The Sisters of Mercy - 2005 - Europe 2005

Date (click for expanded information)	Tickets	Website	Capacity
2005/07/08-09, Wiesen, Austria (festival, CANCELLED)	-	-	-
2005/08/02, Joseph's Well, Leeds, UK (indoors)	on arrival only, and free	http://www.josephswell.co.uk	small
2005/08/06, Tilburg, Netherlands (indoors)	here or VVK (€30)	http://www.013web.nl	2200
2005/08/08, Lokeren, Belgium (festival)	on arrival only (€10)	http://www.lokersefeesten.be	16500
2005/08/10, Zürich, Switzerland (indoors)	here (CHF68.80 = €44.60)	http://www.x-tra.ch	1600
2005/08/11, Wien, Austria (indoors)	here (€36.80; sale finished)	http://www.arena.co.at	490
2005/08/12, Tábor, Czech (festival)	here (CZK895 = €29.50)	http://www.loveplanet.cz	35000
2005/08/14, Hildesheim, Germany (festival)	here, or here for Germany, here for others (€39)	http://www.fkpscorpio.com/meraluna	25000

2005/07/08-09, Carpe Noctem festival, Wiesen, Austria (festival, CANCELLED)

Webpage: http://www.wiesen.at/15094_DE.0?contentid=307

The band cancelled this gig after it turned out that the festival is being promoted as goth event - or so the organizers claimed in reply to an e-mail enquiry.

In mid-April, Sisters were replaced by goth darlings Lacrimosa - probably better suited to the rest line-up (mostly goth no-names and obscurities).

Information about the date was announced in late February at festival promoter's site; it was the first indication about the new tour being in works. Few days later all information about the festival was abruptly removed; the image you see on the right was saved before being taken down. The page was at http://www.wiesen.at/15094_DE.0?contentid=302&offset=1

(thanks to Paul Cuska, Jochen Upheber, Martin, Peter Lankester)

2005/08/02, Joseph's Well, Leeds, UK (indoors)

Free pre-tour for-fans-only test-out gig, under name of Near Meth Experience.

Announced three days before the gig via the official site. "02 August 2005 : NIGHT OFF. We'll be watching Near Meth Experience at a pub in Leeds.", it said. "Near Meth Experience play for free, because they're a shambles."

The band played as New Meth Experience in Leeds in 1996 and 1997. This last concert ended up being reviewed (negatively) on UK's heavyweight music news weekly NME; the reviewer completely missed a point that the gig was free try-out. Everybody thought this was the last of pre-tour freebies. Until now.

This might (or might not) have something to do with the fact that the new guitarist Chris May makes ends meet by working at Joseph's Well.

2005/08/06, 013 The Choice, Tilburg, Netherlands (indoors)

Website: http://www.013web.nl
Tickets: This webshop (worldwide delivery) or "VVK" (€30). On sale since 2005/04/02.
Getting there: directions available on this Heartland thread

Indoors venue (capacity - 2200).

(ticket scaned by Eggi)

2005/08/08, Lokerse Feesten, Grote Kaai, Lokeren, Belgium (festival)

Webpage: http://www.lokersefeesten.be
Festival lineup: (from headliner) The Sisters of Mercy; Vive La Fete; Monza (both support bands are from Belgium)
Tickets: on arrival only (€10)
Getting there: directions available on this festival webpage

The €10 tickets for the festival are sold separately for each day, and are available only for the current day since 18:30 (no advance reservation possible).

About support bands (as told by Koeri) - Vive La Fete is a Belgian band of a nice couple: Danny (former dEUS-bassplayer) & his girlfriend Els. The play some wave-oriented music with naive French lyrics, sung by Els, and have reputation of being a great party band. Monza is just another Belgian band, they are not bad.

This festival has very interesting headliners for other days: Iggy & The Stooges on 6th, The Cure on 10th, Patti Smith on 13th.

Some tickets for The Cure show will be available on presale at some point. For other days, apparently, the tickets will still only be available on arrival (these plans are as of June 4).

