![](\"https:\/\/thequietus.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/sisters_of_mercy_1479060408.jpg\")
<\/i><\/p>\n<\/i><\/p>\n
Sisters photographs either by Les Mills or unknown<\/i><\/p>\n
\u2018Alice\u2019 \u2013 the song that more than any other changed Andrew Eldritch\u2019s life \u2013 was written in ten minutes while sitting on a sofa.<\/p>\n
Eldritch recalls that he \u201cdidn\u2019t sit down to write an attitude-adjusting single with more ambition [than previous songs] but the success of \u2018Alice\u2019 made me have a re-think. Things were different after that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Alice\u2019 transformed him from Andy Taylor \u2013 an \u201cunprepossessing youth\u201d, unemployed, and a college drop-out twice over \u2013 into the mesmerising, near mythical Andrew Eldritch.<\/p>\n
Before \u2018Alice\u2019, Andy Taylor was just one of many habitu\u00e9s of a grimy Leeds punk club who had a band on the side. \u201cEldritch\u201d was just a name Taylor used when he made records and played gigs, neither of which he did that often.<\/p>\n
\u2018Alice\u2019 began a sequence of stunning EPs and live shows that made Eldritch the most compelling British rock & roll performer of his generation. And this is the story of how on earth that happened.<\/p>\n
Taylor was born in Ely; Eldritch was born in Leeds. This is also the story of where on earth that happened.<\/p>\n
History has been kinder to other vibrant post-punk centres \u2013 Manchester, Glasgow, Coventry, Sheffield or London \u2013 than it has been to Leeds. Yet, to know these Sisters \u2013 no hats, no dry ice, pre-Warners, pre-Hussey \u2013 one must also know Leeds. Red Leeds, post-punk Leeds, post-industrial Leeds, post-Yorkshire Ripper Leeds, post-Division One Leeds; Leeds before it became Gotham City.<\/p>\n
Andy Taylor \u2013 a 19-year-old Deep Purple fan, with \u201cshoulder blade length red hair\u201d and \u201cone pair of shoes, this old pair of trainers I\u2019d been wearing since I was fifteen\u201d \u2013 arrived in Leeds to study Chinese at the University in October 1978. It was his first time in the city. His knowledge of the north of England had been limited to episodes of\u00a0Coronation Street<\/i>. \u201cI discovered it was a documentary,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He had parted company with St John\u2019s College, Oxford so late in the previous academic year that the University of Leeds had very little student accommodation left. Taylor was lodged way out of town near Leeds United\u2019s Elland Road ground \u201cin a housing estate of utter grimness, which has since been declared uninhabitable and knocked down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet, Taylor liked Leeds instantly. That The Ramones were playing The University the week he arrived, no doubt eased his transition. \u201cI must have gathered from that, from fliers or talking to people that there was this F Club.\u201d<\/p>\n
If there is one place in Leeds that can claim to be the birthplace of Andrew Eldritch it was \u201cthis cellar dive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The F Club was the Leeds equivalent of Eric\u2019s in Liverpool. It was in the basement of Brannigan\u2019s nightclub down the bottom end of town near The Dark Arches, a complex of vaults under Leeds railway station.<\/p>\n
The F Club was run by the great Leeds promoter, John Keenan. \u201cI used to do at least two nights a week down there,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThe manager of Brannigan\u2019s was very forward thinking: two discos on top, punk club below.\u201d<\/p>\n
Danny Horigan who roadied for The Sisters (and would later sing in Salvation under the name Danny Mass) remembers The F Club thus: \u201cAt the bottom of the stairs, there was a pool room and then you went round the corner to where the bands were on \u2013 stage at one end, DJ at the side of the room. Really low ceiling, proper dirty, sweaty punk club.\u201d<\/p>\n
A decade later The Duchess of York pub in Leeds became legendary because Keenan put on Nirvana, Oasis, Pulp, Coldplay and Radiohead before they were massive, but for Keenan, \u201cThe F Club at Brannigan\u2019s had the more important bands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pere Ubu with The Human League supporting sticks in Keenan\u2019s mind. Eldritch\u2019s too: \u201cThat\u2019s my favourite gig ever. I\u2019m still haunted by the dual genius of it. I just can\u2019t think of that happening anywhere else, at least not with the same intensity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big bands played the Uni so we\u2019d trot up there from time to time but it definitely wasn\u2019t home, whereas The F Club had all the new stuff, all the time. I practically lived in The F Club.\u201d<\/p>\n
As well as the draw of the bands, there was the lure of the DJ, Claire Shearsby. The unprepossessing youth found himself \u201cgoing out with the glamorous DJ and we lived together for years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shearsby and Taylor were sketched by The Mekons:<\/p>\n
“In the flat above the chemists
\n<\/i><\/p>\n
Andy and Claire are dressing to kill<\/p>\n
But they don\u2019t come out till after dark<\/p>\n
In Charlie Cake Park.”<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019d be down at every gig with Claire,\u201d recalls Keenan. \u201cWhen Claire was DJing and wanted to go to the bar or to toilet or whatever, Andy would take over for a bit and all he ever played was Iggy Pop, David Bowie and Gary Glitter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could always tell when I\u2019d taken over,\u201d Eldritch confirms \u201cbecause on came the Glitter.\u201d<\/p>\n
October 1978 \u2013 the month Andy Taylor came to Leeds \u2013 was when the F Club had moved to Brannigan\u2019s<\/p>\n
Keenan had first begun putting bands on at the height of punk in the summer of 1977 in the Common Room of Leeds Polytechnic. He billed these nights as \u2018Stars of Today\u2019. The music was \u201cbasically punk \u2013 The Slits, Slaughter & The Dogs, XTC,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen the students came back after the holiday, the new Common Room Committee wouldn\u2019t let me have the regular weekly club. So basically I said \u2018Fuck the Poly\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n
