Eldritch performing at a Sisters of Mercy concert in February, 2006.

Andrew Eldritch (born Andrew William Harvey Taylor, May 15, 1959) is the frontman, singer, songwriter and the only remaining original member of The Sisters of Mercy, a band that emerged from the British post punk scene and, in later years, also flirted with pop and hard rock. It has also been mentioned that his real name is "Jerry Lovelock". Image File history File linksMetadata Eldritch_mic_backlit_2-21-06. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Eldritch_mic_backlit_2-21-06. ... May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... LeAnn Rimes singing in concert A singer is a type of musician who uses his or her voice to produce music. ... A songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics to songs, the musical composition or melody to songs, or both. ... The Sisters of Mercy are a band that emerged out of the British post punk scene in 1980-1981. ... In music, a band is a group of musicians, or musical ensemble, usually popular or folk, playing parts of a musical arrangement. ... Post-punk was a musical movement beginning at the end of the 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion. For the more recent post-punk movement in rock music, see post-punk revival. ... For Popular music (music that is popular, rather than of a specific genre or style), see Popular music. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Eldritch also programs The Sisters of Mercy's drum-machine tracks (known as "Doktor Avalanche") and plays guitars and keyboards in its studio recordings. He has also established the record label Merciful Release. In addition to The Sisters of Mercy, in 1986 Andrew Eldritch established a side-project The Sisterhood (in order to keep former band members from using the name) which was shortly abandoned in favour of continuing working under The Sisters of Mercy banner. Merciful Release is a record label started by Andrew Eldritch, frontman with Leeds outfit The Sisters of Mercy. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Sisterhood was a short-lived English goth band, consisting of Andrew Eldritch (writer and producer), drum machine Doktor Avalanche and the Chorus of Vengeance of Lucas Fox (drums), Patricia Morrison (bass and vocals), James Ray (guitar and vocals) and Alan Vega (synthesizer and vocals). ...

Before The Sisters

Andrew Eldritch was born in the small city of Ely of East Anglia in the UK in 1959, the same year as fellow post punk icons Robert Smith of The Cure and Morrissey (originally of The Smiths). Eldritch later wrote a piano song named 1959, alluding to the year of his birth, starting with the line Living as an angel in the place that I was born. Ely (pronounced , rhyming with freely) is a cathedral city in the East Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire in the East of England and 64 miles (103 km) east north-east of Charing Cross in London. ... Norfolk and Suffolk, the core area of East Anglia. ... Post-punk was a musical movement beginning at the end of the 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion. For the more recent post-punk movement in rock music, see post-punk revival. ... Robert Smith Robert James Smith (born April 21, 1959 in Blackpool, England), a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, has been the lead singer and driving force behind English post-punk band The Cure since its founding in 1976. ... The Cure is a British band widely seen as one of the leading pioneers of the British alternative rock scene of the 1980s. ... Morrissey (born Steven Patrick Morrissey, on May 22, 1959), is a singer and songwriter from Stretford, Manchester, England, who rose to prominence as the vocalist of the highly influential British rock group The Smiths. ... The Smiths were a British rock group active from 1982 to 1987. ...

Eldritch studied French and German literature at the University of Oxford before moving to Leeds around 1978 to study Mandarin Chinese at Leeds University; he quit both programs before getting a degree (he speaks fluent English, and German, and has some knowledge of Dutch, Italian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian and Latin; he claims he forgot the Mandarin Chinese he learned ([1]). During this period, Eldritch was a freelance drummer in the local Leeds punk scene (in his own opinion, a bad one). The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford, England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... Mandarin, or Guanhua (Traditional Chinese: 官話; Simplified Chinese: 官话; Hanyu Pinyin: ; literally official speech), or Beifanghua (Chinese: 北方方言; Hanyu Pinyin: ; literally Northern Dialect(s)) is a category of related Chinese dialects spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. ... University Tower, University of Leeds The University of Leeds (United Kingdom) is amongst the largest of British universities and the most popular by applicants, with 52,444 applicants in 2003 for 7,228 places (UCAS). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Serbo-Croatian or Croato-Serbian (srpskohrvatski or hrvatskosrpski), earlier also Serbo-Croat, was an official language of Yugoslavia (along with Slovenian and Macedonian). ... It has been suggested that History of the Latin language be merged into this article or section. ... Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ...

