We Love You: The Psychedelic Furs and The Sisters of Mercy [i]
A vital support slot, industry juice and a brilliant record: The Psychedelic Furs played a crucial role in the rise of The Sisters of Mercy. Mark Andrews talks to Duncan Kilburn, John Ashton, Les Mills and other dramatis personae.
“Hiya dk. It's all your fault. Love you to bits.”
So declared “thinman” at the end his one and only post in Burned Down Days, The Psychedelic Furs’ “officially unofficial” online forum, in August 2004. “thinman” was Andrew Eldritch of The Sisters of Mercy and the object of his affection, “dk”, was Duncan Kilburn, the original saxophone player in The Psychedelic Furs. [ii]
Eldritch/thinman had momentarily stepped into the light to explain his enduring gratitude. “The Sisters foisted an early demo tape on Duncan while lurking at a Furs sound-check … at a university whose identity I have forgotten, although I remember the layout and look of the place very clearly. Because it was important.”
If not quite an origin myth, the handing over of the cassette in 1981 has acquired legendary status in The Sisters’ narrative.
Because it was important.
It initiated a Furs connection that over the next two years enabled The Sisters’ first great record, earned them their most high profile gigs up till then and brought them significantly closer to the centres of industry power in New York and London.
As significant as the tape handover was, Kilburn and Eldritch do not agree on its location.
In Burned Down Days, dk remembered the Ground Zero of the Furs / Sisters relationship as Leeds University.This is demonstrably false. The Furs did not play at the University until October 1982, by which point Kilburn was no longer in The Psychedelic Furs.
For his part, Eldritch has tentatively identified Huddersfield Polytechnic as the location of the epochal handover. He told tQ in 2016 that he and his then-girlfriend, Claire Shearsby, went over from Leeds to see The Furs. “We hung around at the soundcheck and I gave a cassette tape of our demo to the saxophone player. He took it to the rest of the band.”
The Furs did indeed play The Great Hall of Huddersfield Poly on 27 May 1981. But this is not where the tape handover took place.
The night before their Huddersfield gig, The Furs played Tiffany’s, a large disco in the centre of Leeds that put on bands on its off-nights.Claire Shearsby remembers that “Andrew had been making these cassettes that he sent to record companies. We decided to go down to the soundcheck at Tiffany’s and give a tape to The Psychedelic Furs. When we got there they had just finished and were heading to their hotel and Andrew handed over a cassette at that point.”
Shearsby was the DJ that night, so access to Tiffany’s would have been easy for her and her boyfriend. The Furs had been booked by the great Leeds promoter, John Keenan. Shearsby had been his regular DJ since the punk summer of 1977. [iii]
“When The Psychedelic Furs came back from the hotel,” she continues, “they said the cassette was really good and invited us to go to the gig at Huddersfield Poly the next night. I couldn’t go because I was going to college but Craig (Adams, The Sisters’ bass player at the time) went with Andrew the next day.” [iv]
The tape handover and its sequel took place during The Furs’ tour to promote their second album, “Talk Talk Talk”. The significance of these interactions would not have been lost on Eldritch. He had seen The Furs’ “first gig in Leeds at The F Club, all 25 of them lined up across the front of the stage, a six inch high stage, nose-to-nose with the crowd. They just blew the place away, all of them in black, all of them wearing shades and just bringing the house down. [v]
“I was such a fan. That first album is still one of my top three albums ever. And I’ve always thought that Richard Butler (The Furs’ singer), who funnily enough went to school down the road from me - one of the schools I went to – that him, me and Michael Stipe write in much the same way and have a similar density of lyric. I’ve always been enormously impressed by that band.” [vi]
Gary Marx, the guitar player in The Sisters of Mercy at the time, had also seen The Furs live “and liked them, but Andrew really saw some strong parallels with what he was trying to do.” [vii]
Although meeting members of one of his favourite bands for the first time - whether it was in Leeds or Huddersfield - Eldritch maintained total sang-froid. Perhaps this was a function of the insouciance of the Leeds’ music scene or the democratisation of punk. Perhaps it was the clarity and confidence that a dab of whizz brings.
Despite having been “not that well, if you catch my drift” in this era, Kilburn does remember a lot about this encounter with Eldritch.“In that early exchange, he came across as interesting, cool and extremely intelligent. He managed to let me know that he finished The Times crossword typically in under 10 minutes, he’d been sent down from Oxford and dropped out of Leeds; all impressive and eye-catching factors for me.” [viii]
The key detail, which is not disputed, and the root of Eldritch’s affection, is that it was Kilburn who accepted the proffered tape. John Ashton (The Furs’ guitarist at the time) recalls “Andrew clutching this tape” and that “Duncan was the one that stuck his hand out, quicker than I did.” [ix]
Kilburn had a reputation for being the most abrasive, aggressive and paranoid member of The Furs, seemingly the least likely to show largesse to strangers pestering him at soundcheck. He explains his actions thus: “When we were being pretty obnoxious very early in The Furs, a member of our road crew came up with the line, ‘Be nice to people on the way up because you’ll need them on the way down.’ Others didn’t heed it but it always rang in my head when these little encounters took place.”