This was the \u201cF\u201d in F-Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was such a good group,\u201d remembers Keenan. \u201cAll the intelligent kids \u2013 not necessarily university kids; there were kids from the estates \u2013 who realised change was in the air and had attached themselves to the club.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I moved from the Poly I thought \u2018How am I going to keep them together?\u2019\u201c Keenan\u2019s answer was \u201cto form a club and give them a club card that cost a quid and would get them reductions at some of the punk shops in Leeds, like X Clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The F Club\u2019s first home was The Ace of Clubs \u2013 a decaying cabaret joint \u2013 where it only ran from September to December 1977. \u201cI put a fair selection on \u2013 Wilko, Siouxsie,\u201d remembers Keenan, \u201cbut there was a fire and the insurance wouldn\u2019t pay out.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the Ace of Clubs, Keenan moved The F Club to The Roots Club, a primarily West Indian venue in the Chapeltown area of Leeds. This was a former synagogue that had gone under various names: The International Club, The Cosmopolitan Club, The Glass Bucket. As the venue of The F Club it hosted, among others, Suicide, Joy Division, Magazine, Wayne County and The Electric Chairs and Wire.<\/p>\n
Claire Shearsby DJ\u2019ed at all the locations of the F-Club, even at the \u2018Stars of Today\u2019 nights at the Poly. \u201cShe was there at the birth of it,\u201d states Eldritch. \u201cAbsolutely. People don\u2019t give her enough credit. A lot DJs would have baulked at playing the stuff she did. She was like the John Peel of Leeds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brannigan\u2019s was the longest lasting of The F Club\u2019s locations. It was there that the three young men who would become The Sisters of Mercy met. Craig Adams from Otley, a market town about 10 miles outside Leeds; Mark Pearman from Hull; and Andy Taylor were some of \u201cthe bright kids with some style about them\u201d, in Keenan\u2019s words, who were drawn to The F Club, in Adams\u2019 case, illegally so, since he was underage.<\/p>\n
In the Leeds post punk music scene, \u201cthere was a very definite divide between art school uni types and the townies\u201d, recalls Eldritch. \u201cThe F Club was very much a townie affair. I was much more townie than student and my academic record proves it; I fell in with the dirty crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ur-F Club townie band were The Expelaires. \u201cThe Expelaires were like the house band,\u201d remembers Eldritch. \u201cThey had their tendrils in pretty much everything,\u201d<\/p>\n
Bass player Mark Copson went on to sing in Music For Pleasure; guitarist David Wolfenden joined Red Lorry Yellow Lorry; Carl \u201cTich\u201d Harper became the drummer with Girls At Our Best; and the singer Paul \u201cGrape\u201d Gregory formed 3000 Revs with future Sister, Adam Pearson. Craig Adams the rhythm guitarist-cum-keyboard player went on to form a Soft Cell-ist electro pop duo called Exchange before becoming the bass player in The Sisters.<\/p>\n
In the art school camp were Gang Of Four, The Delta Five and The Mekons.<\/p>\n
Jon Langford, the drummer in The Mekons agrees that, \u201cthe distinction was quite pronounced at first; there was a class\/geographical element to it. The Mekons and Gang of Four were mostly public school boys from the south of England. Me and Dave Allen (from Gang Of Four) and Ros (from The Delta 5) were more regional and hickish.\u201d To complicate this matrix, Jon King, Gang Of Four\u2019s singer was both working class and a public school boy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe F Club was a wonderfully accepting and inclusive place, except for Nazis,\u201d Eldritch recalls. His own trajectory from private school to Oxford and his accent \u2013 close to Bowie\u2019s well-spoken Bromley \u2013 mattered little to the working class West Yorkshire locals of The F Club. The long red haired Southerner was made more than welcome.<\/p>\n
Although Taylor had oriented himself away from the University, he was still acquainted with the Gang of Four, but not within their inner circle. He was impressed by them then \u2013 not least because they were unemployed and in a band \u2013 and he remains so, nearly 40 years later: \u201cThey had these amazing songs and they played so well. They were hard and bouncy. They had everything but they couldn\u2019t fully commit to the glorious stupidity which is being in a rock & roll band.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taylor \u2013 as Eldritch \u2013 could and it made him a star.<\/p>\n
Taylor\u2019s path crossed with the other \u2018art school\u2019 bands more.<\/p>\n
\u201cClaire and I used to hang out with Ros from The Delta 5 because she lived a few doors away from us,\u201d remembers Eldritch. \u201cShe was \u2013 probably still is \u2013 a lovely, lovely person.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mekons were fun to hang out with too,\u201d he adds. \u201cThey were doing stuff like \u2018Teeth\u2019 at the time, which is very good indeed. We used to get on very well with Kevin Lycett and Jon Langford.\u201d Langford recalls that he \u201cused to go round to Claire and Andy\u2019s flat and watch old\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>\u00a0episodes on a tiny black & white TV.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eldritch pays particular tribute to Lycett: \u201cI owe a lot to him. He encouraged me in my quest to learn a little bit about being in a band and scrimp and save for visits to the studio and keep hammering away at it. By the time he stopped being that kind of mentor, we still had nothing to show for it, but his encouragement never wavered.\u201d<\/p>\n
One version of The Sisters of Mercy story casts Andy Taylor \u2013 or rather his alter ego, Andrew Eldritch \u2013 as a Machiavelli with a masterplan for rock stardom, pulling the strings from his lair in west Leeds.<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t Eldritch\u2019s version. At least not before \u2018Alice\u2019 came out.<\/p>\n
