The first single by The Sisterhood, “Giving Ground,” was released on 20 January 1986, on Andrew Eldritch’s Merciful Release label, which was distributed by WEA. The details of this release are dramatic in the extreme, producing enough lasting angst and antagonism to fuel every goth club on the continent for a decade.

The success of the first album, First and Last and Always, released 11 March 1985, had catapulted The Sisters of Mercy out of Leeds to stardom. Success demanded its pound of flesh, however, resulting in increased strain on the band. Over the summer, founding guitarist Gary Marx left mid-tour, citing “personal reasons.” The band finished the tour and took a short break, then reconvened to write and rehearse for the next album that fall. Bassist Craig Adams walked out, ostensibly over the bassline for “Torch.” Guitarist Wayne Hussey left the next day. Accounts differ regarding the details and reasons for these departures, but Hussey and Adams quickly formed a band, with Red Lorry Yellow Lorry drummer Mick Brown, that would eventually become The Mission. WEA dangled a £25,000 advance, originally promised to the Sisters, to whichever group made an album first.

The Sisters had been disintegrating for some time before these departures, and the new uncertainty about the contractual advance raised the stakes yet again with regard to the future of both bands. Before the final London show of the original lineup, later released as Wake, Eldritch had given interviews about plans to form a supergroup with Patricia Morrison, ex-Gun Club, and Allen Vega from Suicide. In their frustration with Eldritch, Hussey and Adams decided to call their new group The Sisterhood, which was not coincidentally the name of the Sisters’ fan club. They booked a London debut for 20 January 1986. Eldritch threatened legal action over the name, but these threats came to nothing. He decided to beat his former bandmates to the punch. A single, “Giving Ground,” was released by a different Sisterhood on the same day that the Adams-Hussey band had scheduled their first gig.

This Sisterhood was eventually composed of Eldritch, Morrison, Vega, James Ray, and Lucas Fox. Fox, who played drums for the original Motörhead lineup (when the band was named Bastards), helped with production, and Morrison played bass, as she later would on the Sisters’ Floodland (1987). Vega did vocal tracks on the later Sisterhood Gift album. But for the initial single, recorded primarily to block former bandmates from using the name, time was of the essence. Due to contractual obligations, Eldritch could not sing on the new single, so he enlisted James Ray to do the vocals. The single was recorded in five days. It included two mixes of “Giving Ground,” the “RSV” on Side A and the “AV” on Side AA. The cryptic mix names alluded to translations of the Bible in English, the Revised Standard Version and Eldritch’s beloved Authorized (or King James) Version. The RSV was a twentieth century “update” of the 1611 AV translation for readers ill-equipped to comprehend its Elizabethan English. Given Eldritch’s professed admiration of the older version, it may not be a stretch to speculate that he considered the instrumental track the “original” and any version with vocals added a necessary evil.

Musically, the single seemed hastily put together, which in fact it was. Lyrically, however, the song articulates a refusal to compromise with others, and an anticipation of moving onward that, given the circumstances of its composition is difficult not to read as autobiographical. The AV track was instrumental, notable for featuring the drum machine Doktor Avalanche. The insentience of the machine allowed “him” to circumvent the contract with WEA that prevented Eldritch from appearing by name on his own track. The RSV version, which featured Ray’s vocals, shot quickly up the charts on strength of association with the Sisters, but sank quickly as well.

But the release of the single had nevertheless done the business. Hussey and Adams were forced to come up with a new name, and in March 1986 they became The Mission. Eldritch meanwhile recorded the remainder of the Sisterhood album, Gift, which appeared later that year with yet another version of “Giving Ground.” The later full album became noteworthy for its influence on later electronic music. At the time of the single, however, its crucial achievement was ironically enough gaining ground. That £25,000 check won The Sisters of Mercy time to regroup, time to experiment in the studio with early versions of “This Corrosion,” and ultimately time to begin recording their next album, Floodland, a breakthrough in songwriting, production, and global ambition for the band.


Giving Ground 7"(SIS 010)

Giving Ground (Lyrics)

In the place to which we wander
Reason turned around
And every fool
Will see his madness crowned
And every truth is swallowed up
By gently giving ground

What you have lost can never be found
Words are just dust in deserts of sound
Everything is lost and your trust lies broken
And the truth is drowned

I watch
Surrender
Because I know
...
Now I know you will not see
The madness we have seen
And now I know you cannot be
All that your (fright/flight) has been

What you have lost can never be found
Words are just dust in deserts of sound
Everything is lost and your trust lies broken
And the truth is drowned

Words are just dust

I stood but you just could not wait
Behind
Because I know you cannot be
All that your (fright/flight) has been

What you have lost can never be found
Words are just dust in deserts of sound
Everything is lost and the truth is drowned
Everything is lost in the giving ground

Everything is lost
Everything is lost in the giving ground

Turned around
Reason turned around
In the giving ground
In the giving ground
Everything is lost
In the giving ground

DISCOGS

[Christopher Vilmar]

On this day, 33 years ago (19 January 1991), The Cure performed at The Great British Music Awards in London Wembley arena (UK) with a.o. Ride, The La's, Jesus Jones, New Model Army and The Wedding Present.

