1997/06/10, Brixton Academy, London, UK

Written by Robin Colman (sisters@pandora.be), German translation was published in Head and Star fanzine

Another night at Brixton. The Academy is a great hall, like an old theatre, a great entrance, a great stage, a great sound and the standing floor is going all the way up so that everybody can see everything.

Much more people in here than yesterday, this might be sold out. Much better atmosphere and Cubanate was bad as ever. Although a lot of people really enjoyed it. Afterwards it took a really long time before the Sisters got on stage.

Just like I expected, Comfortably Numb was the opener, a lot more dry ice than yesterday, and -- strangely enough -- much improved drum sound. Have they been reprogramming the doktor?

The lights today were great, Eldritch was in great mood, he gave the best of himself to make this the show to remember -- and it was. After this night a lot of people will decide to go to Manchester and Dublin.

The set was almost the same, but much improved, I don't know why, there must be something with the programming. Giving Ground and Flood II were the highlights, Jolene sounded powerfull, and the music of Confide in Me was improved again. If they play this song few times more, it will be a great live song.

Von E. talked a lot. To the punk in the first row he said: "You haven't changed clothes since yesterday, did you?" To the whole crowd: "SHUT UP!" and to his new guitarist when he couldn't find him anymore: "Get your arse on stage, Mike". "Come back tomorrow in Manchester and get ready for a giant gig".

No Burn today and still no Alice, but this time we did got Vision Thing. Eldritch couldn't stop and went on with Jolene and Confide in Me.

Great gig again, everywhere you could see people getting out of their T-shirts and wring out the sweat. this was a hot night, rise and reverberate.

Backstage, Andrew came looking for Gary Marx, he used to be there, but by the time Andrew had changed his clothes, Gary got off again.

Written by Chris Sampson (Chris@cgs123.demon.co.uk) for Dominion mailing list

Yeah, another top night. Von was sporting a very chic knee length jacket and one of those oriental shirts he likes - has yer man been paying visits to Leeds Harvey Nicks, one wonders.

I liked the pre-Jolene quips: the crowd were the usual rabble of hecklers, whistlers and general noise drowning out a typical Eldritch mumble. Suddenly he shouts "Shut UP!" at everyone (and it went very quiet) and follows it up with "Get your arse on stage, Mike" to the new guitarist who had wandered off somewhere. Tell it like it is, Von.

For the record, Comfortably Numb/SKOS opened up and Vision Thing closed with Burn and Kiss being dropped. Other than that it was the same set as yesterday, though the encores were changed round a bit.

The less said about Pete French's hair tonight the better.

Written by Spiritwalker@zoetic.demon.co.uk for Dominion mailing list

Even better than last night! Very few technical problems, virtually no feedback, Eldritch only sang at the wrong time once this time (?) :) Certainly would make a good live album, the reworking of some of the tracks indicates it could be the intention.

They had rearranged the set, from the previous night, coming out to Comfortably Numb/Some Kind Of Stranger and ending with Confide In Me, with Temple of Love in the main set, and the encores shuffled with Vision Thing added this time. This is one of the things that makes Sisters such a good band to hear live, IMO, so many good bands let themselves down by just doing the one set. And there's just something about the drum programming that is soooo good!!!

It seemed much more packed than last night too. And the lights were great, especially from nearer the centre, yes. I spent a lot of the gig helping some woman climb up on her man's back, which made a nice change from the daily routine :) Eldritch looked rather like Bowie when he came out tonight, in a very dapper shirt and jacket - later revealing a Motorhead t shirt. And he had the cheek to say to the audience "some of you haven't changed since yesterday"! :)

I think it was the second gig at Brixton (it was all a bit much for me :)) and suddenly this guy was on stage and looking a bit startled before he began dancing about. Eldritch happened to be over at the side of the stage I was at, and he seemed very amused by the performance. I wonder what he was thinking.? He didn't have to waste his money on dancers - Sexy sideshow provided by audience! Speaking of which those of us on the right hand side of the stage at Manchester had a 'floorshow' during the gig as well, 3 mini vixens in pvc fighting over each other.