Kilburn doesn’t have any memory of what was on the tape, but Ashton remembers that “Duncan and I both listened to it a lot” in the transit van they were touring in. “This tape stuck out,” Ashton continues. “It was rock with drum machines. At the time there were bands that were electronic-y sounding but this was much more aggressive and Metal. The closest thing to it was The Human League and their drum sound but The Human League was all synths and this had guitars and it was pumping. It was Suicide-meets-Iggy-meets-Motörhead.” [x]
The cassette included primitive demos for a proposed four-song ‘Floorshow EP’. ‘Lights’, ‘Adrenochrome’ and ‘Floorshow’ itself would eventually find themselves on later Sisters records in superior forms. The EP also included a version of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Teachers’, which kept Cohen’s lyrics but no semblance of his music. ‘Damage Done’, The Sisters’ first single and its B-sides, ‘Watch’ and ‘Home of the Hitmen’, were also included, along with live recordings of covers of ‘1969’ and ‘Sister Ray’ from a gig at the University of York on 7 May 1981. There were also five more live tracks labelled “St John’s, Leeds 4.5.81”. These were recorded in Eldritch and Shearsby’s top floor flat on St John’s Terrace in the Hyde Park area of Leeds.
“The St John’s stuff,” recalls Gary Marx, “would be just like an early rehearsal with us all in their one room bedsit. I think my gear would actually have been set up on the bed. That wouldn’t constitute a great deal: I was still playing through my old portable record player with a homemade cable, splicing a DIN connector and guitar lead. An audience of one most likely - Andrew’s cat, Spiggy.”
Eldritch’s plan had been to use the cassette to get a support slot with The Psychedelic Furs. Ultimately, the plan worked but there was a 17-month interim: the cassette handover took place in late May 1981 and The Sisters finally supported The Psychedelic Furs at five gigs in early October 1982. In those 17 months, thanks to the Furs, The Sisters forged vital industry connections on both sides of the Atlantic and, more importantly, made one of their greatest records.
In fact, both Kilburn and Ashton rapidly became proto-Sisters fans. Eldritch had given both of them T-shirts bearing his first attempt at the Merciful Release logo, the now iconic Head & Star. Ashton was photographed wearing his in Canada in July 1981. Kilburn admits that “although a lot of the stuff has gone in the dumpster over the years”, he still has his Sisters T-shirt somewhere, even though “I lived on a boat for 10 years, so you really had to pare it down.”
Ashton recalls that “Duncan had said to me at one point, ‘You'd rather be in The Sisters of Mercy wouldn't you?’”Indeed, Ashton readily concedes that “although“Talk Talk Talk” was a pretty full-on, aggressive album, there are some other songs there that were a little lighter, a little more poppy.” Ashton craved some pumping Suicide-meets-Iggy-meets-Motörhead.
Yet initially The Sisters’ focus was on Kilburn. “The Sisters asked me to produce some material,” he says. “I was keen and met up with them to listen to some stuff. I think we were in a pub or club. I have a very vague but persistent memory of this.They(not just, or even Andrew) insisted that the entire backing track be recorded using a Stylophone. They had one with them.
“I thought it was a joke and it ended there. I was looking to go into a 48-track studio and try my hand as a producer, not messing around with a kids’ toy and a Portastudio.”
Gary Marx comments that this “story is hysterical but I can’t really give it any validation … The only piece of equipment I can recall us having that gets anywhere close to the toy shop appeal of the Stylophone is the first Wasp synthesizer.Craig had one - or the use of one … and we used it to generate a pulse of white noise that was the basis of our drum track on the earliest things we did. That pre-dates meeting Duncan by some time, so I can’t imagine we were still using it at that point - a shame if there isn’t some truth in his tale.” [xi]
Whatever the truth, Duncan Kilburn was soon no longer a member of The Psychedelic Furs. In late 1981 at the end of the “Talk Talk Talk”tour, the long knives came out.
“It was a particularly rough minivan tour,” admits Ashton. “Everybody was drinking on the ferry back to Britain: just horrible. I remember Duncan throwing a beer over Richard. Later, Richard called me up and said, ‘I can't take Duncan anymore. You need to go with me or him.’ I didn't want to not be in The Psychedelic Furs, so I went with Richard. Richard said we should get rid of Roger (Morris, the other guitar player) too. I said, ‘I could use more room.’ I later realised what a big fucking mistake that was. It was stupidity and naivety.”
