Sisters Mysteries VII - Damage Done live, Leeds Warehouse January 20th 1983

Last week’s discovery of the location of the church featured on the sleeve of The Sisters of Mercy’s first single brought to an end one of the greatest Sisters’ Mysteries, and this week we can solve another one and finally definitively date some wonderful photos of the band playing at Leeds Warehouse in 1983. The Sisters of course played Mike Wiand’s legendary club no fewer than three times in the first four months of their “golden year”, but up until now, no-one was sure at which of the shows these photos were taken.

In them, Eldritch is iconically dressed in black, with Marx in a chequered lumberjack shirt, Adams in a floral print t-shirt, and Gunn also in a black shirt. This first photo, taken from the review of the band’s gig on 20^th January 1983 published by the weekly newspaper Leeds Student, and which I recently rediscovered on their digital archive, is clearly from the same set, and allows us to confirm the date of those that follow, which have emerged from various sources since that date.

Additional photos courtesy of Steve B and “’Appy”

That gig was the first time that I had paid to see The Sisters, having stumbled across them by default three months earlier, and this show was very much the triumphant homecoming for the band, with the double A-sided single Alice/Floorshow everywhere at the time –  riding high in the indie charts, on Radio One’s evening shows, and even increasingly on the dancefloors of generic (i.e. not specifically “indie”) student discos - and this was the first hometown gig since the early October '82 gig in the University Union's Riley Smith Hall, prior to the ground-breaking single's release.

I was not the only one there to see the new name on everyone’s lips, with hundreds turning up to pay tribute to the hometown heroes. The following year, Eldritch would tell Mr Spencer in an interview : “ I don’t pay actually much attention to my physical appearance… There was a distinct time I think it was about January, a couple of years ago [i.e. at this gig], where the audience’s attitude changed to me, I could feel it over a period of six months, it changed drastically to the way I looked, particularly the way the girls were reacting changed a great deal, and I didn’t know whether to put it down to a change of wardrobe, or a change of venue, the fact that I was older, or the fact that I was healthy or not healthy or whether the status of the band was sufficient to turn me into a sexier person than I was before. But I knew that I hadn’t actually done anything in that six months.”

The contemporary review from Leeds Student by Sara Clarke clearly acknowledges the rapport between band and audience, and the reverence with which the former “joke” band was now being treated, alongside the complaints of “monotony” and “heavy metal” that still occur in live reviews of the band thirty-five years later! Clarke refers to the two encores, but omits to mention that the second of these was a virtually unique outing in the Gunn era for Damage Done, the band’s first single (in fact we know that it was also played at York university three months earlier). This was referred to by Gary Marx in an interview about the first single with Record Collector magazine in 2007 : “We only ever played Damage Done once to my recollection, and that was a hastily slung together third encore at Leeds Warehouse with me having to switch instruments with Craig because he always hated the bass line and refused to play it.” (Craig’s legendary stubbornness in this regard would prove to be the last straw in the band’s final implosion in 1985).

Fortunately, the gig was recorded and a superb quality version of Damage Done (despite the switching of instuments!) was shared on YouTube by Phil Verne of the TSOM 1980-1985 Facebook fan page, along with the photo above of an autographed poster of the gig, which if memory calls cost me two pounds to get in, with no support band. The poster was priced significantly higher when this photo was taken, in Vinyl Solution record store in London in the early 90s as Phil recalls : “I have never seen this poster since. I remember that had to put my wife on my shoulders to let her take this picture because the poster was set up very high on the shop wall. The guy who worked in the shop wouldn’t sell it to me because it belonged to the boss of the shop who was not there at the time.”

The whole gig can easily be found on download sites, and is best enjoyed along with these wonderful “listening notes” by another moderator of the 1980-85 Facebook group, Ollie C, who had kindly allowed me to share them here. Ollie correctly pinpoints this gig as a turning point in the band's history and writes :

This gig is special in several ways. The first thing is that the Sisters are playing in front of a “home” crowd, which creates a particular, familiar atmosphere. On the other hand, it is a headline show, not a festival gig or a support slot. So the Sisters can play an extended set, not the 30-minutes shows we know from the late 1982 recordings e.g. at the "Christmas on Earth" Festival some weeks previously.