Written by Dave Everley for Kerrang magazine (extracts)

MOST ROCKING MOMENT: An opening cover of Pink Floyd's 'Comfortably Numb'.
LEAST ROCKING MOMENT: Too many obscurities.
BEST ON STAGE QUOTE: "You haven't changed since last night!"- Eldritch spots a fan in the crowd who was at the previous night's show.
VERDICT: when they're good, they're very good. But when they're bad...

[...]

Sisters Of Mercy are legends in everybody's minds. Formed by singer Andrew Eldritch at the dawn of the '80s, they almost single-handedly invented Goth, a musical movement that saw grown men dye, cover themselves in pan stick and hang around graveyards.

These days, the Sisters' influence is more prominent than ever. If it wasn't for the Sisters', Paradise lost, Type O Negative and a dozen other bands would be floundering in a mire of down tuned guitars and guttural grunts.

[...]

Not that Eldritch wants to make things easy. They began with a cover of Pink Floyd's 'Comfortably Numb', then old songs are mangled until only their choruses remain intact, and obscurities are given pride of place over accepted classics. But when the mess of guitars suddenly shapes into 'Detonation Boulevard', the audience springs to life.

[...]

The Sisters' leave us with a couple of covers - Dolly Parton's 'Jolene' and Kylie Minogues 'Confide in Me!' - just go to prove that Goths do have a sense of humour. But we're still left with the nagging feeling that tonight could- and should- have been a lot better.

Mark 3/5

Written by Flamma (flamma@caverna.i-way.co.uk) for Dominion mailing list

Monday - Personally I wasn't impressed with the musical side of things, I felt that the music and Eld's vocals weren't quite working together... However, Dominion/Mother Russia was storming. Good gig, but could've been better.

Tuesday - WOW... Musically much improved (IMHO). For some reason we were left waiting for what seemed like ages before they came on stage. Again Dominion was excellent and the addition of Vision Thing made a brilliant arm waving opportunity ;) My one grumble was that the 0.1% of people who don't like being covered in confetti were standing - MOTIONLESS - in front of me... snigger

Throughout both gigs the lights and dry ice were incredible and Eld certainly seemed to be enjoying himself.

As we left last night there were 2 policemen standing right next to the bootleg (I presume) T-shirt bloke - turning a blind eye??

Written by I.J.Palmer (I.J.Palmer@Bradford.ac.uk) for Dominion mailing list

Another Tuesday night...

...another tSoM gig. Is it possible? Even better than last night? I think so. Varied set, even varied lights (although I preferred them raining down to Mother Russia). The encores worked better, the sound was better, the quips were better. It is definitely time for an official live album Monsieur Eldritch, despite your dislike for them. Every song now sounds superior in its live form, I even enjoyed Under the Gun (that's a first :-).

Written by Alan Tibbetts (alant@dial.pipex.com) for Dominion mailing list

I won't bore people with a long review, just a few points.

Monday - Strangely disappointing! Kiss the Carpet, IMO was a bad choice as an opener.

Tuesday - Eldritch was in better form, the sound was better, in fact, an excellent gig.

High Points - Confide in Me, Jolene and Comfortably Numb/Some Kind of Stranger

Low points - Come Together, Under the Gun, War on Drugs and the speed at which some of the classics were played.

Written by lucretia@haunted.demon.co.uk for Dominion mailing list

Flamma notes that:
>As we left last night there were 2 policemen standing right next to the bootleg
>(I presume) T-shirt bloke - turning a blind eye??

We noticed them. We stopped for a chat. As you do... ;-)

And they reckoned that the crowd was very well behaved, compared to other nights. Although they insisted it was a "GRUNGE CROWD". "Never any problems with your lot", they said.

Earlier one of the cops had quite openly greeted, and shared a laugh with, one of the scalpers outside that very expensive coctail-bar-rapper- joint on the corner.

(Did anyone else see the poor bloke on the tube with a box of t-shirts he'd bought for his mates, as we slowly persuaded him they were illegal and that we'd have to confiscate them!)

Written by Darren 'daZZa' Marsland (darren@mailserver.aixssc.uk.ibm.com) for Dominion mailing list

We made an interesting observation, after the Brixton show. We were with quite a crowd. And a varied one. From the reaction during, and comments after the show, we disovered that those who hadn't seen a Sisters gig before didn't appreciate it. And those that had seen a Sisters gig before thought it was brilliant.

Well, just an observation. :)