In their first year and a half of existence, The Sisters of Mercy made one awful record, rarely played gigs and didn\u2019t have a stable line-up.<\/p>\n
Eldritch explains it thus: \u201cWe were taking a lot of medication, going down The F Club \u2013 gigs weren\u2019t going to watch themselves \u2013 and we hadn\u2019t got any money.\u201d The Sisters \u201cwere too busy hanging out\u201d to be effectively charting a course to rock stardom.<\/p>\n
One regular haunt was The Faversham Hotel \u201cwhich happened to have a very late night bar, so that could be quite useful,\u201d Eldritch explains. \u201cHe was in The Fav quite a lot playing pool with Claire,\u201d recalls Danny Horigan. \u201cClaire was really good and people thought because she was blonde and looked like Debbie Harry they could beat her.\u201d Challengers were regularly disabused of that notion. \u201cThe fact that she could do that on a serious amount of medication was quite impressive,\u201d remembers Eldritch fondly.<\/p>\n
There were also videos to be watched. The VCR was a big deal at Taylor and Shearsby\u2019s. There weren\u2019t that many tapes but they were watched repeatedly. Visitors recall AC\/DC, Doors documentaries, Motorhead and\u00a0Apocalypse Now!<\/i>\u00a0being on the playlist.<\/p>\n
Eldritch believes that the instability of early Sisters\u2019 line-ups was inevitable due to the \u201cfluid nature of relationships around The F Club. Everybody slept with everybody else; the line-ups of every band changed absolutely regularly. Everybody else who had a bit more nous musically (than me) would move from one band to another.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dave Thompson in\u00a0Twenty-Five Years In The Reptile House<\/i>\u00a0correctly describes The Sisters as \u201cfloundering in slow motion and taking a long, and not especially scenic route to the stars.\u201d The version of this band that made \u2018Alice\u2019 \u2013 only their third single \u2013 was effectively The Sisters of Mercy Mk III. That line-up was not established until March 1982.<\/p>\n
Over two years earlier, Jon Langford had sold Taylor The Mekons\u2019 legendary fish tank drum kit. Langford recalls that \u201cit was my second ever drum kit that Corrigan from the Mekons and I lovingly covered with Woolworth\u2019s bathroom fish tank vinyl. We took all the fittings off and did a really amazing job. Andy painted it black. He painted it black, maaaan!\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether Taylor did much more then redecorate his instrument is not clear, he certainly didn\u2019t form a functioning band with it. Paul \u2018Grape\u2019 Gregory has a tentative memory of a proto-Sisters that \u201coriginally had my friend Keith Fuller as the singer. I was round Claire and Andy\u2019s place off Belle Vue Road and Keith was on the mic.\u201d Pearman was on guitar and Shearsby seems to have played keyboards.<\/p>\n
The first iteration of The Sisters proper was the rump left after failed rehearsals: a duo of Taylor and Pearman. Taylor played the drums and sang. Pearman played the guitar and sang. They were both poor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ended up with Mark because we were basically the last two kids to be picked for the team in the playground,\u201d recalls Eldritch. Pearman had actually been in a band before (called Naked Voices) and had played a few gigs, which would have made Taylor the shortest of the two short straws.<\/p>\n Acetate for \u2018Damage Done\u2019 single, thanks to Phil Verne<\/i><\/p>\n \u2018Damage Done\u2019 invoice, thanks to Phil Verne<\/i><\/p>\n They never played live but did make a single, \u2018Damage Done\u2019. An account of this shambles was written by Eldritch (we assume it was he, despite the third person) for the The Sisters\u2019 official website. \u201cSo it came to pass that our intrepid sonic explorers booked themselves half a day\u2019s studio time at RicRac Studios, which was (and possibly still is) a shed in Wortley. Wortley is a run-down industrial area south of Leeds \u2026 The studio owner was, naturally, the only one who knew how to operate the studio, so he did the engineering. With a beard. Our heroes found it difficult to convey to him what a non-cabaret act might sound like. As a result, nobody knew what they were supposed to be doing. The engineer lost himself in a place where no engineer had gone before (or since), somewhere near the worst of both worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the evidence on \u2018Damage Done\u2019, other Yorkshire bands were not put off recording at Ric-Rac. They included Skeletal Family and The Danse Society. And The Grumbleweeds.<\/p>\n Despite the debacle in Wortley, Pearman and Taylor were back at it a few months later, this time in front of an audience. \u201cOur sonic explorers\u201d now had a drum machine and an actual musician in the line-up. More than that, the musician in question had made records infinitely better than \u2018Damage Done\u2019, had played gigs supporting The Teardrop Explodes and The Bunnymen and had and had even recorded a Peel Session. This was Craig Adams from The Expelaires.<\/p>\n This second iteration of The Sisters was therefore Taylor as the lone singer, Pearman on guitar, Adams on bass and a Boss DR55 Dr Rhythm as the drums. The simplicity of the early drum machines coupled with Adams\u2019 love of Hawkwind at their heaviest, gave The Sisters genuine attack and a primitive, brutal groove, if nothing else. Whatever \u2013 and whoever \u2013 else might malfunction, the bass player was rock solid.<\/p>\n Taylor also shared Adams\u2019 taste for\u00a0Space Ritual<\/i>: \u201cWe wanted to be The Stooges. We wanted to be Suicide. We also wanted to be Hawkwind. Their \u2018\u2026 and the wizard blew his horn\u2019 stuff is patently nonsense and rubbish and sullies their reputation, but their psychedelic space rock is outstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n The trio\u2019s first gig was a CND benefit on Monday February 16 1981 in Alcuin College in the University of York. They were support for the Thompson Twins, well before The Thompson Twins trimmed town to a trio and had pop hits.