Therefore, in 1982, it would be John Ashton, not Duncan Kilburn, who would be the member of The Psychedelic Furs who would make the greatest impact on the music of The Sisters of Mercy. Nevertheless, it was Kilburn’s acceptance of the demo tape one afternoon in West Yorkshire that set in motion the series of events that would bring Ashton and The Sisters of Mercy together.
Soon after listening to the cassette, Kilburn and Ashton both, but independently of one another, told Howard Thompson, the hugely influential A&R man who had signed The Furs to CBS,how impressed they were by The Sisters. Shortly after that, Thompson “met Andrew Eldritch in my office at CBS, Soho Square. Hewas smart, and I liked him immediately.” As well as “the infamous cassette”, Eldritch also gave Thompson “an early photo of the band: three guys – Craig, Eldritch in shades, collar up and Gary.” This is the earliest known publicity photograph of The Sisters of Mercy. It had been taken just off Bellevue Road in Leeds by Jon Langford of The Mekons.
Thompson also saw The Sisters play live. “There’s an entry in my 1981 diary: ’June 13th, Sisters of Mercy, Leeds University, 10pm.’It seems likely I went to the gig, as I also had a meeting with Susan Fassbender in Bradford earlier that day.” This gig was in the Riley Smith Hall in Leeds University.On the bill were two other Leeds bands: Pink Peg Slax and The Expelaires, Craig Adams’ former band. [xii]
Thompson was impressed by The Sisters, although allowances had to be made. “Bands at this stage of their careers are usually pretty undeveloped, figuring it out. I don’t judge them by how unformed their act is, the shitty sound or the crummy environment. I thought Eldritch was a commanding frontman from day one. Reminded me a little bit of Dave Berry. Both wore black and leather well, and could ‘slink’ better than everyone else.
“I’ve always been drawn to people outside of the mainstream,” Thompson continues. “They’re far more interesting. Plus, I like singers who don’t sound like anyone else. Andrew fits right in there. Also, he had infinite appeal to both boys and girls and The Sisters’ audience/crowd was mondo sexy.” [xiii]
However, Thompson had no intention of signing The Sisters. “At that point, it would have been too early in the band's development for a label like CBS to jump in.” Also, by the end of 1981 it became clear that Thompson would be moving to New York as an A&R exec at Columbia. Nevertheless, Thompson had someone in mind to guide The Sisters in his absence: Les Mills, the manager of The Psychedelic Furs.
Mills had become The Furs’ manager around the time they were making their first album in 1979. As Ashton drolly recalls, “Les had expertise: he’d roadied for the Banshees. What more do you need?” Also, Mills had been responsible for the infamous “Sign The Banshees Do It Now” graffiti campaign. “That was in my amphetamine-fuelled days,” says Mills. “I made a list of all the record companies in London, got a pack of fat magic markers and went round every record company. The West End was easy, but I even went out to Island in Hammersmith. I walked all night long.”
“We used to joke that Les wiped the gob off Sioux’s mike stand,” says Kilburn. “He was a hustler, spiv and hyperactive. All the things you need in a manager,” he adds sarcastically. “I really wasn’t a big fan.” [xiv]
The feeling was mutual. “When Duncan and I would get together in the same room,” says Mills, “it would never be amicable because Duncan, from my perspective, was always one of the most obtuse, difficult people I've ever had to deal with.”
Mills was about to meet someone who could take obtuse and difficult to another level. Early in 1982, Les Mills met Andrew Eldritch for the first time.
Endnotes
[i] “I’m In Love With Catholics” and “These Go-Go Girls Are Happening” were two Richard Butler lyrics I also offered to The Quietus as possible titles. The first I rather like, the second, which was the working title for months, was never a good idea.
[ii] dk/Kilburn was convinced thinman was Eldritch. “Andrew, email me privately,” he posted. “You might be interested in a movie script I'm involved with. Would involve you covering a Velvets or Lou Reed number ... oh and travelling to Cambodia for the shoot. They may want to do it in LA but I think Phnom Penh would be safer ...”In 2019, Kilburn recalled: “I had a script I was hawking around with my business partner Mark Parr and one of the ideas was a scene in Cambodia which I thought Andrew would be ideal for. It was a complicated project but as with most of these ideas got well and truly struck.”
[iii ]Shearsby also had access to soundchecks at the University. She explains: “Andy Kershaw was the Entertainment Secretary. He had an agreement with John Keenan that he would be allowed a Plus-One for all the (Keenan) gigs. I got a Plus-One for Uni gigs in return. You could go and watch soundchecks in The Refectory all the time; all these great bands.”