Iggy and Stoogers (Real Good and Worth Experiencing) are playing Lokerse on the day when Sisters are magicing their magic in Tilburg (on August 6). That's why you're advised to catch them in Nandrin (Belgium) on August 7. More info here.

Daily festival attendance in this festival last year was 7500-16500 people, according to http://sisters.skynetblogs.be.

Lokeren is a rather small town right in the middle of Ghent and Antwerp. It's next to a motorway, and has good train connections.

(thanks to Koen)

2005/08/10, X-Tra Limmathaus, Zürich, Switzerland (indoors)

Website: http://www.x-tra.ch
Tickets: this webshop (CHF68.80 = €44.60). In French and German lanuages only.
Getting there: directions in the venue webpage (click on "find us")

Indoors venue (capacity, apparently, 1600). The Sisters of Mercy have played in the venue in 2001.

Organized by X-TRA Prod. AG, Zurich

(thanks to Alexandre Pradervand; ticket scaned by Eggi)

2005/08/11, Arena Wien Große Halle, Wien, Austria (indoors)

Webpage: http://www.arena.co.at
Tickets: here (sale finished)
Getting there: info is at the venue webpage (click on "ROADMAP TO ARENA")

Rescheduled from Arena Wien Open Air in early August. Arena Wien's Große Halle capacity is 490, whereas Open Air capacity is 3000.

If not for the rescheduling, this would have been the only Sisters non-festival open air gig this year.

(thanks to Robert and Johan)

2005/08/12, Love Planet Festival, Letiště aeroklubu u Čápova Dvora (Airport at Čápov's mansion), Tábor, Czech Republic (festival)

Webpage: http://www.loveplanet.cz
Festival lineup: here (click on "seznam interpretu")
Tickets: here (two days tickets: CZK895 = €29.50 on mail order, CZK990 = €32.50 on arrival; parking CZK150 = €5)
Getting there: Your best bet is to get there from Prague. Tábor is ~80 km southwards from Prague, the cities are connected by busses and trains. It's also possible to go there directly from Vienna (there are busses, for instance, to Jelhava from Vienna and go to Tábor from there).

The event (on August 12-13) will feature two live music stages, several DJ stages, "Extreme sports area" for skates, BMX bikes and whatnot, cinema stage with Czech student projects and archive material, various workshops and discussions (in Czech, apparently).

In 2004, the festival organizers planned to receive about 35 thousand people before cancelling the event (more info here, in Czech). Predecessor of the festival was Go Planet Roxy festival in 2003, headlined by Marilyn Manson; it was touted as "biggest" and "most European" Czech open air event.

Note that in most promotional material Sisters are billed as no 6 among performers of two day festival, right behind such influential acts as Dreadzone and Kosheen. The Czech promotors must be sure Eldritch & Co are nostalgia-rip-off act. This, so to say, misinterpretation of Eldritch's Official Version Of Reality is corrected in main webpage of the festival, not yet in other places.

Apparently, the Czech organizers of this festival earlier took care of Sisters gig in Prague in 2001.

(ticket scanned by Eggi)

2005/08/14, M'era Luna, Hildesheim, Germany (festival)

Webpage: http://www.fkpscorpio.com/meraluna
Festival lineup: here
Tickets: here. Also Here for Germany or here for others; European postage rates here).
Getting there: directions available on the festival webpage (in "English information" section)

Around 25000 people come to the festival each year, according to organizers. In late-April Skinny Puppy were listed as the main headliners, with Sisters in the second spot; that blasphemy has been corrected in a week.

This gaffe was probably what the official website live news page referred to when they added this hidden comment next to Hildesheim date: <!--   comment diplomatically excised   -->.

Although the festival is not being promoted as gothic, goths do make up sizeable amount of audience, and that does dictate the general direction of the festival.

The band has played in the M'era Luna festival in 2000 (on same day as Mission) and 2002.

Festival location is near Hannover, and near highway #7.