<\/p>\n Eldritch \u2013 in website third person and vivid present \u2013 recounted the first show at Alcuin College show thus: \u201cMarx has connected his guitar to a record-player pre-amp which feeds back uncontrollably and Eldritch has shifted the vocal echo into overdrive. It\u2019s metal dub without any spaces, on a shuddering mechanoid backdrop.\u201d<\/p>\n It is entirely possibly that this is more fun to read than it was to listen to.<\/p>\n The Sisters of Mercy\u2019s second gig \u2013 on Thursday 19 March 1981 \u2013 was their Leeds debut. They were support for Altered Images. Fittingly, it was in The F Club at Brannigan\u2019s. Keenan\u2019s first impressions were that \u201cthey didn\u2019t have the drum beat right \u2026 and Andy was trying to sound like Bowie doing \u2018”Heroes”\u2019.\u201d Taylor was immediately making excuses for it in the Leeds fanzine\u00a0Whippings and Apologies<\/i>: \u201cThat was a real balls-up because of the bad sound \u2026 A lot of the stuff we do depends on us having a good PA. Without a decent PA, we sound really crap.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was basically kids learning to play on stage,\u201d comments Keenan. The Sisters of Mercy did get better but progress was slow, not least because they played live so rarely. Taylor claimed to\u00a0Whippings & Apologies<\/i>, that this was tactical. \u201cWe don\u2019t see the need to play in every toilet every week because there\u2019s no percentage in it. We could play The Pack Horse or The Royal Park every week but it wouldn\u2019t be worth it. It\u2019s not that we think we\u2019re better than those places, it\u2019s just that we know we\u2019d sound shit in them.\u201d<\/p>\n At The F Club Keenan \u201chad a night called \u2018The Sheepdog Trials\u2019 \u2013 four bands on at a time to give them a chance. Some of them were really bad, some were really good,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI\u2019d use the better ones as support to decent bands. The Sisters didn\u2019t go in \u2018The Sheepdog Trials\u2019. Because I knew Andy, they went straight to supporting.\u201d<\/p>\n Even The Expelaires went in The Sheepdog Trials. Whatever misgivings Keenan had about The Sisters\u2019 F Club debut, he liked Taylor and sensed potential. He had \u201clong, greasy black hair, glasses \u2013 skinny \u2013 but Andy had something about him. He was never one of the lads; he was always in his own little space. He was not a follower. You did notice him; he was not like everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n The second time Keenan put The Sisters on in Leeds was on Sunday 22 March 1981, three days after their Brannigan\u2019s show. This was an all day fundraiser for The International Year of the Disabled Person that featured 12 bands and 5 poets. The Sisters were third from bottom of the bill.<\/p>\n This took place in in Tiffany\u2019s, a huge, mainstream, city centre nightclub. At the weekends it attracted the same sort of clientele as Heaven & Hell or Cinderella Rockerfella\u2019s in Leeds, the latter owned by Peter Stringfellow. \u201cTiffany\u2019s was the second biggest venue in Leeds after the Queen\u2019s Hall. It was owned by Mecca and held 2,500 people,\u201c remembers Keenan. \u201cI had a deal with Tiffany\u2019s for the off nights, when they were not having a disco.\u201d He put his bigger bands on there: Bauhaus, Squeeze, The Stranglers, U2 with The Comsat Angels supporting.<\/p>\n Keenan also put The Sisters on at The Warehouse. The Warehouse was a short walk, but a world away from Tiffany\u2019s. It was the Leeds version of New York\u2019s Danceteria ie. The Hacienda of Leeds. Unlike Tiffany\u2019s, The Warehouse\u2019s main clientele were those of an alternative persuasion \u2013 New Romantics, post punks and devotees of electronic music.<\/p>\n Mark Musolf, Leeds born and bred, (also now also known as DJ Mark M) recalls that \u201cwith Brannigans it was more of a hard edged punk ethos. With The Warehouse, the bands there had a different appeal. Soft Cell were practically the house band there for a while. Marc Almond\u2019s old on stage party piece was to smear himself in cat food.\u201d<\/p>\n The Warehouse was owned by Mike Wiand, an American who \u201cwas a spy basically,\u201d according to Keenan. \u201cHe worked at Menwith Hill listening station. When Mike died in 2014, they gave him a military funeral.\u201d Wiand \u201cwanted it be cutting edge,\u201d says Horigan, \u201cso he loved the weirdos. Even the pop and soul nights were a bit different.\u201d<\/p>\n Eldritch is ambivalent about The Warehouse. \u201cIn all of my days as a card carrying member of The F Club, I don\u2019t think I went to The Warehouse more than three or four times,\u201d he states. \u201cThe drinks were more expensive and the carpet wasn\u2019t sticky. I didn\u2019t take me very long to get banned from The Warehouse. Officially I\u2019m still banned from there. For damaging a glass when somebody pushed it into my face.\u201d<\/p>\n Keenan put The Sisters on late at The Warehouse on July 2 1981. This show gave them a massive boost in the Leeds scene. Iggy Pop played the University and Music For Pleasure were at the Amnesia club that evening. Parts of these crowds converged on The Warehouse for The Sisters looking to prolong their night out. \u201cAll this heat and energy was in this one small club\u201d, remembers Paul Gregory. The Sisters impressed him and many others. They were \u201ckind of chaotic but there was a noise there.\u201d<\/p>\n Keenan had tempted Iggy to The Warehouse with the promise of The Sisters\u2019 version of \u20181969\u2019. After much dancing in the upstairs bar, Iggy ended his night pinned to a wall in The Warehouse by the bar manager because he\u2019d ripped down a poster for what he termed \u201ca New Ro-fucking-mantic night,\u201d according to Keenan.<\/p>\n The Sisters and Iggy did not meet.<\/p>\n Photograph of Sisters\u2019 Leeds Warehouse poster, thanks to Phil Verne<\/i><\/p>\n Claire Shearsby also DJ\u2019ed at The Warehouse as did Marc Almond. \u201cMarc\u2019s DJ slot used to last about 30 minutes in the middle of the night,\u201d recalls Mark Musolf. \u201cAs more and more New Romantic, post punk and alternative types went to the Warehouse, the slot widened. Once \u2018Tainted Love\u2019 charted, Marc left.\u201d<\/p>\n When Taylor saw The Ramones play in in early October 1978 it was in The Refectory of Leeds University\u2019s Students Union.