[iv] It is entirely possible that Kilburn, like Eldritch, has a stronger memory of Huddersfield Poly, rather than the initial Tiffany’s encounter. Kilburn recalls that “the band were leaning on a low shelf or tables along the back wall of the venue during the soundcheck. It was, I think, a dining hall or refectory of a college or university. They were pretty scruffy but Andrew was very noticeable.” In fact, the whole band was not there. Gary Marx was not present, only Eldritch and Craig Adams.Therefore dk was right to concede that his “recollection of this period is very sketchy.” Eldritch admitted in his 2016 interview with The Quietus that he is “chronologically unreliable.”Therefore, it seems reasonable to conclude that Shearsby’s memory is the most trust-worthy. Adams also believes the tape was handed over in Tiffany’s.
[v] Andrew Eldritch first saw The Psychedelic Furs live at The F Club in Leeds on Thursday 8 November 1979. The F Club was then housed in what he calls “very much a cellar dive” underneath Brannigan’s nightclub. These club nights were promoted by John Keenan, who brought virtually every punk and postpunk act to play in Leeds. Keenan billed The Furs as: “The hottest group in London – up here for the first time – be the first on your block to catch them” and included a clipping that described the band as “a synthesis of The Stranglers and Roxy Music.” This Furs gig was one of hundreds Eldritch saw as a card-carrying member of The F Club. Eldritch, by his own admission, “practically lived in The F Club” and was usually to be found next to Shearsby, the DJ. “Claire does the discs” announced Keenan’s flyer advertising The Furs gig. The Furs played at The F Club again Thursday 13 March 1980. Keenan also put them on at his Fururama2 festival that was held over the weekend of 13/14 September 1980 in the Queen’s Hall in Leeds. The Furs played high up the bill on the Sunday. Gary Glitter headlined.
[vi] Richard Butler has described early Psychedelic Furs as “glam-punk with good lyrics.” This largely fits early Sisters of Mercy too.
[vii] In his biography of The Psychedelic Furs, “Beautiful Chaos”, Dave Thompson suggests that Andrew Eldritch “even borrowed (deliberately or otherwise) the distinctive echoed intro from the John Peel version of ‘Into You Like A Train’, for The Sisters’ own ‘Train.’” Certainly, lyrically, there are numerous echoes of Butler’s writing in Eldritch’s earliest songs.
[viii] Kilburn “had dropped out of City Uni in London where I had been studying with Simon, Richard (Butler)’s brother.”
[ix] Ashton also recalls: “It was a pleasant conversation not like those shouty, beery ones after a show. Andrew had his long hair. He wasn't wearing the shades then.” The implication being that the handover took place after a soundcheck.
[x] Ashton also told Sex, WAX, N Rock N Rollin 2015 that “the music on the tape was pretty aggressive …. very crude … a lot of distortion, very tinny, very trebly but very intense; a, shall we say, very amphetamine-fuelled production. If I said it was a little raw, that would be a very polite understatement.”
[xi] The Psychedelic Furs had dabbled with a Stylophone. Dave Thompson notes that “’Love My Way’ originated in a two note melody line that Richard Butler had originally played on a Stylophone. He had just finished listening to David Bowie’s “Scary Monsters” album, and his choice of instrument was probably no accident. That album’s ‘Ashes To Ashes’ revisits Major Tom from the early hit “ Space Oddity” - famously, that song, too, was composed on a Stylophone.”
[xii] Fassbender was the Bradford singer and songwriter best known for the single ‘Twilight Café’ which had been a UK Top 30 hit in February 1981.
[xiii] Howard Thompson: “If you look at some of the artists I’ve brought to record labels – Lemmy, Björk, Ari Up, Adam Ant, Roky Erickson, Richard Butler, Billy Bragg, Rich Stim (MX-80 Sound), Bill Carter (the Screaming Blue Messiahs), Natalie Merchant (10,000 Maniacs), Alan Vega, Yellowman, to name a few - you’ll notice they’re thoroughly distinctive and you’d never mistake their voices for anyone else. Like ‘em or not, those voices stand out.”
[xiv] Kilburn and Mills never liked each other. Mills claims that “Duncan threatened to firebomb my office once, if everybody he had put down on the guest list for a gig at the Dominion didn’t get in.” Kilburn elaborates, from his perspective: “The guest list incident was just about my parents. I told them it was my last gig with the band and it was the only one they saw. So you can see why I threatened to firebomb his joint. They wanted to see the show and I did get them in. I put them in the Royal Box. Queen Victoria had a screen to prevent the commoners from seeing that she was there. My mum was very impressed … After the gig Les comes into the dressing room with a suitcase. It’s the takings for the night. I’m not making this up. He needs to get it back to his place in the East End. Richard (Butler) and I volunteer, and we pile into a cab at the back of the gig. When we get to Les’s place, we realise we have no cash to pay for the cab. We open the suitcase - it’s not even locked - and out spills 10,000 quid in used fivers. The driver thinks we’ve done a bank and he’s mightily impressed. We stuff the suitcase under Les’s bed and get back to the gig. That was the kind of manager Les was.”