The Sisters of Mercy

In 1980, Andrew Eldritch and Gary Marx formed The Sisters of Mercy. On the first single, "Damage Done/Watch/Home of the Hit-men", Eldritch played the drums, a task he was later relieved of by the drum machine Doktor Avalanche, allowing him instead to focus on his vocal performance. Over the years, nine sometime members have left the group, several of them citing conflicts with the frontman as a reason for their departure. Eventually, Eldritch's conflicts with the record company EastWest would effectively set him on a "strike", an absolute refusal to record any new material. Gary Marx is a guitarist who played with classic British goth band the Sisters of Mercy in the 1980s. ... For the religious organisation of this name, see Sisters of Mercy. ... old logo current logo Eastwest Records was started in 1955 as a subsidiary label of Atlantic Records. ...

The 1990s

Following the release of band's last studio album to date, Vision Thing, Andrew Eldritch's work has included vocal contributions to Garry Moore and Sarah Brightman studio recordings. In attempt for cross-cultural understanding he initiated a 1991 U.S. tour of The Sisters of Mercy in a double-bill with hip-hop act Public Enemy. In 1995 he interviewed David Bowie for the German edition of Rolling Stone magazine. Prevented by contractual obligations to appear under his own name, he is also rumored to have produced a couple of techno albums under various pseudonyms during the 1990s, a rumor he would not deny when asked about it. Vision Thing, the third and last album by UK band The Sisters of Mercy was released in 1990 (1990 in music), on bands own label Merciful Release (under distribution contract with EastWest). ... Garry Moore (January 31, 1915 – November 28, 1993) was born in Baltimore, Maryland as Thomas Garrison Morfit. ... Sarah Brightman in La Luna: Live in Concert (2001) Sarah Brightman (born 14 August 1960 in Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire) is an English soprano and actress. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Public Enemy, also known as PE, is a seminal hip hop group known for their politically charged lyrics, criticism of the media and active interest in the concerns of the African American community. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... David Bowie (born David Robert Jones on January 8, 1947) is a British rock singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger, mixer, and actor. ... The Rolling Stone logo, designed by Rick Griffin. ... The 1990s decade refers to the years from 1990 to 1999, inclusive. ...

In 1997 by Andrew Eldritch produced the SSV album "Go Figure", featuring his vocals over drumless electronic music. The album finally freed him from his contractual obligations, as EastWest agreed to waive their claims for two more Sisters of Mercy albums in exchange for the recordings. The SSV tracks were however never officially released. The full name of the band is SSV-NSMABAAOTWMODAACOTIATW, said to be an acronym for "Screw Shareholder Value - Not So Much A Band As Another Opportunity To Waste Money On Drugs And Ammunition Courtesy Of The Idiots At Time Warner". [2] SSV is the shortened name of the band SSV-NSMABAAOTWMODAACOTIATW, formed by Sisters of Mercy singer Andrew Eldritch in 1997, as a way to get out of the Sisters contract with WEA. Eldritch produced and provided vocals for the band, which did not feature any other members of the Sisters... old logo current logo Eastwest Records was started in 1955 as a subsidiary label of Atlantic Records. ... Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial letter or letters of words, such as NATO and XHTML, and are pronounced in a way that is distinct from the full pronunciation of what the letters stand for. ...

Recent career

Now in semi-retirement from his musical career — The Sisters of Mercy tour every so often, with six scheduled concerts across continental Europe in August 2005, ending with the M'era Luna Festival in Germany [3]), but no new recorded material has been released for sale since 1993 [4]. Despite this, the band continues to debut new material on stage on a semi-annual basis, infrequently playing secret gigs under a pseudonym in their spiritual home of Leeds. 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ...

