The 1985 split - Von's final pre-split interview

The more one studies the 1985 TSOM split, the more complex the situation becomes. In the first two blog posts looking at the timescale and precise events leading up to the split (here and here), by far and away the most revealing sources have been contemporary fanzines both in the UK and abroad, and in this third post examining the protagonists’ expressed views at the time, we are again going to focus on the comments of the prime mover, Andrew Eldritch.

The administrator of the wonderful Sisters wiki, Heartland Forum member Being645, recently drew attention to an item which had appeared on Ebay, an American publication entitled Rockpool from June 1985 which promised “Conversation with The Sisters of Mercy”. Realising the significance of the magazine – the in-house publication of Rockpool Promotions, the highly influential original new wave promo company who had been responsible for the creation of the New Music Seminar showcase at which TSOM had played in NYC the previous year -  and its timing, I alerted well-known collector Phil Verne who subsequently bought the item, which turned out to feature an extensive interview with an on-form Andrew Eldritch and a typically taciturn Craig Adams (the garrulous Wayne Hussey was not present).

From comments made during the interview, it is clear that it took place on the afternoon of Thursday 6^th June, on the rest day between the shows at Boston Channel Club on the 5^th (still currently unlisted on major gigographies) and the final date of the US tour on the 7^th. Somewhat surprisingly, both Eldritch and the interviewer seem excited looking ahead to their (separate) visits that evening to see Madonna (!) live in NYC, allowing us to date the interview with a degree of certainty. This would therefore make it last known interview with Eldritch before the split, making it a very significant addition to the overall collective TSOM archive.

Eldritch is clearly delighted that the arduous UK, European and US tour (which started three months earlier on 9^th March) is coming to an end,  but seems more positive than in the Italian interview some three weeks previously, although the presence of Adams may have had a limiting effect on his candour. When asked, “So is this only LP you’ll make, FALAA?”, Eldritch replies “There’s still a chance. It’s certainly the first and last LP by that particular configuration, which is important. It’s definitely like a chapter”.

What’s more, Eldritch clearly has plans for the continuation of the group in the current three-piece line-up, which explains the events of the summer and autumn when the aborted sessions for “Left On Mission and Revenge” took place. “Around Christmas time we’ll do …a Far East tour”, he states, clearly referring to the Jan 1986 shows in Japan which were scheduled (and subsequently cancelled – it would be a further 25 years before an incarnation of TSOM finally performed in Japan) for which posters have surfaced, whilst the band also clearly has more immediate plans, with the singer stating “We did [tour a lot] but after tomorrow things may change a lot. We’ve got one final date in Britain and it’ll be Gary’s last. A sort of memorial day in more than one way. Then we’re gonna rest up, write and recharge our batteries.” He is then asked about going back into the studio soon and he replies “Yeah, we’ve gotta finish up ‘Emma’ and stuff like that”.

Eldritch’s “memorial day comment” is clearly a reference to the fact London’s Royal Albert Hall is best known for hosting Great Britain’s annual national Festival of Remembrance, hence the name of the gig (“Wake – a festival of remembrance”),  the silver paper dropped from the roof at the end of the gig like the poppies during the minute’s silence at the normal Remembrance Day commemorations in the RAH, the stark formal programme and the organ interlude on the night – Eldritch had clearly  planned this ‘live’ finale for some time, and coming from a Forces family he would have been aware of the significance of the venue. That it had now turned out to be likely to be Gary’s final appearance clearly added to the experience in Eldritch’s opinion, although ironically Marx didn’t ultimately appear at the show and it was in fact the final appearance of both Hussey and (listening here) Adams, of course.

The “’Emma’” and stuff like that” comment is arguably the most significant, as we will examine in a future post on the split, but for now it is sufficient to state that “stuff like that” refers in all likelihood to “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”, the studio version of which (available along with a rough studio version of Emma on the much sought-after “Sins and Secrets” bootleg 7”single) was recorded by the three piece line-up in June 1985.

There were rumours of a covers EP being prepared for release, not least in German’s usually well-informed Spex magazine, who covered their information (and probably incorrect speculation) that it would include the band’s studio rendition of short-lived 1984 live favourite “Gimme Gimme Gimme (a man after midnight)” with  two uses of the word “allegedly” ("vermeintlich") in this snippet featured on the German TSOM fansite poison-door.net and shared by the impressive "Ultimate Sisters Guide" archive :

Earlier in the “Rockpool” interview, Eldritch has already confirmed Gary’s departure :

Interviewer : I heard a rumour that somebody’s leaving the band

Eldritch : Yeah, somebody already left. That was Gary

Interviewer : Are you going to get another guitar player?

Eldritch : No!

As those lucky enough to attend (like I myself did) any of the April-June 1985 shows in Europe and the USA , or who have heard bootleg recordings of those shows will attest, the ‘live’ sound sounded fuller than one might have imagined with just Wayne on guitar, so one can well imagine Eldritch feeling that a rhythm guitarist was a potentially argumentative luxury that he could do without. Curiously, the ”Rockpool” interview then immediately turns to an earlier episode at the time of the New Music Seminar New York trip in August 1984, a time when the singer and band’s well-publicised studio traumas reached their height.

Interviewer : I heard a rumour that you broke up.

Eldritch : I quit last year here at the Ritz. I said we’d do the album and the tour and that’s it.

This is an amazing revelation, and very much the train of thought to which the singer had returned in the two Italian interviews featured in the first of my blog posts on the split. How had the interviewer heard of this? The source of the rumour is sadly not touched upon, and Eldritch immediately makes a joke of the issue :

Eldritch : The others quit as well. We quit together.

Interviewer : Then you could all form a band.

Eldritch : Yeah, that’s pretty much how it turned out.

(incidentally, this is at odds with what Wayne had said in the "Day of the Ray Gun cometh" fanzine interview, remembering New York as "a week of excess, a week of not having to think about making records...we did a couple of gigs and then we had like three or four days off, it was good fun.")

So with this fascinating pre-RAH wide-ranging "Rockpool" interview, another piece of the jigsaw emerges, and on the evidence of this chat it would appear that on the evidence of the European and US tours he had started to believe that the three of them (Eldritch, Hussey and Adams) could make a go of things, leading to the subsequent attempts to make a start on the second album.

Tellingly, things began to deteriorate very soon, however. Absence is said to make the heart grow fonder, but a week apart from his remaining fellow Sisters immediately after the “Rockpool” interview had the opposite effect on Eldritch, as he recalled in a 1987 interview with MM “I thought it [the band] should still have gone on but know it wasn’t going to. The last time we actually spent any time together, at the end of the tour before the Albert Hall, we had some time playing in America and then we had a week off in Los Angeles. I went to Mexico for the day and the other two couldn’t think of anything better to do than go to Disneyland. And when I got back from Mexico a WEEK later, having got somewhat…uh…distracted, I thought, “God, what are these people whingeing about, really?” They just got so feeble.”

So who was to blame for the Sisters’ demise? Traditional explanations have included Gary’s silent unhappy “linger”ing ruining the atmosphere, Eldritch’s machiavellian masterplan allowing no place for democratic discussion or Hussey’s naked commercial ambition tarnishing the rock’n’roll dream ? But according to Eldritch’s comments, it turns out it was Walt Disney’s fault all along! Jesus may love The Sisters, but it was Mickey Mouse who split them up!

My thanks for this post are due to Being645 for alerting us to the existence of this fanzine, to poison-door.net and the Ultimate Sisters Guide for their fantastic work in chronicling the band's past, and to Phil Verne of the 1980 1985 TSOM fan group for sharing the interview with me (and by extension, readers of this blog). More on the 1985 split soon !