2005
the next one
2003
Smoke and Mirrors
2002
Summer 2002 Europe
2001
Summer
*
Europe
2001
Exxile on Euphoria
1999
To the Planet Edge
1998
Summer
1998
Event Horizon
1997
Distance Over Time
1996
Roadkill/ Goldkill
February 16
York
February 17
Leeds
February 18
Nottingham
February 20
Birmingham
February 22
London
February 23
London
February 25
Deinze
February 26
Hamburg
February 27
Hamburg
March 1
Berlin
March 2
Erfurt
March 3
München
March 5
Stuttgart
March 6
Köln
March 7
Zürich
March 9
Prague
March 10
Vienna
March 17
Oporto
Personnel
Andrew Eldritch
vocals
Adam Pearson
guitar,
backing vocals,
bass
Chris Sheehan
guitar,
backing vocals
Doktor Avalanche
drums,
bass,
keyboards
and
Simon Denbigh
nurse to the Doktor
As the last assault on unsuspecting audiences finished, the official live
news page had only the Nottingham date (rescheduled to February 18th),
complete with a note that "as you've noticed, 18 February 2001 falls
uncannily close to a major Sisters anniversary... you may well assume
that we'll be giving ourselves a few more chances to gloat about it."
Yes, the anniversary is definitely a major one -- 10 years since the last album release, give or take few months, doesn't happen too often. Just imagine what some bands can do in the ten years -- release crap independent single, start doing live gigs, change sound, define direction, release great singles, assemble following, become underground sensation, start touring internationally, land a major contract, release a cult album, break into USA, get in personnel crisis, sack all members but one, perform publicity war over royalties, record yet another landmark album in the process, retire to Hamburg, shut up all disbelievers with undisputed masterpiece down their throats, hire scary monster to pretend to play bass, make publicity on that, break into Top-10, assemble yet another lineup, spend 8 months in the most expensive studio in Europe over-scrupulously producing yet another masterpiece, return with sharp live machine to be met by ecstatic audiences all around the world, allow yourself pretentiously reject USA tour idea simply because the band refuses to play in anything smaller than a stadium... Yep, even though the next ten years are spent doing nothing except touring the ever-shrinking venues (with stadium years in distant memory) and promising the new album "next year", each year, there is definitely a reason to celebrate. Pardon the sarcasm.
There's much more to say on the topic than this quick one-sided blurb, but it's hard to disagree that 10 years is just about the right amount of time to set things straight, release that goddamn next album and start taking the world by storm. If there is any wish to do it, that is.
Anyway, the tour is set to go, and, as always, we are covering it.
And it's not really news, but while mentally preparing for the 20th anniversary tour it pays to read the review of the 10th anniversary gig in Leeds.
Tour name
last updated: 2000/12/14
Exxile on Euphoria. The double X was best explained by Nige Lites -- it's twentieth anniversary, isn't it? Wait, you do know your Roman? And no, anniversary 10 years later will still not feature porno dancers. Or so we hope.
Either way, the XX is not likely to be associated with the Exxon Valdez disaster, or Exxon Corporation (that's Company Formerly Known As Standard Oil Corporation to all you Rockefeller fans).
More interesting question is what the heck are they exiled from? Record companies not wishing to sign reasonable contract? Press not wishing to devote front pages for Andrew's naked torso and intelligent lyrical discussions of You Could Be The One? Top-10? Wait, that makes sense. So be it. I won't mentioned the bitter "Exxiled from studio, more like", as heard in Dominion, then.
Which leads us to "euphoria" -- yes, XX years since the band started properly and they are still toge... er... ok, let's make that "and he's still in it, more or less" -- quite something to get you euphoric. Works nearly as good as those pesky you-know-what. What, you do know what? You dirty children, you!
To finish with names, note that Sisters are back to using their full name -- in all since Summer tour (1998) it was just "Sisters". I've meant to write more about this shortening, but never seemed to get the time -- it's still planned. In short, using full name might account to false advertisement -- just look at puzzled faces of concert goers during, let's say, Suzanne, and you'll know just what I mean.
Support acts
last updated: 2000/12/16
For German gigs its Paradise Lost. After long last, somebody with a muscle for non-festival warm-up. People on Dominion noted that, while the band is also often misunderstood, their inclusion might be connected with the release of their new album next year -- the tour is perfect promotion for them, thus the honoraria shouldn't be too high. Andrew's newest Voodoo cost big money, you know?
Nick Holmes blurbed in the official Paradise Lost site: 'It is a real honor to be playing with the Lords of Goth. The Sisters of Mercy have been a big influence on us over the years, and yes I will be wearing black!' Lords of Goth? Oh-oh.
To finish with Paradise Lost, they covered Walk Away for (correct me if I'm mistaken) b-side and are often including it in their live sets. Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Other supports are not known yet. For one, Deinze's ticket does not mention any.
Rescheduled dates
last updated: 2000/12/16
Each Sisters tour since 1993 had at least one date cancelled in some way (sole exception was 1999). You'd better not be so sure you'll use that nice little ticket properly.
Indeed, the first date for the tour was the rescheduled Nottingham one from Trip the Light Fantastic tour. Second reschedule is also there: Vienna was moved from March 9th on March 10th, as the promoter missed previous Deftones booking on the original date. Gotta admire the professionalism. Instead, new Prague date is added for March 9th. Both as still marked as "probably" in official live news page. Not for long, we hope.
Venue capacity
last updated: 2000/12/16
Looks like in the view of shrinking of the venues it's getting interesting to see just how big halls the Sisters are playing in nowadays.
So far, we do know that:
Thankyou to Anders Blixt, Johan Aman, Simon Cardwell, Peter Lankester.
Picture at the top taken by Amanda Stevens (clue_les@hotmail.com) and comes from 2000/09/01 Manchester gig; bigger version is available here. Astoria ad scanned by Bart Kalita (admin@bart-domain.com), German gigs ad (from Visions magazine) by vicus@gmx.net.
Credited material copyrighted by stated authors