aaamusic | On 19, Jan 2011

SISTERS XXX

THE SISTERS OF MERCY – 30TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR

When the band last celebrated a major anniversary, we planned one intimate evening in Yorkshire. We tried to raise some interest from the Leeds mayor’s office and the Yorkshire Post. That didn’t go well. It never does. We’ve been without a record company and without a press agency for the last umpteen years. We decided to go on a world tour of twenty-six countries. We started up in Las Vegas and we ended up many months later in Rio de Janeiro. That was for you.

This is for us.

We’re going to set up party zones in a few select European venues, where we will perform some legendary rock music with which you are very familiar and some legendary rock music with which you are as yet very unfamiliar. After the European dates we will jet our various selves from the various bars of South America to the various bars of Japan. We have some anniversary business to do in Japan. Japan is very much like Leeds, but ever so slightly better.

Be advised that the Sisters are going on tour again. We will behave very badly. We will wear some very loud shirts. We will wear some very wrong trousers. We will perform some very legendary rock music. It’s what we do.

SISTERS XXX

Tour Dates:

16/02/2011 – Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds
17/02/2011 – Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds
21/02/2011 – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium
22/02/2011 – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium
23/02/2011 – 013, Tilburg, Netherlands
25/02/2011 – A38 Ship, Budapest, Hungary
26/02/2011 – A38 Ship, Budapest, Hungary
28/02/2011 – Gasometer, Vienna, Austria
01/03/2011 – C-Halle, Berlin, Germany
04/03/2011 – Rockhal, Luxembourg

05/03/2011 – The Trainon, Paris
A Short Interview With Lead Singer (and founding member) Andrew Eldritch

How does it feel to have made it to 30 years in music…

Our lead singer had a ridiculous Five Year Plan which went horribly wrong.

… in the current era of reduced band shelf-life?

A band can mean a lot. We like to mean a lot. It’s not been easy.

What do you think the secret of your continued success is?

1. We have many great songs.
2. We know about rock music.
3. We like rock music.
4. We have fucked every opinion-forming member of your family.
5. We rock.

At your first gig in York in 1981, did any part of you think that you might still be in the business thirty years time?

At our first gig in York, we were amazed to find ourselves still in the business after thirty minutes. We’re more confident now. We have taught ourselves some stuff, and we have walked it like we talked it. It’s not been easy.

What do you have in mind for the run of birthday gigs in 2011? Any plans for new songs, old songs, covers?

All that. And the People’s Republic Of West Yorkshire should get ready for cupcakes.

Do you think there’s still a place for The Sisters Of Mercy in 2011 and beyond?

There was no place for us then, and there’s no place for us now. It didn’t stop us then, and it doesn’t stop us now. We’re everywhere. It’s what we do.
SISTERS XXX