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Refec\u201d had legendary status as the location of the recording of The Who\u2019s\u00a0Live At Leeds<\/i>. Any major rock act that toured in the 70s had played there: Floyd, Led Zep, Roxy, The Dolls, The Stones, Sabbath, Wings, Mott.<\/p>\n Yet, the university played only a minor role in the life of The Sisters. There were two reasons for this. Taylor ceased to be a member of the university in order to avoid his compulsory year out in post-Mao China which would have included a sub-zero Beijing winter and Andy Kershaw, the Leeds Union Entertainments Secretary (\u201cEnts Sec\u201d) \u201cfucking hated us and it was mutual,\u201d states Eldritch.<\/p>\n Kershaw, who would later find fame as a Radio One DJ, booked bands from March 1980 till mid-1982 into The Refectory, the main hall. The Sisters got on bills in The Riley Smith Hall, a smaller venue in the Union, or in The Tartan Bar, an even smaller venue at the rear, but Kershaw had no intention of giving The Sisters a support slot in his beloved Refectory.<\/p>\n When The Sisters did finally play The Refec it was as headliners in May 1984.<\/p>\n In their first year, when The Sisters did occasionally play, it was almost entirely in Yorkshire \u2013 in Leeds seven times, York twice and once at Caesar\u2019s in Bradford, opening for Nico. Like several early gigs, whether this actually took place is disputed. It is omitted from the official gigography, although a flyer is extant.<\/p>\n Their only gig outside the county was low down the running order on the Saturday of Keenan\u2019s Futurama III festival in the Bingley Hall in Stafford, the third edition of his \u201cWorld\u2019s First Science Fiction Music Festival\u201d. They were added so late that they did not appear in the line-up in most of the advertising. The Sisters went on at 3.30 on the Saturday afternoon, Taylor announcing the beginning of their set by shouting \u201cbring out your dead\u201d to the sparse crowd milling around what resembled a very large cattle shed. The Bingley Hall was the main pavilion of the Staffordshire County Showground; during Futurama 3 it still smelled of livestock. Nine hours after The Sisters, Gang of Four headlined.<\/p>\n In total, Keenan booked The Sisters six times. There would have been a seventh in Leeds in December 1981 but it was cancelled due to heavy snow.<\/p>\n \u201cI created the swamp they could crawl out of,\u201d he says proudly. \u201cAnd what a fine, fetid swamp it was too,\u201d agrees Eldritch. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t have got anywhere without the support he gave us.\u201d<\/p>\n The Sisters Mk II spent their first year of intermittent gigs having great difficulty finding a 2nd guitar player. \u201cI don\u2019t know why but a lot of my riffs seem to beg for somebody doing what we call \u2018the chugs,\u2019\u201d says Eldritch. Dave Humphrey played in The Sisters sometimes, including the Bingley Hall show and Tom Ashton, soon to be of The March Violets, filled in on two occasions. Any momentum they had from The Warehouse and Futurama gigs dribbled away through the Autumn and Winter of 1981. Finally, by February 1982, The Sisters had found an excellent solution to the troublesome fourth slot in the band: Ben Matthews. He remained a member until September \u201983.<\/p>\n Yet one year into their time as a live proposition, The Sisters Mark III \u2013 the iteration that made \u2018Alice\u2019 \u2013 was still not quite ready. When Adam Sweeting of\u00a0Melody Maker<\/i>\u00a0reviewed their gig at the University of York on February 5 1982 \u2013 The Sisters\u2019 first national press \u2013 Craig Adams wasn\u2019t there. Jon Langford was playing bass while Adams was in The Canary Islands working as a photographer\u2019s assistant.<\/p>\n The Sisters had, most definitely, improved though. \u201cI remember the stage being full of smoke,\u201d says Langford. \u201cNo amps just pedals and a drum machine, guitars straight through fuzz boxes straight into the PA system. Visually amazing. I was amazed how packed it was. The kids went mad mad mad mad!\u201d<\/p>\n In February 1982, The Sisters were also in an 8 track recording studio in Bridlington, a seaside resort in east Yorkshire, to record \u2018Adrenochrome\u2019 and a newer song, \u2018Body Electric.\u2019 This was a not a repeat of the Ric-Rac debacle, but there were technical issues.<\/p>\n Langford: \u201cWe were mixing at Ken Giles\u2019 studio in a garage. I remember EQ-ing a bass drum all day, which we pumped at maximum volume through a huge PA that was crammed in Ken\u2019s tiny studio. Hours of thump thump thump rocking the whole seafront. But when we listened back to what we had on tape it always sounded like a mouse tap dancing.\u201d<\/p>\n Nevertheless, The Sisters had struck gold with Ken Giles\u2019 studio. Mk III\u2019s great run of singles and EPs that began with \u2018Alice\u201d were all recorded with Giles in Bridlington.<\/p>\n Between the recording and release of \u2018Body Electric\u2019 (on Langford\u2019s own CNT label), Adams returned to Leeds, thereby properly inaugurating The Sisters Mk III.<\/p>\n Eldritch, Marx, Adams, Gunn.<\/p>\n This first classic line-up was heavy with pseudonyms. Matthews\u2019 reference to \u2018Treasure Island\u2019 \u2013 \u201cBen Gunn\u201d \u2013 lacked the outright hilarity of Pearman\u2019s mash-up of Socialism and Glam Rock \u2013 \u201cGary Marx.\u201d Taylor\u2019s choice was a Philip K Dick-referencing declaration of his own literary sensibility and speed consumption \u2013 \u201cAndrew Eldritch.\u201d Arguably the drummer had the best name of all: \u201cDoktor Avalanche\u201d, allegedly named after a Swiss football referee.<\/p>\n The Sisters Mk III\u2019s first gig was March 29 1982 \u2013 a Monday night \u2013 in a first floor club called \u2018Funhouse\u2019 in the West Yorkshire town of Keighley. They were billed as a \u201cLeeds cult band.\u201d That Keighley is less than 20 miles from Leeds indicates how small a shadow The Sisters cast at this point. The next day they were back in Leeds playing on another of John Keenan\u2019s bills at Tiffany\u2019s.