Gift

Product Information

The introduction to "Jihad" consists of the numbers "Two-Five-Zero-Zero-Zero". This is the amount of money (in sterling...) Hussey had to pay Eldritch after he sued for using the name "Sisterhood" with the pre-Mission name Hussey was using to tour with... Tony Perrin, the Mission's manager: "I think Eldritch perpetuated it longer than anyone else bothered. We'd still get letters from his lawyers ages after but nothing would ever come of it. The whole thing cost us legal bills and that's all, the rumours about big losses by us were all rubbish, it was never going to court." [32] Another Eldritch press release commented: "We assume that their choice of name is entirely unconnected with the forthcoming Andrew Eldritch album that for some months has had the working title Left on Mission and Revenge." The music press reported the break-up of the band on Saturday, 2 November 1985: "The Sisters of Mercy were down to singer Andrew Eldritch and his faithful drum machine Doktor Avalanche this week after guitarist Wayne Hussey and bassist Craig Adams left the band. Although this has scuppered recording plans for a new album this month, Andrew now intends to record the same album in the New Year and could well be using Wayne as a session guitarist. The split was described as 'friendly' by a Merciful Release spokesperson. 'The cliché of musical differences would not be inappropriate. Wayne and Craig were unable to comprehend the direction the band was going.' Andrew has also approached former Gun Club bassist Patricia Morrison – now in Fur Bible – to play on the album, but it's not yet known whether Andrew will continue with the name Sisters of Mercy. Wayne and Craig are now reported to be getting their own band together." [11]

In March 1986, the Mission began negotiations with Phonogram Ltd. as WEA Records refused to release any material. So the band released the October 1985 demo tape in slightly re-recorded form as an independent single on 9 May 1986. The single (its b-side was titled "Wake (RSV)" as a nod to "Giving Ground (RSV)") promptly entered the UK Indie Chart at no. 1. WEA Records had to release the Mission from their contract. The Sisterhood was a musical project led by Andrew Eldritch. With guest musicians, the Sisterhood recorded songs he had originally intended for a second album by the Sisters of Mercy.Andrew Eldritch later said about the album: "The Sisterhood album was a weapon in this corporate war. That's why I called it Gift. [in German: poison] [...] But I still like the record. It's weird but it's fine." [30] "I see it as a techno record. Or what I thought to be techno at the time." [33]

The Gift album was issued on CD for the first time in 1989 then reissued in 1994, but has been out of print on all formats — aside from bootleg repressings — since then, and has yet to debut digitally. Meanwhile, the reissue of the long-out-of-print album by The Sisterhood — the project born out of Eldritch’s feud with ex-Sisters of Mercy bandmates Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams — is finally here, more than three years after it was first announced by London-based Cadiz Music. The relationship between RCA and Eldritch was just as bad as the relationship between Eldritch and Hussey. Going from memory, I believe both were still signed to RCA. Either way, RCA was benefitting from the press coverage. I have read and heard that Eldritch deliberately made his album rubbish so that he would be released from his contract (cf Lou Reed). Despite the fact that I don't think the album was rubbish and the unlikelihood of Eldritch releasing a substandard record, it does reinforce the idea that Eldritch was not pleased with RCA.

Statistics

On 2 March 1986 the Mission played in Birmingham. Wayne Hussey: "The majority of the songs we've been doing in the set so far are my songs that Andrew rejected for the Sisters' second album. It's ironic cos he saw us at Birmingham and told us how good he thought the songs were." [23] "This Corrosion" 12 inch EP (spring 1986, unreleased) [ edit ] and believe me there's a lot of people i know, which remember gift very well, but they don't know who the "floodland" is Hussey and Adams, who like Eldritch remained under contract with WEA Records, booked studio time at Slaughterhouse Recording Studios in Driffield at the end of October 1985, recorded a four-song demo tape, and set up a new band. But the demo tape was rejected by the record company who were not convinced by Hussey's singing talents. [14] Recording took place at Fairview Studios [27] near Hull with in-house engineer John Spence. American vocalist Alan Vega, who had made friends with the Sisters of Mercy in 1983, [28] and undertook a solo tour through the UK and Europe during February and March 1986, recorded one version of the song, other vocal takes featuring James Ray and Andrew Eldritch are in existence as well.