The announcement of the untimely death of David Bowie, less
than two weeks after Lemmy's passing, means that Andrew Eldritch has lost two
of his inspirational heroes within the space of a fortnight.
As well as mourning the loss of two giants of the rock world
in their own right, TSOM fans must also admit that without either of these two
very different but legendary figures, The Sisters of Mercy would not have
existed, a fact that Eldritch has willingly acknowledged on a number of
occasions over the years
.
Like many early teenagers born around the dawning of the
1960's, life for young Andrew Taylor would never be the same again after July
6th 1972, when David Bowie appeared with his band on the BBC's iconic Top Of
The Pops TV show. He often referred to this pivotal moment in interviews, telling Record
Mirror: "I started with the usual thing - seeing David Bowie and 'Starman'
on TOTP. That was brilliant, and I think that he basically kept music going
throughout the Seventies." Von's comment about "the usual thing"
reflects the fact that this moment had a huge influence not only on him but on
a huge number of iconic singers of his generation, a situation referred to by
Bauhaus' Daniel Ash in an interview with Zachary Lipez of noisey.vice.com in 2014 :
"You always hear people like Morrissey, Marc Almond, Boy George and George
Michael, they all talk about Bowie doing Starman on TOTP where he puts his arm
around Mick Ronson...I remember going into town and before I bought this
7" single a voice in my head said, "If you buy this record, your life
is never going to be the same. Do you want to go down this road?" Of
course, I bought it."
Not only did Ash buy the single, but Bauhaus would pay Bowie
a lavish tribute by covering "Ziggy Stardust", a UK top 20 hit some
ten years later, whereas it would not be until 2011 that TSOM first performed a
Bowie song in public, with Chris Catalyst taking over (most) vocal duties on a
rendition of "John, I'm Only Dancing", first performed live in the Netherlands
in Tilburg on the XXX tour.
Before then of course, Von had had the pleasure of
interviewing his idol Bowie for the German edition of Rolling Stone magazine,
around the time that the "Outside" album (influenced by Nine Inch
Nails and the industrial scene) was released. Eldritch didn't hide his dislike
of the album, and the interview reads a little strained as a result, although
writing about the experience in Underneath The Rock afterwards, Eldritch
confessed "For what it's worth, I told David Bowie that I think he's a
genius...The poor sod actually told me how nice it was to do an interview which
didn't ask after his ex-wife, so I reckon he's not going to be too
unhappy." Ironically, on Bowie's comeback album of 2013, The Next Day, his
vocals were likened to those of Eldritch by some heretical reviewers, and one
track, Love Is Lost, certainly seemed to have some Sisterhood influence (all
extremely ironic, of course, given the frequent comparisons with Bowie in
reviews of Eldritch's own early work).
Motörhead were another frequently acknowledged influence
from the early days, with Eldritch telling Adam Sweeting as far back as his first national interview in February 1982, "We're not as good as Motörhead but we're better than the
The Birthday Party. That makes us pretty damned good." Or consider this
Polish TV interview from 2003 : "Something tells me that when there's
nothing left on this planet except for nuclear waste and cockroaches, there'll
still be Lemmy."
Eldritch has paid tribute to Lemmy in many different ways
throughout his career, with live cover versions of Hawkwind’s "Silver
Machine" and of "Capricorn" (from Motorhead's Overkill LP), and
a fascination with the early 1975 incarnation of the band which led him to
record with drummer Lucas Fox (on "Gift") and then cover guitarist Larry
Wallis' solo effort "Police Car" live in 2015. Eldritch told a Czech
interviewer (Sukhoi on HL) "We went to see Motorhead in Bradford a few
years back and they've still got it." However, Lemmy told the same
interviewer "I've not seen TSOM perform on stage but I respect Andre and
his commitment to music," showing that the adulation was not enirely mutual. The two had known each other for a long while, and according
to the Sisters' official website, fans at the legendary show at the Royal
Albert Hall show had Lemmy to thank for the fact that there was a final encore.
"Andrew had been performing with a couple of cracked ribs, and he had
decided to finish [the show], but Lemmy was in the dressing room to convince
him that another encore was in order."
All of the above
anecdotes hint at Von's respect for Bowie and Lemmy, but give little indication
of the ways in which their own influence shone through in the Sisters' oeuvre. Bowie unwittingly taught the future Andrew Eldritch a certain theatricality, the ability to adopt a new name and persona,
the facility with which an artist could reinvent himself, the ability to flirt publicly with the feminine side of one's personality, the advantages of lyrical
obtuseness, the exotic appeal of Mittel Europa and the very idea of rock as an
art form. As a live performer, Bowie's various 70's reincarnations revealed to
Eldritch, Peter Murphy and many others the blueprint for how a frontman can hold
an audience in his power, itself a bastardisation of Iggy's raw power. As a
singer, Von's vocal inflections, emotive power (eg in SKOS) or vulnerability
(1959) are all redolent of Bowie, albeit with his own idiosyncrasies and in a
different octave.
Lemmy, on the other hand, showed Eldritch the joys of life
on the road, all lads together, band and roadies living out the rock'n'roll
dream to the max, following amphetamine logic. Scuzzy bass driving guitar overload rock,
the ultimate industrial groove machine, was the inevitable result, heard to
best effect on the likes of Body Electric, Floorshow, or Vision Thing. Lemmy
stayed true to his principles, despite the obvious physical ravages of the
lifestyle, another similarity with Eldritch, whose vision for the Sisters
remains the same as in 1981.
Both Bowie and Lemmy have been greatly and rightly mourned
in their own way, but both live on in the legacy they have created, in their own
output as much in that of bands they have influenced : go and see TSOM in 2016
and stage left you will find the sleek androgyny of Ben Christo, all flamboyant
flourishes and sensitive strumming, whilst stage right Chris Catalyst is the
personification of the 100% genuine rocker, living for music and the next tour.
And walking the tightrope between these two extremes, and combining the best
elements of both, another of the rock pantheon's most unforgettable creations : Andrew Eldritch.
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