The Sisters are at a turning point at this gig. If you read the fantastic article in the Quietus about the "Golden Year" 1983, this show presents us with the climax of how the Sisters were up to this point. It contains most of the very early classics in driving versions, including songs that will be kicked out of the set soon, to be replaced by the later highlights like "Gimme Shelter", "Jolene" or "Emma", so none of the latter are included here. So it's actually more of a 1982 setlist, very early in 1983. But it shows us what a perfectly oiled live machine the Sisters are at this stage. Some 1982 problems have been resolved - just think of the roughness of "Anaconda" and "Alice" as reported in Nik's post about the "worst gig" of the Sisters, just 3 months earlier.

Now let's have a closer look at the gig itself. Of course we start with "Kiss the Carpet", with a little trouble in the intro part, some "Mr. Marx trying to find the right tone"-thing, and some different views on the timing between Gary and Ben regarding when to start the guitar-riff, but when Andrew kicks in with the vocal, he sets the right cue point and the guitars follow. Proof that it’s the vocalist who keeps it all together, showing the right path to his sidemen.

Without a break we move into "Floorshow", a live classic from the very beginning and a great way to say "Here we are, move your asses" after the crawling intro track...and it works, as you hear people yelling after Andrew's introduction.This is even a kind of "extended version", as Andrew misses his cue to kick in in time after his screaming part. But the band waits for him and plays on...a good reaction, guess nobody in the audience at the time even noticed that.

The next song, "Watch", is introduced as an "old one"...yes from the very first single, originally sung by Marx, but here in a driving version carried by the Doktor's beat later recycled for "Heartland" and by a very groovy bass from Craig. Andrew’s vocals fit very well for this song, and I personally like this live version much better than the 7" version.

 The “classics” then follow with "Adrenochrome" and "Alice", both well-played standard versions. "Alice" again being welcomed by the audience after its introduction, showing that the audience already have their favourite tunes. And this time it's presented without any “off-piste” fretwork by Mr. Marx!

The following "Valentine" is presented as a "new one". There are only two known versions played before this gig, in the late 1982 Christmas setlists, so we can really say that it's genuinely a new one. After the previous two fast tracks, the audience gets confronted with a slow, dragging beat from the Doktor, leaving a lot of space between lines and chords; so the guitar lines can build an intense atmosphere, as they work brilliantly together. A Sisters piece par excellence, showing in which direction the new songs will go and giving a little taste of the soon to be released "Reptile House EP". Andrew’s vocal lines are demanding and hard to sing, and here we can notice him getting in a bit of trouble trying to reach the high notes...but he solves it very professionally, always getting back on key.

The next track is introduced as being the new single, "Anaconda", a song which had been first played several months beforehand in a more embryonic version which was played very roughly...now it works much better, but also here we have some fine moments of the "Mr. Marx trying to find the right tone"-thing. I can clearly see him running around on stage, hitting his string(s) nearly without looking at it and so sometimes missing the right fret when playing the famous melody. Andrew seems, when he starts to sing, to decide in the last second to sing it an octave deeper than in the October versions, making the song getting closer to the recorded and released version. It already shows the potential to become a Sisters classic, I guess the Sisters are convinced of it at that stage as well, as they put it into the later section of their main set, although it's an unreleased and still quite a new song.

Suddenly we move towards the end section of the main set. It starts with a routinely but roughly played "Body Electric", that morphs straight into the beginning of "1969", also a classic Sisters live track from the very first days. We can even talk of a medley here, as there is absolutely no break between the two.

"1969" is presented in the "extended" version, with Andy screaming to the Doktor's tricky programmed beat during the long intro section. In this song the Sisters show how great they are, although (or even because?) it's a cover song. Andrew’s high sung lines and screams above the driving bass and the stoically played power chords by Ben, together with Gary's wildly tortured guitar string...this is The Sisters at their absolute best! Raw power!