<\/p>\n Then, over the next six months, compared to the previous 18 months of their existence, The Sisters went into interstellar overdrive: \u2018Single of the Week\u2019 in\u00a0Melody Maker<\/i>, a choice slot opening up for The Birthday Party in London, a Peel Session broadcast in September and a short tour as The Psychedelic Furs\u2019 support in October.<\/p>\n In this period \u2013 the prelude to their first Golden Age \u2013 Langford thought The Sisters \u201cwere slick. I was impressed by the minimalism and professionalism; I was a Mekon though, so it\u2019s all relative.\u201d<\/p>\n Other than a stable line-up, there were other signs that The Sisters were beginning to click. The chaff had been purged from the set and Eldritch had a real affinity for The Doktor. Hours and hours, it seems, were spent tinkering with and programming the latest drum machine and writing the code in a notebook. Langford recalls that \u201cAndy became my drum machine guru. Every time he bought a machine and had it modified, I did the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n In the middle of this period, Eldritch wrote \u2018Alice\u2019.<\/p>\n That he had effectively altered the course of his life in ten minutes on a sofa in the flat above the chemist he shared with Claire Shearsby, was not yet apparent.<\/p>\n Vital to this transformation and to the creation of \u2018Alice\u2019 were The Psychedelic Furs.<\/p>\n Theirs was another F Club gig that has stayed with Eldritch. \u201cI saw all 25 of them lined up across the stage, all of them in black, all of them wearing shades and just bringing the house down. I was such a fan. That first album is still one of my top three albums ever.\u201d The following year when The Furs were touring\u00a0Talk Talk Talk<\/i>\u00a0Adams and Eldritch went to see them at Huddersfield Polytechnic. This was on May 29 1981 \u2013 a pivotal date in the destiny of The Sisters.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hung around at the sound check and I gave a cassette tape of our demo to Duncan Kilburn, the saxophone player,\u201d continues Eldritch. \u201cFamous and halfway famous bands got cassettes handed to them all day long, as subsequently did I. I never listened to any of them; life\u2019s too short.<\/p>\n \u201cBut Duncan, bless him, did listen to the cassette which was handed to him by a kid. He passed it on and was encouraging and that gave us a massive boost. I can\u2019t thank him enough. None of this would have happened [without him].\u201d<\/p>\n The most direct practical help of all came from John Ashton, the Furs\u2019 guitarist. When he heard the Huddersfield cassette (he recalled for\u00a0Sex WAX n Rock n Roll<\/i>) he thought \u201cthis is interesting, like a rock band with a drum machine \u2026 lot of distortion, very tinny, very trebly, but very intense, a very, shall we say, amphetamine-fuelled production.\u201d<\/p>\n Eldritch was then still a year away from writing \u2018Alice\u2019. By the time he had, Ashton was looking for a band to produce. The timing was perfect.<\/p>\n Eldritch believes Ashton\u2019s demos for \u2018Alice\u2019 were key to the final quality of the single. Ashton recalls (via Facebook) that \u201cthe amps were in the basement and my recording equipment was set up in the kitchen\u201d at Eldritch\u2019s and Shearsby\u2019s. Eldritch, on hearing the results, suggested to Ashton\u2019s shock, that it needed more treble. \u201cIt was already cutting your head off,\u201d he recalls. \u201c5K, I think was his favourite frequency.\u201d<\/p>\n Then, over two weekends at Kenny Giles\u2019 studio in Bridlington, The Sisters recorded \u2018Alice\u2019 and \u2018Floorshow\u2019 (along with \u2018Good Things\u2019; and \u20181969\u2019) with Ashton. By their early standards, the speed and efficiency of this was astonishing.<\/p>\n \u2018Alice\u2019 also set the business model for all their subsequent independent releases: The Sisters hooked their own Merciful Release label up to the powerful distributor Red Rhino run by Tony K out of York. There was \u201ca schism\u201d between Red Rhino and CNT, according to Langford. Tony K \u201cfinally snatched the Sisters away to Rhino. In the end all the bands including The Sisters had to leave CNT to sell any records.\u201d<\/p>\n The options of sharing The Furs\u2019 manager \u2013 Les Mills \u2013 also arose. According to Dave Thompson\u2019s \u2018Beautiful Chaos\u2019, his band bio of The Furs, Mills \u201chad been recommended to The Sisters \u2026 by Howard Thompson.\u201d This must have impressed Eldritch. Thompson was an A & R legend who had signed Motorhead and Suicide to Bronze and The Furs to CBS. In Taylor\u2019s world this was a Holy Trinity, but no matter how much he adored The Furs, \u201cwe chose not to get in bed with their manager.\u201d<\/p>\n By Autumn 1982, Mk III was also definitely in its stride as a live proposition. Their October 5 gig in The Riley Smith Hall supporting The Furs was one of a week of free gigs put on as part of Leeds University\u2019s Freshers\u2019 Week. The night before had been Mud and The Flying Pickets. The Sisters were watched by writer (and obvious Bauhaus enthusiast) Nikolas Vitus Lagartija. What struck him was that the audience for The Sisters \u201cwere not students but local teenagers who had got their tickets off enterprising freshers outside.\u201d<\/p>\n What hooked Lagartija (who is now an amateur Sisters historian) and \u201cthe enthusiastic local following\u201d would bemuse and repel others: The Sisters of Mercy of Adams Marx, Gunn, Eldritch and Doktor Avalanche were a thumping motorik rhythm section, two extremely loud guitars and a frontman who had some bloody nerve to be singing like that and dressed that like in October 1982. The Sisters, as Eldritch once noted \u201ccame out and said \u2018We are a rock band\u2019. Very loudly.\u201d Or rather the singer did. The others were almost an in-built riposte to his schtick.<\/p>\n Marx stood out because he was by far the tallest and most manic performer in the band. The other three humans, other than operate instruments and equipment, chew gum or smoke, actually did very little. Gunn moved only a little bit more than the Doktor, Adams only slightly more than Gunn, and Eldritch was a series of rock star tableaux vivants, as staged and as stylised as a body builder\u2019s routine, with its transitions from one pose to the next.