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 the 30th of January 1984 The Cure performed at the Munich Alabama Halle, Germany.
The show was captured and later broadcast by German TV on several occasions.
Enjoy!

Set list
Munich Alabamahalle 30/01/84
M (not on either of both videos)
Shake Dog Shake
Primary
Piggy In The Middle
100 Years
Banana Fishbones
Wailing Wall
10:15 Saturday Night
Play For Today
A Forest
The Top (2nd YouTube video only)

Encores:
Pornography (2nd YouTube video only)
Forever (not on either of both videos)

Today, exactly 32 years ago, Nitzer Ebb released the second single Hearts & Minds (30/01/1989) taken from their previously released, second studio album Belief (09/01/1989).
It was released by Mute Records as 7", 12" & CD-single in various versions, some with different subtitles and tracklist.

Hearts & Minds (7")
A. Hearts & Minds (Radio Mix)
B. For Fun (LP Version)
Hearts & Minds (12")
A1. Hearts & Minds (Mix Hypersonic)
A2. Hearts & Minds (Mix Subsonic)
B1. Captivate (Orbit Mix)
B2. For Fun (LP Version)
B3. Time Slips By (PK Mix)

Hearts & Minds (Hypersonic Mix)
1. Hearts & Minds (Mix Hypersonic)
2. For Fun (Mix)
3. Time Slips By

Hearts & Minds (Mix Subsonic)
1. Hearts & Minds (Mix Subsonic)
2. For Fun (LP version)
3. Time Slips By (PK mix)
Hearts & Minds (Continued) CD
1. Hearts & Minds (Mix Hypersonic)
2. Hearts & Minds (Radio Edit)
3. For Fun (Mix)
4. Time Slips By (PK mix)

Hearts & Minds stayed 8 weeks in the Billboard 'Dance Club song' chart and peaked at the 16th position on the 26th May 1989.

Hearts & Minds lycrics

You, you, I saw you
You, you, I saw you
Could it, could it be heart
Could it, could it be bone

This body rapture
This body rapture
You're wrapped up tight
You're wrapped up tight

Your empty words
Your empty soul
Your empty words
Your empty soul

You're you, you, you
I saw you
You, you, you
I saw you

You with your heart
You with your mind
Hearts and minds
Hearts and minds

Never again, no never again
Never again, no never again
Bodies wrapped up tight
Bodies wrapped up tight

Is it tight enough for you
Heart and bone
Heart and bone

This could be it
This could be you
This could be it
This could be you

Your body jerks
Your body shakes
Your body jerks
Your body shakes

You're you, you, you
I saw you
You, you, you
I saw you

This body rapture
This body rapture
Your empty words
Your empty soul

This could be it
This could be you
You're you, you
I saw you
You, you, I saw you
You

DISCOGS

32 years ago this month, the album “Technique” arrived as New Order closed out the nineteen-eighties with one, last breath of creative genius in FACT-275 (Released 30 January 1989).

This is an album which has split fans since it inception, between the dark-brilliance of “Power, Corruption & Lies”, to this their more accessible side.
“Technique” was more disco inspired effort, displayed fully in the track “Mr Disco”, highly danceable with that-orchestral-synth crescendo after the first chorus, it manages to still sound fresh against their previous work.
In the single “Fine Time", we find a satirical brilliance in the simplest of themes, based wholly on sex. With an eruption of drums and random guitar that cranks to the high point of eighties-music. Throughout the lyrics are more playful though remaining honest, this is by no means a commercial move but a natural progression in style.

The more mellow sides of the album have a charm all of their own, “Vanishing Point” is a more softly-constructed synth based song, reflective and mood ridden. Throughout “Technique” manages to balance evenly, the guitar-disco anthems and the euphoric dance style already verging on the horizon as ‘House Music’ made its entry into the world. This is the sound of a band at the top of their game, fearlessly treading waters of experimentation and executing with ease all manners of directions taken.

A submerged sound of progressive-rock can surprisingly be found in the abrasive “Run”, although certainly different in style, it does not so much take away from the flow of the album but adds that extra dimension instead. The proceedings close with heavy-synth and guitar solos in the glorious “Dream Attack”, a song built to bring not only “Technique” to a close but also the decade and this chapter in the story of New Order.

Dream Attack;

“Nothing in this world
Can touch the music that I heard
When I woke up this morning
It put the sun into my life
It cut my heartbeat with a knife
It was like no other morning
I don't belong to no one
But I want to be with you
I can't be owned by no one
What am I supposed to do”

Technique (Original 1989 Track List)

01. Fine Time 4:42
02. All the Way 3:22
03. Love Less 2:58
04. Round & Round 4:29
05. Guilty Partner 4:44
06. Run 4:26
07. Mr. Disco 4:20
08. Vanishing Point 5:14
09. Dream Attack 5:13

[Kevin Burke]

Filth Pig is the sixth studio album by American Industrial-Metal band Ministry, released on 30th January 1996.
Rumours say the album title was derived from a statement made by Teddy Taylor in the British House Of Parliament who described Ministry’s singer Al Jourgensen as a filthy pig. Four tracks from the album would be later released as seperate singles; The Fall, Lady Lay Lay, Reload and Brik Windows.

The opposite of the previously released and successful album ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ, also referred to as Psalm 69, it was a less electronically infused record which divided the fans totally.

The cover art shows a man holding the American Stars & Stripes flag, with blood dripping from a chunk of raw meat on his head. He wears a badge on his chest saying 'Don't blame me'.

The highest notation in the Billboard 200 was in February 1996 at 19th position. The album lasted 10 weeks in the charts.

Al Jourgensen stated later: "Everyone hated Filth Pig. They all wanted Psalm 70, and I gave them an electronic-free record full of gun-in-mouth dirges of nothing but pain. Aside from the cover art, the humour was gone. All that was left was misery. And I still had to tour the fucking thing - which went down in history as the interminable, intolerable, absolutely depraved Sphinctour.”

Filth Pig (Tracklist)

Filth Pig (Lyrics)

I start out you're in a daze and people start younger
In a thousand days and it's getting overexposed
Then someone asks, "How do you sleep at night?"
With the borrowed dreams from a broken past

You keep runnin' away don't matter how fast
or long you always wind up there
Another thousand pileups in the ugly name of morality
Fucking ugly, some creepy guy keeps asking

"How the fuck do you sleep at night?"
With a frozen dream and a borrowed hope that died
Filth pig, filth pig
I sleep with both eyes open

Filth pig, filth pig
I keep chasing this tail but the tail gets bigger go figure
A thousand... keep the fires and flames alive
So how the fuck do I dream at night?

With the memories of a borrowed death, the guilty tide
Filth pig, filth pig
He sleeps with both eyes open
Filth pig, filth pig

He sleeps all right because he's a
Filth pig

DISCOGS