Songwriting and philosophy

The devices in Andrew Eldritch's lyrics include literary allusions (most prominently to the works of T S Eliot and Shakespeare), erotic imagery, metaphors of drug culture, and an acrimonious criticism of the Republican Party of the United States, with which Eldritch flippantly claims to have a "hate-hate" relationship, in view of the Bush dynasty, Christian fundamentalists, and the military-industrial complex. Politically, he has claimed to be "traditionally a Labour supporter" despite his "anarcho-syndicalist tendencies". Thomas Stearns Eliot (September 26, 1888 - January 4, 1965), was a major Modernist Anglo-American poet, dramatist, and literary critic. ... William Shakespeare—born April 1564; baptised April 26, 1564; died April 23, 1616 (O.S.), May 3, 1616 (N.S.)—has a reputation as the greatest of all writers in English. ... This article is about the modern United States Republican Party. ... Barbara Bush, Jeb Bush, George H.W. Bush, Laura Bush, and George W. Bush watch tee ball on the White House lawn. ... Fundamentalist Christianity is a fundamentalist movement, especially within American Protestantism. ... The term military-industrial complex usually refers to the combination of the U.S. armed forces, arms industry and associated political and commercial interests, which grew rapidly in scale and influence in the wake of World War II, although it can also be used to describe any such relationship of... The Labour Party has since its formation in the early 20th century been the principal left wing political party in the United Kingdom (see British politics). ... Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labor movement, Syndicalisme is a French word meaning trade unionism hence the syndicalism qualification. ...

Gothic associations

Though Andrew Eldritch is often called the "Godfather of Goth" [5], The Sisters of Mercy (the main artistic vehicle of Andrew Eldritch), despite being formed in 1980, were originally not very popular in the post punk sub-genre that the British press, in the early 1980s, had labelled, both the artists and their audience, Goth. The Sisters of Mercy were, however, accused by the press of plagiarizing Joy Division, who were marketed by their management as "gothic" in the late '70s. [6]. The Sisters of Mercy are a band that emerged out of the British post punk scene in 1980-1981. ... Post-punk was a musical movement beginning at the end of the 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion. For the more recent post-punk movement in rock music, see post-punk revival. ... Gothic woman, traditional style, with big hair, spikes and piercings. ... Joy Division were a rock band formed in 1977 in Manchester. ...

The Sisters of Mercy would have a big impact on the second wave of Goth that came in the late 1980s and early 1990s, one of the reasons Gitane Demone of the first wave commented that the scene had turned "stale" [7]. The use of drum machines and the atonal, deep vocal style used by many second generation Goth bands were inspired by the Sisters of Mercy and were not that common among the first generation. Gothic woman, traditional style, with big hair, spikes and piercings. ...

Since the early 90s, Eldritch has publicly rejected associations with the Goth subculture. He describes The Sisters of Mercy as humanist, modernist, and implies he wants nothing to do with Goth, stating "it's disappointing that so many people have in all seriousness adopted just one of our many one-week-of-stupid-clothes benders". He also notices that "I'm constantly confronted by representatives of popular culture who are far more g*** than we, yet I have only to wear black socks to be stigmatised as the demon overlord" [8]. Gothic woman, traditional style, with big hair, spikes and piercings. ... The Sisters of Mercy are a band that emerged out of the British post punk scene in 1980-1981. ... Humanism is a system of thought that defines a socio-political doctrine (-ism) whose bounds exceed those of locally developed cultures, to include all of humanity and all issues common to human beings. ... This article focuses on the cultural movement labeled modernism or the modern movement. See also: Modernism (Roman Catholicism) or Modernist Christianity; Modernismo for specific art movement(s) in Spain and Catalonia. ... Gothic woman, traditional style, with big hair, spikes and piercings. ...