This Spring marks the fortieth anniversary of the release of The Sisters of Mercy’s seminal second single, the Body Electric/Adrenochrome double A side, the band’s only release on the CNT label, to which they had signed almost a year earlier according to the announcement in Music Week trade magazine, in May 1981.
The band’s relationship with CNT, and the details of the
recording of the second single, are recounted in wonderful and precise detail
in Mark Andrews’ essential biography of the band’s early years, Paint My Name In Black And Gold, published last year. Andrews tells the tale of the
band’s first visit to the KG Studios in Bridlington in early November 1981 (around
the time of their one and only gig with Tom Ashton of The March Violets guesting on rhythm guitar, at the University of Leeds) the studio where the majority of their
other pre-WEA releases would be recorded, but also reveals other details of the
studio session which would help to explain the significance of the Body
Electric/Adrenochrome single to the band’s future. The fact that the
expected one-day session required a second visit to Bridlington later that
month at the singer’s insistence is an early indication of Eldritch’s
perfectionist streak, whilst an interested visitor to the extra session (a
fortnight after the original recording) was none other than Ben Gunn, who had
recently agreed to join the band and would play a significant minor role in the
band over the next twenty months. Even more presciently, there was the feeling
amongst the band themselves that they finally had “something”, as revealed by
Gary Marx in this quote from Paint My Name In Black And Gold: “There
were points within the actual recording of the second single where we sounded
great”, before admitting that this doesn’t necessarily come across well on the
finished product.
Nevertheless, the band was clearly satisfied at the time with
the sound of the second single, which Eldritch would in future take as the
band’s debut release, dismissing The Damage Done as effectively the work
of a previous band. This was underlined when Richard Newson interviewed The
Sisters of Mercy in late November 1982 for their first cover feature in one of
the UK music weeklies, Sounds, a story he recounted on Phil Verne’s
excellent The Sisters of Mercy 1980-1985 unofficial Facebook fan page: “The
interview began awkwardly. I mistakenly described Alice as the
"second" Sisters single when it was actually the third, after that
April's Body Electric - which I'd loved - and 1980's The Damage Done,
which predated my interest in the band and had somehow escaped my notice.
Eldritch clearly wanted Body Electric to be treated as their debut
release, and was eager for The Damage Done to be airbrushed from
history. But despite this, my ignorance of the Sisters' early history led to
mild irritation on Eldritch's part, followed by giggles from Ben Gunn.”
The band clearly shared the tape of their new single far and
wide as they sought to obtain gigs and press features, with X Moore (the nom de
plume of Chris Dean of the band The Redskins, who were also about to release
their debut single on CNT and would perform alongside The Sisters at the 1984
York Rock Festival) referring to the then-forthcoming release of CNT002 in his
review for the NME of the band’s performance at Vanburgh College at the
University of York in early February 1982: “The band whip out the single (Body
Electric), flash both sides (…Adrenochrome), and the dancers call
for more poison”.
However, the test pressing from French pressing plant
MayKing (this photo is from the vaults of renowned TSOM collector Erzsebet von
Rona) is clearly stamped 16th March 1982, some six weeks after the
York gig, a further indication of the slow pace of progress at CNT that would
frustrate both band and label.
Curiously, one week before the test pressing, the single
featured in the Top Ten Independent Singles in Melody Maker’s chart,
which was supplied that week by guest retailer Jumbo Records (of the Merrion (shopping)
Centre in Leeds, which always seemed to acquire new Sisters’ releases in
advance of their official outing. Even by their standards, selling copies of a
single that has yet to be pressed seems somewhat far-fetched, so one can only
assume that the chart’s compiler was doing the band a favour by once again
getting their name in the music press.
The official release date for the single is usually given as Friday 23rd April 1982, and it was touted as such in that week’s music press (see above), although the reality of precise national release dates for independent records at that time is unclear. The label's own publicity (below, from the collection of Bruno Bossier) claims that the release date was March 1982, so it may be that the record enjoyed a local release in advance of the official release date.
The single had received a major
accolade the week before the official release date in April in being awarded “Single of the Week” in the Melody
Maker, being treated to the kind of hyperbole that even Eldritch himself
would have struggled to match: “Adrenochrome…sounds like the greatest
four-chord sequence ever invented. Look, the Stones, the Kinks, the Byrds, the
Pistols, the Stooges, the Clash and all the other morons were just testing out
a few ideas. THIS was the riff they were looking for….go and purchase.”