<\/p>\n This was part of what Simon Reynolds in\u00a0Rip It Up And Start Again<\/i>\u00a0refers to as \u201can ultra stylized approach that treated rock less as an evolving musical form than a gestural repertoire of mannerisms and imagery\u201d.<\/p>\n Eldritch, even knowing Reynolds means this as damning criticism, doesn\u2019t entirely deny it: \u201cIf that\u2019s all it was I would agree with him. We\u2019ve also written some damn fine songs and play them with energy and a degree of wit.\u201d Eldritch, it is safe to assume, despite his academic record, knew his Brecht and the importance of gesture.<\/p>\n The allusiveness of the imagery deployed by Eldritch was witty and fun. His shades, for example, were Les Grey of Mud, as much as\u00a0Street Hassle<\/i>\u00a0Lou Reed, probably Hunter Thompson most of all. The leather pants: Lizard King. The bullet belt; \u2018Ace of Spades\u2019-era Motorhead. The imagery also went into high culture. The sleeve of \u2018Alice\u2019 was an adaptation of a Matisse, \u2018Blue Nude\u2019. \u2018Body Electric\u2019s\u2019 was Francis Bacon\u2019s \u2018Head VI\u2019, one of his \u2018Screaming Popes.\u2019 \u2018Floorshow\u2019 quoted \u2018The Fire Sermon\u2019, Part III of \u2018The Wasteland\u2019 directly or tweaked Eliot\u2019s verse. \u201cThere\u2019s hyperlinks in all of it, \u201c states Eldritch. \u201cIf you can stick three words of T S Eliot into a line you\u2019ve automatically involved and enveloped the whole of\u00a0The Wasteland<\/i>\u00a0and that just enriches what you do. \u2018Floorshow\u2019 is a very brazen example.\u201d<\/p>\n To offset any high seriousness, Taylor truly was not afraid of the ridiculous in rock; The Sisters were playful with the full array of its history. Eldritch admits there was a huge dose of Alvin Stardust in the early stage persona: black leather outfit and black gloves was very \u2018My Coo Ca Choo.\u201d<\/p>\n There were also practical reasons for the gloves. \u201cI wore them because I used to bite my nails and stages in those days, particularly at The F Club, were only 6 inches high and the audience was literally nose-to-nose with you. I thought, \u2018I can\u2019t be showing them nails like these.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond the utilitarian, the signature Eldritch look \u201cties together with every kid of that generation\u2019s Alice Copper fetish. There are no breaks in the spectrum that also includes Motorhead and The Ramones.\u201d And Elvis, Gene Vincent and Vince Taylor. \u201cIt was all part of the glorious tapestry of popular music to us.\u201d The title of a Vince Taylor compilation \u2013 \u2018Jet Black Leather Machine\u2019 -would work just as well for a collection of Andy Taylor songs. Or at least a Sisters bootleg.<\/p>\n Eldritch also mined the broad seam of queerness that has always run through rock & roll and been embraced by straight male performers. Eldritch was tapping into the long line of preening leather boys in British rock. This attitude had been fostered down The F Club. \u201dIt was a very tolerant and inclusive place,\u201d recalls Eldritch \u201cEveryone liked to have at least one item of gay wear on their person.\u201d The long-haired redhead that arrived in Leeds in 1978 was a huge New York Dolls fan. At The F Club, \u201cpersonally, I was the representative of camp. Cyrus (Bruton) was the New Romantic side of The F Club, whereas Rodney (Orpheus) was on the Industrial side. Just because you\u2019re Wittgenstein, doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t be camp.\u201d<\/p>\n Bruton formed Dance Chapter (who signed to 4AD) and Orpheus would later found The Cassandra Complex. \u201cWe were all listening to The Stooges and Suicide, We just took it to different places.\u201d<\/p>\n Reynolds \u2013 by far the best writer to approach The Sisters \u2013 considers them a complete failure as a rock band, but his positioning of them in the 1978-84 post punk era is most welcome, since most discussion of The Sisters shifts their centre of gravity to their iterations \u201884 and after.<\/p>\n Eldritch fits comfortably within Reynolds\u2019 large cast of highly idiosyncratic artists fully exploring their own aesthetic in the considerable freedom punk afforded them, largely unencumbered by commercial imperatives. Keenan likens Eldritch to one of the major figures in Reynolds\u2019 book. \u201cAndrew reminds me of Genesis P-Orridge: showmen, the power of suggestion, a bit of charisma, a bit of kidology.\u201d<\/p>\n Keenan also has an even more radical suggestion as to a key post punk influence on the young Andy Taylor: Pete Burns.<\/p>\n \u201dI think the pivotal moment for Andy was when I put The Cramps on with Nightmares In Wax,\u201d suggests Keenan. \u201cPreviously the punks had been into Day-Glo colours, but Nightmares In Wax came on all in black with white chicken bone jewellery, pale make-up on their faces. They made an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n Eldritch disagrees but offers up Bauhaus at The F Club instead. \u201cFor the whole set their only lighting was a strobe lamp that Peter Murphy cradled in front of himself while he stalked the stage. He\u2019d flicker it on a guitarist, the drummer, on his own chin at times. That lighting show was utterly amazing. I didn\u2019t take much away musically from Bauhaus but I\u2019m still very fond of that Expressionist kind of lighting.\u201d<\/p>\n Certainly Burns, Murphy and Eldritch, as true children of Bowie, understood that rock music was a prime arena to create alternate personae and alter egos. Only a fool would try to genuinely disentangle Eldritch from Taylor \u2013 \u201cFrankenstein from the Monster\u201d as he puts it. They have surely fused after all these years; Eldritch grew directly from Taylor in the first place. He\u2019d been experimenting with his look for some time, remembers Keenan. \u201cI think they called him Spiggy after the archetypal rock star in \u2018Private Eye\u2019 \u2013 Spiggy Topes \u2013 because he was always acting the rock star. Nobody ever dreamt \u2026\u201d, Keenan trails off. \u201cBut fair play to him, he really pulled it off and showed everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n Spiggy continued as Taylor\u2019s nickname long into The Sisters. It was also the name of his and Claire Shearsby\u2019s cat.