were the support act that night. I’ve previously already covered this life-changing (for me!) event twice on this
blog, in the very first post back in 2011 when my aim was just to record a few
personal reminiscences about life in Leeds in the early 1980’s, in case anyone
might be interested, and again more recently in a post about the fact that the gig featured the band’s first-ever encore, with the blog now focusing on
third-party eye-witness accounts of the band’s halcyon days.
Whilst
researching another gig recently, I stumbled across a digital archive of the
Leeds Student newspaper, which as its name suggests was a publication written
for and by students at the city’s Higher Education institutions, primarily the
University and the Poly, and to my delight discovered that the archive contained
an edition from mid-October 1982 containing a review of the show, which
mentions the Sisters at some length, on their return to the Leeds stage after a
summer which had seen them raise their profile by recording their first session
for John Peel on BBC Radio One.
Although back in 1982 I had soon acquired a recording of the gig which got very heavy rotation on the
Lagartija music centre over the next few months, it wasn’t until more recently
that I realised that the gig started with the first (recorded) rendition of Kiss The Carpet, which was to become
such a successful set opener over the next few months. Not only did it allow Eldritch
the self-indulgent rock’n’roll cliché of a solo entrance after the band have established
a hypnotic almost krautrock backbeat, but as Gary Marx told Mark Andrews for The Quietus, “it certainly made good sense to introduce
elements one by one to leave plenty of time and space to sort out technical
problems. It gave me a little time to feel my way in. I can hardly overstate
the fact I was often playing stuff that was tricky for me to do sitting down
and concentrating, never mind when I was revved up and trying to throw a shape or
two.”
On
this occasion, KTC does indeed (as The Leeds Student review states) begin
with some squalling feedback and a very muffled Doktor. There are also slightly
discordant guitar parts, and around 2 minutes ten seconds into the version Ade
M has kindly uploaded to YouTube (click on the song title links to access these), there is a very un-TSOM style bit of guitar
riffing that sounds not unlike U2’s The Edge’s signature style. However, within seconds the drum machine backbeat moves up a gear, and a small cheer and an “‘Ello”
signifies the arrival of a black-clad Eldritch on stage, every inch the Joey Ramone
clone many others commented upon. The unison riff kicks in, and although
Eldritch misses his first cue, the song soon picks up pace. In this early
version of the song, the singer omits the words “the carpet” in the “Next time
I’ll look” section, allowing him to linger on the sibilance of “kiss”.
Pete
Turner on the sound desk has rectified any lingering sound issues by the end of
the song, and the Leeds Student reviewer ("Hugh Elitist") was right to be impressed by the storming,
almost note-perfect version of Floorshow which follows. Another future single,
an early version of Anaconda is next,
with the Doktor in full effect for the intro, and a scuzzy bass sound underpinning
Von’s impassioned shout of “We will, we will walk away” in the early version of
the lyrics. There is further vocal riffing as Von either can’t remember or hasn’t
yet come up with a full lyric, including the Joy Divisionesque “We will walk in
silence” at one point. With the song almost reduced to an instrumental, it’s
another chance to hear how tight the three instrumentalists and drum machine
are becoming as a unit, particularly as this, too, is the earliest known recording of the song.
The
recently recorded Alice came next ("We are The Sisters of Mercy and this is called Alice", the singer intones for the benefit of us freshers over the intro),
the relentless drum machine assault reaching its zenith, as the contemporary
reviewer noted. Eldritch is on fine vocal form, covering up further guitar
errors and feedback. Even Craig Adams seems to get lost towards the end,
forcing Eldritch and then Marx to temporarily lose their place, although they
just about back on track for the end of the song.
A
muscular Watch follows, arguably the track
which has the most in common with the Furs’ debut album which had a such an
influence on Eldritch and Marx. As probably the most played song in the band’s
repertoire at the time, it is understandably the “tightest” song of the night,
the different elements combining in a way that has so much more impact and
power than the debut single version, particularly in the final “Watch us fall”
section with only Adams and the Doktor providing a backing to Eldritch.
The
gig ended with a trio of cover versions, two of which, famously, were 1969, the
second being the band’s first ever encore. Eldritch says “Last one” to the crowd as
the now familiar backbeat to Sister Ray
begins. I don’t recall this being a particular highlight on the night – the improvised
wall of noise was probably a bit much for a tender fresher, but listening back
to it now, it sounds truly magnificent. Even Eldritch can’t help carrying on for a
while having said “Goodnight!” whilst the Doktor himself has a little extra rattle over
the applause at the end, almost drowning an amusing conversational snippet between the
taper and a friend. “Sister Ray!” "Aye, it wasn’t easy to tell though, was it?” The
encore reprise of 1969 (prefaced with
“This is the last time you’ll hear us play this one” was indeed well-deserved
(thanks Jeremy!), and is a unique
version with an extended introduction.
A
memorable gig for all of us who were there, particularly with a slightly under par (and under power, in comparison) but incredibly it would be a
further eighteen months before they would play at the university once again, once
again at the Riley Smith Hall on their first tour with Wayne Hussey. They were
very much a different band by then, but the opening line of the excellent Leeds
Student review perfectly sums up the band’s appeal to me at the time – “Fuzz
and Feedback with The Sisters of Mercy”.
My grateful thanks for this post to the Leeds digital archive, to Ade M, and (for thirty six years of pleasure) to the band themselves. For fans of the band, I can strongly recommend Heartland Forum and the wonderful TSOM 1980-1985 Facebook fan page.
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