For this special occasion The Cure played a very rare selection of songs and lots of fans agree some of the performed versions are considered to be pre-eminent.

The entire show was broadcast by British tv & radio

Setlist

Pictures Of You, Fascination Street, Just Like Heaven, Lullaby, The Walk, Let's Go To Bed, Why Can't I Be You?, In Between Days, A Forest, Never Enough

Encores:
Three Imaginary Boys, Boys Don't Cry, Disintegration

Line-up

Robert Smith, Simon Gallup, Porl Thompson, Boris Williams, Perry Bamonte

On January 18, 1980, one of the most legendary concerts in Eindhoven took place. For only 7.50 guilders (+/- 2 Euro), the iconic and legendary band from Manchester, JOY DIVISION, performed on the stage of the old Effenaar. Up to that date, the influential English quartet had only performed six times in the Netherlands. Exactly four months after the Effenaar performance, Ian Curtis committed suicide.

The support act that night was the Dutch band Minny Pops, which later shared the Factory record label with Joy Division.

The band's focused and sharp performance was professionally filmed and recorded that night, allowing you to witness it firsthand. Some songs were professionally filmed and recorded that night and would later, in 1982, be featured on the meanwhile by Factory Records legendary video release "Here Are The Young Men" (FACT 37v, IKON 2).

The following is the sixteen-song setlist from the performance at Effenaar on 18 January 1980, which are well documented and circulate on several popular bootlegs:

1. Love Will Tear Us Apart
2. Digital*
3. New Dawn Fades*
4. Colony*
5. These Days
6. Ice Age
7. Dead Souls
8. Disorder
9. Day Of The Lords
10. Auto-Suggestion*
11. Shadowplay
12. She's Lost Control
13. Transmission
14. Interzone
15. Atmosphere
16. Warsaw.

On this day, 44 ago, John Foxx released his first solo project album Metamatic (Virgin, 18 January 1980), after leaving Ultravox the previous year. Opposite to Utravox' mix of rock and synth-pop, Metamatic became a pure electronic album. Although John Foxx performed ’Touch & Go’ and ’He’s a Liquid’ already with his former band Ultravox, the band was not credited on the Metametic album. Not surprisingly the remaining and continueing members of Ultravox didn’t credit Foxx when they adapted parts of ‘Touch and Go’ for their song ‘Mr.X’ (What’s in a name?) on their next album Vienna.

Foxx used a.o. a Minimoog, an ARP Odyssey synth, an Elka Rhapsody 610 “string machine” and a Roland CR-78 drum machine to produce the album. It was recorded on 8-track and engineered by Gareth Jones.

The album features one of John Foxx' greatest hits ‘Underpass’, which was previously released as the album’s announcing single.

'Metamatic' was named after a mechanical artwork (a painting machine) by Swiss sculptor and artist Jean Tinguely and became a must have album for (electronic) music lovers.

It spent seven weeks in the UK charts, peaking at #18. The album was generally well received by critics and is still cited as his most influential solo release.

The album was re-released on CD several times, amongst them some with bonus tracks (+ 6 in 1993 & + 7 in 2001) and even with a complete bonus CD featuring 15 extra tracks (2007).

In 2014 the original album finally got a vinyl re-released on Record Store Day with a gatefold sleeve featuring some new and rare artwork.

Metamatic (1980 - Original 12" tracklist)

1. Plaza 3:52
2. He's a Liquid 2:59
3. Underpass 3:53
4. Metal Beat 2:59
5. No-One Driving 3:45
6. A New Kind of Man 3:38
7. Blurred Girl 4:16
8. 030 3:15
9. Tidal Wave 4:14
10. Touch and Go 5:33

DISCOGS

Today, 39 years ago, Alien Sex Fiend recorded their live album and VHS video Liquid Head in Tokyo (17/01/1985). Liquid Head In Tokyo was recorded at Tsubaki House, at the end of a sell-out Japanese tour. It consists of selected recordings of both shows the band played that same day.

The VHS video and LP have a different tracklist

A 1997 CD re-issue features 4 bonus tracks, though these are not live recordings but normal and 12" studio versions.

Liquid Head In Tokyo (VHS 1985)

1 RIP
2 Dead & Buried
3 Back To The Egg
4 E.S.T.
5 Crazy
6 Hee Haw
7 Ignore The Machine
8 In God We Trust

Liquid Head In Tokyo (LP 1985)

A1 R.I.P. (Blue Crumb Truck) 3:45
A2 E.S.T. (Trip To The Moon) 5:33
A3 Dead And Burried 5:00
A4 In God We Trust (In Cars You Rust?) 4:27
B1 Back To The Egg 4:47
B2 Attack!!!!!! # 2 5:22
B3 Lips Can't Go 5:19
B4 Wild Women 4:56

DISCOGS