After a short encore break the Sisters return to the stage with the slow and creepy "Lights", a song that we know is from 1981, but up to this point only rarely played live in some encores. It shows again that the Sisters are also at home in more quiet and atmospheric tunes, a fact that will soon be proven with the release of the "Reptile House EP", including this song and of course as we all know, the opener and the "new" Valentine played earlier in the set. The song finds its climax in the end, with some desperately screamed vocals by Andrew. Shortly after its end, an audience member screams for "Good Things" with is answered by Andrew with an unfriendly "No!". At least he answered, you could say. But why was "Good Things" skipped completely, as it's a catchy song? It was played live in 1981 and even presented in their first Peel session. And people frequently ask for it. Maybe one day we will know the answer...

The following and usual last encore track is, as we know since 1981, of course VU's "Sister Ray". A highlight of any Sisters show that can't be missed. Of course again a great, wild version. But one little tragedy: the taper, obviously not expecting the gig could be longer than 45 minutes, did not use the encore break to turn over the tape. Aaaarrgghhh!!!! So the improvised guitar parts in the middle section are lost to the tape flip. But we are lucky enough that it was auto-flipped (or did the taper realize and turn it up? we never know), so we have the strong end with some heavy guitar and bass parts and Andy's screamed outro.

That would have been it - normally. But here, at home in Leeds, in another short encore break, the DJ encourages the audience at least to try to get the Sisters back on stage...and it works! As most tape collectors know, an encore after "Sister Ray" is extremely rare.But, what are the Sisters going to play for us? It's a groovy, floating live version of their first single, "The Damage Done" .It's introduced by Andy with the words "This is our first...greatest hit", covered by some feedback noise probably because he gets too close to the monitor box with his mike as he still does today, and when the Doktor starts, obviously a bit too slow, his speed is corrected while the song has already started. The first tones of the bass-riff are lost because the fader was down already and is put up in the last second. This all sounds a bit improvised and unrehearsed, I guess that "The Damage Done" was officially removed from the setlist already and it was played here as an absolute exception. But why? This version here is so great and groovy. I really love it! The "Glitterish" drum pattern, the melodic bassline, Andy's very cool vocals here, we even get some trashy high guitar notes. What an end to a gig! 

But as I mentioned earlier, we can see this gig as a turning point. Some of the songs presented here have been in the set for two years and are going to be replaced soon. We can say goodbye to "Watch" and of course "The Damage Done", and even the two famous covers "1969" and "Sister Ray" are going to be kicked out of the set. "1969" will be played the last time two months later at the famous Brixton Ace gig, also here we have a fantastic recording shared on YouTube from Phil's archive , it is introduced as being played for the last time. Also "Sister Ray" is announced also as to be played the last time, it will be partially replaced by the new cover-medley "Ghostrider" by their famous heroes Suicide, crossed over with the 1950's rock and roll classic "Louie Louie", originally performed by Richard Berry. But unlike "1969", "Sister Ray" was allowed to celebrate a comeback.

But back to the point. As this is more a 1982 setlist as I said earlier, this is a great document of how the Sisters were before the "Golden Year" started. The typical songs played since 1981 are presented in such perfection and routine, and the band are so on fire that it even hurts listening. You can smell the development burning under their skins. In the near future the set will consist of even more slower songs like "Heartland" and "Burn", the before mentioned new covers that will help them to get more attention, proving their sense of humour and courage ("Jolene", "Emma") and of course changing rock history by showing the Stones how their song goes ("Gimme Shelter").
To me, it's absolutely amazing how great the Sisters already were even before these milestones, and here we have a fantastic document of that!

My thanks for this blog post are due to all those who have contributed, whether directly or indirectly - Phil V, LG, Richard N, the Leeds Student team, Rob C, 'Appy, Steve B and of course Ollie for the wonderful review. As usual, a fantastic team effort to try to keep the unique memory of this wonderful band from Leeds alive!