<\/p>\n The Taylor\/Eldritch transformation, a combination of will and self-study, was as total as that by any member of Kiss; Andy Taylor by his own account looks very little like Andrew Eldritch.<\/p>\n With his taste for Glam and what he termed \u2018Heavy Metal\u2019, it is of course possible that Eldritch was fully aware of the masked mystique of Kiss and impressed by the loyalty of the fan-base, the tribalism, and how much this was related to extra-musical accoutrements, the uniform, the insignia. Even as far back as the poor first single, Taylor had designed a brilliant logo \u2013 The Head & Star. This was essentially \u201cDissection of the head, face and neck\u201d from\u00a0Gray\u2019s Anatomy<\/i>, super-imposed on a pentacle. Stark, white on black, like \u201cMotorhead, England\u201d, that was certainly its inspiration, it too looked great on T shirts.<\/p>\n Floorshow EP demos and live recordings, courtesy of Phil Verne<\/i><\/p>\n By the late Autumn of 1982, on the cusp of the release of \u2018Alice\u2019, The Sisters, as Nik Lagartija had witnessed, already had the fanatical following of a metal band.<\/p>\n Or guerrilla leaders.<\/p>\n Eldritch had accidentally created his first revolutionary cell \u2013 the first \u201cfoca\u201d, if we use Che Guevara\u2019s term. Eldritch \u2013 pin-up, theoretician, agitator, conspirator \u2013 became the Che of the Leeds music scene. At his most narcissistic, magnetic, apocalyptic and egomaniacal, he would also become the Andreas Baader.<\/p>\n The Sisters and their audience found each other on club nights, via the radio and at gigs, via the music press, through fanzines and bootlegs. These punks may well have had broad tastes \u2013 Throbbing Gristle, B-52s, The Associates, whatever was in the Indie Charts \u2013 but fundamentally they were not looking for freaky futurism, synth experimentation or twisted funk. They wanted to dress up, they wanted to dance and they liked guitars and they liked drums. These lost (post) punks liked punk as a two word phrase \u2013 punk rock.<\/p>\n Wakefield (\u201cWakey\u201d) \u2013 only 15 minutes from Leeds by train \u2013 has a claim to be the second accidental \u2018foca\u2019. Wakefield\u2019s Sisters fans called themselves The God Squad and were the first hardcore following to mobilise outside Leeds. More would follow.<\/p>\n The punk and post punk scenes of Leeds and Wakefield had long been closely connected. Wakefield punks were regulars at The F Club gigs and those of Leeds were often over for the punk and Bowie night at Raffles nightclub on the Bullring in Wakey. Eldritch for his part went over for the Gary Glitter show Keenan put on at The Unity Hall in Wakefield.<\/p>\n In Leeds, The Sisters and their first fans would not have been strangers; they played in the same places they socialised. \u2018Alice\u2019 would begin to change that. Eldritch \u2013 neither garrulous nor extrovert by nature \u2013 completely understood the need to create distance between audience and performer, on stage and in the discourse he created around himself. In that space, a sophisticated play of projection and identification brewed between him and his audience. It created a profound and enduring mystique and adoration. Keenan, in true Yorkshire fashion, comments that \u201cI still find it amusing he was idol worshipped. C\u2019mon, it\u2019s Andy Taylor!\u201d<\/p>\n If there was one place that typified the demarcation between Eldritch and his audience, it was a basement club inside The Merrion Centre, that 1960s beast of a shopping centre that also housed Tiffany\u2019s.<\/p>\n This dive \u2013 loved by many, but not by Eldritch \u2013 was Le Phonographique. \u201cI was not a citizen of The Phono,\u201d he states. He even takes issue the pronunciation \u2013 \u2018faux-know\u2019: \u201cI know it shouldn\u2019t be but it is.\u201d<\/p>\n In quasi-Charlie\u2019s Angels font, \u201cLe Phonographique\u201d promised \u201cVin. Bi\u00e8re. Cuisine. Discotheque.\u201d All were sort of true. There was food and alcohol for sale and there was dancing \u2013 on a tiny dance-floor with a mirrored pillar in the middle of it. There were also famously foul toilets, usually in some state of inundation, and glutinous carpet. In late 1982, Alice\u2019 became a fixture on the playlist of the DJ\u2019s at The Phono. \u201cI remember some spectacular dancing going on to \u2018Alice\u2019,\u201d recalled the novelist David Peace in Dave Haslam\u2019s\u00a0Life After Dark<\/i>, \u201call towering hair and flapping coats.\u201d<\/p>\n Lagartija remembers The Phono in Autumn 1982 \u201cas the main option for those seeking a club playing alternative music, with free admission and cheap drinks for students on a Monday night \u2026 it seemed to attract a motley crew who had come for the music and the vibe, with a barely changing set list, featuring Bowie\u2019s \u2018Queen Bitch\u2019, the Velvets\u2019 \u2018Venus in Furs\u2019, Killing Joke\u2019s \u2018Pssyche\u2019, Virgin Prunes\u2019 \u2018Baby Turns Blue\u2019, and most of the recorded output of Theatre of Hate\/Spear of Destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n Another option much more to Eldritch\u2019s taste than Le Phono was the Fenton. \u201cIt was the pub you went to before gigs at the uni,\u201d he recalls. \u201cEverybody thought fondly of the Fenton. Going back to the days when there was street fighting, the Fenton was very unwelcoming of Nazis and welcoming of the likes of us. The whole atmosphere was very politically charged and we were very clear which side we were on.\u201d<\/p>\n Some accounts of Leeds in the late 70s and early \u201880s, make it sound like Weimar Germany. \u201cIt was not that glamorous,\u201d states Eldritch. \u201cIt was more like\u00a0Jubilee<\/i>\u00a0(Derek Jarman\u2019s punk film). There was a ridiculous amount of violence and antagonism from a small racist element in the city,\u201d states Langford. There were violent clashes between right and left, packs of neo-Nazi thugs on occasion marauding into Red pubs. Andy Gill had his nose broken in one incursion into the Fenton.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thequietus.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/ACETATE_DAMAGE___2__GARY_DEMOS_TAPES_1479368943.jpg\")
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