Other reviews were largely equally as positive. In May
1982’s edition of ZigZag magazine, reviewer Marts, spoke of the band’s
“unbridled potential”, and that “with a better choice of producer and a
supportive record company, this band WILL work wonders”. Sounds joined the
praise, stating that “Motorhead compared to SOM are Mickey Mouse material.
These two songs drill into your skull with the sort of electric persistence
that the Human League tried early on.” The only dissenting voice, beginning a
pattern that would continue pretty much throughout the 1980-1985 phase, was the
NME, who complained of the “choked voice” and “monotonous passages” of a
release that was “not remarkable enough”, even though they too praised Adams’
and Marx’s efforts respectively, with an “inventively insistent bass” on a song
with “quite a few Buzzcockian echos [sic] to recommend it”, stating that Body
Electric “throbs like punk with some of the rough edges ironed out.”
Although Adrenochrome was one of the band’s earliest
compositions, and had featured on their demo cassette of 1981 in a segue with
their cover of Leonard Cohen’s Teachers, Body Electric (treated
as the lead track by reviewers) was a new song, which according to Mark Andrews
was still untitled when the band went into the studio. In Paint My Name in
Black and Gold, Andrews additionally explains that despite the music press
accolades, the record sold barely more than The Damage Done had done, leading
to some disillusionment with the music press, whose influence seemed to be less
great than the band had imagined. The new single did however catch the attention
of John Peel, although whether or not the tongue-in-cheek bribery attempt with
his legendary producer John Walters (see cover sheet below, from the collection of Dav E Cheris) had any part in this is open to conjecture.
Peel played the single’s A side (Body Electric, with Adrenochrome
the AA side) several times, as recently digitised episodes of Peel’s shows
on the British Forces’ Broadcasting Service reveal. BFBS was a service aimed at
British military personnel based primarily at huge bases in (West) Germany at
that time (providing a ready audience on the continent for touring British
bands at that time, as TSOM would discover over the next few years), and Peel
would play a typically eclectic mix of tracks on the John Peel’s Music show,
including Body Electric on at least three occasions, 19th
May, 2nd June and 25th August 1982. On the first
occasion, Peel pre-announced the track by The Sisters of Mercy, who come from
somewhere like, erm… York, I think…the band’s debut single, I think it is”,
clearly forgetting that he had in fact played the band’s first release on his
Radio One show some eighteen months earlier. On the 2nd June show,
Body Electric followed Peel’s then-favourite reggae artists, Eek-a-Mouse: “I
think I’ve played you this one before, well worth playing again though” the DJ enthused
as he cued up The Sisters’ track. On the third and final show which has
surfaced from that year, after allowing the full fade, as was his wont, Peel
merely added “They do sound as though they care” before moving onto something
more mellow. Peel would almost certainly have also played The Sisters on his
BBC Radio One show in the UK, but the tapes of those shows from April 1982
(presumably) have yet to surface.
Body Electric and Adrenochrome would
ultimately feature on The Sisters’ compilation of early tracks Some Girls
Wander By Mistake, but in 1985 the tracks also featured on the CNT
(cash-in?) compilation They Shall Not Pass, which completists will wish
to track down as the version used is a slightly longer edit, with the fade
coming about eight seconds later than on the original single. Body Electric
would of course also be the first of the early songs re-recorded for WEA
releases (Alice and Temple of Love would follow many years
later), allowing fans the opportunity to see if the earlier ZigZag reviewer’s
view that better production would result in a better version holds water.
Almost forty years later, the jury is still out amongst TSOM fans as to whether
or not this is the case.
What IS clear, however, is that
the Body Electric/Adrenochrome single (a copy of which in mint condition would sell today for £150+ ) was an important staging post in
the band’s career, opening the door to London support slots, a John Peel
session (in August of that year), and most importantly, a self-belief that this project had potential
and was worth the considerable sacrifices the band was making to ensure its
survival. In Eldritch’s world view, the real The Sisters of Mercy started here, and on this occasion, it is hard to argue with his perspective.
Further information about this release can be found in Mark
Andrews’ Paint My Name In Black And Gold. My grateful thanks for this
post are also due to old friends and contributors of artefacts on numerous occasions to this blog Phil Verne, Tony J Pooley, Erzsebet von Rona, Dav E Cheris, Bruno Bossier, Richard Newson and others who have shared reminiscences about
this release on the TSOM 1980-1985 unofficial Facebook fan page. Thanks also to
those who curate and contribute to the wonderful John Peel wiki.
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